French cold cases about to be solved?

BBC NEWS | Europe | France holds man over 18 murders

The French police have arrested and are holding for questioning a 68 year old man in relation to 18 unsolved murders, of mostly homosexual men between 1980 and 2002. The suspect, Nicolas Panard is alleged to have killed 11 people in the Alsace region, four others in neighbouring Franche-Comte and three near Paris. His alleged accomplice Slim Fezzani is currently serving a 20 year prison sentence for a separate murder.

The pair are being held for questioning in the Franche-Comte town of Montbeliard, where the deputy state prosecutor has told the AFP newsagency that the two men denied the allegations and that there is "no formal proof" linking them to the crimes.

According to a local L'Alsace newspaper, the arrests were the result of a 2 year investigation by a police officer based in Montbeliard who had originally only been investigating a murder in 1991 in Sochaux. By using the police crime database, the officer found mentions of Mr. Panard's name in the case files of several unsolved murders. The officer also discovered several common features in the murders, including the following:

• the victims had been killed by blows to the head;
• the victims had multiple knife wounds;
• the victims were found partly naked but with their faces covered.

Mr. Panard has a criminal record for burglary, and is said to have frequented the homosexual scene where he worked as a female impersonator.

During the 1980s there was a spate of unsolved murders of homosexuals across the border from Mulhouse in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

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