Égide D’Anjou Shot and Killed in the Forest

Égide D’Anjou Shot and Killed in the Forest is a family tragedy whose official explanation—as a fatal hunting accident—later gives way to an unresolved suspicion: that the bullet meant for Égide’s father, Le Fondateur, struck the son instead. The death becomes part of the D’Anjou family’s history of loss, but the evidence never settles whether it was accident or attempted revenge.

The Fatal Shot

In 1920, Égide, the eldest son of Le Fondateur, was killed in the forest by what was said to be a stray bullet. The timing made his death especially painful to the family: it occurred only weeks before the birth of his daughter, Marie-Ange D’Anjou. Years later, as Guillaume D’Anjou kept vigil beside Marie-Ange after her death in childbirth, the memory of his father’s killing returned amid a succession of family deaths. For Guillaume, the shooting belonged to a history of bereavement that seemed to gather around the family, though his anguish did not establish any supernatural cause.

Régis’s Unresolved Suspicion

In his journal, Régis D’Anjou wondered whether the hunting accident had anything to do with the family cameo. He relayed a claim attributed to Le Fondateur: at the very moment the bullet struck Égide, Le Fondateur had bent down. Régis reasoned that his ancestor, rather than his son, might therefore have been the intended target. It was a suspicion, not a proven account; no shooter was identified, and the investigation found too little evidence to establish who had fired.

Régis noted that a group of American hunters had been reported in the area. Pursuing that lead would have meant trying to trace them across the border, potentially as far as Boston or Philadelphia, a difficult undertaking at the time. The inquiry soon stalled. Régis also speculated that Le Fondateur may have wanted to avoid reopening a concealed part of his past, but the journal offers no confirmation that this was why the investigation was not pursued.

Rumor and the Founder’s Past

A persistent rumor among older residents of Touladi recast the shooting as an assassination attempt against Le Fondateur, driven by a long-standing vengeance. The rumor gained force from the portrait of a taciturn man whose earlier life in the United States remained obscure. Stories circulated that he had lived adventurously after the war, acquired a reputation as an expert marksman, and carried revolvers before eventually making them disappear. These stories remain conjectural; they supply an atmosphere of secrecy, not proof of a motive or perpetrator.

The cameo links the family’s uncertainty about the shooting to its uncertainty about Le Fondateur’s earlier life. Régis’s journal raises the possibility that the stone and the unresolved violence belonged to the same concealed history, but never demonstrates a connection. The surviving account leaves two explanations in uneasy coexistence: a stray shot during a hunt, and a bullet perhaps intended for the father that killed the son instead.