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Serial killer main murder suspect Serial killer main murder suspect
(about 3 hours later)
A 65-year-old self-confessed French serial killer is now the main suspect for the murder of a Gloucestershire student in 1990. A 65-year-old self-confessed French serial killer has been formally accused of the kidnap, rape and murder of a Gloucestershire student in 1990.
Michel Fourniret is being questioned by the French authorities over the rape, kidnap and murder of Joanna Parrish, 20, Gloucestershire Police said. Michel Fourniret was named as chief suspect in the murder of 20-year-old Joanna Parrish, killed while working as an English assistant in Auxerre.
Fourniret, who goes on trial this month for seven unrelated murders, denies any involvement in the killing. Fourniret goes on trial this month for seven other murders, but denies any involvement in Ms Parrish's death.
Ms Parrish was working in the French city of Auxerre when she was killed. Her father welcomed the naming but said French police should have acted sooner.
Fourniret has also been charged with the kidnap, murder and attempted rape of Marie-Angele Domece. Annoyed by delays
The 19-year-old disabled student went missing near Auxerre in July 1988. Fourniret is charged with murdering seven other women Roger Parrish said: "It is what we've wanted for a number of years, but at the same time we are annoyed it has taken this long.
Fourniret's wife and suspected accomplice Monique Olivier, 59, who accused her husband of the Parrish and Domece murders, was also brought before judges for questioning. "They promised us this in 2005 and there's no more evidence to implicate Fourniret now that there was back then."
Detective Superintendent Bernie Kinsella of Gloucestershire Police said: "This news is encouraging and means that Fourniret and Olivier can now be formally questioned about Joanna Parrish's murder, which is long overdue and is to be welcomed. However, it is thought French police acted after receiving a letter from Fourniret asking to be put on trial for three additional murders, including that of Joanna Parrish.
"We are continually in contact with Joanna's family and providing support where possible." She was on a year out from her French language degree at Leeds University when she went missing in May 1990.
Joanna's father, Roger Parrish, said the family did have some doubts because of anomalies in the evidence and their [Fourniret and Olivier] stories. Wife 'lured victims'
"We really just want to know the truth. If Fourniret and Olivier had nothing to do with Joanna's murder then at the very least we can put them out of our mind." Her body was found in a river near Auxerre a day after she met a man who answered her advert offering English lessons.
Lawyer Bernard Castaigne said Fourniret would be fully questioned over the two new cases after his upcoming trial. Since his arrest in 2003, Michel Fourniret's confessions relating to the deaths of several women near the French-Belgium border have earned him the nickname "The Monster of the Ardennes".
Fourniret goes on trial along with Ms Olivier on 27 March for a string of murders committed in France and Belgium between 1987 and 2001. Fourniret goes on trial later this month for seven other murders
Arrested in Belgium in 2003, he is charged with murdering six young women in France and one in Belgium, aged between 12 and 22. Much of the evidence against him came from his wife Monique Olivier, who said she lured the women victims into her husband's van.
He is also charged on several counts of rape. The couple go on trial on 27 March for the murder of seven women in France and Belgium - the youngest aged 12 - between 1987 and 2001.
His wife's accusations to Belgian investigators in June 2004 led to the charges against Fourniret, who later admitted to several of the killings. Their naming as suspects in the Parrish murder (in French mise en examen) means French police can formally question them afterwards.
Nicknamed the "Monster of the Ardennes" by French and Belgian media, Fourniret has already served time behind bars for voyeurism and assault. Fourniret has already served time behind bars for assault. It was there he met Olivier, a volunteer prison visitor.
It was there he met Olivier, a volunteer prison visitor.