Crime Immemorial

The Carteron family lived a simple, impoverished life on their small farm called Ajoncs-Barrats, located a little over three hundred feet from the nearest neighbor’s house in a remote area near Bommiers in Indre département, central France. The head of the household, Kléber Carteron, was a peasant farmer who supplemented his meager income with occasional poaching in the surrounding woods. His wife, Alphonsine Carteron, managed the household, while their son, André Carteron, helped with farm duties. Living with them was Claude Godard, a young ward of the state who had been placed in their care.

France in 1946 was still recovering from the scars of World War II. The country was dealing with economic hardship, political instability, and the lingering effects of the German occupation and the Resistance movement. Weapons from the war, including submachine guns like the British Sten, were not uncommon in rural areas, often hidden or discarded by former fighters. This turbulent backdrop would later fuel speculation about the murders’ possible connections to wartime grudges or underground activities.

The family’s home was modest, consisting of just three rooms. The crime took place in one of these rooms, which had a locked door (with the key mysteriously missing) and a window with a smashed pane, hinting at a possible point of entry or exit for the perpetrator.

The murders are believed to have occurred on the evening of July 21st, 1946. When the bodies were discovered four days later, on July 25th, they painted a chilling picture of an execution-style killing. The victims—Kléber, Alphonsine, André, and Claude—were found face down on the slab floor of the room, their wrists and ankles bound behind them. Each had been shot once in the back of the head. Even the family dog was not spared, having been killed in its basket nearby.

The scene showed signs of disorder: cupboards had been ransacked, suggesting a search for something, though nothing valuable appeared to have been taken. Given the family’s poverty, robbery was quickly ruled out as a motive. Six spent cartridges and two unspent ones littered the floor, all later confirmed to have come from a single weapon: a Sten submachine gun, a type widely used by the French Resistance during the war.

The discovery came about due to the vigilance of a neighbor, thirty-five-year-old Jeanne Jugand. Noticing the family’s unusual absence and seeing disturbing signs through the window, such as flies swarming inside, she alerted her husband. He, in turn, informed the local mayor and police in nearby Ambrault. Authorities from the prosecutor’s office in Châteauroux were summoned, and judicial police from Limoges arrived to secure the scene. A locksmith was called to force open the locked door, revealing the gruesome tableau inside.

The investigation began immediately but was hampered by the post-war chaos and limited forensic resources. Ballistics experts confirmed the use of a Sten gun, but the weapon itself was never recovered at the scene. Interviews with locals, particularly working-class residents, revealed a wall of silence, perhaps due to fear or lingering distrust from the occupation years.

Early leads included reports from a farm worker that Kléber had seemed frightened the previous winter, claiming he had been followed home on two occasions along a secluded track. Additionally, a bag belonging to Kléber, containing a schoolbook, was found less than a thousand feet from the farm near a public forest. Eleven days after the discovery, a lumberjack stumbled upon a makeshift shelter in the same forest, connecting the crime scene, the bag’s location, and the shelter in a potential trail that went unexplored.

One theory pursued was revenge by a legionnaire acquaintance of Kléber’s, but this was dismissed when the man was confirmed to be in Algeria at the time. In April 1947, Superintendent Daraud’s report officially closed the case, citing no clear motive or suspect. However, in 1948, police from Orléans under René Rolland reopened the investigation. They discovered a Sten submachine gun at the home of “Captain Jacques,” a former Resistance leader in the Issoudun region with a controversial reputation. While a weapons expert confirmed that the bullets could match a Sten, the gun was not subjected to full ballistic testing, and the case was closed again in December 1948 without charges.

Despite extensive efforts, no suspects were ever formally identified or arrested. The most commonly held belief among locals is that the murders stemmed from a private feud involving Kléber Carteron, possibly related to his poaching activities or a local rivalry. However, this doesn’t explain why the entire family, including the ward and the dog, was targeted.

Some have also speculated that the killings were tied to the French Resistance. Kléber may have accidentally discovered former Resistance members poaching or retrieving hidden wartime supplies in the forest. The use of a Sten gun, a signature Resistance weapon, supported this idea. Paul Mis, a former Resistance fighter, later claimed in his book that active “hit squads” from the Resistance were responsible for up to thirty-five killings in 1946 alone, potentially including the Carterons. However, this theory was dismissed due to lack of concrete evidence and the question of why the whole family was executed rather than just Kléber.

Additionally, ideas of a random act or a mistaken identity were considered but found unlikely given the execution-style nature and the locked room.

The Carteron murders stand as one of France’s most perplexing unsolved crimes from the immediate post-war period. Despite occasional calls to reopen the case, no new evidence has emerged, and the perpetrators, if still alive, are unknown.