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Wealthy-French-playboy-found-in-his-own-TRUNK · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On a cold night in early February of twenty ten,
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Speaker 1: a group of friends gathered around the table at a
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Speaker 1: restaurant inside of a French ski resort. They had been
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Speaker 1: out on the slopes all day and now they were
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Speaker 1: warming up and relaxing with some muld wine by the fire. Eventually,
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Speaker 1: a cell phone bust and one of the friends. They
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Speaker 1: looked at their phone and immediately frowned. Then, without saying anything,
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Speaker 1: they excused themselves and stepped away from the table to talk.
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Speaker 1: And then when they came back, they were pale, their
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Speaker 1: hands were shaking, and the others asked them like are
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Speaker 1: you okay? Like who are you talking to? But this
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Speaker 1: person they just shook their head, grabbed their coat and
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Speaker 1: said they had to leave right now. Someone they cared
0:36
Speaker 1: about very much needed their help. But before we get
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Speaker 1: into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange,
0:42
Speaker 1: dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come
0:45
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Speaker 1: like Button's house and replace all the foam in their
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1:03
Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. On the afternoon of Saturday,
1:28
Speaker 1: February sixth, twenty ten, sixty one year old Alan Lailou
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Speaker 1: set up the ironing board behind the couch in the
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Speaker 1: living room of a little house outside the town of
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Speaker 1: Chartre in northern France. From the kitchen, he could smell
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Speaker 1: the beef borgignon simmering on the stove, but Alan and
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Speaker 1: the thirty seven year old woman who was cooking the
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Speaker 1: beef borgeagnon were not talking. The woman's name was Alexandra Nicola,
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Speaker 1: and Alan had actually bought this house for her and
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Speaker 1: her ten year old daughter. Alexandra used to be Alan's assistant,
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Speaker 1: but over the years they had developed a really close
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Speaker 1: relationship that was much more like father to daughter. Now,
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Speaker 1: Alexandra had not worked for Alan in a number of years,
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Speaker 1: but you know, they remained close. And also, you know,
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Speaker 1: remember Alan literally bought her this house, and so as
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Speaker 1: a result of this bond they had, Alan found himself
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Speaker 1: visiting her quite a bit at this house, you know,
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Speaker 1: helping out where he could, and he also paid for
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Speaker 1: her car and also for their vacations. And Alan could
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Speaker 1: afford to be this generous because he was a very successful,
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Speaker 1: high powered producer of circus shows, which were a huge
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Speaker 1: moneymaker in France. Lots of companies booked circus shows for
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Speaker 1: end of the year parties for their employees, and Alan
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Speaker 1: had lots of major contracts and so as a result,
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Speaker 1: Alan's office was in this fancy chateau in the countryside,
2:49
Speaker 1: and his wife actually lived in this luxury ski town
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Speaker 1: near the Swiss border. And Alan was constantly traveling all
2:55
Speaker 1: over Europe for work. But this life could also be
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Speaker 1: a grind. Just in the past twenty four hours, Alan
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Speaker 1: had traveled more than twelve hundred miles meeting with potential
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Speaker 1: clients and scouting new performers. So he put a lot
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Speaker 1: of value on the time where he could escape to
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Speaker 1: Alexandra's house, where he could recharge in the quiet of
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Speaker 1: the suburbs and obviously spend time with somebody he cared
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Speaker 1: a lot about. Now, Alan knew all of his friends
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Speaker 1: and coworkers thought that he and Alexandra were blatantly having
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Speaker 1: an affair here, and he was sure that's what his
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Speaker 1: own wife assumed too, and This was fair because, after all,
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Speaker 1: Alan did have lots of extramarital relationships. He also engaged
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Speaker 1: with sex workers all the time, and he really didn't
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Speaker 1: even try to hide any of it. He and his wife, Elizabeth,
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Speaker 1: they lived in separate homes, and they sort of had
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Speaker 1: this understanding that she can have this life and he
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Speaker 1: can have this life in exchange. However, Alan's relationship with
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Speaker 1: Alexandra really was different. It had always been platonic. They'd
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Speaker 1: never even kissed or held hands. Alan had no kids
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Speaker 1: of his own, and he genuinely enjoyed playing the role of,
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Speaker 1: you know, doting father and grandfather to Alexandra and her daughter, respectively.
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Speaker 1: But now they were in this big fight, and Alan
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Speaker 1: was anxious to repair it. Alexandra's daughter was out of
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Speaker 1: the house for the weekend, so he and Alexandra had
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Speaker 1: planned to have this nice dinner tonight before Alan had
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Speaker 1: to head out again on business on Sunday afternoon. But
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Speaker 1: Alan somewhat stupidly had brought up Alexandra's past and then
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Speaker 1: ended up getting into this horrible fight and just continued
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Speaker 1: to yell at each other. Ever since, Alexandra was very
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Speaker 1: defensive about her troubled history, when she was.
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Speaker 2: A young woman.
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Speaker 1: She had moved to Paris, and she had fallen in
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Speaker 1: love and she had had a baby, but the baby
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Speaker 1: had tragically died, and her relationship with her love had
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Speaker 1: fallen apart, and so she had spiraled into very self
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Speaker 1: destructive behavior by the time Alan finally met her in
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Speaker 1: two thousand and two, so this is eight years before
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Speaker 1: they were in the house having this big fight. You know,
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Speaker 1: Alexander was really struggling by this point. She had a
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Speaker 1: two year old daughter, and she was really struggling to
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Speaker 1: provide for her because all she could muster in terms
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Speaker 1: of work was like this combination of minimum wage jobs
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Speaker 1: and side hustles. And so when Alan had hired her
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Speaker 1: as his you know, full time secretary, it had completely
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Speaker 1: transformed her life. But you know, deep down, sometimes she
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Speaker 1: seemed more resentful of Alan's power than grateful for his help.
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Speaker 1: It's like he had total control over her well being
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Speaker 1: and she didn't necessarily like that. And so with that
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Speaker 1: as context, Alan left the ironing board and walked into
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Speaker 1: the kitchen, hoping that Alexandra had cooled down enough that
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Speaker 1: they could actually have a real conversation here.
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Speaker 2: And so once he was in the kitchen.
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Speaker 1: He sort of looked over at Alexandra and couldn't really
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Speaker 1: tell where she was at. And then he turned opened
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Speaker 1: up the fridge and just kind of stared inside of it,
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Speaker 1: not really looking for any food or drink or anything,
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Speaker 1: you know. He was just hoping that Alexander would say
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Speaker 1: something to him, And to his relief, Alexandra did turn
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Speaker 1: around and kind of playfully swung her dish towel at him,
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Speaker 1: telling him that he had to.
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Speaker 2: Wait for dinner.
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Speaker 1: She didn't seem mad at him anymore, so Alan felt
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Speaker 1: very relieved, and he smiled and closed the fridge, and
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Speaker 1: then he told her to come sit with him and
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Speaker 1: have some wine while they waited for the laundry to
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Speaker 1: dry so she could iron it. A few minutes later,
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Speaker 1: they both sat down on the sofa with their wineglasses
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Speaker 1: and Alexandra asked Alan how business was going. He told
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Speaker 1: her it was good, which technically it was. His company
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Speaker 1: was on track to bring in around four million euros
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Speaker 1: that year, which is the equivalent of about five million
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Speaker 1: US dollars, but despite how things looked on paper, Alan
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Speaker 1: was pretty stressed. He made the majority of his money
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Speaker 1: through contracts with companies, but he was not the only
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Speaker 1: person competing for those lucrative contracts. His number one competitor
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Speaker 1: was another circus owner whose name was Michelle de la Rule,
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Speaker 1: and recently, Michelle had been beating Alan on one contract
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Speaker 1: after another, and it was starting to feel to Alan
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Speaker 1: like Michelle was actually targeting Alan's contracts, trying to steal
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Speaker 1: them from him, rather than trying to cultivate his own clients.
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Speaker 1: Alan told Alexandra that on Monday he had a very
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Speaker 1: important meeting in Vishi, which is a city in central
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Speaker 1: France about a four hour drive south of Alexandra's house.
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Speaker 1: At this meeting, Alan was hoping to win a big
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Speaker 1: contract as long as Michelle didn't steal it out from
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Speaker 1: under him. Alexandra put her hand on Alan's arm and
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Speaker 1: told him don't worry. She said she was sure his
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Speaker 1: meeting on Monday would be a huge success and that
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Speaker 1: could celebrate in a few weeks on the ski trip
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Speaker 1: that he had booked for the two of them and
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Speaker 1: her daughter. Then she put down her now empty wineglass
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Speaker 1: and went to go do the laundry. As Alexandra disappeared
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Speaker 1: into the back of the house, Alan just kind of
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Speaker 1: sat by himself for a minute. He was looking forward
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Speaker 1: to the vacation that she had mentioned, and bart because
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Speaker 1: Alexandra had been a lot busier lately with her new boyfriend,
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Speaker 1: a forty two year old IT engineer from Paris named
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Speaker 1: Eve Bernard. Now, Alan and Eve got along just fine,
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Speaker 1: but he could tell that Alexandra and Eve were getting
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Speaker 1: pretty serious. They might even get married, and Alan couldn't
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Speaker 1: help but worry that eventually, if that happened, Eve might
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Speaker 1: start to resent him for sort of stepping in as
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Speaker 1: this paternal figure in Alexander's life, that perhaps he would
8:26
Speaker 1: come off as being sort of overbearing. But he was
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Speaker 1: not going to let that fear wreck the evening, so
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Speaker 1: as Alexandra came back, now with the laundry, picked up
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Speaker 1: a book from the coffee table, then took the last
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Speaker 1: step of his wine. The rest of the weekend passed
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Speaker 1: by quickly, and by Sunday afternoon, Alan was back in
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Speaker 1: his car, headed.
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Speaker 2: Back out of town.
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Speaker 1: But what no one would realize until much later was
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Speaker 1: there was actually a second car following closely behind him.
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Speaker 1: The following day, on the morning of Monday, February eighth,
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Speaker 1: Alan Leelou's wife Elizabeth, was drinking a coffee inside her
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Speaker 1: home in the mountains. When her phone rang, she picked
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Speaker 1: it up and she heard the voice of Alan's assistant, Sylvie.
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Speaker 1: Then Sylvie sounded very worried, and she said she was
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Speaker 1: calling to see if Elizabeth had heard from her husband recently.
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Speaker 1: And this was pretty strange because Alan was not the
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Speaker 1: type of person to just disappear from work without telling
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Speaker 1: his secretary. So Elizabeth told Sylvie that no, she hadn't
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Speaker 1: heard from Alan in a few days. And then she
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Speaker 1: asked Sylvie, like, why, what's going on here? And as
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth listened to Sylvie's answer, she felt herself growing really
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Speaker 1: nervous because apparently Alan had this very important meeting in
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Speaker 1: vsh that morning, but he had not shown up for it.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he'd never even checked into the hotel in
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Speaker 1: vs where he was supposed to be staying. Sylvie said
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Speaker 1: she had already reached out to several of Alan's friends
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Speaker 1: in business contacts, but nobody had heard from him, and
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Speaker 1: he was not answering the repeated phone calls to both
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Speaker 1: of his cell phones, which appeared to be turned off.
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Speaker 2: None of this made any sense to Elizabeth.
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Speaker 1: Alan was famous for spending entire days on his various phones.
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Speaker 1: She couldn't even recall a time when he'd been unreachable
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Speaker 1: even briefly. So Elizabeth told Sylvie she was glad she called,
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Speaker 1: but she would take it from here. Then Elizabeth hung
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Speaker 1: up the phone with Sylvie and called the police.
10:37
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11:54
Speaker 1: week and a half later, on February nineteenth, a young
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Speaker 1: police officer knocked on the front door of a little
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Speaker 1: house outside the town of Chartrei in northern France. Now,
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Speaker 1: up until this point, Alan's case had been treated as
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Speaker 1: a simple missing person's case, with the local police in
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Speaker 1: Alan's wife's hometown handling the inquiry, which was pretty basic.
12:15
Speaker 1: But now enough time had passed without Alan being found
12:19
Speaker 1: and no evidence coming in that the original report had
12:23
Speaker 1: been kicked over to the crime division because they were
12:25
Speaker 1: thinking this could potentially be a kidnapping or something worse.
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Speaker 1: This young officer was here at this home because it
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Speaker 1: was the last place Alan was known to be before
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Speaker 1: he went missing. The door of the home opened and
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Speaker 1: a thin, blonde woman looked out. The officer asked her
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Speaker 1: if her name was Alexandra Nikola, and she said yes.
12:45
Speaker 1: When he explained to her why he was there, Alexandra
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Speaker 1: looked immediately concerned and invited him inside. And as she
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Speaker 1: led him into her living room and offered him a
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Speaker 1: seat on her couch, the officer looked around, taking stock
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Speaker 1: of the space. It was clean, but a bit cluttered
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Speaker 1: with to that appeared to belong to a young girl
13:01
Speaker 1: scattered about. The officer scanned for any signs of a
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Speaker 1: physical fight or violence of some kind, like damage to
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Speaker 1: the walls or the furniture, but there was nothing that
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Speaker 1: stood out, nothing concerning. Alexandra began asking the officer pretty anxiously,
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Speaker 1: all these questions about what was going.
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Speaker 2: On with Alan. Was he hurt? Was he in some
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Speaker 2: kind of danger?
13:21
Speaker 1: Like?
13:21
Speaker 2: What do you know?
13:22
Speaker 1: But the young officer just shook his head and said,
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Speaker 1: for now.
13:25
Speaker 2: They really didn't know much.
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Speaker 1: He was just here to try to build a timeline
13:29
Speaker 1: of Alan's last known movements, and so, speaking of that,
13:33
Speaker 1: he asked Alexandra to please walk him through what she
13:36
Speaker 1: remembered about her last interaction with Alan. The officer took
13:40
Speaker 1: careful notes as Alexandra began to rattle off all the
13:43
Speaker 1: details she could remember. She said that Alan was like
13:46
Speaker 1: a surrogate father to her, and he had come over
13:49
Speaker 1: on the evening of Friday, February fifth. He had been
13:51
Speaker 1: there on Friday, also on Saturday and Sunday, and then
13:54
Speaker 1: he had taken off on that Sunday because he had
13:57
Speaker 1: to go to Vshi for this big meeting on Monday.
14:00
Speaker 1: She told the officer that after he left for that meeting,
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Speaker 1: she hadn't heard from him, but that was pretty typical.
14:06
Speaker 1: She said, their relationship was not remotely romantic. It really
14:09
Speaker 1: was platonic. And you know, he didn't always check in
14:12
Speaker 1: the way you know a spouse would. You know, this
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Speaker 1: is more like really close friends. The officer nodded while
14:18
Speaker 1: he wrote down what she said. Alexandra seemed very helpful
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Speaker 1: and appropriately worried, but he was suspicious of the idea
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Speaker 1: that she and Alan were not romantically involved at all,
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Speaker 1: So before he left, he asked to see the rest
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Speaker 1: of her house, in part just to see what her
14:35
Speaker 1: reaction would be. If she said no or got defensive,
14:39
Speaker 1: he would probe a bit more deeply. But she immediately agreed,
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Speaker 1: and she actually took him all around the house, showing
14:45
Speaker 1: him anywhere he wanted to go, and what he found
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Speaker 1: is the rest of the house seemed just as normal
14:50
Speaker 1: as the living room and the entryway. She eventually brought
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Speaker 1: the officer back to the door and promised him she
14:56
Speaker 1: would call if Alan reached out, And so, after leaving
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Speaker 1: Alan Alexandra's house to be thorough, the officer actually went
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Speaker 1: door to door up and down Alexandra's street, asking her
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Speaker 1: neighbors what they remembered about that particular weekend and over
15:10
Speaker 1: the past several days, seeing if there was anything that
15:13
Speaker 1: contradicted what Alexandra had said, But everybody more or less
15:18
Speaker 1: confirmed Alexandra's story. Alan was indeed a regular visitor in
15:23
Speaker 1: the neighborhood, and several people did remember seeing him on
15:27
Speaker 1: the weekend in question and said that really nothing had
15:30
Speaker 1: seemed off. So eventually the officer just left and went
15:34
Speaker 1: back to the station, and when he got there he
15:36
Speaker 1: wrote a report highlighting Alan's last known destination of Vshi.
15:42
Speaker 1: Over the next week, police in Vshi, as well as
15:45
Speaker 1: in the ski town where Alan's wife lived, followed up
15:48
Speaker 1: on the loose threads of the investigation. They poured over
15:51
Speaker 1: Alan's cell phone history and his bank account and credit
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Speaker 1: card transactions, which all showed no activity after he left
15:58
Speaker 1: Alexandra's house on February seven. They also spoke to his
16:01
Speaker 1: business connections and his friends, but no one had heard anything,
16:05
Speaker 1: and they even put in a request to the car
16:07
Speaker 1: company Audi for the GPS data that was stored in
16:10
Speaker 1: Alan's car, which was an Audi Q seven. Now the
16:14
Speaker 1: investigators knew it was entirely possible that Alan had chosen
16:18
Speaker 1: to disappear. I mean, he was very wealthy, he had
16:21
Speaker 1: lots of connections, you know, that was a possibility that
16:24
Speaker 1: he had basically chosen to be gone, and if that
16:26
Speaker 1: was the case, it would be pretty difficult.
16:28
Speaker 2: To find him.
16:30
Speaker 1: However, it was a lot harder to hide a car
16:34
Speaker 1: that logged all of its travel data, and so whether
16:37
Speaker 1: Allan's disappearance was voluntary, accidental, or the result of foul play,
16:42
Speaker 1: the police knew finding his audi was likely the best
16:46
Speaker 1: hope they had of knowing where to even look for Alan.
16:55
Speaker 1: On February twenty sixth, twenty ten, so nineteen days since
16:59
Speaker 1: Alan was reported missing, a detective named Pierre Martin stood
17:04
Speaker 1: in a secure impound lot in the city of Orleon, France,
17:08
Speaker 1: looking at Alan's gray Audi Q seven. The GPS data
17:12
Speaker 1: that police had requested from Audi had come back a
17:15
Speaker 1: few days earlier, and it had led detectives to a
17:18
Speaker 1: surprising place. So again, the last place where Allan was
17:21
Speaker 1: known to have been before he vanished was leaving the
17:25
Speaker 1: home of his surrogate daughter Alexandra Nikola near Chartre, France
17:30
Speaker 1: and heading to Vshi, France for a business meeting. But
17:33
Speaker 1: his AUDI had not been found in CHARTREI or Vshi. Instead,
17:38
Speaker 1: it had been discovered in the parking lot of a
17:40
Speaker 1: train station in Orleon, which was in between those two cities,
17:44
Speaker 1: and so to the police, it sort of looked like
17:46
Speaker 1: he had gotten halfway to his destination and just stopped. Now,
17:51
Speaker 1: when they found this car, the first thing they did
17:54
Speaker 1: is they just put it under surveillance for two days
17:56
Speaker 1: to see if maybe Alan or somebody else would return
17:59
Speaker 1: to it. For context, the parking lot where this car
18:02
Speaker 1: was was in a pretty rough area where violent crime
18:05
Speaker 1: and sex work were pretty common. So I mean, any
18:08
Speaker 1: number of people could potentially, you know, break into this.
18:11
Speaker 2: Car or who knows what.
18:12
Speaker 1: It just seemed like a CD area where something might
18:15
Speaker 1: happen here if we keep watching. But nobody had shown up,
18:19
Speaker 1: so Finally, they just towed the car to the impound
18:22
Speaker 1: lot for forensic technicians to process it and look for evidence,
18:26
Speaker 1: and Detective Marton was here to watch that process. The
18:30
Speaker 1: forensic texts circled the vehicle and began taking photos of
18:34
Speaker 1: the outside and also dusting for fingerprints. There was no
18:37
Speaker 1: visible damage anywhere on the outside of the car, and
18:40
Speaker 1: there were no traces of any effort to try to
18:42
Speaker 1: break into the car. Plus, Allan's briefcase and luggage were
18:46
Speaker 1: clearly still inside the car, which meant, you know, the
18:49
Speaker 1: fact the car was found where it was was likely
18:52
Speaker 1: not a product of a robbery. This didn't seem like
18:55
Speaker 1: somebody just stole his car. It's here and it has
18:58
Speaker 1: nothing to do with Alan's disappearance. It seems like how
19:01
Speaker 1: this car got here is connected in some way to
19:04
Speaker 1: what happened to Alan, and you know, sort of going
19:08
Speaker 1: down that path, it seemed more and more likely that
19:11
Speaker 1: what happened to Alan probably fell into the.
19:14
Speaker 2: Category of foul play.
19:16
Speaker 1: However, when the technicians opened up the car doors and
19:20
Speaker 1: began dusting for prints inside, the upholstery was disappointingly clean,
19:26
Speaker 1: which doesn't exactly sort of enhance the idea that foul
19:29
Speaker 1: play happened here.
19:30
Speaker 2: It just sort of seems like what's going on.
19:32
Speaker 1: But after a few minutes, after you know, kind of
19:35
Speaker 1: thoroughly scanning the inside of the car, one of the
19:38
Speaker 1: texts pushed the button near the driver's side that opened
19:41
Speaker 1: up the trunk, and then after it was open, Detective
19:44
Speaker 1: Martin walked around to the back to look inside and
19:47
Speaker 1: see what was in there, and what he saw was
19:50
Speaker 1: this bulky object wrapped in a pink sheet, And right
19:54
Speaker 1: away Martin had the sinking feeling in his chest as
19:57
Speaker 1: one of the texts reached forward with a gloved hand
20:00
Speaker 1: and pulled the sheet back, and pretty much immediately Martin's
20:04
Speaker 1: suspicions were confirmed. Underneath that pink sheet was a body,
20:08
Speaker 1: a man's body, fully clothed and curled in the fetal position.
20:13
Speaker 1: There was no doubt this was Alan Leelou. But there
20:17
Speaker 1: was no visible blood or wounds or bruises anywhere on
20:20
Speaker 1: his body, and there was no blood in the trunk.
20:23
Speaker 1: When Detective Martin reached in to try to move Alan's
20:27
Speaker 1: body to further examine him, he found his body was
20:30
Speaker 1: already incredibly rigid with brigor mortis. The coroner told Martin
20:35
Speaker 1: that she would hopefully have some answers for him after
20:38
Speaker 1: she did the autopsy. The weather over the past few
20:40
Speaker 1: weeks had been pretty cold, which was good for evidence
20:43
Speaker 1: collection because it basically meant the trunk had sort of
20:46
Speaker 1: acted like a refrigerator and preserved Alan's soft tissue. As
20:50
Speaker 1: the coroner wheeled the body away, Martn just stood there
20:54
Speaker 1: staring at the now empty trunk. He had no theories
20:57
Speaker 1: about when, or why, or even how Alan had died.
21:01
Speaker 1: All he knew was that this was now officially a
21:04
Speaker 1: murder investigation. Detective Martin returned to his office at the
21:19
Speaker 1: police station and got to work. Since Alan's body was
21:22
Speaker 1: found in early On, he was now in charge of
21:25
Speaker 1: the murder investigation. His first step was to review all
21:28
Speaker 1: the witness statements and other evidence that had already been
21:31
Speaker 1: gathered by the other departments, and right away the picture
21:35
Speaker 1: they painted told Marton that this was going to be
21:38
Speaker 1: a very complex investigation, with lots of suspects and multiple locations.
21:43
Speaker 1: Alan was a workaholic who was always on the move,
21:47
Speaker 1: and he had no apparent connection to the city of Orleon,
21:50
Speaker 1: where he had ended up. In fact, he rarely seemed
21:52
Speaker 1: to spend more than a few days in the same place.
21:55
Speaker 2: He didn't live with his wife.
21:57
Speaker 1: Instead, he seemed to balance between his office and a
22:00
Speaker 1: series of hotels, with stops at the home of a
22:03
Speaker 1: woman named Alexandra Nicola in between. According to reports, Alexandra
22:08
Speaker 1: had been interviewed and she said that Alan was at
22:10
Speaker 1: her house the weekend before he disappeared, and so this
22:13
Speaker 1: made her the last person to see Alan alive, which
22:16
Speaker 1: in Martin's mind, clearly made her a suspect right off
22:19
Speaker 1: the bat. However, Alexandra's story about Alan leaving her house
22:24
Speaker 1: on Sunday, February sixth matched up with the data Martin
22:28
Speaker 1: had from Alan's car, cell phone, and credit card records,
22:32
Speaker 1: which all showed that Alan really did leave her house
22:35
Speaker 1: and went to Orleon on that day, and then, for
22:38
Speaker 1: reasons unknown, stopped communicating or spending money. Maybe that was
22:41
Speaker 1: the day he was killed. Right off the bat. Like
22:44
Speaker 1: the police officer who originally visited Alexandra and took down
22:48
Speaker 1: her original story, Detective Martin found it pretty hard to
22:52
Speaker 1: believe that her relationship with Alan was not romantic. It
22:56
Speaker 1: just seemed like based on how frequently they apparently saw
22:59
Speaker 1: each other and the fact that Alan was buying her
23:01
Speaker 1: things and you know, bought her house and paid for
23:04
Speaker 1: vacations and things like that. It just seemed like there
23:07
Speaker 1: was more to the story than what he had been told.
23:10
Speaker 1: But even though that did totally cast some level of
23:13
Speaker 1: suspicion on Alexandra, there was also just the logical side
23:17
Speaker 1: of it for Detective Martin, which is, like, Okay, the
23:20
Speaker 1: size difference between Alan and Alexandra was stark. I mean,
23:24
Speaker 1: Alan was two hundred and forty pounds, a really big guy,
23:27
Speaker 1: and Alexandra was just very small and petite. Now, is
23:32
Speaker 1: it impossible for her to kill him and put him
23:35
Speaker 1: in the trunk of the car in orlean. No, but
23:38
Speaker 1: it just makes it sort of unlikely. And so that's
23:41
Speaker 1: just sort of floating in the background of Detective Martin's mind.
23:44
Speaker 1: But for now, what Martin found himself much more interested
23:47
Speaker 1: in was some of the other information that Alan's business
23:51
Speaker 1: associates and.
23:52
Speaker 2: Wife had supplied.
23:53
Speaker 1: First off, Alan apparently had lots of affairs with lots
23:57
Speaker 1: of women, and so that meant every one of those
24:00
Speaker 1: women and any husbands or boyfriends or other romantic partners
24:03
Speaker 1: of any kind connected to them were also suspects. It
24:07
Speaker 1: also meant that Alan's wife, Elizabeth, had a motive to
24:10
Speaker 1: want her husband dead. I mean, basically, he's cheating on
24:14
Speaker 1: her openly.
24:14
Speaker 2: All the time. That's got to be motivation for her
24:17
Speaker 2: to do something to him.
24:18
Speaker 1: Now, Martaun didn't think that Elizabeth literally would have done
24:22
Speaker 1: the killing herself, because she was actually four hundred miles
24:25
Speaker 1: away at her home when her husband died, but she
24:29
Speaker 1: certainly had the financial means to hire a hitman.
24:33
Speaker 2: And the second thing.
24:34
Speaker 1: That Detective Martaun got from the associates and from Alan's
24:37
Speaker 1: wife was Alan's business dealings were both very high stakes
24:42
Speaker 1: and very ugly. Alan's employees and colleagues clearly respected him,
24:48
Speaker 1: but they also described him as a very tough boss
24:50
Speaker 1: and a ruthless business person. He could be very loud
24:54
Speaker 1: and abrasive, and he had already made his fair share
24:57
Speaker 1: of enemies in the circus business, which was already known
24:59
Speaker 1: to be a cutthroat industry where a lot of money
25:02
Speaker 1: was flying around. And so because Martin had been handed
25:05
Speaker 1: this murder investigation, and really there's like an overwhelming number
25:09
Speaker 1: of people that could have been involved here. Instead of
25:12
Speaker 1: just you know, not being sure where to start, Martin
25:16
Speaker 1: just assembled a team of his very best deputies, and
25:19
Speaker 1: they set to work literally reinterviewing everybody and from that
25:24
Speaker 1: making a list of suspects that they deemed were appropriate.
25:34
Speaker 1: Three weeks later, on March seventeenth, Detective Martin walked into
25:38
Speaker 1: an interrogation room in the Orlean Police Station and he
25:42
Speaker 1: sat down across from a relatively fit looking fifty year
25:45
Speaker 1: old man who was waiting for him quietly and apparently
25:48
Speaker 1: very calmly. The man's name was Michel de la Rule,
25:52
Speaker 1: and he was Allan's biggest rival in the circus business.
25:55
Speaker 1: He was also, at this very moment, Detective Martin's number
25:59
Speaker 1: one suspec in this murder. Martin and his team had
26:02
Speaker 1: spent the last few weeks conducting dozens and dozens of interviews,
26:06
Speaker 1: and Michelle's name had come up more times than anybody else's,
26:10
Speaker 1: and this was because immediately after Alan disappeared, Michelle had
26:15
Speaker 1: begun contacting Alan's clients, trying to get them to all
26:19
Speaker 1: sign new contracts with him, sort of a pretty cutthroat
26:22
Speaker 1: and cold thing to do. And Detective Martin had done
26:25
Speaker 1: the math on these contracts Michelle was going for, and
26:29
Speaker 1: they added up to the equivalent of millions of dollars, which,
26:32
Speaker 1: in the detective's mind, was a very compelling motive for murder.
26:35
Speaker 1: You know, maybe Michelle killed this guy specifically to gobble
26:40
Speaker 1: up these contracts. And not only that, but the coroner
26:43
Speaker 1: had by this point come back with Alan's cause of death.
26:47
Speaker 1: He had been strangled using some kind of ligature like
26:50
Speaker 1: a rope or a belt, and it likely took between
26:53
Speaker 1: five and maybe ten minutes for Alan to actually be
26:57
Speaker 1: strangled to death. So like the idea is someone's actively
27:00
Speaker 1: strangling him for that long. That is a long time
27:04
Speaker 1: to be right there on top of somebody killing someone.
27:06
Speaker 1: And then the scratches that were found on Alan's legs
27:09
Speaker 1: suggested that his body had been lifted into the trunk
27:12
Speaker 1: after he was already dead. So the death struggle, the
27:15
Speaker 1: actual strangling clearly took place outside of the trunk. And
27:19
Speaker 1: so all that meant whoever killed Alan had to be
27:22
Speaker 1: pretty strong, and looking at Michelle now, you know, Detective
27:26
Speaker 1: Martain thought that he did fit the description. He seemed
27:29
Speaker 1: like a pretty fit, strong guy. However, as Martin began
27:34
Speaker 1: asking Michelle questions and watching his face and body language
27:38
Speaker 1: for signs of anxiety or defensiveness, that could suggest he
27:41
Speaker 1: was hiding something. What he found was Michelle seemed pretty
27:45
Speaker 1: open and very straightforward, like he was not hiding a thing.
27:49
Speaker 1: Michelle immediately acknowledged poaching Alan's clients, but he just shrugged
27:54
Speaker 1: as he explained it.
27:55
Speaker 2: You know, that was business.
27:56
Speaker 1: He said he was sure if somehow the positions were reversed,
28:00
Speaker 1: Alan would do the same thing to him. And also
28:02
Speaker 1: he said he had an airtight alibi. On the weekend
28:05
Speaker 1: when the coroner believed Alan had been killed, Michelle had
28:09
Speaker 1: been hundreds of miles away skiing. And then Michelle produced
28:12
Speaker 1: this folder full of these receipts and all these phone numbers,
28:16
Speaker 1: and he handed it over to Marton, who took it
28:19
Speaker 1: and he told Michelle, okay, you know, sit tight. And
28:22
Speaker 1: then the detective got up and he left the interrogation
28:24
Speaker 1: room and he handed over this folder to another detective
28:28
Speaker 1: to check out. But after that, Detective Martin did not
28:31
Speaker 1: go back into the interrogation room. Instead, he grabbed another
28:35
Speaker 1: detective and told them to take a shot. The idea
28:39
Speaker 1: was to sort of have a good cop bad cop
28:41
Speaker 1: sort of dynamic to see if maybe that would rattle Michelle.
28:45
Speaker 1: And so Detective Martin watched from behind the two way
28:48
Speaker 1: mirror as the next detective walked inside and took a
28:51
Speaker 1: stab at, you know, breaking Michelle. But their conversation basically
28:56
Speaker 1: played out the same way that Marton's had, So Martin
29:00
Speaker 1: hawn signaled for another detective to go in there and
29:02
Speaker 1: have them take a shot, but they too had a
29:05
Speaker 1: sort of run of the mill conversation with Michelle, and
29:08
Speaker 1: they didn't make any progress. And then finally, after basically
29:12
Speaker 1: hours of cycling different detectives into the room to try
29:16
Speaker 1: to catch Michelle and a lie, detective Martin felt a
29:19
Speaker 1: tap on his shoulder, and when he turned around, it
29:21
Speaker 1: was one of his deputies who told Martin that unfortunately,
29:25
Speaker 1: he had called all the people that Michelle had given them,
29:28
Speaker 1: information for all the witnesses from the ski resort, and
29:32
Speaker 1: he had also even called the manager of the ski lodge,
29:35
Speaker 1: and basically Michelle's alibi checked out. He clearly had not
29:39
Speaker 1: been physically able to kill Alan he was at that
29:42
Speaker 1: ski resort at the time of the murder. At this point,
29:46
Speaker 1: Martin knew he could not just keep Michelle indefinitely and
29:49
Speaker 1: just keep trying to catch him in a lie, you know,
29:52
Speaker 1: even if there was some possibility here that he was
29:54
Speaker 1: involved in this murder. At this point, there just wasn't
29:58
Speaker 1: enough evidence, and so he had to let Michell go.
30:12
Speaker 1: A few days later, Martin was back at his desk
30:14
Speaker 1: combing through reports when a uniformed officer came up and
30:18
Speaker 1: told him there was somebody at the front desk who
30:20
Speaker 1: really wanted to talk to him. And this was exactly
30:23
Speaker 1: the kind of news that Martin had been hoping for.
30:25
Speaker 1: He had recently put out a statement to the local
30:27
Speaker 1: papers basically saying, Hey, if there are any witnesses out there,
30:30
Speaker 1: please come in and talk to me, and he hoped
30:33
Speaker 1: that whoever this was was potentially a witness, and so
30:37
Speaker 1: Detective Martin followed the uniformed officer out to the lobby
30:40
Speaker 1: and there he saw the person who had come in
30:43
Speaker 1: to see him. It was this man who appeared to
30:45
Speaker 1: be in his early fifties, who was dressed all in
30:47
Speaker 1: black with these shiny black shoes and glasses. And Martan
30:51
Speaker 1: wondered if maybe this was a business contact of allance,
30:54
Speaker 1: And as he went up to shake the man's hand,
30:57
Speaker 1: he sort of felt himself getting excited. But then this
31:00
Speaker 1: man introduced himself and when he did Martin had to
31:03
Speaker 1: resist the urge to just turn around and walk away
31:06
Speaker 1: right there, because the man said his name was remy
31:09
Speaker 1: Son Duren and he was a professional psychic. Martin did
31:14
Speaker 1: not believe in psychics, and he was annoyed with the
31:17
Speaker 1: police officer for even bringing him out here to meet
31:20
Speaker 1: this person. And so Martn was literally about to just
31:23
Speaker 1: tell Remy to you know, thanks for coming in, but
31:26
Speaker 1: I don't have time for this. You need to go,
31:28
Speaker 1: But then he thought better of it, because Martn was
31:30
Speaker 1: really having no luck with this case. There had been
31:34
Speaker 1: very little forensic evidence. For covered from Alan's car, there
31:37
Speaker 1: were no usable fingerprints, and while the bedsheet Alan's body
31:41
Speaker 1: was wrapped in did have some DNA on it, they
31:44
Speaker 1: didn't match anything in their system. And then the business
31:47
Speaker 1: leads that Martin had been pretty excited about hadn't panned
31:51
Speaker 1: out either, and he'd found no evidence that anyone in
31:54
Speaker 1: either Alan's personal or business circles took out a paid
31:58
Speaker 1: hit on him. Martin's team spoken at length to Alan's
32:02
Speaker 1: surrogate daughter Alexandra, and all the women he was having
32:05
Speaker 1: affairs with, and all the sex workers he'd engaged with,
32:09
Speaker 1: and none of them, nor any of their boyfriends or
32:12
Speaker 1: husbands or partners made sense as the killer.
32:15
Speaker 2: So out of a.
32:16
Speaker 1: Mixture of a little curiosity and a lot of desperation,
32:21
Speaker 1: Morton brought Remy the psychic back to an interrogation room
32:24
Speaker 1: and asked him what he thought. Remy explained that he
32:27
Speaker 1: had heard a news bulletin about Alan while he was driving,
32:30
Speaker 1: and when he heard it, he had a vision that
32:32
Speaker 1: was so vivid that he actually had to pull over.
32:36
Speaker 1: He said he saw Alan Leelu as clear as day,
32:39
Speaker 1: in this physical struggle with a woman. Remy didn't know
32:43
Speaker 1: her name, and he couldn't describe her, but he was
32:46
Speaker 1: certain that a woman was somehow involved in Alan's murder.
32:50
Speaker 1: Martin was disappointed because, unsurprisingly, this just sort of felt
32:54
Speaker 1: like a generic stab in the dark by somebody parading
32:58
Speaker 1: around as a psychic who could see things that nobody
33:00
Speaker 1: else could.
33:01
Speaker 2: It just seemed like he.
33:02
Speaker 1: Threw this random, generic thing out there as if it
33:04
Speaker 1: was some big revelation, and it just didn't feel like
33:07
Speaker 1: it was. But Remy wasn't done. He went on to
33:11
Speaker 1: say he was sure that Alan was not killed in Orleon,
33:16
Speaker 1: even though that's where his body had been found. He
33:18
Speaker 1: said Alan's body had been taken away from the murder
33:21
Speaker 1: scene and actually placed in the trunk after he was dead,
33:25
Speaker 1: And this caught Martin's attention because the corner had been
33:29
Speaker 1: certain that Alan was strangled in one place and then
33:32
Speaker 1: placed into the trunk afterwards for transportation. But critically, the
33:37
Speaker 1: police had not released that information to the press, specifically
33:41
Speaker 1: because they wanted to be able to weed out fake tips.
33:45
Speaker 1: And so for Remy to say that, I mean, how
33:47
Speaker 1: would he have access to that? Now, Martin knew this
33:50
Speaker 1: could have just been a lucky guest by Remy, but
33:53
Speaker 1: it just seemed so on the nose that he began
33:56
Speaker 1: considering what else Remy had said. This idea that okay,
34:00
Speaker 1: Alan was struggling with this woman, you know, that was
34:02
Speaker 1: something that you know, Martin had not really considered. He'd
34:05
Speaker 1: sort of ruled most women out as the potential suspect
34:09
Speaker 1: because of how big Alan had been and how physical
34:12
Speaker 1: this murder had to have been, So it just seemed
34:15
Speaker 1: more likely that a big, strong man was responsible for
34:18
Speaker 1: the killing. But now Martin wasn't so sure, and suddenly
34:23
Speaker 1: it seemed entirely possible that, you know what, maybe a
34:26
Speaker 1: woman really did do this. And so eventually Detective Martin
34:30
Speaker 1: thanked Remy for coming in and sharing his ideas about
34:32
Speaker 1: the case, and then after walking him out of the station,
34:36
Speaker 1: Detective Marton sped back to his desk because Marton had
34:41
Speaker 1: an idea. Lots of people in Alan's life had told
34:45
Speaker 1: the police investigating his murder that Alan had had lots
34:48
Speaker 1: of extramarital affairs. Now, Detective Martin and his team had
34:53
Speaker 1: spoken to all the women they could possibly find who
34:56
Speaker 1: had had these affairs with Alan, and basically all of
35:00
Speaker 1: them had been ruled out. However, now after talking with
35:04
Speaker 1: Remy the psychic, something about the location where Alan's body
35:08
Speaker 1: was found was jumping out at Detective Marton. The part
35:12
Speaker 1: of Orleon where Alan's car had been parked was pretty sketchy,
35:16
Speaker 1: you know, his crime ridden, and critically it was known
35:20
Speaker 1: for being a hotbed for sex work. Now Marton already
35:24
Speaker 1: knew clearly that Allan engaged with sex workers, you know,
35:28
Speaker 1: it just seemed like that was one of the things
35:29
Speaker 1: that he did. And they spoke to numerous sex workers
35:32
Speaker 1: and ruled them out as being suspects. And so, for
35:35
Speaker 1: the most part, sex workers were not really on Detective
35:39
Speaker 1: Martin's radar, as you know, primary suspect Pool. However, now
35:44
Speaker 1: with fresh eyes, he was thinking, you know, maybe the
35:48
Speaker 1: reason Alan was in Orleon was because he was there
35:52
Speaker 1: to meet a sex worker and while he was there,
35:55
Speaker 1: something went wrong and it resulted in his death. So
35:59
Speaker 1: Detective Martin spent the next few days absolutely scouring Allan's laptop. Now,
36:05
Speaker 1: the forensic techs had already been through at once, looking
36:07
Speaker 1: at all of Alan's emails and business records, but Marton
36:11
Speaker 1: was looking at something different. He was using the laptop
36:15
Speaker 1: to search through all the websites where Alan had found
36:18
Speaker 1: sex workers to go visit. Basically, what he was doing
36:22
Speaker 1: is making a true exhaustive list of every single sex
36:26
Speaker 1: worker he had ever really engaged with. So this is
36:29
Speaker 1: an even bigger list than they had before. There were
36:33
Speaker 1: dozens of names and profiles to sift through, and as
36:36
Speaker 1: Marton found them, he would send members of his team
36:39
Speaker 1: out to speak to all the women he possibly could.
36:42
Speaker 1: But as he was doing this, Detective Marton discovered that
36:46
Speaker 1: really none of these sex workers that Alan was engaging
36:49
Speaker 1: with had any connection to Orleon, and they also did
36:53
Speaker 1: not appear to have any real issues with Alan himself,
36:56
Speaker 1: at least based on the messages that were on his laptop. However,
37:00
Speaker 1: as detective Martin dug deeper and deeper into this laptop,
37:05
Speaker 1: going further and further back in time, he eventually came
37:08
Speaker 1: to one new profile, this woman named Marie Eve. And
37:13
Speaker 1: when he took in who this woman was and got
37:16
Speaker 1: a picture of her and saw her information, he knew
37:19
Speaker 1: right then and there he had solved the case. Based
37:30
Speaker 1: on the entire police investigation as well as a confession
37:33
Speaker 1: from the killer, the following is a reconstruction of what
37:37
Speaker 1: police believe happened to Alan Lelou on the day he
37:40
Speaker 1: was murdered. The killer found themselves standing behind Alan, and
37:50
Speaker 1: inside they were burning with rage. Alan seemed to think
37:54
Speaker 1: he was so much better than the killer, just because
37:58
Speaker 1: he was this powerful businessman and the killer was just
38:01
Speaker 1: a sex worker. And the killer had tolerated Alan's behavior
38:05
Speaker 1: because you know, Alan had money, but now Alan had
38:08
Speaker 1: pushed it too far, and the killer felt like they
38:11
Speaker 1: had to shut him up for good. Alan's belt lay nearby,
38:15
Speaker 1: and impulsively the killer grabbed it and lunged forward and
38:19
Speaker 1: looped the belt around Alan's throat, and at first Alan struggled,
38:24
Speaker 1: he reached up.
38:24
Speaker 2: He's trying to pull the belt off.
38:26
Speaker 1: He has no idea what's happening, but the killer just
38:28
Speaker 1: held on tight and for several minutes, there's this unbelievable
38:32
Speaker 1: death struggle going on, and Alan, he's fighting. He's a
38:35
Speaker 1: big guy, and he's getting close to pulling this thing off.
38:38
Speaker 1: But then something sort of unbelievable happened. The killer had
38:41
Speaker 1: sort of braced themselves against an object behind them, and
38:45
Speaker 1: so they're back us up against it, and they're pulling
38:47
Speaker 1: as hard as they can with this belt against Alan's throat,
38:50
Speaker 1: and as they're leaning back, the object they're up against
38:53
Speaker 1: suddenly broke and because you know, the killer didn't let
38:57
Speaker 1: go of the belt and is applying max pressure, when
39:00
Speaker 1: they fell backwards, it created almost like this whiplash effect.
39:04
Speaker 1: Their body tumbles and all that force is driven into
39:07
Speaker 1: Alan's throat, and what happened is that sudden whiplash crushed
39:12
Speaker 1: Alan's larynx and he immediately went still. And so just
39:16
Speaker 1: for good measure, the killer held on for a couple
39:19
Speaker 1: more minutes, pulling as tightly as they could across his throat,
39:22
Speaker 1: really ensuring that Alan was dead. And when Alan did
39:26
Speaker 1: not move at all, Eventually the killer let go of
39:29
Speaker 1: the belt and stood up, you know, their heart pounding,
39:31
Speaker 1: just sort of taking in the scene. Then, as reality
39:35
Speaker 1: began to set in for the killer, they realized they
39:38
Speaker 1: needed help getting rid of this body. I mean, this
39:40
Speaker 1: is a huge guy. How are they going to get
39:42
Speaker 1: rid of it on their own? So the killer called
39:44
Speaker 1: their accomplice, and the accomplice was hundreds of miles away
39:48
Speaker 1: in a ski resort, but they immediately told the killer
39:52
Speaker 1: to wait and they would drive to them. Sure enough,
39:55
Speaker 1: the next day, the accomplice arrived and they helped the
39:58
Speaker 1: killer load allan body into the trunk of Alan's car.
40:03
Speaker 1: Then the killer climbed into Alan's car and drove it
40:06
Speaker 1: to the train station in Orleans.
40:09
Speaker 2: Behind them.
40:10
Speaker 1: As they made this ride, police would realize much later
40:14
Speaker 1: there was a second car being driven by the killer's accomplice.
40:18
Speaker 1: The killer and the accomplice would abandon Alan's car and
40:21
Speaker 1: his body in Orleon and then together they would drive away,
40:26
Speaker 1: and shortly thereafter they would actually get married because the
40:30
Speaker 1: killer was Alan's own surrogate daughter, Alexandra Nicola. Alexandra's troubled
40:37
Speaker 1: past that she was very defensive about included the fact
40:40
Speaker 1: that she was actually a sex worker under the name
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Speaker 1: Marie Eve. Her accomplice was her new boyfriend, Eve Bernard.
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Speaker 1: So Alexandra and Alan had fought previously about her troubled history,
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Speaker 1: and she was especially mad that at one point Alan
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Speaker 1: had implied that Alexandra's daughter could sort of end up
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Speaker 1: like her, as if that would be a horrible thing.
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Speaker 1: So on Saturday, February sixth, when Alan brought up Alexandra's
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Speaker 1: daughter just sort of in conversation, for Alexandra, something snapped.
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Speaker 1: It just felt so disrespectful that he again was talking
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Speaker 1: about her daughter, and sort of out of impulse, she
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Speaker 1: grabbed the belt, wrapped it around Alan's neck, strangled him,
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Speaker 1: and ultimately stumbled backwards and crushed his larynx and killed him.
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Speaker 1: In a way, it was sort of true what Alexandra
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Speaker 1: had told the police when they initially questioned her, that
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Speaker 1: Alan had left her house in his car on February
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Speaker 1: seventh and she had not seen him again. What she
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Speaker 1: had left out was that Alan was already dead in
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Speaker 1: the trunk of his car when he left. Alexandra Nikola
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Speaker 1: confessed to the murder of Alan Leelou and was sentenced
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Speaker 1: to fifteen years in prison. Her boyfriend, Eve Bernard was
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Speaker 1: sentenced to two years for concealment of a dead body.
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Speaker 1: The couple has since been released and together they have
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Speaker 1: a child who was born before Alexandra went to prison.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
42:22
Speaker 2: you thought of today's episode in the comments.
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Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
42:27
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now, so click
42:30
Speaker 1: here and give them a watch.
42:32
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya.