KILLER A LA COLOMBO | Enquêtes criminelles | W9

On July 14 1995 Jean-Bernard Witkorska is found dead at his home in Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris. The 42 year-old printer is lying on a weight-lifting bench with a 50kg bar crushing his carotid artery. He is found by his wife, Nadège Gallet, on her return home. The 42 year-old former switchboard operator of the “Paradis Latin” calls the emergency services. She is in a state of shock. The doctor who registers the death concludes it is an accident. The case is about to be closed. However, three days later, there is a dramatic twist! The Versailles detective squad receives an anonymous call from a mystery informer. An unidentified woman accuses Nadège’s lover, one Jean-Stéphane Saizelet, 36, of murdering Jean-Bernard Witkorska. As the victim is about to be cremated, the police retrieve the body from the funeral home at the last moment. The autopsy reveals that death was due to ‘mechanical asphyxia’. And toxicology tests carried out on the body reveal traces of a powerful sedative: Rohypnol. Was the murder disguised to look like a bodybuilding accident? This scenario bears more than a passing resemblance to the plot of “Fatal Exercise”, an episode in the famous series “Colombo”, which was screened on TV just weeks before the death of Jean-Bernard Witkorska…