The “fairly precise memory” by Monique Olivier will it make it possible to find the body of Lydie Logé, as her lawyer hopes? 31 years after the disappearance of this woman, whom Michel Fourniret is suspected of having killed, his ex-wife took part in a third day of research in Orne on Thursday.
“We have elements that allow us to be optimistic”Mr. Richard Delgenes told journalists in front of the Argentan gendarmerie where his client was questioned in the morning.
“I had little hope because 30 years later it is difficult but given the participation of Ms. Olivier today, I tell myself that it is possible to find the body of Lydie Logé”.
The ex-wife of Michel Fourniret left during the afternoon for different sites, notably stopping for a few minutes in the Tinchebray quarries, in a convoy made up of several gendarmerie vans, according to journalists from the AFP on site.
The convoy returned to the Argentan gendarmerie around 6 p.m.
An escort of gendarmes during the trip of Monique Olivier to Saint-Christophe-le-Jajolet, in Orne, on the site of the former home of Lydie Logé, January 21, 2025 / LOU BENOIST / AFP
“As for where the body of Lydie Logé may be located, we do not have the location as such (…) but Ms. Olivier gave details”added Mr. Delgenes. “Given the location described, I think we can find the victim’s body”.
“This morning is the third day of travel here in Orne to try to find the body of Lydie Logé and the objective of this morning was to put in the reports (…) all the depositions of Monique Olivier and the results of the investigations which had been carried out so far”explained Mr. Delgenes.
Since Tuesday, Monique Olivier, 76 years old, has been taken to different locations in Calvados and Orne, as well as to the home of Lydie Logé at the time of the events in Saint-Christophe-le-Jajolet (Orne).
Monique Olivier, according to her lawyer, “a fairly precise memory” of what happened more than 30 years ago.
Richard Delgenes, January 23, 2025, in Argentan, in Orne / Damien MEYER / AFP
“She was very willing, in any case she answered all the questions, the sincerity was there”added Me Delgenes, about his client, sentenced twice, in 2008 and in 2023, to life imprisonment, notably for complicity in a total of seven murders of young girls, including that of Estelle Mouzin.
Lydie Logé, mother of a seven-year-old boy, disappeared on December 18, 1993 at the age of 29 in Saint-Christophe-le-Jajolet, a small village of 240 inhabitants shortly after doing Christmas shopping with a friend. .
“The name of Fourniret”
While two investigations from 1994 to 1998 then from 2004 to 2009 resulted in dismissals, the investigations were relaunched in 2018 after connections established between the DNA traces from organic compounds found in Michel Fourniret’s van and the DNA of Lydie Logé’s mother.
In January 2021, Monique Olivier was indicted for complicity in arrest, kidnapping, detention or arbitrary confinement in this investigation.
Monique Olivier, November 28, 2023, before the Nanterre criminal court, in Hauts-de-Seine / Miguel MEDINA / AFP/Archives
Her ex-husband, nicknamed The Ogre of the Ardennes, had been indicted for kidnapping and sequestration followed by death. He died a few months later, in May 2021.
Michel Fourniret was sentenced in 2008 to life imprisonment, notably for seven murders of young girls committed between 1987 and 2001. In 2018, he was again sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of Farida Hammiche.
According to Michel Lerat, the mayor of Boischampré, of which Saint-Christophe-le-Jajolet has become a delegated commune, Lydie Logé and her family had settled since “a few months” in their house when the mother had disappeared.
He had rubbed shoulders with the young woman, who had asked him for a secretarial internship. “three, four weeks” within the community of municipalities. Mr. Lerat described Lydie Logé as “really serious”punctual and “quite pleasant”.
“When the name Fourniret appeared, people became aware of what must have happened”declared the elected official to AFP.