A second day of research on Tuesday April 27 in the Ardennes for the remains of Estelle Mouzin, whom Michel Fourniret confessed to having killed in 2003, turned out to be unsuccessful, but the investigators are convinced to be on a "
very serious
" track, according to the lawyers seized of the case.
This research, guided by the ex-wife and accomplice of the serial killer, Monique Olivier, will continue until the end of the week, Monique Olivier's lawyer, Me Richard Delgenes, told the press.
Read also: These women who cornered Michel Fourniret in confession
Two excavators continued from 8 am the work started on Monday, returning plot by plot the approaches to a path in the communal wood of Issancourt-et-Rumel.
As on Monday, an archaeologist in support of the criminal identification teams participated in the operations, which also mobilized a drone.
The site is located 4 km from Ville-sur-Lumes, where, according to Fourniret's ex-wife, he kidnapped, raped and killed Estelle, in her sister's house.
The area had been designated by Monique Olivier to the examining magistrate Sabine Kheris during an interrogation on April 1.
The accomplice of the "
Ogre des Ardennes
" had then recognized for the first time a role in the kidnapping of Estelle Mouzin, kidnapped at nine years old 18 years ago on the way to school in Guermantes (Seine-et-Marne) .
During this interrogation, she had indicated a path at the entrance to the forest where she said she had accompanied Fourniret, before letting him go and bury the body.
"There is sincerity in what (Monique Olivier) says"
“
We haven't found it yet, but Monique Olivier confirmed that she was sure that was where she had dropped Fourniret.
Estelle's body must be in that area, it's obligatory,
”Me Delgenes told the press at the end of the afternoon.
"
As soon as we have a virtual certainty that the body of Estelle Mouzin could have been deposited in the wood, next door, there is no reason that we cannot find
", he said. added.
But "
it takes a bit of luck (...) there is nothing simple, especially 18 years later
", it "
depends on where Mr. Fourniret was able to put the body, buried, not buried
".
To read also: Mouzin case: from the disappearance of Estelle to the confessions of the ex-wife of Michel Fourniret
"
A little more than half
" of the area, "
the easiest part for the work of the excavators
" has already been raked, said Didier Seban, lawyer for the Mouzin family, specifying that the investigators were now going to search a "
steeper, more complex
" area. They must also examine Wednesday a depression spotted on the edge of this area by a pensioner living in the immediate vicinity, who had informed the gendarmes of this element, he said. Monique Olivier "
lied a lot
" but also in view of the elements of the file, "
one can think that this time, there is sincerity in what she says (...) one believes that it is really serious,
”he noted.
"
We are within the perimeter of Michel Fourniret, this place really makes sense
", "
it is not only what Monique Olivier says, it is the environment and (...) the way it is behaved with the other victims, who make us say that we have a very serious track to find Estelle,
”he insisted. As part of search operations started last June, investigators began to search the area in early April, before clearing it to facilitate searches.
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