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

0:00
Speaker 1: One early morning in April of 2012, a man was
0:02
Speaker 1: 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 brush fire or something. And so he walked
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Speaker 1: through the woods and eventually he reached the source of
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Speaker 1: the smoke. It was in this clearing and right away
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Speaker 1: he felt relieved because what he saw was just the
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Speaker 1: remains of a bonfire. And it was just smoldering and
0:24
Speaker 1: now there was just some smoke coming up off of it.
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Speaker 1: He was about to turn around and go maybe get
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Speaker 1: some 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
0:35
Speaker 1: from the fire. And so curious, you know, there's nobody
0:38
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
0:44
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
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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 26th, 2012, a 39-year-old bouncer named
1:44
Speaker 1: Lionel Varanez opened the door of a nightclub in Chambury, France,
1:47
Speaker 1: and he let a woman inside. And as this woman
1:50
Speaker 1: came in, she stopped and made a point to look
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Speaker 1: at Lionel and smile at him and thank him by name.
1:55
Speaker 1: So Chambury was a small city up in the Alps,
1:58
Speaker 1: and Lionel, the bouncer, was a fixture in its nightlife scene.
2:02
Speaker 1: Pretty much everybody in town who went out to the
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Speaker 1: bars and clubs had either seen Lionel standing at the
2:07
Speaker 1: door outside, or partying inside when he was not on
2:10
Speaker 1: the clock. And it was not just the locals who
2:12
Speaker 1: knew who this guy was. Lionel was also well-known among
2:15
Speaker 1: the rich and famous tourists who often vacationed in Chambury,
2:19
Speaker 1: and even sometimes he would pick up side work as
2:21
Speaker 1: a bodyguard for these rich and famous people. And for Lionel,
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, Lionel was just trying to
2:43
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
2:50
Speaker 1: by one and let them in. And then finally, when
2:53
Speaker 1: the line started to clear, Lionel saw a familiar face
2:56
Speaker 1: walking toward him. It was his good friend, Mike Booth,
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Speaker 1: who Lionel often went drinking with multiple times a week.
3:02
Speaker 1: And at first, Lionel was just really glad to see Mike.
3:05
Speaker 1: But as Mike got closer, Lionel realized that Mike actually
3:09
Speaker 1: looked really mad. And so by the time Mike actually
3:11
Speaker 1: reached Lionel, Lionel 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
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Speaker 1: this world-famous winery near Chamboury. Now, Leonel had never actually
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Speaker 1: met Philippe himself, but he knew of him. His family
3:39
Speaker 1: was incredibly well-connected in town because they're so rich and
3:41
Speaker 1: they had this winery. And Mike was friends with him
3:44
Speaker 1: and often talked about him. And so now Mike explained
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Speaker 1: to Leonel what this really weird thing was that he
3:50
Speaker 1: heard when he was visiting with Philippe. So apparently, Philippe's
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Speaker 1: house had been robbed the day before. And Philippe believed Lionel,
4:00
Speaker 1: the bouncer, was the one who had done it. Now,
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Speaker 1: Lionel immediately acted totally taken aback and began to ask Philippe, like,
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Speaker 1: why in the world would he even think that? But Mike,
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Speaker 1: you know, his buddy here, just cut him off. And
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Speaker 1: he's like, Lionel, don't play dumb. Like, Philippe knows you're
4:18
Speaker 1: sleeping with his wife, Natalie. And Natalie is actually the
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Speaker 1: one who's blaming you for this robbery. Now, at this,
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Speaker 1: Lionel went from the sort of shock and awe reaction
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Speaker 1: to actually just feeling really nervous. He actually began to
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Speaker 1: sweat because, you know, he knew it was true. He
4:35
Speaker 1: had slept with Natalie. He'd met her at a club
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Speaker 1: one night a couple of months ago, and they'd hooked
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Speaker 1: up in the coat check room. But Lionel realistically had
4:42
Speaker 1: 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,
4:51
Speaker 1: and he hadn't seen her in weeks. And so he
4:53
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 him. So Lionel, I mean, he was genuinely stunned.
5:02
Speaker 1: I mean, he knew what he had done. He had
5:04
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. Like,
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Speaker 1: there was nothing going on between he and Natalie. That
5:15
Speaker 1: was just a fling. It was nothing. Like, I really
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Speaker 1: didn't do this. But Mike, despite, you know, being friends
5:21
Speaker 1: with Lionel and knowing him quite well, did not appear
5:25
Speaker 1: to believe him. He just sort of narrowed his eyes
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Speaker 1: and nodded and said, okay, I'll pass that along to Philippe.
5:34
Speaker 1: Three days later, on the night of April 29th, Lionel
5:37
Speaker 1: sat in a chair in his living room in Chamburee,
5:40
Speaker 1: finishing up a phone call. So he lived in a
5:42
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
5:50
Speaker 1: soon as Lionel 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 Lionel, who
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Speaker 1: were you talking to? Lionel got up and he walked
6:01
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
6:05
Speaker 1: friend Mike. And he just called to see if I
6:07
Speaker 1: wanted to go out tonight for a drink. And so
6:09
Speaker 1: Julian's like, okay, cool. And then there's a little bit
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Speaker 1: of silence. And then Lionel was like, actually, I want
6:14
Speaker 1: to tell you something. And then he filled in Julian
6:17
Speaker 1: on the weird conversation he had had with Mike just
6:20
Speaker 1: a few days before. where basically Mike was saying that,
6:24
Speaker 1: you know, Leonel was being accused of robbing this rich
6:26
Speaker 1: guy's home, Philippe's home. And so Julian, when he heard this,
6:29
Speaker 1: he was sort of like, this seems like a big deal.
6:33
Speaker 1: But Leonel, despite being the one to bring it up
6:35
Speaker 1: and being the one to indicate this could be a
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Speaker 1: big deal, he quickly downplayed it when he saw the
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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
6:49
Speaker 1: normal now. Just a weird thing that happened. And so
6:52
Speaker 1: Lionel and Julian, they shifted the conversation and chatted about
6:55
Speaker 1: whatever for the next couple of minutes. And then Lionel's
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Speaker 1: phone buzzed. And at the same time, he saw there
7:01
Speaker 1: were headlights pulling up outside. So Lionel grabbed his jacket
7:04
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 1st, 2012, Lionel's nephew, Julian, walked
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Speaker 1: into the Chamburee police station. He had spent the past
7:18
Speaker 1: two days very worried and stressed because Leonel had not
7:22
Speaker 1: come home after hanging out with Mike that night, and
7:24
Speaker 1: he now was not answering his phone. And Leonel was
7:28
Speaker 1: never gone for this long without giving Julian or his
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Speaker 1: mother a heads up. Julian had tried to convince himself
7:35
Speaker 1: that he was just overreacting to this whole thing and
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Speaker 1: that Lionel could take care of himself. He was an adult.
7:40
Speaker 1: He was a tough adult. You know, he could handle himself. However,
7:43
Speaker 1: when he found out that Lionel also hadn't been at
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Speaker 1: work for the past couple of days, Julian knew something
7:50
Speaker 1: was wrong. So Julian, after getting inside the station, he
7:53
Speaker 1: walked right up to the front desk and told them,
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Speaker 1: I need to report somebody missing. The following afternoon, so
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Speaker 1: May 2nd, 2012, Captain Flaron Mazaron walked into an interrogation
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Speaker 1: room at the Chamboury police station. He was leading the
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Speaker 1: investigation into Lionel's missing person case, and sitting inside of
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Speaker 1: the interrogation room at the table was, so far, the
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Speaker 1: only suspect they had in this case. Lionel's friend, Mike Booth,
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Speaker 1: who he had gone out with on the night he
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Speaker 1: had disappeared. So it had only been a few days
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Speaker 1: since anyone had seen Lionel, but Mazarin was already sure
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Speaker 1: that there was foul play involved. Chamboury was a small town,
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Speaker 1: and a lot of the officers on the police force
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Speaker 1: there knew Lionel. And a couple of them were pretty
8:39
Speaker 1: much adamant that Lionel was just not the kind of
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Speaker 1: person who would just leave town with no warning. Julian,
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Speaker 1: Lionel's nephew, had said the exact same thing when he
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Speaker 1: reported Lionel missing. He also was the one who told
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Speaker 1: police that the last person Lionel was with was Mike
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Speaker 1: on the night he went missing. And Mike also, they
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Speaker 1: found out, had recently accused Lionel of robbing someone's house.
9:01
Speaker 1: So Mazarin was really eager to get in there and
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Speaker 1: hear what Mike had to say. So into the room
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Speaker 1: he went, he sat down across from Mike, who seemed
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Speaker 1: calm but also definitely curious, like he wasn't sure even
9:13
Speaker 1: why he was there. And when Mazarin started in by
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Speaker 1: asking him about the robbery that supposedly Lionel was involved in,
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Speaker 1: Mike just nodded and explained that the break-in had happened
9:24
Speaker 1: about a week earlier at the home of his good friend,
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Speaker 1: Philippe Perrier. And when Mazarin heard that name, he sort
9:29
Speaker 1: of raised an eyebrow, because like basically everybody else in Chamburee,
9:34
Speaker 1: Mazarin knew who the Perriers were. And he was surprised
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Speaker 1: that someone so rich and so powerful would be running
9:40
Speaker 1: in the same circles as, you know, sort of traditional
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Speaker 1: working class men like Mike and like Lionel. However, before
9:47
Speaker 1: he could dive in and ask some basic follow-up questions
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Speaker 1: about how he knows the Perrier's, Mike went on to
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Speaker 1: say that he ran an electrician business and he had
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Speaker 1: a warehouse that was right next to Philippe's winery. So,
9:59
Speaker 1: they saw each other all the time. And he said
10:02
Speaker 1: that Philippe knew Mike was friends with Lionel. And so
10:06
Speaker 1: after this break-in and robbery happened, he had asked Mike
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Speaker 1: to talk to Lionel about it because he was suspicious
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Speaker 1: that he had done it. But Mike said when he
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Speaker 1: actually confronted Lionel just a few days ago and brought
10:18
Speaker 1: up 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,
10:24
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
10:28
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
10:35
Speaker 1: that Mazarin thought there was a good chance he was
10:37
Speaker 1: simply telling the truth here, and that this robbery thing
10:40
Speaker 1: was really just a big misunderstanding. However, when Mazarin asked
10:44
Speaker 1: Mike where he had been on Sunday night, when Lionel
10:47
Speaker 1: was last seen, presumably... with Mike, Mike's whole demeanor changed.
10:51
Speaker 1: He began to visibly shift in his seat and began
10:54
Speaker 1: looking down at the table instead of eye contact with Mazarin.
10:58
Speaker 1: And then he just said that he had been home
11:00
Speaker 1: all night with his girlfriend. He did say at a
11:03
Speaker 1: certain point he had called Leonel to try to make
11:05
Speaker 1: plans with him for that night, but they'd never actually
11:09
Speaker 1: met up and they didn't see each other. Now, at
11:11
Speaker 1: this point, 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 Lionel'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
11:25
Speaker 1: he did not meet up with Lionel. Now, it was
11:28
Speaker 1: possible that Julian had been mistaken. But if Mike was
11:32
Speaker 1: lying to the police about having been with Lionel on
11:34
Speaker 1: the night he disappeared, well, that made Mike seem very,
11:38
Speaker 1: very suspicious. And so Mazeron just put Mike on the
11:42
Speaker 1: spot and said, OK, 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 Mazeron
11:50
Speaker 1: got up, left the interrogation room, and went to go
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13:31
Speaker 1: On the evening of May 2nd, 2012, so just a
13:33
Speaker 1: few hours after questioning Mike Booth about Leonel's disappearance... Captain
13:37
Speaker 1: Mazarin drove up to a big house in a quiet,
13:40
Speaker 1: wealthy suburb just outside of Chambéry, France. Now, by this point,
13:44
Speaker 1: he had already spoken to Mike's girlfriend, who had confirmed
13:48
Speaker 1: what Mazarin was already thinking, which was Mike was lying
13:53
Speaker 1: about spending the whole night of Lionel's disappearance at home
13:56
Speaker 1: with her. In fact, she said that Mike hadn't been
13:58
Speaker 1: home at all. She said she had been at home
14:01
Speaker 1: by herself all night. She had watched a movie. And
14:05
Speaker 1: then at some point she had fallen asleep, maybe around midnight.
14:08
Speaker 1: And at that point, when she fell asleep, Mike still
14:11
Speaker 1: was not back from wherever he was. So right now,
14:14
Speaker 1: Mike was not only their sole suspect, but he was
14:17
Speaker 1: also their best suspect. Mazran knew that a few days
14:21
Speaker 1: before Lionel's disappearance, Mike had confronted Lionel about this supposed
14:26
Speaker 1: robbery at Philippe Perrier's house. And so now Mazran was
14:30
Speaker 1: at Philippe's house to see what he had to say
14:32
Speaker 1: about the whole situation. And so Mazarin pulled his car
14:35
Speaker 1: up in front of the house, he parked, he got out,
14:38
Speaker 1: he walked up to the front door, and he rang
14:39
Speaker 1: the doorbell. And a moment later, Philippe himself opened the door.
14:43
Speaker 1: And he seemed genuinely surprised to see Mazarin standing there.
14:47
Speaker 1: And so he quickly asked Mazarin if he was here
14:50
Speaker 1: to follow up on the robbery investigation. And Mazarin said,
14:54
Speaker 1: sort of. Mazarin said, for now, he just wanted to
14:57
Speaker 1: know if he could come inside and they could chat.
14:59
Speaker 1: And for a moment, it seemed at least to Mazarin
15:02
Speaker 1: that Philippe sort of hesitated, like he didn't necessarily want
15:04
Speaker 1: to do that. But then he sort of relaxed and
15:08
Speaker 1: nodded and said, sure. And he let Mazarin inside. And
15:11
Speaker 1: so Mazarin, he stepped inside of this beautiful house that
15:14
Speaker 1: was very well furnished, and he was led to the
15:17
Speaker 1: living room. And Mazarin took a seat. And then after
15:20
Speaker 1: Philippe sat down as well, he asked Philippe to walk
15:22
Speaker 1: him through what had happened with the supposed robbery. Philippe
15:26
Speaker 1: explained that his wife Natalie had come home one afternoon,
15:29
Speaker 1: and when she had come into the living room, she
15:31
Speaker 1: saw one of the windows had been shattered. And then
15:33
Speaker 1: Mazarin said that, you know, after seeing this, they searched
15:36
Speaker 1: the house, and they eventually went downstairs to the basement
15:39
Speaker 1: where their safe was, and they found their safe had
15:41
Speaker 1: been broken into as well, and a lot of cash
15:44
Speaker 1: that had been in there was gone. Philippe said he
15:47
Speaker 1: had called the police about it, and they'd come out
15:49
Speaker 1: to investigate, but so far he hadn't heard anything. And
15:53
Speaker 1: so Mazarin, after hearing this, asked Philippe if he thought
15:56
Speaker 1: he knew who was responsible. And Philippe immediately nodded and
16:00
Speaker 1: said yes. Then he repeated what Mike Buffett said. It
16:03
Speaker 1: was Lionel Varanese. And the reason he knew that was
16:07
Speaker 1: Lionel was having an affair with his wife Natalie, and
16:10
Speaker 1: Natalie said it was Lionel. Mazarin looked really hard at
16:14
Speaker 1: Philippe because this was huge. If Philippe knew that Lionel
16:19
Speaker 1: was having an affair with his wife... That gave him, Philippe,
16:22
Speaker 1: plenty of motive to want Lionel dead. And as of
16:26
Speaker 1: right now, Lionel was gone and no one knew what
16:28
Speaker 1: happened to him, so maybe he was murdered. And so
16:31
Speaker 1: operating on a hunch, Mazarin followed up by asking Philippe
16:35
Speaker 1: if he had any weapons in the house. And to
16:38
Speaker 1: his surprise, Philippe said yes. And so Mazarin asked if
16:42
Speaker 1: he could see them. And so Philippe got up and
16:45
Speaker 1: led him over to the stairs that went down to
16:46
Speaker 1: the basement. And when they got down there, there was
16:49
Speaker 1: this huge gun safe with a few plastic firearm cases
16:52
Speaker 1: stacked around it. And so Philippe, once they got down there,
16:55
Speaker 1: he sort of stepped out of the way so that
16:56
Speaker 1: Mazarin could look around. And almost as soon as he
16:59
Speaker 1: did begin walking around Mazarin and began opening up these cases,
17:03
Speaker 1: he discovered that one of those cases, which had space
17:06
Speaker 1: for two weapons in it, was empty. And so Mazarin
17:10
Speaker 1: asked Philippe, like, hey, where are the two guns that
17:12
Speaker 1: go in this case? And Philippe said, actually, those were
17:16
Speaker 1: stolen during the robbery. However, after hearing this, and as
17:19
Speaker 1: Mazarin is staring at this empty gun case, something just
17:23
Speaker 1: was not adding up. Philippe clearly had a motive to
17:27
Speaker 1: want to hurt Lionel as he was having an affair
17:29
Speaker 1: with his wife. And he happened to have two missing guns. Now,
17:34
Speaker 1: of course, at this point, Mazarin did not know if
17:37
Speaker 1: Lionel was definitely, you know, dead, and therefore couldn't know
17:42
Speaker 1: if he had been shot or not. But still, this
17:44
Speaker 1: was really suspicious. But at the same time, Philippe was
17:48
Speaker 1: from this very wealthy and highly respected family. He didn't
17:52
Speaker 1: really seem like the kind of person who would go
17:55
Speaker 1: around murdering or kidnapping people in revenge. And if he had,
17:59
Speaker 1: let's say, done something bad to Lionel, it was just
18:02
Speaker 1: odd that he would just so readily admit to clearly
18:06
Speaker 1: having a motive to harm Lionel and to show the
18:10
Speaker 1: detective a basement full of weapons, including a gun case
18:13
Speaker 1: that was missing weapons. And so, basically, until Mazarin was
18:18
Speaker 1: able to figure out what actually happened to Lionel, until
18:21
Speaker 1: that time, he would have a really hard time proving
18:24
Speaker 1: that Philippe had anything to do with it. The next morning,
18:29
Speaker 1: Captain Mazarin was in his office at the police station,
18:31
Speaker 1: going over the notes from his interview with Philippe to
18:34
Speaker 1: see if there was anything he missed. At this point,
18:37
Speaker 1: Mazarin's theory was that either Mike or Philippe, or maybe
18:41
Speaker 1: even both of them, had gone to confront Lionel about
18:44
Speaker 1: the affair and about the robbery, and then things had
18:47
Speaker 1: turned violent. But just then, there was a knock on
18:50
Speaker 1: his door, and Mazarin turned, and he saw his door
18:53
Speaker 1: was open, and there was this woman standing there, and
18:56
Speaker 1: her face was stained with tears, and when she walked
18:59
Speaker 1: into the room, she sort of was heavy and stumbling,
19:02
Speaker 1: like she was maybe on drugs or maybe drunk or
19:05
Speaker 1: maybe on heavy medication, and she sort of stumbled into
19:08
Speaker 1: the room and then introduced herself as Natalie Perrier. So
19:12
Speaker 1: Mazarin had actually earlier called on her to come in
19:15
Speaker 1: and speak to him, both to verify her husband's story
19:18
Speaker 1: about what happened, the robbery, the affair, and also to
19:21
Speaker 1: see what else she might know about Lionel. 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 Lionel. 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 Lionel 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 Mazeron asked her about the robbery, she said that
20:17
Speaker 1: Lionel 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: Philippe were both at their home all night on the
20:33
Speaker 1: evening that Lionel disappeared, and that if Philippe had gone
20:36
Speaker 1: to confront Lionel 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 Leonel'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'd only had a fleeting relationship with Lionel,
21:13
Speaker 1: not some, you know, passionate relationship or something. So maybe
21:17
Speaker 1: the reason she's this upset is because she actually knows
21:20
Speaker 1: that her husband was involved in what happened to Lionel.
21:33
Speaker 1: A few days later, Captain Mazarin walked through a wooded
21:36
Speaker 1: rural area near the coast, 220 miles away from Chambéry.
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
21:46
Speaker 1: to tell him that a body had been discovered in
21:50
Speaker 1: these woods just after dawn on April 30th, so less
21:53
Speaker 1: than 10 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 Lionel. And Mazarin was
22:04
Speaker 1: baffled by this. Marseille was more than a four-hour drive
22:09
Speaker 1: from Chambéry. And as far as Mazarin knew, Lionel didn't
22:13
Speaker 1: know anybody in Marseille and did not go there with
22:16
Speaker 1: any regularity. And there was just plenty of other wooded
22:20
Speaker 1: areas closer to Chambéry. So why drive all the way
22:24
Speaker 1: out here? It just didn't really make any sense. And
22:28
Speaker 1: so Mazarin continued following this officer. And at some point,
22:31
Speaker 1: they stepped into the small clearing and Mazarin saw there
22:34
Speaker 1: was a pile of burnt logs and branches sort of
22:37
Speaker 1: lying in the grass right in the middle. And the
22:39
Speaker 1: other officer said that this was the spot where Lionel
22:41
Speaker 1: was found. And then the officer pulled out a folder
22:44
Speaker 1: that had photos of Lionel's body. And so Mazarin was
22:47
Speaker 1: being brought here just to see exactly where it had
22:51
Speaker 1: been found. And so Mazarin looked down at the photo
22:54
Speaker 1: and what he saw was, you know, in the spot
22:56
Speaker 1: 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 Lionel'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 a bonfire to make them harder to identify.
23:41
Speaker 1: Mazarin had assumed that Lionel's murder was a revenge killing.
23:46
Speaker 1: But now it actually looked more likely that this could
23:48
Speaker 1: have been a gang execution. None of Lionel's family or
23:52
Speaker 1: friends had ever mentioned that he was involved with a
23:55
Speaker 1: gang in any way, but Mazarin knew that Lionel worked
23:58
Speaker 1: in nightclubs and had a history of breaking up fights,
24:01
Speaker 1: so it was definitely possible that he might have crossed
24:04
Speaker 1: paths with the wrong person. Also, there was the fact
24:07
Speaker 1: that apparently Lionel had these huge debts from gambling. There's
24:11
Speaker 1: just sort of a seedy underworld that potentially he was
24:14
Speaker 1: around that could have led to him being killed this way. Also,
24:18
Speaker 1: if this was gang-related, It would sort of explain why
24:22
Speaker 1: he was all the way out here in Marseille, because
24:25
Speaker 1: Marseille was a city that historically had a lot of
24:27
Speaker 1: issues with drug trafficking and gangs. And so Mazarin realized
24:31
Speaker 1: he could have been wrong about this case basically from
24:34
Speaker 1: the start. Maybe Mike and Philippe actually had nothing to
24:37
Speaker 1: do with it at all. Around 10 p.m. on May 5, 2012,
24:43
Speaker 1: about 100 miles from the spot where Lionel's body was found,
24:46
Speaker 1: Captain Florent Mazarin pulled into the parking lot of a
24:49
Speaker 1: gas station. got out, he walked inside and told the
24:52
Speaker 1: clerk that he needed to look at the security camera footage.
24:55
Speaker 1: So during the four-hour drive from Marseille back to Chambéry,
24:59
Speaker 1: so after Mazarin had gone out and seen where Lionel
25:02
Speaker 1: had been found during that ride home, he had been
25:05
Speaker 1: going back and forth between his first two suspects, Mike
25:08
Speaker 1: and Philippe, and this new theory that a gang had
25:11
Speaker 1: killed Lionel. And so he wasn't really sure how he
25:14
Speaker 1: was going to navigate, like what to do here with
25:16
Speaker 1: running these two sort of simultaneous investigations. But as he's driving,
25:21
Speaker 1: as he's on his way back home, he realizes there
25:25
Speaker 1: might actually be a way to prove whether or not
25:28
Speaker 1: either Mike or Philippe were involved in this killing. There
25:31
Speaker 1: were only two roads that connected Chambory to Marseille. And
25:35
Speaker 1: so Lionel's killer or killers must have driven down one
25:38
Speaker 1: of them at some point during the night of April 29th.
25:41
Speaker 1: So Mazarin had been checking the cameras at every toll
25:44
Speaker 1: booth and every gas station that he passed on his
25:47
Speaker 1: drive to see if any of them had captured a
25:49
Speaker 1: glimpse of Lionel. So far, he'd just been disappointed because
25:53
Speaker 1: most of the cameras didn't even work or the footage
25:56
Speaker 1: had already been erased or written over. And so now,
25:59
Speaker 1: as he 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, Mazarin 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: Mazarin 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 29th, April 30th, at first nothing stood out. However,
26:28
Speaker 1: when he reached the early hours of April 30th, 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 30th. And eventually, he did see
26:43
Speaker 1: something of interest. At 5.43 a.m. on April 30th, a
26:47
Speaker 1: black Volkswagen vehicle pulls into frame, and it actually parks
26:51
Speaker 1: in the gas station parking lot. And this car, its
26:54
Speaker 1: license plate ended in 73, which meant this car was
26:59
Speaker 1: registered in Chamburee. He's watching this car, comes into the lot,
27:03
Speaker 1: it parks, and the driver gets out. And right away,
27:06
Speaker 1: Mazeron pauses the video and he zooms in on the
27:09
Speaker 1: driver's face. But the video was just too grainy. He
27:13
Speaker 1: couldn't tell who the driver was. But then something in
27:16
Speaker 1: the passenger seat of this car catches his attention. And
27:19
Speaker 1: so he zoomed in on the passenger seat. And when
27:22
Speaker 1: he realized what he was looking at, his stomach just dropped.
27:32
Speaker 1: Based on that video, forensic evidence, and interviews with witnesses,
27:36
Speaker 1: this is what police believe happened to Leonel Varanese on
27:39
Speaker 1: April 29th, 2012. Around 10.15 p.m., the killer sat in
27:51
Speaker 1: the backseat of a car as it drove through the
27:53
Speaker 1: streets of Chambray with a gun resting on the seat
27:56
Speaker 1: next to them. Now, the killer had told the driver
27:58
Speaker 1: that they were not planning to use the gun tonight,
28:01
Speaker 1: It was just there for intimidation. However, the killer's emotions
28:05
Speaker 1: were really running high, and they honestly weren't even sure
28:08
Speaker 1: what they were going to do when they saw Lionel.
28:11
Speaker 1: And so the car kept on driving along until eventually
28:13
Speaker 1: it came to a stop outside of an apartment building,
28:16
Speaker 1: and then a few seconds later, the passenger side front
28:19
Speaker 1: door opened up, and Lionel climbed inside the car. As
28:23
Speaker 1: the driver put the car back into gear and started
28:25
Speaker 1: driving down the road, the killer from the back seat...
28:29
Speaker 1: confronted Leonel about something that had really been bothering them,
28:33
Speaker 1: and it gradually turned into a very heated argument. And then,
28:36
Speaker 1: at some point, the killer raised that gun they weren't
28:40
Speaker 1: going to use, aimed at the back of Leonel's head,
28:43
Speaker 1: and fired. The driver immediately whipped around and looked at
28:47
Speaker 1: the killer and just stared at them. They seemed completely
28:50
Speaker 1: shocked by this crazy sudden escalation here, but they didn't
28:53
Speaker 1: stop driving. Instead, they stepped on the gas and and
28:57
Speaker 1: sped down the road until they reached a house. And
28:59
Speaker 1: then the killer and the driver both went inside of
29:02
Speaker 1: that house, and they formulated a plan for what would
29:04
Speaker 1: happen next. So the plan was the driver, along with
29:08
Speaker 1: another accomplice who was in the house they went to,
29:11
Speaker 1: would drive down to Marseilles. They would find a secluded
29:14
Speaker 1: spot out in the woods. They'd make a bonfire, and
29:16
Speaker 1: they would burn Lionel's body. That's how they dispose of it.
29:20
Speaker 1: And then on the way back, their plan was to
29:21
Speaker 1: toss all the evidence into the river. As for the killer,
29:25
Speaker 1: the one who actually pulled the trigger, they were going
29:29
Speaker 1: to stay at this house. They were not going to leave.
29:31
Speaker 1: The driver and the other accomplice agreed that the killer
29:35
Speaker 1: had already caused enough trouble for one night. So the
29:38
Speaker 1: killer just went upstairs and their bedroom, they slipped on
29:41
Speaker 1: a robe, and they watched from the window as the
29:44
Speaker 1: other two got into the car and drove off. The
29:47
Speaker 1: killer was Philippe's wife, Nathalie Perrier, the woman Lionel had
29:52
Speaker 1: had an affair with. To Lionel, their affair had been meaningless,
29:56
Speaker 1: just a fling. but for Natalie, she wanted more. She'd
30:01
Speaker 1: gotten bored of her quiet life as a luxurious housewife
30:04
Speaker 1: in the suburbs, and she'd quickly fallen in love with
30:07
Speaker 1: Lionel and the seemingly very exciting life that he lived.
30:11
Speaker 1: And so when Lionel stopped paying attention to her, she'd
30:15
Speaker 1: gotten so mad that she took revenge. She went with
30:19
Speaker 1: Mike to pick up Lionel on the night he was
30:21
Speaker 1: killed so that she could confront him. But moments after
30:25
Speaker 1: Lionel got in the car, her emotions got the best
30:27
Speaker 1: of her, And she shot and killed him. And this
30:30
Speaker 1: was definitely not the plan that Mike had agreed to. Like,
30:34
Speaker 1: he and her had discussed what was going to happen.
30:36
Speaker 1: It didn't include murdering Leonel. But after the murder, Mike
30:40
Speaker 1: didn't say, I'm going to go to the police. Instead,
30:43
Speaker 1: he and Natalie went to her husband, Philippe, for help.
30:47
Speaker 1: And Philippe agreed to dispose of Leonel's body and cover
30:50
Speaker 1: up the crimes. On the security footage from the gas station,
30:54
Speaker 1: what Mazeron saw in the passenger seat of that black
30:57
Speaker 1: Volkswagen was Philippe. He was sitting there, just right in
31:00
Speaker 1: the passenger seat, and it would turn out the driver
31:03
Speaker 1: of the car was Mike. Natalie was ultimately convicted of
31:06
Speaker 1: Lionel's murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Mike
31:10
Speaker 1: was sentenced to six years for kidnapping and destroying evidence,
31:13
Speaker 1: and Philippe was sentenced to three years for helping get
31:16
Speaker 1: rid of Lionel's body. He and Natalie are now divorced.
31:19
Speaker 1: And also, as for that robbery that played seemingly a
31:22
Speaker 1: central role in the story at the beginning, we actually
31:26
Speaker 1: don't know if the robbery ever occurred or if it
31:28
Speaker 1: was simply a fabrication. Thank you so much for watching.
31:39
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
31:41
Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
31:44
Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
31:47
Speaker 1: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
31:49
Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.