French and Dutch police join ‘new Dutroux’ case

1 July 2004

BRUSSELS – Dutch and French police have joined an investigation into the suspected crimes of a French forestry worker living in Belgium who has confessed to killing six girls, it was reported on Thursday.

The man, 62 year convicted paedophile old Michel Fourniret, was on Thursday being questioned in Belgium by French police after confessing to the six murders.

During the questioning he admitted to burying two of his victims at his former home, Satou Chateau near the town of Donchery in the heavily wooded border region between Belgium and France, the prosecutor in the French city of Reims, Yves Charpenel, explained.

Charpenal added that as soon as police had finished talking to Fourniret they would start to search for the girls’ bodies.

“Once we have details about the disappearances, we will start digging as soon as possible,” he said.

Fourniret confessed to the killings after his wife Monique Olivier told police he had murdered nine people.

But the authorities already believe the true toll of the Frenchman’s victims could be as high as a dozen.

Dutch police want to investigate whether there are links between Fourniret and a number of unresolved murders and disappearances in recent years in Dutch Limburg, it was reported on Thursday.

Fourniret denies three of the murders his wife accuses him of, including murdering a babysitter that he and Olivier asked to look after their young son.

The identity of the babysitter is still unknown, but she is known to have come from the Brussels region, to have been blonde and to have spoken good French.

She disappeared in 1993.

Olivier, who is also being questioned by police, said she came home to find her husband and the babysitter naked and that he strangled the young girl to silence her.

Fourniret also denies murdering Céline Saison and Manyana Thumpong, who disappeared in the French Ardennes in May 2000 and 2001.

Olivier has said to police Fourniret would tell her he was going out to “hunt”, which she knew he meant he was looking for another young victim.

He allegedly would ask young girls for directions and, if they appeared afraid, would pretend to be offended until they came close enough to get them into his car before commiting rape and killing them 24 to 48 hours afterwards.
 

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news