Monique Olivier took the stand to testify during the trial in the cases of Marie-Angèle Domèce, Joanna Parrish and Estelle Mouzin, on December 5. But the court seems to have doubts about the sincerity of Michel Fourniret’s ex-wife.
It is the most anticipated testimony, that of Monique Olivier. On the sixth day of the third trial in the Michel Fourniret affair, the ex-wife of the “ogre of the Ardennes” was questioned about the disappearances of Marie-Angèle Domèce and Joanna Parrish on Tuesday December 5. The first disappeared in July 1988 in Auxerre on the path between the home where she lived and the station; the second was found dead, submerged in the Yonne, a few kilometers from Auxerre in May 1990.
After years of investigation, investigating judge Sabine Khéris managed to obtain confessions from Michel Fourniret in these two cases at the end of the 2010s. The magistrate also obtained statements from the “ogre’s” wife. , but has the latter, who has always minimized her role in her ex-husband’s crimes, said everything she knows about these affairs… or about others?
“If I knew it…I would say it”
This is not the first time that Monique Olivier has been questioned about the Domèce and Parrish cases: 22 interrogations have taken place since 2018. Before that, the “ogress” of the Ardennes had alternately admitted the facts and denied her own statements . “Are you ready to give us more details?” then asked the president of the court, Didier Safar, at the trial on December 5. Response from the accused: “I will try”.
Monique Olivier has renewed her version of the facts on the disappearance of Marie-Angèle Domèce, saying she served as bait to get the young girl into the vehicle in which Michel Fourniret was hiding, led her to a secluded path then having left the car on orders from her husband so that she “would not witness what he was going to do”, reports the journalist from franceinfo present at the hearing She says she knows nothing about the rest of the events, in particular the location of Marie-Angèle Domèce’s body. “If I knew it I would say it, why wouldn’t I say it? Out of malice? I’m going to die in prison, why wouldn’t I say it?”, declared the accused at the bar in front of a court not convinced of her sincerity: “Should we believe you when you say you don’t know?” Monique Olivier’s speech is the same when it comes to the location of Estelle Mouzin’s body, facing the victim’s family she assured: “I’m not doing it on purpose, it’s not out of malice, cruelty but I don’t know where is Estelle’s body.
While doubt is allowed and some are convinced that the 75-year-old woman does not say everything, in particular the families of the victims who are still waiting for answers, magistrate Sabine Khéris, also heard at the bar, “thinks that [Monique Olivier] went as far as she could go”. The investigating judge, however, raises the question of possible new confessions from an “unfathomable” Monique Olivier.
Memories that get confused
More than thirty years after the disappearances of Marie-Angèle Domèce and Joanna Parrish, twenty years for that of Estelle Mouzin, does Monique Olivier still have the details of how the events unfolded in mind? The accused has already justified her retractions and contradictions by “loss of memory”. But the excuse of amnesia is not acceptable for Didier Safar who reminded the septuagenarian that her “memory capacities are intact” according to the experts, as indicated 20 minutes. Michel Fourniret’s ex-wife still maintains that “certain memories have difficulty coming back, […] it’s confusing. I can’t answer.” Asked about the number of murders, she said she preferred not to remember them – “there were so many” – as for the names and faces, they are confusing according to her.
One of the lawyers for the victims’ families, Didier Seban, nevertheless appeared calm and optimistic about Monique Olivier’s cooperation with the press at the start of the trial: “I see her different, I think she has acquired a certain freedom of expression. ‘expression, she talks more, she answers questions more.’
“I can’t say I’m participating.”
“I am not innocent” launched Monique Olivier on the first day of the trial, November 28. An obvious fact that she cannot deny since she was already sentenced to life imprisonment with a safety period of 28 years in 2008 and to twenty years in prison for another case of complicity in murder in 2018.
Miche Fourniret’s ex-wife, however, never stopped minimizing her role or evoking a participation forced by fear or the control that, according to her, her husband exercised over her. “You know what’s going to happen, you’re active,” an assessor reminded her during the hearing according to the court’s report. franceinfo, but the accused, faithful to her version, retorted: “I can’t say that I participate. He asks me to do it. I don’t do it for pleasure, it’s like obedience.” And to explain again: “I remained like an idiot”. Monique Olivier must be questioned again, this time on the case of the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin, Monday December 11 after the postponement of her interrogation initially scheduled for December 8.