Paper moves to quash murder speculation
Blood around body and police attendance prompt days of rumour
SUSPICIONS that an elderly man had been murdered in the village were unfounded – after an autopsy confirmed that she died from natural causes.
Regional newspaper Midi Libre felt the speculation had to be quashed with coverage on page 3 and its website.
The 85-year-old man, who lived alone in the centre of Hérépian, received regular medical care at home, where he was found dead at the bottom of stairs of his home earlier this month.
The door, said Midi Libre, was always left open for the medics.
The carer who found him called for help as the body was surrounded by blood. The arrival of several gendarmes prompted speculation he had been stabbed, despite being normal practice in such circumstances.
The post-mortem examination found the man had died and then fallen downstairs, wounding his eyebrow and causing profuse bleeding.
The man’s body was returned to his family for burial.
‘This,’ said Midi Libre, ‘is enough to end the rumour.’
The role of social media remains unclear.
Criminal context
Statistics suggests that a murder will take place in the village; but no one knows who will be killed, when, how they will die, why or exactly where.
Journalists who arrive at murder scenes quickly learn that the first reactions and comments from neighbours usually include the words: ‘things like that don’t happen around here’.
The reality is that they do. They’re rare and improbable – but entirely possible.
Often, ‘small town’ killings are either domestic, when someone’s passions are sufficiently aroused, probably when emotions are fuelled by a ‘substance’ of some kind or another, regardless of whether it is legally sanctioned alcohol or an illegal narcotic.
Alternatively, financial and commercial rivalry is the cause – when someone feels their income and influence are threatened by competition in the local narcotics market.
Many journalists – usually those who started their careers working for weekly, local papers – are accustomed to being regarded as callous when someone is killed in an otherwise ‘quiet’ neighbourhood.
The perception is entirely reasonable. Most people live their lives without ever being anywhere near a deliberate killing. Journalists covering even small towns or rural communities do, so their perceptions and reactions evolve.
So, don’t be surprised when some is killed close to home; it happens. Some people can accept this as part of life while others find it far more unsettling than the immediacy of surprise when it does.
Psychologists call this ‘perceived probabilities’. We don’t worry about everyday risks, because they are exactly that – everyday. The peril of something unusual can be disproportionate, simply because of its rarity.
Whatever fuelled the rumours that this death was deliberate, that they emerged is entirely understandable. The implicit lesson from the Midi Libre report is that we should be patient, avoid jumping to conclusions and wait for the experts to finish their investigations.