Disappearance of Estelle Mouzin: "The ogre of the Bulge" Michel Fourniret trapped

A telephone ringing in the void can produce the effect of a thunderclap. A priori innocuous, this detail is about to revive one of the most mysterious and dramatic criminal cases of the last twenty years. According to information gathered by Paris Match, the investigation into the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin, hitherto deadlocked, will know during September a crucial turning point, the key: the collapse of Michel Fourniret's alibi and its corollary, the possible indictment of the serial killer.

The first act was played in the heart of summer. On July 25, the sprawling dossier Mouzin was disoriented, ie transferred, from the court of Meaux to that of Paris. The investigation is now entrusted to Judge Sabine Kheris, known for her rigor and her pugnacity, who is already conducting ongoing investigations into the disappearance of Marie-Angèle Domèce in 1988 and the murder of Joanna Parrish in 1990. these two cases had been closed by nonsuit before the magistrate succeeded in reopening investigations and, above all, in extracting Fourniret's confession. Corinne Hermann, the lawyer of Estelle's father, called for this long-running change of scenery: "The Fourniret trail will finally be explored seriously and thoroughly. This is probably the last hope to get the truth. The lawyer for Monique Olivier, the former wife of Fourniret, goes further: "My client is willing to speak before Judge Kheris. Faced with such people sentenced to life for serial crimes, the psychological aspect is fundamental. Without falling into cronyism, the magistrate has created a climate of trust, showing empathy and respect, "says Richard Delgenes. Conditions necessary to untie languages.

The alibi was considered solid

Heard last February 15 on the Parrish-Domece business, Monique Olivier had laid the groundwork by spontaneously declaring the judge want "to discuss the case Mouzin […] given the passage of time and to help the families of victims." This, precisely, is the expected and determining event. Until then, Fourniret was held out of cause in the disappearance of Estelle under an alibi considered solid. The 9-year-old girl vanished in Guermantes, Seine-et-Marne, on January 9, 2003, as she was coming home from school. She was last seen around a bakery at 6:15 pm, before her mother alerted the police at 7:30 pm. On that fateful day, a telephone call was made at 8:02 pm from the Fourniret couple's house in Sart Custinne, Belgium, to the home of one of the killer's sons, Jean-Christophe, who was his son. anniversary. This call did not succeed, it was followed by no exchange. But the record of instruction is formal, this "element of telephony" is indisputable: impossible for Fourniret to be in Guermantes in the late afternoon and to call from Belgium, more than three hours away from there, at the start of the evening.

So far, Fourniret has always denied being involved in the disappearance of Estelle, no DNA trace, no testimony linking him to the case. But one question remains, crucial: is it he who has made this call, or his wife and at his request, to "cover"? This is where the testimony of Monique Olivier turns out to be decisive: "If you ask him in custody abruptly what she was doing exactly that day fifteen years ago or if she knows by name this or that victim, she can not remember it. On the other hand, if the judge asks her the following question: "Is it possible that Michel Fourniret asked you to make this phone call to his son that day?", Monique Olivier will answer: "I do not have any remember but it's not impossible, "says Richard Delgenes.

A hearing of Fourniret to come?

Such a declaration would shatter Fourniret's alibi. And the lawyer to push the point: "My client does not wish to serve as an alibi Michel Fourniret without his knowledge. At the end of this hearing, I will ask the judge to be placed under assisted status ". Clearly, a capital witness, but no indictment for complicity. "From this moment, Fourniret's guilt becomes a valid hypothesis. We have closed all other tracks, it is the only one left to explore, "decrypts a police commissioner connoisseur of Mouzin case. Olivier, meanwhile, could still deliver other valuable information on travel and vehicles used by the couple at the time of the facts.

Logic continuation, the judge Kheris should then proceed to the hearing of Fourniret. On March 14th, the killer with the ten victims had already strangely confided to him that there was "something to dig in the Mouzin file", explaining not remembering "in which area" he had "crossed" the girl and Joanna Parrish – whose disappearances have nothing in common. Glacier, he added on this subject "it is probably that I have the shitty ass" … Me Corinne Hermann sees there "confessions hollow". His colleague Richard Delgenes points out other hitherto unnoticed elements. In 2004, the predator had declared in front of Belgian and French policemen to be for nothing in the disappearances of Jeanne-Marie Desramault, Mananya Thumpong – two victims whom he will later recognize to have murdered – and … Estelle Mouzin. Bis repeated the following year in a letter that he sent to the investigating chamber of the Reims Court of Appeal. This time, Fourniret declares herself innocent of the crimes of Marie-Angele Domece, Joanna Parrish and, again, of the little Estelle. For the lawyer, it is at least "strange" that Fourniret spontaneously evokes the case of Guermantes, linking it with assassinations that he later confessed to having committed. "In the absence of material elements, only circumstantial confessions make it possible to establish the truth. This is what Fourniret has already reserved for judges on several occasions, "concludes Me Delgenes. The Mouzin mystery may follow the same path to the truth.

Fourniret intends to maintain some control. Thus, he does not allow his lawyers to speak on his behalf. Solicited, they were therefore unable to comment on our information. From the back of his cell, detainee number 5451 spends most of his days writing, without anyone knowing what secrets or fantasies spring from his pen. The Ensisheim prison in Alsace is not without evoking the atmosphere of the "Silence of lambs". A few meters from Fourniret are imprisoned other "particularly supervised prisoners" according to the classification of the prison administration, the most famous of the monstrous French serial killers: Guy Georges and Francis Heaulme. Monique Olivier, meanwhile, is serving her sentence at the Centrale pour femmes de Rennes. It is from there that it will be extracted in September to be taken to the Palais de Justice in Paris. The exact date is confidential. For security reasons, especially to prevent any attempt to escape, she is only informed the day before for the day after her hearing by the judge. "This moment will be decisive, says a commissioner. In the Mouzin case, we hope that police conviction will become a judicial truth even sixteen years after the crime. "

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