Ex-French Policeman Held in Portugal After Admitting to Killing Two Missing Aveyron Women

Overview

• Cédric Prizzon, 42, was stopped Tuesday near Mêda during a roadside check, where officers seized a shotgun, about €17,000 in cash, false IDs and several license plates.
• Police recovered two bodies Wednesday in northern Portugal after his 12-year-old son guided them to shallow graves and said he saw the killings, according to Portuguese and French media.
• Judges in Vila Nova de Foz Côa placed Prizzon in pre-trial detention Thursday on suspicions including aggravated homicide, profanation of corpses and kidnapping, with alleged violence against his infant daughter also cited.
• A judicial source says he told investigators he strangled both women and buried them in the mountains while denying premeditation, as autopsy findings are still pending.
• Portuguese authorities are arranging the children's repatriation with France and French magistrates are preparing a European arrest-warrant request to seek his transfer, a step that will set the venue and pace of the case.