Uppmärksammad fransk barnamordsutredning öppnad på nytt efter 24 år

En fransk domare har beslutat att på nytt öppna utredningen av ett mord som inträffade för 24 år sedan. Det brutala mordet på fyraårige Gregory Villemin är en av Frankrikes mest uppmärksammade mordgåtor.

Förhoppningen är att nya DNA-analyser ska kasta ljus över vem som låg bakom brottet.

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2141057.svd

French police investigating the 1984 killing of a four-year-old boy arrested three of his relatives Wednesday, raising hopes of a breakthrough in one of the country's most high-profile unsolved murder cases.

Gregory Villemin was found, his hands and feet tied, drowned in the cold waters of the Vologne river in eastern France in October 1984, sparking a long and convoluted legal saga that transfixed France for years.

The death of "Little Gregory", as he became known, led to one of France's most notorious post-war murder mysteries, as police sought to untangle a web of family hatred and local jealousies.

Why has he been in the news this week?

French police arrested three of his relatives raising hopes of a breakthrough. The development immediately thrust the boy's murder back into the spotlight and to the top of news sites, with the smiling face of Gregory once again omnipresent.

The police arrested Marcel Jacob, an uncle of Gregory's father, and Jacob's wife in the Vosges
mountains.

Ginette Villemin, half-sister to Gregory's father Jean-Marie Villemin, was also detained in the same region, police sources told AFP.

Gregory's grandparents were also questioned but were later released.

The arrests "target people very close to the heart of this case and aim to clarify certain points and to provide answers to questions we have," local prosecutor Jean-Jacques Bosc said in a statement.

"This is a giant step on the path to the truth," said Thierry Moser, the lawyer acting for the dead boy's parents.

The arrests on Wednesday were on charges of being an accomplice to murder, failing to denounce a crime and failing to help someone in danger, said local newspaper l'Est Republicain, which broke the story.

Trente-deux ans après le meurtre de Grégory Villemin, un petit garçon de 4 ans retrouvé pieds et poings liés dans les eaux de la Vologne le 16 octobre 1984, sa grand-tante Jacqueline Jacob a été mise en examen vendredi 16 juin pour enlèvement et séquestration suivie de mort, selon une source proche du dossier.

Jacqueline Jacob, 85 ans, tante de Jean-Marie Villemin, père de l’enfant assassiné, a quitté le palais de justice de Dijon escortée par plusieurs gendarmes avant de monter dans un véhicule.

A former judge who played a leading part in one of France's biggest murder inquiries has been found dead at home with a plastic bag over his head.

Police are investigating Jean-Michel Lambert's death but no signs of a struggle have been reported.

He was in his first job when given the task of investigating the 1984 murder of four-year-old Grégory Villemin.

Mr Lambert had admitted making mistakes and the case was reopened last month when new evidence came to light.

The judge was 32 when he was given the role of investigating a case that was to be a cause celebre for decades to come.