On the seventh day of Monique Olivier’s trial, Michel Fourniret’s ex-wife was confronted by the family of Estelle Mouzin, who disappeared in January 2003 when she was 9 years old.
Since November 28, the trial of Monique Olivier has been held before the Nanterre Assize Court, in Hauts-de-Seine. The one who was married to the rapist and serial killer Michel Fourniret has been on trial for a week now for complicity in the kidnapping and murder of Marie-Angèle Domèce, Joanna Parrish and Estelle Mouzin. This Wednesday, December 6, it was precisely the family of the latter, who disappeared in January 2003, when she was just 9 years old, who came to testify at the bar.
“I made a big mistake by letting her go home alone.”
One after the other, Estelle Mouzin’s brother, sister, half-sister, parents and mother-in-law spoke about the disappearance of the little girl twenty years ago now. The weight carried by his half-sister who in addition to being almost the same age is also called Estelle, the guilt of a brother for having chosen to live with their father rather than their mother and, from this fact, of not having been there to potentially pick up her sister from school the day she disappeared, or the poignant testimony of her older sister Lucie, who has just had her second child and had only able to travel from London to attend the trial, and who claims to have “spent almost twenty years not imagining Estelle raped, killed”, have thus been brought to light.
“I made a serious mistake by letting her come home alone,” said the little girl’s mother. Usually very discreet, she testified by videoconference, from the court of Carcassonne, in Aude. And Suzanne Goldschmid added: “She was a real sun, that Fourniret took away from us. Monique Olivier let it happen without any emotion. She did nothing to save Estelle. She also killed Estelle.” During her speech, the child’s mother also implored Monique Olivier: “If you have an ounce of humanity, tell us where Estelle is buried!” A call also reiterated by the girl’s father, Éric Mouzin, who stressed the importance of one day being able to find his daughter’s body, “to take care of her one last time”.
“I don’t do it on purpose. It’s not out of malice, out of cruelty”
At the end of the various testimonies, Monique Olivier stood up in the dock to speak in turn and ask for forgiveness. What was done is “unforgivable”, she admitted, expressing her emotion in the face of all these testimonies. “Seeing these people express themselves and cry, it does something to me,” she confided. “I am monstrous, I know. It is monstrous what was done, I know. If I were in their place, I would not forgive,” she continued, before asserting: “But I Don’t know what else I could say.”
Reacting to requests from Estelle Mouzin’s relatives to reveal the location of the little girl’s body, Michel Fourniret’s ex-wife assured that she did not know. “If I knew it, why wouldn’t I say it? I would like Estelle to be able to rest in peace and for her family to be able to pay their respects at her grave,” she said. And added: “Why wouldn’t I say anything? If I knew… I don’t do it on purpose. It’s not out of malice, out of cruelty.”