Gregory case: who is the culprit ? The protagonists and the summary of the case

Forty years later, the case of little Gregory is still unsolved. It is certainly one of the most mysterious tragedies that the French police and justice system have had to face. Is there hope of catching the murderer??

[Updated October 4, 2021] 11:16 p.m.] Forty years of investigation, and still no trace. There have been suspects, yes. Many even. But the name of the culprit has never seen the light of day. And yet, in France, the case of little Gregory remains a soap opera followed closely by many people. It interests and intrigues, especially the directors, with already many documentaries, series on Netflix, TF1 and even a comic strip published on October 3, 2024 by Les Arènes soberly entitled “Grégory", in which his father, Jean-Marie Villemet, signs the preface and acts as the main character.

Having occurred at a time when scientific research was less advanced, the Grégory affair has been gradually buried. But it has nevertheless raised some hopes recently thanks to DNA traces still being examined. But can we really hope for the same outcomes as the case of “Grêlé”, found dead on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, when his DNA fingerprints were going to confuse him in four murder cases? ?

New analyses have been carried out by investigators since January 2021 with the aim of reaching the same outcome as in the Grêlé case. As in the Grégory Villemin case, DNA analysis cross-checking work is being carried out, but using a much more complex process. In fact, this involves to try to link nine DNA traces found in 1984 with DNA of the same parentage, that is to say that they do not match 100% but at least 50% and which may appear in the National Automated File of DNA Fingerprints, a file that lists the DNA of people accused or found guilty by the courts. To broaden the research, 37 DNAs of people from the Villemin clan were taken by court order. At the time, none of the DNA found was listed in the file.

The timetable for the searches and the disclosure of the results has not been communicated. Is this the last hope for the boy's family? ? “Every time, we talk about last-chance expertise, but DNA science evolves quickly and when new techniques become available to us, we use them,” confided to 20 Minutes Marie-Christine Chastand-Morand, one of the lawyers for little Gregory's parents.

In addition, another DNA analysis technique is used to try to establish the eye or hair color of the person in question. A method that could help narrow the scope of research for investigators and cross-reference with other types of analysis. Initiated in December 2019, a stylometric expertise unique in France has implicated the deceased's great-aunt, Jacqueline Jacob. She was added to the file on April 23, 2021. In 2017, a graphological expertise had already called it into question, before it was canceled, for procedural defect.

But Captain Étienne Sesmat, commander of the gendarmerie company in Épinal (Vosges) and the first on the scene the day the body was discovered in 1984, is doubtful about the outcome of the case: “I don't think the murderer is still alive, but that's just my opinion,” he confided. on France Inter, Monday September 20, 2021.

Read also

Act 1 –This drama begins in the Vosges. On October 16, 1984, the body of Gregory Villemin, aged 4, was found in a river, the Vologne. His feet and hands were tied with cords. The little boy's uncle then declared that he had answered an anonymous phone call the same day claiming responsibility for the murder. The next day, Gregory Villemin's parents received a letter, also anonymous, on which was written: “Your son is dead. I took my revenge.” There is then talk of a “crow”, who would be responsible for the murder. The Villemin couple had already been harassed for several years via the same procedures.

Act 2 –The justice system initially believed that the “crow” responsible for the murder of little Gregory was Bernard Laroche, the cousin of the child's father. He was then charged with murder and imprisoned on November 5, 1984. But Murielle Bolle, the main witness who claimed to have seen him with the child a few hours before his disappearance, ended up retracting her testimony, and the handwriting expertise was canceled due to a procedural defect. Bernard Laroche was released in February 1985.

Act 3 – A month later, on March 29, 1985, little Gregory's father, Jean-Marie Villemin, murders his own cousin Bernard Laroche, convinced that he is guilty of his son's death.

Act 4 –Little Gregory's mother, Christine Villemin, is also charged with the death of her own son on July 5, 1985. Graphologists believe that she is the “raven” who wrote the anonymous letter claiming responsibility for the murder of her child. She benefits from a dismissal of the case for “total absence of charges” February 3, 1993.

Act 5 – On December 16, 1993, little Gregory's father, Jean-Marie Villemin, was sentenced to five years in prison, one of which was suspended, for the murder of Bernard Laroche, the uncle of the murdered child.

Act 6 – Cords, clothes, letters… The Villemin couple request that new DNA tests be carried out to find out the truth about their son's death. The Dijon Court of Appeal orders the investigation to be reopened. DNA research began in 2008 and was abandoned in 2013, the results being deemed unsatisfactory.

Act 7 –Thunderclap, June 14, 2017. The investigation is moving forward again thanks to advances in graphological techniques, which make it possible to identify one or more new “crows”. While only one culprit was previously sought, the Dijon public prosecutor announced that “several people contributed to the crime.” The uncle and aunt of little Gregory's father, Marcel and Jacqueline Jacob, were arrested. Ginette Villemin, a sister-in-law, is also arrested. Gregory's grandparents are also heard in a voluntary hearing. On Friday, June 16, Jacqueline and Marcel Jacob, the aunt and uncle of little Gregory's father, are indicted for kidnapping and sequestration followed by death. They have never been suspected of anything until now.

Act 8 –On Wednesday, June 28, 2017, Murielle Bolle was also taken into custody. She was questioned for “complicity in murder and failure to report a crime”, then charged with kidnapping a minor followed by death. This other protagonist in the case comes back to the forefront: aged 15 at the time of the events, Murielle Bolle had accused her brother-in-law Bernard Laroche before retracting her testimony a few days later. The testimony of a cousin, who claims to have seen the young woman being “lynched” by her family because of her first confessions is mentioned. It is this “lynching” that could have forced her to change her version in 1984. On Tuesday, July 4, Murielle Bolle is kept in detention. She is released on August 4, but remains under judicial supervision.

Act 9 – The very first investigating judge to be seized in 1984 of the Gregory case, Jean-Michel Lambert, committed suicide on Tuesday July 11, 2017, using a plastic bag. He was accused by his successor who pointed out “the shortcomings, irregularities, mistakes […] or intellectual disorder of Judge Lambert”, and noted: “I am in the presence of a miscarriage of justice in all its horror”. Judge Jean-Michel Lambert, aged 65, said he was traumatised by the Gregory case. According to initial findings of the investigation, he was shaken by the latest legal developments.

Act 10– August 11, 2017, Le Monde reveals excerpts from the confrontation between Murielle Bolle and her cousin Patrick F. about the evening of November 5, 1984. It claims that Murielle was “lynched” by her family so that she would withdraw her testimony against Bernard Laroche, she assures that nothing happened or says she does not remember it. In the end, each maintained their version of the facts.

Act 11 – On May 16, 2018, the Dijon investigating chamber canceled the three indictments of Murielle Bolle, Marcel and Jacqueline Jacob. After a series of expert reports and twists and turns over several months, the investigating chamber declined to rule on the merits, but cited a technical procedural defect.

Act 12 – On November 16, 2018, Murielle Bolle's police custody in 1984 was deemed unconstitutional. The Constitutional Council considered that the latter should not have been questioned alone by the gendarmes at at the time, because it did not respect her rights.

Act 13 – On January 16, 2020, the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal canceled the police custody of Murielle Bolle during which she had accused her brother-in-law, Bernard Laroche, of kidnapping Grégory Villemin. The comments she made to the police are therefore eliminated from the file.  However, the courts did not cancel the statements that Murielle Bolle had made to the police before the start of this police custody, nor her hearing before Judge Lambert. During this interrogation, she had also accused her brother-in-law.

Act 14 – The investigating chamber of the Dijon Court of Appeal, where this long-running case has been investigated since 1987, accepted on January 27, 2021 “almost all” of the requests for new expert reports, particularly DNA, filed by Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin, thus reviving hope of finding the culprit(s).

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

Who are the main protagonists in the Gregory case ?

• Bernard Laroche

What are the family ties between Bernard Laroche and Little Gregory ?Bernard Laroche is the first cousin of Jean-Marie Villemin, the father of little Grégory. His mother is Thérèse Jacob, the sister of Jean-Marie Villemin's mother, Monique Jacob. He is said to have been part of what was called the “envious clan” at the time of the murder. A motley group including Jean-Marie Villemin's brothers, but also uncles and aunts as well as more distant family members, jealous of Gregory's father's professional success.

Why Bernard Laroche is a key figure in the investigation into the death of little Gregory ?Following the testimony of his sister-in-law Murielle Bolle, who accused him of having kidnapped little Grégory, Bernard Laroche was charged with murder and imprisoned on November 5, 1984. He was released in 1985, after his wife's little sister recanted. He was murdered a month later by Jean-Marie Villemin, the father of little Grégory, convinced that it was indeed his cousin Bernard Laroche who killed his son.

• Murielle Bolle

What are the family ties between Murielle Bolle and Little Gregory ?Murielle Bolle is the sister-in-law of Bernard Laroche, the first cousin of Jean-Marie Villemin, who is himself the father of little Grégory. Aged 15 at the time of the murder, she is now 48. She has had children and still lives in the Vosges, 20 kilometers from Docelles, the village where the police found the body of Grégory Villemin. According to Le Parisien, she shares her life with a cheesemaker.

Why is Murielle Bolle a key figure in the investigation into the death of little Grégory ?At the time of little Grégory's death, 32 years ago, Murielle Bolle was living with her older sister, Marie-Ange, who was married. Her mother was in fact hospitalized and could no longer take care of her. Questioned by the police and the investigating judge following the murder of little Grégory, she claimed for the first time to have seen her brother-in-law, Bernard Laroche, abduct the child. A damning testimony that led to the latter being indicted. The day after her interrogation, Murielle Bolle changed her story and recanted. “Bernard Laroche is innocent,” she proclaimed to the press.

Indicted and then released, Murielle Bolle spoke out about the case of little Gregory during various television appearances. On November 7, 2018, she also released a book, “Breaking the Silence”, written in the first person and co-written by Pauline Guéna, in which she gives her version of the facts. Indicted in 2017 and suspected of the murder of Grégory, she was finally released in 2018, her custody view being deemed unconstitutional. Among her recurring statements, Murielle Bolle explains that despite what she confessed to the police at the time, she had nothing to do with the kidnapping and murder of Gregory Villemin in 1984, nor did Bernard Laroche. Her confession had been extracted, according to her, by police officers who had pushed her to the young teenager she was.

“The truth is, I did take the school bus that day, and Bernard was there when I got home from school,” she confided. “If I hadn't been afraid of the police and said what they told me, Bernard might still be here.” She also expressed her regrets, after decades of turmoil: “I will blame myself for the rest of my life anyway. Every day I think about him.” And finally, she gave her dearest wish on this criminal case that has turned her whole life upside down: “They really have to find the real culprit. If the real culprit sees this interview, let him finally say that it is him and leave us alone."

On January 16, 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal canceled Murielle Bolle's police custody: this means that all the statements made during the hearing conducted by the police are null and void for the courts. 

•  Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin

What are the family ties between Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin and Little Gregory ? Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin are the parents of little Gregory. Since their son's death, the couple has had three other children, and left the region to settle in Essonne. They are still actively asking the courts to find out who murdered their four-year-old child.

Why Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin are key figures in the investigation into the death of little Grégory?It is the professional and social success of Jean-Marie Villemin, the father of little Grégory, which is said to be at the origin of the crime. He is notably nicknamed “the boss” in letters of threats and demands, because he was appointed foreman a few months before the murder. Convinced of the guilt of his cousin Bernard Laroche, who was once indicted and then released by the courts, he kills him at point blank in 1985. Christine Villemin, the mother of little Gregory, was charged with the death of her own son on July 5, 1985, based on handwriting analyses. She was granted a dismissal for “total absence of charges” on February 3, 1993.

The main protagonists of the © AFP affair

In France, the Gregory affair fascinates. Punctuated by many twists and turns, this case is now the subject of hundreds of press articles, but also documentaries and now series. After Grégory broadcast on Netflix in November 2019, it is now TF1's turn to broadcast an adaptation of the case…

Numerous documentaries and already eighteen books have been devoted to this sordid and still unsolved affair, 36 years after the events. In November 2019, Netflix released a new documentary on the case. Journalist Thibaut Solano, author of a book entitled La Voix rauque, is one of the speakers in this five-part documentary series. At the time, he was one of the journalists who covered “the affair before the affair”, that is to say the harassment suffered by Grégory's parents, Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin, for three years until the child's murder: the hoarse voice is that of the Vologne crow.

In an interview given to Populaire, Thibaut Solano returned to the investigation that never allowed the identity of the crow to be discovered, which had nevertheless announced the tragedy that was going to occur. According to him, “if the crow had been unmasked at that time, the rest would not have happened. The investigation was conducted with somewhat artisanal means. A policeman relied on the anonymous letters by organizing the dictations himself, by having several people in the family take these tests. But to compare the writings, it was with the naked eye. There was no scientific expertise.”

The harassment in question began with anonymous phone calls: first pranks or songs, then insults and finally threats, which divided a family that was already fragile, over the period from 1981 to 1984. The investigation continues, almost forty years after the events. According to Thibaut Solano, “there are things that are now established, such as the fact that there was not one crow, but a pair of crows, that this couple knew too much about the daily life of this family for it to be someone too outside this family. I think that the suspects can be counted on the fingers of one hand…” While he does not say that the investigation will ever be resolved, the journalist believes that there is still hope, with scientific advances or the collection of new testimonies.

After Netflix, it is now TF1's turn to broadcast a series on the Grégory affair. Starting Monday, September 20, 2021, the channel will broadcast two episodes ofA French affair, a fiction that takes up, in the first season, the history of the Vologne cold case. The cast includes Guillaume Gouix in the role of the father, Jean-Marie Villemin, Blandine Bellavoir to play his wife Christine, Michaël Abiteboul and Lauréna Thellier play Bernard Laroche and Murielle Bolle. Gérard Jugnot represents him Christine Villemin's lawyer. 

Une affaire française is in reality a larger series, inspired by major criminal cases, the first season of which is devoted to the Grégory case. The series "faithfully reproduces 70% of the archive documents" according to Blandine Bellavoir, in the role of Christine Villemin, who gave an interview to TV Magazine. No revelations to be expected from this scenario, which therefore takes up the case as it is.

The Grégory affair is now being told in comics. Forty years after the death of little Grégory, the release of the comic strip "Grégory" by éditions Les Arènes, this Thursday, October 3, 2024, marks a turning point for his father, Jean-Marie Villemin, who decided to express his thoughts differently. His words are rare, in the media and in general, his last appearance dates back to 2006, at the time he had granted an interview to the newspaper La Croix.

The comic strip “Grégory”, co-written by Pat Perna and illustrated by Christophe Gaultier allows the father of little Gégory to express his truths in a poignant preface. He is also the main character of the album. Through his lines, Jean-Marie Villemin returns to the “total annihilation” felt after the murder of his son. “I wonder how we survived. We were lost (him and his wife), at the bottom of the abyss, without any support, tossed about by “events and erratic justice,” he says. He concludes his preface by addressing directly Gregory: “I think very hard, every day, about our little man, Gregory, who gives us the strength to live without him, to live outside of hatred, without rancor, to live happily and to live for his memory. Forever with him.”