CRIME suspect Robert Lund has re-enacted the lakeside accident he insists killed his wife and said: "This is how my Evelyn died."

Former Blackburn with Darwen Council tree protection officer Robert has twice been arrested in connection with Evelyn's disappearance close to their home in La Veaute, southern France, in December, 1999, but has never been charged.

Now, two years after the 52-year-old Darwen mother-of-three's body was pulled out of the water at Bancali Lake, near Ralmont, he has visited the scene to re-create what he believes happened to her.

He used the 4x4 of his companion Barbara Bullen, of Lammack, Blackburn - who is currently staying with him in France - for the demonstration.

Mr Lund, 51, admits people believe he killed his wife, but showed Lancashire Evening Telegraph journalists how a tricky three-point turn on a lakeside track could have resulted in Evelyn's vehicle plunging into the water.

The dirt track is the exact spot where his wife's 4x4 Toyota Landcruiser dropped to the bottom of the lake. Her body was found on the back seat when falling water levels revealed the vehicle to a passer-by one Saturday evening in October, 2001.

It was the lowest level to which the lake had ever dropped - some 16 to 18 metres.

Mr Lund explained exclusively to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph how he believed a "simple wrong turning" contributed to the accident in late December, 1999.

Evelyn was last seen alive at her friend Marianne Ramsey's house in Lombers - 17 kilometres from the lake.

According to Marianne, Evelyn had made the journey repeatedly over the course of their 18-month friendship.

The journey is clearly sign-posted, as are the main roads.

But from the main road out of Ralmont towards Teillet, on the D86, there are two right turns for the lake.

The first one is sign posted lac de la Bancali and is a main junction. It is a wide two-way tarmac road with two sweeping bends and leads to a wide bridge known as a 'barrage'. This is the main road that Evelyn would usually have taken to return home.

Mr Lund claimed that a misty night coupled with fog, ice and dark conditions, caused her to miss this turning and take a subsequent right turn some 300 yards further along the main road that is sign posted 'barrage'.

This road is single track, tree lined with some houses at the start of it and is lit with small street lamps for the first 100 yards. Then it weaves its way down to the lake with thick forest on either side.

Robert explained how Evelyn, who he said had probably been drinking, must have accidentally driven the car off the edge in reverse gear.

"I think she just took the wrong turn," said Robert. "If she had not made a mistake she would have either come straight home or stopped off at another friend. Either way none of this would have happened.

"I had never looked down that road because it is marked as a dead end, but I think she has taken a wrong turn because it is barely 400 yards between this one and the other one.

"I also believe she had mistaken the signs. One says barrage and the other says lac de la Bancali. Given that she did not speak French I think she has made a simple mistake.

"As she drove down towards the lake, even if she knew she had gone wrong, she must have gone all the way to the bottom, turned the final bend and then realised she was in trouble. When she tried to turn the car by doing a three point turn of some kind, she has reversed into the lake.

"In England there would be a barrier there to stop people. There is nothing stopping it happening again.

"I am still angry with the gendarmes for not finding her sooner. If they had done a proper reconstruction they would have come up with something.

"Clearly if they had done a search of this lake properly they would have found her and this agony would have been less."