Yorkshire undergraduate Joanna Parrish was working as an English tutor in France when she disappeared in May 1990.
The Leeds University student went missing on the night of May 16 to 17 after she had placed an ad in a local newspaper in Burgundy offering private English lessons and arranging to meet a man.
Her naked body was found in the Yonne River in Auxerre the following day. She had been abducted, stripped, beaten, bound and strangled, according to reports.
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Jo, who was 20, had been studying languages at Leeds and had just been coming towards the end of a placement teaching English at a secondary school in Auxerre. At the time of her murder, her parents, Roger and Pauline, were just about to visit her in France to bring back her possessions to the UK while she had plans to visit her boyfriend, a fellow Leeds student, in Czechoslovakia.
Jo, from the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, was described as a bright and hard-working young woman who was kind and gentle and had a bright future ahead of her.
Jo's family and friends had to wait many years before finding out what happened to her. They have repeatedly raised criticisms of the French authorities in the way they handled the case.
It emerged that a key suspect in the investigation was Michel Fouriret, one of France's most infamous serial killers who was convicted in 2008 of the murders of seven girls and young women in France. The crimes earned him the nickname, The Beast of Ardennes. His victims included Natacha Danais, 13, who was stabbed to death in 1990 and Celine Saison, 18.
Fourniret later admitted to kidnapping, raping and murdering girls and women over a period of 14 years from 1987. It has been reported that he was behind another 21 killings, among them Joanna Parrish.
He had been arrested in 2003 after trying to kidnap a 13-year-old girl who managed to untie her hands and escape from his van. Following his conviction, DNA evidence from the scene of Joanna Parrish's murder as taken for examination. Later her family was told the evidence had been mislaid.
In May 2010, French magistrates decided there wasn't sufficient evidence to put Fourniret on trial, and the case was closed the following year. In 2018 it was reported that Fourniret had confessed to killing Joanna. He died in 2021, aged 79, never facing justice for what he did to the Leeds student.
The murder of Joanna Parrish and subsequent bungling is the subject of a new Netflix documentary that focuses on the role played by Monique Olivier, wife of Fourniret.
Entitled Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil, the series looks at the role she played and examines whether she was coerced into aiding his crimes. Monique Olivier, a former nurse, is serving a sentence of 28 years for her complicity in five of her husband's murders. It was revealed she would pick up potential victims for her husband as he drove around in their car in the Ardennes area.
The couple's crimes have been likened to those of Fred and Rose West, and the trailer for the Netflix series describes Olivier as a 'submissive wife' who was scared of her husband. A trailer voiceover says: "She is a housewife who helps to rape, kill and abduct. But in the end, she is a housewife."
According to reports, Olivier is likely to stand trial at the end of this year for her role in the murder of Joanna. Joanna's parents took part in the Netflix documentary, providing details of what they saw as a 'dysfunctional' French judicial system.
Mr Parrish told Gloucestershire Live of the heartbreak of losing his daughter and the nightmare of hearing the DNA samples linking Fourniret to Joanna were not usable.
Speaking in 2020, he said: "It think the real low point came when Fourniret was first arrested and they said the evidence could not be used. I still don’t know exactly why because I have heard two or three different stories but I do know it felt like a complete disaster. It was a terrible, terrible time, really, really hard. But even when it seems like there’s nothing more you can do, it’s a question of never giving up, never stop trying.”
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Parrish said: "We wanted to highlight what we see as a dysfunctional French judicial and investigative process. They've let us down, they've let Joanna down and they've let the other French families down. We thought that it might be an idea to highlight some of these deficiencies in the system."
Documentary producer Michelle Fines explained the Netflix series reveals Fourniret killed more people - and his wife played a crucial role in making his victims feel safe.
"Because she was in the car [with Fourniret] victims were reassured. She helped Fourniret to trap and rape," she said. "When you see the responsibility of Monique Olivier in each rape and murder it's really frightening. The parents of Joanna Parrish always wondered how it was possible that their daughter could go with a man. But when they knew there was a couple, they understood how it could have been possible."
Joanne's mum, Pauline Murrell, said they wanted to make sure Joanne's story is remembered, even though three decades have gone by.
"She was an absolutely wonderful person," Ms Murrell said. "I've got photos around the house and I say to her, 'We'll get there one day,' but 33 years, that's absolutely ridiculous isn't it? That's half our lives."
Monique Olivier: Accessory To Evil is available to watch on Netflix in the UK now.
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