Read Online Barbaric Murders - Child victims, lady-killers and bodies in boxes (Infamous Murderers) by Rodney Castleden - Free Book Online
Authors: Rodney Castleden
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to be guilty by their neighbours. They have been forced to move away and make a new home for themselves – in Charlevoix in Michigan – where they live in poverty. Their lives have been destroyed.
Francisco Arce Montes
and the French youth hostel murder
In the summer of 1996, a party of forty students and five teachers from Launceston College in Cornwall stayed at a youth hostel in the village of Pleine-Fougères in Brittany. One night, 17 August, the teachers ordered lights out towards midnight and, some time in the small hours of the following morning, an intruder entered the building, probably through a door that had been left unlocked.
He crept upstairs to the girls’ dormitory and picked Caroline Dickinson, apparently at random. He put his hand over her mouth, raped her and suffocated her with a pad of cotton wool to stop her from making any noise. None of her friends woke up fully to witness what happened, though some remembered half-waking to hear groaning, which they took little notice of assuming it was one of the girls having a dream.
Caroline’s death was only discovered at 8 o’clock, when one of her friends tried to wake her and found she was cold. Teachers were called, and they frantically tried to revive her. Ambulance workers were called, but she was already dead, and had been dead for hours.
By the time the death was discovered, the murderer had escaped. He may by that time have been many miles away. The French put fifty police on the case, and showed a real determination to solve the case quickly. It seemed to pay off because within days they had a result. A convicted rapist called Patrice Pade confessed to killing Caroline and the hunt was over. The examining magistrate, Gerard Zaug, was convinced that Patrice Pade, a vagrant in his forties with a long history of rape and violence towards women, was the killer. Zaug held a new conference in which he identified the killer.
A week later, the results of the DNA tests on traces of semen found on Caroline’s body emerged, and they decisively proved that Pade was not the killer. The examining magistrate had got it wrong, but he did back down immediately. For one thing, Pade’s description of the interior of the youth hostel was so accurate that Zaug was convinced he must have been there. He demanded more tests and argued that Pade could have been an accomplice to the killer, whose identity for the time being remained unknown. But it was clear to others that Patrice Pade had confessed to a crime he had not committed. People do sometimes confess because they want attention, but it may be that because he had an appropriate criminal record he was put under pressure to confess.
On 7 August, 1996, Patrice Pade was released and the inquiry had to begin all over again. All the teachers, hostel staff and the boys on the trip were DNA tested, but none provided a match, so all of them were cleared of suspicion. As the months and years passed various leads emerged, but none leading to an arrest and conviction.
The strongest lead was a very similar attack 25 miles away from Pleine-Fougères. This attack, another nocturnal attack on an English girl, happened only hours before the attack on Caroline. It seemed very likely that this earlier attack and the attack on Caroline were committed by the same man. Unfortunately there were no leads on the man involved in the earlier attack either and a definite link could not be made. There was speculation that Caroline might have been the victim of a serial killer, which made it all the more urgent that he should be found and arrested.
The net was widened. DNA tests were carried out on four hundred men aged between fifteen and sixty in the Pleine-Fougères area. There were still no matches. The examining magistrate’s conduct of the affair was strongly criticized by Caroline’s parents, John and Sue Dickinson, among others, and before the end of 1996 he had been taken off the case. The Dickinsons
Francisco Arce Montes
and the French youth hostel murder
In the summer of 1996, a party of forty students and five teachers from Launceston College in Cornwall stayed at a youth hostel in the village of Pleine-Fougères in Brittany. One night, 17 August, the teachers ordered lights out towards midnight and, some time in the small hours of the following morning, an intruder entered the building, probably through a door that had been left unlocked.
He crept upstairs to the girls’ dormitory and picked Caroline Dickinson, apparently at random. He put his hand over her mouth, raped her and suffocated her with a pad of cotton wool to stop her from making any noise. None of her friends woke up fully to witness what happened, though some remembered half-waking to hear groaning, which they took little notice of assuming it was one of the girls having a dream.
Caroline’s death was only discovered at 8 o’clock, when one of her friends tried to wake her and found she was cold. Teachers were called, and they frantically tried to revive her. Ambulance workers were called, but she was already dead, and had been dead for hours.
By the time the death was discovered, the murderer had escaped. He may by that time have been many miles away. The French put fifty police on the case, and showed a real determination to solve the case quickly. It seemed to pay off because within days they had a result. A convicted rapist called Patrice Pade confessed to killing Caroline and the hunt was over. The examining magistrate, Gerard Zaug, was convinced that Patrice Pade, a vagrant in his forties with a long history of rape and violence towards women, was the killer. Zaug held a new conference in which he identified the killer.
A week later, the results of the DNA tests on traces of semen found on Caroline’s body emerged, and they decisively proved that Pade was not the killer. The examining magistrate had got it wrong, but he did back down immediately. For one thing, Pade’s description of the interior of the youth hostel was so accurate that Zaug was convinced he must have been there. He demanded more tests and argued that Pade could have been an accomplice to the killer, whose identity for the time being remained unknown. But it was clear to others that Patrice Pade had confessed to a crime he had not committed. People do sometimes confess because they want attention, but it may be that because he had an appropriate criminal record he was put under pressure to confess.
On 7 August, 1996, Patrice Pade was released and the inquiry had to begin all over again. All the teachers, hostel staff and the boys on the trip were DNA tested, but none provided a match, so all of them were cleared of suspicion. As the months and years passed various leads emerged, but none leading to an arrest and conviction.
The strongest lead was a very similar attack 25 miles away from Pleine-Fougères. This attack, another nocturnal attack on an English girl, happened only hours before the attack on Caroline. It seemed very likely that this earlier attack and the attack on Caroline were committed by the same man. Unfortunately there were no leads on the man involved in the earlier attack either and a definite link could not be made. There was speculation that Caroline might have been the victim of a serial killer, which made it all the more urgent that he should be found and arrested.
The net was widened. DNA tests were carried out on four hundred men aged between fifteen and sixty in the Pleine-Fougères area. There were still no matches. The examining magistrate’s conduct of the affair was strongly criticized by Caroline’s parents, John and Sue Dickinson, among others, and before the end of 1996 he had been taken off the case. The Dickinsons
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