‘Pockmarked’ serial killer was on game show before unmasking

ONE of France’s most elusive serial killers appeared on a popular television game show during the 35-year police hunt for him, where he spoke about keeping people “safe”.

Francois Vérove, also known as “the pockmarked” killer because of his complexion, has so far been linked to nine murders, including of minors, and 30 cases of rape and abuse.

In 2019 the married former cavalry officer appeared on the show Everyone Wants to Take Their Place channel France 2.

“You were a policeman,” said presenter Nagui. “Yes, on foot, on motorbike and horseback,” the bespectacled and bearded killer responded with a smile. He said he operated in the Bois de Boulogne – a park notorious for its prostitutes after dark – where he “kept walkers safe” in the daytime.

It has since emerged he was sacked in 1986 for a possible “affair of vice” in the park. In 2021, he died by suicide after receiving a police summons following the discovery of DNA that could match his.

His body was discovered in an Airbnb a few miles from his home in La Grande-motte in southern France. On a desk was a letter in which he admitted to killing innocent people following a “mad rage” that had “turned me into a criminal”. He said he had managed to rid himself of his murderous impulses once and for all in 1997.

After his suicide, forensic experts checked his DNA with the genetic profiles from the crime scenes and they matched. His DNA was found in a Paris cellar where 11-year-old Cécile Bloch was raped and killed in May 1986.

Police also matched his DNA to the murder of a couple in the Marais district of Paris in 1987 and Karine Leroi, 19, in Meaux outside Paris in 1994. After they had pinpointed the same DNA profile from several crime scenes, Vérove was among 750 gendarmes who were summoned as part of the investigation.