French 'box escape' murder suspect commits suicide

A murder suspect who grabbed France's attention by escaping from prison concealed in a cardboard box and eluding capture for two months has committed suicide, the ministry of justice said yesterday.

Suspected of the murder of two women in 2004, Jean-Pierre Treiber had always proclaimed his innocence. He left behind a final note saying he was "fed up" with being treated like a criminal, French magazine Le Point reported yesterday. Treiber outfoxed a huge manhunt for more than two months after slipping out of prison last September by shutting himself into a box he had made in a prison workshop.

The box was loaded onto a delivery van which sped him away from prison. While on the run, Treiber wrote to the media insisting he was innocent and sent accounts of his days in a woodland hideout to a woman friend.

He was arrested in November in Melun, near Paris, with three other people suspected of helping him during his flight.