A page in judicial history is closing. After three weeks of debates before the Hauts-de-Seine Assize Court, in Nanterre, Monique Olivier’s trial ended on Tuesday, December 18. The ex-wife of Michel Fourniret was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a security period of 20 years. For her third meeting with the law, this 75-year-old woman was prosecuted for complicity in kidnapping and sequestration followed by the death of Estelle Mouzin, 9 years old, and for complicity in kidnapping, sequestration and murder, preceded , followed or accompanied by rape on Marie-Angèle Domèce, 19 years old, and Joanna Parrish, 20 years old.
“Finally, justice has been served”reacted the families of the victims after the verdict, “satisfied” that “the responsibility of Monique Olivier” in their irreparable loss was “recognized”. The sentence handed down by the court against the accused, already sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 then to twenty years in prison in 2018, seemed almost secondary in the issues of this trial. The septuagenarian will not be released until December 2035. She will then be 87 years old. The expectations of the civil parties focused mainly on the “additional answers” that she could still provide. From this point of view, those close to Estelle Mouzin expressed their “frustrations”.
Even if she is indicted in the Lydie Logé affair, who disappeared in Orne in 1993, it was undoubtedly, given her age, one of the last times that Monique Olivier spoke in front of a court of law. seated. However, the one who assisted “the ogre of the Ardennes” in his criminal itinerary is the only one who can reveal the secrets of the serial rapist and killer, who died in May 2021.
An accused who maintains her version
“This trial did not live up to expectations”, regretted to franceinfo Didier Seban, lawyer for the Mouzin and Parrish families. During these three weeks, there were many questions trying to find out what exactly happened to the three young victims. About fifteen years separate the first two cases, which occurred in the 1990s, from the kidnapping of Estelle Mouzin in Guermantes (Seine-et-Marne) in January 2003. One of the first regrets is that this trial was held so late, to the point that the main author is not in the box. “Twenty years [de sûreté], finally, this is the time we waited. This wait meant that Michel Fourniret was not tried for his crimes.regretted the Mouzin family at the end of the trial. “Society did not allow those responsible to be judged together, it is imperative to remember this”, conceded the attorney general, Hugues Julié, on Monday. If the prosecution admitted the errors of justice, it pointed out the late confessions and the variations in the declarations of Monique Olivier over twenty years.
Since the taking over of the three cases by the investigating judge Sabine Khéris, Monique Olivier has admitted to having contributed to putting Marie-Angèle Domèce and Joanna Parrish in confidence by her presence in Michel Fourniret’s vehicle – she was seven months pregnant when the first was kidnapped in 1988 – knowing that they were heading straight to their deaths. She also ended up admitting to having kept young Estelle Mouzin for several hours, in the freezing house in Ville-sur-Lumes, in the Ardennes, the day after her kidnapping. The accused maintained this version until the last day of the trial. “I confirm what I said”she declared during her last words in court, asking “pardon” to the families of the victims. But she said little more.
The trial carried out at full speed
Those who know Monique Olivier know that she is difficult to get people to talk to. Alone in the box, she was nevertheless forced to be more verbose than during her previous trials. But most of the time, she was shifty. “I don’t know”, “I do not remember anymore”repeated the one who places herself as a victim of Michel Fourniret, assuring that the serial killer has “used”. “It was a terrible pressure for her”observes lawyer Corinne Herrmann, who represents the Domèce family and works alongside Monique Olivier for many years. “Thinking and indicating things during a hearing is more complicated for her.” The lawyer deplores that the duration of the trial was shortened. Enough to lead to long and exhausting days in court. “People have waited twenty or thirty years for a trial and we do it to them in three weeks”regrets the cold case specialist, recalling that the file is “150 volumes”.
“We had four weeks at the start, we needed less busy audiences, take a little time and have Monique Olivier react as the situation progresses.”
Corinne Herrmann, lawyer for the Domèce familyat franceinfo
The way in which Monique Olivier was questioned also disappointed the civil parties. The president, Didier Safar, refused to make her react at moments which seemed crucial. During the first days of the hearing, when the rare photos of Marie-Angèle Domèce were shown, the jurors did not know what Monique Olivier felt. It was not until the first interrogation that his waxen face showed a slight disturbance, faced with the photos of Joanna Parrish’s swollen face. For a long moment, the accused, hunched over in her eternal white sweater, remained silent, before pushing the photos away with a trembling hand, declaring: “Because of me she left, it’s unforgivable.”
Unsatisfactory interrogations
Monique Olivier was only re-questioned a week later, on the Estelle Mouzin affair. For long hours, she found herself under the barrage of questions from an offensive president, preferring to confront her with her contradictions during the procedure than to question her on what she now had to say.
“We must question Monique Olivier from the point where she is and not make her go back down the steps.”
Didier Seban, lawyer for the Mouzin and Parrish familiesat franceinfo
During the hearing, the Mouzin family’s lawyer projected a photo of the little girl with big green eyes. And begged the accused: “Help us find Estelle.” Despite fleeting emotion, Monique Olivier served the same refrain as since the start of the trial: “I don’t know where the body is. If I knew where it was, I would tell you. I’m going to die in prison, why wouldn’t I tell you?”
The Domèce and Mouzin families hoped to finally know where the remains of the two victims are buried. Only the naked and tortured body of British Joanna Parrish was found on May 17, 1990, floating in the Yonne. “It’s not because we didn’t find the bodies that she lied, it’s impossible to say that”, argued his lawyer, Richard Delgenes. Rarely, he also took control again on the day of the interrogation of Estelle Mouzin to try to obtain what he could from his client. “I was revolted and angry when I saw this little girlended up letting go of Monique Olivier. I spoke to her a little bit, she told me she wanted to see her mom, I told her she was going to see her soon.” For the defense lawyer, it was “illusory” to expect more.
“An assize trial never meets the necessary conditions to make an accused speak.”
Richard Delgenes, lawyer for Monique Olivierat franceinfo
The trial will nevertheless have provided some elements, as Eric Mouzin estimated the day after the interrogation. “Yesterday, we heard Monique Olivier who gave details on January 9, 10 and 11, details that come back twenty years later, details that one may want to erase from one’s memory. But what ‘we heard was very clear’, declared the little girl’s father on the stand, with his customary restraint. For his lawyer, Didier Seban, “we still arrived at this, the fact that Monique Olivier answers for her actions, it’s very important.”
Guilt that is beyond doubt
An opinion shared by her colleague Corinne Hermann. “For the Domèce family, which has lived in speculation for thirty-five years, hearing Monique Olivier confirm her involvement and that of Michel Fourniret is essential”, underlines the lawyer. It is for this reason that the very holding of this trial was “unexpected” for its customers: “It allows them to turn a page.”
“We can welcome the fact that she maintained her confession. Her regrets were heard. The families can go a long way.”
Corinne Herrmann, lawyer for the Domèce familyat franceinfo
If Monique Olivier’s lawyer himself praised the hard work of Didier Seban and Corinne Hermann to bring this trial to fruition, Richard Delgenes recalled it: “Without Monique Olivier’s confession, we are not here today, in any of these three cases.” The criminal lawyer has already warned that his client will not appeal her conviction, “because she is guilty” and not to “inflict a second trial on the civil parties”. The families of Marie-Angèle Domèce, Joanna Parrish and Estelle Mouzin therefore leave with a legal response and many questions. Including this one: what pushed Monique Olivier to act in this way alongside Michel Fourniret? “I didn’t see the slightest emotion on his face” at the time of the verdict, “it’s something incomprehensible”, underlined Eric Mouzin. The analyzes of expert psychologists and psychiatrists have not made it possible to identify this very complex personality. The Attorney General warned during his indictment: “You will take this dark side with you.”