After 35 years of investigation, the identity of the “Grêlé”, a serial killer active in the 1980s and 1990s, was finally determined in 2021 thanks to a procedure involving nearly 800 police officers.
His story has been widely discussed and is considered one of the major cold cases of the last fifty years. The serial killer known under the pseudonym “Grêlé” was the nightmare of investigators and justice for nearly 35 years. Hunted by the Paris Criminal Brigade in connection with several rape and homicide cases, Grêlé was only identified in 2021 thanks to a vast operation carried out throughout France.
When investigating judge Nathalie Turquey took over the case in 2014, it had already been twenty-eight years since a judicial investigation into “rape of a minor, murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, use of false identity, kidnapping and sequestration” had been opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office and had remained without results. But the magistrate would succeed in finding a resolution to this 35-year-old cold case.
In May 2021, and while the lead of a member of the police force or a security agent had been explored since the start of the investigations, Nathalie Turquey ordered the DNA sampling of 750 gendarmes active in Île-de-France in the 1980s and 1990s. A rather astonishing idea, given the scale of the protocol to be put in place and the annoyance aroused within the police forces.
It was, however, thanks to this procedure launched by the magistrate that a suspect was formally identified. His name was François Vérove, a former gendarme who had served in the Republican Guard and was then retired from the police. He did not show up for his summons to the Territorial Directorate of the Montpellier Judicial Police to undergo the DNA test ordered by the Paris magistrate. The father, who appeared to be in good shape in all respects, in fact committed suicide after learning of his summons, but before dying, he took care to leave a letter of confession in which he confessed his crimes and said he “felt wanted by the police”. He added that he had not killed since 1997, the period when he met his partner.
He is accused of 6 rapes and 4 murders
A first murder was attributed to him in 1986, that of Cécile Bloch, an 11-year-old girl. The young girl was raped, strangled and stabbed as she was about to leave her home to go to school. Her body was later found in a technical room in the basement of her residence, hidden under a carpet.
A year later, in 1987, the name of Le Grêlé, in reference to the suspect’s identikit profile who reported skin problems, emerged in a double homicide. In the Marais district of Paris, the police discovered the remains of two people: Gilles Politi, a 38-year-old man, found with his limbs tied with belts, and Imgard Müller, a 20-year-old German woman who worked as an au pair for the first victim. The young woman was half-naked, her throat slit and hanging by her arms. Burn marks were also discovered on her body.
The same year, he was identified as the rapist of a young woman in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, this time leaving her alive and burglarizing her apartment. His name was again cited in two cases, a murder and the kidnapping and rape of a child, in 1994. In total, no fewer than six rapes and four murders were attributed to François Vérove thanks to various DNA comparisons. This Tuesday evening, France 2 is broadcasting the first two episodes of a documentary series dedicated to him.