For the second day in a row, the excavations undertaken in the Ardennes on Tuesday to find the body of Estelle Mouzin, whom Michel Fourniret confessed to having killed in 2003, proved unsuccessful, the remaining investigators convinced to be on a track "Very serious", according to the lawyers seized of the case.

This research, guided by the ex-wife and accomplice of the serial killer, Monique Olivier, will continue until the end of the week, Monique Olivier's lawyer, Me Richard Delgenes, told the press.

"Estelle's body must be in this area, it is obligatory"

Two excavators continued from 8 am the work started on Monday, returning plot by plot the approaches to a path in the communal wood of Issancourt-et-Rumel.

As on Monday, an archaeologist in support of the criminal identification teams participated in the operations, which also mobilized a drone.

The site is located 4 km from Ville-sur-Lumes, where, according to Fourniret's ex-wife, he kidnapped, raped and killed Estelle, in her sister's house.

The area had been designated by Monique Olivier to the examining magistrate Sabine Kheris during an interrogation on April 1.

The accomplice of the "Ogre des Ardennes" had then recognized for the first time a role in the kidnapping of Estelle Mouzin, kidnapped at nine years old 18 years ago on the way to school in Guermantes (Seine-et-Marne) .

During this interrogation, she had indicated a path at the entrance to the forest where she said she had accompanied Fourniret, before letting him go and bury the body.

“We haven't found it yet, but Monique Olivier confirmed that she was certain that it was there that she had dropped Fourniret.

Estelle's body must be in this area, it's obligatory, ”Me Delgenes told the press at the end of the afternoon.

Research started last June

"As soon as we have a virtual certainty that the body of Estelle Mouzin could have been deposited in the wood, next door, there is no reason that we cannot find", he said. added. But "it takes a bit of luck (...) there is nothing simple, especially 18 years later", it "depends on where Michel Fourniret was able to put the body, buried, not buried". "A little more than half" of the area, "the easiest part for the work of the excavators" has already been raked, said Didier Seban, lawyer for the Mouzin family, specifying that the investigators were now going to search a "steeper, more complex" area. They must also examine Wednesday a depression spotted on the edge of this area by a pensioner living in the immediate vicinity, who had informed the gendarmes of this element, he said.

Monique Olivier "lied a lot" but also considering the elements of the file, "one can think that this time, there is sincerity in what she says (...) one believes that it is really serious », He noted.

"We are in the perimeter of Michel Fourniret, this place really makes sense", "it is not only what Monique Olivier says, it is the environment and (...) the way in which he behaved with the other victims, who make us say that we have a very serious lead to find Estelle, ”he insisted.

As part of search operations started last June, investigators began to search the area in early April, before clearing it to facilitate searches.

Justice

Estelle Mouzin case: Eric Mouzin notes "real progress" in the research of his daughter's body

Justice

Michel Fourniret: A body exhumed in the Yonne to verify if it is one of the victims of the serial killer

  • Michel Fourniret

  • Investigation

  • Murder

  • Estelle Mouzin

  • Justice