Horrific crimes of serial killer who appeared on quiz show while police hunted him down

When Francois Verove took part in a quiz show in France in 2019, nobody could have imagined that he was a heinous killer.

Although he appeared like any other contestant, he had in fact been on the run from police for the last three decades.

A former police officer, Verove lived in southern France with his wife and children when he took part on the show, named Tout le monde veut pendre sa place.

It was only after he died in 2021 that the truth about his dark past came to light.

Vauvio/Tout le monde veut pendre sa place

Verove is suspected of raping and murdering both children and adults throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

One victim was 11-year-old Cécile Bloch, who Verove is suspected of raping and murdering in 1986.

The child was believed to have been taken as she left her apartment building for school. She was later found dead in a basement of the building.

During the investigation, residents recalled seeing a man with pockmarked skin.

Luc Richard, Cecile's older brother, told the Sud Ouest newspaper: "He seemed very sure of himself. He spoke to me in a very bold, very polite way, too.

"He said something to me like, 'Have a very, very good day'."

During the hunt, police - who believed their suspect to be a police officer - described the perpetrator as Le Grêlé (The Pockmarked Man) due to his acne-marked face, The Times reports.

Other suspected victims were Gilles Politi, 38, and German au pair Irmgard Müller, 20, who were killed in 1987.

Verove is also believed to have raped at least two other children, and is suspected of having committed a total of up to 31 murders and rapes until 1994.

Shortly before his death, authorities had managed to establish a DNA profile of the suspect they were looking for, and all gendarmes who had been deployed in Paris at the time of the murders would need to be questioned.

Verove was one of the gendarmes and although he was summoned on 24 September to report for questioning a few days later, he was reported missing by his wife.

Vauvio/Tout le monde veut pendre sa place

Verove was later found at a rented apartment in a nearby fishing village, where he took his own life.

But prior to his death, he had left a note for his wife where he confessed to the heinous crimes he had committed.

"There were times when I couldn't stand it and I had to destroy, sully, kill someone innocent," he wrote, also explaining that while he had had 'past impulses', he had since been able to bring them 'under control'.

In the letter, Verove admitted to murders but didn't include specific details about victims.

However, police took samples and found that his DNA matched the profile at a number of crime scenes.