A new lease of life for files at a standstill. The “code case pole” of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) made its first progress report this week, announcing that it had opened 37 unsolved investigations in France. 35 were entrusted to an investigating judge and the last two are followed in preliminary by the prosecution. These files all have in common that they have not been elucidated and range from 1972, for the oldest case, to 2020 for the most recent.

Quoted by Sud-Ouest, the public prosecutor Pascal Prache explained that “three criminal courses”, or the course of a particular individual, were among these cases. In all, 22 of the 37 investigations concern female victims and one file in five concerns a minor. Among the files taken up by the “cold case pole” are high-profile cases, in particular that of Grêlé, the disappearance of the Méchinaud family or the missing from the A6. Other files are still being studied before a possible transmission, in particular the Chevaline massacre or the case of the disappeared from Fort du Tamié.

The disappearance of Marion Wagon in November 1996 will also experience a new lease of life, the Agen prosecution having relinquished this summer in favor of this specially created court. Remember, almost 26 years ago, this ten-year-old girl disappeared in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) between school and her home, without leaving a trace. In the middle of town, in the middle of the afternoon, when she had stopped to go tobogganing, the little girl vanished between 12:11 p.m. and 12:15 p.m.

Annie Gourgue, president of the association La Mouette – which works for the defense and protection of children – is delighted with this new impetus with Planet: “It is perhaps a last burst, which will give us the opportunity to find out what happened in 1996”. “We hope there will be the means to investigate, but we have hope,” she adds, also having a thought for all the missing children who have still not been found. Almost 26 years have passed since the disappearance of Marion Wagon and a track could be studied again by the “cold case pole”, that of Michel Fourniret…

From the 1980s until his arrest in 2003, the couple formed by Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier kidnapped little girls, like young women, from all over France and Belgium. In November 1996, the one nicknamed the Ogre of the Ardennes is still active and regularly goes “hunting”, as he liked to tell his wife. Was he in Agen the day Marion Wagon disappeared? If this track was mentioned, it was quickly closed by the investigators: nothing shows that the serial killer was in the Lot-et-Garonne and the DNA of the girl was not found in his van or at his home.

For Annie Gourgue, the Fourniret track must be studied once again by the Nanterre pole, because we now know that Monique Olivier lied to the investigators to cover up her ex-husband, who died in 2021. “We had funereal hope when 17 DNA had been isolated on the serial killer’s mattress”, she reminds Planet, even if this discovery ultimately yielded nothing. If this track was not the right one a few months ago, others will perhaps present themselves to the new investigators. Marion Wagon’s parents haven’t lost hope either.

Discreet for several years, the parents of Marion Wagon have not stopped their fight for the truth. Annie Gourgue explains to Planet that they are “satisfied with the resumption of the file of course” and that they hope, like her, that this new pole will look at the affair with “other eyes”, will use “other methods ” and will interview people who have not yet been interviewed.

Michel Wagon, the girl’s father, came out of silence last May during a report devoted to the case and broadcast on W9. He then explained that nothing would prevent him “to talk about the case, to seek the truth”. “We will fight until our last breath”, explained the parents of Marion, adding: “We cannot leave Marion dead without explanation. The solution of this file is in the file”. The fresh look posed by these new investigators will perhaps allow them, finally, to know the truth.