Ex-wife of serial killer to serve life in prison for involvement in Gloucestershire woman's death
Joanna Parrish - a Leeds University student - was kidnapped and strangled while working at a school in Auxerre in 1990
Last updated 19th Dec 2023
A woman has been found guilty of involvement in the murders of three people, including Leeds University student Joanna Parrish from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
At 75 years of age, Monique Olivier, who was tried for the third time, was asked about her involvement in the kidnapping and killing of two young women and one girl.
Olivier was found guilty of complicity in her murder, as well as those of Marie-Angele Domece in 1988 and Estelle Mouzin in 2003.
The ex-wife of Michel Fourniret, serial killer and rapist who died in prison in 2021 while serving a life sentence for his crimes, appeared at the bar in Nanterre, alone this time.
The families of three victims held out hope in a 3-week trial, which started on November 28, to get answers to decades of questions.
One of their victims, Joanna Parrish, was a 20-year-old English professor from Gloucestershire who lived in Leeds before moving to France to teach in Auxerres, south of Paris.
She was tricked and held by the couple, before Fourniret attempted to rape her and later murdered her.
Her body was found in a river on 17th of May, 1990.
Jean-Luc Ployé, court psychologist with 40 years of experience profiling serial killers, said: "It’s a long, difficult and painful trial, especially for the victims’ families. It’s particularly important to them."
"Monique Olivier made her own choices. She could have left Michel Fourniret, which was proven throughout the trial, but she didn’t, and it’s because she found a personal interest in having met this predator, which was very hard to hear for the victims’ families."
Mr Ployé analysed the behaviour of the couple back in 2005, and was asked to share his expertise in this trial.
After careful analysis of Monique Olivier's psychology, and speculation over her IQ levels, Mr Ployé assured the killer's wife was not manipulated by her ex husband.
He said: "I was asked to analyse what we call the ‘couple’s systemics’, meaning how the couple functions. We cannot try to psychologically understand Monique Olivier without referring to Michel Fourniret and the expectations they hold for one another."
"What we have to remember is that Monique Olivier has a standard level of IQ, she has a great situational intelligence. She can adapt very easily."
Monique Olivier was also tried for her role in the murders and kidnaps of Marie-Angèle Domèce and Estelle Mouzin.
Both Domèce and Mouzin's bodies were never recovered.
She was the last person who could shed a light on some of the unanswered questions remaining from the atrocities committed by Fourniret, known as the 'Ogre of the Ardennes.'
During the trial, she showed previously unshown emotions, which Mr Ployé described as a 'manipulation' technique.
He said: "Her regret is inauthentic; she's someone who can adapt easily and she felt the need to say words like ‘I’m ashamed. I’m a monster. I regret it.’ It was for the victims’ families, but it essentially was manipulation."
Olivier was an active accomplice in all three murders, as well as a previous four murders, for which she was given a life sentence.
She will now serve life in prison for her role in Parrish, Domèce and Mouzin's murders, and die in prison.