A 32-year-old man has been arrested in Estonia on suspicion of the murder of Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, whose body was found last week in a shallow grave in Kew, south-west London.
The 34-year-old French national’s remains were discovered on 6 March in the garden of her home address in Darell Road, where she had lived since April last year.
Garcia-Bertaux had been reported missing after she did not arrive for work at the public relations company Golin the previous day. Scotland Yard said a postmortem performed on Saturday gave a cause of death as “consistent with compression of the neck”.
The suspect was detained after the Met police issued a European arrest warrant. He was arrested at an address in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, at 12.25pm on Wednesday.
The Met said he was being held at an Estonian police station prior to commencement of extradition proceedings.
Garcia-Bertaux had studied performance design practice at Central Saint Martins in London before working as an executive assistant at Golin. She also blogged on fashion and was a film-maker.
Originally from Aix-en-Provence, she had worked with Joan Collins on the 2018 short film Gerry. The actor said she was “shocked by the horrifying news” of her death.
Hester Ruoff, a producer, actor and friend of Garcia-Bertaux, described her as “an amazing individual” and said they had been due to start filming on a new production next month.
Jonathan Hughes, chief executive of Golin, called Garcia-Bertaux’s death senseless and tragic. “Laureline was a wonderfully creative, caring and charismatic woman, full of energy and joie de vivre,” he said. “That is the way she will always be remembered by me and every one of her colleagues.”
