The husband of a woman found dead in a lake in France will profit from her life insurance if found innocent, a French court heard yesterday.
Robert Lund, 57, is on trial in Southern France for the third time having appealed his 2007 conviction of involuntary manslaughter.
Lund reported his 52-year-old wife Evelyn missing on New Year’s Day 2000, telling investigators he believed she had an accident after drinking heavily and setting off to visit friends in the picturesque rural Tarn region.
Her body was found in her car in nearby Lake Bancalie two years later when a drought lowered the water level. Lund was arrested and later sentenced to 12 years in jail. He lost his first appeal but is now trying again.
Since the beginning Lund has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded innocent.
The main trouble prosecutors were having was finding a motive for the killing, so the potential life insurance profits may prove pivotal in the case.
In 1996 Evelyn changed her life insurance policy to make Lund, her second husband, the sole beneficiary.
In a call taped by investigators between Lund and his brother, Lund allegedly said he was pushing hard for acquittal because “that’s the only way… to get the life insurance and inheritance.”
The case continues.
