The body of a French woman who was seen dressed like a “vampire” was found drained of blood with stab and gunshot wounds inside an abandoned church in Italy as police speculate she may have been taking part in a ghost-hunting TikTok challenge.
The body of Auriane Nathalie Laisne, 22, of Saint-Priest, near Lyon, was discovered by a hiker in a fetal position with her sweatshirt covered in blood from various wounds — days after her boyfriend Teima Sohaib allegedly killed her inside a deserted church in Aosta Valley, officials said according to Il Gazzettino.
Laisne had a domestic violence case opened in France against the 21-year-old Egyptian Italian who lived in Grenoble, France, which banned him from going near her, the outlet reported.
Police believe her death could be connected to a popular ghost-hunting TikTok challenge in France, according to CNN.
The case is a “classic femicide,” Il Giornale reported an official saying during a press conference. A murder investigation has also been opened in Grenoble.
“It is a classic femicide motivated by motives of possessiveness and control over the victim’s will,” Aosta prosecutor Luca Ceccanti said, according to Il Giornale.
“The person arrested in Lyon is seriously suspected of the crime of premeditated murder and other aggravating circumstances.”
A witness saw the pair dressed like “vampires” and described Laisne as “emaciated” and looking like a “corpse” before her death, the outlet reported.
“They were dressed like two Goths, all in dark. Like those boys who venerate death. I thought: two vampires,” the unidentified witness told the Italian outlet.
“And I also thought something else, for which I now feel very ashamed of: She was so pale, she looked like a corpse. I can no longer sleep knowing what happened.”
Police are also working to determine if Laisne’s death was a “consented murder” — or sacrifice — as she was found bloodless and had suffered a stab and three bullet wounds, CNN said.
Investigators believe she may have been stabbed with a camping knife and bled to death and was then shot twice in the neck and once in the abdomen after she died, medical examiner Roberto Testi and police said, according to the network.
Laisne’s body was found in the church near a bag of pink marshmallows and other grocery items, the outlet said.
Her blood was also scraped off the floor and removed from the crime scene, police said. There were no signs of struggle, CNN reported.
Days after Laisne’s corpse was discovered, Sohaib was arrested in Lyon.
The pair were believed to be traveling around Europe and had asked a resident of a nearby town where there were abandoned villages where they could camp, according to Il Gazzettino.
The abandoned church she was found in was not a part of tourist attractions and was little known even by residents, the Italian paper said.
