France arrests Dane after woman’s body found in fridge

A Danish man was brought before a judge in southern France on Tuesday on suspicions he murdered his wife and stuffed her body in a refrigerator, prosecutors said.

The suspect was arrested early Sunday after police staked out his residence in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, just outside Cannes on the French Riviera, according to the local Nice-Matin newspaper.

They were alerted after two acquaintances of the Dane said he asked them to transport the refrigerator to a landfill, and noticed a foul odour coming from behind the padlocked door.

The suspect told them he had killed a dog, but the two men forced the fridge open and found not only the dog but also a “human body,” the local prosecutors’ office said.

An autopsy on Sunday determined that she had been shot.

“The victim has not been formally identified but the inquiry and the autopsy suggest that it’s the suspect’s wife,” prosectors said, adding that further tests were under way.

Police found several loaded weapons, cocaine and hash at the suspect’s home as well as the body of a puppy in a freezer.

During questioning, the man gave “no explications” but a psychiatric exam had found no mental health conditions that would prevent him from standing trial, prosecutors said.