Michel Fourniret

Michel Paul Fourniret (born 4 April 1942),[2] also known as the Ogre of the Ardennes, is a French serial killer who confessed to killing twelve people in France and Belgium between 1987 and 2003. After he was arrested in June 2003 for the attempted kidnapping of a girl in Ciney,[3] Fourniret confessed to killing nine people—eight females and one male[4]—in 2004, having been informed on by his then-wife,[5] Monique Pierrette Olivier (born 31 October 1948).[6] Fourniret was convicted of seven of these murders on 28 May 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole, while Olivier was given life with a minimum term of 28 years for complicity.[7]

Michel Fourniret
Born
Michel Paul Fourniret

(1942-04-04) 4 April 1942
Sedan, Ardennes, France
Other namesOgre of the Ardennes
Criminal statusIn prison
Spouse(s)Monique Olivier (1989–2010)[1]
Conviction(s)Murder (8 counts)
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment without the possibility of parole
Details
Victims8–12+
Span of crimes
1987–2003
CountryFrance
Belgium
Date apprehended
26 June 2003

In February 2018, Fourniret confessed to killing two more women.[8] On 16 November 2018, Fourniret and Olivier were convicted of the murder of Farida Hammiche, the last of the eight females that Fourniret confessed to killing in 2004. Fourniret was given a second life sentence and Olivier was sentenced to a further twenty years' imprisonment.[9] In March 2020, Fourniret confessed to killing Estelle Mouzin, who disappeared from Guermantes in 2003.[10]

History

Fourniret has been imprisoned numerous times since the age of 24.[11] While in prison he met his future (third) wife Monique Olivier. They married on 28 July 1989. Olivier was aware of Fourniret's activities and became his accomplice. They divorced in prison on 2 July 2010.[12]

Fourniret was arrested at his home in Sart-Custinne, Belgium, on 26 June 2003 after a failed attempt to kidnap a 13-year-old girl. He and Olivier were interrogated extensively but to no avail.[11] A year later, Olivier told the police that her husband had killed a number of people since 1987. Fourniret confessed to killing eight females—aged between 12 and 30—and a man who has never been identified. The bodies of four of the identified victims had been discovered in France and Belgium between 1988 and 2002. Olivier was arrested and she and Fourniret were extradited to France, where they helped police to find the bodies of three of the four missing victims over the next two years. The trial took place in Charleville-Mézières between 27 March[13] and 28 May 2008. Fourniret was found guilty of the murders of all seven of the victims whose bodies had been found. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Olivier was sentenced to life with no possibility of parole for 28 years for complicity.[14] Fourniret and Olivier were also ordered to pay 1.5 million euros in moral compensation to family members of the victims.[15] Neither appealed their sentences.

In February 2018, Fourniret confessed to killing two more women.[8] On 16 November 2018, Fourniret and Olivier were convicted of the murder of Farida Hammiche, the last of the eight females that Fourniret had confessed to killing in 2004. Fourniret was given a second life sentence and Olivier was sentenced to a further twenty years' imprisonment.[9] In March 2020, Fourniret confessed to killing Estelle Mouzin, who has been missing from Guermantes since 2003.[16]

Confessed murders
The bodies of two victims, Elisabeth Brichet and Jeanne-Marie Desramault, were found buried in the gardens of the Château du Sautou in Donchery in July 2004. Fourniret and Olivier bought the château in the late 1980s using stolen money.

Fourniret admitted to eight murders prior to his trial in 2008. He was convicted of seven of these and sentenced to life in prison.[17]

On 11 December 1987, Fourniret and Olivier drove, in separate vehicles, to Auxerre. Seeing 17-year-old Isabelle Laville – whom the couple had seen a day or two earlier and were targeting – walking home from school, Olivier stopped to ask Laville to join her in the car and give her directions, which Laville agreed to do. Driving down the road, Olivier reached the spot where Fourniret was standing with his car, pretending it had broken down. After Olivier, as planned, pretended to offer him a lift, he got into her car. Fourniret choked Laville with a piece of rope, before Olivier sedated her with Rohypnol. The couple brought the girl to their home in Saint-Cyr-les-Colons, where Fourniret raped and strangled her. Laville's body was thrown down a disused well in Bussy-en-Othe.[18][19] Her remains were recovered from the well on 11 July 2006.[20]

In March 1988, Fourniret was contacted by 30-year-old Farida Hammiche—the wife of Jean-Pierre Hellegouarch, an imprisoned bank robber with whom Fourniret had shared a cell prior to the latter's release in October 1987—who asked Fourniret to help her unearth a haul from a cemetery in Fontenay-en-Parisis, which had been stolen by members of the Gang des postiches. After Fourniret and Hammiche managed to retrieve the haul, which consisted of gold ingots and coins, Hammiche gave Fourniret a share worth 500,000 francs for helping her dig it up and hiding it in her apartment in Vitry-sur-Seine. On 12 April, aiming to steal the rest of the haul, Fourniret and Olivier lured Hammiche out of her home and drove her to Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, where she was strangled and her body buried, before the couple broke into her home and stole the haul. They used the money they made from it to buy a château called the Château du Sautou in Donchery. Hammiche's body was never found.[21]

By August, Olivier was heavily pregnant with Fourniret's baby. On 3 August, the couple drove to a supermarket in Châlons-sur-Marne (now Châlons-en-Champagne), and encountered 20-year-old Fabienne Leroy in the car park. With Olivier feigning illness, the couple asked Leroy to join them in their car and give them directions to a doctor's surgery. After Leroy got in, the couple drove to a forest near the military camp of Mourmelon-le-Grand. Fourniret ordered Olivier to look at Leroy's hymen to see if it was still intact, but Olivier refused. After raping Leroy, Fourniret shot her in the chest.[22][23][24]

In January 1989, Fourniret met 21-year-old Jeanne-Marie Desramault on the evening train to Charleville-Mézières. The two conversed before arriving in Charleville, where Desramault was staying at a convent. Desramault met Fourniret and Olivier, who had assumed false identities, at the train station again on Saturday, 18 March, and the couple invited Desramault to come to their house in Floing – an offer she accepted – and Fourniret promised he would drive her home afterwards. After they got to Floing, Fourniret asked Desramault if she was a virgin, and she told him she wasn't and that she had a boyfriend. Enraged, he attacked her. She fought back as he attempted to rape her, and as she attempted to escape, the couple gagged her with adhesive bandages before Fourniret strangled her. Fourniret and Olivier drove to Donchery and buried Desramault's body in the garden of the Château du Sautou.[25][26][27]

Fourniret and Olivier married in July 1989.[28] On the afternoon of 20 December, they drove across the Franco-Belgian border to Saint-Servais, Namur, with their one-year-old son. Fourniret saw 12-year-old Elisabeth Brichet walk to a friend's house, and waited outside for her until she left to walk the short distance home just before 7 pm. He asked her to give him directions to a doctor's surgery for his son. She agreed to do so, and the couple drove back to Floing with her. When Fourniret undressed the girl, he saw that she was on her period, so Olivier cleaned Brichet's genitals. The next day, the couple took Brichet to the château, where Fourniret strangled her after a failed attempted to suffocate her with a plastic bag. Her body was buried in the garden of the château, near to that of Jeanne-Marie Desramault.[29][30][31] There were a number of reported sightings of Brichet, in Belgium and abroad, in the years following her disappearance, and a number of people were suspected by police of abducting her, including Marc Dutroux.[32][33] After Dutroux's arrest in 1996, Brichet's mother Marie-Noëlle Bouzet helped to organise the White March in honour of Belgium's missing and murdered children.[34] The remains of Brichet and Desramault were exhumed from the gardens of the Château du Sautou on 3 July 2004, after Fourniret and Olivier confessed to the killings.[35]

The final known murder Fourniret committed with Olivier's help took place on 21 November 1990 near France's western coast. The couple drove to a shopping centre in Rezé after leaving court in Nantes, where they had been convicted of burglary. They saw Natacha Danais, a 13-year-old local girl, walking through the car park towards her home, having been sent to fetch her mother's forgotten purse. The couple lured Danais into the van, asking her for directions. After driving to a secluded area near the coast, Fourniret stabbed Danais twice in the chest with a screwdriver and strangled her before leaving her body on the beach.[36][37] Later investigation suggested that the girl's body was raped after the murder.[38] Eight days later, Jean Groix, a neighbour of Danais's family, was arrested after a white van belonging to him matched the description of the van that Danais's sister had vaguely seen her get into from across the shopping centre's car park at the time she disappeared. Groix was found to be lodging suspected members of the ETA in his home; police suspected that Danais had found out about this and that he killed her for that reason. Two months later, Groix committed suicide in his prison cell. He was reported to have been unable to bear the burden of having been accused of murder.[39][40][41]

The Fourniret family moved to Sart-Custinne, Gedinne, Belgium, in the early 1990s. Michel Fourniret admitted that he committed two more murders in France between 2000 and 2001, after a nine-and-a-half-year break. He drove alone across the Franco-Belgian border to Charleville-Mézières on 16 May 2000 and accosted 18-year-old Céline Saison, who was on her way home from school, in the late afternoon. Driving with her back to Belgium, he blackmailed her into having sex with him before strangling her with a rope and dumping her body in a forest in Sugny, Vresse-sur-Semois.[42] Saison's skeletal remains were discovered there by mushroom pickers on 22 July.[43] On 5 May 2001, Fourniret drove back to France – this time to his birthplace of Sedan – and met Mananya Thumpong, a 13-year-old girl of Thai origin whom he had met and given a lift home a few weeks earlier, outside the local library. He invited her to come to his house and play with his son. Accepting this offer, Thumpong climbed into the car and was driven to Nollevaux, Paliseul, where Fourniret strangled her.[44][45][46] Her body lay undiscovered for months in a nearby forest as it was devoured almost entirely by wild animals. Thumpong's remaining bones were found on 1 March 2002.[47][48]

In February 2018, Fourniret confessed to killing two more women in Auxerre: Marie-Angèle Domèce, an 18-year-old disabled woman, in July 1988, and Joanna Parrish, a 20-year-old British student, in May 1990.[8] In March 2020, Fourniret confessed to killing Estelle Mouzin, who disappeared from Guermantes in January 2003.[49]

# Victim Age Disappeared Body found
1 Isabelle Laville 17[50] 11 December 1987
Auxerre		 11 July 2006
Bussy-en-Othe
2 Farida Hammiche 30[21] 12 April 1988
Vitry-sur-Seine		 Not found
3 Marie-Angèle Domèce 18[51] 8 July 1988
Auxerre		 Not found
4 Fabienne Leroy 20[52] 3 August 1988
Châlons-sur-Marne		 4 August 1988
Mourmelon-le-Grand
5 Jeanne-Marie Desramault 19[50] 18 March 1989
Charleville-Mézières		 3 July 2004
Donchery
6 Elisabeth Brichet 12[53] 20 December 1989
Saint-Servais		 3 July 2004
Donchery
7 Joanna Parrish 20[54] 16 May 1990
Auxerre		 17 May 1990
Monéteau
8 Natacha Danais 13[50] 21 November 1990
Rezé		 24 November 1990
Brem-sur-Mer
9 Céline Saison 18[55] 16 May 2000
Charleville-Mézières		 22 July 2000
Vresse-sur-Semois
10 Mananya Thumpong 13[56] 5 May 2001
Sedan		 1 March 2002
Paliseul
11 Estelle Mouzin 9[57] 9 January 2003
Guermantes		 Not found

     indicates victims whose murders Fourniret was convicted of.

Other supposed crimes

Two French journalists have suggested that Fourniret killed former Minister for Labour Robert Boulin (who was involved in a real estate scandal at the time), based on a letter Fourniret wrote to Olivier.[58]

Christian Ranucci was one of the last persons executed in France, having been convicted of the abduction and murder, committed on 3 June 1974, of Marie-Dolorès Rambla, aged eight. There are suspicions that Ranucci may not actually have been the killer (although he confessed, his confession was later retracted). It has been suggested that Fourniret may have been involved as Fourniret was in the area at the time and had practically the same car as Ranucci. Analysis of photographs, however, suggest that the man in photographs produced for covering Ranucci's trail in March 1976 could not have been Fourniret who, contrary to this man, did not wear glasses yet.[59] Furthermore, Fourniret denied having been around Marseille area when the crime took place on June 3, 1974, and claimed he worked in Paris.

"Virgin hunter"

Fourniret was also named the "Virgin hunter". Although it is unclear where this nickname came from, it is alleged that Olivier promised Fourniret to help hunt "virgins" for sport, in return for Fourniret helping Olivier to murder her first husband (which never took place).[60] The rape of women assumed to be virgins, is a recurring theme in the way Fourniret operated, something which he considered "sport".

Legacy

Rachida Dati, the then French Minister for Justice, who advocated legal reforms in France, wanted a more relaxed attitude to preventive custody and parole under supervision. She was heavily criticised by the judiciary.[61] The question was asked how Fourniret, who was a known criminal, could have carried on for such a long time without being noticed and how the changes in the law would have a positive influence on cases like these.

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References
  1. http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/les-epoux-fourniret-ont-divorce-20-01-2011-1234986.php
  2. Vergès, Jean-Pierre (2008). Les Fourniret, meurtres à quatre mains. L'Archipel. p. 25. ISBN 978-2-84187-967-0.
  3. Evrard, Tom (11 March 2008). "Enlevée à 13 ans par Fourniret". L'Avenir (in French). Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  4. "De slachtoffers van Michel Fourniret". Trouw (in Dutch). 6 July 2004. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  5. Tourancheau, Patricia (3 July 2004). "Fourniret, "un pervers calculateur et intelligent"". Libération (in French). Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  6. Vergès, Jean-Pierre (2008). Les Fourniret, meurtres à quatre mains. L'Archipel. p. 66. ISBN 978-2-84187-967-0.
  7. "Perpétuité réelle pour Michel Fourniret, 28 ans de sûreté pour Monique Olivier". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  8. "Le tueur en série Michel Fourniret a avoué les meurtres de deux femmes". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  9. "Michel Fourniret condamné à la perpétuité pour la seconde fois". FIGARO (in French). 16 November 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  10. le 07/03/2020 | 13:55, Par franceinfo-Radio France Mis à jour le 07/03/2020 | 17:54 – publié (7 March 2020). "Michel Fourniret a reconnu le meurtre d'Estelle Mouzin". Franceinfo (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  11. A newspaper article in the Volkskrant by Ariejan Korteweg, 27 March 2008 (in Dutch)
  12. Les époux Fourniret ont divorcé Le Parisien, 20 janvier 2011 (in French)
  13. "French 'serial killer' on trial". BBC. 27 March 2008.
  14. "Life sentence for French killer". BBC News. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  15. Article on the website of De Morgen, published 29 May 2008 (in Dutch)
  16. le 07/03/2020 | 13:55, Par franceinfo-Radio France Mis à jour le 07/03/2020 | 17:54 – publié (7 March 2020). "Michel Fourniret a reconnu le meurtre d'Estelle Mouzin". Franceinfo (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  17. "Michel Fourniret et Monique Olivier condamnés à la perpétuité". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  18. "Procès Fourniret : le calvaire planifié d'Isabelle Laville, la "honte" de Monique Olivier". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  19. "Procès Fourniret – Monique Olivier raconte la mort d'Isabelle Laville". France Soir.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  20. "Fourniret : sa première victime retrouvée au fond d'un puits". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  21. "Procès Fourniret : "Michel, ne me tue pas comme ça"" (in French). Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  22. "Le couple Fourniret reconnaît le meurtre de Fabienne Leroy". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  23. "La brutalité du "pacte" des Fourniret glace les assises". Le Figaro (in French). 8 April 2008. ISSN 0182-5852. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  24. "Le couple Fourniret livre des souvenirs différents de ses crimes communs". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  25. "Jeanne-Marie, prise au piège et martyrisée par Fourniret". Le Figaro (in French). 10 April 2008. ISSN 0182-5852. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  26. ""Elle était fraîche et pure, comment se douter de la malice des autres ?"". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  27. "Michel Fourniret défie du regard le père de sa troisième victime". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  28. "Le "pacte criminel" du couple Fourniret-Olivier". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  29. Newmedia, RTL. "Fourniret conteste la tentative de viol sur Elisabeth Brichet: regardez les vidéos". RTL Info. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  30. "Devant les assises des Ardennes, l'aveu en différé du meurtre d'Elisabeth". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  31. "Monique Olivier: "J'ai terminé la toilette"". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  32. "Élisabeth Brichet : quinze années d'espoirs déçus". Communes, régions, Belgique, monde, sports – Toute l'actu 24h/24 sur Lavenir.net (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  33. Libre.be, La. "Elisabeth Brichet : quatorze ans d'enquête, de doutes et de suspicions" (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  34. Libre.be, La. "La marche blanche qui a bouleversé la Belgique : "C'était un grand moment d'émotion"" (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  35. "Deux cadavres au château". ladepeche.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  36. "Fourniret a tué Natacha,13 ans, en sortant du tribunal". Le Figaro (in French). 17 April 2008. ISSN 0182-5852. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  37. "Sitôt sortis du tribunal, les Fourniret enlèvent Natacha". leparisien.fr (in French). 17 April 2008. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  38. "Révélations insoutenables au procès de Michel Fourniret". www.20minutes.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  39. Herjean, Michel. "Qui a tué le Dr Jean Groix et pourquoi est-il mort ?". Agence Bretagne Presse (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  40. "Jean Groix, cette autre victime de Fourniret". Ouest-France.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  41. DH.be. "Un voisin se suicide" (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  42. "Michel Fourniret : "J'ai été à la chasse et j'ai obtenu satisfaction"". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  43. DH.be. "Céline serait morte étouffée" (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  44. "La mort de la "petite Asiatique" repérée par Michel Fourniret". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  45. JDD, Le. "Le dernier aveu de Fourniret" (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  46. "Procès Fourniret – Dernière semaine d'examen des crimes". France Soir.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  47. Libre.be, La. "L'ironie des parents de Mananya" (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  48. DH.be. "La mort de Mananya" (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  49. le 07/03/2020 | 13:55, Par franceinfo-Radio France Mis à jour le 07/03/2020 | 17:54 – publié (7 March 2020). "Michel Fourniret a reconnu le meurtre d'Estelle Mouzin". Franceinfo (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  50. Libre.be, La. "Une terrible mise en accusation" (in French). Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  51. https://www.vie-publique.fr/sites/default/files/rapport/pdf/024000181.pdf
  52. https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualites/2008/04/08/01001-20080408ARTFIG00045-la-brutalite-du-pacte-des-fourniret-glace-les-assises.php
  53. https://www.lavenir.net/cnt/dmf20191219_01422757/une-torture-qui-a-dure-15-ans
  54. https://www.lyonne.fr/auxerre-89000/actualites/quand-les-parents-de-joanna-parrish-offraient-une-prime-pour-retrouver-l-assassin-de-leur-fille_12836124/
  55. http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/il-a-fallu-un-piege-diabolique-pour-enlever-celine-et-manania-06-03-2002-2002872822.php
  56. http://www.leparisien.fr/archives/je-chasse-de-mon-esprit-les-pires-hypotheses-24-07-2001-2002321829.php
  57. https://www.liberation.fr/portrait/2007/01/27/en-son-absence_83134
  58. Article in France Soir, published 20 February 2008 (in French).
  59. "Fourniret n'était pas au procès Ranucci" in Le Nouvel Observateur, July 4, 2006 (in French).
  60. French court jails serial killer and wife by Angelique Chrisafis in The Guardian on 28 May 2008
  61. Mme Dati affronte un mécontentement croissant sur la carte judiciaire in le Monde by Gilles Kerdreux, published 11 Novembre 2007 (in French)
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