- Francois Verove, 59, is connected to 31 rapes and murders in Paris in the 1980s
A French serial killer appeared on a TV quiz show while the police hunted him for the rape and murder of children and adults.
Francois Verove participated in the French quiz show Tout le monde veut pendre sa place (Everyone Wants to Take His Place) in 2019, laughing and joking with the host as he answered general knowledge questions, the Times reports.
During his quiz show appearance, Verove appeared relaxed as he talked to presenter Nagui Fam and earned applause by the studio audience.
But the retired police officer wasn't just a normal citizen - Verove had been on the run from police for more than 30 years at that point and was hiding in plain sight.
Verove, 59, was described as an upstanding member of the community in La Grande-Motte in southern France, where he lived with his wife and children.
His sinister past only came to light after he killed himself in 2021 and French police connected him to 31 of rapes and murders in Paris.
Francois Verove (pictured) participated in the French quiz show Tout le monde veut pendre sa place (Everyone Wants to Take His Place) in 2019, laughing and joking with the host as he answered general knowledge questions
He told the host and the studio audience about his career as a police officer, including how he patrolled the Bois de Boulogne park in Paris on horseback in the 1980s
In the footage of his 2019 quiz show appearance, Verove is introduced as 'François from La Grande-Motte'
Back in 1986, police had published a police sketch based on witness statements that showed a man of around 25 years old, six feet tall with light-brown hair, and with visible traces of acne on his face
His TV appearance, which was disclosed in French news magazine Marianne, is seen as an indication that Verove did not attempt to hide his identity - despite police having a suspect sketch resembling him as well as a suspicion that the perpetrator was a police officer.
Verove was nicknamed 'Le Grele' or 'The Pockmarked Man' after a series of rapes and murders from the 1980s until 1994.
In his most notorious case, he was suspected of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl named Cecile Bloch, who was found dead in the basement of the Paris building where she lived in 1986. He is known to have raped at least two other children.
Among his other victims were aviation technician Gilles Politi, 38, and German au pair Irmgard Müller, 20, who were both killed in Paris in 1987.
He was also believed to have strangled a couple to death in the central Marais district of the capital in 1987.
Over the years, investigators came to believe that the suspect may have been part of the Gendarmerie - armed forces in charge of internal security - at the time of the crimes, after victims said he had shown them his police badge.
Verove was a former gendarme, who later became a police officer and then retired. He later became a local councillor in the south of France.
Investigators established a DNA profile of the suspect and, in the months before his death in September 2021, an investigating magistrate had begun questioning around 750 gendarmes who had been deployed in the Paris region at the time.
One of them was Verove, who was sent a summons on September 24 to report for questioning on September 29, but then was reported missing by his wife three days after the summons.
He killed himself in a rented apartment in Grau-du-Roi, a fishing village on the Mediterranean coast, and left a written confession in which he told his wife he had 'carried a mad rage that made of me a criminal'.
The note continued: 'There were times when I couldn't stand it and I had to destroy, sully, kill someone innocent.'
Verove also mentioned 'past impulses' in the letter, but added that he had since brought them 'under control'.
Among his other victims were aviation technician Gilles Politi, 38, and German au pair Irmgard Müller (pictured), 20, who were both killed in Paris in 1987
In his most notorious case, Verove was suspected of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl named Cecile (pictured in an old photograph hugging a dog), who was found dead in the basement of the Paris building where she lived
Cecile Bloch (pictured above), 11, was found dead in the basement of the Paris building where she lived in 1986
Aviation technician Gilles Politi (pictured), 38, was killed by Francois Verove in Paris in 1987
He admitted murders without detailing the victims or circumstances, and said he had committed no crimes after 1997. The murder confession contained no specifics, prosecutors said.
Police took a DNA sample from his body and found that it matched the genetic profile found at several of the crime scenes.
Back in 1986, police had published a police sketch based on witness statements that showed a man of around 25 years old, six feet tall with light-brown hair, and with visible traces of acne on his face.
A lawyer for Cecile's family, Didier Seban, thanked police for their work but also said that it was 'painful to know that the criminal took his secrets with him'.
His nickname of 'The Pockmarked Man' dates back to the murder of Cecile. Her half-brother, Luc Richard, was among residents who recalled seeing a man with an acne-scarred face on the day of the crime in their Paris apartment building.
The then youngster, who helped police draw a sketch of the suspect, said he shared a lift with the man who seemed 'very sure of himself'.
He recalled during an interview in 2015: 'He said something to me like, "Have a very, very good day".'
According to the newspaper Le Parisien, Verove is also the suspect in another murder near Paris, of 19-year-old Karine Leroy, in 1994 in the city of Meaux.
His widow, who has not been named, said she never suspected that her husband was leading a double life and had raped and murdered dozens of children and adults.
He was tasked with two general knowledge questions. The first one was about which new sport would be included in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Verove said it was squash, but the correct answer was breakdance
She said even after he was told he would need to provide a DNA sample alongside the other hundreds of officers stationed in Paris in the 1980s when the attacks happened, his demeanour remained unchanged.
On the day he killed himself, Verove cooked lunch, had his usual afternoon nap and told his wife he was going out for a bike ride before his body was found in the rented apartment in a neighbouring town.
In the footage of his 2019 quiz show appearance, Verove is introduced as 'François from La Grande-Motte'.
He told the host and the studio audience about his career as a police officer, including how he patrolled the Bois de Boulogne park in Paris on horseback in the 1980s.
He was tasked with two general knowledge questions. The first one was about which new sport would be included in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Verove said it was squash, but the correct answer was breakdance.
He was then asked about tuberculosis vaccinations, but failed to give BCG as the answer and was eliminated from the show.
