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The record bears two names once joined in 2019, now set apart in a petition filed within the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Family Court Division. Francise Timothee Duval, age 59, asks the court to dissolve her marriage to Michel Duval, age 55, stating that the union is irretrievably broken. The filing was sworn and submitted in February 2026.

Both parties, the petition states, have been residents of the State of Missouri and the City of St. Louis for at least ninety days immediately preceding the filing. They were married on March 8, 2019, in the City of St. Louis, where the marriage was registered. They resided together in St. Louis City during the marriage and separated on or about March 1, 2021, ceasing to live together as husband and wife.

No minor, unemancipated children were born of the marriage or adopted during its course. The petitioner is not pregnant. Neither party is a member of the Armed Forces on active duty. The petition details property and debt described as separate to each party, and property and obligations accumulated during the marriage, which the petitioner asks to be divided in a fair and equitable manner. It further asserts that each has sufficient separate property and income to meet individual needs and that neither requires maintenance.

The petitioner also seeks restoration of her prior name, Francise Timothee Rene, upon entry of judgment. In asking the court to dissolve the marriage and allocate assets and debts, the filing turns a private history—its beginning in 2019, its separation in 2021—into a matter of formal adjudication. As February advances and dockets fill with similar petitions, the court’s role remains consistent: to examine residency, property, and statutory standards, and to render an order that marks the legal conclusion of a marriage under Missouri law.

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