Gregory Villemin was four years old when he was murdered on an autumn day in 1984, his hands and feet bound when his body was found in a river in eastern France.
The case of “Little Gregory”, as it was known, has been troubling the judiciary, the media and the French public for four decades, and its decision is still as difficult today as it was on October 16, 1984, when he was found.
Investigators have collected about 18,000 reports in 42 volumes over the past decades, and seven investigating judges have worked on the case, said Philippe Astruc, chief prosecutor in the eastern city of Dijon, where the investigation is still open.
At times, the twists and turns of the investigation seemed straight out of television — one suspect was killed, the investigating magistrate committed suicide and charges were brought several times, only to be dropped.
“I don’t know how we survived,” said Jean-Marie Villemin, Gregory’s father, about the past 40 years in a recently published comic book, one of many works dedicated to the mystery of Gregory.
– ‘This is my revenge’ –
At first the investigation seemed to move quickly. A written note was sent to Jean-Marie Villemin saying: “This is revenge, you sad fool.”
Villemin, who was 26 at the time, and his wife Christine, 24, had been receiving threatening letters and anonymous phone calls for years.
The murder investigation began to focus on the extended Villemin family. There was a media frenzy, with one reporter even hiding a microphone in a family member’s wardrobe in hopes of recording a confession.
Investigating magistrate Jean-Michel Lambert hoped that the case would give him the break he was hoping for in his first job in the judiciary.
In less than three weeks the 32-year-old sued Bernard Laroche, a cousin of Gregory’s father, who was later released on bail.
– ‘They can’t’ –
Gregory’s father was convinced that Laroche was his son’s killer. In March 1985, weeks after Laroche’s release, Villemin shot him to death.
He was sentenced to five years for murder and served 34 months in prison.
The investigation touched the heart of Gregory’s mother, who was charged with murder in 1985, but the charges were dropped due to errors made by magistrate Lambert’s investigation.
“The work done by the judges was sad,” said Thierry Moser, Villemins’ lawyer who has been in the case for 39 years. “The investigating magistrate was not able to work properly.”
Lambert committed suicide in 2017.
Subsequent investigators failed to make any progress. In 2017, charges were brought against Gregory’s aunt and uncle, Jacqueline and Marcel Jacob, as well as Murielle Bolle, a teenager who had previously given a statement of testimony against Laroche.
Within a year, all three cases were dismissed on legal technicalities.
After decades of failure, there is now hope that modern DNA analysis and voice recognition software can help identify the man, or people, who tormented the Villemin family for years.
“I’m very optimistic,” Moser said.
The lawyer in this case, Francois Saint-Pierre, said it is still possible to salvage the investigation. “Today we are able to solve the mystery of Pharaoh, so why can’t this one happen?” he said.
But Etienne Sesmat, a former gendarmerie colonel who worked on the initial murders, said that, at worst, the police never found DNA that was specific to the crimes, found in blood or semen.
“All we have is a DNA connection” that doesn’t allow for firm conclusions, he said.
Sesmat, who published a book on the case, said that as far as he knew, it was “confirmed” that the killer was Bernard Laroche, a view he shared with the Villemin couple’s lawyers.
Some lawyers have suggested the case will never be solved, but Dijon chief prosecutor Astruc dismissed that speculation.
“We have to move on,” he said. “We owe it to this little boy and his parents.”
mlx-lv/jh/sjw/js
Source link
