Details of the deaths of a man and his daughter and evidence of the Dublin-based family’s apparent collective suicide were heard on the first day of the trial of Ming Ting Mancel in Reykjavik.
Mancel is charged with the murder of her daughter Catherine Mancel at the Reykjavik Edition hotel, in collaboration with her husband, Emeric Mancel, who also died on the same night during the family’s visit to the Icelandic capital last year.
The French woman, who had been living in Dublin with her family for almost 10 years before their deaths in Iceland, appeared on Friday in Reykjavik District Court.
The courthouse is located 300 metres away from the luxury hotel where the bodies of her husband and daughter were found almost a year ago.
READ MORE
The three flew together to Iceland in early June 2025.
One week later, on June 14th, police were called to the Reykjavik Edition, where Mancel confessed to the killings and called herself “a monster”.
She later changed her statement and said that her husband had carried out the stabbings.
The verdict will be reached by a panel of three judges.
On Friday, Mancel responded to questions in French and the court proceedings were translated for her via an interpreter.
The French woman confirmed her address as Vantage East in Leopardstown, south Dublin.
Mancel said the family had gone for sushi on the night Catherine and Emeric died, and had come back to listen to some music and watch some TV before starting the process of their deaths.
She said her husband stabbed their daughter Catherine once as she sat in a chair in the bathroom, while she held her daughter’s hand. Mancel claimed that she didn’t look.
The court heard that her husband subsequently gave Catherine alcohol and tablets “to accelerate the process” and make things easier for her.
The first stabbing had not worked, Mancel said, and after some hours of resting on the bed in the room, Catherine Mancel had asked her father to start the process again.
Catherine was stabbed a second time by Emeric and later died. A phone cord was also believed to have been used to strangle Catherine.
Marks were found on Catherine’s neck and upper arms, and also on her legs.
It was put to Mancel by the judge that her daughter had tried to free herself during the incident. Mancel denied this.
Ming Ting Mancel was then stabbed by her husband Emeric in the bathroom and he later stabbed himself and consequently died, according to his wife.
She cleaned her daughter’s face and called reception to report the incident.
The court also heard that Emeric Mancel was suffering from renal insufficiency, was on dialysis and that it was affecting his ability to work. He wanted to die before he lost everything and while he could still decide. He had wanted to travel one last time.
The couple decided to take their own lives in Iceland.
He was not depressed, his wife told the court, but was experiencing a nervous breakdown and could not accept losing his autonomy.
[ A murder-suicide in Iceland and the Irish connectionOpens in new window ]
The trigger for taking their lives, Mancel said, was a letter from Emeric’s sister, accusing him of stealing money from the family’s inheritance, which “devastated him”, she said.
He did not have the strength to defend himself, according to his wife, and so they decided to take their own lives.
They had discussed these plans with Catherine in Dublin, said Mancel, and had given her the choice whether to remain alive or to die with them, and she chose the latter.
The court heard that Catherine had been working for online rentals platform Airbnb and had asked for days off to go to Iceland, but was asked by her supervisor to bring her laptop and to work remotely. She had left the laptop behind, said her mother, as she would not be coming back.
She said that she and her husband had discussed different methods of suicide while still in Dublin.
They wrote their own wills in Dublin and brought them with them, buying stamps in Reykjavik and posting them to family at a postbox. They also bought some souvenirs for Ming Ting Mancel’s brother and sister.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
