Estelle Mouzin case: the mysterious call from a fellow prisoner of Monique Olivier

In 2015, twelve years after the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin on January 9, 2003, Monique Olivier was detained in the women’s penitentiary center in Rennes. She’s a solitary inmate. Child murderers are particularly frowned upon in prison. To avoid being mistreated, Monique Olivier stays away from the other women in the center. Only one manages to gain his confidence: a Serbian prisoner, who has the reputation of being a “boss” in her detention unit. She decided to make Monique Olivier speak. After having served her sentence, this fellow prisoner will end up revealing the secrets she extracted from Monique Olivier. And for that, she decides to call the lawyers of Estelle Mouzin’s father directly.

That Friday, when the office closed, when his assistant informed him that a fellow prisoner of Monique Olivier was on the phone and claimed to have important things to tell him about the Estelle Mouzin affair, Me Corinne Herrmann actually expects everything. This is what she confided for the very first time in “L’Ombre”, the Original podcast produced by Spotify and Europe 1 Studio. But during this phone call of more than an hour, the former fellow prisoner does not ask him anything in exchange for information. “She explains her career to me, she does not hide who she is from me. She tells me that she exchanged with Monique Olivier, and that she would have confessed to her about Estelle Mouzin”, says Me Herrmann, at the microphone of the journalist Chloe Triumph. This scene of the “confessions” of Monique Olivier that the fellow prisoner tells could turn everything upside down. But did it really happen? For Me Herrmann, there is no doubt about the authenticity of the word of the ex-prisoner: “She said to me: ‘I am a recovery of justice, I know how we think when we target a victim. I know this hunt. What Monique Olivier told me was that'”.

>> Find our special file on the Estelle Mouzin affair and the shadow of Michel Fourniret by clicking here

“It’s the testimony that will change everything,” then believes Eric Mouzin’s lawyer. While the investigation was running out of steam, Monique Olivier would have to be released from detention, questioned, confronted with her former fellow prisoner. Me Herrmann is convinced that from there, everything will happen very quickly. “That’s where I’m wrong,” she admits today. The Serbian prisoner must complete long-term care, it will take almost a year for the confrontation between her and Monique Olivier to take place. And this will do nothing. Monique Olivier then denies everything. She assures that she never accused Michel Fourniret of having kidnapped Estelle, that she never made such confidences to this former prisoner. The hope of Eric Mouzin’s lawyers falls sharply. For them, it’s like going back to square one.

A few years later, facing an examining magistrate, Michel Fourniret will end up himself admitting to having kidnapped Estelle Mouzin. So, could we have known the truth sooner? For Me Herrmann, the answer is yes. This episode of the investigation is just one example among many of the setbacks that have kept the truth away for all these years. To discover other behind-the-scenes scenes from this landmark criminal case, listen to “L’Ombre”, the new podcast produced by Spotify and Europe 1 Studio.