April 17, 2005
Sunday Times
Beauty queen adds twist to latex killing
Matthew Campbell, Paris
Murder linked to baby’s death
BY all accounts, her good looks were not her greatest asset. Julia Lemigova, a former Soviet model and beauty queen, also had an exceptional ear for languages, a good nose for business and an ability to make friends in all the right places.
Edouard Stern, a prominent banker, was her lover and the investigation into his murder in Geneva on February 28 has taken a dramatic twist with her claims of a link between the crime and the death of her baby five years ago.
Stern, 50, who had made many enemies in his successful career, was found dressed in a latex body stocking in his flat. It looked like a professional “hit” until Cécile Brossard, his 36-year-old mistress, confessed to shooting him four times in a “crime of passion” after they had argued about money.
Last week, however, that scenario was challenged by Lemigova. She claimed to have been Stern’s mistress long before and suspected that Brossard might have been using blackmail to get at his money.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1572670,00.html