More than twenty-five years later, justice is once again looking into the disappearance of Cécile Vallin.
This 17-year-old girl vanished on June 8, 1997, not far from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, in Savoie.
While the decision to dismiss the case loomed over the Cécile Vallin case, the recent revelations of the companion of serial killer Michel Fourniret, Monique Olivier, shook up the investigation.
Last December, the accomplice of the Ogre of the Ardennes had indicated at the time of her trial for complicity in the kidnappings of Marie-Angèle Domèce, Joanna Parrish and Estelle Mouzin, that she remembered a “
young girl”
brought back in the middle of the night by her husband, in June 1997.
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Questioned by Me Cathy Richard, the lawyer of the father of the missing woman, the investigating judge of the center dedicated to unsolved criminal cases in Nanterre agreed today to launch new acts of investigation.
He considered that it was possible that Michel Fourniret was at the origin of the disappearance of the young girl, Mr. Richard told Le
Figaro
, confirming information from Le
Parisien
.
Monique Olivier should therefore soon be interviewed by investigators.
The Fourniret trail abandoned in 2006
On the day of the events, Cécile Vallin was supposed to study her baccalaureate at the family home, while her parents went to a baptism.
The day before, she had organized a party where she flirted with a boy who was not her boyfriend.
Feeling guilty, she left her index cards and called her father.
This had reassured her.
At the end of the day, between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., she was seen for the last time along the A43 departmental road, towards Chambéry, with misty eyes.
Since then, no trace of the high school student.
“I always said that someone knew something about this affair
,” reacts to Le
Figaro
Me Richard, who has accompanied Cécile Vallin’s father since the beginning.
After learning, not without emotion, the confessions that Monique Olivier had made during the hearing on December 14, the criminal lawyer went to Nanterre.
On site, she was able to recover several minutes which did not appear in the Cécile Vallin file but which had been mentioned during the trial of Monique Olivier.
New elements could shed light on the disappearance of Cécile Vallin.
Some date from 2004, others from 2005. These are statements by Monique Olivier made to the Belgian judicial police.
“
It is a question of a young girl between 16 and 18 years old brought back by Fourniret to the marital home.
He would have asked Monique to leave the home with Selim
[the son of Monique and Michel Fourniret Editor's note],
because he said he was going to come with a young girl
,” reports the lawyer.
The Fourniret trail had already been mentioned in the Cécile Vallin file in 2006. But this, as soon as it was opened, was immediately closed: at the time, the discovery of around ten unknown DNA traces on a mattress that belonged to Michel Fourniret had raised hopes of an outcome.
But none of these DNA matched that of Cécile Vallin.
Me Richard was also able to consult a complaint from Michel Fourniret against Monique Olivier for “abandonment of the marital home”, dating from June 11, 1997. That is to say two days after the disappearance of Cécile Vallin.
“
There was an argument between them on June 9 and, after taking their son Selim to school, Monique Olivier did not return
,” explains the criminal lawyer.
It is now up to the courts to establish whether this argument could have had a link with the arrival of this “
young girl
” that Monique Olivier spoke about at the hearing.
Today, a judicial investigation is still open for “kidnapping, kidnapping or arbitrary detention”.