According to the BBC, the notorious serial killer's crimes have plagued paris police for decades. But now, before his death, a retired police officer confessed that he was the killer nicknamed "Mazi".
Screenshot of the BBC report
According to a statement by the Paris prosecutor, the killer, named François Verov, has matched his DNA with evidence left over from several crime scenes linked to the serial killings. This person worked in the French Gendarmerie Special Service and the police station until his retirement.
Between 1986 and 1994, multiple murders and rapes committed by the killer shocked the whole of France, but until now they have not been solved. His heinous crimes included the murder of 11-year-old Cecil Bloch. The victim, who was reported missing after going to school in Paris in 1986, is believed to have been kidnapped and raped by the killer. "We will never know what crimes François Verov committed in total," said Didier Saban, a lawyer representing the victims' families.
François Verov is believed to have been linked to four murders and six rapes, but Saban said there are still many questions to answer, but his death could leave many families with no answers.
For 35 years, police have been hunting down a serial killer nicknamed "Mazi." Screenshot of the BBC report
It is reported that the portrait of François Verov has been hanging on the wall of the Paris Judicial Police Criminal Unit for decades. When an ombudsman recently decided to send inquiry letters to 750 members of the Gendarmerie Special Service (French military police force) stationed in the Paris area at the time, the brutal case was finally solved.
The 59-year-old man who was found dead was a gendarme before becoming a police officer and was summoned by police on September 24 after retirement, providing DNA samples five days later. His wife reported the man missing on September 27. The man's body was subsequently found in a rented apartment on the Mediterranean coast of Glaudouroy, accompanied by a suicide note. Prosecutors said his DNA matched evidence found at several crime scenes.
The contents of the suicide note have not been confirmed, but French media reported that he apparently confessed to the murder, but did not elaborate on who the victim was or what the circumstances were.
The nickname "Mazi" dates back to eyewitness testimony when 11-year-old girl Cecil was murdered. The victim's half-brother, Luc Richard, recalls the day of the crime and said he had seen a man with acne on his face in their apartment building in the 19th arrondissement, north of Paris.
French police later found the body of another victim, Bloch, under an old carpet in a basement. Officials said she was raped, stabbed and strangled to death, a case that caused an uproar in France. Bloch's brother helped police paint a sketch of the suspect, saying the man looked "very confident in himself."
DNA evidence links Bloch's killer to other murders and rapes. Including the murder of gilles Politi, 38, and his German nanny, Ilgehard Müller, in 1987.
François Verov was also linked to the murder of Karin Leroi in 1994 with a 19-year-old girl who disappeared on her way to school and was found dead in the woods more than a month later.
The perpetrator reportedly identified himself as a police officer when raping a 26-year-old German woman and two girls aged 14 and 11, respectively.
The lawyer representing the victim told the media: "We firmly believe that he was either an officer or a member of the gendarmerie, citing the violence he used against the victim and the means he used. "Sometimes such murderers even show documents with the french flag motif.
Saban believes the killer has done everything in his power to ensure that his DNA does not remain at the crime scene, but now his identity has been revealed. (Editor: SDY)