Michel Fourniret, the Ogre of the Ardennes, Dies at 79 With Confessed Killings Still Untried
The French serial killer died in a Paris hospital's secure unit, leaving the deaths of Estelle Mouzin, Joanna Parrish and others without a verdict against him.
Published
Michel Fourniret, the French serial killer known as the Ogre of the Ardennes, died at 3 p.m. on Monday, May 10, 2021, in the secure hospital unit at La Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris, the Paris prosecutor, Rémy Heitz, said. He was 79. He had been taken to hospital on April 28 from Fresnes prison, where he was serving two life sentences, and an investigation into the cause of death was opened, as it is whenever someone dies in custody in France.
Le Parisien, which first reported his hospitalization, said he was suffering from heart problems and Alzheimer's disease and that doctors had placed him in an artificial coma. His lawyers had recently asked for his sentence to be suspended because of his health.
His death closed the cases that were still open. Fourniret was convicted in 2008 of the killings of seven girls and young women between 1987 and 2001, and given a second life term in 2018 for the murder of Farida Hammiche. In all he had confessed to 11 killings, AFP reported. In March 2020 he admitted killing Estelle Mouzin, the nine-year-old who disappeared from Guermantes in 2003, months before he was caught in Belgium. Her body has never been found, despite searches that had gone on into the weeks before his death. He had also been charged over the murders of Joanna Parrish, a British student killed in 1990 while she was in France for her university course, Marie-Angèle Domèce, who vanished in 1988, and Lydie Logé, 29, who disappeared in 1993. None of those cases would now come to trial with him in the dock.
"There will be no trial and no possibility to have the responses that are expected," said Didier Seban, a lawyer for several of the families, including Estelle Mouzin's. He spoke of disappointment for the families, and "disappointment for justice." Fourniret's lawyers said they expected the courts to end every remaining investigation against him.
The case had always involved two people. Fourniret's former wife, Monique Olivier, was serving a life sentence for her part in some of the abductions and killings, and she had been charged in several of the outstanding cases. It was her testimony that had broken Fourniret's denials over Estelle Mouzin. "Michel Fourniret is taking his secrets with him," said her lawyer. "Monique Olivier will remain the only one in the defendants' box to be held accountable."
What the record does and does not say. Fourniret was convicted of eight murders. The Parrish, Domèce, Mouzin and Logé cases ended without any verdict against him; his confessions in some of them were never tested at trial. Reports differed on where he spent his last days: AFP, quoting the prosecutor, said he was admitted to La Pitié-Salpêtrière on April 28, while Euronews described him as hospitalized since April 28 in Fresnes prison's care unit before he died in the Paris hospital's secure unit. The cause of death had not been announced on May 10.
Sources
- Families denied justice as French serial killer dies at 79, AFP, via Inquirer.net
- Michel Fourniret: French serial killer dead at 79, Euronews
Related News
- December 19, 2023: Monique Olivier Gets Life for Her Part in the Murders of Joanna Parrish, Marie-Angèle Domèce and Estelle Mouzin