‘She hadn’t wanted to die’: How Dublin resident was convicted of daughter’s murder after family suicide pact

It sounds like a plot from a Nordic-noir novel or a Netflix drama: a father and daughter from a wealthy French family, living in Dublin but originally from a remote south Pacific island, die in a luxury Reykjavik hotel. And a mother is charged with murder.The investigation stretches from New Caledonia to France to Ireland to Iceland, with a family dispute over a multimillion-euro inheritance serving as the trigger for an alleged suicide pact. But this isn’t fiction. It is a true story that ended in an Icelandic courtroom this week. On June 12th, Ming Ting Mancel (56), who lived with her family in south Dublin, entered Reykjavik District Court facing trial for the murder of her daughter in collaboration with her deceased husband. READ MOREOnly two streets separated the courthouse from the Reykjavik Edition hotel where Catherine (29), her daughter, and Emeric (57), her husband, were found dead on a weekend exactly one year before. The three had travelled from their home in Ireland for a holiday. But they were not like other tourists and this was no ordinary holiday. The Mancel family had, according to Ming Ting Mancel, come to Iceland to end their own lives. With no jury system in Iceland, a panel of three judges was to decide her fate. That day, Mancel gave testimony for more than seven hours, starting in quiet French and gradually gaining confidence. Her interpreter explained everything phrase by phrase, as Icelandic and French volleyed back and forth across the courtroom. Catherine Mancel (left) with her father Emeric Mancel (centre) at a Japanese fencing competition in Australia. Photograph: Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes The court heard how on Saturday, June 14th, 2025, shortly after 7am, Ming Ting Mancel alerted Reykjavik Edition hotel staff to an emergency in her room on the fourth floor. This set into motion an investigation that was to prove unprecedented for police in Iceland, a country that ordinarily sees just two or three murders a year. Staff discovered two bodies in the room. When police arrived, Mancel told them she had killed two people. She would later say that she had used this as a form of shorthand to get help to her family as quickly as possible. Mancel was taken to hospital, and later told police that her family had planned a collective suicide from Dublin, with her husband inflicting the wounds. Mancel was charged and kept in custody for 12 weeks but then released, as she was not considered a threat to the public. The family’s names remained unknown until 10 months after their deaths as Icelandic police do not name victims of crime. She explained to the court how her husband had kidney failure, couldn’t cope with losing his independence and wanted to die when he could still choose. She couldn’t imagine living without him and the couple had offered their daughter Catherine, an only child, the choice to join them in death. Born in Switzerland, Emeric Mancel grew up in New Caledonia, a French territory comprising dozens of islands in the south Pacific, more than 1,200km east of Australia.His parents made their fortune running a jewellery shop in the capital, Nouméa. Ming Ting Mancel was from France. The family lived together in New Caledonia until 2017, when they moved to Dublin. Money seemed no object. The family lived at the Central Park apartment complex in Leopardstown. In Reykjavik, they chose the most expensive hotel in the city, the Reykjavik Edition, as their base, with two rooms costing about €16,000 for a week. Reykjavik Edition hotel, where the bodies of Emeric and Catherine Mancel were found on June 14th, 2025 The family wealth became the heart of this case. Weeks before his death, Emeric’s sister Françoise filed a criminal charge against her brother, accusing him of stealing hundreds of millions of francs – €8 million in all – from the family fortune. This allegation sparked the family’s suicide plans, Ming Ting said, as her husband felt “unable” to defend himself. Iceland was chosen as the location. The acts of violence leading to the deaths of Emeric and Catherine were outlined in graphic detail in court during Ming Ting Mancel’s trial.Emeric researched mass suicides and how to locate the heart in a woman’s body before they left for Iceland. He brought knives from Dublin, along with over-the-counter sleeping tablets. The court heard that on the last night of their trip, he stabbed Catherine once as her mother held her hand. When that didn’t work, Mancel said, Catherine asked him to stab her again. The second stab wound pierced Catherine’s heart, and she died, according to the evidence presented in court. The prosecution contended during the trial that her parents also used a noose to strangle her and that Catherine had tried to break free and hadn’t wanted to die. Catherine Mancel. Photograph: Linkedin Emeric Mancel later took his own life after attempting to kill his wife, but she survived. Over the six-day trial, Mancel cut an unassuming figure, very petite, with almost fully grey shoulder-length hair. She dressed in a black cardigan, trousers and black runners. She was polite, at times smiling and occasionally pouring a glass of water for her lawyer during proceedings. Mancel came across as sad, yet calm and self-contained. She appeared sure of herself, unapologetic and resolute in her evidence. When it came to others testifying, she remained impassive when her sister and sister-in-law gave evidence from France. But it was the evidence of Catherine’s colleague, testifying via video-link from Ireland, that finally drew a reaction from Mancel. When Catherine was described as “a ray of sunshine in the office” by Léo Berteaux, her manager at Airbnb, the online rental website where she worked in Dublin, her mother became visibly distraught and her face contorted into a silent wail. [ Irish manager contacted Iceland police after Catherine Mancel didn’t turn up for work, court toldOpens in new window ]Colleagues gave testimony from Ireland, describing Catherine as a smiling, happy, but quiet girl, who always said hello. She had no known social media except LinkedIn. She was described as being “in the full bloom of her life” by the prosecutor. Asked by the judge if she had said goodbye or comforted her daughter in her last moments, Mancel showed a remarkable casualness towards their impending deaths, saying she said she hadn’t needed to since they were all “leaving together”. She broke down once when she talked about her husband, saying he was a good person. Her aim now, she said, was to clear his name. When asked to describe Catherine’s character and her relationship with her, she said she didn’t understand the question. Eventually Mancel replied that it was “sometimes complicated” but that they were very close. Emeric was the most important person to Catherine, she said. During the trial, the family’s ties to Ireland, their adopted home, came into focus when a suicide note written by Emeric was shown, saying that any damages caused to the room could be reimbursed through their AIB credit card. In their final days together in Iceland, the family mixed typical tourist activities with efforts to finalise their affairs. Where tourists send postcards, the Mancels posted souvenirs and copies of their wills to their siblings from a Reykjavik postbox.In a clue to Catherine’s sensitivity, a recurring trait that came up during the trial, she had given hand-knit teddy bears to her colleagues in Dublin as farewell presents. They were the same bears she and her mother regularly spent time crafting together. One teddy was found near her where she died; another remains as the cover photo of her LinkedIn profile. [ Dublin-resident French woman sentenced to 12 years over murder of her daughter in Iceland hotelOpens in new window ]Last Tuesday, the court reconvened for a 10-minute verdict hearing. Ming Ting Mancel was found guilty of her daughter’s murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Her lawyer said that she was “disappointed” and had already requested an appeal. The family travelled together from Dublin to Iceland in June 2025 with a plan to die together. Today, the remains of Catherine and her father are interred in a Reykjavik cemetery, and Ming Ting Mancel has begun a 12-year sentence for her daughter’s murder.