TWO teenage girls were last night charged with the murder of Lizzie Roussel. The development follows a week of intense police investigation into what officers described as the homicide of the 41-year-old mother and grandmother from St Martin’s.

The young women accused of her killing, aged 16 and 19, were due to appear in the Magistrate’s Court today.

The older of the two will then be named but the 16-year-old’s identity will not be disclosed because she is too young.

They were charged at 8.45pm yesterday following four days of questioning by police.

Officers were given two extensions by special sittings of the Magistrate’s Court to interview the women.

That extra custody period would have expired at 5am today.

The women were arrested shortly after Mrs Roussel died early on Monday morning following an alleged incident in Town on Friday 25 June.

A post-mortem examination was carried out on Mrs Roussel on Wednesday by a Home Office pathologist brought to the island, but police said that it is expected to take several weeks for the full findings of that to be available.

Officers said they have had a ‘fairly good’ response from the public after appeals for information about the circumstances surrounding Mrs Roussel’s death.

‘A better understanding of the events of early last Friday morning has now been achieved,’ said Detective Chief Inspector Ian Morellec.

He added that they had a report of a vehicle in the Church Hill, St Peter Port, area last Friday. ‘This vehicle had a Portuguese flag flying from the passenger window. We would appeal for the occupants of this vehicle to come forward,’ he said.

Officers also confirmed yesterday that a taxi driver, whom they wanted to speak to, had come forward and been interviewed.