French lovers arrested for Spanish millionaire road killing

VALLADOLID, Spain, Feb 10 (AFP) – Two French lovers have been questioned in France and Spain on suspicion they killed the woman’s husband in a staged road accident to obtain a EUR 30 million (USD 38 million) inheritance, Spanish police said Tuesday.

Dominique Louis, 45, and Jean-Claude Vaz, 57, are alleged to have killed 76-year-old Simon Jochimec on July 12 near Valladolid in northern Spain, police said after a six-month investigation.

Spanish police said Jochimec was hit by a Landrover after he got out of his car to place an accident warning triangle behind it, leaving his widow Louis as the sole claimant to his fortune.

The Spanish daily El Mundo said the police investigation had revealed that Louis had a previous relationship with Vaz, a resident of a flat she and Jochimec owned near Alicante on the Spanish east coast.

The investigation showed that she and Vaz spent the night before the accident in a hotel at Zamora, 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the accident scene, and that Vaz owned two vehicles similar to that which hit Jochimec.

One of the vehicles was found in France with newly-changed tyres and a dent on its right flank.

French police arrested Louis on January 20 as she was set to board a flight to Canada and she remains in French custody.

Vaz was arrested three days later in Barcelona, where he is now waiting for extradition to France.

© AFP

                                                              Subject: France news