The ex-wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret has admitted her involvement in the death of Lydie Logé who disappeared in 1993 in Orne. Searches are underway to try to find his body.
On December 18, 1993, Lydie Logé returned home by car in the early evening, in the village of Saint-Christophe-le-Jajolet, in Orne. This 29-year-old woman, separated from the father of her son, who is looking after their 7-year-old little boy, has just done her Christmas shopping with a friend – she will be the last person to have seen Lydie Logé alive.
The young mother disappears in front of her house. Lydie Logé has a telephone conversation with her mother and her aunt around 7 p.m. But two hours later, when one of her sisters tries to contact her, the phone rings in vain. The next day, his car was still parked in front of the garage, with the keys in the ignition, according to West France. The gifts and the Christmas tree were found in the trunk, reports France 2. Lydie Logé was nowhere to be found. Everything suggests that this is not a voluntary disappearance and the criminal trail is retained.
Thirty-one years later, the young woman's body is still being sought. But the hope of finding him remains: Tuesday January 21, Monique Olivier, the widow of serial killer Michel Fourniret, was taken from her cell in Fleury-Mérogis prison to go to Orne until Thursday. The objective: “trying to revive his memory”explains Corinne Herrmann, the lawyer for Lydie Logé’s family, on franceinfo. A trip organized the day after Monique Olivier's confession to her involvement in the murder of the young woman.
We have to go back to December 2019 to understand how the “ogre of the Ardennes” and his ex-wife broke into this matter. While thehe case has already been closed twice, investigating judge Sabine Kheris reopens the investigation ten years later. The magistrate, an expert in the cases in which Michel Fourniret is suspected, immersed herself in the world of the serial killer to better question him. At the time, she understood that time was running out: Michel Fourniret's health was rapidly deteriorating. A dozen unknown genetic fingerprints are taken from his white van. “The DNA found on a hair element in Michel Fourniret's van 'matches' with that of Lydie Logé”says Corinne Herrmann.
How could the couple sealed by a diabolical pact, who lived in Belgium, cross paths with Lydie Logé? Sabine Kheris discovered that in 1993, the couple regularly went to Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), where Monique Olivier's father lived, passing through the department of Orne, reveals France 2.
-Three years earlier, it was in Nantes that the couple kidnapped Natacha Danais, according to their well-rehearsed scenario. The victim was then aged 13. Could he have attacked a 29-year-old woman? During a search of Michel Fourniret's prison cell, the investigating judge found notes on the Tinchebray quarries, located around sixty kilometers from Lydie Logé's home. “It’s not impossible that I left a body there”he conceded to the judge, according to France 2.
Finally, it was in November 2020, after hours of hearing with Sabine Kheris that the serial killer confessed to the murder in his own way. “I don’t believe it could be anyone other than me who ended his life journey”, he blurted out, according to France 2. He also revealed that on December 18, 1993, his wife was by his side. A month later, the serial killer was indicted for kidnapping and forcible confinement followed by death. As for Monique Olivier, she is being prosecuted for complicity in arrest, kidnapping, detention or arbitrary confinement. She was indicted in January 2021 in this case.
Four months later, Michel Fourniret died. Since then, his ex-wife with a mysterious and complex personality, which baffles experts, remains the only key to trying to understand the crimes he committed and never solved. Sabine Kheris, who in 2022 became the coordinator of the serial and unsolved crimes center in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), understood this well. “There remains a human person in front of us. And that is what we must try to develop in order to obtain confessions, indications. If we remain in confrontation, it is useless”estimated Corinne Herrmann on RTL. In the Lydie Logé affair, her confessions took place “in several times”notes the lawyer to AFP. Monique Olivier was questioned on this file in April and October 2024, according to the Nanterre public prosecutor's office.
“There are cases where bodies have been found more than thirty years after the events. On the instructions of Monique Olivier, it is more difficult because she has trouble finding her way. But you always have to try everything”added Corinne Herrmann on RTL. Today, what the family wishes, “we found the body of Lydie Logé to give her a decent burial”explained the lawyer to franceinfo. Her sisters, who launched a call for witnesses in June 2023, wish to renew their approach “for those who saw something”according to Corinne Herrmann, who adds that they still hope for a trial to be held for Monique Olivier, as a final point in this affair. “It’s terrible to admit that his sister could have ended up in the hands of Michel Fourniret.”
