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A former police officer has been identified as the apparent culprit behind a string of murders, rapes and other crimes in France following a search that lasted for 35 years, according to multiple news outlets.
Earlier this week,the BBC reports, a former military police officer named François Vérove is said to have admitted to being the criminal known as Le Grêlé — which translates to “The Pockmarked Man.”
He was found dead on Wednesday in the southern France town of Grau-du-Roi from “an apparent suicide,“The Washington Postreported, citing local media.
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The long-unsolved crimes, including four rapes and six killings, were cracked after investigators canvassed some 750 military police who were working around Paris at the time, according to the BBC. Evidence had suggested the culprit could be part of law enforcement.
Vérove was told that he would be examined as part of the investigation, like other men that had previously served. His wife then reported him missing three days later before he was later found dead, thePostreported.
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Accordingto CNN, Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement that DNA tests “established a link between the genetic profile found at several crime scenes and that of the dead man.”
The prosecutor added that Vérove was believed to be responsible for five crimes committed between 1986 and 1994, including the “rape of 15-year-old minors, murders, attempted homicide, armed robberies, wrongful use of title and kidnapping and false imprisonment of a 15-year-old.”
In her statement, Beccuau also said that Vérove was originally part of the military’s police division and later joined the police force.
“This man will go unpunished,” he said.
source: people.com
