Michel Fourniret would have returned one winter evening to the marital home, satisfied to have "
spotted a beautiful little subject
", reports
Le Parisien
.
A few days later, on January 9, 2003, Estelle Mouzin, 9, disappeared.
Seen one last time around 6 p.m. by a passer-by next to a bakery, halfway between her school and her home, the little girl was going after school to her mother's house, in the process of divorce with her father.
To read also: Disappearance of Estelle Mouzin: the excavations resume after the confession of Monique Olivier
Eighteen years later, still no trace of the girl.
However, only seven months after his disappearance, the investigators set out on the trail of a serial killer: Michel Fourniret.
"
I urge you to treat me as guilty
" in this case, had launched the latter years later to judge Sabine Khéris.
It remains to be proven because, “
with these individuals, it is only the facts and the evidence that make sense.
What they tell you ...
", slipped to AFP the father of Estelle Mouzin, while, this Monday, April 5, the former companion of Michel Fourniret directed the investigators to a new place where would be buried the body of Estelle Mouzin.
Confession or manipulation of the couple?
Almost 20 years after the events, investigators still hope to find the girl and to elucidate one of the oldest French cold-cases.
An extraordinary investigation
In shops, airports, bus shelters and train stations, his face is plastered everywhere.
Impossible in 2003 to miss this girl in the red sweater and the eyes of a cat, disheveled hair and a shy smile.
This little girl is Estelle Mouzin, 9 years old, who disappeared on January 9, 2003 in Guermantes, in Seine-et-Marne.
The search notice indicates that on the day of her disappearance she was wearing "
a navy blue puffer jacket, a purple beret, jeans, a red sweater and a black backpack
".
It was her mother, Suzanne, who informed the police of her absence: worried that she would not be coming home from school, she first went looking for her.
In vain.
Shortly before 8 p.m., she therefore alerted the local police station.
The latter immediately sweeps away the idea of a fugue, and, the next day, the prosecutor's office of Meaux opens a judicial investigation for "kidnapping and kidnapping of a minor of 15 years" and charges the regional service of judicial police ( SRPJ) of Versailles of the investigation, where a cell of ten investigators is responsible exclusively for the Estelle Mouzin file.
One of the many wanted notices to find Estelle Mouzin STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / Archives / AFP
The mobilization of the population and the police is colossal.
The region has been combed through, and nothing is left to chance.
The divers are first sent to scour all the bodies of water, some of which, icy, are cut with a chainsaw, while the police survey all the nooks and crannies of the area.
Without success.
We then decide to send the helicopter.
But still nothing.
Six days after Estelle's disappearance, Jean-Marc Bloch, commissioner of the judicial police of Versailles in charge of the investigation, decides to set up an exceptional operation: the 350 houses of the town are searched and all of the population of the small village is auditioned.
Impossible that day to enter or leave the city: about 450 police and gendarmes blocked the passage.
To read also: Estelle Mouzin case: Monique Olivier, the more than zealous accomplice of Michel Fourniret
But the police are not the only ones to get involved body and soul in this case.
The 1,400 inhabitants of the small village of Guermantes, deeply affected by the young girl's disappearance, do not stand idly by: they relay calls for witnesses and participate in the beatings organized by her relatives, who are launching a website and a dedicated association. to their daughter.
But, a month later, still nothing.
"
We are facing a total void
", then reacted to France 2 Eric Mouzin, the father of the girl.
Two months after the events, a human banner is deployed at the start of the Paris half-marathon, spreading the message: "
Help us find Estelle
".
First robot portrait of the man suspected of having kidnapped Estelle Mouzin JUDICIAL POLICE / AFP
A call heard by a classmate of Estelle, who assures investigators in June 2003 to have been bothered by a man a few weeks before the disappearance of her friend.
His testimony allows us to draw a first robot portrait of the man suspected of having kidnapped the girl and, in December 2003, around 450 police officers were mobilized to arrest more than 80 people already convicted of pedophilia and having a link with the area where the little one has disappeared.
But still without success.
The State accused of "serious faults"
Estelle's family are not giving up.
On the first International Day of Missing Children, May 24, 2003, Estelle Mouzin's father addressed the potential aggressor of his daughter via France 2: “
I don't know who you are or where you are, but I am in revenge certain that you hear me and that you feel flattered.
Estelle is not something that can be kept like that, Estelle is a child who must regain her freedom and her family.
Whatever may have happened to Estelle, you must return it to us.
There is no bargaining in this message, nor is there any appeal to any kind of humanity that might be in you.
You have committed a monstrous act and you are not part of mankind.
I am not a vigilante, I am simply a father who wants to find his daughter
”.
Seven months after the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin, the investigators turn to the track Michel Fourniret, arrested in June 2003 in Belgium and nicknamed "
the Ogre of the Ardennes
".
But the latter was quickly removed from the investigation because of his alibi: he would have made a phone call to his son from his home in Belgium at the time of the facts, which his wife at the time, Monique Olivier, confirms.
But time is running out.
The silent marches follow one another, and false trails multiply.
We hold our breath when images hosted on an Estonian pornographic site of a young girl bearing a disturbing resemblance to Estelle Mouzin are broadcast.
But the photos were posted online at a date prior to the girl's disappearance.
We wonder when bones are found buried under a Chinese restaurant.
But the police are once again on the wrong track: they turn out to be of animal origin.
With each disappearance of a child, those close to Estelle revive the investigators.
The hypothesis of the involvement of Nordahl Lelandais, suspected of having killed little Maëlys, or that of Eric Fauchard, who kidnapped little Bérényss in April 2015, are mentioned but give nothing.
Seven-year-old "aged" photo of Estelle Mouzin, distributed in January 2010 POLICE / AFP
Fifteen years after the disappearance of his daughter, Eric Mouzin affirms at a press conference that he wishes to file a complaint against the State for “gross negligence”, pointing out certain shortcomings and dysfunctions of justice.
“
After 15 years, I'm not here to hear an examining magistrate tell me 'I'm putting the case in order'.
Now that's enough, the relationship of trust with justice is broken,
”insists the father.
The “aged” seven-year-old photo of his daughter did not yield anything, the seven successive judges found nothing, the investigation is stalling, and the file is now close to 85,000 pages.
But, a few months after the violent protests of the father of Estelle, an unexpected event upsets the investigation: Michel Fourniret speaks, indicating to the investigators that the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin is "a subject to be digged".
"The master of clocks"
"I urge you to treat me as guilty", launches Michel Fourniret again to investigators, in 2020, a year after having implied that he could be involved in the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin.
And, this time, the new investigating judge, Sabine Khéris, takes her statements seriously.
His ex-wife, who years earlier had provided him with an alibi, retracted in November 2019, claiming that she herself made the call to their son on the day of the incident.
The main suspect is then immediately indicted for "kidnapping and forcible confinement followed by death", but the latter claims to have memory problems.
To read also: Death of Estelle Mouzin: the ex-wife of Fourniret questioned at length in the Ardennes
His former companion then becomes the source of multiple revelations, and accuses Michel Fourniret of having kidnapped, raped and strangled Estelle Mouzin in the house of the criminal's sister.
According to Monique Olivier, Michel Fourniret would have returned the day after the crime to their home in Sart-Custinne, would have told him the facts and would have gone back to his sister's house, in Ville-sur-Lumes, where a mattress with DNA part of Estelle Mouzin is found.
The suspect, aged 78 and sentenced to life imprisonment for nine murders of young women and adolescent girls, then admits that it would be "
relevant
" for the girl's body to be located not far from her castle in the Ardennes.
"The unavailability of Michel Fourniret should not lead to trying to give Monique Olivier a role that she does not have and that she has never had"
Me Richard Delgenes, lawyer for Monique Olivier
Monique Olivier's statements arouse great emotion and one of the lawyers of Estelle Mouzin's family, Didier Seban, interviewed by BFMTV, confides in hoping that Michel Fourniret will say even more: “
We can think that Michel Fourniret will want to take over the hand on Monique Olivier
”, as was the case in previous cases in which he was convicted,“
it will be a way for him to be the one who advances the investigation, the one who is the master of the clocks
” , continues the lawyer.
But, despite numerous searches, the body cannot be found and Fourniret becomes more and more bedridden every day.
All hopes are therefore now focused on Monique Olivier.
Thursday April 1, a long hearing of the ex-companion of Michel Fourniret revealed that the latter was on board the vehicle which made it possible to transport the body of the girl and make her disappear by burying her in the Ardennes.
This revelation made it possible to identify a new place where the body of Estelle Mouzin could be found, which will be searched soon.
But Me Delegenes, Monique Olivier's lawyer, wants to be cautious, and insisted to AFP that "
the unavailability of Michel Fourniret should not lead to trying to give Monique Olivier a role that she has not and never had
”.
