Conviction of Monique Olivier. A bittersweet victory for the victims’ families and a new page to write

2023-12-20 20:22:56

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS – Tuesday, December 19, in the evening, the verdict fell after 10 hours of deliberation: Monique Olivier was found guilty of complicity in the kidnappings, sequestration and murders of young Marie-Angèle Domèce, Joanna Parrish and little Estelle Mouzin . She is sentenced to life imprisonment with a security period of 20 years. A verdict welcomed with relief by the families who, however, underline the fight they had to wage to obtain justice, and who have already announced that, if a page is turned, they will now work to ensure that their ordeal is not in vain and are used by other families still waiting for answers.

“The sentence of life imprisonment is just, adequate and proportionate to the extreme seriousness of the facts and the personality of the accused. concludes the president of the Nanterre Assize Court after the verdict is announced.

An analysis shared by the civil parties and their lawyers, who nevertheless recall the difficulties they had to face even in the courtroom.

“For the victims who waited so long, who fought so hard for a judgment to take place, it is obviously a decision which gives them satisfaction after a very trying trial,” comments Mr Didier Séban, the lawyer for Éric Mouzin, father of Estelle, at the end of the hearing. The council, however, recalls the long fight that had to be fought to get to this point. “It’s a victory against justice, for justice,” asserts the lawyer.

Twenty-year obstacle course

Joanna Parrish’s dad, very moved, confirms his family’s satisfaction after this verdict. He asks for a moment of contemplation in memory of the victims of the Fourniret/Olivier couple and hopes that this moment of justice will allow them to move forward: “We hope that now we can remember the smiling Joanna as her many friends remember her.” The young woman’s brother, however, denounces the lack of professionalism and tenacity of certain actors in the French judicial system.

Reproaches shared by Estelle Mouzin’s family. Of course, she is pleased that justice has been done, but she also highlights the long obstacle course that was imposed on them by the institutions and the pain accentuated by the wait: “Twenty years where we were exposed to investigative errors, ego battles, imagining the unbearable and never being able to let go. We are all the Estelle generation today”, explains Estelle, the daughter of Éric Mouzin’s partner. A twist of life meant that after his separation from the mother of the missing child, he started a new life with a woman who had a daughter named Estelle. The latter also testified, during the trial, to the difficulty of being called that in a family where the return of another Estelle was so desired.

The bodies of Marie-Angèle and Estelle still not found

This too long wait resulted in Fourniret dying before this trial, deplores the Mouzin family. Furthermore, the bodies of Marie-Angèle and Estelle have not been found, and little is known about their last moments…

So there is no question that all this suffering was in vain. It is thanks to the tireless fight of Éric Mouzin, and the association he created, that the center for unsolved crimes and serial crimes was created. And Estelle’s dad doesn’t intend to stop there. “We must ask the public authorities that the investigation systems be improved so that the cold case center is not saturated, he claims, that the suffering endured serves a purpose and that it is not just the trial of Monique Olivier.”

Because everyone is aware that many gray areas remain on the couple’s criminal journey and that there remain other families who today do not know what has become of their loved ones.

The families of the victims of Fourniret and Olivier, their supporters, their lawyers, show a united bloc. Unbreakable bonds were formed during this long and painful fight. And it is very clear that for this united group, born from pain, if one page is turned, another will be written, so that their peers obtain justice in turn, and the answers that they themselves did not have. not always obtained.