The disappearance of an entire family
In late February 2017, concern grew after Pascal Troadec, his wife Brigitte and their children Sébastien and Charlotte stopped responding to relatives and failed to appear as expected. The family home in Orvault, outside Nantes, became the center of a missing-person investigation.
The four family members had not simply left together. Evidence at the house and the absence of normal signs of travel led investigators toward a criminal explanation. The case quickly became a national story in France because an entire household appeared to have vanished.
A family dispute and a supposed treasure
Investigators eventually focused on Hubert Caouissin, the partner of Pascal Troadec's sister Lydie. Caouissin had become convinced that Pascal possessed gold allegedly connected to an old family story. The existence of that treasure was never established; reporting on the judicial investigation emphasized that neither investigators nor the court found proof that the supposed cache existed.
That distinction matters. The case established that Caouissin's fixation on the alleged gold shaped his conflict with Pascal, not that Pascal had actually taken a proven treasure.
Confession and recovery of evidence
In March 2017, Caouissin admitted killing Pascal, Brigitte, Sébastien and Charlotte at the Orvault home during the night of February 16 to 17. He then took extensive steps to conceal the crimes and remove evidence from the property.
His partner, Lydie Troadec, was not prosecuted as a participant in the four killings. She was accused instead of offenses committed afterward, including concealment connected to the victims and alteration of the crime scene.
What the trial had to decide
By the time the case reached the Loire-Atlantique assize court in Nantes in June 2021, Caouissin's responsibility for causing the four deaths was not the central factual dispute. A major question was his mental state and whether his discernment had been altered at the time.
Psychiatric experts who examined him concluded that his judgment had been impaired, though not abolished. Under French criminal law that distinction did not erase criminal responsibility, but it could affect the maximum sentence available to the court.
Verdict and sentence
On July 7, 2021, the court convicted Hubert Caouissin of the four murders. Prosecutors had requested life imprisonment with a 22-year security period. The judges and jurors instead recognized altered discernment and sentenced him to 30 years of criminal imprisonment.
Lydie Troadec was convicted of offenses connected to concealment of the victims and alteration of the crime scene. She received three years' imprisonment, one year of which was suspended, leaving two years to be served, subject to credit and the applicable rules.
No appeal
The day after the verdict, lawyers for both Hubert Caouissin and Lydie Troadec said their clients would not appeal. That meant there would be no second assize trial and left the convictions and sentences in place.
The absence of an appeal is significant for the present status of the case: the central criminal responsibility for the four deaths has been adjudicated rather than remaining an open allegation.
Timeline
February 16–17, 2017: Pascal, Brigitte, Sébastien and Charlotte Troadec are killed at the family home in Orvault.
Late February 2017: the family's disappearance triggers a major investigation.
March 2017: Hubert Caouissin admits killing the four family members and leads investigators toward evidence connected to the crimes.
June 22, 2021: the trial of Hubert Caouissin and Lydie Troadec begins before the Loire-Atlantique assize court.
July 7, 2021: Caouissin is convicted of all four murders and sentenced to 30 years; Lydie Troadec is convicted of post-crime offenses and receives a three-year sentence, one year suspended.
July 8, 2021: their lawyers announce that neither defendant will appeal.
Current status
The murders of Pascal, Brigitte, Sébastien and Charlotte Troadec are solved and adjudicated. Hubert Caouissin was convicted of killing all four and received a 30-year sentence. The court's finding that his discernment was altered reduced the sentence from the life term sought by prosecutors; it did not amount to an acquittal or a finding that he lacked criminal responsibility.