This is confirmed by Karl Ingi Vilbergsson, deputy district prosecutor, in an interview with a news agency.
The woman’s travel ban expired today, so it was reopened this afternoon. The travel ban was extended while legal proceedings take place, but as it turned out, the woman was accused of murder. The couple’s daughter was in her thirties.
According to read Nouvelles Calédoniennesa local media from New Caledonia, the woman’s name is Ming Ting Mancel and she is 56 years old. The husband’s name was Emeric Mancel, 58 years old, and the daughter Catherine Mancel was 29 years old. They lived in New Caledonia until 2017 when they moved to New Zealand and then Ireland in 2020.
Ruv reports that Ming Ting is charged in the case in collaboration with Emeric. Karl Ingi also confirms it in a conversation with a news agency.
On June 14, 2025, the French couple were found dead in a hotel room at the Edition Hotel in downtown Reykjavík. The wife and mother of the deceased confessed at the scene that she had killed them, had intended to take her own life but had not completed her mission. Since then, the woman has changed her stance and denies any wrongdoing.
The police in the capital area investigated the case and closed it on January 20. The district attorney then considered whether there was a reason to issue an indictment against Mancel. However, the case was sent back to the police on February 24, who investigated the case again until the end of March.
Didn’t want the daughter to be left alone
In the previous ruling of the district court, involvement in the scene of the case was described. On the day in question, Edition staff contacted the police as a woman had fallen in the shower in the hotel’s room. Later, the police received information that Ming Ting had a stab wound to the chest from a knife and was armed herself.
This article is about suicide. People with suicidal thoughts are referred to the health care information hotline s.1700, the online chat hélillvera.is, Hjálparsíma Rauða krossinns s.1717, the online chat 1717.is and the Píeta telephone s.552-2218.
An unconscious man was lying on the floor and a sheet had been spread over him. When the officers arrived, Ming Ting was sitting on the floor and told the police that she had killed two people.
When they arrived at the hospital, the woman told a nurse, then a police officer overheard, that Emeric was dying and she didn’t want their daughter to be the only one left alive. Ming Ting also said that she had planned to take her own life by stabbing herself in the heart.
The family, which is French but lived in Ireland, traveled to Iceland together and it was supposed to be their last time together.
The news has been updated.
