by Bob Couttie
Did Lauren Valliers, a 42-year old French tour guide living in Cambodia, kill his four children, aged 2 to 11 years old, and drive his 4X4 Nissan Patrol into a pond at the back of his house in September 2011? Or was it murder?
Valliers was a single parent. His Cambodian wife died while giving birth to the couple’s youngest child in 2009. He had made his home some 45 miles to the west of the country’s capital Phnom Penh.
The family was last seen alive about 8 September 2011. When they disappeared so did their white 4×4 vehicle. Nothing seemed to be missing from the abandoned home except for the urn containing the ashes of Valliers’s wife. Eventually, family members alerted the French embassy as to the disappearance who in turn contacted local police.
It was not until 14 January 2012 that the white 4×4 was found at the bottom of a pond immediately adjacent to the house. When it was pulled from the water, police found the badly decayed remains of Valliers and his four children. Valliers’ skull had somehow become detached over the months of immersion and was now in an open suitcase in the back of the car. The urn containing the ashes of Valliers’s wife was also in the car.
Investigators from Cambodia and France came to the conclusion that Valliers had murdered his children, or drugged them, put them into his car and driven it into the pond in third gear with the windows closed. The main support for the conclusion was that nothing in the house appeared to have been touched, plus the urn of ashes that was found in the car.
Valliers’s father-in-law, Tith Chuon, disagreed, according to French public service radio station RFI:
“He would not commit suicide. I know his heart.”
Almost a year after the bodies were found Valliers’ in-laws were questioned about the deaths after they filed a land-title claim with the Kampong Speu provincial government. They were not suspects but it revived a case that had been laid to rest. Kampong Speu investigating judge Chem Rithy told Voice Of America’s Khmer service:
“The French Embassy needs to open this case by international standards.”
Chem Rithy got his wish. In March 2013 a team of 10 French investigators, including an investigative judge, Claudine Enfoux, arrived in Cambodia to work with Cambodian police authorities and Chem Rithy.
This time evidence was found of blood in the house and on a rope. A statement from the French embassy said:
“This (investigation) has led to very significant breakthroughs which are now ruling out the possibility of a suicide.”
In much of Asia the wheels of justice turn slowly, if at all. While investigators believe as many as five people were involved in the murder, no suspects have yet been arrested. Valliers’ family in France talk of a land dispute between him and his in-laws, something the in-laws deny, and police are questioning a Cambodian brother-in-law who allegedly had several arguments with Valliers and is reported to have a history of drug abuse. Whether DNA evidence is available, or meaningful, as in the case of the Kampot murder remains to be seen.
All that is known for sure, after more than a year, is that the Valliers family was murdered. Bringing the murderer(s) to justice may take a whole lot longer.