EXCLUSIVE
"Madam judge, I have nothing to lose (…) if I have made a bullshit, I agree to pay for it", declared Michel Fourniret to Sabine Khéris at her first interrogation, Wednesday March 4. But it was the next day, during the second afternoon of the hearing, that "the Ogre of the Ardennes" confessed. In his statements, which Europe 1 was able to consult exclusively, the cowardly serial killer: "It is a heavy burden to bear, but that does not prevent from acknowledging the facts". "What facts do you recognize?" Reminds the judge. "To have taken his life", confesses for the first time Michel Fourniret, 17 years after the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin, in Guermantes, in 2003.
>> STORY - Disappearance of Estelle Mouzin: from the first suspicions to Fourniret's confession
"A being who is no longer there through my fault"
In front of one of Estelle Mouzin's photos, Michel Fourniret admits: "It is possible that this image upsets me (...) and I recognize there a being who is no longer there by my fault". "Tell me more," asked the judge. "The abduction of a being is a hell of a dumpling and you are not proud of it," replies the serial killer.
He then evokes in hollow his operating mode and his feelings when he accosted a victim, without naming Estelle Mouzin: "after having contacted this person, you are really bad in your shoes and it can't last, you have to do stop, "he repeats. Describing himself as "a damn proud", he adds a little later about him: "You know very well what you did, you made a bullshit but you say to yourself 'you made the idiot, dude , go away'."
" I crossed the motorized conurbation, and there was a suitable docking "On the precise conditions under which he would have approached and kidnapped the little girl, Michel Fourniret replied in snippets. "I would say that she was not alone but that she had to be with one or more girlfriends. (…) I crossed the motorized area and there was a suitable docking". Confronted with the plans and photos of the place of Estelle's disappearance near a bakery, Michel Fourniret seems to partially recover his memory: "it tells me something, it speaks to me, I have the feeling that you are on the right ", he replies before insisting on being brought to Guermantes.
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"It would be positive, (...) the main thing for me is to see with my mirettes the place where I accosted her and where I brought her in my van". The judge ends up asking him: "We are willing to go to Guermantes, but can we be sure of your help?". Fourniret then assures: "You have in front of you a guy who is in good faith and who does not try to surround you."
No indication of the location of the body
But when the magistrate's questions are more concrete, the serial killer tirelessly opposes her "the absence of image" in her head. He is unable to describe how he would have "killed" Estelle. "I couldn't tell you and if images came back to me I would throw them out the window because we only want to keep what we are proud of," he explains.
" When you are hard pressed with a body that you do not know what to do, you do anything to escape reality, quickly get rid of it "Likewise, these three afternoons of hearing, which were lengthily prepared, do not allow us to know where Michel Fourniret would have deposited the body of his victim. The only explanation for his lack of memory on this point, the serial killer gives his chilling feeling: "What you have to understand, Madam judge is that when you are hard pressed with a body of which you do not know what do, you do anything to flee reality, quickly get rid of it (…) and reason and panic collide. "
"All roads lead to you"
During these hours of face to face with Fourniret, the magistrate tries however by all means to bring "the Ogre of the Ardennes" to give himself up, in the presence of his lawyers. Thus, she approaches her past, her associates, her former work colleagues. She presents him with a road map, uses his memories, his van trips in the early 2000s ...
>> HONDELATTE RACONTE - The disappearance of Estelle Mouzin
Then she lists the evidence against him. "Reasonably, all roads lead to you", breathes the judge to a Michel Fourniret repeating in a loop that "nothing makes tilt", that he has "no click" in his head. On several occasions, in his interrogations, the serial killer mentions a mental blockage, a "resistance" which would prevent him from making a more complete confession, claiming nevertheless to the magistrate: "know that I am sincere with you and I do not don't tell bad guys ".
" We feel like there is a storm under your head and that there are things you don't want to tell us about "The examining magistrate Sabine Khéris therefore had to use patience in front of a Michel Fourniret, chess player, inciting him to advance his pawns: "Go ahead, tell me what you are sorry for, let me glimpse the plan you have in mind, "he suggests, before deploring:" You are unfathomable, we don't know what you want ".
A magistrate with questions sometimes direct, sometimes diverted, who believes to guess in the serial killer a great disturbance. "We feel like there is a storm under your head and that there are things you don't want to tell us about," she said. Fourniret then evokes a "maelstrom", a "brake" which would prevent him from "letting go".
Other auditions to come
But for lack of precise indications to find the body of Estelle and to crosscheck the statements of the serial killer, the judge and the investigators will still have to conduct other hearings before proceeding to possible searches or transport on the scene. During his last interrogation, Friday March 6, "the Ogre of the Ardennes" - suffering from real memory troubles - thus closed the door which he had however ajar the day before: "the circumstances, the continuation, the course, c 'is in the dungeons'. Michel Fourniret is still trying to justify himself: "It is not necessarily a question of blackout, it is rather the fact of having committed serious acts and of wanting to erase them."