France: 40 years later, the Grégory affair remains a mystery

A judge who commits suicide, a suspect murdered, three indictments canceled: 40 years of chaotic investigation have left unsolved the mystery of the murder of Grégory Villemin, found drowned on October 16, 1984 in a river in the Vosges.

“A total annihilation (…) I wonder how we survived,” confesses Jean-Marie Villemin, the father of the four-year-old toddler, in “Grégory” (Les Arènes), a graphic novel released very recently, like so many of works devoted to this sprawling affair.

“17,765 procedural documents, 42 volumes, seven investigating magistrates,” summarizes for AFP Philippe Astruc, public prosecutor in Dijon, where the investigation is still being conducted.

On October 16, 1984, the drowned body of “little Grégory” was discovered tied up in the Vologne, a river in the Vosges. “Here’s my revenge – Poor bastard,” claims an anonymous letter addressed to the father by a “crow” who has been harassing the family of Jean-Marie Villemin, 26, and his wife Christine, 24, for several years.

The investigation focuses on the Villemin “clan”. Under pressure from greedy journalists, one of whom went so far as to hide a microphone in the wardrobe of a family member, Jean-Michel Lambert, a 32-year-old investigating judge from Épinal with a dashing appearance. law student, wants to shine for his first position.

And he did it quickly: less than three weeks after Grégory’s death, Bernard Laroche, a cousin of the father, was indicted, a term used at the time for “indicted”. The culprit seems to have been discovered. So much so that Grégory’s father was convinced of this and killed him in March 1985, even though his cousin had been released a few weeks earlier.

Shortly before this assassination, Bernard Laroche’s sister-in-law, Murielle Bolle, a slightly lost 15-year-old teenager, withdrew her statements accusing Laroche.

“Justice was lamentable”

The investigators had already turned to the mother, Christine. Indicted on July 5, 1985, her trial was ordered at the end of 1986. But the Dijon Court of Appeal, to which the investigation was transferred in 1987, after the errors of that of Nancy, dismissed the case in 1993. in his favor.

“The justice system was completely dismal. The investigating judge was incompetent,” summarizes Thierry Moser, historical lawyer in the case, who has defended the Villemin couple for 39 years.

Judge Jean-Michel Lambert cannot answer: he killed himself on July 11, 2017.

Changing the flooring will not be enough to avoid hiccups. In 2017, it was the turn of Marcel and Jacqueline Jacob, Grégory’s great-uncle and great-aunt, to be indicted, as was Murielle Bolle. Less than a year later, these indictments were canceled for formal defects.

Today, the investigation is trying to rebound. Last March, new expertises were ordered: on DNA but also on the “vocal frequency”, a sort of “voice DNA”, of the crow’s telephone calls.

This technique, still very avant-garde, will first require a feasibility study, and therefore time, but the DNA tests should give results “within five to six months”, believes Me Moser. “I’m reasonably optimistic,” he says.

“There are nine DNAs, to which must be added DNA mixtures, which have not found an identification despite 410 comparisons with known DNA,” explains Attorney General Philippe Astruc, refusing to comment further.

In any case, “to imagine that an expertise will suddenly cut the Gordian knot is illusory,” he says. “It’s an additional element to other elements,” tempers the magistrate.

There have already been five assessments since 2000. So why others? “DNA has not said its last word,” replies Marie-Christine Chastant-Morand, another lawyer for the Villemin couple. “The time is rather favorable” to the investigation “because it allows us to benefit from the evolution of science.”

“DNA can speak 40, 50 years later”

“Today we can unravel the mystery of the pharaohs. So why not this one?” adds his colleague, François Saint-Pierre, for whom it remains possible to “save an investigation that is so badly off”.

“Yes, DNA can speak 40, 50 years later,” estimates Professor Christian Doutremepuich, founder of the Bordeaux laboratory specializing in unsolved cases. “People were already working well 40 years ago. We knew how to preserve DNA,” assures the man nicknamed “the Pope of DNA” and who worked on the Grégory affair.

“I am a little skeptical about that,” believes, on the other hand, former gendarmerie colonel Étienne Sesmat, first director of investigation into the case. “Because we have no DNA linked to the case (blood, semen) but only contact DNA, the DNA that we leave when handling objects: I shake your hand, you take a knife, you kill someone, it is perhaps my DNA that will be found on the knife,” explains the investigator.

In his new book “Les Deux Affairs Grégory” (Editions Presses de la Cité), the former gendarme reaffirms that it is “established” that Bernard Laroche, killed by Jean-Marie Villemin, kidnapped and killed Grégory.

In 1993, in its judgment clearing Christine Villemin, the Dijon Court of Appeal considered that there were “very serious charges” that it was Bernard Laroche who kidnapped Grégory.

This is also the opinion of the Villemin couple’s lawyers: “We believe that Bernard Laroche kidnapped the child and his cronies killed him.”

Forty years after the events, is it still possible to know the truth? “I don’t think so. She would have already left,” replies Alexandre Bouthier, lawyer for Jacqueline Jacob, Grégory’s great-aunt, who denounces “relentlessness”. “The DNA expertise alone in 2017 cost the courts 400,000 euros,” he emphasizes.

“We must continue,” replies the attorney general. “We owe it to a little boy, to parents.” “There are still witnesses who are of this world. There are still scientific elements that can contribute to the case. Trying to discover the truth is never a struggle,” he concludes.

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