Michel Fourniret Serial Killer
Sex Ring Cover-up
Christian Jambert was almost certain he knew who was behind Burgundy's rash of murders and missing person cases, and he was convinced that Louis was one of the primary culprits. Fourniret was never mentioned as a suspect but later there was suspicion that he might have been somehow involved. Jambert kept meticulous notes and diaries concerning the cases, along with the evidence he collected over the years. In 1997, he made preparations to present his findings during a new inquiry. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to reveal what he worked so hard to acquire.
In August of that year, just several days before the inquiries were scheduled to begin, Jambert was found dead in the basement of his Auxerre home. An autopsy revealed that he died from a single gunshot wound to the head. Medical investigators claimed that Jambert had a history of depression. It was believed that his poor mental state prompted him to end his life. His death was listed as a suicide.
By the late 1990s, the mounting scandal in Auxerre gained international attention. People were shocked by the negligence exhibited in the investigations and the fact that more than 100 files, mostly of missing women, had disappeared from Auxerre's Courthouse. According to Harry de Quetteville's January, 2002 article in The Telegraph, the scandal was "taken so seriously in Paris that Marylise Lebranchu, the French justice minister, ordered a series of internal investigations." Joanna's murder case was one of those selected for re-examination and it was later linked with the inquiry into the seven girls Louis once claimed to have murdered.
Not surprisingly, Joanna's parents welcomed the decision of a new inquiry. They waited more than a decade for her investigation to be reopened. BBC News Online stated that Roger "was hopeful there would be progress in the investigation and the potential capture of the killer."
Investigators working on the case quickly realized that there was a possibility someone tampered with Joanna's murder file. Witness statements, which were obtained at the time of her murder, were missing from her dossier. Moreover, important DNA evidence taken during the autopsy also disappeared from the file for more than a decade before it was found again.
