Newspaper Review (1)

Date : 4 December 2008
Title : 24-year-old murder case reopened
From : The Straits Time (world.international A16)

Outline
French court allows DNA testing on evidence seized during probe into boy's death. In Dijon(France), a judge decided to reopen one of France's darkest murder mysteries, in hope that DNA tests can help find the murderer who killed a four-year-old{Gregory Villemin} boy 24 years ago, on Oct 16 1984. The Court of Appeal ordered the reopening of this case on the request of the parents, who find their boy being tied up and drowned in the Vologne river in Vosges.

He was last seen playing in the sandbox outside his home when 4hours later, his body was found with a rope around his wrists, feet and head, while his face covered with a hat. And there was no traces of violence shown. His parents who had been receiving anonymous hate mail since 1981, received a poison-pen letter in which the writer claimed to be responsible of the murder. But the writer was not identified then.

The boy's parents have both served time in prison in connection to their son's murder, sought to reopened to allow for DNA testing on the rope used to tie their son. The court had allowed DNA testing on evidence seized during the probe given the progress of science, particularly in the field of genetics.

The case of "Little Gregory", as it is known, became one of France's most notorious post-war criminal mysteries. The seconde cousin of the child had been charged with the killing based on the evidence given by a sister-in-law but he was released from custody and shot dead by Gregory's father in 1985. And Gregory's father spent 2 1/2 years in prison for crime.

In July 1985, Ggregory's mother was accused of killing her own son and was put in prison and then released a few days later. She received a dismissal in Feb 1993. The inquiry was reopened around 2000 to allow DNA testing on the stamp on the hate letter sent but the probe yielded no new clues to the killer's identity.

Reflection
In my opinion, I think that Gregory's parents did the right thing to appeal for reopening of the murder case of their son although it had been over for so many years because i believe that Gregory was really very innocent to get killed. If there's really hatred between the killer and Gregory's parents, why does Gregory need to suffer and be so innocently killed when he's only four years old then?

If he had not been killed on 1984, he should be a happy 28-year-old man now with his parents by his side. But I think that it's really wrong for Gregory's father to shoot Gregory's second cousin, ending up in prison{Gregory's father}. In conclusion, I hope that the case would be solve soon and the murderer would be sentence to wither death or to serve prison, to pay back for what he/she had done to Gregory and Gregory's parents in 1984.

KaiXin