Husband arrested at airport after wife’s holiday home death
AN AMERICAN diving instructor was charged with murder yesterday after confessing to stabbing his French wife and dumping her dismembered body in a gutter near their holiday home in southern France.
Billy Kruger, from Brooklyn, who worked in Indonesia, was arrested as he prepared to board an international flight at Toulouse airport after a family holiday.
He admitted killing Laure Bardina- Kruger, his 52-year-old wife, by stabbing her twice, according to Marie-agnès Joly, a prosecutor in Narbonne, southern France. Mrs Bardinakruger’s remains were found near the couple’s second home in the village of Peyriac-de-mer, near Narbonne.
The couple lived in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, where Mrs Bardinakruger taught French. Her father, who lives near the couple’s holiday flat, called local officials after his daughter failed to visit him before their planned return to Indonesia.
Cathy Gouiry, the mayor, went to their flat, where she found the door open, with luggage inside. She phoned police, who discovered Ms Bardinakruger’s body on Friday in a gutter on a nearby road. They put out an alert that led to Kruger’s arrest later that day.
Ms Joly said Mr Kruger, a dual US and French national, was not known to French police for domestic violence,
“which is normal as the couple lived in Indonesia”.
The Krugers were known locally as a friendly couple who enjoyed taking part in events while holidaying in Peyriac-de-mer. They were seen at a village restaurant on Thursday night, hours before the murder.
Neighbours were shocked and said they found it hard to believe Kruger was capable of murder.
A local shopkeeper who declined to give his name said: “The Krugers had been in Peyriac for about two months and their son had left for Indonesia a few days earlier. They were always affable and smiling and there was no sign of problems. But no one knows what can happen between a couple.”
A waiter at a nearby restaurant said they frequently dined there. “We never heard them raising their voices and they would drink two or three glasses of wine but never more.”