A French serial killer appeared on a TV show while hiding from the police in plain sight.
Francois Verove took part in a quiz show named Tout le monde veut pendre sa place - which translates to Everyone Wants to Take His Place - back in 2019.
He appeared like any other contestant; laughing and joking with the show hosts and answering questions.
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But he wasn't like any other contestant. He was in fact on the run from police and had been for three decades.
A former police officer, Verove lived in southern France with his wife and children. He was even a local councillor in the region.
It was only after he died in 2021 that the truth about his dark past came to light.
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Verove had taken his own life while staying in a rented apartment in a fishing village.
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'.
Verove is suspected of raping and murdering 11-year-old Cécile Bloch. He is also suspected of sexually assaulting two other children.
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Other suspected victims were Gilles Politi, 38, and German au pair Irmgard Müller, 20, who were killed in 1987.
Shortly before Verove's 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 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.
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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.
During his appearance on the quiz show, Verove spoke about his life as a police officer before being eliminated from the competition when he failed to answer two general knowledge questions regarding the Olympic Games and tuberculosis vaccinations.
The footage from the show was revealed in 2019, by a French magazine named Marianne.
Topics: News, World News, Crime
Lucy Devine