Latest / Crime and Horror / Gas station footage solved this playboy’s murder - MrBallen

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

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Speaker 1: One early morning in April of twenty twelve, a man
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Speaker 1: was walking through the woods in coastal France. He lived nearby,
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Speaker 1: and he had just seen a column of smoke coming
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Speaker 1: out of the trees in this area, and so he
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Speaker 1: was just coming out here to make sure there was
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Speaker 1: not a brushfire or something, and so he walked through
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Speaker 1: the woods and eventually he reached the source of the smoke.
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Speaker 1: It was in this clearing, and right away he felt
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Speaker 1: relieved because what he saw was just the remains of
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Speaker 1: a bonfire and it was just smoldering and now there
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Speaker 1: was just some smoke coming up off of it. He
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Speaker 1: was about to turn around and go maybe get some
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Speaker 1: water and douse it out completely, but he smelled something
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Speaker 1: like it was a weird smell that clearly was coming
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Speaker 1: from the fire, and so curious, you know, there's nobody
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Speaker 1: else around, he just began walking to the fire to
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Speaker 1: see what was making this smell, and as he got
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Speaker 1: close enough, he realized there was something in that fire.
0:48
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:51
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Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On
1:39
Speaker 1: the night of April twenty sixth, twenty twelve, a thirty
1:42
Speaker 1: nine year old bouncer named Leonel Vernez opened the door
1:45
Speaker 1: of a nightclub in Chambree, France, and he led a
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Speaker 1: woman inside. And as this woman came in, she stopped
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Speaker 1: and made a point to look at Lionel and smile
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Speaker 1: at him and thank him by name. So Chambree was
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Speaker 1: a small city up in the Alps, and Lionel the
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Speaker 1: bouncer was a fixture in its nightlife scene. Pretty Much
2:02
Speaker 1: everybody in town who went out to the bars and
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Speaker 1: clubs had either seen Lionelle standing at the door outside
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Speaker 1: or partying inside when he was not on the clock.
2:11
Speaker 1: And it was not just the locals who knew who
2:12
Speaker 1: this guy was. Leonel was also well known among the
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Speaker 1: rich and famous tourists who often vacationed in Chambrie, and
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Speaker 1: even sometimes he would pick up side work as a
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Speaker 1: bodyguard for these rich and famous people. And for Leonel,
2:25
Speaker 1: I mean his career as like sort of this fixture
2:28
Speaker 1: in the nightlife scene was fun and pretty glamorous at times,
2:32
Speaker 1: but it also could be dangerous. In fact, just a
2:34
Speaker 1: few months ago he got into this huge fistfight protecting
2:38
Speaker 1: one of his clients, and in fact he actually got
2:40
Speaker 1: arrested for it. But tonight, Leonel was just trying to
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Speaker 1: get through a shift without any trouble. There was this
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Speaker 1: long line of people who were waiting outside the club,
2:47
Speaker 1: waiting to get in, and Lionel checked their IDs one
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Speaker 1: by one and let them in. And then finally, when
2:53
Speaker 1: the line started to clear, Leonel saw a familiar face
2:56
Speaker 1: walking toward him. It was his good friend Mike Boof,
2:59
Speaker 1: who Leonelle often went drinking with multiple times a week,
3:02
Speaker 1: and at first Lionelle was just really glad to see Mike,
3:05
Speaker 1: but as Mike got closer, Lionelle realized that Mike actually
3:09
Speaker 1: looked really mad, and so by the time Mike actually
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Speaker 1: reached Lionel, Lionelle just said to him, like, Hey, what's
3:15
Speaker 1: going on? You look pretty upset, and Mike would tell
3:18
Speaker 1: him that he had just been at his friend Philippe's house,
3:21
Speaker 1: and Philippe had 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 Chambourrie. 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
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Speaker 1: rich and they had this winery, and Mike was friends
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Speaker 1: with him and often talked about him. And so now
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Speaker 1: Mike explained to Lionel what this really weird thing was
3:50
Speaker 1: that he heard when he was visiting with Philippe. So
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Speaker 1: apparently Philippe's house had been robbed the day before, and
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Speaker 1: Philippe believed Leonnelle, now the bouncer, was the one who
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Speaker 1: had done it. Now Lionel immediately acted totally taken aback
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Speaker 1: and began to ask Philippe, like, why in the world
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Speaker 1: would even think that, But Mike, you know, his buddy here,
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Speaker 1: just cut him off, and he's like, Lionelle, don't play dumb,
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Speaker 1: Like Philippe knows you're sleeping with his wife, Natalie, and
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Speaker 1: Natalie is actually the one who's blaming you for this robbery. Now.
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Speaker 1: At this Lionelle went from the sort of shock and
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Speaker 1: aw reaction to actually just feeling really nervous. He actually
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Speaker 1: began to sweat because, you know, he knew it was true.
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Speaker 1: He had slept with Natalie. He'd met her at a
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Speaker 1: club one night a couple of months ago, and they'd
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Speaker 1: hooked up in the coach check room. But Lionelle realistically
4:42
Speaker 1: had a lot of flings with a lot of different women,
4:45
Speaker 1: and he'd actually pretty much completely forgotten about hooking up
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Speaker 1: with Natalie since it had just been like a casual thing,
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Speaker 1: and he hadn't seen her in weeks, and so he
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Speaker 1: had no idea why now suddenly she would be accusing
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Speaker 1: him of theft, Like it doesn't really make any sense
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Speaker 1: to hi. So Leonelle, I mean, he was genuinely stunned.
5:02
Speaker 1: I mean, he knew what he had done. He had
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Speaker 1: slept with Natalie, and that's problematic. But he told Mike
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Speaker 1: very truthfully that he did not break into Philippe's house,
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Speaker 1: like there was nothing going on between he and Natalie.
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Speaker 1: That was just a fling. It was nothing like, I
5:17
Speaker 1: really didn't do this. But Mike, despite you know, being
5:21
Speaker 1: friends with Lionel and knowing him quite well, did not
5:25
Speaker 1: appear to believe him. He just narrowed his eyes and
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Speaker 1: nodded and said, okay, I'll pass that along to Philip.
5:34
Speaker 1: Three days later, on the night of April twenty ninth,
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Speaker 1: Leonelle sat in a chair in his living room in Schanbrie,
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Speaker 1: finishing up a phone call. So he lived in a
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Speaker 1: small apartment with his mother and also his nephew Julian. However,
5:46
Speaker 1: Julian was just four years younger than him, so in
5:48
Speaker 1: many ways they were more like brothers. And so as
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Speaker 1: soon as Lionelle hung up the phone, Julian, who was
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Speaker 1: sitting in the room with him on the other side
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Speaker 1: on the couch watching TV, he immediately asked, Lionelle, who
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Speaker 1: are you talking to. Lionelle got up and he walked
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Speaker 1: over and sat down next to Julian on the couch,
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Speaker 1: and then he said to him, oh, that was my
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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
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Speaker 1: of silence, and then Lionelle was like, actually, I want
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Speaker 1: to tell you something, and then he filled in Julian
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Speaker 1: on the weird conversation he had had with Mike just
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Speaker 1: a few days before, where basically Mike was saying that,
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Speaker 1: you know, Lionelle was being accused of robbing this rich
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Speaker 1: guy's home, Philip's home, and so Julian when he heard this,
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Speaker 1: he was sort of like, this seems like a big deal.
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Speaker 1: But Lionelle, despite being the one to bring it up
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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
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Speaker 1: reaction and was just like, you know, it is what
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Speaker 1: it is. I didn't do it, and you know, me
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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
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Speaker 1: normal now, just a weird thing that happened. And so
6:51
Speaker 1: Leonelle and Julian they shifted the conversation and chatted about
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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
7:00
Speaker 1: were headlights pulling up outside. So Leonelle grabbed his jacket
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Speaker 1: and he told Julian he'd be back in a few hours.
7:07
Speaker 1: Then he went out the door. Two days later, on
7:12
Speaker 1: the evening of May first, twenty twelve, Lionelle's nephew Julian
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Speaker 1: walked into the Chambree Police station. He had spent the
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Speaker 1: past two days very worried and stressed because Lionelle had
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Speaker 1: not come home after hanging out with Mike that night,
7:24
Speaker 1: and he now was not answering his phone, and Lionelle
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Speaker 1: was never gone for this long without giving Julian or
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Speaker 1: his mother a heads up. Julian had tried to convince
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Speaker 1: himself that he was just overreacting to this whole thing,
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Speaker 1: and that Lionelle could take care of himself. He was
7:39
Speaker 1: an adult. He was a tough adult, you know. He
7:42
Speaker 1: could handle himself. However, when he found out that Lionelle
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Speaker 1: also hadn't been at work for the past couple of days,
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Speaker 1: Julian knew something was wrong. So Julian, after getting inside
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Speaker 1: the station, he walked right up to the front desk
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Speaker 1: and told them, I need to report somebody missing. The
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Speaker 1: following after so May second, twenty twelve, Captain Floran Mazaron
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Speaker 1: walked into an interrogation room at the Chambrie Police Station.
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Speaker 1: He was leading the investigation into Lionelle's missing person case,
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Speaker 1: and sitting inside of the interrogation room at the table
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Speaker 1: was so far the only suspect they had in this
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Speaker 1: case Lionelle's friend Mike Booth, who he had gone out
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Speaker 1: with on the night he had disappeared. So it had
8:24
Speaker 1: only been a few days since anyone had seen Lionel,
8:27
Speaker 1: but Mazarin was already sure that there was foul play involved.
8:32
Speaker 1: Chambrie was a small town, and a lot of the
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Speaker 1: officers on the police force there knew Lionel, and a
8:38
Speaker 1: couple of them were pretty much adamant that Leonel was
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Speaker 1: just not the kind of person who would just leave
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Speaker 1: town with no warning. Julian, Lionelle's nephew, had said the
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Speaker 1: exact same thing when he reported Lionel missing. He also
8:50
Speaker 1: was the one who told police that the last person
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Speaker 1: Lionelle was with was Mike on the night he went missing,
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Speaker 1: and Mike, also, they found out, had recently accused Leonelle
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Speaker 1: of robbing someone's house. So Mazarin was really eager to
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Speaker 1: get in there and hear what Mike had to say,
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Speaker 1: So into the room he went. He sat down across
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Speaker 1: from Mike, who seemed calm, but also definitely curious, like
9:12
Speaker 1: he wasn't sure even why he was there, And when
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Speaker 1: Mazarin started in by asking him about the robbery that
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Speaker 1: supposedly Lionelle was involved in, Mike just nodded and explained
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Speaker 1: that the break in had happened about a week earlier
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Speaker 1: at the home of his good friend Felipe Perrier, And
9:27
Speaker 1: when Mazarin heard that name, he sort of raised an
9:30
Speaker 1: eyebrow because, like basically everybody else in Chaan, Marie, Mazarin
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Speaker 1: knew who the Perriers were, and he was surprised that
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Speaker 1: someone so rich and so powerful would be running in
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Speaker 1: the same circles as you know, sort of traditional working
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Speaker 1: classmen like Mike and like Leonelle. However, before he could
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Speaker 1: dive in and ask some basic follow up questions about
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Speaker 1: how he knows the Perriers, Mike went on to say
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Speaker 1: that he ran an electrician business and he had a
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Speaker 1: warehouse that was right next to Philipe's winery. They saw
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Speaker 1: each other all the time, and he said that Philip
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Speaker 1: knew Mike was friends with Lionel, and so after this
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Speaker 1: break in and robbery happened, he had asked Mike to
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Speaker 1: talk to Lionel about it because he was suspicious that
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Speaker 1: he had done it. But Mike said when he actually
10:15
Speaker 1: confronted Leonell just a few days ago and brought up
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Speaker 1: the break in that Lionel had sworn he didn't know
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Speaker 1: anything about it, and Mike had passed that on to Philippe,
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Speaker 1: and as far as he knew, that had been the
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Speaker 1: end of it. Like, they were not going to continue
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Speaker 1: to assume that Lionel had anything to do with it. Now.
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Speaker 1: Mike was being so earnest as he told the story
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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
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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
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Speaker 1: all night with his girlfriend. He did say at a
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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
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Speaker 1: this point, Mazarin 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
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Speaker 1: outside their building on that night that Mike is saying
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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. And
11:47
Speaker 1: so he did. He handed it over and then Mazarin
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Speaker 1: got up, left the interrogation room and went to go
11:52
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13:31
Speaker 1: May second, twenty twelve. So just a few hours after
13:34
Speaker 1: questioning Mike Boof about Lionelle's disappearance, Captain Mazarin drove up
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Speaker 1: to a big house in a quiet, wealthy suburb just
13:41
Speaker 1: outside of Chambrerie, France. Now by this point he had
13:45
Speaker 1: already spoken to Mike's girlfriend, who had confirmed what Mazarin
13:49
Speaker 1: was already thinking, which was Mike was lying about spending
13:53
Speaker 1: the whole night of Leonelle's disappearance at home with her.
13:57
Speaker 1: In fact, she said that Mike hadn't been home at all.
14:00
Speaker 1: She said she had been at home by herself all night,
14:03
Speaker 1: she had watched a movie, and then at some point
14:05
Speaker 1: she had fallen asleep, maybe around midnight. And at that
14:08
Speaker 1: point when she fell asleep, Mike still was not back
14:11
Speaker 1: from wherever he was. So right now, Mike was not
14:15
Speaker 1: only their sole suspect, but he was also their best suspect.
14:19
Speaker 1: Mazarn knew that a few days before Lionelle's disappearance, Mike
14:23
Speaker 1: had confronted Lionel about this supposed robbery at Phelipe Perrier's house,
14:28
Speaker 1: and so now Mazarn was at Philippe's house to see
14:31
Speaker 1: what he had to say about the whole situation. And
14:34
Speaker 1: so Mazarin pulled his car up in front of the house,
14:36
Speaker 1: he parked, he got out, he walked up the front door,
14:39
Speaker 1: and he rang the doorbell, and a moment later, Philip
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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: Philipe to walk him through what had happened with the
15:24
Speaker 1: supposed robbery. Philipe 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. Then he repeated what Mike Boof had said.
16:03
Speaker 1: It was Lionel Verne'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 it was Lionelle. Mazaron looked really hard
16:14
Speaker 1: at Philip because this was huge. If Philip knew that
16:18
Speaker 1: Lionel was having an affair with his wife, that gave
16:21
Speaker 1: him Philipe plenty of motive to want Lionel did. And
16:25
Speaker 1: as of right now, Lionel was gone and no one
16:28
Speaker 1: knew what happened to him, so maybe he was murdered,
16:31
Speaker 1: and so, operating on a hunch, Mazarin followed up by
16:34
Speaker 1: asking Philip if he had any weapons in the house,
16:38
Speaker 1: and to his surprise, Philipe said yes, and so Mazarin
16:42
Speaker 1: asked if he could see them, and so Philipe got
16:44
Speaker 1: up and led him over to the stairs that went
16:46
Speaker 1: down to the basement, and when they got down there,
16:49
Speaker 1: there was this huge gun save with a few plastic
16:51
Speaker 1: firearm cases stacked around it, and so Phelipe, once they
16:54
Speaker 1: got down there, he sort of stepped out of the
16:56
Speaker 1: way so that Mazarin could look around. And almost as
16:59
Speaker 1: soon as he did begin walking around Mazarin and began
17:01
Speaker 1: opening up these cases, he discovered that one of those cases,
17:05
Speaker 1: which had space for two weapons in it, was empty.
17:09
Speaker 1: And so Mazarin asked Philip, 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, 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
18:12
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 Philip 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, show she 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 debts 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: Phelipe were both at their home all night on the
20:32
Speaker 1: evening that Lionelle disappeared, and that if Philippe 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
21:21
Speaker 1: husband was involved in what happened to Lionel. A few
21:33
Speaker 1: days later, Captain Mazarin walked through a wooded rural area
21:37
Speaker 1: near the coast, two hundred and twenty miles away from Chambrie.
21:40
Speaker 1: An officer from the Marseille Police was walking a few
21:43
Speaker 1: steps ahead of him. This officer had called Mazarin yesterday
21:47
Speaker 1: to tell him that a body had been discovered in
21:50
Speaker 1: these woods just after dawn on April thirtieth, so less
21:53
Speaker 1: than ten hours after Lionel was last seen by his family,
21:57
Speaker 1: and after running the body's fingerprints through the database, they
22:00
Speaker 1: had identified the victim. It was Lionelle, and Mazarin was
22:04
Speaker 1: baffled by this. Marseille was more than a four hour
22:08
Speaker 1: drive from Chambrie, and as far as Mazarin knew, Lionel
22:13
Speaker 1: didn't know anybody in Marseilles and did not go there
22:16
Speaker 1: with any regularity. And there was just plenty of other
22:19
Speaker 1: wooded areas closer to chan Berie, So why drive all
22:24
Speaker 1: the way out here? It just didn't really 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 the 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
22:38
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 smoldering bonfire.
23:00
Speaker 1: It was clearly out, but there was still smoke coming
23:02
Speaker 1: off of it. And then in the middle of all
23:04
Speaker 1: these logs was clearly a charred corpse. 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 have
23:49
Speaker 1: been a gang execution. None of Leonelle's family or friends
23:53
Speaker 1: had ever mentioned that he was involved with a gang
23:55
Speaker 1: in any way, but Mazarin knew that Lionel worked in
23:58
Speaker 1: nightclubs and had history of breaking up fights, so it
24:02
Speaker 1: was definitely possible that he might have crossed paths with
24:05
Speaker 1: the wrong person. Also, there was the fact that apparently
24:08
Speaker 1: Lionelle had these huge debts from gambling. There's just sort
24:12
Speaker 1: of a seedy underworld that potentially he was around that
24:15
Speaker 1: could have led to him being killed this way. Also,
24:18
Speaker 1: if this was gang related, it would sort of explain
24:21
Speaker 1: why he was all the way out here in Marseilles,
24:24
Speaker 1: because Marseille was a city that historically had a lot
24:27
Speaker 1: of issues with drug trafficking and gangs. And so Mazarin
24:31
Speaker 1: realized he could have been wrong about this case basically
24:33
Speaker 1: from the start. Maybe Mike and Philippe actually had nothing
24:37
Speaker 1: to do with it at all. Around ten pm on
24:41
Speaker 1: May fifth, twenty twelve, about one hundred miles from the
24:44
Speaker 1: spot where Lionelle's body was found, Captain Florent Mazarin pulled
24:48
Speaker 1: into the parking lot at a gas station. He got out,
24:51
Speaker 1: he walked inside and told the clerk that he needed
24:53
Speaker 1: to look at the security camera footage. So, during the
24:56
Speaker 1: four hour drive from Marseille back to Chanbrie, Mazarin had
25:00
Speaker 1: gone out and seen where Lionel had been found. During
25:03
Speaker 1: that ride home, he had been going back and forth
25:06
Speaker 1: between his first two suspects, Mike and Philippe, and this
25:09
Speaker 1: new theory 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. 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. So
25:42
Speaker 1: Mazaron had been checking the cameras at every toll booth
25:45
Speaker 1: and every gas station that he passed on his drive
25:47
Speaker 1: to see if any of them had captured a glimpse
25:50
Speaker 1: of Lionel. So far, he'd just been disappointed because most
25:54
Speaker 1: of the cameras didn't even work or the footage had
25:56
Speaker 1: already been erased or written over. And so now as
25:59
Speaker 1: he fought followed this clerk into the back room and
26:01
Speaker 1: was shown to their computer to go ahead and look
26:04
Speaker 1: at the footage, Azram was expecting that this stop would
26:07
Speaker 1: be the same as all the others, A big disappointment. However,
26:11
Speaker 1: as soon as they fired up the computer right away,
26:14
Speaker 1: Mazaron saw that they did have footage, and the footage
26:17
Speaker 1: did cover the time period he was looking for. However,
26:20
Speaker 1: when he began scanning the footage around the date of
26:23
Speaker 1: April twenty ninth April thirtieth, at first nothing stood out. However,
26:27
Speaker 1: when he reached the early hours of April thirtieth, where
26:30
Speaker 1: he would normally stop and say, okay, I didn't see anything.
26:33
Speaker 1: It is what it is. For whatever reason, he decided
26:36
Speaker 1: to just keep on scanning the footage, just keep on
26:39
Speaker 1: watching more of April thirtieth, and eventually he did see
26:43
Speaker 1: something of interest. At five point forty three am on
26:46
Speaker 1: April thirtieth, a black Volkswagen vehicle pulls into frame and
26:50
Speaker 1: it actually parks in the gas station parking lot. And
26:53
Speaker 1: this car its license plate ended in seventy three, which
26:57
Speaker 1: meant this car was registered in Chambrie. He's watching this
27:02
Speaker 1: car comes into the lot at parks and the driver
27:05
Speaker 1: gets out, and right away Mazarin pauses the video and
27:08
Speaker 1: he zooms in on the driver's space, but the video
27:11
Speaker 1: was just too grainy. He couldn't tell who the driver was.
27:15
Speaker 1: But then something in the passenger seat of this car
27:18
Speaker 1: catches his attention, and so he zoomed in on the
27:21
Speaker 1: passenger seat and when he realized what he was looking at,
27:25
Speaker 1: his stomach just dropped. Based on that video, forensic evidence,
27:34
Speaker 1: and interviews with witnesses, this is what police belief happened
27:38
Speaker 1: to Lionel Verney's On April twenty ninth, twenty twelve, around
27:49
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen pm, the killer sat in the backseat
27:52
Speaker 1: of a car as it drove through the streets of Chambrie,
27:54
Speaker 1: with a gun resting on the seat next to them. Now,
27:57
Speaker 1: the killer had told the driver that they were not
27:59
Speaker 1: planning to use the gun tonight, it was just there
28:02
Speaker 1: 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
28:41
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. They
29:13
Speaker 1: would find a secluded spot out in the woods. They'd
29:15
Speaker 1: make up bonfire and they would burn Lionelle's body. That's
29:18
Speaker 1: how they dispose of it. And then on the way back,
29:21
Speaker 1: their plan was to toss all the evidence into the river.
29:24
Speaker 1: As for the killer, the one who actually pulled the trigger,
29:28
Speaker 1: they were going to stay at this house. They were
29:30
Speaker 1: not going to leave. The driver and the other accomplice
29:33
Speaker 1: agreed that the killer had already caused enough trouble for
29:36
Speaker 1: one night, so the killer just went upstairs into their bedroom.
29:40
Speaker 1: They slipped on a robe, and they watched from the
29:43
Speaker 1: window as the other two got into the car and
29:46
Speaker 1: drove off. The killer was Philippe's wife, Natalie Perrier, the
29:51
Speaker 1: woman Lionel had had an affair with. To Lionel, their
29:55
Speaker 1: affair had been meaningless, just a fling, but for Natalie,
29:59
Speaker 1: she wanted more. She had gotten bored of her quiet
30:02
Speaker 1: life as a luxurious housewife in the suburbs, and she'd
30:06
Speaker 1: quickly fallen in love with Lionel and the seemingly very
30:10
Speaker 1: exciting life that he lived. And so when Leonelle stopped
30:13
Speaker 1: paying attention to her, she'd gotten so mad that she
30:17
Speaker 1: took revenge. She went with Mike to pick up Lionelle
30:21
Speaker 1: on the night he was killed so that she could
30:23
Speaker 1: confront him. But moments after Lionelle got in the car,
30:26
Speaker 1: her emotions got the best of her and she shot
30:29
Speaker 1: and killed him. And this was definitely not the plan
30:32
Speaker 1: that Mike had agreed to. Like he and her had
30:35
Speaker 1: discussed what was going to happen, it didn't include murdering Lionel.
30:39
Speaker 1: But after the murder, Mike didn't say I'm going to
30:41
Speaker 1: go to the police. Instead, he and Natalie went to
30:45
Speaker 1: her husband Philippe for help, and Philip agreed to dispose
30:48
Speaker 1: of Lionelle's body and cover up the crime. On the
30:52
Speaker 1: security footage from the gas station, what Mazarin saw in
30:55
Speaker 1: the passenger seat of that black Volkswagen was Philippe. He
30:59
Speaker 1: was sitting there just right in the passenger seat, and
31:02
Speaker 1: it would turn out the driver of the car was Mike.
31:05
Speaker 1: Natalie was ultimately convicted of Linelle's murder and sentenced to
31:08
Speaker 1: twenty years in prison. Mike was sentenced to six years
31:11
Speaker 1: for kidnapping and destroying evidence, and Philippe was sentenced to
31:15
Speaker 1: three years for helping get rid of Linelle's body. He
31:17
Speaker 1: and Natalie are now divorced. And also, as for that
31:20
Speaker 1: robbery that played seemingly a central role in this story
31:24
Speaker 1: at the beginning, we actually don't know if the robbery
31:27
Speaker 1: ever occurred or if it was simply a fabrication. Thank
31:38
Speaker 1: you so much for watching. Let me know what you
31:40
Speaker 1: thought of today's episode in the comments, and remember we
31:42
Speaker 1: have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for
31:45
Speaker 1: you to binge right now. So click here and give
31:48
Speaker 1: them a watch. All right, until next time, see ya,