France’s decades-long hunt for ‘Pockmarked man’ serial killer and rapist leads to police officer

Artist's impression of Le Grele or 'the pockmarked man'

Henry Samuel

October 01 2021 08:52 PM

A THIRTY-FIVE year hunt for a French serial killer has ended after a former police officer left an apparent suicide note confessing to being Le Grele ("the pockmarked killer"), previously identified only by his scarred face.

Francois Verove, 59, appears to have taken his own life at his rented home in the south of France after receiving a summons for questioning, leaving a "written statement" and with DNA evidence confirming his identity, sources said. His body was found in Grau-du-Roi near Montpellier on Wednesday.

He had faced accusations of rape of minors, murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and kidnapping of minors, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said. "DNA tests which were immediately ordered by the investigating magistrate established a match between the genetic profile found at several crime scenes and that of the dead man," she added.

Local media said Verove mentioned "past impulses" in the letter and said he had committed no crimes after 1997.

After 35 years of digging, investigators determined that the suspect had worked as a gendarme in the Paris region between 1986 and 1994, and summoned 750 current or former officers for questioning this week.

One, identified as ‘Francois V.’ in French media, did not show up, and was declared missing by his wife, according to a statement by the Paris prosecutor’s office. He was found dead in an apartment in the Mediterranean seaside resort of Grau-du Roi from an apparent medication overdose.

After DNA testing, the prosecutor’s office confirmed that his genetic profile corresponded to that found at several crime scenes.

The 8-year-old girl who is the first known victim was approached in the elevator of her building on April 8, 1986, by a man who identified himself as a police officer, then took her to the basement and raped and strangled her. The girl, Sarah, lost consciousness, but did not die.

A month later, an 11-year-old girl named Cecile was raped and killed in the basement of her Paris apartment building. Her half-brother crossed paths with the suspect and described him to investigators, allowing production of a police sketch that later hung in many police stations around France.

But police had no leads, so the investigation was closed in 1992. In 1996, a new judge reopened the case and ordered a genetic analysis of the evidence, which made it possible to get the suspect’s DNA.

The same genetic profile was found in several other cases: the killing of a 21-year-old German au pair in 1987, and her employer. The rape of a 14-year-old girl in 1987 in Paris. The kidnapping and rape of an 11-year-old girl in a forest in Mitry, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, in 1994. And the killing of a 19-year-old woman in 1994 in another forest.

Investigators looked in all directions over the years but couldn’t find the perpetrator. Magistrates moved on, and others took over the case.

Francois V had indeed worked as a gendarme and a police officer, and as a town councilor in the town of Prades-le-Lez in southern France.

The prosecutor's office praised the “courage and determination” of investigator Nathalie Turquey, whose efforts to keep the case alive helped provide answers at last for loved ones of the victims.

France’s police network launched a “cold cases” unit last year, and a similar effort is under way in the justice system to foster cooperation across regions and jurisdictions.