Jury’s Verdict Fails to Clear Up Mystery of French Boy’s Murder

The case of a small-town family feud, an anonymous letter writer and a young boy’s murder, which has fascinated this nation for the last nine years, ended with a jury verdict in Dijon on Thursday that served only to keep the mystery alive.

After four hours of deliberation in the Palais de Justice, the jury convicted Jean-Marie Villemin of the revenge murder of his cousin, whom he blamed for writing anonymous letters and then killing Villemin’s 4-year-old son, Gregory, in 1984.

Although the prosecutor had asked for a 10-year sentence, Villemin, 35, received five, with one year suspended.

Taking into account the time Villemin already has spent in jail, he should be eligible for parole by next month.

Villemin had admitted killing his cousin, Bernard Laroche, in a fit of rage. But the judge had turned the trial into a broader public investigation of all the circumstances surrounding Gregory Villemin’s death.

Still, lawyers for both sides said the hearings made little progress in identifying Gregory’s killer, or “The Crow,” as the family dubbed the anonymous letter writer who had claimed responsibility for the boy’s death.

The case began in the autumn of 1984, when Gregory’s body was found in the Vologne River in eastern France. The investigation fascinated the French public, in part because it unearthed evidence of a long-running family feud. During the probe, first Laroche, then Gregory’s mother, Christine Villemin, were accused of the murder, but charges were dropped for lack of evidence.