A convict has been charged in France for the murder and rape of an estate agent in a cold case reopened by a recently formed police unit, prosecutors said on Friday.

The man, now in his 70s, had already been convicted for drugging his wife between 2010 and 2020 and allowing dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious.

While investigating two crimes believed to be unrelated — a rape and murder committed in 1991 and an attempted rape in 1999 — the French cold cases unit, which is dedicated to unsolved crimes, began to suspect the man.

Police linked the two cases because of a similar modus operandi, according to a source at the unit, based in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.”Both attacks were committed during apartment visits, and both victims were estate agents,” the source told AFP.

The murdered woman was 23, and the target of the rape attempt 19.Earlier probes into the cases had been closed without any convictions in 2005 and 2001 respectively.

The suspect was charged in October, the first such result for the cold cases unit since its creation last March.

The unit focuses on serial killings, on cases that are still unsolved after 18 months of investigation and ones that have an international dimension or that require specific technical expertise.