Man Detained After Four Bodies Discovered in River Seine in Paris

Choisy-le-Roi, on the outskirts of Paris, on August 14, 2025, the day after four bodies were found in the River Seine

A man in France has been detained on suspicion of multiple murders after four bodies were pulled from the River Seine earlier this month.

Prosecutors confirmed the suspect, described as a homeless man in his twenties, appeared before a judicial court on Sunday. He is being investigated for the killings of four men whose bodies were found on August 13 in Choisy-le-Roi, a Parisian suburb.

The discovery was made after a train passenger spotted a body floating in the water. Authorities later recovered four victims in varying states of decomposition.

One of the men, a 48-year-old French national, was found in a relatively intact condition. An autopsy revealed injuries consistent with strangulation. He was wearing a T-shirt but naked from the waist down.

Another victim, a 21-year-old Algerian national reported missing by his family a week earlier, also showed signs of strangulation. The two remaining victims, identified as a 21-year-old Algerian national and a 26-year-old Tunisian national, were homeless men known to frequent the area near the Seine. Both had not been heard from since late July, and their advanced state of decomposition made it difficult to determine their cause of death.

Prosecutors said it is unclear whether the victims knew each other, though all were linked to the same area, a location frequented by homeless individuals and known locally as a meeting spot for casual same-sex encounters.

Investigators reviewed CCTV footage and phone data, which placed the suspect in contact with each victim around the time of their disappearance. Before the discovery of the bodies, he had already been arrested in possession of documents belonging to one of the victims. On the day the bodies were first found, he was stopped by police, and a week later, he was taken into custody.

The suspect has refused to answer questions about the killings, only providing brief replies on unrelated matters, prosecutors said.

Investigations remain ongoing as authorities work to establish the full circumstances surrounding the deaths.