Monique Olivier is now the ultimate holder of the dark secrets of the “ogre”. Since the death in 2021 of the rapist and serial killer Michel Fourniret, the woman who was his companion for twenty-one years is the last key to understanding this extraordinary criminal journey. And the last hope, for the families of the victims, to obtain answers. It is therefore alone, this Tuesday, that this 75-year-old woman, with a stooped figure and graying hair, will appear in the accused box of the Nanterre Assize Court. Only she will answer for three crimes. Complicity in the kidnapping and sequestration of Estelle Mouzin in 2003 as well as in the kidnappings and murders of Marie-Angèle Domèce in 1988 and Joanna Parrish in 1990.
However, the shadow of Michel Fourniret will undoubtedly hover over these three weeks of hearing as the couple functioned like a tandem, united in a destructive work. Sure, he was the one who raped and killed, but she wasn’t just a witness to his crimes. She admitted, during the investigation, to having participated actively. She was present in the car during the kidnappings of Marie-Angèle Domèce, 19, in 1988, and Joanna Parrish, 20, in 1990. For the first, she was seven months pregnant; for the second, she was with her son. His presence had one sole purpose: to “reassure” the victims and encourage them to get into the vehicle, knowing perfectly well the dire fate that awaited them. If she had remained in Belgium on the day of the kidnapping of Estelle Mouzin, 9 years old, in Seine-et-Marne, she provided an alibi for her husband and kept the little girl when she was kidnapped.
“There is no real issue surrounding this trial”
Before meeting Monique Olivier, Michel Fourniret had never killed. And all psychiatric experts agree: if she had not met the ogre, she would not have become the criminal she is. “There is no real issue surrounding this trial, neither in terms of sentence nor in terms of guilt, since my client admitted the facts,” believes her lawyer, Me Richard Delgènes. The only thing she fears is being mixed up with Michel Fourniret. Some want to make her seem more perverse than him, but it was he who was obsessed with virgins, he who killed, who raped. And it was she who confessed. »
Their meeting dates back to the spring of 1987. While leafing through the Christian weekly Pilgrim, Monique Olivier comes across a classified ad: “Prisoner would like to correspond with anyone of any age to forget loneliness”. She also feels isolated. She was 38 years old at the time and had left her marital home two years earlier to escape her violent husband. When she left, she left custody of her two sons, then aged 4 and 5. The “prisoner” in the ad is Michel Fourniret. This doubly divorced man, already the father of four children, has been imprisoned since 1984 for sexual assault. Their epistolary exchange will last six months. A correspondence which quickly takes a turn as passionate as it is macabre. In these writings, Michel Fourniret confides his obsession with virginity. Above all, he agrees to kill Monique Olivier’s ex-husband if she helps him find young virgins.
In October, the man was released for “exemplary conduct”. The couple then settled in Yonne, near Auxerre. Two months later, they committed their first crime: that of Isabelle Laville, 17 years old. Alone at the wheel of her car, Monique Olivier convinces the teenager to get in to bring her closer to home. A few hundred meters further, she picks up a so-called “broken down” motorist. It’s Michel Fourniret. He drugs his victim, rapes her then strangles her. His body was only found in 2006, at the bottom of a well.
Already sentenced to life imprisonment
For this first murder and for six others, Michel Fourniret was sentenced, in 2008, to irreducible life imprisonment. Monique Olivier was sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in four of the murders and the gang rape of Isabelle Laville. They were also convicted in 2012 for the murder of Farida Hammiche, a heinous crime since it involved stealing a large sum of money from her.
The Fournirets’ macabre pact ended in 2003 when they were arrested in the south of Belgium. The serial killer had just kidnapped a 13-year-old girl, Marie-Ascension, but she managed to escape from the van. A motorist witnessed the scene and had time to note the license plate number. Then began a meticulous work of reconstruction, because both were walled in silence for a year. It was not until the 121st interrogation of Monique Olivier that she decided to half-open the door to their criminal past. It is June 2004, Michel Fourniret is about to be released for lack of evidence, when she accuses her husband of two murders, that of Céline Saison, 18 years old, and Mananya Thumpong, 13 years old, committed in 2000 and 2001. She would end up confessing to nine crimes. Pushed against the wall, Michel Fourniret recognizes eight – those for which he will be convicted during his first trial.
“If these people hadn’t crossed my path…”
In February 2005, Monique Olivier spoke at length about two other murders before retracting. She maintained for years that these confessions were extorted from her. The places mentioned, the scenario, the dates… everything corresponds to the ordeal of Marie-Angèle Domèce and Joanna Parrish. The first, who suffered from a slight mental deficiency, disappeared in July 1988 while on her way to Auxerre station. She was likely spotted when she was visiting her grandmother, who lived in the same village as the evil couple. Monique Olivier admitted to having been in the car with Michel Fourniret when the victim was kidnapped, the victim of an attempted rape and then killed. His body has never been found.
That of Joanna Parrish, a 20-year-old Englishwoman who worked in a high school in Auxerre, was found the day after her death, in May 1990, in Yonne. The autopsy is clear: she was drugged, raped and then strangled. A modus operandi that resembles other Fourniret crimes. The young woman had posted an ad a few weeks earlier to give English lessons. According to Monique Olivier’s confession, Michel Fourniret pretended to want to give it to their son, Sélim. The meeting was made in the center of Auxerre. To lure him into their vehicle, the couple took care to take their child. After having denied the facts for a long time, Michel Fourniret finally confessed in 2012 to these two murders, without ever providing details. “If these people had not crossed my path, they would still be alive,” he says laconically.
” She looks sad “
In all the files, Michel Fourniret only confessed when he was cornered. This was also the case for the Estelle Mouzin affair. The little girl disappeared in Guermantes, in Seine-et-Marne, in January 2003, while returning from school. The Fourniret trail was quickly mentioned but he had an alibi: a phone call made to his eldest son from his Belgian home at the time of the disappearance. The call was unsuccessful, but was confirmed on the telephone record. For years, the couple denied any involvement. Until February 2019. “I would like today, given the passage of time and to help the families (…) to discuss the Mouzin file,” declares Monique Olivier. She first admits to having made the phone call, at her husband’s request. Then having participated in scouting, before admitting that she had been in contact with the little girl. “She looks sad,” she confided to the investigating judge. I told her she was going to see her mom soon. ” His body has never been found.
Whatever the outcome of the trial, investigators know, the road to retracing the couple’s journey is still long. Shortly before his death, Michel Fourniret half-heartedly admitted his involvement in the disappearance of Lydie Logé in 1993. The DNA of this young mother had been found in the killer’s van. A first step in trying to break through the “killer’s blank period”: until then, no murder had been attributed to them between November 1990 and May 2000.