Fourniret

26 June 2003: Ciney a small town close to Namur. In broad daylight, Marie-Ascension, a 13 year old girl of Burundian origin is spoken to by a man of 60. He tells her he has lost his way.

Quote Marie-Ascension

I showed him the way. And then he forced me to get into his van. He tied my hands and feet and put me into the back of the van. I was really panicking because I could see a map of France and of Belgium. And I started to pray.

Marie-Ascension's praying aloud gets on the man's nerves. He threatens to slit her throat.

Quote Gaspard

Father of Marie-Ascension

One of the questions she asks him is: Sir, are you a member of the Dutroux gang? Fourniret looks at her and says: No, I'm not a member of the Dutroux gang. I'm worse.

Beauraing, 30 kilometres farther. After a drive of a half an hour Marie manages to escape. A passing woman motorist picks up the girl. A few minutes later they see Fourniret's delivery drive past them. The number plate will be the abductor's undoing.

Frenchman Michel Paul Fourniret is arrested that same day. He has been living in Belgium for10 years, an hour's drive from Ciney. On the face of it, he is a nondescript man, with no criminal record.

Quote Cédric Visart de Bocarmé

Fourniret was perfectly capable of abducting children, and so he was probably also guilty of other as yet unknown crimes. But investigation didn't reveal anything new. After a year we almost began to fear that he would be released because the investigation had come to a standstill.

One year after the failed abduction it is his wife, Monique Olivier, who stops his provisional release. Michel Fourniret is a serial killer. 

I am worse than Dutroux

Michel Fourniret is 24 when he is first convicted of voyeurism and exhibitionism, involving a girl of 10. By the time he reaches his 40s he has become a serial rapist. Dahina is one of his first victims. When it happened, in 1982, she was 14.

Quote Dahina Sy-Le Guennan

It was 4 September 1982. I was returning home after a day out with my brother and my boyfriend. I arrived here at Eperon station. I think a man, who later turned out to be Fourniret, then followed me. He grabbed me by the arm a little farther and forced me to go with him by showing me a bottle that he said contained sulphuric acid. He told me he had stolen a car and that the police were after him and that he was taking me as a hostage. He had most probably parked there so he could see who was getting off the train and pick out his victim, the way he always did. And that was me. I was the sort of victim he was looking for that day.

Once in the car, Michel Fourniret tries to talk Dahina round. He does that in a soft, but coercive voice, very politely. Fourniret talks primarily about himself.

Quote Dahina Sy-Le Guennan

I thought he was a French teacher, because he said I expressed myself well. He said he had been given a Catholic education and that he was a virgin when he got married, and that on his wedding day he found out his wife was not a virgin. And that since then he had been chasing the myth of virginity.

Virgins are what gives Michel Fourniret his kicks. Many attempts have failed, but by the time he is 40 he has got manipulation down to a fine art.

Quote Dahina Sy-Le Guennan

He said he was going to simulate a rape. He would behave as if he were raping me. He tied me up and he got undressed. But then instead of simulating it, he really did try to rape me. But Fourniret's problem is that he suffers from premature ejaculation. And so he wasn't able to... not really able to rape me, not really able to penetrate me properly.

That caused problems later when the case went to court. They had to determine whether or not it was really rape. Because of that he was able to escape a long prison sentence and there was no subsequent follow up.

Afterwards, he continued with his verbal manipulation. What had happened wasn't so terrible. It wasn't bad enough to press charges. If I did that, I would destroy everything he had built up: his family, his work and so on. He managed to convince me that it wasn't  so bad. I told him he was right, that it wasn't so bad and that I wouldn't be pressing charges. When I got out of the car, I even wished him good luck.

Dahina is in two minds about reporting the matter to the police. Two years later Michel Fourniret is arrested for 17 paedophile offences. In ‘87 he is brought to trial in Evry, near Paris. Dahina has to testify there about her rape.

Quote Dahina Sy-Le Guennan

Michel Fourniret was sitting in the dock to the left of me. He was looking very remorseful. He was all hunched up. There is a French saying: ‘You would give him communion without confession.' And that's a bit  how it was. In the eyes of the jury members, and in the eyes of all the women, I could see more compassion for him than for me. Because I was big. And I didn't have any scars or wounds. I don't think I really looked like a victim and he didn't really look like a perpetrator. And so because of that, the jury classed the rape as an indecent assault and they recognised extenuating circumstances. I think those jury members must all be feeling very guilty now, because they contributed to Fourniret's early release by allowing those extenuating circumstances. And Fourniret went on to become the serial killer we now all know him as.

When he is jail on remand, Michel Fourniret gets to know Monique Olivier, via an advertisement. Olivier is disillusioned with her ex-husbands and is in search of a life raft. She knows full well that her pen-friend is a sex offender.

Quote Gérard Chemla

Lawyer

At first they just write. They first time they really met is at the trial,  when he is convicted. And what is extraordinary is that in their correspondence it is almost immediately apparent that they are making a sort of criminal pact. This pact entails that he will give her the revenge she seeks on  the men who had hurt her. And she will then participate in the crimes he is planning to commit. In exchange she will give him what he calls ‘a number of tight slits'. Tight slits: the vaginas of little girls.

At the end of 87, after 3 years and 6 months in prison, Michel Fourniret is released.  He moves in with Monique Olivier in Saint-Cyr-Les-Colons, where nobody knows who he is.

Quote Didier Seban

Lawyer

The greatest problem was of the follow-up. When Michel Fourniret was released after his conviction and time in prison for a series of rapes, he should normally have been monitored. They should have monitored what he was doing. And they should have informed the local police that a criminal had been released and that they should keep an eye on him.

And that didn't happen?

Not at all. For example, on one occasion he appeared before a judge in the morning and murdered a girl in the afternoon.

Barely 6 weeks after his release, when he is 45, Michel Fourniret commits his first murder. He strangles Isabelle Laville, a girl of 17, at his home. A couple of months later he shoots 20-year-old Fabienne Leroy. His next victim is Jeanne-Marie Desramault. Jeanne-Marie has relations in Flanders. Her cousin now tells us her story for the first time.

Quote Jenny Brouckaert

Cousin of Jeanne-Marie Desramault

 Jeanne Marie was a very petite, slightly built girl. She didn't look her age. She looked about 15...17 at the most. She had what you could almost call a ‘religious' character and personality. She was a very good girl. She was lodging with the nuns. She was a conscientious student. I always go ton very well with her. She wasn't at all the sort of girl who would run away .

Jeanne-Marie is 22 and is studying modern languages in Charleville-Mézières. Her hometown is Béthune, in Northern France. By chance, she ended up at a convent when she was searching for student lodgings.

Quote Sister Marie Gérard

We came to an agreement. She would stay with us during the week and in the weekend she would go home to her parents. She insisted on that, because she loved her parents very much, especially her father. And so the days went by. Everything carried on as normal. It was all going very well.

Quote Jenny Brouckaert

Cousin of Jeanne-Marie Desramault

Afterwards, we found out that she had met a man on the train, probably on her return journey from Béthune to Charleville-Mézières. He had sat down opposite her and had paid her lots of attention, because she was so young. He noticed she was reading a religious book and so he asked her about that, to gain her confidence. He said he was very religious and that he knew a great deal about that book. He asked her where she studied and where she was lodging. That made it possible for him to trace her.

Quote Sister Marie Gérard

It was January 1989. She told us she had met a very nice man, with whom she got on very well, and that he had said he would like her to meet his wife. He had asked her if she would like to spend the weekend with them. She thought that was a good idea. When she got off the train, she had met his wife. He introduced them and it was all very nice. She told us about it when she got back. We said: That's all very well, Marie, but are you certain this man is to be trusted? Yes, yes, she said, it's all fine. She was 22. It was her business.

Saturday morning, 18 March '89: Jeanne-Marie intends to take the train home, as she does every week.

Quote Sister Marie

I arrived at the car park in Charleville, about ten minutes before the train left. There weren't many people or cars about, but I didn't really register that. I dropped Marie off and then I drove back here. What happened to Marie after that, I don't know.

Quote Jenny Brouckaert

Cousin of Jeanne-Marie Desramault

As soon as the sister had left - because the sister didn't see anyone- they approached Jeanne-Marie and convinced her to go along with them. She probably hesitated for a moment, because apparently she told them: I can't. I'd have to tell my parents first. But Fourniret reassured her. He said: You can come to my house for a coffee and phone your parents from there. I have to drive to Béthune anyway. I'll give you a lift. You'll be home in no time.

But Jeanne-Marie will never arrive in Béthune. Fourniret and Olivier's manipulation has almost reached fruition. He drives to his house in Floing, where he has lived since 1988.

Quote Jenny Brouckaert

Cousin of Jeanne-Marie Desramault

They gave her coffee, but what Jeanne-Marie didn't know was that it was laced with tranquilisers. Fourniret then asked her if she was still a virgin. According to what we've read, she answered ‘no' and said she had a boyfriend. And then Fourniret flew into a rage and abused her for not being a virgin. He said if she did it with somebody else, then why not with him? That led to a struggle and a fight. At a certain moment, she even kicked out a window as she defended herself. She fought like a lioness to escape from there, but she couldn't. She was no match for two bigger, violent people. She had also taken those tranquilisers without knowing it. And so the nightmare began. And that's where she was murdered.

Nobody in the small French village of Floing ever heard or saw anything unusual. Michel Fourniret lived there like a hermit. Even his closest neighbours suspected nothing.

Quote Gerard Cadé

Neighbour of Michel Fourniret

This is the cassette of my son Jeremy's communion party, when he made his communion in 1989. All our friends and family were there. And so were our neighbour Michel Fourniret and his wife. We invited him because he used to give my son some pocket money every now and then. Just a month before, he had murdered a girl. Just imagine: 25 metres from us, and I didn't see or hear anything. And here I gave him the chance to get to know others. That's terrible. We had let a monster into our house. That doesn't bear thinking about.

Michel Fourniret has clearly made manipulation his trademark.

Quote Gerard Cadé

Neighbour of Michel Fourniret

Excuse me. This isn't easy for me.

After he murders Jeanne-Marie it will be 14 years before he is arrested. By then he will have become a full-blown serial killer.

Quote Stephane Bourgoin

Serial killer expert

You are not born a serial killer. You become one.  So far no genetic or biological factor has been found, and no double chromosome, as used to be claimed, that predisposes one to violence. Michel Fourniret, like all other serial killers, first committed a series of so called ‘ordinary' crimes before he gradually progressed to worse. It generally takes about 15 years or so for the serial killer personality to form.

Stephane Bourgoin is an expert on serial killers and their motives. He has interviewed 50. Even though he has never met Fourniret, he can still recognise his similarity to other famous serial killers.

Quote Stephane Bourgoin

Serial killer expert

This is footage I shot in 1990, of Ed Kemper: 2 metres 15, 160 kilos. He kills his grandparents when he is 14. He is sent to a mental hospital, even though he is sane. When he is released after 7 years, he kills 10 students, his mother and his mother's best friend. Sometimes he eats and rapes his victims' bodies. Like him, Michel Fourniret has always tried to present himself as a very educated man, who learns languages very quickly, as a very sophisticated and well-read man. But that is only a sham. It is a facade. Like all psychopaths, and especially serial killers, he projects a facade to the outside world. But there is nothing behind it. Nothing. Not a shadow of remorse, not a trace of conscience. Enormous cowardice towards victims. Odious and manipulative behaviour.

Michel Fourniret has been a sex offender for 20 years and has multiple convictions when, at 45, he becomes the serial killer he is today. His wife Monique Olivier plays a key role in this transition.

Quote Gérard Chemla

Leroy family lawyer

At a certain moment we said that you need both the jerrycan and the match before everything can burst into flames. In other words, Monique Olivier is there when he starts to kill his victims. And I am absolutely convinced that it is because she was there that he was able to start killing. I'll go even further.

I believe there is a perverse love between Monique Olivier and Michel Fourniret that can only be consummated in the presence of a third person.

It is a threesome. The third person is the victim.

One of those victims is French girl Fabienne Leroy. Fabienne is a biochemistry student, who is doing an internship in Chalons en Champagne. She is 20 when she gets into Fourniret's car on 3 August ‘88. Fabienne has just been grocery shopping.

Quote Jean-Pierre Leroy

Father of Fabienne

During the reconstruction, Fourniret told us he had followed her in the supermarket. He let her walk outside. Then he drove his car past the exit.

His car was very close by. Monique Olivier was with him and she was 8 months pregnant. He asked Fabienne if she knew the address of a doctor.

He said Mme Olivier needed a doctor, because she was ill. I think everyone would have fallen for that. If someone says they need a doctor, you do everything you can to help them. I think Monique Olivier played a central role. Without her Fabienne wouldn't have got into the car. And if you study all the murders, you'll notice that whenever Monique Olivier was involved there were no survivors. All those girls were murdered.

When she is in the car, Fabienne realises that the doctor story is a lie. Monique Olivier is helping her husband to execute a well-prepared plan.

Quote Jean-Pierre Leroy

Father of Fabienne

He tells her to hold a gun on Fabienne while he ties Fabienne's hands. So it was Olivier who was threatening Fabienne with a gun while he was tying her hands. The same thing happens to almost all the victims. He tells Olivier to check that the girls are still virgins. She feels to see if they are still virgins. He asks her to do that. And if she can't tell him, he gets annoyed.

So she plays a central role in it all.

The threat of death heightens the sexual tension in the car. What exactly happened on the evening of 3 August is know only to the Fournirets. Whether or not Fabienne was raped, for instance. But there was certainly a sexual motive. 

Quote Gérard Chemla

Leroy family lawyer

I don't think it involves a sexual act as we would understand it. But there is a sexual act that occurs on a very different level, an act between him and his wife. Every time that she is involved, she is the primary sexual element. It is her who gives him an erection. It is her. I don't think it is the victim. His interest in the victims isn't sexual. It's a pursuit of pleasure, but it's not about sex. Or at least, not sex as we know it. He takes his pleasure from the very idea that he can generate terror and from the gradual exertion of his dominance over his victim. I think he reaches the height of his pleasure when he succeeds in getting a young woman, a girl, or a little girl to ask: Monsieur, will you please make love to me? Then the manipulation is  complete. The victim is requesting her own sacrifice. And it ends with him killing her.

After a drive of about 2 hours, the car stops at a secluded spot.

Quote Jean-Pierre Leroy

They found Fabienne's body here, at Mourmelon-le-Grand army base, on 4 August '88. She had been murdered the evening before.

According to Jean- Pierre Leroy, Monique Olivier was present the whole time and made no attempt to stop the murder.

Quote Jean-Pierre Leroy

Monique Olivier claims she went for a walk. But I can't really imagine anybody taking a walk on an army base in the evening. That's forbidden.

She probably stayed close to the car, close to Fabienne. That's what we think. It is an isolated, deserted spot. There is nobody you can ask for help.

It was her against two people. Monique Olivier was threatening her with a gun. And he was armed too. She must have felt totally abandoned. Totally lost. They found needle marks in Fabienne's arms. He said he had tried to cause her death by injecting air into her veins and thus causing a pulmonary embolism. When that didn't work, he used a different method. He slaughtered her with his sawn-off shotgun... as if she were an animal.

Quote Stephane Bourgoin

Serial killer expert

Via her lawyers, we already know what Olivier's defence will be. They will do their best to portray Monique Olivier as a woman who was submissive to Michel Fourniret. And that was indeed the case in their everyday lives.

During meals with their neighbours she wasn't allowed to speak, except when he wanted her to speak. But the moment they began to put their perversity into practice and commenced their murderous odyssey, she became a very active participant.

Psychologically, Michel Fourniret is a megalomaniac, extremely manipulative and sexually perverse. Monique Olivier is egocentric, heartless and highly intelligent. She too is perverse.

Various psychologists have concluded that the couple need each other.

Michel Fourniret wants to have absolute power. But he can't get it without her help. His wife sets up the situation. She is the motor of his perverse fantasies, even if she remains passive.  

Monique Olivier is not as submissive as she seems. And by admitting to the murders, she has now become dominant.

Quote Didier Seban

Lawyer Joanna Parrish and Jeanne-Marie Desramault

I think Monique Olivier enjoys the fact that she has Fourniret in her hands. She dominates him by supplying him with victims. That is her dynamic. Ultimately, he depends on her to help him to reach his desired goal. As far as the balance of power between them is concerned, she is the dominant one.

She could almost say: I don't need any of that. I do it to dominate him and have a hold on him.

And yet, in June 2004, it is Monique Olivier who will become the key to the whole Fourniret case. She will tell Belgian detectives about at least 17 murders. Michel Fourniret will admit to 8.

Quote Cédric Visart de Bocarmé

Liege Public Prosecutor

She seemed to want to bring an end to this murderous campaign. She had been caught up in it for many years. And she finally realised that it would never stop unless somebody put a stop to it. Even though she had been his accomplice all those years, a moment seems to have arrived when she wanted to stop the murders. And she could only do that by revealing crimes that could then be verified.

Back to 1989, just after the murder of Jeanne-Marie Desmarault. By then Michel Fourniret had become the owner of the Chateau du Sautou. He bought it with money he had stolen from a former cellmate. That chateau is close to his house in Floing.

Quote Jenny Brouckaert

Cousin of Jeanne-Marie Desramault 

He is believed to have kept Jeanne-Marie's body, in a bath, or in the shower, in his own house. I think he only brought her to his chateau a couple of days later, the Chateau du Sautou. He buried her very deeply, because he had already dug ditches for the utilities. He buried her under those ditches, 3 metres down. She had a few small, personal items with her. He threw them into the hole too. She was simply dumped. He wanted to get rid of her without a trace. And he did. Her few bits of jewellery, her keys... it was all thrown in with her. He left nothing behind. He obliterated every trace.

Jeanne-Marie's father Henri Desramault is 87. He is Jenny's uncle. Henri still lives Béthune, in the house where Jeanne-Marie grew up. For 15 years the family lived in uncertainty.

Quote Henri Desramault

Father of Jeanne-Marie Desramault

We always waited. We always waited, in the belief that one day we would have some news. But I never received any news. He had killed her.

Quote Jenny Brouckaert

You can't believe a family member has vanished and that there's not a single trace of them. You can't accept that. Nobody could. My uncle could never accept it. He caught the train every day, in the hope of meeting his daughter.

He was wretched. He has never got over it. It was terrible to see him suffering like that.

Throughout those years, Jenny wrote to all sorts of official bodies. In vain.

Quote Jenny Brouckaert

When the Dutroux case hit the headlines, I thought: It's Dutroux. She looked young. She's been taken by such a gang, or by such a man. The Dutroux case jolted us awake. We thought: It could have been him. But it wasn't Dutroux.

On 3 July 2004, a few days after Monique Olivier's confessions, the Chateau du Sautou reveals its secrets... after hints from Michel Fourniret.

Statement Cédric Visart de Bocarmé

Liege Public Prosecutor

The first identifying signs, and meticulous scientific study will reveal more, the first visual identifying signs are positive.

The remains of the Belgian Elisabeth Brichet are found and dug up. And so are those of Jeanne-Marie.

Quote Henri Desramault

Father of Jeanne-Marie

It is a relief. But at the same time it isn't. You know, monsieur, when you get dreadful news like that... It was hard. And it's still hard. Oh yes. It is still hard. It is almost 20 years ago. Heartbreaking.

Quote Cédric Visart de Bocarmé

Liege Public Prosecutor

The end of a long calvary. They will now want to give their children a decent funeral. At a moment that was emotionally very difficult, Fourniret remained very cool and detached about what was happening. He didn't give us the  impression that what was happening aroused any emotion in him. He seemed to be completely indifferent to the tragedy of the unfolding situation. He remained detached, but he was also determined to make himself heard and to prove that what he said was true. So he was resolute, but also very unfeeling. That's how we remember his behaviour at that particular moment.

Quote Gérard Chemla

Leroy family lawyer

The way I usually put it is: When you eat a steak, you don't feel any compassion for the cow you are eating. Fourniret's lack of empathy for his victims is on the same level.

After Jeanne-Marie comes Natacha Danais, Fourniret's 7th victim. It is 1990, the period when Michel Fourniret moves to Belgium, where he will live until his arrest. French has erased his criminal record. He appears to be an ordinary man. Between 1990 and 2000, Michel Fourniret claims he committed no murders.

Quote Stephane Bourgoin

Serial killer expert

Michel Fourniret, like most of the serial killers, all over the world, can be compared to an iceberg. You see the part of the iceberg that is above the surface, but there is a dark, unknown part beneath the surface. Most serial killers keep a certain number of their secrets to themselves. He declared on various occasions that he needed to go hunting for girls at least twice every year. If we accept that there were no murders during that 10 year period, we can make the macabre calculation: 2 times 10, or 3 times 10. There may be another 20 or so unknown victims of Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier.

Michel Fourniret buys a house in Wallonia, in Sart-Custinne, a small village close to the French border. He lives there with his wife and child and an au pair. 

Quote Gaëtan en Bénédicte Evrard

Neighbours of Michel Fourniret (Sart -Custinne)

The au pair had to look after their son, who was still a little baby back then. And one day, in the summer, neighbours overheard a row between that girl and I think it was Michel. And after that row, I think it was the very next day, that young girl disappeared and we never saw her again. In hindsight, we think she must have been another of his victims. But if he won't admit to it, and if she doesn't want to give any clues... You first have to determine her identity. But nobody in the village seems to know who she was.

Even a photofit picture of the girl did no produce any clues.

News interview with villager

Blonde, about 1metre 65 tall.

Did you ever talk to her?

No, no.

According to Monique Olivier, her husband murdered a total of 6 au pairs. Fourniret denies this. Excavations around the house in Sart-Custinne on several occasions have revealed nothing.

Quote Cédric Visart de Bocarmé

Liege Public Prosecutor

That's the mystery of this particular file. It makes us wonder whether Mme Olivier is telling us the truth. Because nobody has been reported missing, at least not here in Belgium. We are still making inquiries abroad. Maybe she was trying to make Fourniret look even worse, in an attempt to disguise her own guilt? That's all perfectly possible. But it's Mme Olivier who revealed the crucial information, which led to the solving of most of the murders. Did she want to pin a few additional murders on him? That's possible, because  Mme Olivier is psychologically very complex.

Quote Gérard Chemla

Leroy family lawyer

Olivier is exceptionally intelligent. According to expert psychologists, she is not quite a genius, but she is among the most intelligent 5 percent.

Quote Gaëtan en Bénédicte Evrard

Neighbours of Michel Fourniret (Sart -Custinne)

After Michel was arrested, Monique stayed at home in her house. She practically shut herself away for several days. And then, about a week  later... she built a big bonfire in her garden. It burned all afternoon. They should have kept a closer eye on Monique at that time. They would have found clues more easily. Perhaps concerning that au pair, or concerning other victims. Of course, that's only speculation, because she built that fire.

Michel Fourniret admits to recommencing in 2000. Celine Saison, 18, and Mananya Thumpong, 13, are both found murdered in the Belgian Ardennes. It is 15 years before the similarities raise any suspicions that it is the work of a serial killer.

Quote Gérard Chemla

Leroy and Thumpong family lawyer

Why? Well firstly because Fourniret is a case apart. We still can't identify  any real criminal signature. And because there is no visible criminal  signature, we have no clue that immediately links the various cases to each other. There are also other factors: the geographic spread, victims who are similar, but not strikingly similar. There are very young girls, but there are also young and slightly older women. And so it goes on and on. And because he is so multifaceted, he is impossible to identify.

Ultimately it is chance that catches Michel Fourniret out in 2003.

The trial is now beginning in Charleville-Mézières. Monique Olivier is accused of 1 murder, that of Jeanne-Marie Desramault

Quote Jenny Brouckaert

Cousin of Jeanne-Marie Desramault

Olivier helped him to restrain her. She also helped him to cover her mouth, and so on, with sticky tape. So she is certainly an accessory to She's as guilty as he is.

Michel Fourniret is primarily on trial for the 7 murders to which he admits.

Quote Roger and Pauline Parrish

Father and mother of Joanna 'Jo' Parrish

They've concentrated on the cases where it is obvious, or Fourniret has admitted guilt, and brushed aside the other cases which are a bit more difficult to prove, because they would demand more resources.

In 1990, when she is murdered near to Auxerre, Joanna is 21. She is on a work placement, teaching English to French students, and also via adverts in the local paper.

Quote Roger and Pauline Parrish

Father and mother of Joanna 'Jo' Parrish

It was only going to be another week or so before she was due to leave France anyway. So she was... she was excited about going to see her boyfriend, obviously. And we know she had an appointment to meet somebody, because she had two telephone calls following her advertisement in a small free newspaper. There was no name ever suggested to us, but it was a man who lived fairly close to Auxerre, within 4 or 5 miles, we know that. He had a young son and a wife and invited Jo to visit there and have a meal with them.

At that time, Michel Fourniret was in the Auxerre area for a house sale. On 16 May Jo Parrish was found in the River Yonne, naked and raped. In one of her statements Monique Olivier told detectives:

Statement: Monique Olivier

In 1990 I helped Michel to kidnap and murder a girl. Michel wanted a young girl, with whom he could amuse himself. And so we ended up in Auxerre. He persuaded a girl of 18 to get into the car. After a few kilometres, I stopped in a secluded spot. The girl wouldn't get undressed. Michel beat her unconscious, and then raped and strangled her. He dumped her naked body in a nearby river. I stayed in the car the whole time. A great burden has  fallen from my shoulders now I am telling you this.

The Parrishes say Monique Olivier is referring to Joanna's murder. French detectives admit there is no indication it was committed by anybody else.

Quote Roger and Pauline Parrish

Father and mother of Joanna 'Jo' Parrish

Although there were a lot of similarities, she hadn't mentioned Joanna's name. So there were some doubts starting to creep in? There are still some doubts now, but we still think there are sufficient similarities to enable us to think that it is quite likely that Fourniret did murder Joanna.

For almost 20 years the Parrishes have been looking for answers, both from their home in Newnham-on-Severn and in France. They have now travelled to France 15 times at a cost of 60,000 euros. They think French justice has failed them.

Quote Roger and Pauline Parrish

Father and mother of Joanna 'Jo' Parrish

P: My sum up of it is Clouseau-esque. Inspector Clouseau, bumbling, bumbling idiot. Basically.

R: I would put it slightly differently, but... There isn't the same ethos in France. We don't think there is the same importance given to solving murders. The first 5 years we spent going to see the magistrate, the gendarmerie. That was the pattern of our life. We wanted to see if there was anything in the file that we recognised. They said: Here it is. It's up to you.

P: And obviously it's in French.

R: We were left to ourselves. It was all in French, of course. What do you do? What do we do?

P: But it's the stress, isn't it? It's the stress. It's our lives. It has ruined our lives.

Joanna's murder is not included in the trial charges. Fourniret continues to deny it. This puts him back in control, say the experts. Or is Monique Olivier lying? The trial could have cleared that up.

Quote Didiere Seban

Pauline and Roger Parrish's lawyer

They didn't look much further. And that is what the Parrishes fear. They are very worried, and so are we, that the moment Fourniret gets the maximum sentence, people will lose interest in him and in any other crimes he may have committed. And that no resources will be devoted to the cases of his forgotten victims.

Pauline and Roger will nevertheless be at the trial as spectators. In the hope of learning something new.

Quote Roger and Pauline Parrish

Father and mother of Joanna 'Jo' Parrish

I think we have to know. We have to try and find out exactly what happened. Because all the time you don't know what happened, different things go round in your head and you can't get rid of them. So it's important, certainly for us with the trial, to know what perhaps happened in other cases and what may well have happened in our case, so we can put that side of it to rest, I think. For us it's absolutely essential that there is another trial. And we won't rest until there is. And that's the start and the finish of it. We won't rest until there is another trial.

That there will be another trial is almost certain. But after 20 years many questions will still remain unanswered.

Quote Stephane Bourgoin

Serial killer expert

He is a pervert. He is a manipulator. And he doesn't want to be forgotten after the trial. He wants us to continue talking about him in the future, even after he has been condemned. He is a man with an excellent memory. He knows very well where the victims are buried, but he doesn't want to say. In that way he can show that, even if he is condemned, he is still the boss. It's  him directing the investigation. It's him who reveals information.