To this day, nobody has been found guilty of the murder., The Gist: This French documentary, spanning five roughly hour-long episodes, exhaustively follows the details of the murder of young Gregory Villemin in 1984, but also the terrible harassment that preceded the boys death. 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The little boys mother, Christine Villemin, told police that her son was playing in the front yard of their home when he vanished. The case was reopened in 2000 for DNA testing on the stamp of the anonymous letter, but this proved inconculsive. What We Know. Your money cant give you back your son. Prosecutor Jean-Jacques Bosc said investigators had targeted "people very close to the heart of this case" and hoped to provide answers to the questions they had. Lawyers for the accused couple say they strongly deny the allegations. Hours before the boy was discovered, his hands and feet tied, his uncle said he had received a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped him. In the beginning, the primary suspect was Bernard Laroche, the first cousin of Jean-Marie Villemin. It happened over 30 years ago Affaire Grgory, The Case of Grgory in English. The boy's murder . The investigation into the four-year-olds murder did not begin well. Its the opposite of sexy. A fourth, said to be the victim's grandmother, was taken in as a witness. Is 'Operation Fortune' Streaming on HBO Max or Netflix? This account already exists. The question still divides French people. He was fragile and frail (also it is heard that he has a slight mental retardation, but theres not any source confirming this). It was reopened, for further forensic analyses, in 2008 and 2010, but again with no concrete results. Gregory Villemin, a 4-year-old boy, was found dead in October 1984 with his feet and hands bound in the Vologne river, near his home in a village in eastern France. Grgory, my darling, dont go, come back! sobbed his mother Christine, then 24. Read about our approach to external linking. Our Take: The events of October 1984 in the rural northern region of France known as the Vosges clearly have stayed with everyone who touched on the case even briefly. His hands and feet were bound with rope and his face covered with a wool hat. A French court is looking at new DNA evidence in the notorious murder of four-year-old Gregory Villemin, whose death has transfixed France for 36 years. But in November, Bernard Laroche, a cousin of Jean-Marie, was arrested and charged with murder. The five-part series Who Killed Little Gregory? 3,218, This story has been shared 3,098 times. The calls and letters were unsettling, but few could predict what would happen on October 16, 1984, when Gregory went missing from his yard, or when his body was found drowned in the nearby Vologne River the next day. 2,299, This story has been shared 2,248 times. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Against the public prosecutors advice, Lambert ordered that Laroche be set free. Jean-Marie, Gregory's father, publicly vowed to kill Laroche. Grgory was kidnapped from his parents home and held for a certain time before his death, the prosecutor in Dijon, Jean-Jacques Bosc, said as he announced the charges. His mother said she was inside, ironing and listening to the radio. Investigators express consternation over the familys lack of cooperation, and speculation swirls about the identity of the killer and their connection to the family or the familys own possible guilt. A few hours later, while the. Why have they done this to you?. The pregnant woman collapsed after questioning and was taken to hospital, reportedly losing one of the twins she was carrying. Christine Villemin arrives at prison in Dijon. HART FAMILY MURDERS: On 26 March 2018, a murder-suicide took place when Jennifer and Sarah Hart murdered their 6 adopted children by driving the family's sport utility vehicle off a cliff in Mendocino County, CA. Shortly after this, at 5pm the same day the boy's uncle received an anonymous phone call telling him the boy had been kidnapped and dumped in the Vologne River. That was until about 08:00 (06:00 GMT) on Wednesday, when investigators from Dijon detained a couple in their 70s in the village of Aumontzey, in the Vologne river valley. Since the collapse of the case, police have been able to take advantage of advances in DNA technology to shed further light on the murder. The case of who killed Gregory remains unsolved. But again it proved inconclusive, with further DNA testing in April 2013 on the boy's clothes and shoes also providing no clues. The investigation into the four-year-olds murder did not begin well. Both were later given compensation by the state for miscarriage of justice. The story is obviously quite somber, but the pacing of the documentary, pairing archival footage with interviews and voiceovers, is brisk and tightly produced. Another aunt, Ginette Villemin, was also questioned by police but eventually released from custody. Jean-Maries cousin, Bernard Laroche, was the first person implicated in the crime by handwriting experts. Police opened an investigation into the former judge's death at his home in Le Mans, Grgory Villemin was found drowned in a river a few kilometres from his home, Jean-Michel Lambert later conceded he had not given the murder case his full attention, Christine Villemin (third from left) was for years wrongly blamed for the murder, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. Few cases beyond the disappearance of . The next day, Jean-Marie and Christine received an anonymous letter that claimed responsibility for the murder, which it said was motivated by revenge. The case became known as the Grgory Affair and for decades has received widespread media coverage and public attention in France. 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Searching the river in the Vologne mountains, his body was found. All Rights Reserved. The whole Jacob family had a longstanding hatred for the Villemin clan which their sister/aunt had married into. But Thierry Moser, a lawyer for the Villemins, is quietly hopeful that Christine and Jean-Marie may soon learn the identity of their sons killer. France was spellbound as the story unfolded through the media - but no killer has ever been convicted. He was not there. After more than three decades, laffaire du petit Grgory may finally be ready to yield its secrets. This is the true story behind the murder of Gregory Villemin: The case of Little Gregory, as it was known, became one of France's most notorious post-war criminal mysteries as police sought to untangle a web of family hatreds and local jealousies. But it was closed in 2001, after the probe failed to yield any clues as to the identity of either the killer or the sender of the mysterious letters. The scale of the media spectacle is evident photographers mobbed the funeral, capturing close-up pictures of the grief-stricken familys anguish that would be plastered in magazines and on newspaper covers across France. On October 16, 1984, Jean-Marie and wife Christine reported the disappearance of their young son Gregory to police at 5pm. He will be sentenced to five years in prison in 1993 but is soon released having already spent years behind bars awaiting trial. On his gravestone, his family wrote: "Here rests Bernard Laroche, an innocent victim of blind hatred.". Though its little-known here, its been thoroughly dissected in the French media over the years, with no killer ever being identified. The case passed from the local gendarmerie to the CID in nearby Nancy who under Lamberts direction began, sensationally, to build a case against Christine. In 1984, 4-year-old Grgory Villemin was playing on a pile of sand in the front garden of his parents home in Vosges a mountainous area in eastern France, near its border with Germany. Murder. Police said the evidence pointed to suicide. On Oct. 16, 1984, Gregory was found dead in the Vologne River near Docelles, France. You can opt-out at any time by signing in to your account to manage your preferences. Read our, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}. Ever since, he and Christine had been plagued by anonymous phone calls, from a person clearly familiar with details of their lives that only a relative could know. Meet Cleo Anthony, Netflix's 'Money Shot' Documentary Trailer Shines A Harsh Light On Pornhub, The "Most Trafficked Website In The World", 'The Skinny Shot' on Hulu Is An Ozempic "Documentary" That Plays More Like A Commercial, Where Is Estonia Located? Four-year-old boy's great uncle and aunt have been arrested and placed under investigation three decades after his death Shortly after 5.30pm on 16 October 1984, Christine Villemin abandoned her