A 23-year-old French student’s body has been discovered decomposing in acid in the city of Toulouse. Investigators were shocked to find the murder plot was inspired by the hit US series ‘Breaking Bad’.
Four French students, including a young woman, have been arrested in connection with the killing.
Investigators believe Eva Bourseau was murdered by the two of them when they came to her place to collect a $6,600 drug debt on July 26. The alleged murderers are between 19 and 22 years old.
An autopsy revealed a skull fracture, and other broken bones and a smashed face, Toulouse Prosecutor Pierre-Yves Couilleau said in his official statement on Friday.
The young men were "showing a real outburst, wave of violence, marked by the use of brass knuckles and a crowbar," the prosecution told AFP.
Afterwards, the students reportedly orchestrated the ‘Breaking Bad’-style attempt to get rid of the body: they bought a plastic trunk (the show said that a metal one could dissolve), put the corpse in acid and checked on the body every few days.
The prosecution says the accused used air fresheners to cover the specific smell of decomposing flesh.
A neighbor at the building told La Liberation that he had heard the cries of a heated argument in Eva Bourseau’s apartment.
The body reportedly spent about 10 days in the flat, until the victim’s mother went to visit her daughter on August 3, after attempting to contact her for about a fortnight.
When discovered, the 23-year woman’s body was in the fetal position, and in the “advanced stages of decomposition,” a police source told AFP.
She had been dismembered, with some reports saying her legs had been cut off in order to fit her body inside the container.