Thursday March 21, the investigating chamber of the Dijon Court of Appeal announced new expert opinions in the context of the Grégory case, a boy found dead in October 1984 and whose murderer remains unknown.
Nearly forty years after the death of little Grégory, found in Vologne on October 16, 1984, justice ordered new expertise, at the request of the boy’s parents, revealed RTL, Thursday March 21th. In September 2023, Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin requested new DNA comparisons and a request for feasibility of vocal expertise of the crow’s recordings. The investigating chamber of the Dijon Court of Appeal ordered comparisons of the DNA found on the cords which had been used to tie Grégory, on his anorak, but also on certain letters from the crow. Comparisons will be made with the DNA of several people.
A feasibility study will also be carried out by the gendarmes to check whether current technological means can make it possible to identify the voice of the crow. In March 2024, on the occasion of the publication of a book, François Daoust, former director of the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie, claimed to know the identity of the killer, but that a “procedural error” would have resulted in the analyzes and interrogations being nullified.
Could the case, which occurred at a time when DNA expertise was not as developed, be resolved years later? Grégory Villemin’s parents were the target of a crow, who threatened them by telephone between 1981 and 1983, before the death of their child. Despite new expertise in the 2010s, the crow could not be identified. If further vocal expertise is carried out, the author of the threats, who we do not know whether it is a man or a woman, could be unmasked.
In addition to telephone calls, the Villemin family received letters from a crow between March 1983 and July 1985. One of them, posted on the day of Grégory’s death, claimed responsibility for the crime. Several members of Grégory’s parents’ family were suspected and arrested. Bernard Laroche, cousin of Jean-Marie Villemin, was named guilty by Murielle Bolle, cousin of Grégory, then aged 16, who then retracted her accusations. Released for lack of evidence, Bernard Laroche was shot dead by Grégory’s father a few weeks later.
In 2023, one of the crows was identified thanks to new scientific expertise. Thus, an anonymous letter sent on July 24, 1985, almost a year after the death of little Grégory, was written by a woman from Guadeloupe. Living in Paris in the 1980s, she was able to be found thanks to her DNA left on the letter. Questioned by investigators, she admitted having sent the letter, saying she was “passionate about the case”. However, she refuted any involvement in the assassination of little Grégory.