the endless fight of Cécile Vallin’s father

A few days before the baccalaureate, Cécile Vallin suddenly disappeared in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in Savoie, in June 1997. She was seen for the last time on June 8, along the departmental road towards Chambéry. Her father kept looking for her, to no avail. And recently, the Michel Fourniret trail resurfaced in this disappearance case.

“A child who disappears, we never mourn, how could we?”, asks Jonathan Olivier, the father of Cécile Vallin, who has been missing for 27 years. For him, there is no doubt, “there is at least one person who knows what happened to Cécile”. Yet his daughter has not been found for decades.

Cécile Vallin disappeared on June 8, 1997. At the time, the young girl was 17 years old and preparing for her baccalaureate. The day she disappeared, the young girl telephoned her father. The call lasts six minutes. This will be the last time that Jonathan Olivier speaks to his daughter. According to witnesses, Cécile was seen walking along the old national road 906, between Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and the village of Pontamafrey-Montpascal.

Despite years of searching, the young girl remains nowhere to be found. Is Cécile still alive? Was she murdered? Did she have an accident, or did she end her life? Jonathan Olivier and his lawyer Cathy Richard are fighting to ensure that the case is not closed. This file was transferred to the cold case center in Nanterre where it remains there today.

Several sexual predators were suspected. Among them: Michel Fourniret. Minutes, mentioned at the trial of Monique Olivier, last December, revive the hypothesis of the involvement of the serial killer in the disappearance of Cécile Vallin. In one of these reports, Monique Olivier recounts a scene that allegedly occurred “between January and August 1997”. According to her, Michel Fourniret returned to their home accompanied by a young woman.

Was this young girl, prisoner of Michel Fourniret at the end of 1997, Cécile Vallin? Only Monique Olivier is likely to provide other details. She must soon be questioned on this subject by an investigating judge from the cold case center in Nanterre. It remains to be seen whether 27 years later, his memory will allow him to affirm it or not.

While waiting for new information, his father remains in the same expectation. “At first, I counted the days, then the weeks, the months. And now, we count the years.” For him, stopping looking for his daughter is simply impossible. “It is a duty not to condemn its disappearance to becoming an eternal enigma.”

“Cold cases: the fight of families”, an original franceinfo podcast from the franceinfo police-justice service, can be found on the france info website, the Radio France application and several other platforms such as Apple podcasts, Podcast Addict, Spotify, or Deezer.

Produced by: David Di Giacomo | Sound recording: Martin Troadec and Thomas Robine | Director: Vanessa Nadjar | Mixing: Raphaël Rasson | Archives: Pierre Pinaud | Editor-in-chief: David Di Giacomo | Coordination: Pauline Pennanec’h