Investigation into possible new victims of Emile Louis is relaunched

The investigation into possible new victims of serial killer Emile Louis, already convicted of the deaths of seven young girls, has resumed with the resumption, on Tuesday 24 September, of excavations at his “cemetery” in Yonne, where some of his prey have already been discovered.

Excavations have begun in Rouvray, about 20 kilometres from Auxerre, in connection with the disappearance of a woman in 1975, a source close to the case told Agence France-Presse (AFP). According to the gendarmerie, they should last until 4 October.

According to the same source, around 140 gendarmes and soldiers, including a dozen army engineers, are deployed at the scene with the means to carry out in-depth searches. Specialised gendarmes from the Criminal Investigation Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) have also been deployed, the gendarmerie said.

A possible eighth victim

In December 2018, a hiker discovered a cranial vault at the same site, which was identified last March as the skull of a previously unknown woman. A civil association estimates that this is the eighth victim of the murderer.

“The DNA of the skull found and the investigations into her relatives make it likely that the bone in question belongs to Marie-Jeanne Ambroisine Coussin, born in 1935”Auxerre prosecutor Hugues de Phily told AFP last March. He did not respond to AFP’s requests on Tuesday about the new excavations that began the same day.

Marie Coussin, a child from welfare who lived alone in a care home, disappeared in 1975. Her house was on the route taken by Emile Louis as a bus driver. She was not on the list of the seven known victims of Emile Louis, arrested in 2000 for having killed young disabled girls on welfare between 1977 and 1979.

The Auxerre prosecutor considered that it was not certain that M^me Coussin was a new victim of the serial killer, but Pierre Monnoir, president of the Association for the Defense of the Disabled of Yonne, which represents four civil parties, declared that it was “probably Emile Louis’ eighth victim”.

Mr. Monnoir wanted it as proof that the skull had been found. “between the two bodies” of Emile Louis’ victims. The killer had shown this place, but in 2000 only the remains of two victims were found, out of the seven known. The president then asked that “whole area” to be sought.

Hope for the families of the missing in Yonne

In a press release published on Tuesday, Didier Seban, lawyer for the family of Marie-Janne Ambroisine Coussin, “I was pleased that a new excavation campaign was being organised, six years after the discovery of his skull in the Rouvray woods, near the burial place of several of Emile Louis’ victims.”.

“M’s family^me Coussin hopes that this investigation will provide a dignified burial place for his loved one and shed light on the exact circumstances of this disappearance.”adds the lawyer. “These excavations have given hope to the families of the missing people from Yonne, whose bodies have never been found.”the council estimates, citing five names of those missing.

the lawyer “regret” However, like M’s family^me Cushion, “having been informed, once again, through the press, of the completion of these operations” while “These checks had been expressly requested by them” before the Auxerre prosecutor’s office. “The Auxerre justice system has not fully learned the lessons of the past and does not take a respectful approach towards families struggling to reveal the truth about the death of their loved one”the lawyer accuses.

Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 and then on appeal in 2006, Emile Louis died in October 2013 in Nancy, at the age of 79.