European court shuts door on father’s quest over missing 9-year-old

The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that French father Eric Mouzin's complaint over investigators' slow, negligent handling of his daughter Estelle's 2003 disappearance is inadmissible, finding that a prior conviction and a 50,000-euro compensation award for state negligence already addressed the harm. Estelle, then 9, vanished walking home from school near Paris; her body has never been found. Serial killer Michel Fourniret's accomplice, Monique Olivier, was convicted in 2023 of helping abduct and detain the child, resulting in her death, while Fourniret himself died in 2021 without standing trial.

Mouzin's lawyers welcomed the court's acknowledgment of a right-to-life breach but said the remedy did not end a violation that lasted 21 years, and noted Fourniret died without facing trial and the body remains missing. Legal experts said families experience long investigative delays as a distinct harm, and one professor called it disappointing the court's narrow view of victimhood blocked that claim from proceeding further. The decision cannot be appealed.

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