Son of serial killer Michel Fourniret and his ex-wife and accomplice Monique Olivier, Selim Fourniret testified Wednesday before the assize court which is trying his mother. A key testimony. Explanations.
He is the son of Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier. Selim Fourniret, 35, was 14 and a half years old in 2003 when his father, now known to be one of France’s most famous serial killers, was arrested by law enforcement. On Wednesday December 13, he testified before the Hauts-de-Seine Assize Court which is currently trying his mother, Monique Olivier. Ex-wife of Michel Fourniret, she is suspected of having been his accomplice in the disappearances and murders of Estelle Mouzin (2003), Joanna Parrish (1990) and Marie-Angèle Domèce (1988).
The testimony of the couple’s only son, who regularly served as bait for his parents to attract victims, was particularly awaited, as he could in particular put pressure on his mother who could, under cover of a failing memory, not having said everything. But Selim Fourniret was also expected on the Estelle Mouzin affair. A former co-detainee of her mother has in fact revealed that, according to Monique Olivier, Selim Fourniret, then aged 14, would have seen the 9-year-old girl when she was sequestered at her parents’ home. “I never saw the little girl,” said the thirty-year-old this Wednesday, adding however: “I do not question the testimony, but I have no memory.”
“What do you have to hide? There’s no one waiting for you outside.”
“I would like to remember and at the same time I would like to forget,” confided the man who said he had already tried different methods to “reveal buried memories” in order to provide answers to the relatives of his parents’ victims. Estimated to have lived “for 15 years”, with “actors” who never spoke in front of him about what they had done, Selim Fourniret assures him: “Regularly I try to think back to this past period to bring elements of response to relatives, but nothing comes back to me.”
Unable to move things forward himself, Selim Fourniret took advantage of his testimony to speak directly to the woman he no longer calls “mom” for a long time, but “Monique”. While Me Seban asked Monique Olivier if she could provide the names of other victims of her ex-husband, the young man reacted, trying, it seems, to stimulate the memory of the one who, however, according to him, was a “loving mother”, unlike her father who was considered “authoritarian”. “I don’t know if you remember, in Sart-Custinne, Michel Fourniret liked to watch Childfocus, about the disappearance of children. Among the known victims, there was a blank period,” he said , referring to the absence of known crimes between 1990 and 2003. And the thirty-year-old adds: “What do you have to hide. There’s no one waiting for you outside. You just have to say everything you have to say, this way you free yourself from a weight.”
Enough to launch some tense exchanges with Monique Olivier. And while the accused must be heard Thursday on the facts concerning the kidnapping of Estelle Mouzin, Selim Fourniret later tried to appeal to her affect: “Mom can have eloquence […] she’s a mother, she knows what it’s like to have children and to love them.” Enough to push Monique Olivier to say more? The future will tell us.