January 22, 1962 - François Vérove
His position within French law enforcement — spanning the Gendarmerie and the National Police across more than three decades — gave him both proximity to investigations and a degree of institutional cover that likely contributed to how long he evaded identification. The murders attributed to him began with an eleven-year-old girl in 1986 and extended through the mid-1990s, with additional rapes connected to the same period. He was not identified until 2021, when a DNA summons prompted him to take his own life before he could be formally confronted. The case became a notable example of how institutional trust can shield perpetrators even within the systems designed to detect them.
From Wikipedia
François Vérove (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa veʁɔv]; 22 January 1962 – 29 September 2021), also known as Le Grêlé ([lə ɡʁɛle, ɡʁele], the Pockmarked Man), was a French serial killer, rapist and police officer who murdered at least three people between 1986 and 1994 in the Île-de-France region. He received his nickname from acne scars seen on his face by witnesses following his first murder.
Vérove's first murder, that of 11-year-old Cécile Bloch, took place in the 19th arrondissement of Paris in 1986. The following year he murdered two adults in the 4th arrondissement of the city. He was linked to two further murders in 1991 and 1994, as well as two rapes in 1987 and 1994.
During his crime spree, Vérove belonged to various French police forces; he was a member of the National Gendarmerie between 1983 and 1988, serving as a motorcyclist in the Republican Guard, then became an officer in the National Police in Paris until his retirement in 2019. He briefly held elected office as a municipal councillor in Prades-le-Lez, Hérault, between 2019 and 2020.
On 24 September 2021, Vérove received a police summons to provide a DNA sample as part of an investigation into the Bloch killing.
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