Solaine, 11, was playing on the swing at her British family’s Brittany home when she was shot through the heart. Now as her neighbour faces a murder charge, DAVID JONES discovers troubling secrets about… the family barbecue that became a BLOODBATH
- Solaine Thornton, 11, was shot dead in her garden in Brittany, France, on June 10
- The Daily Mail inspected the site of the killing, where her parents were also shot
DAVID JONES FROM DAILY MAIL
The child’s maroon anorak still lies on a trampoline. It had been a sultry midsummer’s evening but it was a Saturday and, as she would be staying up late for the barbecue, she had the coat ready to wear when the sun went in.
Further down the garden, where the fire had burned, some half-eaten cobs of toasted corn are strewn on the grass. There is an empty packet of chocolate fingers, a discarded beer can, and a plastic goblet — still holding dregs of red wine — marked Glass Reserved for Mummy.
It seems like a film set. As if the clocks in this serene corner of Brittany — often described as ‘timeless’ in the holiday brochures — really did stop around 8.30pm (9.30pm in France) on June 10.
Everything remains exactly as it was when a British family’s demented next-door neighbour emerged from the tangled ferns that separate their two properties, took careful aim and started to shoot them, one by one.
The sight that caused me to catch my breath, as I gazed at this eerily frozen tableau this week, was that of a makeshift swing swaying in the breeze.
