“Who was the boy given to? Who was there?”
In 1984, four-year-old Grégory Villemin was murdered in his hometown in the Vosges, France.
His mother, Christine, had been busy at home when she noticed that her son was no longer playing outside.
She and husband Jean-Marie reported their son as missing, not long before Grégory’s uncle received an anonymous phone call saying that the boy had been kidnapped and dumped in the Vologne River.
Soon afterwards, the four-year-old’s body was found, his hands and feet bound with rope, his face covered with a hat.
Netflix’s latest true crime offering, Who Killed Little Grégory?, begins with the statement: “To date, no one has been found guilty of the murder of Grégory Villemin.”
Each of its five episodes also end with that sentence too, ensuring that as soon as the audience starts watching, they’re fully aware that the documentary’s titular question is, in fact, not going to be answered.
Unlike many docu-series of similar subjects that have come before it, Who Killed Little Grégory? has no qualms about its open ending.
Over its long, convoluted, and sometimes unbelievable five hours, it presents a case that has gripped France for over 30 years – and one that the rest of us had probably never even heard of before.
Mysterious phone calls, vengeful fathers, and a couple whose tragedy should have stopped with the murder of their son only make up some of the elements of case that has captured the imagination – and the suspicions – of a nation for years.
The series begins a little chaotically, introducing a seemingly eclectic mix of family members who are each vying for their time in the limelight, while each equally as plausible as early suspects in the murder.
Within the first 20 minutes, we’re introduced to The Raven (or as he was otherwise known in France as, The Crow) – an anonymous man who plagues the Villemin family with threatening and harassing calls, presenting his intimate knowledge of their family history.
His actions are horrifying, and yet they appear so perfectly villainous in the midst of a four-year-old’s death, that it almost becomes difficult for the documentary to weave the two narratives together – one so tragic, the other so spiteful.
But despite Who Killed Little Grégory? maybe biting off more than it can chew in the first few episodes, the story eventually settles and provides a more linear version of events – ones that are just as harrowing and upsetting, but easier to follow.
Grégory’s mother, Christine, and her sorrow in a world that is desperate to convict a grieving mother is a particularly affecting watch, as she speaks to journalist after journalist in an attempt to clear her name – a decision that is framed by many as insincere.
Viewers will leave the five-part series with just as many questions as they had going into it.
It doesn’t provide any answers, but rather is a re-telling of a story that has recently garnered new interest due to fleeting progress in the case and the suicide of one of its key players.
A detailed, immersive, sometimes confusing watch, after five hours, it still begs the question: Who Killed Little Grégory?
Who Killed Little Grégory? is streaming on Netflix now.
