Funeral postponed for Fourniret victim

14 July 2004

BRUSSELS – The funeral of Elisabeth Brichet, the Belgian girl murdered by suspected serial killer Michel Fourniret, will now not take place this Saturday.

The young girl’s body is still being examined by forensic experts and cannot be returned to her family on time, it was confirmed on Wednesday.

Definitive autopsy results to confirm the identity of the Belgian teenager “will not be known before next week,” said the Reims public prosecutor Yves Charpenel.

Fourniret, 62, was charged on Monday with the rape and murder of Elisabeth, who disappeared in 1989.

His wife Monique Olivier has been charged as an accomplice.

France on Tuesday issued a European arrest warrant on Fourniret for the suspected kidnap and murder of two girls, Celine Saison, 18, and Mananya Thumong, 13.

The two disappeared in 2000 and 2001 respectively.

The warrant, issued by the prosecutor of Charleville-Mezieres, would pave the way for the first trial of the suspected serial killer in his home country.

French police officers in Dinant are continuing to question Olivier about the murder of French teenager Natacha Danais, whose body was found on a beach in the Vendee in 1990.

Police are still trying to establish the exact facts of the case.

Around 30 investigations on cases linked to Fourniret and his wife are still ongoing in France.

These include the murder of Isabelle Laville, 17, in Auxerre in 1987, the disappearance of Marie-Angele Domece, 19, in 1988 and the killing of British student Joanna Parrish in 1990.

The police are still probing the murders of Fabienne Leroy, 20, in 1988, Jeanne-Marie Desramault, 22, in 1989 and Farida Hellegouarch, the wife of a Fourniret’s former cellmate.

Subject: Belgian news