Army Refuses To Investigate Murders - True CSI - Killer Commando (Pierre Chanal Crime Documentary)

(dramatic music) - August 1988. A murderer stalks the French region of Mourmelon. Eight young people disappear in just eight years. Most are military cadets. Officials label the men deserters. Relatives fight for the

true

story to be told. - I still think that they deceived us all the time, that they stripped us of justice, that they stole it from us. - A tenacious police officer

refuses

to let the case go. (Jean-Marie speaks in foreign language) - And I remember very well telling my captain: "We have our man." - A small corner of northern France becomes known as the triangle of death.

What is happening with the young cadets? Several different theories are discovered. Different suspects are identified, tireless detective work. Small pieces of dirt and hair lead police to a shocking conclusion. And in the end, the case takes one last surprising turn. (suspense music) (dog barks) August 8, 1987. In a quiet rural area near the town of Elancourt, France, farmer Marcel Launt takes his dog for a walk. (dog barks) It's a daily ritual that will have a spooky ending today. - Oh darling! -The body has no wallet, no money, and no clues about his name. Jacques Bouxin, head of the gendarmerie's violent

crime

s division, is assigned to the case. (Jacques speaks in foreign language) - We found an unidentified body, so we had no idea who it was, where it was from or where it was going.

We had nothing. All we knew was that it was a young man whose body showed traces of violence and had been buried in a shallow grave. So this was murder. - The first theory is that this

crime

is a petty robbery gone wrong, (man grunts) the body was quickly buried to hide the evidence. The shallow grave is just five meters from a local road and right next to a major French motorway, the A26. It is one of the few forested lands in the area. The body is taken to the morgue of the nearby St. Quentin Hospital. - We have a young man, Caucasian, between 20 and 20 years old.

We can see the presence of some worms on the back of the right ear, indicating that the body was probably buried four or five days ago. - The body was buried at the beginning of August. It is not very deteriorated, which helps to discover how the victim died. - We can observe a horizontal rounded choke groove, less than a centimeter wide. (Jacques speaks in a foreign language) - The strangulation marks were perfectly visible. It was clearly a violent death, but we still didn't understand why he was killed or who killed him. - Immediately, suspicion falls on a gang targeting hitchhikers in northern France. - We had information about a gang of thieves, who they were, where they lived.

We requested a search warrant and searched their homes, but we quickly learned that they had nothing to do with the case. - Gang members are thieves but not murderers. His alibis are solid. The investigation continues. The question is why there are no signs of a struggle. There is no damage to internal organs, no other marks on the face, and no injuries to the head. How could he have killed the victim without fighting back? - There was a small bruise, about two centimeters wide, on the right arm. - Strange small wounds on each arm could explain why there were no other injuries to the body. - At that time we realized that the victim had bruises on his arms and wrists, and these bruises would be consistent with being tied up. - The notes lead to a second theory.

This was not an accidental death during a robbery but a premeditated crime. The victim was first tied up and then strangled. - Identification of the corpse was of utmost importance. Without a name, a case like this is like looking for a needle in a haystack. -Who was this man? Where was he going? The answers to these questions will help find the

killer

. Dental records are a vital tool to help identify unknown victims. In this case, the police discover that a tooth is missing. Another is split in two. None of this was caused during the murder. In the end, a small business card found near the body helps the police point in the right direction.

He takes them to Eroline O'Keefe in Ireland. -My daughter received a phone call at her work in London to tell me that her boss had disappeared. It was her boss's business card that they had found in a field in France, and the police were checking to see if her boss was okay. And she said, "Yes, he is, he's in a meeting." And they told her that they had found a body in France and that her boss's business card was on it. And she said, "That's my brother." - The body is identified as Trevor O'Keefe, an Irishman who was on tour in northern France.

He was three months away from turning 20. - We arrived at ten thirty at night, raining heavily, in winter. And we went in and asked the police to show us the body. And we identified who we were through passports and whatever, and they showed us Trevor's runners and his watch, and they showed us the photographs where they took Trevor out of the ground in stages. But it was Trevor. -O'Keefe was staying with her friends in the town of Poligny. On August 3, five days before his body was found, he told his friends that he was going to hitchhike to Calais.

The route he was going to take would have taken him directly to St. Quentin. Bouxin quickly develops a dark theory of what happened and asks for help. Captain Joel Vaillant is the head of the gendarmerie's special investigations unit. His mandate is to modernize the techniques of the gendarme, the police that patrol the French countryside. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - In 1988, we are just at the beginning of DNA. The technology that they were starting to use in the United States wasn't really being used in Europe yet. - Vaillant is investigating another gruesome crime, strikingly similar to the O'Keefe case.

Five years earlier, the body of Olivier Donner was found. He was buried in a wooded area near Mailly-le-Camp. It is only 130 kilometers from where Trevor O'Keefe is located. Donner had been buried for more than a month when he was found. The decomposition had begun. His head was little more than teeth and bones. (Joel speaks in foreign language)-From the state of Donner, how he was discovered, it was obvious that this could not be more than a criminal attack. Because his head was infested with worms and insects, there was a lot of blood trapped there, so he died from suffocation or strangulation, one or the other.

Now we have a connection with O'Keefe. It reinforces our belief that O'Keefe's death was also a criminal case. -If there is a

killer

stalking northern France, Vaillant believes it is only a matter of time before he strikes again. September 1987, weeks pass without another murder, but Captain Joel Vaillant fears it is only a matter of time until another body is found buried in the forests of France. Then a murderer is caught in Martigny, Switzerland. Michel Peiry has kidnapped, raped and murdered four young hitchhikers, one of them in the south of France. - So tell me a little more about your story, please. - Yes.

I was looking for attractive people. -He is Swiss, but he is only a few hundred kilometers from the Swiss border where O'Keefe and Donner were murdered. Vaillant rushes to Martigny to witness Peiry's interrogation. It is a chilling encounter. -He was ready every time he picked up someone. (he murmurs) I took them to a nice place and killed them. - As? - O'Keefe was buried in a shallow grave. Donner too. But all of Peiry's victims were brutally beaten and then burned. Peiry's alibi for early August is also irrefutable. He clearly isn't the killer Vaillant was looking for. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - What's intriguing is that when they interrogate him, they ask him, "Why did you kill your victims?" And his response is: "I had no choice. "I didn't want to get caught." So, versus his way of thinking, we really are dealing with a serial killer, a sexual pervert.

By Peiry's logic, "Our Killer has no choice. He has to kill. In one year, we have two

murders

, Donner and O'Keefe. And after Peiry's interrogation, I learned that he was dealing with a similar profile. - Vaillant is more convinced than ever that the

murders

of Trevor O'Keefe and Olivier Donner are related. And he believes the trail of bodies is even longer. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - It is at this moment that I discover that other young people have disappeared, young people who were in "The Military, who were considered deserters. I asked that we reopen all these cases, all these men that we call the missing of Mourmelon.

I never wanted to call them deserters because it has an implication, a legal meaning for the families. Desertion is a voluntary act of abandoning the

army

. Did these young men leave voluntarily? Are they deserters? Or did they disappear under much more sinister circumstances? - Patrick Dubois , Serge Havet, Manuel Carvalho, Pascal Sergeant, Patrick Gache, they are all young military cadets, they were all hitchhikers. And since January 1980, they have all disappeared. Four of the five were stationed at the Mourmelon military base. The fifth was in the nearby base at Mailly-le-Camp. With the exception of Olivier Donner, none of the missing have been found.

There are no bodies, no evidence of a crime. All cadets are part of France's mandatory military service. At that time, every 18-year-old Frenchman had to serve 12 months in the

army

. Most upper-class teenagers found a way out, but lower-class teenagers found themselves in bases like Mourmelon. (Gerard speaks in foreign language) - The army was pathetic from start to finish. They didn't want to hear about disappearances. They called the men deserters. They never spoke to the families. The army dismissed them completely. The army treated the families badly. He treated the justice system badly. And since these men were poor and came from all corners of France, they did not have the resources to make themselves heard. - Another young man also disappears near Mourmelon, a young rocket enthusiast who was on his way to the base for a demonstration.

Patrice Denis disappeared in 1985. He was not in the army and his family does not allow his disappearance to be ignored. (Gil speaks in foreign language) - We spent a week where they last saw him. With friends, we went through the bushes searching the area, and the people there asked me if I knew that there had been other disappearances, that cadets were missing. So we worried very, very much. My parents started writing letters to everyone, to the Minister of the Interior, to the Minister of Defense because it was very close to the Mourmelon base, and the battle began. - To the relief of the families, Vaillant continues with his theory that there is a serial killer behind it.

He asks French psychiatrist Jean-Luc Ploye to draw up a profile of who the killer might be. (Jean-Luc speaks in foreign language) -The theory was that this man was a military man and was still in the service, that he had a lot of frustration before or during his career and that he was venting this frustration through these acts violent. - Jim Wright, who would eventually become involved in the investigation, is a profiling expert who worked with the FBI. - Serial killers are driven by fantasy, and there really is no limit to what a person's fantasy can be.

If they fantasize about a certain type of person, that may be the type of person they will target if they have access to it. - All the victims disappeared on Thursday or Friday night, several on the same road. Families and the media begin to call this area the triangle of death. (Jean-Luc speaks in foreign language) - A serial killer is a predator. He goes hunting. He has his weapons and the locations of him where he will find his prey. -Like Patrice Denis, Trevor O'Keefe was not in the military, but he has a similar build and a similar age to all the cadets who disappeared.

He also disappears near one of the bases. Trevor O'Keefe joins the list of victims. - So guys, let's concentrate our search around the Mourmelon. It's there, okay? What we know is that the victims apparently disappeared on the same road, which is... - The gendarme begins looking for suspects that fit the initial profile they have put together. With such a strong connection to the local military bases, Vaillant begins the search for him there. More than 2,000 people are interrogated near the Mourmelon base. Hitchhikers are also wanted. The profile suggests that the killer is sexually attracted to his victims, that he chooses them based on their appearance.

But the only bodies found, Donner and O'Keefe, show no signs of sexual assault. -What is sexually gratifying to a serial killer is not defined in the same way that you and I, as normal people, would define sexual gratification and sexual pleasure. A strong driving force of a serial killer is the need to exert control over people. And when you think about it, the ultimate control you have over someone is control over whether they live or die. - Then, in December 1987, evidence points the investigation in a very different direction. (Jacques speaks in foreign language) - Things started moving very quickly when they found Trevor's backpackO'Keefe in the area around Lake Der.

It is not far from Mourmelon. And that backpack is the link, a strong link between O'Keefe and the other missing young people. And when you look at the young Irishman's physique, you realize how much he looks like a military cadet. - Police show photographs of O'Keefe to people in nearby towns. Was O'Keefe driven through these towns on the last day of his life? The police are investigating Jean-Pierre McNab, a local man who had recently separated from his wife. -One of the theories we worked on was to confirm the story of a woman who told us that her husband had left the marital home to go to Poligny.

We knew Trevor O'Keefe was in Poligny. With both there at the beginning of August, we had to check if they had crossed paths. -Before leaving his house, McNab had threatened his wife. When the gendarme located him, they found a cord in his car that he could not explain. Blood is also found on McNab's shirt, blood that is the same type as Trevor O'Keefe's. McNab is not in the military and there is no history of sexual violence. He certainly doesn't fit the profile that psychiatrists have drawn up. He leads to a new theory. Perhaps McNab, angry and desperate over the failure of his relationship, broke down.

Perhaps O'Keefe was the victim of a random act of rage and not part of a serial killer's deadly attack. But the theory doesn't hold up for long. McNab is eventually acquitted. An innocent explanation is found for the blood on his shirt. The investigation stalls. Then, on the side of a road, a young hitchhiker accepts a ride. It will be the most terrifying trip of his life. August 9, 1988. One year has passed since the discovery of Trevor O'Keefe's body. There are no new clues, only fear that the killer will strike again. But in the city of Macon, gendarme André Jeunet is about to make a discovery that will expose the case. (Andre speaks in foreign language) -That day he was with a young gendarme, just on a regular patrol.

And at one point I saw a caravan and I said to the young man: "Let's see what happens." At that time of day and on that stretch of road, a camper van seemed strange. (suspense music) - Good evening, officers. - Goodnight Mr. Can I see his papers, please? - I'm also part of the family. I am also a military man. - Your papers? - Yes. Yes, certainly. Is your name. -Chanal, Pierre. - Birthdate. - It's November 1946 (mumbles). - Profession? - (mumbles) in Fontainebleau. - Driver's license, please. - It's back. I have to get it, okay? Only a moment. (Andre speaks in foreign language) - I saw someone lying behind.

I didn't know if these guys had torn down a house and were just trying to blend in. - What's going on there? Who is that man? Get him out of the car. - He's just a hitchhiker I picked up. I mean, he was sleeping. - Get out of the car. -He was sleeping, it's okay. - Go out! - Okay, I'm coming. - Untie him right now. - The hitchhiker is Palazs Falvay, a young Hungarian who is touring the north of France. - Listen, we are both military. I was just having sex with him. I mean...-And he's terrified. - Help me.

He's trying to kill me. Aid. - Cook, cook! -He was in the truck. - Pierre Chanal insists that this is nothing more than a lovers' date. -No, he said he was fine. He agreed, really. - Chanal says that he and Falvay are gay and enjoy rough sex. The gendarmes have caught them at an awkward moment. - Help me. - Falvay told a very different story. He says Chanal picked him up on the side of the road. Chanal overpowered him and tied him up. He says he is convinced that Chanal is going to kill him. -No, he's fine.

It was, we were just playing. - The gendarme is not taking any risks. - Everyone to the station. (Andre speaks in foreign language) -Then, when I looked at his identification, I realized that he had been in Mourmelon and the dates were the same as when the young men disappeared. And with what Falvay said, I decided to take everyone back to the station. - Chanal is a career member of the French army. He has fought in Lebanon and has received four medals for his bravery and service. His fellow soldiers describe him as a warrior, an incredibly fit man of steel. (Andre speaks in foreign language) -He should have been an officer.

All evaluations of him would lead you to believe that he should be an officer. That was the career path he was on. - The gendarme who arrests Chanal immediately calls Captain Joel Vaillant. The fact that Falvay was a hitchhiker and tied up is too similar to the O'Keefe case to ignore. Vaillant sends his second-in-command, Jean-Marie Tarbes, to

investigate

. - The first interrogation lasted from three to six in the morning. Right off the bat, I felt something. I had a feeling. It was something small but important. I knew we had to follow up. He knew he had to convince Captain Vaillant.

This man should not be let go. - At ease. I'm Tarbes from the Reims special investigation unit. I want to tell you about the Mourmelon cadets. - I had nothing to do with that. - But you've heard about them, right? - That has nothing to do with me. - I see. Let's talk about Mourmelon. - Yes, I was an instructor there, so... - I found him quite sure of himself, confident and yet, at the same time, defensive, very defensive. He didn't fit. They were little things, the way he answered a question, the occasional facial tic, the way he opened and closed his eyes.

He was hiding something. - The interview continues until dawn. Whenever the conversation turns to Trevor O'Keefe or the missing cadets, Chanal denies any involvement but becomes defensive and angry. Tarbes is deeply suspicious. (Jean-Marie speaks in foreign language) - And I remember very well telling my captain: "We have our man." So we had to continue the investigation, reopen it, find out its background. Who was this Pierre Chanal? - The first thing the police do is closely examine Chanal's caravan. For two days, forensic experts comb the vehicle for clues that could link Chanal to the death of Trevor O'Keefe or the missing military cadets.

In 1988, forensic science is still gaining acceptance in France, but Loic Le Ribault believes in it. He runs the most important private forensic laboratory in the country. (Loic speaks in a foreign language) -I didn't know what he was looking for. Getting through a car is a lot of work. This caravan was even worse. It was absolutely packed with stuff. So the first thing we did was take everything out, the sheets and blankets. I then examined him with a laser to see if he could find blood or sperm. We vacuum the entire interior. And, of course, everything we took was sealed.

All evidence was placed in plastic bags that we sealed with red wax and had a label describing the contents. - There is other more obvious evidence. There are several vibrators, an artificial vagina. In total, 70 different objects are collected as evidence, including ropes, chains, straps and 32 pairs of men's underwear. (Loic speaks in foreign language) - I remember we found a lot of underwear and one pair in particular was English. It had a Marks & Spencers label and was too small for Chanal. - The underwear leads to the latest theory, that Trevor O'Keefe was murdered by Chanal and that the Irish teen was not the only one.

Chanal is forced to watch as he continues the search for his truck. A large foam mattress is removed from the back of the van. The mattress is dirty, covered in hair. The sheets are dirty with semen. (Jean-Marie speaks in foreign language) -It was really his second home. He lived in his truck. This was the most important evidence we had to

investigate

. -Chanal continues to declare his innocence. Somewhere in the items collected from his van is forensic evidence that will help clear his name or seal his fate. It has been a year since Trevor O'Keefe's body was found in a farmer's field in northern France.

The search for his killer has led investigators to the cramped room of a military trainer. The gendarmes search Pierre Chanal's barracks in search of evidence that could connect him to the murder of O'Keefe and that of several other young men. The room is sober and unadorned. It lacks even the most basic personal touch. (Andre speaks in foreign language) -He was isolated, alone, a man who has no personal life. One feels that he was a man who did not want to have contact with others. He was completely alone, without a doubt. And in the context of the military, this was unusual. (tense music) - Chef.

Chef, take a look. - Sophisticated video equipment is found. - Chef, look, camera. - Photo. - Along with some pornographic videos. - Chef. (Jean-Luc speaks in foreign language)-In the original profile I compiled in 1985, I told Captain Vaillant that this killer would be gay and in the military, a career member looking for victims he could easily find. - One of the home movies taken from Chanal's apartment shows soldiers performing maneuvers. Chanal says he filmed the footage in Verdun during the first week of August. This shows that he couldn't have killed Trevor O'Keefe. But the police discovered that the soldiers in the video belong to a battalion that did not go to Verdun until August 10.

When he confronts the lie, Chanal changes his story and says that he was at his base in Fontainebleau when O'Keefe was killed. An empty checkbook found in Chanal's apartment also casts doubt on that story. March 17, 1989. Half a year has passed since the arrest of Pierre Chanal in the Palazs Falvay case. Captain Joel Vaillant and Jean-Marie Tarbes had been carefully examining the evidence that would link him to the other cases. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - As the investigation continued, we began to prepare our interrogation of Chanal. (Jean-Marie speaks in foreign language) -We have prepared 611 questions for his interrogation.

We divided them into themes, but then we mixed them together. We wanted to see if he would be able to keep the story straight from him. - It was time to confront Chanal about the triangle of death. - There have been several disappearances in the Mourmelon area between 1980 and 1987, on August 7 and 20, 1981 and September 30, 1982. - It is impossible to say where I was on those dates. - August 23, 1985. - It is impossible to say where I was on those dates. - April 20, 1987. - It is impossible to say where he was on those precise dates. - Listen, Chanal. Here is his signature on the documents that show that he was at the base those days.

This is your signature. Right, Mr. Chanal? -Yes. (Joel speaks in a foreign language) -When we asked him very specific questions, when we cornered him, his facial tics altered. He started to get very angry and fell to the ground. Then he would shut down completely. - One should not be surprised to sit down and talk to these people and see a mix of emotions. And they may not relate so much to what is said in the interview but to what is going on in their own minds, and those emotions are going to seep through. - Vaillant plays one of the home video tapes discovered during the raid on Chanal's apartment. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - I played this tape and in it, Chanal is exposing herself.

Right away the ticks and sniffing started, and he has this extraordinary reaction. - You made this tape, right? With elegant music in the background. It's something extraordinary, isn't it? Look at this! Guards! - Come on, kill me! - Take it easy! - You are a sadist! You are a sadist! - Calm down! That's an order! Calm down and stay quiet, okay? (Joel speaks in foreign language)-We had to hold him down and after that he refused to talk. I continued talking to him, but it was a monologue. - Mr. Chanal, (mumbles). We're brothers in the military, right?

So call me. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - Then I said that the person who did these things couldn't keep them to themselves forever. - No one can keep such a terrible secret. - And that person would need help. This person was not a criminal. They were sick. - Let 'me help you. -I felt that he was very receptive. - Yes captain. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - At 11:30 that night, we return to the cell and he is confused, dazed. He turned to me. I didn't know where he was. And in that moment there was something, an understanding.

But under French law, he could not question him further. If he could have, I'm sure he would have gotten me to talk. - October 23, 1990. Pierre Chanal has been detained for a year and a half. Finally, he comes to trial for the kidnapping of Hungarian hitchhiker Palazs Falvay. Armed with a damning videotape that Chanal took of himself with Falvay and the young hitchhiker's testimony, Chanal is sentenced to 10 years in prison. Joel Vaillant has not been able to get a confession from him, but he is confident he can build his case with Chanal behind bars. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - When Chanal was tried for the crimes against Falvay, we told ourselves that we had time to dig deeper into this, to really find the evidence we needed, the concrete evidence that he was also involved in the other crimes. . (Gerard speaks in foreign language) -When he was accused of Falvay, it was as clear as a nose on his face that he was guilty of everything.

The families were impatient for him to be accused of the disappearances of his children. - In fact, an already problematic story was about to get much worse. June 19, 1995. PierreChanal leaves prison a free man. He has been a model prisoner. With time off for good behavior, he has served only five years of a 10-year sentence for kidnapping and assault. While Chanal is in prison, little progress is made with the evidence gathered in his van. Procedural delays and legal disputes have paralyzed the investigation. The man some suspect of being a brutal serial killer responsible for the deaths of at least eight young people faces no new charges. (Jean-Marie speaks in foreign language) - We just didn't have all the evidence together.

We kept talking to experts and public opinion turned against us. They attacked us for being too slow. - Families of missing men across northern France are shocked. - For my parents it was a scandal, a total injustice. - We feel disappointed again by the system. Judge Charles Marien sat at a table very close to me and promised me, he said he promised, that he would not release Chanal. He said Chanal will serve 10 years in prison, but he did not. - Chanal is out of jail but under close surveillance. Under intense pressure, Chanal maintains his innocence. He calls a local radio station to plead his case. - Despite my innocence, I know that I will be found guilty.

And if that happens, I will end my life. (Gil speaks in a foreign language) -I think he tried to turn the tables, reverse the roles. The families were the aggressors and he presented himself as a victim. He wanted it to look like the entire system had turned against him. -Faced with increasing pressure from the families, a new judge is appointed for the Chanal case, Pascal Chapart, the main focus of which is the coroner. evidence gathered in Chanal's van. For years he has been stored in a dusty attic. The new judge demands that everything be sent to him. (Jean-Marie speaks in a foreign language) - Pascal Chapart for me, in addition to becoming a very good friend, is the man who reopened this case. - We went to see Chapart (mumbles) and he said, "I won't leave this case until it progresses. "I promise you," he said, "I won't leave it." - Despite his determination, progress is slow.

The crimes They occurred in several different jurisdictions. Jean-Marie Tarbes reexamines evidence taken from Chanal's van. He finds several hundred strands of hair and other evidence that had been collected but never analyzed. Jean-Paul Moisan is called in to examine the new evidence. (Jean-Paul speaks in foreign language) - The sample they sent us was hair and skin found in their van. We examined 457 hairs, we found that some belonged to Chanal and we found three types of mitochondrial DNA. It corresponded to three of the victims, Gache , Denis and Falvay. The chance of this match with someone in the general population is 0.06%, which is rare but not ruled out.

But remember, we found three different sets of DNA from three different victims in a vehicle in which We suspected that they had been collected. - What could be another key piece of forensic evidence has disappeared. Lot 19 has disappeared. (Loic speaks in foreign language) - The famous lot 19 was the one that contained a sample of soil that came from the shovel we found in Chanal's truck. And because the case was so important, I kept my own sample, telling myself that this is significant. - Le Ribault's sample of the shovel blade is compared to soil found in Trevor O'Keefe's shallow grave.

The small crystals in the soil are unique to the region and are identical in both samples. - I know that the shovel that was in Chanal's van was used to dig the grave. I'm not saying I was holding it. What I'm saying is that this is the shovel that was used to bury Trevor O'Keefe. - Police Captain Joel Vaillant wants more. To make his case, Vaillant consults an American expert. (Joel speaks in foreign language) -I went to Quantico, headquarters of the FBI and spoke with Jim Wright who gave us his opinion. - When they came, I didn't speak French and they didn't speak English.

We had a translator, but there were times when we didn't need one because we really knew what we were saying thanks to that common language, camaraderie and brotherhood. (Joel speaks in a foreign language) -From the information we gave him he confirmed that we are facing a serial killer. These types of people will only be stopped in two ways: they will be arrested or they will commit suicide. -The gendarme feels that he is approaching. Several more years will pass, but Pierre Chanal's case finally reaches court. October 14, 2003. 16 years after Trevor O'Keefe's body was found in a shallow grave, Pierre Chanal's trial finally begins.

But Chanal was not there to hear the charges against him. He is too weak to attend the trial. A suicide attempt landed him in the hospital. And for three months he has refused to eat. -The trial will take place even though Chanal is sent to the Reims hospital because he was on a hunger strike. I saw him the day before the trial started. He looked like a skeleton. His physical condition was precarious, but his mental state was fine. He was determined. From the moment I became his lawyer, he said that he had already been tried and convicted, and swore that he would never go to trial. - The Pierre Chanal case is about to take its final shocking turn.

Pierre Chanal is on trial for the murder of Trevor O'Keefe and the disappearance of two other young men. The case rests on three thin strands of hair and a pile of dirt. It's not much, but it's the best chance to put a suspected serial killer behind bars. (Gerard speaks in foreign language) - On the first afternoon of the trial, Chanal refused to be there. His lawyer was there. The trial continues. And for us it was almost a miracle. We didn't think the trial would take place. And the night after the first day we were elated. Finally, finally, we would have it in front of us.

And we had heard that he had started eating again. For us, the page had been turned. This was a new chapter. - The euphoria is short-lived. The same night her trial begins, Chanal makes good on his defiant threat. He hides the blade of a disposable razor in the tape of his IV tube. He uses it to cut his right thigh. He cuts her femoral artery. Silently, alone in his hospital bed, Pierre Chanal bleeds to death. - I shuddered. I said, "You mean he's really dead?" And then I realized that everything was gone. Everything had melted. We had done all this for nothing.

Chanal had won. - Well, we feel defrauded of justice. They stole our justice. Chanal should be in prison. He shouldn't be dead. (Gil speaks in a foreign language) - All the families wanted to know what had happened to their children. So our first reaction was that we will never know, and then we got angry. (Joel speaks in a foreign language) - It was a tragic end for him but it was even more so for the families. - The death of Pierre Chanal puts an end to the series of disappearances that tormented northern France. The publicity of the trial also forces military officials to take one last look at their files.

In 2004, the names of two other missing recruits surfaced. Both Michel Gianini and Aldo Tacchini disappeared in the late 1970s. Both were based in Valdahon, another camp where Chanal was an instructor. The man who looked Chanal in the face believes there are even more bodies. (Joel speaks in foreign language) - Deep down, I know there are more victims, other hitchhikers who have disappeared, but we may never know. - Families who fought for so long to have their stories heard finally win an important victory. Until 2002, the French army still considered the men deserters, but in 2005 it relented. And in court, the families reach a historic agreement. (Gerard speaks in foreign language) - The Paris court handed down an incredibly brave sentence.

For us lawyers, it restored our faith in the judicial system. The court recognized all the issues that we had pointed out, everything. The court agreed that everyone we represented was a victim not only of Pierre Chanal but also of the judicial system. - The families of the missing received money and recognition. But after so many years, the bitterness persists. - I felt satisfaction. It was the first time that someone acknowledged the poor treatment the families had received, but also the disappointment. The case may be officially over, but for the families it continues. - Pierre Chanal's crimes die with him.

The truth is buried forever. Families, already missing children and siblings, will never have the answers they need. (suspense music)