Fatal Trap | Enquêtes criminelles | W9

Fréjus, September 30 2003. It’s 3.30 in the afternoon when 51 year-old Swiss-German Rita Hug calls the police in a complete panic. She has just discovered her husband, Martin Staub, a wealthy 51 year-old businessman lying in a pool of blood. The man’s skull had been smashed in before he was strangled to death. On the scene, police are unable to discover any clues enabling them to identify the attacker, or attackers. When questioned, the victim’s wife claims she visited a friend in the afternoon before returning home and discovering the crime scene. The police have no reason to doubt her story, especially as she and her husband were a happy, fulfilled couple with an irreproachable reputation. In the house, the police find no signs of forced entry and nothing was stolen, which eliminates the theory of a robbery. It appears that Martin Staub knew his attackers and opened the door for them voluntarily. The police have no serious lead, but when they interview the couple’s staff they learn that, far from being the model wife, Rita Hug had a lover. The theory of a crime of passion is introduced. The lover is arrested, but the man has a sound alibi. The investigation seems to have hit a dead end when the autopsy reveals that the murder took place around noon. A capital piece of information that doesn’t gel with the version given by Rita Hug on that fatal day…