French police dug up the remains of two bodies from the grounds of a chateau yesterday after a suspected serial killer dubbed the 'Ogre of the Ardennes' showed them where to look.
Investigators said they believe the remains were those of Elisabeth Brichet, a Belgian girl who vanished in 1989 at the age of 12, and Frenchwoman Jeanne-Marie Desramault, who disappeared in the same year at age 22.
The find at Sautou chateau near the Belgian border came after hours of digging at locations shown by a handcuffed Michel Fourniret, a 62-year-old forest warden who confessed this week to nine murders after his estranged wife denounced him.
Fourniret says he kidnapped, raped and strangled Brichet in 1989, according to the Belgian prosecutors who revealed details of the killings and accusations by his wife Monique Olivier.
Mr Yves Charpenel, a French prosecutor leading inquiries, said the find was just a start. "We don't know at this stage whether he is responsible for the death of nine, 10, more or fewer."
Fourniret has been in custody in Belgium since last year over the attempted kidnapping of a young girl but confessed this week to nine murders dating from 2001 back to at least 1987.
He and his wife were brought under heavy police security from Belgium to the chateau where the pair lived in the heavily wooded Ardennes border region in the late 1980s.
Belgian and French investigators, now working hand-in-hand on the case, are seeking more details from Fournier's wife, about a possible 10th victim.
Olivier, who is also under investigation, told Belgian investigators this week her husband had killed their au pair and buried her near their house in Sart-Custinne, Belgium.
Fourniret met Olivier, then a prison visitor, while he was jailed in France from 1983 to 1987 for raping minors.