Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Netflix France 10:05 p.m., March 21, 2024

40 years later, justice ordered this Thursday, at the request of the Villemin family, “additional expertise” in the case of little Grégory. The Dijon Court of Appeal granted “technical verifications and scientific expertise complementary to the acts already ordered” previously, declared the Haut-Jussé prosecutor. 

Justice has ordered, at the family's request, "additional expertise" in the case of little Grégory Villemin, whose murder remains unsolved 40 years later, the public prosecutor in Dijon said on Thursday.

“Justice gives itself the means to try to arrive at the truth”

The investigating chamber of the Dijon Court of Appeal "essentially" granted "technical verifications and scientific expertise complementary to the acts already ordered" previously, prosecutor Thierry Pocquet of Haut-Jussé told AFP, confirming information from RTL radio. The prosecutor also confirmed that this decision responded "to requests for acts from the civil party", the parents of little Grégory, Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin.

On October 16, 1984, the body of their son, aged four, was found bound hand and foot in Vologne, in the Vosges. The investigators first turned towards a cousin of the father. Charged with murder and imprisoned, he was released, but killed shortly after by Jean-Marie Villemin. The case then focused on a “crow” who wrote numerous anonymous letters threatening the Villemins, without managing to resolve the mystery.

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Nearly 40 years later, "we are satisfied" to have obtained new analyses, reacted to AFP Me Marie-Christine Chastant-Morand, one of the parents' lawyers. “It shows that ultimately, justice gives itself the means to (...) try to arrive at the truth.” According to her, the family requested additional DNA analyzes "to make connections between certain people in the family and the DNA profiles and mixtures that we have on file", as well as "voice audiometry".

“Given the progress of science, there is a feasibility study which has been ordered, to determine what it is possible to do in terms of comparing voices with the recordings of the crow that we have on file” , she explained. The new expertise will focus in particular on comparisons of the DNA found on the cords which surrounded the child's body, his anorak, his chin and certain letters from the "crow". Comparisons will be made with the DNA of Michel Villemin, the boy's uncle and several members of the extended family.