He loves that car more than me
Wife’s joke before husband crushed her to death with Merc at their French B&B
A BRITISH expat crushed to death by her husband’s car at their home in the south of France had recently joked that he loved the Mercedes more than her.
Stephanie Turtle, 50, wrote on her blog: ‘I have come to question if I might have slipped from the number one spot of Mr T’s affections … [Our] new Mercedes Benz E-class estate is clearly Mr T’s pride and joy.’
Mrs Turtle died under its wheels on Friday at the couple’s home in Prayssac, near Toulouse, south-west France, after the pair are said to have argued.
David Turtle, 62, a former Conservative councillor, admits driving his cherished two-tonne £37,000 Mercedes over his wife but denies murder, saying: ‘It was an accident.’
Yesterday he was charged with manslaughter and faces up to 30 years in prison.
Detectives are examining the blog that Mrs Turtle had been keeping since the couple moved from Bournemouth to set up a B&B in the Lot valley.
She wrote that her hus- band ‘ put possibly as much effort’ into buying the Mercedes ‘ as into the purchase of our new home’.
Referring to the car as ‘she’, Mrs Turtle listed ‘a few examples of why I might be feeling a little put out’, including: ‘She has had more attention lavished on her than most anything else since we arrived in France, with weekly cleans and touches up in between … she is mollycoddled. For example, she can’t be parked within 20 feet of any painting activity. When leaving home, a physical check for traffic in our quiet country lane is required – I have to actually get out of the car.
‘We approach junctions with the utmost caution, both of us straining our necks to check for oncoming traffic and chanting “all clear my way”. No eating or drinking is allowed in the car lest we get greasy or sticky marks on her leather interior. The list goes on … ’
The blog was posted in September last year, two months after the couple moved to Prayssac, with the intention of turning La Maison Cedre – The Cedar House – into a bed and breakfast.
On Friday morning, police found Mrs Turtle’s ribcage caved in. They believe she was suffocated by the weight of the car.
Mr Turtle was charged with aggravated manslaughter, and was released on bail.
Last year, Mr Turtle quit his full-time job as a Mercedes dealer, and his role as a councillor in Bournemouth’s Kinson North ward, while Mrs Turtle gave up her job in the human resources department of Dorset council.
Months of decorating ended a week ago, and the Turtles were hoping to welcome their first guests this summer.
An elderly former neigh- bour of the couple in Bournemouth said she was ‘horrified and devastated’ by the news.
‘I knew David for a long time and got to know her in the time before they went to France and they were excellent together,’ she said.
‘ They seemed very happy. David thought the world of Stephanie and always talked about her as if she was someone really special to him.
‘He never said anything nasty or negative about her … I can’t possibly imagine he’d ever contemplate doing something like this on purpose.’
Speaking at his home in Derby, Mrs Turtle’s brother-in-law Robert Seymour said: ‘ We are not prepared to say anything while the investigation is under way.’