Karen Carter was found with stab wounds in the Dordogne village she had lived in for over a decade.

Karen Carter, who was found dead in 2025, is pictured with her husband Alan who described her as someone with a "good heart" who loved to have fun A woman has been placed under formal investigation over the death last year in France of a British-South African mother-of-four. Karen Carter, 65, was found lying near her car with stab wounds by a friend in Trémolat, the Dordogne village where she had lived for over a decade and managed two holiday rental homes. Prosecutors say the 70-year-old woman was originally taken into custody in 2025 as part of preliminary inquiries before being released. Jacques-Edouard Andrault, the investigating judge in the case, said in a statement on Wednesday that "the investigations conducted as part of the judicial inquiry opened on 7 May, 2025, have led the investigating judge to formally charge her". Being placed under formal investigation in French law means an investigating judge has to decide whether or not there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial. At the time of the killing in April last year, Karen Carter's husband, Alan, said that he first heard of her death through a cousin who had read about it on a local community Facebook page. He said he received confirmation of the death after his assistant phoned local police.