Father of 4 sought after bodies found in French garden

French police are searching for a father of four after three bodies and a leg — believed to be the remains of his wife and children — were found in their garden.

Officers investigating the disappearance of the family earlier this month are looking for the father, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, 50, after police found three bodies and a severed leg at his home in the western town of Nantes. Ligonnès' bank card was reportedly was used in Fréjus, Mediterranean port town near St Tropez, on Thursday.

The bodies appear to be those of the mother, Agnès, 49, sons Arthur, 21, and Thomas, 18, and daughter Anne, 16. They appear to have been shot. The remains of a son Benoit, 13, may also have been found, according to Sky News.

A prosecutor told reporters on Thursday that the investigation was "leaning towards kidnapping and murder."

Formal identification of the bodies will come after an autopsy, said the Nantes public prosecutor.

The family has reportedly not been seen since around April 5. Before disappearing they had sent "deranged and contradictory" messages, said city prosecutor Xavier Ronsin.

The head teacher of the school of the younger children received a note that they were being withdrawn from school because of an “urgent work-related move to Australia.”

People close to the family were told the father was a secret agent working for America. "The father explained he was a secret agent and was leaving as part of a witness protection program," the BBC quoted Ronsin as saying.

According to a neighbor interviewed on RTL radio, the father was seen around two weeks ago filling his car boot with “big bags”. During two nights the family dogs were heard howling, neighbors said.

The family were described as discreet and ordinary. The father sold advertising and the mother was a supervisor in a school and gave Catholic religious instruction.

Police found a section of human leg in the garden of the grey stone two-story house on Thursday morning, then gradually unearthed five bodies throughout the day.

Three bodies, those of Agnes, Thomas and Arthur were exhumed first from under a patio of the house, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting a police statement. Later in the day, "a fourth body — that of Anne — was exhumed with those of the family's two dogs."