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Who Killed Little Grégory?

Anyone else watching this documentary series on Netflix about the murder of 4-year-old Grégory Villemin in eastern France in 1984? Totally engrossing. Members of the extended Villemin family receive threatening letters of phone calls by someone known as "The Raven" who clearly knows intimate details about the family. Then one late afternoon little Grégory is kidnapped and bound and thrown into the local river dead. Everyone in the family is a suspect.

Incredible twists and turns throughout. If you're watching, who do you suspect?

by Anonymousreply 42May 23, 2022 11:45 PM
by Anonymousreply 1November 24, 2019 1:10 AM

It was Mitt Romney

by Anonymousreply 2November 24, 2019 1:11 AM

[quote]On 25 March handwriting experts identified Grégory's mother Christine as the likely author of the anonymous letters

I learned from the best

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by Anonymousreply 3November 24, 2019 1:39 AM

He looks like he would have grown up to look like a French Mickey Rooney, maybe it was a mercy killing.

by Anonymousreply 4November 24, 2019 1:46 AM

A foreign faction.

by Anonymousreply 5November 24, 2019 1:53 AM

Just finished watching the documentary last night. Definitely engrossing. Reading up more about it, that family are even weirder than portrayed there, if the stories are to be believed (other cases of murder, incest etc). A really sad case. I prefer to think that the most likely explanation is the one given in the original statement by Murielle before she recanted it; so that Jean-Marie's revenge killing of Bernard Laroche wasn't a mistake.

Most people seem to feel, and it makes sense to me, that Murielle did get picked up by Laroche that day and was with him when he abducted Gregory, then passed him off to someone else (probably the brother Michel), and that the 'Raven' was probably the great aunt and uncle taking it in turns. Perhaps it got out of hand - they kidnapped the boy and tried to subdue him with insulin, put him in a coma and thought they'd killed him so threw him in the river. Heartbreaking, whatever the answer is.

by Anonymousreply 6January 23, 2020 12:10 PM

I just finished watching this. I'm sure I'd heard of this case in the 80's but didn't know about any of it.

A fascinating documentary, done after so much time. It had me on the edge of my seat! Highly manipulative, with reveals and music and editing, but still very well done. Hopefully its popularity will revive the case yet again.

I haven't researched beyond the doc, but I don't feel the mother is guilty here.

If there's anyone who doesn't add up its Murielle's changing story (and in turn, seemingly her family's). But after so much investigation, what could possibly be left to uncover?

One thing the doc didn't touch on were suspects outside the family. There must have been many over the course of investigation, and a few were alluded to. Like someone at Jean-Marie's factory where he was the foreman? Other people in the town were interviewed (often in archival footage) as witnesses, but never suspects. If so many overturned stones kept getting bad results I just wonder why the case didn't reach more outside the family and their secretive drama.

If we never know, guesses like at the end of R6 post (whether done by people in the family, or perhaps outside) is the best kind of idea we'll ever be to form about what really happened.

by Anonymousreply 7January 25, 2020 11:51 PM

Getting major lesbo-vibes from Murielle.

by Anonymousreply 8January 25, 2020 11:52 PM

Have there ever been any made-for-TV movies about the case?

by Anonymousreply 9January 25, 2020 11:53 PM

What a homely little french boy. I am surprised anyone caree much about this.

by Anonymousreply 10January 26, 2020 12:20 AM

R7 I was wondering about suspects outside the family too. I don't know enough of the case so am happy to have my facts corrected, but it sounds like the Raven had so much insider knowledge of the family that they think he/she/they had to come from inside the family. They also knew the boy had been killed and what had happened to him hours before he was found. Both those facts point to it being someone or some persons from the family. But if there were a group of people involved there is nothing to say someone outside the family could not have been part of that group also, as far as I can see.

What a family. Imagine saying, on a couple of occasions "he had it coming" about your cousin who's son had just been murdered.

by Anonymousreply 11January 26, 2020 12:46 AM

I think "resting bitch face" is an unfortunate genetic physical trait in the Villemin family bloodline, which may have fueled a lot of the wild public speculation.

by Anonymousreply 12January 26, 2020 12:51 AM

Having watched this, I agree. Why weren't we told more about suspects outside the family? There had to be more than a few.

by Anonymousreply 13January 26, 2020 12:53 AM

A calculated act of evil revenge that served its purpose ten fold. Cursed an entire family's existence, well into the town, and beyond, for a generation or more. Sad to watch the timeline of events all slowly unfold.

by Anonymousreply 14January 26, 2020 12:56 AM

THIS IS THE RAVEN. I POST ON DL REGULARLY

by Anonymousreply 15January 26, 2020 12:57 AM

There's a classic French movie called "The Crow", in which various residents of a small town receive disturbing letters signed "the Crow". Otto Preminger remade it as "The 13th Letter".

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by Anonymousreply 16January 26, 2020 1:07 AM

Thanks for the suggestion OP, watching now. An unbelievable story.

by Anonymousreply 17January 26, 2020 4:10 AM

Just to add more info. I didn't watch the documentary, so I'm not sure if it was broached, but the case was reopened last year or 2 years ago. They used a new machine to analyse the crow's handwriting and it matched the great-aunt's. Murielle was arrested again for interrogation but it all yielded to nought.

A few weeks after the case was closed anew, the original prosecutor in charge of investigations in the 70s, Juge Lambert, committed suicide.

by Anonymousreply 18January 26, 2020 1:56 PM

That Murielle SURE WAS PURTY!!!!!!

What a face!!!!

by Anonymousreply 19January 26, 2020 2:16 PM

The mother, Christine Villemin, reminds me a lot of Jenny Agutter.

by Anonymousreply 20January 26, 2020 2:19 PM

R18 Yes, Lambert's suicide is covered at the very end of the doc. I was shocked and saddened. The documentary really portrays him as a kind of sneaky slimeball. As the judge in a tiny town where a globally sensational murder case suddenly falls out of nowhere, he just seemed out of his depth and ultimately starry-eyed more than anything. Another cursed player in the case.

by Anonymousreply 21January 26, 2020 2:23 PM

R20, She reminded me of Tawny Welch and that chick from Against All Odds with Jeff Bridges- Rachel something

by Anonymousreply 22January 26, 2020 2:32 PM

It really interests me, watching these documentaries about famous true crime cases that happen on the Continent, how the justice system isn't separate from the investigative system, if you get me. I wonder what the rationale for that is? This I've noticed in this and other cases in France, also in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Israel too. It's not like cases in the UK, US or Australia etc can't be open to miscarriages of justice, but this seems to help matters even less.

by Anonymousreply 23January 26, 2020 6:27 PM

So creative. Magnifique!

by Anonymousreply 24January 26, 2020 7:22 PM

Thank you, OP...I had not heard of this and watched it today. I feel like Bernard and Jean-Marie’s brother, Michel, both had something to do with it. Clearly the Raven was someone in the family. The voice sounded female to me from the start.

by Anonymousreply 25January 27, 2020 3:19 AM

R25 it was clearly female from the get go who were they kidding thinking it was male?

by Anonymousreply 26January 27, 2020 6:21 AM

I don't think I have ever seen so many ugly French people as in this documentary. The incest vibes were strong with the Villemin family.

And the cop who said that he thought Christine was the murderer because she was dressed too nice and he wanted to bang her ... good ole French sexism at its best.

by Anonymousreply 27March 4, 2020 7:24 AM

Oh my god yes! His statement was so hilariously weird... except then you remember an innocent woman who had already lost her son suffered for years because of attitudes like his. So many secrets and jealousies in that little village. And it definitely came across like there were Deliverance vibes there. When I read into it further, it seems that poor Louisette (the elderly woman who seemed very much "slow") had been made pregnant by her own father at some point.

by Anonymousreply 28March 4, 2020 7:44 AM

Hadn't heard of this, thanks for the tip. I heard a podcast about this case but I don't recall the details.

by Anonymousreply 29March 4, 2020 8:46 AM

It's really worth watching! Crazy case and the recordings of the voice are really creepy.

by Anonymousreply 30March 4, 2020 9:42 AM

Don’t look at me!

by Anonymousreply 31March 4, 2020 11:20 AM

I get hooked on these long form true crime docs that Netflix has been producing. Another is the Spanish language doc The Alcasser Murders about three girls who were abducted and murdered in Spain in the early 90s and the ensuing media circus.

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by Anonymousreply 32March 4, 2020 12:28 PM

R32 I watched that one recently too! Actually, I got on a bit of a foreign true crime documentary jaunt recently as I'd heard there were really good ones on Netflix that a lot of people weren't aware of. I started with Who Killed Little Grégory? then The Alcasser Murders - very interesting, but very brutal too and I found it hard to listen to some of it. What was fascinating in particular was the behaviour of the father in the years afterwards (reminds me a bit of the father in The Pharmacist). Also can highly recommend Shadow of Truth, which is an Israeli story about a girl who was murdered at her school. Very creepy with a lot of twists and turns, and like Grégory, you probably have a good idea what happened by the end, even if things aren't completely solved.

Then I finished with the Icelandic on One of Thin Air. I may potentially have been a bit burnt out by this one so I didn't find it as interesting because of that. It's only 90 minutes so worth checking out if people are interested still, I'm sure.

by Anonymousreply 33March 4, 2020 7:38 PM

^Forgive me, the Icelandic one is called OUT of Thin Air. Pressed post too quickly!

by Anonymousreply 34March 4, 2020 7:40 PM

They did DNA analysis last year and a Swiss firm had reached a conclusion based on the letters but won’t reveal it. I can’t believe the judge committed suicide over this case per his suicide note. Such a soap opera.

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by Anonymousreply 35April 25, 2021 5:54 AM

I wonder why that firm won't say who? Legal troubles if they name names?

by Anonymousreply 36April 25, 2021 5:57 AM

I’m in the middle of watching this now. My god, Murielle is such an ogress, and from a family of ogresses! Her bitch sister and bag-swinging grandmother…and the poor drunken simpleton, Louisette! What a pack of brutes.

What was with the four women who swore they saw Christine at the post office on that fateful day? They came across as smirking mean girls. They seemed to relish targeting her. I don’t know if Christine was really a haughty bitch (who could blame her with that lot), but she certainly inspired jealousy in the village.

by Anonymousreply 37May 20, 2022 1:04 PM

I thought the recording they played in court sounded like Murielle disguising her voice. Was she sleeping with her brother-in-law?

by Anonymousreply 38May 21, 2022 11:58 AM

Watched this after seeing this thread, it was fascinating. Murielle had the weirdest expressions on her face, she looked like she was going to start laughing and then a fraction of a second later, changed to looking as though she would burst into tears. From smirk to terrified in under a second. Freakish.

by Anonymousreply 39May 21, 2022 6:11 PM

During the bag-swinging incident, I think I saw Louisette’s sister/daughter in the pack. She was a chip off the old block, as one would be under the unseemly circumstances, I imagine.

Yes, r39, I found Murielle’s mercurial facial expressions frightening, too.

Also frightening is that she eventually found at least two men who would fuck her. I was also equal parts perplexed because she looked and acted extremely butch.

by Anonymousreply 40May 23, 2022 11:30 PM

Hillary did it in the basement of her pizza parlor

by Anonymousreply 41May 23, 2022 11:40 PM

I blame the parents.

by Anonymousreply 42May 23, 2022 11:45 PM
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