French serial killer's ex-wife convicted for her role in husband's murders of girls, women

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The former wife of a deceased French serial killer was given a life sentence on Tuesday for her role in the decades-old rape and murders of two young women and the disappearance of a 9-year-old girl, according to media reports. 

Monique Olivier, 75, stood trial in France for her part in the 1990 rape and murder of 20-year-old Joanna Parrish, a British student whose body was found in the Yonne River, and 18-year-old Marie-Angèle Domèce in 1988, the BBC reported. 

She was also accused of helping to kidnap 9-year-old Estelle Mouzin in 2003. The girl's body has never been found.

"I regret everything I did, and I ask for forgiveness from the families of the victims, while knowing that it is unforgivable," Olivier told the court.

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Monique Olivier, 75, in the defendants' box during a trial of her now-deceased ex-husband, Michel Fourniret, nicknamed the Ogre of Ardennes. Olivier was recently convicted for her role in her husband's crimes against young girls and women.  (ean-Pierre REY/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Olivier's ex-husband, Michel Fourniret, nicknamed the "Ogre of Ardennes," died before he could be brought to trial for the killings. He was jailed for life in 2008 for the murders of seven girls and young women between 1987 and 2001. In total, he confessed to 11 murders before he died.

Most of the victims were between ages 9 and 30, the BBC report said. Fourniret died in 2021. Olivier was already serving a life sentence for her role in the past crimes of her dead husband. 

"Her presence alone would've gained the confidence of all the victims, who would never have believed a woman could've been such a part of such an appalling and depraved act," said Parrish's father, Roger Parrish. 

Earlier this month, Olivier told a French court that she sat in the front seat of the couple's car when her husband went into the back to kill and rape Parrish.

French Michel Fourniret sits in a car after being questioned by investigators in Dinant, June 30, 2004. Fourniret, a French forest warden and convicted rapist confessed to raping and killing six girls. He died in 2021. 

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"Like a coward, I do nothing, I hear her scream a little, but I don't intervene," she testified, CBS News reported. "It's fear, panic, [I am] unable to do anything at all," she said.