French serial killer's ex-wife sentenced to life in prison for participation in three murders (2024)

A French court on Tuesday, December 19, sentenced the ex-wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret to life in prison for her role in three murders by her former husband. After 10 hours of deliberations, Monique Olivier was convicted of complicity in Fourniret's murder of two young women dating back decades, including 20-year-old British student Joanna Parrish and a nine-year-old girl.

Olivier, 75, should serve a minimum of 20 years behind bars, the court ruled. With her head lowered, her eyes half-closed, the accused listened to the verdict, looking impassive. She was convicted of playing a role in the abduction, sequestration and murder of Parrish and 18-year-old Marie-Angele Domece in 1988, aggravated by her role in the attempted rape of Domece and the rape of Parrish by Fourniret. She was also convicted of playing a role in the 2003 abduction, sequestration and murder of nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin, whose body has never been found despite intensive searches.

Fourniret died in 2021 aged 79 before he could be brought to trial for the three killings, meaning the trial of Olivier is the last chance for victims' families to find justice. Her former husband confessed to 11 murders before he died, but reports have suggested there could have been up to two dozen more.

'Long overdue'

Olivier is already serving a life sentence issued in 2008 for complicity in four other kidnappings and murders committed by Fourniret. A decade later she was sentenced to a further 20 years for complicity in another murder. Domece's remains have also never been found, while Parrish's naked body was recovered from the Yonne river in the French department of the same name. She had been beaten, drugged and raped.

"He used me," Olivier said about her husband on the trial's opening day. The couple divorced in 2010. Prosecutors argued that Fourniret could not have killed so easily without her. Olivier and Fourniret together had one son, Selim Olivier, who gave evidence at the trial last week, urging his mother to tell the court everything she knew.

Olivier expressed regret on the final day of her trial, asking the families of the victims to forgive her. "I ask for forgiveness," Olivier said ahead of sentencing. "Although I know that what I did is unforgivable."

Patrick Proctor, who was Joanna Parrish's fiance at the time of the murder, described the conviction as "long overdue recognition by the French justice system that the accused is responsible for the murders." He expressed regret that the police investigation at the time was "disjointed and unprofessional" and said the parties involved "will continue to feel this loss for the rest of our lives."

Throughout the trial, prosecutors highlighted Olivier's strategy of gaining the trust of Domece and Parrish knowing they would be murdered, as well as her decision to remain silent about the killing of Estelle Mouzin.

The accused often claimed to "not know" or "not remember" when asked about specific aspects of cases, a stance that made it difficult for the court to shed new light on the circ*mstances of the victims' deaths.