She may have been his common-law wife or just his girlfriend, but either way, renowned French chef who was found dead in her freezer, and she is now under investigation for aggravated manslaughter.
Guylene Collober, 51, confessed to punching chef Jean Francois Poinard in the stomach during an argument.
She said he fell, hit his head and died.
Collober said she left the body in the bathroom (on ice) for three days before deciding to buy a freezer (see photo below) and she put his dead body in there.
During a night out, Collober told her daughter that “something unfortunate” had happened to him. Her daughter notified the police, who then raided her apartment in Lyon, France.
When they arrived Collober burst into tears saying, “I think you’ll find what you’re looking for.”
The body of 71-year-old Poinard was curled up in a fetal position and covered with plastic bags inside a chest freezer.
“A full post-mortem examination will be carried out to discover the precise cause of death,” a police spokesperson said.
Collober is now suspected for aggravated manslaughter and, under French law, that could mean a harsher penalty for killing her common-law husband, which is treated as a more serious crime than killing another party. (we don't understand it either)
Earlier in the investigation Collober said that her boyfriend could have been murdered by the racketeers. But it needs to be noted that Collober was known to have pathological tendencies and was extremely possessive. She was narcissistic and given to violent episodes as well.
She had tried to keep the chef isolated from the world outside by not allowing him to interact with his family, friends or neighbors.
Collober is currently in custody and has confessed to keeping the body on ice until she could buy a freezer where she froze the body.
Lyon newspaper Le Progrès described Poinard as one of the city’s “great names” in gastronomy and said he represented the fourth generation of one of France’s “great cooking dynasties.”
“He was a passionate and exacting chef, but also a true ‘bon viveur’ who was as well liked out of the kitchen as he was respected inside it,” Le Progrès reported.
