Her husband and their son left for home in Kain on Saturday evening around 10 p.m., when the kitchen was closed. Cathy closed the restaurant Une P’tite Envie in the center of Tournai around 11:30 PM and did the last dishes so that she could leave everything tidy for the next day. But she didn’t come home that night. And she also stopped answering her smartphone when her husband called her to ask where she was.
On Sunday morning the police found her car, a gray Peugeot. It was parked rather strangely in the parking lot behind the station, on Boulevard Eisenhower. But there was no mention of the woman.
“The car was locked,” police said. “But it was damaged and the fire extinguisher had been sprayed in and over the vehicle.” Why and by whom remains a mystery for the time being. Criminals are known to do this to make fingerprints useless. Further investigation will reveal whether Cathy Dubois fell into the hands of criminals who may have targeted the restaurant’s cash register. “There were certainly no traces of blood found in the vehicle,” the police said.
Come back
On Sunday, police and the woman’s family searched the area for traces or witnesses who had seen something. But without result. The interrogation of her partner also yielded no new elements.
The police mainly wonder what her car was doing at the station and who emptied the fire extinguisher.
Her sister Bénédicte, with whom she had a very close bond, informed us on Monday morning that there was still no news and that they were very concerned. She also posted a message on Facebook addressed to the missing Cathy.
“Where are you my sister? Did you leave? Have you been robbed? Have you been kidnapped? Are you still alive? Are you out of this world?,” she wrote. Followed by “Come back to us.” The message was only online when they received the news they had already feared: Cathy was dead.
Autopsy
Local residents had noticed the lifeless body of a woman in the Scheldt, near the old Casterman printing works in the Kain territory, where she lived with her family. Divers from the fire brigade brought the remains to dry land around half past twelve on Monday for a first external autopsy.
Around 2 p.m., the Tournai public prosecutor’s office confirmed that it was indeed Cathy Dubois. It is still unclear what exactly happened to her and what the cause of her death was. The woman, who in addition to being a restaurant manager was also a school teacher, leaves behind a 6-year-old son in addition to her partner.
The investigation has now become a judicial investigation into the mysterious death of the woman. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death. The police and the judiciary do not rule out any avenue. Not even that of an act of desperation. But who then emptied the fire extinguisher in her car? And why? And what was her car doing at the station?
On Monday, police sealed the restaurant’s door.
Anyone with information about the death of Cathy Dubois can contact the Tournai police on 069/250.250 or on the free number of the Federal Police 0800/30 300.
Tags: happened Cathy customers left restaurant Police solve mysterious death
