Serial killer Michel Fourniret, Alzheimer's patient and hospitalized, had given indications on the possible location of Estelle Mouzin's body. His remains are currently being sought in the Ardennes.
This Tuesday, December 8, 2020, the police are still looking for the remains of little Estelle Mouzin, missing for 17 years. Last March, the serial killer Michel Fourniret was interviewed by Judge Sabine Kheris and recognized the murder of the 9-year-old child, reports Europe 1. Several reconstructions had been attempted on different possible locations of the crime, but none had not allowed Estelle's body to be found. At the time, Michel Fourniret had not revealed exactly where it could be hidden. It was not until the end of November and a return to his region of the Ardennes for him to give more precise indications on his possible location: around his former property of the castle of Sautou, where excavations began on Monday, December 7.
Éric Mouzin was qualified before the research was launched. "We are in suspension, I am not the only one waiting, the whole family, the children, everyone is suspended from the results of the searches", he had confided to the World. (…) When we know the level of perversity of Michel Fourniret, the inaccuracies related to his state of health, the transformation that the environment has undergone for seventeen years, we can only remain cautious ". The serial killer is indeed ill with Alzheimer's and remains hospitalized today following a malaise in his prison in Fresnes. It is therefore not present on the fringes of the excavations.
The late twists and turns of the Estelle Mouzin affair
While no discovery has been made yet, hope remains. Didier Seban, lawyer with Corinne Herrmann of Eric Mouzin, told the press that very characteristic places have not yet been worked on. "The excavations are taking place in places that Michel Fourniret indicated on site, at the end of the hearing during his visit at the end of October, which have never been explored and which are not very far from the castle", said Me Seban, taken over by Ouest France. In addition, it is in the park of the castle of Sautou that the bodies of two victims of the serial killer, Jeanne-Marie Desramault and Élisabeth Brichet, were found in 2004. This property had also been bought by Michel Fourniret thanks to the money resulting from the assassination, in 1988, of Farida Hammiche, companion of her co-detainee who had indicated to her the location of a booty. As a reminder, the man has already been sentenced to life twice for the murder of eight women. He has admitted three others in recent years, including that of Estelle, thanks to the tenacity of Eric Mouzin and those close to the little girl.
His absence today sounds like a reminder: the investigation questions the family. Back to the facts: on January 9, 2003, in Guermantes, 9-year-old Estelle Mouzin returned from school. She will never make it home. In the days that followed, posters appeared throughout France, with his photo and a wanted poster describing his outfit, size and age. The entire town of Guermantes, where the child lives, is thoroughly searched and the media massively relay the case. The white march organized a year after his disappearance brings together a thousand people, including artists like Michel Delpech.
Since then, Eric Mouzin has continued to speak regularly in the media, denouncing the shortcomings of justice and urging the institutions to clarify the case. In 2018, 15 years after the events, he attacked the State for serious mistakes in the handling of this case: evidence not or badly examined, according to him, a lack of organization in the investigative teams, an inability to questioning … In February 2019, the case rebounded. Monique Olivier, the killer's ex-companion and his accomplice in many cases, evokes the little girl. Justice is therefore relaunching the trail of Michel Fourniret's guilt in the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin, to finally lead to ongoing research.
Do not perpetuate the macabre work of Michel Fourniret
In October 2020, the association on behalf of the girl sent an open letter to the media, asking that they not disclose the stories of the criminals Fourniret and Olivier, including the most cruel details "as mentioned during the hearings", or refuse to "to transform their lives into quasi-romantic fictions", which amounts to "allow this couple of criminals to continue their work of death by amplifying the dissemination of the atrocities they have committed. Bringing to the knowledge of the public (and sometimes of the youngest) the circumstances in which these crimes were perpetrated, spreads further more broadly the trauma and makes us all voyeurs. "