How did Michel Paul Fourniret meet Monique Olivier? 'Ogre of the Ardennes' made sick pact with wife to find victims
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PARIS, FRANCE: The relationship of Michel Paul Fourniret, a French serial killer who died on May 10, 2021 while serving life in prison without parole, and Monique Olivier, his wife who was a former nurse, began via correspondence. The couple met at a prison gate when Fourniret was released after serving a sexual assault sentence in the 1980s.
Fourniret confessed to killing 11 women from 1987 to 2003 and his wife Olivier, whose horrifying story is featured in Netflix's ‘Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil', helped Fourniret fulfill his sick needs. She went around in her car to pick up the victims - women and girls aged between 12 and 22 - with their young son Selim Fourniret in the back seat. Fourniret's female victims were Isabelle Laville, Fabienne Leroy, Jeanne-Marie Desramault, Elisabeth Brichet, Natacha Danais, Celine Saison, Mananya Thumphong, Farida Hammiche, and Marie-Angèle Domèce, reports BBC. Estelle Mouzin, Fourniret's youngest victim, was murdered in 2003. She was just nine.
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How did Michel Paul Fourniret meet Monique Olivier?
Olivier responded to an ad Fourniret placed looking for a pen pal, according to The Guardian. Fourniret, who worked as a draughtsman, electrician, carpenter, and even a supervisor in a Belgian school, was in jail for a sexual assault. Letters seized by investigators showed that Olivier and Fourniret made a pact in 1987 when he was released from prison. According to the pact, if he killed her first husband, who she claimed had abused her, she would help him find young virgins. The list included Joanna Parrish, a 20-year-old Leeds University language student who was found dead in a river in Auxerre in 1990, as per BBC.
Details about Michel Paul Fourniret
Fourniret was detained by Belgian police on June 26, 2003, after his alleged bungled kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl, as per Journeyman. In the 2008 trial, he was convicted of seven of the killings. He died in 2021 after suffering from heart problems and mental degeneration, as per The Mirror. Following Fourniret's death, Richard Delgene, Olivier's lawyer, said, "Michel Fourniret is taking his secrets with him. As we still have a lot of cases in progress, Monique Olivier will remain the only one in the defendants’ box to be held accountable." Currently, Olivier is serving a 28-year sentence for her involvement in five of her husband’s murders, reports Express.
'My parents are dead'
In 2018, Fourniret and Olivier's son Selim Fourniret spoke about his parents. “Selim Fourniret no longer exists. My parents are dead," he said, according to Get To Text. "Now it's Monique Olivier and Michel Fourniret. They are two strangers.” He also spoke about his father. “He often got angry over trifles, never physical violence, just screaming, verbal violence. He was very bossy. I even wanted Monique more than Michel because we had a bond, she and I. If the relatives of the victims manage to forgive them, I will be able to do so. But as it will not be possible, I will not be able,” he said at the time.
