Husband admits beheading wife and hiding body part in Emily in Paris park

26 February 2023 , 12:05

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Youcef Matoug, 50, has confessed to murdering his wife

A Frenchman has admitted strangling his wife to death and then chopping her head off before hiding it in ‘one of the most beautiful parks in Paris’.

Youcef Matoug, 50, made the confession after being charged with murdering Assia Matoug, 46, and then concealing her body parts in the historic Buttes-Chaumont Park, in the north of the city.

Ms Matoug, a mother of three, was reported missing from the family home in Montreuil, the north-east suburb of the French capital, on February 6.

Her mobile phone remained turned off, and she was not heard of again until body parts were found in the park, which features in numerous films and TV series, including Emily in Paris.

Assia Matoug's head was found in a Paris park

A spokesman for Paris prosecutors said Matoug was indicted on Saturday for ‘the murder of his spouse, violation of integrity and concealment of a corpse.’

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While in custody, he admitted strangling his wife on the night of January 30, before dismembering her and hiding the pieces.

He said he wanted her to end her days in ‘one of the most beautiful parks in Paris’.

Assia's head was found beside an old railway line that runs through the park (Domine Jerome/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock)

Matoug took a full six days to finally report the disappearance – something that immediately made detectives suspicious.

It was on February 13 that gardeners discovered a woman's pelvis in a plastic bag hidden in a park dustbin.

Further enquiries led to the discovery of Ms Matoug’s head in another waste bag.

The couple had three kids

This couple have three children, aged 8, 14 and 16, all of whom are now in the care of their extended family, who are originally from Algeria.

Matoug, a former supermarket worker, had been unemployed for ‘some months,’ according to prosecutors, while his wife did charity work.

The family was well liked and respected in the area where they lived, and ‘there was no sign of friction,’ according to one neighbour.

Matoug claimed that he didn't plan to murder his wife, but that it started with a domestic row (Domine Jerome/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock)

During policed interviews, Matoug said he had not wanted to kill his wife, but a routine domestic argument got out of hand.

His defence barrister, Dominique Beyreuther-Minkov, told Le Parisien: ‘My client is devastated. He explained himself as humanly as he could. Justice will now do its work.

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‘There was no violent history in the couple. My client has always denied that he intended to kill his wife. On the night of the events, he found himself unable to tell his children that their mother's death was his fault.

‘He was extremely isolated. And if he deposited part of his body in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, it is because it is one of the most beautiful parks in Paris.’

Movies filmed in the Buttes-Chaumont range from the Marseille Contract (1974) to The Murderous Corpse (1913)

The third episode of Emily in Paris, starring Lily Collins, featured her picnicking in the park.

Peter Allen