Forty years on, unsolved murder of 'little Grégory' still grips France
Gregory Villemin was just four years old when he was tragically murdered on a fall day in 1984. His body was discovered in a river in eastern France, with his hands and feet bound, marking the start of one of the most haunting criminal cases in the country’s history.
The case of "little Gregory", as it became known, has haunted the judiciary, media and the French public for four decades, with its resolution just as elusive today as it was on October 16, 1984, when he was found.
Investigators have amassed close to 18,000 reports bound in 42 volumes over the 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 probe's twists and turns seemed to come straight from a TV mystery -- one suspect was murdered, an investigating magistrate who committed suicide, and charges brought several times, only to be dropped.
"I don't know how we survived," Jean-Marie Villemin, Gregory's father, said about the past 40 years in a comic book published recently, one of many works dedicated to the Gregory mystery.
'This is my revenge'
At first the investigation appeared to go quickly. A written note was sent to Jean-Marie Villemin saying: "This is my revenge, you sad fool."
He was jailed for five years for the killing and did 34 months of jail time.
(AFP)
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