Maximilien Carlier, edited by Manon Fossat
New excavations start this Monday in Issancourt-et-Rumel, in the Ardennes, in an attempt to find the remains of the body of Estelle Mouzin. The girl had been kidnapped and killed by Michel Fourniret in 2003. Monique Olivier, the ex-wife of the serial killer indicted for complicity will be present during this research.
A new search campaign for the body of Estelle Mouzin, alleged victim of serial killer Michel Fourniret in 2003, is due to open on Monday in the Ardennes, a lawyer and a source close to the investigation said on Friday. These searches for the girl’s body in Issancourt-et-Rumel – the eighth in the Ardennes since June 2020 – must take place, like the previous ones, in the presence of Monique Olivier.
A plot still unexploited
This is the fourth time that excavations have taken place in this typical village of 400 inhabitants with yellow brick houses. The research will take place on a still unexploited plot, filled with beeches and oaks, located further north than the previous ones.
On site, dog teams must assist the judicial police and Monique Olivier will be present. The ex-wife of the serial killer indicted for complicity will be released from his prison in Fleury-Mérogis. The septuagenarian indeed told the judge that she had accompanied Michel Fourniret to the edge of the communal wood to let him bury the girl’s body. It remains to be seen whether she will be able to revive her memory and remember a detail that could help the investigators.
The confessions of Fourniret
The village of Issancourt-et-Rumel is located 4 kilometers from Ville-sur-Lumes where, still according to Monique Olivier, Michel Fourniret kidnapped, raped and killed Estelle Mouzin, in a house belonging to her sister. The child’s partial DNA was found in two places on a mattress seized in 2003 from this house.
Sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of seven young women or teenage girls between 1987 and 2001, Michel Fourniret ended up confessing in March 2020 his responsibility for the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin. He died at 79 in Paris on May 10.