'Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil' on Netflix: Who are killer couple Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier's victims?
FRANCE: Crime documentaries have taken the cinema by storm. Such is the case of Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier, a French couple notorious as serial killers, with the husband being the mastermind and Olivier the accomplice. The husband, Michel Fourniret, confessed in June and July 2004 to the kidnapping, rape and murder of nine girls over a 14-year period in the 1980s and 1990s. He is also suspected of committing 10 other murders, 9 in France and 1 in Belgium.
Netflix miniseries 'Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil' explores one of Europe's most horrific crimes. The series takes us back to a time when all of France was terrified by the disappearance of a number of young girls and women from a specific area in the Ardennes region of France and Belgium over a period of nearly twenty years. The twist to the Netflix's docuseries, however, is that it focuses not on Fourniret, but on his partner in life and crime, Monique Olivier.
READ MORE
'The Motive' Review: Teen murderer's crime still unsolved, twist keeps you on the edge
Who were Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier?
The French couple gave a sick irony to the term "partner in crime." On the surface, Michel and Monique appeared to be a normal couple who looked sad and sometimes even depressed, but the reality was quite different. Some neighbors also pointed out that they looked like they were out of romance. Even if that was the case, their reality was quite different. The truth was that Michel Fourniret was a pervert and pedophile who had already served a long prison sentence once in the 1960s when he was found guilty of rape. In prison, he found a pen pal to whom he wrote every day, and soon developed romantic feelings for Monique Olivier, an ordinary woman with no profession or ambitions. The two eventually fell in love, and after Michel Fourniret was released from prison in 1987, he and Monique began their relationship and also moved in together. The couple also had a son Selim, whom they had some time after their relationship began.
As their romance blossomed, Michel's pedophilic urges grew as well. Many accounts of the couple say that Michel Fourniret was particularly thorough in examining and questioning his victims to learn how old they were and whether they had had previous sexual contact, as he was pathologically obsessed with the idea of virginity and his victims were always between 9 and 20 years old. Fourniret's strategy included driving around in his van to find young girls and women, luring them in, raping them, and eventually murdering them. After his arrest, Fourniret appeared innocent and stood by his actions, using pathologically perverted terms for his victims. When a co-worker wrote to him shortly after 2004 telling him to come clean to law enforcement, he sent back a letter with blank lines and sent a cruel letter asking police to find the remaining victims and fill in the blank lines with their names.
Isabelle Laville
A 17-year-old French girl. She disappeared in Auxerre, France, on her way home from school. The murder and rape of Laville wasn't sudden, but in advance, as the couple had seen her the day before and were targeting her. As Laville walked home from school, Olivier pretended to be lost and asked Laville to get in her car and help her find her way, which she did. As they drove off as planned, Fourniret was standing several miles from the original pickup point, pretending to have problems with his car. Olivier offered to give him a ride, as planned, and he got in the car. Fourniret strangled Laville with a rope before Olivier drugged her with Rohypnol. They took her to her house in Saint-Cyr-les-Colons, where Fourniret raped and murdered her. Laville's remains were found in a disused well in Bussy-en-Othe, where her remains were recovered more than eighteen years later, on July 11, 2006.
Fabienne Leroy
A 20-year-old girl. She disappeared in Mourmelon in 1988, and her body was later found in a nearby forest. When Olivier was heavily pregnant and on her way to the supermarket, the couple met Leroy in the supermarket parking lot. Pretending to be sick, the couple asked Leroy to join them in the car and show them the way to a doctor's office. After Leroy agreed, the pair drove to a forest near the military camp of Mourmelon-le-Grand. Fourniret ordered Olivier to examine Leroy's hymen to see if it was still intact, but Olivier refused. After raping Leroy, Fourniret shot her in the chest.
Jeanne-Marie Desramault
A 22-year-old French student. She disappeared in 1989 from the Charleville-Méziere train station, where she met the couple and agreed to go to their house after the couple made up false stories to lure her. Once there, Fourniret asked Desramault if she was a virgin, to which she replied in the negative and informed Fourniret that she had a boyfriend. In his rage, Fourniret attacked her and tried to strangle her. When she tried to escape, they taped her mouth shut with band-aids before Fourniret killed her.
Elisabeth Brichet
A 12-year-old Belgian girl. She disappeared in Namur in 1989 after playing with a friend. It was long suspected that this case was related to the Dutroux case. Fourniret led police to her gravesite on his estate in France.
Natacha Danais
The last known murder involved Natacha Danais, a 13-year-old French girl who disappeared in 1990. After luring her into his van and asking for directions, Fourniret stabbed Danais in the chest with a screwdriver and then dumped her body on the beach. Upon discovery, it was determined that Danais had been raped after the murder.
There were many names that appeared on the list of the murders of Fourniret, although some were found after years, there are still some disappearances that are unsolved.