#NYC man accused of dismembering wife, dumping body near French vacation home

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Laure Bardina-Kruger (left) and Billy Kruger
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A Brooklyn man has been charged in the stabbing death of his wife, whose dismembered body was found near their holiday home in the south of France, according to reports.

Billy Kruger was collared Friday as he was about to fly out of France from Toulouse – hours after police found the remains of his 52-year-old wife, Laure Bardina-Kruger, in a storm drain in the village of Peyriac-de-Mer, Agence France-Presse reported.

The French-American citizen was charged Sunday with aggravated murder after confessing to police to having stabbed his wife twice, telling the investigating magistrate that it was in self-defense, prosecutor Marie-Agnes Jolie told AFP.

The couple — who have spent a few weeks each year in Peyriac-de-Mer, on the Mediterranean, south of Narbonne — had planned to leave Friday for their home in Jakarta, Indonesia, where Bardina-Kruger worked as a teacher, the news outlet reported.

“The victim’s father sounded the alert after his daughter did not turn up for a family reunion in Carcassonne,” an investigator said, according to the Mirror.

“She was due to say goodbye to everybody before the couple returned to Jakarta,” the source said.

“Instead, police were instructed to search for the victim and they found her body in a gutter in a road near the house.”

After Bardina-Kruger’s body was found, police launched a search for her husband, who was arrested in the departure area of the Toulouse airport.

On Sunday, a bouquet of white roses was placed at the top of the drain where her remains were found. Police found her luggage in their apartment.

“We don’t know yet what happened, but we never got any alarm signal from Laure regarding violent acts against her by her husband,” Bardina-Kruger’s brother Pierre Bardina posted on Facebook. “You always think this can only happen to other people, but violence against women can happen all of a sudden.”

The couple were last seen at a restaurant in Peyriac-de-Mer on Thursday night, hours before she was slain, the Mirror reported.

Bardina-Kruger, who taught at the Jakarta Intercultural School, had held previous teaching posts in Shanghai, Cairo and Hawaii, according to the outlet.

The La Dépêche du Midi newspaper reported that Kruger said worked as a diving instructor in Indonesia.

“They was never a loud word between them. When they came to sit with us, they could have dinner, sip two or three glasses, but never more,” a friend of the couple told local media, the Mirror reported.