Vosges: In the Grégory affair, “we are getting closer to the truth”

A judge who commits suicide, a suspect murdered, three indictments canceled. “A total annihilation (…) I wonder how we survived,” confesses Jean-Marie Villemin, the father of the 4-year-old child, in “Grégory”, a graphic novel released recently, like so many works dedicated to this sprawling affair. “17,765 procedural documents, 42 volumes, seven investigating magistrates,” summarizes Philippe Astruc, public prosecutor in Dijon, where the investigation is still being conducted.

“The justice system was completely dismal. The investigating judge was incompetent,” says Thierry Moser, historic lawyer in the case, who has defended the Villemin couple for thirty-nine years. 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 confrontations with known DNA,” explains Attorney General Philippe Astruc. 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.”

Which this Sunday mentioned the human track more than the scientific one. “Forty years and they haven’t spoken, we are told, but you never know,” she declared, believing that “we are getting closer to the truth.” She also insisted on the fact that “the real driving force behind Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin is knowing the truth, knowing who was there and who did what.”

“Yes, DNA can speak 40, 50 years later,” believes Professor Christian Doutremepuich, founder of the Bordeaux laboratory specializing in unsolved cases. “I am a little skeptical about that,” believes the former gendarmerie colonel Étienne Sesmat, first director of investigation into the case. “Because we have no DNA linked to the case but only contact DNA,” explains the investigator.

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

“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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