We have to admit it: there is relatively little suspense regarding the fate of Monique Olivier. This Tuesday, the ex-wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret will, in all likelihood, be sentenced to a very heavy sentence, probably life imprisonment. In any case, this is what the advocates general requested, “in view of the exceptional seriousness of the acts committed”. For three weeks, she was tried for three crimes: the kidnappings and murders of Marie-Angèle Domèce, in 1988, of Joanna Parrish, in 1990 and the kidnapping and sequestration of little Estelle Mouzin, in January 2003.
Still so many unanswered questions
“I don’t know”, “I don’t know anymore”, “if I knew I would tell you, but I really don’t know”, “it’s confusing”…. Monique Olivier’s trial ended as it opened: with dozens of unanswered questions. The accused swears not to know where the bodies of Marie-Angèle Domèce and Estelle Mouzin are. How were they kidnapped, what exactly happened to them, what did they suffer? And Joanna Parrish: her body was found but her ordeal is full of gray areas.
Now that Michel Fourniret is dead, his ex-wife is the only one who can reveal their darkest secrets. His lawyer, Mr. Richard Delgenès, also pointed out that without his confession, there would have been no trial since there is very little material evidence. But the families were hoping for answers. However, as soon as the questions become precise, Monique Olivier’s memory is fleeting. She is verbose when it comes to talking about her life with her first husband, but much less talkative when asked about Michel Fourniret. She gets annoyed when ten times, twenty times, thirty times, she is asked where the bodies of the victims are. “At the age I am, I will soon die, what good would it do me to hide it? “, she says. She is certainly 75 years old but the assessments did not reveal any neurological disorders, no memory problems were noted.
An unfathomable accused
What has been striking over these three weeks is how elusive Monique Olivier is. Every day, she took her place in the box at 9:30 a.m. You have to imagine a stooped figure, short gray hair, a sallow complexion. She is in jogging pants, a shapeless sweatshirt on her back. For hours, she listened to the victims’ relatives recount the unspeakable. But impossible to read the slightest feeling on his face. What is she thinking? What does she say to herself? Monique Olivier knows this well, she is not very expressive: “It’s not because I don’t cry that I don’t have feelings. » “Hearing these people talk, cry, it does something to me,” she insisted several times. Sometimes she described herself as “a monster”, “inhuman”. Despite everything, we retain this feeling of incomprehension concerning her.
Only once did it come off the hinges. But what a time! Her son Selim, the one she had with Michel Fourniret, was heard. He managed to do it by videoconference, and made up his face so as not to be recognized. His testimony is not kind: he described her as “manipulative” and emotionless. At the end, he tries to urge her to speak. And then she gets annoyed: “You’re not going to lecture me. » And brazenly, she adds: “You really look like your father disguised like that. »
A president criticized
What will also remain from this trial is the tension between the civil parties and the president of the Assize Court, Didier Safar. Its rigidity annoys. His tone is dry, sometimes harsh towards Monique Olivier. He peppers her with questions, he cuts her off when she struggles for words. He knows the file like the back of his hand, every dimension, every detail but struggles to break away from it.
We sometimes felt he was more busy pointing out the lies of the accused during the investigation – and there were many of them – than in understanding her extraordinary criminal journey. Her method, clearly, does not suit Monique Olivier; she gets lost in the dates, in the chronology. She gets annoyed and closes up. But the president insists. To the great dismay of the civil parties whose ordeal seems endless.