The Francazal Murders (French: ''Affaire des paras de Francazal'') were a series of murders perpetrated near the 101 Toulouse-Francazal Air Base by four

AWOL Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or Military base, post without permission (a Pass (military), pass, Shore leave, liberty or Leave (U.S. military), leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with u ...

paratroopers A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...

(Philippe Siauve, Thierry El Borgi, Thierry Jaouen and Franck Feuerstein). Between May 30th and July 18th, 1989, they murdered three women and a

conservation officer A conservation officer is a law enforcement officer who protects wildlife and the environment. A conservation officer may also be referred to as an environmental technician or technologist, game warden, forest ranger, forest watcher, forest g ...

, for which they later found guilty and received varying terms of imprisonment.

Crimes

On the evening of May 30, 1989, 23-year-old Isabelle Rabou disappeared near

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

; she had been drinking with her friends and slept over at one's house. The next morning, her parents and friends, worried that they hadn't heard from her, went to the Toulouse police station to report her disappearance, as it was unlike her to cease contact like that. An investigation was launched, but no serious leads were uncovered. Not long after, a charred car was found in a field not far from the Francazal Air Base: after examining it, they was declared the car was Rabou's. Wishing to investigate the base's personnel, the police turned towards the gendarmerie, since ordinary members of law enforcement were barred from entering military bases. After examining the files of every paratrooper stationed at Francazal, the gendarmes found no incriminating evidence, putting the investigation at a standstill. Then, on the early morning of July 3rd, about twenty kilometers away from Toulouse, a farmer discovered Isabelle's body buried in a field. The autopsy established that she had been sexually assaulted and promptly beaten to death. Immediately afterward, the police and gendarmes staked out the Francazal Air Base for several days and nights, but nothing out of the ordinary was observed. On July 13th, another charred vehicle was found in a field not far from Francazal; when the police made the first inspections, they found two bodies, both belonging to young women. Like Isabelle Rabou, they had been raped and beaten to death. Their identities remained unknown for the time being, but by then, authorities were convinced that the three women had been killed by the same perpetrators, who likely worked at the base. Police and gendarmerie patrols were strengthened, and after reviewing the employee files, investigators realized that two conscripts had recently deserted: Philippe Siauve and Thierry El Borgi, both 20. Arrest warrants were promptly issued for both of them. In the early morning of July 18th, in Saint-Romain-de-Jalionas, 62-year-old conservation officer Marcel Douzet receiving a warning that some foxes had been seen in the woods; deciding to investigate, he ventured into the forest to see what was going on. Around 9 AM, worried that her father hadn't returned yet, Douzet's daughter called in the gendarmes to help search for him. Throughout the rest of the day, hundreds of people including local villagers, policemen and an army helicopter set out in search for Marcel. At the end of the afternoon, Douzet's rifle was discovered in a cornfield; in the early evening, his body was eventually recovered deep in the woods. Siauve and El Borgi, both natives of Saint-Romain-de-Jalionas, were eventually spotted by police in

Isère Isère ( , ; frp, Isera; oc, Isèra, ) is a landlocked department in the southeastern French region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.Crémieu Crémieu () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. This small medieval village of 3,375 inhabitants (2019) hosts a celebration called "Les Médiévales" every year in September, which reconstitutes the lifestyle of the ...

. After being questioned concerning Douzet's death, Siauve and El Borgi admitted to killing him. They claimed that they had left the previous day from the base, going to Isère to visit Philippe's mother. There, they stole a car, and in the same evening, drove to a local bar and shot at a group of

North Africans North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

, before killing two cows in the countryside. Finally, while cruising around the city, they shot at a crowd of Arabs, but failed to cause any fatalities (according to Siauve, they shot at people of Arab origin because he hated "bougnoules"). Early in the next morning, they came across Marcel while he was riding his bike. Philippe hurried to engage in conversation with him, while Thierry snuck up behind Douzet and shooting him. He then threw Douzet's rifle into the cornfield, before both of them moved his body into the woods. On July 20th, the two paratroopers were extradited to Toulouse to be questioned about their involvement in the deaths of Rabou and the two girls. When they arrived, Siauve and El Borgi implicated two other accomplices, Thierry Jaoeun and Franck Feuerstein. After their arrests, both men confessed that they had indeed participated in the murders. After investigating their pasts, the authorities determined that all four of the men had tragic childhoods. Siauve's mother had abandoned him at the age of 10, while El Borgi was born as the result of a rape. Before enlisting in the army, they had committed various petty offences as teenagers. Siauve and El Borgi said that they had killed Rabou with Jaouen's help. On the evening of May 31st, they were wandering around Toulouse, searching for a car they could steal so they could return to the camp. By chance, they spotted Isabelle driving. They took her hostage, and at night, they drove towards Francazal, stopping in a nearby field. There, they beat and took turns raping her, before strangling Rabou to death. The trio then burned the car, and moved Isabelle's corpse to another field twenty kilometers away from Francazal. Afterwards, they explained how they had killed the two teenagers on July 13th. During a leave, they had wanted to go to a nightclub, which was closed so instead they went toward Toulouse, where a fun fair was being held. It was there they came across the two girls (identified as 17-year-old Noria Boussedra and 12-year-old Luisa De Azevedo) they lured the girls into their car and took them to a field. El Borgi started hitting and beating Boussedra, refusing to rape her as she was on her period. After strangling her, Siauve started hitting De Azevedo and raping her, soon after, he strangled and stabbed her in the throat with a knife. Due to the severity of the crimes, the four paratroopers were immediately indicted for four homicides, kidnappings, rapes and torture, and were immediately imprisoned.

Trial and convictions

The four conscripts' trial began on April 15, 1991. They appeared before the Toulouse Assizes Court, providing no explanation as to what motivated their bloody killing spree. While they expressed some regret over killing the three women, none of them expressed any remose when it came to Douzet's murder. They were indicted on 130 charges by the juries. All four defendants received

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

, with a chance of parole after 30 years for Philippe Siuave and Thierry El Borgi, 15 for Thierry Jaouen and 13 for Franck Feuerstein.

Chronology of incarceration

ImageSize = width:1100 height:auto barincrement:21 PlotArea = left:95 bottom:60 top:10 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1985 till:31/12/2040 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1985 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:5 start:1985 Colors = id:provisoire value:lightpurple legend:In_custody id:surete value:black legend:Began_life_sentence id:prison value:red legend:Eligible_for_parole id:condition value:green legend:Lib._conditionnelle id:semi value:orange legend: Parolled id:internement value:gray(0.9) legend:Internement id:erreur value:yellow legend:Erreur_judiciaire id:non value:skyblue legend:Peine_non_exécutée id:Lines value:blue legend:2013 BarData = bar:Siauve text:Philippe Siauve bar:Borgi text:Thierry El Borgi bar:Jaouen text:Thierry Jaouen bar:Feuerstein text:Franck Feuerstein PlotData= width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Siauve from:18/07/1989 till:15/04/1991 color:provisoire bar:Siauve from:16/04/1991 till:16/04/2021 color:surete bar:Siauve from:17/04/2021 till:end color:prison bar:Borgi from:18/07/1989 till:15/04/1991 color:provisoire bar:Borgi from:16/04/1991 till:16/04/2021 color:surete bar:Borgi from:17/04/2021 till:end color:prison bar:Jaouen from:18/07/1989 till:15/04/1991 color:provisoire bar:Jaouen from:16/04/1991 till:16/04/2006 color:surete bar:Jaouen from:17/04/2006 till:31/10/2009 color:prison bar:Jaouen from:01/11/2009 till:end color:semi bar:Feuerstein from:18/07/1989 till:15/04/1991 color:provisoire bar:Feuerstein from:16/04/1991 till:16/04/2004 color:surete bar:Feuerstein from:17/04/2004 till:end color:prison LineData = at:28/11/2018 color:blue layer:back Thierry Jaouen obtained supervised parole at the end of October 2008.

References

External links

*
MAXIMUM PENALTY FOR PARA MURDERERS
: April 27, 1991 in ''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'' (in French)

Documentaries

* ''Bring in the accused'', presented by

Christophe Hondelatte Christophe Hondelatte (born 17 December 1962) is a French television and radio host who has worked for BFMTV since fall 2014.

, in April 2009 and August 2010, "The Paras of Francazal, a bloody trip", on

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 ...

. (in French) * ''Criminal Investigations: the magazine of various facts'', on March 2, 2011: "The case of the paras of Francazal, a murderous spree", on W9. (in French)

Radio broadcast

* "The case of the paratroopers of Francazal" (January 20, 2014) in ''L'heure du crime'', hosted by Jacques Pradel on RTL.