Michel Fourniret
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Michel Paul Fourniret (4 April 1942 – 10 May 2021) was a French
serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
who confessed to killing 12 people in France and Belgium between 1987 and 2003. After he was arrested in June 2003 for the attempted kidnapping of a teenage girl in
Ciney Ciney (; ) is a municipality and city of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. As of 2018, Ciney had a total population of 16,439. The total area is 147.56 km2 which gives a population density of 111 inhabitants per km2. Admin ...
, Fourniret confessed in 2004 to killing nine people, eight females and one male, having been informed on by his then-wife, Monique Pierrette Olivier (born 31 October 1948). Fourniret was convicted of seven of these murders on 28 May 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole, while Olivier was given life with a minimum term of 28 years for complicity. In February 2018, Fourniret confessed to killing two more women. On 16 November 2018, Fourniret and Olivier were convicted of the murder of Farida Hammiche, the last of the eight women that Fourniret confessed to killing in 2004. Fourniret was given a second life sentence and Olivier was sentenced to a further 20 years of imprisonment. In March 2020, Fourniret confessed to killing Estelle Mouzin, who disappeared from
Guermantes Guermantes () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the Val de Bussy sector of Marne-la-Vallée. As of 2022, its population was 1,151. Writer Marcel Proust adopted ...
in 2003.


Early life

Fourniret was born in Sedan, France, the son of a metal worker and a homemaker. He claimed to have been sexually abused as a child by his mother. Acquaintances remembered him as a quiet, intelligent child who enjoyed chess and classical music. As an adult, he drifted through a series of menial jobs, including forestry worker and school supervisor. Fourniret was first arrested at age 24 in 1966 for sexually assaulting a young girl. He was imprisoned in 1984 for sexually assaulting another five girls. Fourniret placed
pen pal Pen pals (or penfriends, penpals, pen-pals) are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. Pen pals are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of letters. Occasion ...
ads in a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
magazine and started corresponding with Monique Olivier when she saw his ad and wrote to him. He wrote to her of his fantasies of raping and murdering virginal girls; she responded that she would "help" him fulfill those fantasies if he killed her husband, although he never committed this murder. After he was released from prison in 1987, they began a relationship. Soon afterwards, he not only raped but went on to murder young girls, with Olivier as his accomplice.


Murders

On 11 December 1987, Fourniret and Olivier drove in separate vehicles to
Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...
. Seeing 17-year-old Isabelle Laville walking home from school, a girl the couple had seen a day or two earlier and were targeting, Olivier stopped to ask her to join her in the car and give her directions, which Laville agreed to do. Driving down the road, Olivier reached the spot where Fourniret was standing with his car, pretending it had broken down. After Olivier, as planned, pretended to offer him a lift, he got into her car. Fourniret choked Laville with a piece of rope before Olivier sedated her with
Rohypnol Flunitrazepam, sold under the brand name Rohypnol among others, is a benzodiazepine used to treat severe insomnia and assist with anesthesia. As with other hypnotics, flunitrazepam has been advised to be prescribed only for short-term use or by ...
. The couple brought the girl to their home in
Saint-Cyr-les-Colons Saint-Cyr-les-Colons () is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yonne department The following is a list of the 423 communes of the Yonne department of France ...
, where Fourniret raped and strangled her. They threw Laville's body down a disused well in
Bussy-en-Othe Bussy-en-Othe (, ) is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yonne department The following is a list of the 423 communes of the Yonne department of France Fr ...
. Her remains were recovered from the well more than eighteen years later, on 11 July 2006. In March 1988, Fourniret was contacted by 30-year-old Farida Hammiche. She was the wife of Jean-Pierre Hellegouarch, an imprisoned bank robber with whom Fourniret had shared a cell prior to the latter's release in October 1987. She asked Fourniret to help her unearth a haul from a cemetery in Fontenay-en-Parisis, which had been stolen by members of the ''
Gang des postiches The Gang des postiches () was a team of bank robbers that operated in Paris between 1981 and 1986, robbing around thirty banks. They would enter the bank dressed in common clothing and wearing false mustaches, beards, and wigs (from which they ...
''. After Fourniret and Hammiche managed to retrieve the haul, which consisted of
gold ingot A gold bar, also known as gold bullion or a gold ingot, is a quantity of refining, refined metallic gold that can be shaped in various forms, produced under standardized conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record-keeping. Larger varietie ...
s and coins, Hammiche gave Fourniret a share worth 500,000
francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...
for helping her dig it up and hiding it in her apartment in
Vitry-sur-Seine Vitry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. Name Vitry-sur-Seine was originally called simply Vitry. The name Vitry comes from Medieval Latin ''Vitriacum'', and before that ''Victori ...
. On 12 April, aiming to steal Hammiche's share, Fourniret and Olivier lured Hammiche out of her home. They drove her to
Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is the base of the Clairefontaine French National football academy. See also *Communes of the Yvelines department ...
, where they strangled her and buried her body. The couple then broke into Hammiche's home and stole the haul. They used the money they made from it to buy a
château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...
called the Château du Sautou in
Donchery Donchery () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Ardennes department *List of medieval bridges in France A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set ...
. Hammiche's body was never found. By August, Olivier was pregnant with Fourniret's baby. On 3 August, the couple drove to a supermarket in Châlons-sur-Marne (now Châlons-en-Champagne), and encountered 20-year-old Fabienne Leroy in the car park. With Olivier feigning illness, the couple asked Leroy to join them in their car and give them directions to a doctor's surgery. After Leroy got in, the couple drove to a forest near the
military camp A military camp or bivouac is a semi-permanent military base, for the lodging of an army. Camps are erected when a military force travels away from a major installation or fort during training or operations, and often have the form of large cam ...
of
Mourmelon-le-Grand Mourmelon-le-Grand () is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. Population Camp de Châlons The ''camp de Châlons'', also known as ''camp de Mourmelon'', is a military camp of circa 10,000 hectares near Mourmelon-le-G ...
. Fourniret ordered Olivier to look at Leroy's
hymen The hymen is a thin piece of mucosal tissue that surrounds or partially covers the vaginal opening. A small percentage of females are born with hymens that are imperforate and completely obstruct the vaginal canal. It forms part of the vulva ...
to see if it was still intact, but Olivier refused. After raping Leroy, Fourniret shot her in the chest. In January 1989, Fourniret met 21-year-old Jeanne-Marie Desramault on the evening train to
Charleville-Mézières Charleville-Mézières () is a commune of northern France and the prefecture of the Ardennes department, in the Grand Est region. Charleville-Mézières is located on the banks of the river Meuse. History Charleville and Mézières were ori ...
. The two conversed before arriving in Charleville, where Desramault was staying at a convent. Desramault met Fourniret and Olivier, who had assumed false identities, at the train station again on 18 March, and the couple invited Desramault to come to their house in Floing, an offer she accepted, and Fourniret promised he would drive her home afterwards. After they got to Floing, Fourniret asked Desramault if she was a virgin, and she told him she was not and that she had a boyfriend. Enraged, he attacked her. She fought back as he attempted to rape her, and as she attempted to escape, the couple gagged her with adhesive bandages before Fourniret strangled her. Fourniret and Olivier drove to Donchery and buried Desramault's body in the garden of the Château du Sautou. Fourniret and Olivier married in July 1989. On the afternoon of 20 December, they drove across the Franco-Belgian border to Saint-Servais,
Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...
, with their one-year-old son. Fourniret saw 12-year-old Elisabeth Brichet walk to a friend's house, and waited outside for her until she left to walk the short distance home just before 7:00p.m. He asked her to give him directions to a doctor's surgery for his son. She agreed to do so, and the couple drove back to Floing with her. When Fourniret undressed the girl, he saw that she was
menstruating The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that makes pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eggs ...
, so Olivier cleaned Brichet's genitals. The next day, the couple took Brichet to the château, where Fourniret strangled her after a failed attempt to suffocate her with a plastic bag. Her body was buried in the garden of the château, near to that of Jeanne-Marie Desramault. There were a number of reported sightings of Brichet, in Belgium and abroad, in the years following her disappearance, and a number of people were suspected by police of abducting her, including another serial killer,
Marc Dutroux Marc Paul Alain Dutroux (; born 6 November 1956) is a Belgian convicted serial killer, serial rape, serial rapist, and child sexual abuse, child molester. Initially convicted for the child abduction, abduction and rape of five young girls in 19 ...
. After Dutroux's arrest in 1996, Brichet's mother Marie-Noëlle Bouzet helped to organise the
White March The White March (; ; ) was a demonstration in Brussels on 20 October 1996 after serial killer and criminal Marc Dutroux was arrested. The demonstrators wanted better protection for children and a better functioning justice system that could inv ...
in honour of Belgium's missing and murdered children. The remains of Brichet and Desramault were exhumed from the gardens of the Château du Sautou on 3 July 2004, after Fourniret and Olivier confessed to the killings. The final known murder Fourniret committed with Olivier's help took place on 21 November 1990 near France's western coast. The couple drove to a shopping centre in
Rezé Rezé (; , Gallo language, Gallo: ''Rezae'') is a Communes of France, commune (municipality) and former bishopric in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in the Pays de la Loire region of western France. It is a southern suburb ...
after leaving court in
Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...
, where they had been convicted of burglary. They saw Natacha Danais, a 13-year-old local girl, walking through the car park towards her home, having been sent to fetch her mother's forgotten purse. The couple lured Danais into the van, asking her for directions. After driving to a secluded area near the coast, Fourniret stabbed Danais twice in the chest with a screwdriver and strangled her before leaving her body on the beach. Later investigation suggested that the girl's body was raped after the murder. Eight days later, Jean Groix, a neighbour of Danais's family, was arrested after a white van belonging to him matched the description of the van that Danais' sister had seen her get into from across the shopping centre's car park at the time she disappeared. Groix was found to be lodging suspected members of the
ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...
in his home; police suspected that Danais had found out about this and that he killed her for that reason. Two months later, Groix committed suicide in his prison cell. He was reported to have been unable to bear the burden of having been accused of murder. The Fourniret family moved to Sart-Custinne,
Gedinne Gedinne (; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 4,405 inhabitants. The total area is , giving a population density of . It is situated in the Ardennes east of Meuse ...
, Belgium, in the early 1990s. Fourniret admitted that he committed two more murders in France between 2000 and 2001, his first in nine-and-a-half-years. He drove alone across the Franco-Belgian border to Charleville-Mézières on 16 May 2000 and lured 18-year-old Céline Saison, who was on her way home from school, into his van in the late afternoon. Driving with her back to Belgium, he raped her before strangling her with a rope and dumping her body in a forest in Sugny,
Vresse-sur-Semois Vresse-sur-Semois (, literally ''Vresse on Semois''; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Alle, Bagimont, Bohan, Chairière, Laforêt, Membre, Mo ...
. Saison's skeletal remains were discovered there by mushroom pickers on 22 July 2000. On 5 May 2001, Fourniret drove back to Sedan and met Mananya Thumpong, a 13-year-old girl of Thai origin whom he had met and given a lift home a few weeks earlier, outside the local library. He invited her to come to his house and play with his son. Accepting this offer, Thumpong climbed into the van and was driven to Nollevaux,
Paliseul Paliseul (; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. On 1 January 2007 the municipality, which covers 112.96 km2, had 5,055 inhabitants, giving a population density of 44.8 inhabitants per km2. The mu ...
, where Fourniret strangled her. Thumpong's remains were found on 1 March 2002, having been devoured almost entirely by wild animals.


Arrest, trial and imprisonment

Fourniret was arrested at his home in Sart-Custinne, Belgium, on 26 June 2003 after a failed attempt to kidnap a 13-year-old girl. He and Olivier were interrogated extensively but to no avail. A year later, Olivier told the police that her husband had killed a number of people since 1987. Fourniret confessed to killing eight women aged between 12 and 30, and a man who has never been identified. The bodies of four of the identified victims had been discovered in France and Belgium between 1988 and 2002. Olivier was also arrested, and she and Fourniret were
extradited In an extradition, one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...
to France, where they helped police find the bodies of three of the four missing victims over the next two years. The trial took place in
Charleville-Mézières Charleville-Mézières () is a commune of northern France and the prefecture of the Ardennes department, in the Grand Est region. Charleville-Mézières is located on the banks of the river Meuse. History Charleville and Mézières were ori ...
between 27 March and 28 May 2008. Fourniret was found guilty of the murders of all seven of the victims whose bodies had been found. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Olivier was sentenced to life with no possibility of parole for 28 years. Fourniret and Olivier were also ordered to pay €1.5 million in moral compensation to family members of the victims. Neither appealed their sentences. Fourniret admitted to eight murders prior to his trial in 2008. He was convicted of seven of these and sentenced to life in prison. In November 2023, the trial of his former wife and accomplice Monique Oliver for three murders, including Joanna Parrish and Estelle Mouzin, began


Confessions

In February 2018, Fourniret confessed to killing two more women in Auxerre: Marie-Angèle Domèce, an 18-year-old disabled woman, in July 1988, and
Joanna Parrish Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from . Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice, Jean, and Jeanne. The earliest recorded occurrence of the ...
, a 20-year-old British student, in May 1990. In March 2020, Fourniret confessed to killing Estelle Mouzin, who disappeared from
Guermantes Guermantes () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the Val de Bussy sector of Marne-la-Vallée. As of 2022, its population was 1,151. Writer Marcel Proust adopted ...
in January 2003.


Known victims

indicates victims of whose murders Fourniret was convicted.


Other supposed crimes

Two French journalists have suggested that Fourniret killed former Minister for Labour
Robert Boulin Robert Boulin (20 July 1920 – 30 October 1979) was a French politician who served as Minister of Labour in the French Cabinet and was at the centre of a major real-estate scandal that ended only with his death in mysterious circumstances. At t ...
(who was involved in a real estate scandal at the time), based on a letter Fourniret wrote to Olivier. Christian Ranucci was one of the last people executed in France, having been convicted of the abduction and murder, committed on 3 June 1974, of Marie-Dolorès Rambla, aged eight. There were suspicions that Ranucci might not have been the killer, having confessed and later retracted his confession. It was suggested that Fourniret may have been involved, as Fourniret was thought to be in the area at the time and had virtually the same car as Ranucci. Careful analysis by an expert of courtroom photographs taken during Ranucci's March 1976 trial, however, suggests that the courtroom observer in the photographs could not have been Fourniret who, unlike this man, did not yet wear glasses and lacked a
chin cleft The chin is the forward pointed part of the anterior mandible ( mental region) below the lower lip. A fully developed human skull has a chin of between 0.7 cm and 1.1 cm. Evolution The presence of a well-developed chin is considered to be one ...
. Furthermore, Fourniret denied having been in the Marseille area when the crime took place on 3 June 1974, claiming he was working in Paris.


Legacy

Rachida Dati Rachida Dati (, ; born 27 November 1965) is a French politician and former magistrate who has been Minister of Culture (France), Minister of Culture since January 2024 in the Attal government, government of Gabriel Attal, the Barnier government, ...
, the then French Minister for Justice, who advocated legal reforms in France, wanted a more relaxed attitude to preventive custody and parole under supervision. She was heavily criticized by the judiciary. The proximity of the Chateau des Amerois in neighboring Belgium (approximately 30 km) to the Château du Sautou (commune of
Donchery Donchery () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Ardennes department *List of medieval bridges in France A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set ...
) bought by Fourniret was also mentioned.


Death

Fourniret died on 10 May 2021 at the age of 79 after being admitted to hospital with respiratory problems.


See also

*
List of serial killers by number of victims A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more people, in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons.''Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying'' entry o"Serial Killers" (2003) by Sa ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fourniret, Michel 1942 births 1989 murders in France 1990 murders in France 2021 deaths 1989 murders in Belgium Criminal couples French murderers of children French people convicted of child sexual abuse French people convicted of murder French prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment French rapists French serial killers Murder in Belgium Necrophiles People convicted of murder by France People from Sedan, Ardennes Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by France Prisoners who died in French detention Serial killer duos Serial killers who died in prison custody