Forty years after the death of little Grégory, Marie-Ange Laroche still proclaims the innocence of her husband, Bernard Laroche, shot dead by Jean-Marie Villemin.
“I knew my husband. He was a nice person, I’m sure it’s not him.” Forty years after the death of little Grégory, found bound hand and foot in Vologne, in Docelles, in October 1984, Marie-Ange Laroche spoke this Sunday on the set of BFMTV.
A few days after the child’s death, her husband Bernard Laroche, the first cousin of Grégory’s father, Jean-Marie Villemin, was charged with murder and imprisoned, following the testimony of Murielle Bolle, then aged 15. She claimed to have seen Bernard Laroche with the little boy, before retracting her statement. Released in March 1985, he was shot dead by Jean-Marie Villemin.
Bernard Laroche at the Epinal courthouse, November 5, 1984. Photo AFP
“Je dis stop”
Four decades later, Marie-Ange Laroche is still convinced of her husband’s innocence. Among our colleagues, she deplores “the relentlessness of the investigators from the start”. “He would never have harmed a child,” she said.
The widow of Bernard Laroche assures that she will “never” forgive Jean-Marie Villemin.
We took away a husband, we took away a father.
Marie-Ange Laroche wholeheartedly hopes that the truth finally comes out. “We were destroyed, crushed, and today, it continues,” she confides to our colleagues. “Bernard Laroche suffered from it, today my children and my grandchildren are suffering from it. I say stop.”
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