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One suspect SMILED when he heard she was dead · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On a Monday morning in February of two thousand and three,
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Speaker 1: a man in suburban France got a phone call from
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Speaker 1: a number that he recognized, so he answered it, but
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Speaker 1: instead of the familiar voice he expected, all he heard
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Speaker 1: on the other end was static and muffled voices somewhere
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Speaker 1: in the background. He put his phone on speaker modes
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Speaker 1: so his wife could listen, and the two of them
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Speaker 1: listened closely to figure out, like, who's calling me?
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Speaker 2: What is this?
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Speaker 1: And as they listened, they were able to barely make
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Speaker 1: out a conversation happening between two women who they didn't know.
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Speaker 1: And these two women were clearly talking about a murder,
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Speaker 1: and one of the women said they needed to come
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Speaker 1: up with an alibi. But before we get into today's story,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
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Speaker 1: even four times every week. So if that's of interest
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Speaker 1: to you, in the dead of winter, sneak into the
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Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On
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Speaker 1: the afternoon of Friday, February seventh, two thousand and three,
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Speaker 1: a fifty two year old woman named Monique Lejeune cleared
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Speaker 1: the table after lunch at her house in Cologna, France.
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Speaker 1: Her husband, Claude, and two of her adult sons, Frank
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Speaker 1: and Pascal, were at the table, and while Monique cleaned up,
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Speaker 1: the men talked over what they needed to pack for
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Speaker 1: the overnight trip they were about to take. They were
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Speaker 1: heading to a family gathering near Paris, about three and
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Speaker 1: a half hours away, to celebrate Claude's sister in law's retirement.
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Speaker 1: Monique was not going to go, and she had told
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Speaker 1: her family it was because somebody had to stay home
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Speaker 1: with their four dogs, and that was true, but there
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Speaker 1: also was another real reason why Monique did not want
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Speaker 1: to be there, and it was because she just didn't
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Speaker 1: get along very well with Claude's family. So Monique and
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Speaker 1: Claude had gotten married almost twenty years earlier, but at
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Speaker 1: the time they both already had multiple kids from previous marriages.
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Speaker 1: Monique had three boys and Claude had five girls, and
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Speaker 1: for a while the two halves of the blended family
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Speaker 1: had gotten along quite well, but over time there were
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Speaker 1: some personality clashes between Monique and her five step daughters.
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Speaker 1: When Monique and Claude got married, all five girls were
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Speaker 1: at least teenagers, if not in their twenties, and so
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Speaker 1: while they sort of accepted Monique as being part of
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Speaker 1: their lives, they just couldn't view her as an actual
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Speaker 1: motherly figure.
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Speaker 2: You know.
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Speaker 1: They were already close with their actual mother, Claude's ex wife, Beatrice,
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Speaker 1: and so that was their mother, and Monique was like.
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Speaker 2: The add on.
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Speaker 1: Then in nineteen ninety three, one of Claude's grandsons, so
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Speaker 1: one of his daughter's children, had accused Monique's eldest son,
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Speaker 1: Jean Luke, of sexually abusing him, and that had completely
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Speaker 1: ripped the family apart. Now, this was never reported to
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Speaker 1: the police, so there was no actual investigation into whether
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Speaker 1: this really happened or not. But Claude's five daughters Anne
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Speaker 1: Claude's ex wife Beatrice, had fully believed the grandson, and
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Speaker 1: Monique had defended her son Jean Luke, and Claude was
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Speaker 1: kind of stuck in the middle of it. And it
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Speaker 1: had gotten so ugly that the two sides of the
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Speaker 1: family had just stopped talking to each other for a
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Speaker 1: whole year, and so now the whole family was basically
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Speaker 1: back on speaking terms as they were getting ready for
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Speaker 1: this retirement party, but it was still extremely uncomfortable and tense,
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Speaker 1: and so that is why Monique was not going to go,
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Speaker 1: and also why her son Jean Luke was not going
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Speaker 1: to go as well. Finally, around three pm, as Claude
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Speaker 1: and the two sons wheeled their suitcases out to the car,
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Speaker 1: Monique went to the front door and she said goodbye
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Speaker 1: to them, and then watched as they hopped in the
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Speaker 1: car and drove off. A few hours later, around six
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Speaker 1: thirty pm, Monique heard a knock on the front door,
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Speaker 1: and when she opened it, it was her son, Jean Luke,
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Speaker 1: and he was standing there holding up his bicycle. He
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Speaker 1: told his mom he was just stopping by on his
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Speaker 1: way home from work, and she said, great, come on in,
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Speaker 1: and so Jean Luke left his bike outside and he
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Speaker 1: walked in, and as he was taking off his coat,
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Speaker 1: he mentioned to his mother that her neighbor across the street,
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Speaker 1: whose name was Henrie, had clearly been watching Jean Luke
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Speaker 1: when he rolled up, like he was basically spying on him,
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Speaker 1: and Monique actually kind of was spooked by that because
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Speaker 1: Henri was a bit of a loose cannon. For example,
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Speaker 1: anytime anybody parked their car in front of Henrie's house,
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Speaker 1: he would shamelessly vandalize their vehicle by slashing their tires
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Speaker 1: or pouring oil all over their car. I mean, the
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Speaker 1: guy just didn't care. In fact, over the years, there
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Speaker 1: had been several heated arguments between Monique and her sons
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Speaker 1: and Henrie about parking, and in fact, one of those
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Speaker 1: arguments had even escalated into a physical fight. But since
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Speaker 1: Jean Luke had shown up tonight without a car, you know,
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Speaker 1: he rode his bike here, Monique just hoped that, you know,
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Speaker 1: whatever issues Onri had, that it wouldn't go anywhere because
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Speaker 1: there's no car in front of his property. Like, we
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Speaker 1: didn't do anything, leave us alone. Monique led her son
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Speaker 1: into the kitchen, where she poured two glasses of sparkling wine,
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Speaker 1: and then the two just sat there and chatted for
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Speaker 1: about half an hour, and then Monique gave her son
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Speaker 1: a haircut, and then around seven oh five, Jean Luke
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Speaker 1: said goodbye to his mom. He went outside, hopped on
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Speaker 1: his bike, which had not had its tires slashed by Henri,
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Speaker 1: and he left to go to his apartment with his
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Speaker 1: wife to have dinner. After Jean Luke was gone, Monique
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Speaker 1: just sort of went about her evening. She corralled the
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Speaker 1: dogs behind a baby gate at the base of the
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Speaker 1: stairs and then fed them, and then she went into
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Speaker 1: the kitchen and began cooking dinner for herself. But then
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Speaker 1: a little while later, at around seven thirty pm, Monique
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Speaker 1: heard another knock on the door, and she knew it
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Speaker 1: very likely was not her son, and so as she
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Speaker 1: walked down the hallway to answer it, she just hoped
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Speaker 1: it wasn't n Ray. The following morning, the woman who
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Speaker 1: lived next door to Monique woke up feeling pretty tired.
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Speaker 1: She hadn't slept well because someone's dogs in the neighborhood
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Speaker 1: had been barking all night. She got out of bed
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Speaker 1: and walked over to the window and opened up the blinds,
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Speaker 1: and as her eyes adjusted to the light that was
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Speaker 1: flooding in, she looked down from her second floor window
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Speaker 1: into the yard of the two story white house that
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Speaker 1: was next door Monique's house. And the neighbor saw there
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Speaker 1: was something dark in the middle of the walkway that
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Speaker 1: led to the front door of Monique's house, and so
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Speaker 1: the neighbor she put her face right up to the window,
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Speaker 1: and she squinted to get a better look, and she
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Speaker 1: realized what she was seeing was a body lying face
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Speaker 1: down on the pavement, and so in a panic, this
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Speaker 1: woman ran out of her room, grabbed the phone, and
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Speaker 1: called the police. A couple hours later, Judiciary Police Captain
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Speaker 1: Anne Prim pulled up in front of a white two
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Speaker 1: story house with crime scene tape and a medical examiner's
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Speaker 1: van right out front. As Preim got out of her car,
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Speaker 1: a police officer walked over to her and led her
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Speaker 1: to where the body of a woman was lying out
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Speaker 1: in the front yard.
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Speaker 2: The officer told Prim that the victim, Monique Lejeune.
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Speaker 1: Had been discovered exactly like this by her neighbors earlier
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Speaker 1: that morning, and based on the progression of rigor mortis,
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Speaker 1: the medical examiner estimated that Monique had likely died between eight.
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Speaker 2: Pm and midnight the night before.
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Speaker 1: Preim bent down to get a better look at the body,
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Speaker 1: but even before getting up close, she knew this woman
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Speaker 1: had sustained just gruesome injuries. There was blood all over
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Speaker 1: Monique's face and her clothes, and her torso appeared completely
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Speaker 1: ripped apart by what appeared to be stab wounds. Prem
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Speaker 1: guessed just from looking at the scene that this woman
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Speaker 1: must have been murdered and likely was stabbed, you know,
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Speaker 1: just at first glance at least a dozen times. Prim
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Speaker 1: also noticed pretty obvious defense wounds all over Moan's hands
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Speaker 1: and forearms, which certainly suggested again that she was murdered
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Speaker 1: and that Monique had put up a pretty good fight
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Speaker 1: against her killer.
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Speaker 2: And so, after a few.
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Speaker 1: More moments of just kind of looking over the body,
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Speaker 1: Priam stood back up and asked the officer if the
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Speaker 1: neighbors had seen or heard anything unusual the night before,
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Speaker 1: and the officer said no, aside from the fact that
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Speaker 1: Monique's dog she had four dogs, had been barking non
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Speaker 1: stop really the whole night, starting at around eight pm.
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Speaker 1: Preim nodded and thanked the officer, and then she made
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Speaker 1: her way over to the front door of the house
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Speaker 1: to look to see if there was any signs of
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Speaker 1: FoST entry, as the door was closed when she got there.
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Speaker 1: She didn't see any signs, but she did see a
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Speaker 1: bloody handprint on the outside wall near the door, and
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Speaker 1: then when Priam turned the handle of the door and
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Speaker 1: opened it up, she saw this hallway inside that was
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Speaker 1: absolutely covered in blood, and so Priam very carefully stepped inside,
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Speaker 1: trying to avoid stepping in the blood or tracking any
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Speaker 1: prints anywhere. And she began walking down the hallway very
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Speaker 1: careful and looking in other rooms, and she saw that
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Speaker 1: for the most part, the blood spatter was pretty well
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Speaker 1: contained in the entryway, which told her that the attack
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Speaker 1: on Monique likely began and ended in the entryway, and
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Speaker 1: so her running theory was, okay, Monique must have had
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Speaker 1: someone come to the door, you know, they knocked or whatever,
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Speaker 1: and then Monique opened the door and was attacked immediately.
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Speaker 1: But then as Preim stepped back outside, she looked down
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Speaker 1: at the front walkway and noticed something kind of unusual.
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Speaker 1: Despite all the blood right inside the front door, there
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Speaker 1: was no blood at all on the walkway between the
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Speaker 1: door and the spot where Monique's body was found. And
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Speaker 1: just from the amount of blood that the victim had
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Speaker 1: clearly lost inside the house, prim doubted that she would
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Speaker 1: have been capable of running out into the yard after
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Speaker 1: the attack. So she had to wonder if maybe the
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Speaker 1: body had been moved post mortem, and Monique was a
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Speaker 1: large woman, so if her killer had been able to
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Speaker 1: overpower her one and then also move her body such
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Speaker 1: a far distance after she was dead, prim assumed that
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Speaker 1: whoever her killer.
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Speaker 2: Was was likely pretty strong.
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Speaker 1: In fact, Priam just kind of assumed that the killer
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Speaker 1: had to be a big, strong man. However, what Priam
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Speaker 1: didn't understand was why would the killer want to drag
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Speaker 1: a corpse out into the yard where the neighbors could
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Speaker 1: see them, unless for some reason they wanted Monique to
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Speaker 1: be found as soon as possible. And since at least
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Speaker 1: at this point, it appeared like Monique likely had gone
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Speaker 1: to the front door and opened the door for her killer,
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Speaker 1: Preim thought that the killer must be someone that she knew.
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Speaker 1: Around noon on that same day, so February eighth, two
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Speaker 1: thousand and three, Police Captain A. Preim was about to
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Speaker 1: go next door and speak to one of Monique's neighbors herself,
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Speaker 1: when suddenly a car pulled up at the cur herb
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Speaker 1: and three men climbed out, looking completely shocked and very concerned.
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Speaker 1: By this point, Priam had learned from the neighbors that
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Speaker 1: Monique had a husband and also adult sons, and so
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Speaker 1: Prim assumed that these men must be them. So right away,
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Speaker 1: prem hurried down the walkway to cut the men off
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Speaker 1: to keep them from entering the crime scene. And the
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Speaker 1: three men they just began crowding around her, asking her, like,
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Speaker 1: what's going on, Where's Monique, What's happened? And she told
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Speaker 1: them that unfortunately, Monique had been stabbed to death, and
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Speaker 1: at first all three of them just went completely silent,
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Speaker 1: and then one of them, one of the sons, just
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Speaker 1: began to cry. Priam then told them that they couldn't
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Speaker 1: go into the house because it was still an active
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Speaker 1: crime scene, so instead she led them over to the
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Speaker 1: curb and they all sat down. Priam could tell the
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Speaker 1: men were in shock, because as much as one man
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Speaker 1: was crying, it just seemed like they couldn't even process
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Speaker 1: what they were told. But it was important to find
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Speaker 1: out what Monique's family knew as soon as possible, so
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Speaker 1: Preim pulled out a notepad and gently asked them about
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Speaker 1: the last time they had seen Monique. The husband, Claude,
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Speaker 1: said that they had all left the house around three
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Speaker 1: pm the previous afternoon, leaving Monique at home alone. They
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Speaker 1: said they had gone to a family gathering near Paris
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Speaker 1: that evening and stayed overnight, and they'd only now just
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Speaker 1: gotten back into town and they'd seen this whole scene
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Speaker 1: out front, the police tape and police.
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Speaker 2: They had no idea what was going on.
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Speaker 1: Eventually, Prem asked Claude to tell him all the names
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Speaker 1: of all the people in their family, all their adult children,
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Speaker 1: you know, Claude's ex wife, Monique's ex husband, everybody. But
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Speaker 1: as Claude was giving this information, he told her that
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Speaker 1: he just couldn't imagine anybody in the family being involved
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Speaker 1: in this. Prem nodded, but she knew that it was
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Speaker 1: entirely possible that family was involved. I mean, unfortunately, this
12:48
Speaker 1: stuff does happen. But she didn't give that off. Instead,
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Speaker 1: she just said.
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Speaker 2: Well, can you think of anyone who would want to
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Speaker 2: hurt Monique?
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Speaker 1: And Claude thought about it and just said no, she
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Speaker 1: lived a pretty normal and uneventful life. But then one
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Speaker 1: of the sons piped up and mentioned that actually there
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Speaker 1: might be someone. He said, her neighbor on Rie, and
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Speaker 1: he pointed across the street at the house. A minute later,
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Speaker 1: Prim was knocking on the front door of Onrie's house,
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Speaker 1: and after a few seconds, a middle aged man answered
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Speaker 1: the door, and he was very curious about what was
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Speaker 1: going on across the street, and eventually Prim told him that, well,
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Speaker 1: your neighbor Monique has been murdered. And when she said that,
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Speaker 1: Henrie smiled, so.
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Speaker 2: Immediately alarm bells are going off.
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Speaker 1: In Priam's head, She's thinking, this guy is very suspicious,
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Speaker 1: and she asked him, like, can I come in and
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Speaker 1: look around then? And Onrie didn't even seem surprised by
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Speaker 1: this request. It was like he already knew he was
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Speaker 1: going to be looked at as a suspect and said, sure,
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Speaker 1: come on in. So he stepped aside, and Priam came
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Speaker 1: in and began searching every room in the house, the
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Speaker 1: living room, the kitchen, the upstairs bedrooms. But despite looking everywhere,
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Speaker 1: she didn't find any traces of blood or really anything
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Speaker 1: else suspenscious or unusual. So eventually Prem made her way
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Speaker 1: back into the living room where Henri was waiting, and
14:05
Speaker 1: she asked him, you know, where were you the previous
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Speaker 1: evening and he told her very casually that well, he
14:10
Speaker 1: and his wife were home.
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Speaker 2: They were here.
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Speaker 1: Prem thought this was a pretty weak alibi, but she
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Speaker 1: made a mental note to follow up with the wife
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Speaker 1: and confirm it later. Next Prim asked Henri if he
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Speaker 1: had seen or heard anything out of the ordinary the
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Speaker 1: night before, and Henri said no, except that maybe around
14:27
Speaker 1: seven pm he had seen one of Monique's sons leaving.
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Speaker 2: Her house on his bicycle and did this.
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Speaker 1: Prem perked up because the family had told her that
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Speaker 1: Monique had a third adult son named Jean Luke, who
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Speaker 1: had not gone to that party in Paris, and if
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Speaker 1: Henri was telling the truth, it meant that Jean Luke
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Speaker 1: was very likely the last person to see Monique alive,
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Speaker 1: and maybe he was even the killer. The next morning,
14:54
Speaker 1: Prem led a forensics team up the stairs of a
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Speaker 1: rundown apartment building in a sketchy part of town. She
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Speaker 1: knocked on the door to Jean Luke's apartment, and a
15:02
Speaker 1: moment later a young man answered. After confirming that he
15:06
Speaker 1: was Sean Luke, two officers led him away to be
15:09
Speaker 1: questioned back at the station. Meanwhile, Prim went in with
15:12
Speaker 1: the forensics team to search his apartment, and pretty quickly,
15:16
Speaker 1: as Priam was walking around the living room, one of
15:18
Speaker 1: the other officers called her over to look at something,
15:21
Speaker 1: and so she walked over to him, and she saw
15:23
Speaker 1: he had his flashlight out and he was pointing it
15:25
Speaker 1: at something on the wall, and when she got close enough,
15:28
Speaker 1: she could see that what he was highlighting were what
15:30
Speaker 1: appeared to be tiny drops of blood, and so Preim
15:33
Speaker 1: pulled out her flashlight and she too began scouring the
15:37
Speaker 1: walls and the floor near the stairs looking for any
15:40
Speaker 1: more blood, and she found a few more red droplets
15:43
Speaker 1: near the doorknob to a closet, and so she opened
15:46
Speaker 1: the closet up and inside was a bike, and she
15:49
Speaker 1: shined her flashlight on the bike, on the wheels in
15:52
Speaker 1: the frame, and she saw all these reddish brown splatters
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Speaker 1: all over the underside of it, as if whoever had
15:58
Speaker 1: ridden this bike lass had basically drove through a puddle
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Speaker 1: of blood. An hour later, Prim walked into an interrogation
16:06
Speaker 1: room at the police station where Jean Luke was sitting
16:09
Speaker 1: with his head in his hands. He looked up as
16:11
Speaker 1: she entered, and he had this very scared and confused
16:14
Speaker 1: expression on his face. Priim sat down across from him
16:17
Speaker 1: and right away asked him what he had been doing
16:19
Speaker 1: at his mother's house on the night of February seventh,
16:23
Speaker 1: Jean Luke said he had just stopped by after work,
16:25
Speaker 1: as he often did, and he only stayed for maybe
16:28
Speaker 1: half an hour before riding his bike back home. When
16:31
Speaker 1: Prim asked him if he had gone straight home afterwards,
16:34
Speaker 1: Jean Luke said no, he hadn't. He explained that his
16:37
Speaker 1: wife's brother, christof Grecier lived in the same apartment building
16:41
Speaker 1: as they did, on the floor right below them, so
16:44
Speaker 1: before going up to his own unit, he said he
16:46
Speaker 1: just stopped by to chat with Christav for a few minutes,
16:49
Speaker 1: and then after that he spent the rest of the
16:51
Speaker 1: night in his own apartment with his wife. However, to Priim,
16:54
Speaker 1: she felt like there had to be more to this
16:56
Speaker 1: story because they had found what appeared to be droplets
16:59
Speaker 1: of blood sort of scattered throughout Sean Luke's apartment, and
17:02
Speaker 1: then you know, there was blood or at least what
17:04
Speaker 1: appeared to be blood on the underside of his bike,
17:07
Speaker 1: and so she figured, you know, maybe if she pushed
17:09
Speaker 1: hard enough, she might be able to get him to
17:11
Speaker 1: change his story. So she told him point blank they
17:14
Speaker 1: had found blood in his living room and they were
17:16
Speaker 1: now sending it to the lab for analysis and When
17:19
Speaker 1: Jean Luke heard this, his face went bright red and
17:22
Speaker 1: he began stammering that the blood was very likely from
17:25
Speaker 1: a neighbor who had injured himself while visiting a few
17:27
Speaker 1: days earlier. Preim nodded, but then told him, you know,
17:30
Speaker 1: they'd also found blood sort of all over his bike
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Speaker 1: and Jean Luke he sort of hesitated and stuttered and stammered,
17:37
Speaker 1: but really couldn't come up with any way to explain that.
17:40
Speaker 1: At this point, Preim felt like she had Jean Luke
17:42
Speaker 1: right where she wanted him, so she just told him
17:45
Speaker 1: to be quiet for a second and just roll up
17:48
Speaker 1: your sleeves so she could look at his arms. Preim knew,
17:51
Speaker 1: you know, based on the defensive wounds on Monique's body,
17:54
Speaker 1: that she likely had fought back really hard and she
17:56
Speaker 1: must have left at least a few scrapes or bruises
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Speaker 1: on her killer. However, when Jean Luke finally rolled up
18:03
Speaker 1: his sleeves, Preim didn't see a single scratch or bruise
18:07
Speaker 1: on his hands or arms. A few minutes later, Preim
18:10
Speaker 1: left the interrogation room and walked to her office. Despite
18:14
Speaker 1: the lack of defensive wounds, Jean Luke was definitely still
18:17
Speaker 1: acting suspicious and she was not ready to let him go,
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Speaker 1: But she also didn't want to get tunnel vision and
18:22
Speaker 1: completely ignore any other suspects in case the blood inside
18:26
Speaker 1: of Jean Luke's apartment did turn out to just be
18:28
Speaker 1: a big coincidence. So she sat down at her desk
18:31
Speaker 1: and she opened up a file and she began flipping
18:34
Speaker 1: through the notes of interviews that her team had already
18:36
Speaker 1: done with the rest of Monique's family and her neighbors.
18:39
Speaker 1: Monique's sons had mentioned in their interviews that there was
18:42
Speaker 1: definitely some tension between Monique and her five step daughters,
18:47
Speaker 1: but officers had spoken to all the step daughters as
18:50
Speaker 1: well as their husbands, and even though some of the
18:53
Speaker 1: women had admitted they still had an issue with Monique,
18:57
Speaker 1: they all had alibis both the women and their husbands
19:00
Speaker 1: for the night that Monique was killed. Also, several other
19:03
Speaker 1: family members had mentioned that Claude's ex wife, Beatrice, definitely
19:08
Speaker 1: did not get along with Monique, but officers had tracked
19:11
Speaker 1: down Beatrice and she just didn't seem like a very
19:14
Speaker 1: strong suspect. Beatrice had said, for the most part, she
19:17
Speaker 1: and Monique, even if they didn't get along, they just
19:20
Speaker 1: stayed out of each other's way, and that they hadn't
19:22
Speaker 1: seen each other in over a month. And also, Beatrice
19:26
Speaker 1: was remarkably tiny and frail. She was barely four foot
19:30
Speaker 1: nine inches tall and fifty eight years old and just
19:32
Speaker 1: seemed really weak. So it just seemed almost impossible that
19:36
Speaker 1: she could have overpowered the much larger Monique and inflicted
19:40
Speaker 1: the injuries that were inflicted on her and then dragged
19:43
Speaker 1: her out.
19:43
Speaker 2: To the front yard. It just seemed sort of impossible.
19:46
Speaker 1: And so, even though she wasn't totally ruled out for
19:49
Speaker 1: the most part, she was just Then there was a
19:51
Speaker 1: knock on Priam's door, and when she looked up, she
19:53
Speaker 1: saw there was another officer standing there, and he told
19:56
Speaker 1: her there were two people here who wanted to speak
19:58
Speaker 1: to her. Preim nodded, and and then a moment later,
20:01
Speaker 1: a very nervous looking middle aged man and woman came.
20:04
Speaker 2: Into the office.
20:05
Speaker 1: They sat down across the desk from Preim, and the
20:07
Speaker 1: man said they had information that could help with the
20:11
Speaker 1: Monique Lejune investigation. Priim sat up and grabbed a notepad
20:14
Speaker 1: and said, okay, tell me what you got, and she
20:17
Speaker 1: began writing as The man explained that he was a
20:19
Speaker 1: coworker of Christoph Cressier, and Prim immediately recognized that that
20:24
Speaker 1: was the name of Jean Luke's brother in law, the
20:27
Speaker 1: one Jean Luke said he had visited on the night
20:30
Speaker 1: Monique was killed. That was the person he saw, apparently
20:32
Speaker 1: right after he left Monique's house. The man sitting across
20:36
Speaker 1: from Prim said that just a few hours ago he'd
20:39
Speaker 1: gotten a call from Christoff's number, but when he answered it,
20:43
Speaker 1: all he could hear was a sort of muffled conversation
20:46
Speaker 1: between two women. And at first, you know, this man
20:49
Speaker 1: thought what he was hearing was just an accidental call,
20:51
Speaker 1: you know, maybe by Christof's kid. It was just pressing
20:54
Speaker 1: buttons at random. However, the man said, when he put
20:57
Speaker 1: his phone on speaker, he and his wife, who was
21:00
Speaker 1: the woman he was with, they both started listening really closely,
21:04
Speaker 1: and they were able to make out a snippet of
21:06
Speaker 1: the conversation. The two women on the line were clearly
21:09
Speaker 1: talking about needing an alibi and saying something about a
21:13
Speaker 1: man named Jean Luke. First, the women had said something like,
21:17
Speaker 1: it's not Jean Luke's fault, he's depressed, and then the
21:21
Speaker 1: women had mentioned something about a pair of pants that
21:23
Speaker 1: needed to be washed. Preim couldn't believe what she was hearing.
21:26
Speaker 1: I mean, any doubts that she had had about Jean
21:29
Speaker 1: Luke being the killer pretty much disappeared. And so she
21:32
Speaker 1: took down the couple's names in contact info, showed them
21:35
Speaker 1: out of her office, and then once they were gone,
21:38
Speaker 1: she grabbed her keys and she headed out to go
21:40
Speaker 1: to Christoff's apartment. Now by this point, Christof had already
21:51
Speaker 1: been taken into custody and questioned, and he had completely
21:54
Speaker 1: denied knowing anything about Monique's murder or the phone call
21:58
Speaker 1: that was apparently made from his numb but Prim hoped
22:01
Speaker 1: that maybe a search of his apartment would tell a
22:04
Speaker 1: different story. She walked through each room of the apartment
22:07
Speaker 1: until she found the washing machine, and there she put
22:10
Speaker 1: on a pair of latext cloves, and she reached inside
22:13
Speaker 1: the washing machine and she pulled out a pair of
22:16
Speaker 1: pants that were still damp, as if they had just
22:18
Speaker 1: been washed earlier that day. And she held these pants
22:21
Speaker 1: up and kind of put them in the light, and
22:23
Speaker 1: she could see clearly there was a brownish stain on them.
22:26
Speaker 1: She also noticed that these pants looked like they'd be
22:30
Speaker 1: way too small for Christof who was a pretty tall
22:33
Speaker 1: and burly guy, but they definitely looked like they would
22:36
Speaker 1: fit a guy like Jean Luke, who was much smaller.
22:39
Speaker 1: Later that same day, so this is on February tenth,
22:42
Speaker 1: two days after Monique's body was found, Captain Pream was
22:45
Speaker 1: in her office when her phone rang. She answered it
22:48
Speaker 1: and it was a technician from the crime lab telling
22:51
Speaker 1: her they actually already had the results from the samples
22:54
Speaker 1: that had been sent in for testing, and so prem
22:56
Speaker 1: you know, she's geared up, you know, ready to hear
22:58
Speaker 1: some potentially case breaking news. But the tech told her
23:03
Speaker 1: that the stains that were on the bike, it was blood,
23:07
Speaker 1: but it.
23:07
Speaker 2: Was animal blood.
23:08
Speaker 1: He went on to say that the other little droplets
23:10
Speaker 1: of blood that were in Jean Luke's apartment, like on
23:13
Speaker 1: the walls and near the door handle of the closet,
23:16
Speaker 1: it was blood but.
23:17
Speaker 2: Not a match for Moniques.
23:19
Speaker 1: And then also those pants that have been found, that
23:21
Speaker 1: stain on the pants that wasn't blood at all, That stain.
23:25
Speaker 2: Was just Greece.
23:26
Speaker 1: Preme was very frustrated because in her mind, she had
23:29
Speaker 1: sort of zeroed in on Jean Luke. It really seemed
23:32
Speaker 1: like he was their guy, but now they really had
23:35
Speaker 1: no physical evidence against him. And as for that bizarre
23:38
Speaker 1: phone call to Christoph's coworker, they really had no way
23:42
Speaker 1: of knowing who those two women in the background were,
23:44
Speaker 1: or even if the coworker and his wife had actually
23:48
Speaker 1: overheard the conversation correctly. You know, about the alibi and
23:52
Speaker 1: about Jean Luke being depressed. You know, who knows if
23:54
Speaker 1: they actually heard that. So Preim thanked the lab technician
23:58
Speaker 1: for calling with the update, you know, despite how to
24:00
Speaker 1: disappointing it was, and she was about to hang up
24:03
Speaker 1: when he told her to wait because he had one
24:06
Speaker 1: more piece of news for her. He told her that
24:08
Speaker 1: during Monique's autopsy, the medical examiner had actually found DNA
24:13
Speaker 1: under Monique's fingernails, and it was very likely skin cells
24:16
Speaker 1: from her killer that had been scratched off during the struggle.
24:20
Speaker 1: The technician said it would take at least another few
24:22
Speaker 1: weeks to analyze it, but once the results came back,
24:25
Speaker 1: they could definitely test it against DNA samples from any
24:29
Speaker 1: of their suspects and maybe it would be a match.
24:31
Speaker 1: This definitely gave Priam some hope and after she hung up,
24:35
Speaker 1: she began making a list of everyone they would need
24:37
Speaker 1: to get a DNA sample from so they could test
24:40
Speaker 1: against it. She definitely knew she would need one from
24:43
Speaker 1: Jean Luke and Christoff, and then also that neighbor Henri,
24:46
Speaker 1: seemed like a strong suspect too. Prim had actually spoken
24:50
Speaker 1: to Henri's wife and confirmed that, at least according to her,
24:53
Speaker 1: they were together that whole night Monique was killed, But
24:57
Speaker 1: she also knew that spouses were very likely to live
25:00
Speaker 1: for each other, so it was a flimsy alibi. So
25:03
Speaker 1: at this point, Preim felt like she definitely had three
25:07
Speaker 1: good potential suspects to get DNA from, but realistically that
25:11
Speaker 1: was where her list ended. The rest of Monique's family
25:14
Speaker 1: had been ruled out by this point, and none of
25:16
Speaker 1: the other neighbors really seemed like suspects, and by all accounts,
25:20
Speaker 1: Monique lived a pretty quiet suburban life and just didn't
25:23
Speaker 1: really get into trouble with anyone, so there really was
25:26
Speaker 1: no one else, and so to Preim, it just felt
25:29
Speaker 1: like something was missing here, like in the time I
25:32
Speaker 1: have between now and when the analysis is done on
25:35
Speaker 1: that DNA underneath Mondique's fingernails, I need to see if
25:38
Speaker 1: there's something I've missed, and so over the next few
25:42
Speaker 1: weeks that's what Prem did. She poured over all the
25:45
Speaker 1: evidence they'd collected, and she reinterviewed all the family members
25:48
Speaker 1: and spoke to all the neighbors. But despite this huge effort,
25:52
Speaker 1: nothing new came up that brought any other suspects into view. However,
25:56
Speaker 1: at the same time, this is early March. By this point,
25:59
Speaker 1: maybe three four weeks after the tech had said they
26:02
Speaker 1: would test this DNA, Preim got another call from the
26:05
Speaker 1: crime lab and the technician said that the DNA analysis
26:08
Speaker 1: had come back, and even before they tested it against
26:12
Speaker 1: any specific suspects, the results were already enough to narrow
26:16
Speaker 1: down the field significantly. And when Prem heard what the
26:20
Speaker 1: tech had to say about the analysis so far, she
26:23
Speaker 1: realized that this was in fact the missing piece of
26:26
Speaker 1: information that she needed. Based on this revelatory DNA evidence
26:32
Speaker 1: and also an eventual confession by the killer, this is
26:35
Speaker 1: what police believe happened to Monique Lejune on the night
26:39
Speaker 1: of February seventh, two thousand and three. The killer walked
26:45
Speaker 1: up to Monique's front door and knocked, and a few
26:47
Speaker 1: seconds later the door opened and Monique was standing there,
26:51
Speaker 1: but instead of inviting the killer inside, Monique just kind
26:55
Speaker 1: of crossed her arms and stared. At this point, the
26:58
Speaker 1: killer began to speak. However, what was supposed to be
27:02
Speaker 1: a polite conversation quickly escalated into an argument, with both
27:06
Speaker 1: of them hurling insults back and forth, and then at
27:09
Speaker 1: some point Monique slammed the door in the killer's face,
27:13
Speaker 1: but before she did, she said one last thing that
27:16
Speaker 1: was apparently so inflammatory.
27:18
Speaker 2: That it pushed the killer over the edge.
27:20
Speaker 1: And so, without even stopping to consider what they were doing,
27:24
Speaker 1: the killer, after having the door slammed in their face
27:27
Speaker 1: and hearing this totally inflammatory line, they stormed over to
27:31
Speaker 1: their vehicle, which was part nearby, and they grabbed the
27:34
Speaker 1: knife they kept under their seat for self defense, and
27:38
Speaker 1: they carried that knife right back to the front door
27:40
Speaker 1: and knocked again, and as soon as the door opened,
27:43
Speaker 1: the killer pushed their way inside, and with a surge
27:46
Speaker 1: of rage, they just started stabbing. But Monique was very
27:50
Speaker 1: strong and big, and she knocked the killer to the
27:53
Speaker 1: ground and actually pinned them there, but the killer managed
27:56
Speaker 1: to wrestle their arm free that was holding the knife,
27:59
Speaker 1: but Monique she kept fighting back. I mean, this was
28:02
Speaker 1: an epic struggle. And also the whole time this is happening,
28:06
Speaker 1: Monique's four dogs have basically come over to the gate,
28:09
Speaker 1: which butted up against the entryway, and they're watching this happen,
28:13
Speaker 1: and they're barking like mad, and Monique is streaming out
28:16
Speaker 1: and rage and panic and pain until finally they were
28:20
Speaker 1: able to break away from Monique, who kind of had
28:23
Speaker 1: them pinned despite you know, getting stabbed repeatedly. And then
28:27
Speaker 1: once the killer was free, they turned and bolted out
28:30
Speaker 1: of the house. The killer ran across the yard, got
28:32
Speaker 1: in their vehicle, began pulling away, and as they did that,
28:36
Speaker 1: they saw Monique stumble out the front door. She took
28:39
Speaker 1: a few steps down the walkway and collapsed to the ground,
28:42
Speaker 1: but the killer didn't wait around to see if she.
28:44
Speaker 2: Was really dead.
28:45
Speaker 1: Instead, they sped away, and then they stopped at a
28:49
Speaker 1: supermarket parking lot and threw the murder weapon, the knife,
28:52
Speaker 1: in a trash can, and then the killer went home
28:54
Speaker 1: and they burned their bloodstained clothes in their stove. They
28:58
Speaker 1: thought that would be enough to destroy any evidence linking
29:01
Speaker 1: them to this crime, especially considering the fact that they
29:05
Speaker 1: knew they were like the last person anybody would suspect
29:09
Speaker 1: of such a horrible, violent murder. It would turn out
29:12
Speaker 1: the killer was the four foot nine inch tall, tiny,
29:17
Speaker 1: frail Beatrice Matisse, Claude's fifty eight year old ex wife.
29:22
Speaker 1: In her confession to police, she claimed she had gone
29:25
Speaker 1: to Monique's house that night to finally bury the hatchet
29:29
Speaker 1: after years of feuding between the two sides of Claude's family,
29:32
Speaker 1: But she said the bad blood ran way too deep,
29:35
Speaker 1: and when Monique apparently insulted Beatrice's daughters, that was the
29:40
Speaker 1: last inflammatory line. As she shut the door, Beatrice said
29:44
Speaker 1: she snapped. Beatrice had actually been ruled out as a suspect,
29:48
Speaker 1: primarily because she was really really small, like too small
29:53
Speaker 1: to have overpowered Monique and then to have potentially moved
29:56
Speaker 1: her body out to the front yard. But it would
29:58
Speaker 1: turn out Monique's body was no moved at all, she
30:01
Speaker 1: stumbled out herself. Monique was apparently so full of adrenaline
30:05
Speaker 1: after getting attacked that she had managed to chase Beatrice
30:08
Speaker 1: out of the house before she collapsed and died. And
30:11
Speaker 1: keep in mind, she did that after being stabbed over
30:14
Speaker 1: fifty times and losing an immense amount of blood inside,
30:18
Speaker 1: and because Monique had fought back so fiercely, she had
30:22
Speaker 1: managed to get traces of Beatrice's DNA under her fingernails,
30:26
Speaker 1: and so right away the DNA analysis showed that their
30:30
Speaker 1: killer was a woman, and further testing eventually confirmed that
30:35
Speaker 1: it was a match for Beatrice. Investigators never figured out
30:38
Speaker 1: who made that bizarre phone call to Christov's coworker, but
30:41
Speaker 1: their best guess was that the women that were heard
30:44
Speaker 1: on the phone call were Christov's mother and sister, and
30:48
Speaker 1: it was just an innocent conversation about Monique's murder that
30:52
Speaker 1: the coworker misinterpreted. Beatrice Matisse was arrested on March twenty ninth,
30:56
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, and she confessed to the murder immediately,
31:00
Speaker 1: although she later recanted the confession. She was eventually found
31:04
Speaker 1: guilty and sentenced to fifteen years in jail. Hey everyone,
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
31:37
Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode and the comments. And remember,
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Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,