Monaco heiress, 77, dies of her injuries after mystery gun attack
Two weeks after the mysterious attack on the French Riviera, the 77-year-old property tycoon and friend to royalty succumbs to her injuries
Helene Pastor, 77, said to be close to Monaco's royal family, and nicknamed the "vice princess", had been visiting her son in hospital when an unknown gunman opened fire on her Lancia Voyager car.
The attack has baffled detectives. Pastor's chauffeur was seriously injured in the attack and died four days later. Pastor was taken to hospital with injuries to her face, neck, chest and abdomen, but died on Wednesday.
She had spent two hours before the attack at the bedside of her son Gildo, who had suffered a stroke, and left the Archet hospital in the west of Nice in the early evening. As her car pulled out of the hospital on to the main road, a man leaped out from behind a parapet wielding a sawn-off shotgun and fired into the passenger side.
After shooting a first time, the killer leaned into the slowly moving car and shot a second time, critically injuring driver Mohamed Darwich, 64, who had worked for Pastor for 15 years. CCTV images show the attacker running off with a second man. The car continued a further 20 metres before crashing into a parked vehicle.
"Unfortunately, the images are not perfect and until now we haven't been able to identify the murderers, who were disguised," said a police spokesman.
A report in the French daily Le Figaro said investigators suspected the two were members of Italy's most notorious organised crime gangs - either 'Ndrangheta or the Camorra. Both clans are said to have gained a strong foothold in the French Riviera's property sector, in which the Pastor family are key players.