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Gas station footage solved this playboy s murder · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: One early morning in April of twenty twelve, a man
0:02
Speaker 1: was walking through.
0:03
Speaker 2: The woods in coastal France.
0:05
Speaker 1: He lived nearby, and he had just seen a column
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Speaker 1: of smoke coming out of the trees in this area,
0:10
Speaker 1: and so he was just coming out here to make
0:11
Speaker 1: sure there was not a brush fire or something, and
0:14
Speaker 1: so he walked through the woods and eventually he reached
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Speaker 1: the source of the smoke. It was in this clearing,
0:19
Speaker 1: and right away he felt relieved because what he saw
0:21
Speaker 1: was just the remains of a bonfire and it was
0:23
Speaker 1: just smoldering and now there was just some smoke coming
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Speaker 1: up off of it. He was about to turn around
0:28
Speaker 1: and go maybe get some water and douse it out completely,
0:31
Speaker 1: but he smelled something like it was a weird smell
0:34
Speaker 1: that clearly was coming from the fire, and so curious,
0:37
Speaker 1: you know, there's nobody else around, he just began walking
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Speaker 1: to the fire to see what was making this smell,
0:43
Speaker 1: and as he got close enough, he realized there was
0:46
Speaker 1: something in that fire. But before we get into today's story,
0:51
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
0:53
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1:16
Speaker 1: today's story. On the night of April twenty sixth, twenty twelve,
1:42
Speaker 1: a thirty nine year old bouncer named Leonel Vernez opened
1:45
Speaker 1: the door of a nightclub in Chambree.
1:47
Speaker 2: France, and he led a woman inside.
1:49
Speaker 1: And as this woman came in, she stopped and made
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Speaker 1: a point to look at Lionel and smile at him
1:54
Speaker 1: and thank him by name. So Chambree was a small
1:57
Speaker 1: city up in the Alps, and Lionel the bouncer was
2:00
Speaker 1: a fixture in its nightlife scene.
2:02
Speaker 2: Pretty Much everybody in town.
2:03
Speaker 1: Who went out to the bars and clubs had either
2:05
Speaker 1: seen Lionelle standing at the door outside or partying inside
2:09
Speaker 1: when he was not on the clock. And it was
2:11
Speaker 1: not just the locals who knew who this guy was.
2:14
Speaker 1: Leonel was also well known among the rich and famous
2:16
Speaker 1: tourists who often vacationed in Chambrie, and even sometimes he
2:20
Speaker 1: would pick up side work as a bodyguard for these
2:23
Speaker 1: rich and famous people. And for Leonel, I mean his
2:26
Speaker 1: career as like sort of this fixture in the nightlife
2:29
Speaker 1: scene was fun and pretty glamorous at times, but it
2:32
Speaker 1: also could be dangerous. In fact, just a few months
2:35
Speaker 1: ago he got into this huge fistfight protecting one of
2:38
Speaker 1: his clients, and in fact he actually got arrested for it.
2:41
Speaker 2: But tonight, Leonel was just trying to get through a
2:43
Speaker 2: shift without any trouble.
2:45
Speaker 1: There was this long line of people who were waiting
2:47
Speaker 1: outside the club, waiting to get in, and Lionel checked
2:49
Speaker 1: their IDs.
2:50
Speaker 2: One by one and let them in.
2:52
Speaker 1: And then finally, when the line started to clear, Leonel
2:55
Speaker 1: saw a familiar face walking toward him. It was his
2:57
Speaker 1: good friend Mike Boof, who Leonelle often went drinking with
3:01
Speaker 1: multiple times a week, and at first Lionelle was just
3:03
Speaker 1: really glad to see Mike, but as Mike got closer,
3:07
Speaker 1: Lionel realized that Mike actually looked really mad, and so
3:10
Speaker 1: by the time Mike actually reached Lionel, Lionelle just said
3:14
Speaker 1: to him, like, Hey, what's going on you looked pretty upset,
3:17
Speaker 1: and Mike would tell him that he had just been
3:19
Speaker 1: at his friend Philippe's house, and Philippe had.
3:22
Speaker 2: Told him that seemed really, really weird.
3:25
Speaker 1: So Philippe Perrier, Mike's friend, the guy whose house he
3:28
Speaker 1: just came from, was extremely wealthy because his family ran
3:31
Speaker 1: this world famous winery near Chambourine. Now Lionel had never
3:35
Speaker 1: actually met Philip himself, but he knew of him. His
3:38
Speaker 1: family was incredibly well connected in town because they're so
3:41
Speaker 1: rich and they had this winery, and Mike was friends
3:44
Speaker 1: with him and often talked about him.
3:46
Speaker 2: And so now Mike explained.
3:47
Speaker 1: To Lionel what this really weird thing was that he
3:50
Speaker 1: heard when he was visiting with Philippe. So apparently Philippe's
3:54
Speaker 1: house had been robbed the day before, and Philippe believed Leonnelle,
4:00
Speaker 1: now the bouncer, was the one who had done it.
4:03
Speaker 1: Now Lionel immediately acted totally taken aback and began to
4:07
Speaker 1: ask Philipe, like, why in the world would even think that?
4:10
Speaker 1: But Mike, you know, his buddy here, just cut him off,
4:13
Speaker 1: and he's like, Lionelle, don't play dumb, Like Philippe knows
4:17
Speaker 1: you're sleeping with his wife, Natalie, and Natalie is actually
4:21
Speaker 1: the one who's blaming you for this robbery. Now, at
4:24
Speaker 1: this Lionelle went from the sort of shock and awe
4:27
Speaker 1: reaction to actually just feeling really nervous.
4:30
Speaker 2: He actually began to sweat because, you know, he knew
4:33
Speaker 2: it was true. He had slept with Natalie.
4:36
Speaker 1: He'd met her at a club one night a couple
4:38
Speaker 1: of months ago, and they'd hooked up in the coach
4:39
Speaker 1: check room. But Lionelle realistically had a lot of flings
4:43
Speaker 1: with a lot of different women, and he'd actually pretty
4:46
Speaker 1: much completely forgotten about hooking up with Natalie since it
4:49
Speaker 1: had just been like a casual thing and he hadn't
4:51
Speaker 1: seen her in weeks, and so he had no idea
4:54
Speaker 1: why now suddenly she would be accusing him of theft,
4:58
Speaker 1: Like it doesn't really make any sense to him. So Leonelle,
5:01
Speaker 1: I mean, he was genuinely stunned. I mean, he knew
5:03
Speaker 1: what he had done. He had slept with Natalie, and
5:05
Speaker 1: that's problematic. But he told Mike very truthfully that he
5:09
Speaker 1: did not break into Philippe's house, like there was nothing
5:13
Speaker 1: going on between he and Natalie. That was just a fling.
5:16
Speaker 1: It was nothing like, I really didn't do this. But Mike,
5:20
Speaker 1: despite you know, being friends with Lionel and knowing him
5:23
Speaker 1: quite well, did not appear to believe him. He just
5:27
Speaker 1: narrowed his eyes and nodded and said, okay, I'll pass
5:30
Speaker 1: that along to Philip. Three days later, on the night
5:36
Speaker 1: of April twenty ninth, Leonelle sat in a chair in
5:38
Speaker 1: his living room in Schanbrie, finishing up a phone call.
5:41
Speaker 1: So he lived in a small apartment with his mother
5:43
Speaker 1: and also his nephew Julian. However, Julian was just four
5:47
Speaker 1: years younger than him, so in many.
5:48
Speaker 2: Ways they were more like brothers.
5:50
Speaker 1: And so as soon as Lionelle hung up the phone, Julian,
5:53
Speaker 1: who was sitting in the room with him on the
5:54
Speaker 1: other side on the couch watching TV, he immediately asked, Lionelle,
5:58
Speaker 1: who were you talking to. Leonelle got up and he
6:01
Speaker 1: walked over and sat down next to Julian on the couch,
6:04
Speaker 1: and then he said to him, oh, that was my
6:05
Speaker 1: friend Mike, and he just called to see if I
6:07
Speaker 1: wanted to go out tonight for a drink, and so
6:09
Speaker 1: Julian's like, okay, cool, and then there's a little bit
6:11
Speaker 1: of silence, and then Lionelle was like, actually, I want
6:14
Speaker 1: to tell you something, and then he filled in Julian
6:17
Speaker 1: on the weird conversation he had had with Mike just
6:20
Speaker 1: a few days before, where basically Mike was saying that,
6:24
Speaker 1: you know, Leonelle was being accused of robbing this rich
6:26
Speaker 1: guy's home, Philip's home, and so Julian when he heard this,
6:29
Speaker 1: he was sort of like, this seems like a big deal.
6:33
Speaker 1: But Lionelle, despite being the one to bring it up
6:35
Speaker 1: and being the one to indicate this could be a
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Speaker 1: big deal, he quickly downplayed it when he saw the
6:40
Speaker 1: reaction and was just like, you know, it is what
6:42
Speaker 1: it is. I didn't do it, and you know, me
6:44
Speaker 1: and Mike were back on good terms. This whole thing
6:46
Speaker 1: was just, you know, a misunderstanding. Everything is back to
6:49
Speaker 1: normal now, just a weird thing that happened. And so
6:52
Speaker 1: Leonelle and Julian they shifted the conversation and chatted about
6:55
Speaker 1: whatever for the next couple of minutes, and then Lionelle's
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Speaker 1: phone buzzed, and at the same time he saw there
7:01
Speaker 1: were headlights pulling up outside. So Lionelle grabbed his jacket
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Speaker 1: and he told Julian he'd be back in a few hours.
7:07
Speaker 2: Then he went out the door.
7:11
Speaker 1: Two days later, on the evening of May first, twenty twelve,
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Speaker 1: Lionelle's nephew Julian walked into the Chambree Police station. He
7:18
Speaker 1: had spent the past two days very worried and stressed
7:21
Speaker 1: because Lionelle had not come home after hanging out with
7:23
Speaker 1: Mike that night, and he now was not answering his phone,
7:26
Speaker 1: and Lionelle was never gone for this long without giving
7:30
Speaker 1: Julian or his mother a heads up. Julian had tried
7:34
Speaker 1: to convince himself that he was just overreacting to this
7:36
Speaker 1: whole thing, and that Lionelle could take care of himself.
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Speaker 1: He was an adult. He was a tough adult, you know.
7:41
Speaker 1: He could handle himself. However, when he found out that
7:45
Speaker 1: Lionelle also hadn't been at work for the past.
7:47
Speaker 2: Couple of days, Julian knew something was wrong.
7:50
Speaker 1: So Julian, after getting inside the station, he walked right
7:54
Speaker 1: up to the front desk and told them, I need
7:56
Speaker 1: to report somebody missing. The following after so May second,
8:01
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, Captain Floran Mazaron walked into an interrogation room
8:05
Speaker 1: at the Chambree Police station he was leading the investigation
8:09
Speaker 1: into Lionelle's missing person case, and sitting inside of the
8:12
Speaker 1: interrogation room at the table was so far the only
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Speaker 1: suspect they had in this case Lionelle's friend Mike Boof,
8:20
Speaker 1: who he had gone out with on the night he
8:22
Speaker 1: had disappeared. So it had only been a few days
8:25
Speaker 1: since anyone had seen Lionel, but Mazaron was already sure
8:29
Speaker 1: that there was foul play involved. Chambrie was a small town,
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Speaker 1: and a lot of the officers on the police force
8:36
Speaker 1: there knew Lionelle, and a couple of them were pretty
8:39
Speaker 1: much adamant that Leonel was just not the kind of
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Speaker 1: person who would just leave town with no warning. Julian,
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Speaker 1: Lionelle's nephew, had said the exact same thing when he
8:48
Speaker 1: reported Lionel missing. He also was the one who told
8:51
Speaker 1: police that the last person Lionelle was with was Mike
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Speaker 1: on the night he went missing, and Mike, also, they
8:57
Speaker 1: found out, had recently accused Leonelle of robbing someone's house.
9:01
Speaker 1: So Mazarin was really eager to get in there and
9:04
Speaker 1: hear what Mike had to say, So into the room
9:07
Speaker 1: he went. He sat down across from Mike who seemed
9:09
Speaker 1: calm but also definitely curious, like he wasn't sure even
9:13
Speaker 1: why he was there, And when Mazarin started in by
9:16
Speaker 1: asking him about the robbery that supposedly Lionelle was involved in,
9:21
Speaker 1: Mike just nodded and explained that the break in had
9:23
Speaker 1: happened about a week earlier at the home of his
9:26
Speaker 1: good friend Felipe Perrier, and when Mazarin heard that name,
9:29
Speaker 1: he sort of raised an eyebrow because, like basically everybody
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Speaker 1: else in cham Marie, Mazarin knew who the Perriers were,
9:36
Speaker 1: and he was surprised that someone so rich and so
9:39
Speaker 1: powerful would be running in the same circles as you know,
9:42
Speaker 1: sort of traditional working classmen like Mike and like Leonelle. However,
9:47
Speaker 1: before he could dive in and ask some basic follow
9:50
Speaker 1: up questions about how he knows the Perriers, Mike went
9:54
Speaker 1: on to say that he ran an electrician business and
9:56
Speaker 1: he had a warehouse that was right next to Philip's winery.
10:00
Speaker 1: They saw each other all the time, and he said
10:02
Speaker 1: that Philip knew Mike was friends with Lionel, and so
10:06
Speaker 1: after this break in and robbery happened, he had asked
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Speaker 1: Mike to talk to Lionel about.
10:10
Speaker 2: It because he was suspicious that he had done it.
10:13
Speaker 1: But Mike said when he actually confronted Leonell just a
10:16
Speaker 1: few days ago and brought up the break in that
10:19
Speaker 1: Lionel had sworn he didn't know anything about it, and
10:22
Speaker 1: Mike had passed that on to Philippe, and as far
10:25
Speaker 1: as he knew, that had been the end of it. Like,
10:27
Speaker 1: they were not going to continue to assume that Lionel
10:30
Speaker 1: had anything to do with it.
10:31
Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: Mike was being so earnest as he told the story
10:35
Speaker 1: that Mazarin thought there was a good chance he was
10:37
Speaker 1: simply telling the truth here and that this robbery thing
10:40
Speaker 1: was really just a big misunderstanding. However, when Mazarin asked
10:44
Speaker 1: Mike where he had been on Sunday night, when Lionel
10:47
Speaker 1: was last seen, presumably with Mike, Mike's whole demeanor changed.
10:51
Speaker 1: He began to visibly shift in his seat and began
10:54
Speaker 1: looking down at the table instead of eye contact with Mazaron,
10:58
Speaker 1: and then he just said that he had been home
11:00
Speaker 1: all night with his girlfriend. He did say at a
11:03
Speaker 1: certain point he had called Lionel to try to make
11:05
Speaker 1: plans with him for that night, but they'd never actually
11:09
Speaker 1: met up and they didn't see each other. Now, at
11:11
Speaker 1: this point, Mazarn was pretty confident that Mike was lying,
11:15
Speaker 1: not just because of Mike's very obvious change in body language,
11:19
Speaker 1: but Lionelle's nephew had sworn he had seen Mike's car
11:22
Speaker 1: outside their building on that night that Mike is saying
11:25
Speaker 1: he did not meet up with Lionel. Now, it was
11:28
Speaker 1: possible that Julian had been mistaken, but if Mike was
11:32
Speaker 1: lying to the police about having been with Lionel on
11:34
Speaker 1: the night he disappeared, well, that made Mike seem very
11:38
Speaker 1: very suspicious. And so Mazarin just put Mike on the
11:42
Speaker 1: spot and said, Okay, give me your girlfriend's name and
11:44
Speaker 1: her contact information so I can confirm your alibi.
11:47
Speaker 2: And so he did.
11:47
Speaker 1: He handed it over and then Mazarin got up, left
11:50
Speaker 1: the interrogation room and went to go give her a call.
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13:31
Speaker 1: evening of May second, twenty twelve. So just a few
13:34
Speaker 1: hours after questioning Mike Boof about Lionelle's disappearance, Captain Mazarin
13:38
Speaker 1: drove up to a big house in a quiet, wealthy
13:40
Speaker 1: suburb just.
13:41
Speaker 2: Outside of Chambrerie, France.
13:43
Speaker 1: Now by this point he had already spoken to Mike's girlfriend,
13:47
Speaker 1: who had confirmed what Mazarin was already thinking, which was
13:51
Speaker 1: Mike was lying about spending the whole night of Leonelle's
13:55
Speaker 1: disappearance at home with her. In fact, she said that
13:58
Speaker 1: Mike hadn't been home at all. She said she had
14:01
Speaker 1: been at home by herself all night, she had watched
14:04
Speaker 1: a movie, and then at some point she had fallen asleep,
14:06
Speaker 1: maybe around midnight. And at that point when she fell asleep,
14:10
Speaker 1: Mike still was not back from wherever he was. So
14:13
Speaker 1: right now, Mike was not only their sole suspect, but
14:17
Speaker 1: he was also their best suspect. Mazarn knew that a
14:20
Speaker 1: few days before Lionelle's disappearance, Mike had confronted Lionel about
14:25
Speaker 1: this supposed robbery at Phelippe Perrier's house, and so now
14:29
Speaker 1: Mazarn was at Philippe's house to see what he had
14:32
Speaker 1: to say about the whole situation, And so Mazarin pulled
14:35
Speaker 1: his car up in front of the house, he parked,
14:37
Speaker 1: he got out, he walked up to the front door,
14:39
Speaker 1: and he rang the doorbell, and a moment later, Philip
14:42
Speaker 1: himself opened the door, and he seemed genuinely surprised to
14:45
Speaker 1: see Mazarin standing there, and so he quickly asked Mazarin
14:49
Speaker 1: if he was here to follow up on the robbery investigation,
14:52
Speaker 1: and Mazarn said sort of. Mazarn said, for now, he
14:57
Speaker 1: just wanted to know if he could come inside and
14:58
Speaker 1: they could chat. And for a moment, it seemed, at
15:01
Speaker 1: least to Mazarin, that Philip sort of hesitated, like he
15:03
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily want to do that, But then he sort
15:07
Speaker 1: of relaxed and nodded and said sure, and he let
15:10
Speaker 1: Mazarin inside. And so Mazarin he stepped inside of this
15:13
Speaker 1: beautiful house that was very well furnished, and he was
15:16
Speaker 1: led to the living room, and Mazarin took a seat,
15:19
Speaker 1: and then after Philipe sat down as well, he asked
15:22
Speaker 1: Philippe to walk him through what had happened with the
15:24
Speaker 1: supposed robbery. Philip explained that his wife Natalie had come
15:28
Speaker 1: home one afternoon and when she had come into the
15:30
Speaker 1: living room, she saw one of the windows had been shattered,
15:33
Speaker 1: and then Mazarin said that, you know, after seeing this,
15:36
Speaker 1: they searched the house and they eventually went downstairs to
15:38
Speaker 1: the basement where they're safe was, and they found their
15:41
Speaker 1: safe had been broken into as well, and a lot
15:44
Speaker 1: of cash that had been in there was gone. Philipe
15:47
Speaker 1: said he had called the police about it and they'd
15:49
Speaker 1: come out to investigate, but so far he hadn't heard anything.
15:53
Speaker 1: And so Mazarin, after hearing this, asked Philippe if he
15:56
Speaker 1: thought he knew who was responsible, and Philip immediately nodded
16:00
Speaker 1: and said yes.
16:01
Speaker 2: Then he repeated what Mike Boof had said.
16:03
Speaker 1: It was Lionel Verney's and the reason he knew that
16:07
Speaker 1: was Leonel was having an affair with his wife, Natalie,
16:10
Speaker 1: and Natalie said.
16:11
Speaker 2: It was Lionelle.
16:13
Speaker 1: Mazaron looked really hard at Philip because this was huge.
16:17
Speaker 1: If Philippe knew that Lionel was having an affair with
16:20
Speaker 1: his wife, that gave him Philipe plenty of motive to
16:24
Speaker 1: want Lionel did. And as of right now, Lionel was
16:27
Speaker 1: gone and no one knew what happened to him, so
16:29
Speaker 1: maybe he was murdered, and so, operating on a hunch,
16:33
Speaker 1: Mazaron followed up by asking Philip if he had any
16:36
Speaker 1: weapons in the house, and to his surprise, Philipe said yes,
16:41
Speaker 1: and so Mazarin asked if he could see them, and
16:43
Speaker 1: so Philipe got up and led him over to the
16:45
Speaker 1: stairs that went down to the basement, and when they
16:48
Speaker 1: got down there, there was this huge gun save with
16:50
Speaker 1: a few plastic firearm cases stacked around it. And so Philip,
16:54
Speaker 1: once they got down there, he sort of stepped out
16:56
Speaker 1: of the way so that Mazarin could look round.
16:58
Speaker 2: And almost as soon as he.
16:59
Speaker 1: Did begin walking around Mazarin and began opening up these cases,
17:03
Speaker 1: he discovered that one of those cases, which had space
17:06
Speaker 1: for two weapons.
17:07
Speaker 2: In it, was empty.
17:09
Speaker 1: And so Mazarin asked Philipe, like, hey, where are the
17:11
Speaker 1: two guns that go in this case, and Philipe said, actually,
17:15
Speaker 1: those were stolen during the robbery. However, after hearing this,
17:19
Speaker 1: and as Mazarin is staring at this empty gun case,
17:23
Speaker 1: something just was not adding up. Philip clearly had a
17:26
Speaker 1: motive to want to hurt Lionelle as he was having
17:29
Speaker 1: an affair with his wife, and he happened to have
17:32
Speaker 1: two missing guns. Now, of course, at this point Mazarin
17:36
Speaker 1: did not know if Lionel was definitely dead and therefore
17:41
Speaker 1: couldn't know if he had been shot or not. But
17:44
Speaker 1: still this was really suspicious. But at the same time,
17:48
Speaker 1: Philip was from this very wealthy and highly respected family.
17:52
Speaker 1: He didn't really seem like the kind of person who
17:54
Speaker 1: would go around murdering or kidnapping people in revenge. And
17:58
Speaker 1: if he had, let's say, had done something bad to Lionel,
18:02
Speaker 1: it was just odd that he would just so readily
18:05
Speaker 1: admit to clearly having a motive to harm Lionel and
18:09
Speaker 1: to show the detective a basement full of weapons, including
18:13
Speaker 1: a gun case that was missing weapons, And so basically
18:17
Speaker 1: until Mazarin was able to figure out what actually happened
18:20
Speaker 1: to Lionel, until that time, he would have a really
18:23
Speaker 1: hard time proving that Philippe had anything to do with it.
18:28
Speaker 1: The next morning, Captain Mazarin was in his office at
18:30
Speaker 1: the police station going over the notes from his interview
18:33
Speaker 1: with Philippe to see if there was anything he missed.
18:36
Speaker 1: At this point, Mazarin's theory was that either Mike or
18:40
Speaker 1: Philippe or maybe even both of them had gone to
18:43
Speaker 1: confront Lionel about the affair and about the robbery, and
18:46
Speaker 1: then things had turned violent. But just then there was
18:50
Speaker 1: a knock on his door, and Mazarin turned and he
18:52
Speaker 1: saw his door was open, and there was this woman
18:54
Speaker 1: standing there, and her face was stained with tears, and
18:58
Speaker 1: when she walked into the room, she sort was heavy
19:01
Speaker 1: and stumbling, like she was maybe on drugs or maybe drunk,
19:05
Speaker 1: or maybe on heavy medication, and she sort of stumbled
19:07
Speaker 1: into the room and then introduced herself as Natalie Perier.
19:12
Speaker 1: So Mazarin had actually earlier called on her to come
19:15
Speaker 1: in and speak to him, both to verify her husband's
19:18
Speaker 1: story about what happened the robbery, the affair, and also
19:21
Speaker 1: to see what else she might know about Leonelle. And also,
19:24
Speaker 1: since she clearly was involved in this whole potential love
19:27
Speaker 1: triangle here, he had to also consider her as a
19:30
Speaker 1: potential suspect in whatever happened to Lionel. So he gestured
19:34
Speaker 1: for Natalie to take a seat, and then once she had,
19:37
Speaker 1: he asked her to tell him all about how she
19:39
Speaker 1: had met Leonelle. Natalie at this point really clearly could
19:44
Speaker 1: not sort of keep herself together. She kept apologizing and
19:48
Speaker 1: kept explaining that she was on prescription medication that made
19:50
Speaker 1: it really hard for her to keep a grip on
19:53
Speaker 1: her emotions, and this whole situation had really rattled her.
19:56
Speaker 1: But eventually, after this sort of setup about how sorry
20:00
Speaker 1: she is and what a mess she is, she eventually
20:02
Speaker 1: tells Mazarin that she had met Lionelle at a nightclub
20:06
Speaker 1: and that yes, they had hooked up a few times,
20:09
Speaker 1: but since the last time, they hadn't seen each other
20:11
Speaker 1: and it had been quite a while, like it was nothing.
20:14
Speaker 1: When Mazarin asked her about the robbery, she said that
20:17
Speaker 1: Lionelle had told her about having serious gambling dads from
20:20
Speaker 1: playing poker, and so because of that she had just
20:24
Speaker 1: sort of naturally suspected that he must have robbed them.
20:27
Speaker 1: She also added that just to be clear, her and
20:30
Speaker 1: Philippe were both at their home all night on the
20:33
Speaker 1: evening that Lionelle disappeared, and that if Philipe had gone
20:36
Speaker 1: to confront Lionelle at any point, she did not know
20:39
Speaker 1: anything about it. And so at this point Mazarin sat
20:42
Speaker 1: back in his chair and just considered what he was
20:44
Speaker 1: seeing and what he was hearing. Natalie seemed genuinely devastated
20:48
Speaker 1: by this whole situation. To Mazarin, it seemed like she
20:51
Speaker 1: was believable that she was coming in here telling the truth,
20:55
Speaker 1: and so he really doubted that she directly had anything
20:58
Speaker 1: to do with Lionelle's disappearance. However, while Natalie's emotional state
21:02
Speaker 1: certainly made her seem less likely as a suspect, Mazarin
21:06
Speaker 1: wondered if maybe her tears were a clue. By her
21:09
Speaker 1: own account, she had only had a fleeting relationship with Lionelle,
21:13
Speaker 1: not some passionate relationship or something. So maybe the reason
21:17
Speaker 1: she's this upset is because she actually knows that her husband.
21:22
Speaker 2: Was involved in what happened to Lionel.
21:33
Speaker 1: A few days later, Captain Mazarin walked through a wooded
21:36
Speaker 1: rural area near the coast, two hundred and twenty miles
21:39
Speaker 1: away from Chambrie. An officer from the Marseille Police was
21:42
Speaker 1: walking a few steps ahead of him. This officer had
21:45
Speaker 1: called Mazarin yesterday to tell him that a body had
21:49
Speaker 1: been discovered in these woods just after dawn on April thirtieth,
21:53
Speaker 1: so less than ten hours after Lionelle was last seen
21:56
Speaker 1: by his family, and after running the body's fingerprints through
21:59
Speaker 1: the database, they had identified the victim. It was Lionelle,
22:03
Speaker 1: and Mazarin was baffled by this. Marseille was more than
22:07
Speaker 1: a four hour drive from Chambree, and as far as
22:11
Speaker 1: Mazarin knew, Lionel didn't know anybody in Marseille and did
22:16
Speaker 1: not go there with any regularity. And there was just
22:19
Speaker 1: plenty of other wooded areas closer to schan Berie, So why.
22:23
Speaker 2: Drive all the way out here. It just didn't really
22:26
Speaker 2: make any sense.
22:27
Speaker 1: And so Mazarin continued following this officer and at some
22:31
Speaker 1: point they stepped into this small clearing and Mazarin saw
22:34
Speaker 1: there was a pile of burnt logs and branches sort
22:36
Speaker 1: of lying in the grass right in the middle, and
22:39
Speaker 1: the other officer said that this was the spot where
22:41
Speaker 1: Lionel was found. And then the officer pulled out a
22:44
Speaker 1: folder that had photos of Lionelle's body, and so Mazarin
22:47
Speaker 1: was being brought here just to see exactly where it
22:51
Speaker 1: had been found. And so Mazarin looked down at the
22:53
Speaker 1: photo and what he saw was, you know, in this
22:56
Speaker 1: spot that he was standing near, there was this this
22:58
Speaker 1: smoldering bonfire. It was clearly out, but there was still
23:01
Speaker 1: smoke coming off of it. And then in the middle
23:04
Speaker 1: of all these logs was clearly a charred corpse.
23:07
Speaker 2: The officer that.
23:08
Speaker 1: Brought him here explained that the medical examiner had found
23:11
Speaker 1: a gunshot wound in the back of Lionelle's head, so
23:14
Speaker 1: it did appear that he was actually killed before he
23:17
Speaker 1: was set on fire. And so as Mazarin was taking
23:20
Speaker 1: all this new information in, everything just started to make sense.
23:24
Speaker 1: So this was exactly how drug trafficking gangs in France
23:29
Speaker 1: typically disposed of bodies. The police even had a name
23:32
Speaker 1: for it. They called it a barbecue. The gangs would
23:35
Speaker 1: shoot their victims in the head and then burn their
23:38
Speaker 1: bodies over bonfire to make them harder to identify. Mazarin
23:42
Speaker 1: had assumed that Lionelle's murder was a revenge killing, but
23:46
Speaker 1: now it actually looked more likely that this could.
23:49
Speaker 2: Have been a gang execution.
23:51
Speaker 1: None of Leonelle's family or friends had ever mentioned that
23:54
Speaker 1: he was involved with a gang in any way, but
23:56
Speaker 1: Mazarin knew that Lionel worked in nightclubs and had the
24:00
Speaker 1: history of breaking up fights, so it was definitely possible
24:03
Speaker 1: that he might have crossed paths with the wrong person. Also,
24:06
Speaker 1: there was the fact that apparently Lionelle had these huge
24:09
Speaker 1: debts from gambling. There's just sort of a seedy underworld
24:13
Speaker 1: that potentially he was around that could have led to
24:16
Speaker 1: him being killed this way. Also, if this was gang related,
24:20
Speaker 1: it would sort of explain why he was all the
24:22
Speaker 1: way out here in Marseille, because Marseille was a city
24:25
Speaker 1: that historically had a lot of.
24:27
Speaker 2: Issues with drug trafficking and gangs.
24:30
Speaker 1: And so Mazarin realized he could have been wrong about
24:33
Speaker 1: this case basically from the start. Maybe Mike and Philippe
24:36
Speaker 1: actually had nothing to do.
24:38
Speaker 2: With it at all.
24:40
Speaker 1: Around ten pm on May fifth, twenty twelve, about one
24:43
Speaker 1: hundred miles from the spot where Lionelle's body was found,
24:46
Speaker 1: Captain Florent Mazarin pulled into the.
24:48
Speaker 2: Parking lot at a gas station.
24:50
Speaker 1: He got out, he walked inside and told the clerk
24:53
Speaker 1: that he needed to look at the security camera footage. So,
24:55
Speaker 1: during the four hour drive from Marseille back to Chanbrie,
25:00
Speaker 1: Mazaran had gone out and seen where Lionel had been found.
25:03
Speaker 1: During that ride home, he had been going back and
25:06
Speaker 1: forth between his first two suspects Mike and Philippe and
25:09
Speaker 1: this new theory.
25:10
Speaker 2: That a gang had killed Lionel, and so.
25:12
Speaker 1: He wasn't really sure how he was going to navigate,
25:15
Speaker 1: like what to do here with running these two sort
25:17
Speaker 1: of simultaneous investigations. But as he's driving, as he's on
25:22
Speaker 1: his way back home, he realizes there might actually be
25:25
Speaker 1: a way to prove whether or not either Mike or
25:28
Speaker 1: Philippe were involved in this killing.
25:31
Speaker 2: There were only two.
25:32
Speaker 1: Roads that connected Chambrie to Marseille, and so Lionelle's killer
25:36
Speaker 1: or killers must have driven down one of them at
25:39
Speaker 1: some point during the night of April twenty ninth.
25:41
Speaker 2: So Mazaron had been checking the cameras.
25:44
Speaker 1: At every toll booth and every gas station that he
25:46
Speaker 1: passed on his drive to see if any of them
25:48
Speaker 1: had captured a glimpse of Lionel. So far, he'd just
25:52
Speaker 1: been disappointed because most of the cameras didn't even work,
25:56
Speaker 1: or the footage had already been erased or written over.
25:58
Speaker 1: And so now as he followed this clerk into the
26:01
Speaker 1: back room and was shown to their computer to go
26:04
Speaker 1: ahead and look at the footage, Azron was expecting that
26:07
Speaker 1: this stop would be the same as all the others
26:09
Speaker 1: a big disappointment. However, as soon as they fired up
26:12
Speaker 1: the computer right away Mazarn saw that they did have footage,
26:16
Speaker 1: and the footage did cover the time period he was
26:19
Speaker 1: looking for. However, when he began scanning the footage around
26:23
Speaker 1: the date of April twenty ninth April thirtieth, at first
26:26
Speaker 1: nothing stood out. However, when he reached the early hours
26:29
Speaker 1: of April thirtieth, where he would normally stop and say, okay,
26:32
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything.
26:33
Speaker 2: It is what it is.
26:35
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, he decided to just keep on scanning
26:38
Speaker 1: the footage, just keep on watching more of April thirtieth,
26:41
Speaker 1: and eventually he did see something of interest. At five
26:44
Speaker 1: point forty three am on April thirtieth, a black Volkswagen
26:48
Speaker 1: vehicle pulls into frame and it actually parks in the
26:51
Speaker 1: gas station parking lot. And this car its license plate
26:55
Speaker 1: ended in seventy three, which meant this car was registered
27:00
Speaker 1: in Chambrie. He's watching this car comes into the lot
27:03
Speaker 1: at Parks and the driver gets out, and right away
27:06
Speaker 1: Mazarin pauses the video and he zooms in on the
27:09
Speaker 1: driver's face, but the video was just too grainy. He
27:13
Speaker 1: couldn't tell who the driver was, but then something in
27:16
Speaker 1: the passenger seat of this car catches his attention, and
27:19
Speaker 1: so he zoomed in on the passenger seat and when
27:22
Speaker 1: he realized what he was looking at, his stomach just dropped.
27:32
Speaker 1: Based on that video, forensic evidence, and interviews with witnesses,
27:36
Speaker 1: this is what police believe happened to Lionel Verney's On
27:39
Speaker 1: April twenty ninth, twenty twelve, around ten to fifteen pm,
27:50
Speaker 1: the killer sat in the backseat of a car as
27:52
Speaker 1: it drove through the streets of Chambrie, with a gun
27:55
Speaker 1: resting on the seat.
27:56
Speaker 2: Next to them.
27:57
Speaker 1: Now, the killer had told the driver that they were
27:59
Speaker 1: not planning to use the gun tonight, it was just
28:01
Speaker 1: there for intimidation. However, the killer's emotions were really running high,
28:06
Speaker 1: and they honestly weren't even sure what they were gonna
28:09
Speaker 1: do when they saw Lionel, and so the car kept
28:12
Speaker 1: on driving along until eventually it came to a stop
28:14
Speaker 1: outside of an apartment building. And then a few seconds later,
28:17
Speaker 1: the passenger side front door opened up and Lionel climbed
28:22
Speaker 1: inside the car. As the driver put the car back
28:24
Speaker 1: into gear and started driving down the road. The killer
28:27
Speaker 1: from the back seat confronted Lionel about something that had
28:31
Speaker 1: really been bothering them, and it gradually turned into a
28:34
Speaker 1: very heated argument. And then at some point the killer
28:38
Speaker 1: raised that gun they weren't going to use, aimed at
28:42
Speaker 1: the back of Linelle's head, and fired. The driver immediately
28:45
Speaker 1: whipped around and looked at the killer and just stared
28:48
Speaker 1: at them. They seemed completely shocked by this crazy sudden
28:52
Speaker 1: escalation here, but they didn't stop driving. Instead, they stepped
28:55
Speaker 1: on the gas and sped down the road until they
28:58
Speaker 1: reached a house, and then the killer and the driver
29:01
Speaker 1: both went inside of that house and they formulated a
29:03
Speaker 1: plan for what would happen next. So the plan was
29:06
Speaker 1: the driver, along with another accomplice who was in the
29:09
Speaker 1: house they went to, would drive down to Marseille.
29:12
Speaker 2: They would find a secluded spot out in the woods.
29:15
Speaker 2: They'd make a bonfire, and they would burn Lionelle's body.
29:18
Speaker 2: That's how they dispose of it.
29:19
Speaker 1: And then on the way back, their plan was to
29:21
Speaker 1: toss all the evidence into the river. As for the killer,
29:25
Speaker 1: the one who actually pulled the trigger, they were going
29:29
Speaker 1: to stay at this house.
29:30
Speaker 2: They were not going to leave.
29:31
Speaker 1: The driver and the other accomplice agreed that the killer
29:34
Speaker 1: had already caused enough trouble for one night, so the
29:38
Speaker 1: killer just went upstairs into their bedroom. They slipped on
29:41
Speaker 1: a robe, and they watched from the window as the
29:44
Speaker 1: other two got into the car and drove off. The
29:47
Speaker 1: killer was Philippe's wife, Natalie Perrier, the woman Lionelle had
29:52
Speaker 1: had an affair with. To Lionel, their affair had been meaningless,
29:57
Speaker 1: just a fling, but for Natalie, she wanted more.
30:00
Speaker 2: She had gotten.
30:01
Speaker 1: Bored of her quiet life as a luxurious housewife in
30:05
Speaker 1: the suburbs, and she'd quickly fallen in love with Lionelle
30:08
Speaker 1: and the seemingly very exciting life that he lived. And
30:12
Speaker 1: so when Leonelle stopped paying attention to her, she'd gotten
30:15
Speaker 1: so mad that she took revenge. She went with Mike
30:19
Speaker 1: to pick up Lionel on the night he was killed
30:22
Speaker 1: so that she could confront him. But moments after Lionelle
30:25
Speaker 1: got in the car, her emotions got the best of
30:27
Speaker 1: her and she shot and killed him. And this was
30:30
Speaker 1: definitely not the plan that Mike had agreed to. Like
30:34
Speaker 1: he and her had discussed what was going to happen,
30:36
Speaker 1: it didn't include murdering Lionelle. But after the murder, Mike
30:40
Speaker 1: didn't say I'm going to go to the police.
30:42
Speaker 2: Instead, he and Natalie.
30:44
Speaker 1: Went to her husband Philipe for help, and Philip agreed
30:48
Speaker 1: to dispose of Lionelle's body and cover up the crime.
30:51
Speaker 1: On the security footage from the gas station, what Mazarin
30:54
Speaker 1: saw in the passenger seat of that black Volkswagen was Philip.
30:59
Speaker 1: He was sitting there just right in the passenger seat,
31:01
Speaker 1: and it would turn out the driver of the car
31:03
Speaker 1: was Mike. Natalie was ultimately convicted of Linelle's murder and
31:07
Speaker 1: sentenced to twenty years in prison. Mike was sentenced to
31:11
Speaker 1: six years for kidnapping and destroying evidence, and Philippe was
31:14
Speaker 1: sentenced to three years for helping get rid of Linelle's body.
31:17
Speaker 1: He and Natalie are now divorced. And also, as for
31:20
Speaker 1: that robbery that played seemingly a central role in this
31:24
Speaker 1: story at the beginning, we actually don't know if the
31:26
Speaker 1: robbery ever occurred or if it was simply a fabrication.
31:37
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
31:39
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
31:41
Speaker 1: the comments, and remember we have a whole playlist of
31:44
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Speaker 1: so click here and give them a watch.
31:49
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,