At the Assize Court of Nanterre,
His relatives searched through their archives, but only managed to gather around ten photos. Some identity or group photos in which the young girl often appears in the background. Marie-Angèle Domèce is considered the third victim – at least identified – of Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier. Yet it is the one we know the least about, the one we have heard the least about. Almost an invisible victim. The young girl disappeared in July 1988, at the age of 19, while she was on her way to Auxerre station to spend the weekend with her host family. Time has done its work, of course. But not only.
Listening to your loved ones before the Nanterre Assize Court, which has been trying Monique Olivier since Tuesday, is like plunging yourself back into a short, damaged life. Véronique, her older sister, is the first to approach the bar. Bobbed brown hair, small glasses, she struggles to hide her emotion. All the witnesses say it, the two women were close. However, they only knew each other two – maybe three years – before his disappearance. Véronique confides that she only learned of the existence of this little sister at the age of 10 or 12. “I received a letter from my father with a photo of my sister inside,” she recalls, strangled sobs in her voice.
“There’s no point in coming”
Their mother fled the family home a few years earlier, leaving her four children behind. The latter are immediately placed but their father visits them regularly. Upon receiving the letter, Véronique questions him: did he know about this fifth child? Did he know their mother was pregnant when she left? He assures that he was unaware of it when he left but learned of it during 1970, when Marie-Angèle was a few months old. He never tried to meet her. Having become an adult, Véronique Domèce decides to find this little sister. Dates and figures escape him today. It was maybe 86 or 87. His sister was a teenager, maybe 16 or 17. What she remembers perfectly, however, was the warning from the director of the home: “If it’s to abandon Marie-Angèle Domèce a second time, there’s no point in coming. » In turn, her father – who died the weekend before the trial opened – tries to reconnect with this unknown child. But father and daughter don’t get along at all.
In 1988, Marie-Angèle was 19 years old. With the exception of a few weekends spent with her sister, she leaves home every Friday evening to join her host family. So this Friday evening, when they don’t see her arriving, they worry, contacting the young girl’s home who tells them to “don’t panic”. “She probably ran away a little,” assures the director. The family doesn’t believe it. “It wasn’t like her, she was too happy to come home,” one of her nanny’s daughters assured investigators. His foster sister, who shared his room for fourteen years, does not for a second contemplate a voluntary disappearance. No more than his friends at home. Especially since although Marie-Angèle Domèce is perfectly independent, she has a slight intellectual delay. All those close to her describe her as “shy”, “reserved”, “vulnerable”.
“We, the children of the Ddass, were very badly seen”
The gendarmerie, however, does not take the matter seriously, pointing out to her relatives that she is an adult. Neither his foster home nor his biological family are heard. No more than her friends. Years later, when they are heard, many of them will recount having seen a prowler in front of the home. Some will recognize Michel Fourniret on photographic plates. A friend of Marie-Angèle Domèce will specify that the latter had the feeling of being followed.
Those close to her are convinced that the fact of being a child placed in a position plays against her. “We, the children of the Ddass, were very frowned upon. We were whores, thieves or drug addicts, no one cared about us,” confides one of them. Less than eight months after his disappearance, the judicial investigation was closed without further action, due to lack of evidence. For Véronique, her sister, it’s a massive blow. But at the time, she didn’t have a lawyer and didn’t know where to turn. “For me, everything fell through so I gave up,” she confides, disappointed at the stand. At home too, this decision is very badly received. “We told ourselves that since we have no family, we could disappear without anyone worrying,” recalls a former resident.
Monique Olivier impassive
Sitting in the box, Monique Olivier, stooped figure, short gray hair, listens, impassive. No emotion shows. Neither by listening to the testimonies, nor by looking at the few photos of the victim. She doesn’t blink when everyone begs her to say where the body is. If on the first day of her trial, she expressed her “regrets”, said she “blamed herself for all that”, it was difficult this Friday to capture the slightest emotion. Especially since the president, Didier Safar, refuses to question him, preferring a long hearing to on-the-spot reactions. Does she recognize the victim in the photos? What does she have to say to this former friend of the victim who claims to have seen her with Michel Fourniret in front of the home? What also about this list drawn up by the killer suggesting that there would be 35 victims. Disappointed, Eric Mouzin, the father of Estelle Mouzin, one of the three victims, leaves the room.
Monique Olivier will be heard Tuesday morning on the facts. If she admitted “all the facts” on the second day of the trial, will she be talkative? Before the investigating judge, in 2018, Monique Olivier admitted to being present in the car with Michel Fourniret when Marie-Angèle Domèce was kidnapped, victim of an attempted rape and then killed. She was seven months pregnant at the time and knew well that her presence had the sole purpose of reassuring the victim and pushing her to throw herself into the ogre’s mouth.