The wife of a
British tourist found dead in a hotel car park in France says she is
living a 'nightmare' as police reveal her husband was drinking heavily
before his death.
John Napoletani, 50, was found dead at the weekend lying in a pool of blood with a large head wound.
Investigators
immediately launched a murder investigation but have not yet ruled out
the death being caused by a tragic accident related to heavy drinking.
Mr
Napoletani was found near to a £25-a-night budget ‘Formule 1’ hotel in
the Epenottes industrial estate in Dole, a town near Dijon, in the Jura
department of the Franche-Comte region.
John Napoletani and his wife were visiting Dole (pictured) on their way back from a holiday in Italy
John Napoletani, aged 50, was found lying in a pool of blood and had a large head wound (file picture)
Scene: The man's wife called police on Sunday morning when she realised he was missing
They were driving back from a holiday in Italy when they stopped at the hotel for the night, his wife Evenlyn told the Daily Telegraph.
She said: 'I am devastated. It's like a nightmare. I keep thinking I am going to wake up and it's all been a bad dream.'
Detectives
said he had been due to spend Saturday night at the hotel with his wife
and a friend, but had gone out by himself without explanation.
While
prosecutors initially launched a murder investigation, police have not
ruled out a tragic accident, with Mr Napoletani falling over and
injuring himself.
The Napoletanis, who had been married for 28 years, came from Colchester, Essex, and were on holiday with a male friend.
They
were all sharing a room at the hotel, and left their Renault Espace
parked outside, with a ‘large quantity of wine from Italy’ inside.
A
local police spokesman said: ‘They had all been drinking heavily, with
the third man in a state of intoxication when we spoke to him on Sunday.
He was taken to hospital.’
Referring
to Saturday night, the spokesman said: ‘Following the walk apparently
to get some air, the victim did not return to his wife.’
The
spokesman said that all three members of the party had been seen
drinking on a table outside the hotel earlier on Saturday evening.
The
man’s wife called police on Sunday morning, which is when the body was
found, between the hotel and a nearby discount warehouse.
The
police spokesman said: ‘The call to police was logged at around 9am.
The victim’s wife was concerned about his whereabouts, as he had not
been seen since Saturday night.’
Mr Napoletani was found dead in a hotel car park in eastern France and had been drinking heavily, police said
Some 25 people have so far been interviewed in connection with the suspected crime, including hotel staff.
One
of the reception workers at the hotel said: ‘They arrived at around 6pm
and took a room for three. It’s such a terrible tragedy – nobody knows
what happened.’
No weapons has been found, and police do not know how the head wound was caused.
CCTV has also been examined, but it is not thought to contain any important clues.
The
couple were on their way back to the UK from Italy with the friend and
had stopped off for the night in Dole, which is a short distance from
the Swiss and Italian borders.
It is used as a stopover for numerous drivers using the major motorways which link southern and northern France.
The hotel was closed on Monday, along with the car park, as forensics experts searched for clues.
An autopsy was meant to be held in the nearby town of Besancon yesterday, but it was postponed.
The British Embassy in Paris has been informed about the incident, and is liaising with the dead man’s family.
It
is common practice for the French authorities to retain the names of
accident or murder victims for operational reasons, but this practice
has been criticised in the past by British police working on joint
enquiries.
There
is often a fear that vital information can be lost in the early days of
an investigation if people do not know the name of the deceased, or
what he looked like.
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