Michel Fourniret French serial killer. Date of Birth: 04.04.1942 Country: France

Biography of Michel Fourniret

Michel Fourniret, a French serial killer, was active from 1987 to 2003. During this period, he raped and murdered at least 7 (according to some sources - 9) underage girls and young women in Belgium and France. In 2000, he moved to Belgium and found work as a forester in the Ardennes. At that time, Fourniret was married and had a young son. People who knew him described him as harmless, quiet, rational, and calm. However, behind this facade, he was a cold-blooded and ruthless maniac.

It is said that it was his unassuming appearance that made it so easy for him to deceive his victims. Some of them, initially skeptical of a stranger, would agree to "help" Fourniret after his "heartfelt" apologies or allow him to give them a ride home. It was on these country roads that the criminal hunted for his victims. Once deceived, he would bring them to the basement of his home, where he would rape and often strangle them. His victims were girls and young women aged 12 to 17. They were French and Belgian, and what attracted the maniac to them, according to his own admission, was the "gracefulness and kindness of young girls."

Fourniret was arrested in 2003 when a 13-year-old girl, who was kidnapped and was about to become his next victim, managed to escape and provide an accurate description of her abductor to the police. The following day, Michel Fourniret was apprehended. The investigation quickly concluded that this kidnapping was not his first offense. His wife, Monique Olivier, revealed to the authorities information about eight additional murders committed by her husband. Soon, the names of Elisabeth Brichet, a 12-year-old girl who went missing in 1989, and Céline Saison, an 18-year-old, and Manyana Thumpong, a 13-year-old girl who disappeared in the French Ardennes and whose body was found in Belgium in 2001, were mentioned.

In total, Fourniret was accused of nine crimes, but he was only tried for seven proven offenses. Interestingly, Monique Olivier, who turned out to be an accomplice in her husband's horrific crimes, decided to "betray" him after hearing the sentence imposed on her "colleague" Michelle Martin, the wife and accomplice of another serial killer named Marc Dutroux. The terrifying number "30 years" prompted Monique to go to the police, hoping that her truthful confession would result in a less severe sentence. It turned out that she had witnessed and participated in several crimes, which she had kept secret out of fear of her husband. Monique provided detailed descriptions of how he committed the abductions. Fourniret would bury the bodies of his victims after keeping them captive for a couple of days.

During the trial, it was revealed that Olivier had helped her husband kidnap girls in exchange for his promise to kill her ex-husband. They made this deal when they first met while Fourniret was serving a sentence for sexual assault in the 1980s. Ironically, Fourniret never fulfilled his promise. In May 2008, the court sentenced Michel Fourniret to life imprisonment for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of seven girls. More than 30 relatives of the victims were plaintiffs in the case. Fourniret only partially admitted to his crimes, refusing to acknowledge several murders. Monique, who was found guilty of being an accomplice in one murder and an accessory to six others, was also sentenced to life imprisonment, with the possibility of seeking parole no earlier than 28 years.