After years of denials, Michel Fourniret, indicted for the abduction and murder in 2003 of Estelle Mouzin in Seine-et-Marne, "recognized his participation in the facts", said on Saturday March 7 the Paris prosecutor's office , confirming information from Le Point and Europe 1.

The 77-year-old serial killer, who has long denied his involvement in the disappearance of the nine-year-old girl, confessed during the three days of interrogations that ended Friday evening in the office of the investigating judge Sabine Kheris.

The prosecution did not indicate whether Michel Fourniret provided indications on the location of the body and the sequence of events.

In this case, the one who is nicknamed "the ogre of the Ardennes" was indicted for "kidnapping and forcible confinement followed by death" on November 27, after a spectacular reversal of his ex-wife and accomplice, Monique Olivier, who had ended up contradicting his alibi.

Ambiguous statements

But the serial killer, who often played cat and mouse with the investigators, had not however formally confessed, according to his hearing that had been able to consult AFP.

"It is quite possible, even very likely, that I was the author of this disappearance but I do not know what to tell you," he said when he was charged, ensuring that nothing was "tilting" in his head when confronted with a photo of the girl.

"In the impossibility where I am to say to you: 'yes, I am responsible for his disappearance', in this impossibility there, I urge you to consider me as guilty", he had added while ensuring to be "a player chess ", enjoying the confrontation with his judge.

Suspect already convicted

The evening of January 9, 2003, Estelle Mouzin had disappeared when she returned from school in Guermantes, in Seine-et-Marne. His body has never been found. Michel Fourniret has been suspected several times, the first time in 2006, but he was dismissed the following year.

Speculation about his involvement had been revived after his hearing by judge Kheris, in March 2018, in the investigations into the unsolved murders of Joanna Parrish and Marie-Angèle Domece, killed in 1988 and 1990 in Yonne.

Michel Fourniret had declared that the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin was "a subject to be dug up", estimating to have the "ass shit" in this affair. The following year, the investigations were resumed by judge Kheris.

Described by psychiatric expert Daniel Zagury as "the most successful French serial killer", Michel Fourniret has already been convicted for the murders of eight young women or adolescent girls between 1987 and 2001.

With AFP and Reuters

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