Police custody of Monique Olivier, ex-wife of Michel Fourniret, lifted as part of the investigation into the disappearance in 1997 of Cécile Vallin

The police custody of Monique Olivier, former wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret, lasted only a few hours on Tuesday, September 10, as part of the investigation into the disappearance in Savoie of Cécile Vallin in 1997. After being taken from her cell in Fleury-Merogis prison on Tuesday morning to be questioned by investigators from the Central Office for the Repression of Violence against Persons (OCRVP), her police custody was lifted on Tuesday evening, shortly before 8 p.m., the Nanterre prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Son avocat, M^e Richard Delgenes, had affirmed on Tuesday that his client “will not speak to investigators” in his absence: notified only on Tuesday morning, he was unable to go to Nanterre to assist Mr.^me Olivier, he told AFP. “We have known for more than fifteen years that it must be put in condition” so that she would confess, “It is counterproductive for the Vallin family”he added.

This police custody took place within the framework of a judicial investigation opened since 1997 for “kidnapping, sequestration, arbitrary detention to the detriment of Cécile Vallin” and resumed in November 2022 by the serial or unsolved crimes unit – known as « cold cases » – from Nanterre. “I hope that she will be heard again under different conditions, with her counsel, and that she will be able to help us.”the Vallin family’s lawyer, M, reacted to AFP on Wednesday^e Caty Richard.

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Cécile Vallin, 17, was last seen on June 8, 1997 at 6 p.m. along a departmental road at the exit of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne (Savoie), heading towards Chambéry.

In her disappearance, the Michel Fourniret trail was reopened after statements by Monique Olivier at her trial in December 2023, at the end of which she was sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the kidnappings and murders of Estelle Mouzin, Joanna Parrish and Marie-Angèle Domèce.

Caty Richard had informed AFP on Tuesday that she had asked the investigating judge on December 26, a week after the verdict, to hear Michel Fourniret’s former wife. “We are sure that Monique Olivier has things to say. We hope that she will help justice understand what happened to Cécile.”she added on Tuesday, before the end of M’s police custody^me Olivier.

On December 5, during the trial, Mr.^e Didier Seban, lawyer for the Mouzin family, had read statements by Monique Olivier to Belgian investigators about the murder of a young girl, a « baby-sitter » unidentified around June 1997. According to these statements reported by the lawyer, Monique Olivier spoke of a “sleeping girl” at the couple’s home in Sart-Custinne in Belgium, that Michel Fourniret is said to have “strangled with bare hands”. At the time, M^me Olivier had simply denied it. “We haven’t been to Savoie”she had replied in an annoyed tone.

An investigation had been opened for ” kidnapping “ by the Albertville prosecutor’s office following a complaint from the parents. Major searches had been undertaken by the police throughout the valley. The woods had been combed, the ponds explored. In vain.

The girl was due to take the philosophy exam for her baccalaureate the next day. She had no known problems, was a good student and did not appear to have any family problems. She lived with her mother and stepfather and no funds were found in her bank account after her disappearance. The hypothesis of a runaway was quickly ruled out by investigators.

In 2008, searches using ground penetrating radar were launched on the A43 motorway, which was under construction at the time of her disappearance, in an attempt to find her body. Again, in vain.

Since January 2021, Monique Olivier has also been indicted for complicity in the disappearance of Lydie Logé in 1993 in Orne. The body of the 29-year-old woman has never been found. Michel Fourniret, who died in May 2021, was indicted in December 2020 for kidnapping and sequestration followed by death.

While two investigations, from 1994 to 1998 and then from 2004 to 2009, resulted in no cases being investigated, the investigations were relaunched in 2018 after connections were made between DNA traces from organic compounds found in Michel Fourniret’s van and the DNA of Lydie Logé’s mother.