Details of the deaths of a man and his daughter and evidence of the family\u2019s apparent collective suicide were heard on the first day of the trial of Ming Ting Mancel in Reykjavik. She is charged with the murder of her daughter Catherine Mancel at the Reykjavik Edition hotel, in collaboration with her husband, Emeric Mancel, who also died on the same night. <\/p>\n
The French woman, who had been living in Dublin<\/a> with her family for almost 10 years before their deaths in Iceland<\/a>, appeared on Friday in Reykjavik District Court<\/a>, 300 metres away from the luxury hotel where the bodies of her husband and daughter were found almost exactly a year ago. <\/p>\n The three flew together to Iceland in early June 2025. One week later, on June 14th, police were called to the Reykjavik Edition, where Mancel confessed to the killings and called herself \u201ca monster\u201d. She later changed her statement and said that her husband had carried out the stabbings. <\/p>\n The verdict will be reached by a panel of three judges. Mancel responded to questions in French and proceedings were translated for her via an interpreter. The French woman confirmed her address as Vantage East, Leopardstown, Dublin 18. <\/p>\n Mancel said the family had gone for sushi on the night Catherine and Emeric died, and had come back to listen to some music and watched some TV before starting the process of their deaths. She said her husband stabbed their daughter Catherine once as she sat in a chair in the bathroom, while she held her daughter\u2019s hand. Mancel claimed that she didn\u2019t look. <\/p>\n The court heard that her husband subsequently gave Catherine alcohol and tablets \u201cto accelerate the process\u201d and make things easier for her. The first stabbing had not worked, Mancel said, and after some hours of resting on the bed in the room, Catherine Mancel had asked her father to start the process again. Catherine was stabbed a second time by Emeric and later died.<\/p>\n A phone cord was also believed to have been used to strangle Catherine. Marks were found on Catherine\u2019s neck and upper arms and also her legs, and it was put to Mancel by the judge that she had tried to free herself during the incident. Mancel denied this. <\/p>\n Ming Ting Mancel was then stabbed by her husband Emeric in the bathroom and he later stabbed himself and consequently died, according to her. She cleaned her daughter\u2019s face and called reception to report the incident. <\/p>\n The court also heard that Emeric Mancel was suffering from renal insufficiency, was on dialysis, and that it was affecting his ability to work. He wanted to die before he lost everything, and while he could still decide. He had wanted to travel a last time. The couple had therefore decided to take their own lives in Iceland. He was not depressed, she said, but was experiencing a nervous breakdown and could not accept losing his autonomy.<\/p>\n