In 1839 two residents were defendants in a murder trial. An American, George Holmes, who lived in Sorel, was linked to Joséphine d’Estimauville, a married woman who had been staying with her mother in Sorel after leaving her abusive husband. The pair were arrested after Holmes became a suspect for killing her husband Louis-Pascal-Achille Taché (21 June 1813 – 31 January 1839), seigneur of Kamouraska since 1833. This seigneury was located in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of eastern Quebec. Holmes fled to the United States, escaped extradition, and disappeared. D’Estimauville was tried for complicity in the death of her husband, but acquitted.
