Latest / Crime and Horror / Wealthy French playboy found in his own TRUNK - MrBallen

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

0:00
Speaker 1: On a cold night in early February of 2010, a
0:03
Speaker 1: group of friends gathered around the table at a restaurant
0:05
Speaker 1: inside of a French ski resort.
0:07
Speaker 2: They had been out on the slopes all.
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Speaker 1: Day, and now they were warming up and relaxing with
0:11
Speaker 1: some mulled wine by the fire. Eventually, a cell phone buzzed,
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Speaker 1: and one of the friends, they looked at their phone
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Speaker 1: and immediately frowned. Then, without saying anything, they excused themselves
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Speaker 1: and stepped away from the table to talk. And then
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Speaker 1: when they came back, they were pale, their hands were shaking...
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Speaker 1: And the others asked them, like, are you okay? Like,
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Speaker 1: who are you talking to? But this person, they just
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Speaker 1: shook their head, grabbed their coat, and said they had
0:34
Speaker 1: to leave right now. Someone they cared about very much
0:37
Speaker 1: needed their help. But before we get into today's story,
0:41
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious
0:43
Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right
0:46
Speaker 1: place because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
0:49
Speaker 1: even four times a week. So if that's of interest
0:52
Speaker 1: to you, please sneak into the Like Button's house and
0:55
Speaker 1: replace all the foam in their mattress with rocks. Also,
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1:03
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:27
Speaker 1: On the afternoon of Saturday, February 6th, 2010, 61-year-old Alan
1:32
Speaker 1: Leilu set up the ironing board behind the couch in
1:35
Speaker 1: the living room of a little house outside the town
1:38
Speaker 1: of Chartres in northern France. From the kitchen, he could
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Speaker 1: smell the beef bourguignon simmering on the stove, but Alan
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Speaker 1: and the 37-year-old woman who was cooking the beef bourguignon
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Speaker 1: were not talking. The woman's name was Alexandra Nicola. And
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Speaker 1: Alan had actually bought this house for her and her
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Speaker 1: 10-year-old daughter.
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Speaker 2: Alexandra used to be Alan's assistant.
2:01
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,
2:07
Speaker 1: Alexandra had not worked for Alan in a number of years. But,
2:10
Speaker 1: you know, they remained close. And also, you know, remember,
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Speaker 1: Alan literally bought her this house... And so as a
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Speaker 1: result of this bond they had, Alan found himself visiting
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Speaker 1: her quite a bit at this house, you know, helping
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Speaker 1: out where he could.
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Speaker 2: And he also paid for her car and also for
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Speaker 2: their vacations.
2:27
Speaker 1: And Alan could afford to be this generous because he
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Speaker 1: was a very successful, high-powered producer of circus shows, which
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Speaker 1: were a huge moneymaker in France. Lots of companies booked
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Speaker 1: circus shows for end-of-the-year parties for their employees. And Alan
2:42
Speaker 1: had lots of major contracts. And so as a result...
2:45
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
2:52
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
2:59
Speaker 1: a grind. Just in the past 24 hours, Alan had
3:02
Speaker 1: traveled more than 1,200 miles, meeting with potential clients and
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Speaker 1: scouting new performers. So he put a lot of value
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Speaker 1: on the time where he could escape to Alexandra's house,
3:13
Speaker 1: where he could recharge in the quiet of the suburbs,
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Speaker 1: and obviously spend time with somebody he cared a lot about. Now,
3:20
Speaker 1: Alan knew all of his friends and co-workers thought that
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Speaker 1: he and Alexandra were blatantly having an affair here. And
3:27
Speaker 1: he was sure that's what his own wife assumed, too.
3:30
Speaker 2: And this was fair, because after all, Alan did have
3:33
Speaker 2: lots of extramarital relationships.
3:37
Speaker 1: He also engaged with sex workers all the time, and
3:40
Speaker 1: he really didn't even try to hide any of it.
3:42
Speaker 2: He and his wife, Elizabeth, they lived in separate homes.
3:45
Speaker 1: And they sort of had this understanding that she can
3:48
Speaker 1: have this life, and he can have this life in exchange. However,
3:52
Speaker 1: Alan's relationship with Alexandra really was different. It had always
3:56
Speaker 1: been platonic. They'd never even kissed or held hands.
4:01
Speaker 2: Alan had no.
4:01
Speaker 1: Kids of his own, and he genuinely enjoyed playing the
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Speaker 1: role of, you know, doting father and grandfather to Alexandra
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Speaker 1: and her daughter, respectively. But now, they were in this
4:12
Speaker 1: big fight, and Alan was anxious to repair it. Alexandra's
4:16
Speaker 1: daughter was out of the house for the weekend, so
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Speaker 1: he and Alexandra had planned to have this nice dinner
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Speaker 1: tonight before Alan had to head out again on business
4:24
Speaker 1: on Sunday afternoon. But Alan, somewhat stupidly, had brought up
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Speaker 1: Alexandra's past. And they'd ended up getting into this horrible
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Speaker 1: fight and just continued to yell at each other ever since.
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Speaker 1: Alexandra was very defensive about her troubled history. When she
4:40
Speaker 1: was a young woman, she had moved to Paris and
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Speaker 1: she had fallen in love and she had had a baby.
4:45
Speaker 1: But the baby had tragically died and her relationship with
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Speaker 1: her love had fallen apart. And so she had spiraled
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Speaker 1: into very self-destructive behavior. By the time Alan finally met
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Speaker 1: her in 2002, so this is eight years before they
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Speaker 1: were in this house having this big fight, you know,
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Speaker 1: Alexandra 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 provide for
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Speaker 1: her because all she could muster in terms of work
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Speaker 1: was like this combination of minimum wage jobs.
5:14
Speaker 2: And side hustles.
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Speaker 1: And so when Alan had hired her as his, you know,
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Speaker 1: full-time secretary, it had completely transformed her life. But, you know,
5:23
Speaker 1: deep down, sometimes she seemed more resentful of Alan's power
5:27
Speaker 1: than grateful for his help. It's like he had total
5:31
Speaker 1: control over her well-being and she didn't necessarily like that.
5:35
Speaker 1: And so with that as context, Alan left the ironing
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Speaker 1: board and walked into the kitchen, hoping that Alexandra had
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Speaker 1: cooled down enough that they could actually have a real
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Speaker 1: conversation here. 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 Alexandra 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 wait for dinner. She
6:09
Speaker 1: didn't seem mad at him anymore. So Alan felt very
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Speaker 1: relieved and he smiled and closed the fridge. And then
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Speaker 1: he told her to come sit with him and have
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Speaker 1: some wine while they waited for the laundry to dry
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Speaker 1: so she could iron it. A few minutes later, they
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Speaker 1: both sat down on the sofa with their wine glasses,
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Speaker 1: and Alexandra asked Alan.
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Speaker 2: How business was going. He told her it was good,
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Speaker 2: which technically it was.
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Speaker 1: His company was on track to bring in around 4
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Speaker 1: million euros that year, which is the equivalent of about
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Speaker 1: 5 million US dollars. But despite how things looked on paper,
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Speaker 1: Alan was pretty stressed. He made the majority of his
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Speaker 1: money through contracts with companies, but he was not the
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Speaker 1: only person competing for those lucrative contracts. His number one
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Speaker 1: competitor was another circus owner whose name was Michel Delarue.
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Speaker 1: And recently, Michel 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 Michel 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 Vichy, which is a city in central
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Speaker 1: France about a four-hour drive south of Alexandra's house. At
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Speaker 1: this meeting, Alan was hoping to win a big contract,
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Speaker 1: as long as Michelle didn't steal it out from under him.
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Speaker 1: Alexandra put her hand on Alan's arm and told him,
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Speaker 1: don't worry. She said she was sure his meeting on
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Speaker 1: Monday would be a huge success and they could celebrate
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Speaker 1: in a few weeks on the ski trip that he
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Speaker 1: had booked for the two of them and her daughter.
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Speaker 1: Then she put down her now empty wine glass and
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Speaker 1: went to go do the laundry. As Alexandra disappeared into
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Speaker 1: the back of the house, Alan just kind of sat
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Speaker 1: by himself for a minute. He was looking forward to
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Speaker 1: the vacation that she had mentioned, in part because Alexandra
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Speaker 1: had been a lot busier lately with her new boyfriend,
8:00
Speaker 1: a 42-year-old IT engineer from Paris named Yves Bernard. Now,
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Speaker 1: Alan and Yves got along just fine. But he could
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Speaker 1: tell that, you know, Alexandra and Eve were getting pretty serious.
8:13
Speaker 1: They might even get married. And Alan couldn't help but
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Speaker 1: worry that eventually, if that happened, Eve might start to
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Speaker 1: resent him for sort of stepping in as this paternal
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Speaker 1: figure in Alexandra's life, that perhaps he would come off
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Speaker 1: as being sort of overbearing. But he was not going
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Speaker 1: to let that fear wreck the evening. So as Alexandra
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Speaker 1: came back now with the laundry... picked up a book
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Speaker 1: from the coffee table, and took the last sip of
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Speaker 1: his wine. The rest of the weekend passed by quickly,
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Speaker 1: and by Sunday afternoon, Alan was back in his car,
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Speaker 1: headed back out of town. But what no one would
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Speaker 1: realize until much later was there was actually a second car.
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Speaker 2: Following closely behind him.
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Speaker 1: The following day, on the morning of Monday, February 8th,
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Speaker 1: Alan Leeloo'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: And 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, you know,
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Speaker 1: she hadn't heard from Alan in a few days and
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Speaker 1: And then she asked Sylvie, like, why?
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Speaker 2: What's going on here?
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Speaker 1: And as Elizabeth listened to Sylvie's answer, she felt herself
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Speaker 1: growing really nervous. Because apparently, Alan had this very important
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Speaker 1: meeting in Vichy that morning, but he had not shown
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Speaker 1: up for it. In fact, he'd never even checked into
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Speaker 1: the hotel in Vichy where he was supposed to be staying.
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Speaker 2: Sylvie said she had already reached out to several of.
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Speaker 1: Alan's friends and business contacts, but nobody had heard from him.
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Speaker 2: And he was not answering the.
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Speaker 1: Repeated phone calls to both of his cell phones, which
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Speaker 1: appeared to be turned off. None of this made any
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Speaker 1: sense to Elizabeth. Alan was famous for spending entire days
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Speaker 1: on his various phones. She couldn't even recall a time
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Speaker 1: when when he'd been unreachable, even briefly. So Elizabeth told
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Speaker 1: Sylvie she was glad she called, but she would take
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Speaker 1: it from here. Then Elizabeth hung up the phone with
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Speaker 1: Sylvie and called the police.
10:37
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Speaker 1: A week and a half later, on February 19th, a
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Speaker 1: young police officer knocked on the front door of a
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Speaker 1: little house outside the town of Chartres in northern France. Now,
12:05
Speaker 1: up until this point, Allen's case had been treated as
12:08
Speaker 1: a simple missing persons case, with the local police in
12:11
Speaker 1: Allen's wife's hometown handling the inquiry, which was pretty basic.
12:15
Speaker 1: But now, enough time had passed without Allen 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.
12:29
Speaker 1: This young officer was here at this home because it
12:32
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
12:48
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 toys 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
13:08
Speaker 1: the walls or the furniture, but there was nothing that
13:10
Speaker 1: stood out, nothing concerning. Alexandra began asking the officer pretty
13:14
Speaker 1: anxiously all these questions about, you.
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Speaker 2: Was he in some kind of danger? Like, what do
13:21
Speaker 2: you know? But the young officer just shook his head and.
13:24
Speaker 1: Said, for now, they really didn't know much. He was
13:27
Speaker 1: just here to try to build a timeline of Alan's
13:30
Speaker 1: last known movements. And so speaking of that, he asked
13:33
Speaker 1: Alexandra to please walk him through what she remembered about
13:37
Speaker 1: her last interaction with Alan. The officer took careful notes
13:41
Speaker 1: as Alexandra began to rattle off all the details she
13:44
Speaker 1: could remember. She said that Alan was like a surrogate
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Speaker 1: father to her, and he had come over on the
13:49
Speaker 1: evening of Friday, February 5th. He had been there on Friday,
13:52
Speaker 1: also on Saturday and Sunday, and then he had taken
13:55
Speaker 1: off on that Sunday because he had to go to
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Speaker 1: Vichy for this big meeting on Monday. She told the
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Speaker 1: officer that after he left for that meeting, she hadn't
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Speaker 1: heard from him, but that was pretty typical. She said
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Speaker 1: their relationship was not remotely romantic. It really was platonic. And,
14:11
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't always check in the way, you know,
14:13
Speaker 1: a spouse would. You know, this is more like really
14:15
Speaker 1: close friends. The officer nodded while he wrote down what
14:18
Speaker 1: she said. Alexandra seemed very helpful and appropriately worried, but
14:24
Speaker 1: he was suspicious of the idea that she and Alan
14:27
Speaker 1: were not romantically involved at all. So before he left,
14:31
Speaker 1: he asked to see the part just to see what
14:35
Speaker 1: her 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,
14:43
Speaker 1: and she actually took him all around the house, showing
14:45
Speaker 1: him anywhere he.
14:46
Speaker 2: Wanted to go.
14:47
Speaker 1: And what he found is the rest of the house
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Speaker 1: seemed just as normal as the living room and the entryway.
14:53
Speaker 1: She eventually brought the officer back to the door and
14:55
Speaker 1: promised him she would call if Alan reached out. And
14:59
Speaker 1: so after leaving Alexandra's house, to be thorough, the officer
15:02
Speaker 1: actually went door to door up and down Alexandra Street,
15:06
Speaker 1: asking her neighbors what they remembered about that particular weekend
15:10
Speaker 1: and over the past several days, seeing if there was
15:13
Speaker 1: anything that contradicted what Alexandra had said. But everybody, more
15:18
Speaker 1: or less, confirmed Alexandra's story. Alan was indeed a regular
15:22
Speaker 1: visitor in the neighborhood. And several people did remember seeing
15:26
Speaker 1: him on the weekend in question and said that really
15:29
Speaker 1: nothing had seemed off. So eventually, the officer just left
15:33
Speaker 1: and went back to the station. And when he got there,
15:36
Speaker 1: he wrote a report highlighting Alan's last known destination of Vichy.
15:42
Speaker 1: Over the next week, police in Vichy, 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 investigations.
15:50
Speaker 2: They pored over.
15:51
Speaker 1: Allen's cell phone history and his bank account and credit
15:54
Speaker 1: card transactions, which all showed no activity after he left
15:58
Speaker 1: Alexandra's house on February 7th. 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: Allen's car, which was an Audi Q7. Now, the investigators
16:15
Speaker 1: knew it was entirely possible that Allen had chosen to disappear.
16:19
Speaker 2: I mean, he was very wealthy. He had lots of connections.
16:22
Speaker 1: You know, that was a possibility that he had basically
16:25
Speaker 1: chosen to be gone. And if that was the case,
16:27
Speaker 1: it would be pretty difficult to find him. However, it
16:31
Speaker 1: was a lot harder to hide a car that logged
16:34
Speaker 1: all of its travel data. And so whether Alan's disappearance
16:38
Speaker 1: was voluntary, accidental, or the result of foul play, the
16:42
Speaker 1: police knew that 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 26, 2010, so 19 days since Alan was
17:00
Speaker 1: reported missing, a detective named Pierre Martin stood in a
17:04
Speaker 1: secure impound lot in the city of Orléans, France, looking
17:08
Speaker 1: at Alan's gray Audi Q7. The GPS data that police
17:13
Speaker 1: had requested from Audi had come back a few days earlier,
17:16
Speaker 1: and it had led detectives to a surprising place. So again,
17:20
Speaker 1: the last place where Alan was known to have been
17:23
Speaker 1: before he vanished was leaving the home of his surrogate daughter,
17:27
Speaker 1: Alexandra Nicola, near Chartres, France, and heading to Vichy, France,
17:31
Speaker 1: for a business meeting. But his Audi had not been
17:34
Speaker 1: found in Chartres or Vichy. Instead, it had been discovered
17:39
Speaker 1: in the parking lot of a train station in Orléans,
17:42
Speaker 1: which was in between those two cities. And so to
17:45
Speaker 1: the police, it sort of looked like he had gotten
17:47
Speaker 1: halfway to his destination and just stopped. Now, when they
17:51
Speaker 1: found this car, the first thing they did is they
17:54
Speaker 1: just put it under surveillance for two days to see
17:56
Speaker 1: if maybe Alan or somebody else would return to it.
17:59
Speaker 1: For context, the parking lot where this car was was
18:02
Speaker 1: in a pretty rough area and where violent crime and
18:05
Speaker 1: sex work were pretty common. So, I mean, any number
18:08
Speaker 1: of people could potentially, you know, break into this car
18:12
Speaker 1: or who knows what. It just seemed like a seedy
18:14
Speaker 1: area where something might happen here if we keep watching.
18:17
Speaker 2: 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 Martin was here to watch that process. The
18:30
Speaker 1: forensic techs circled the vehicle and and began taking photos
18:34
Speaker 1: of the outside and also dusting for fingerprints. There was
18:37
Speaker 1: no visible damage anywhere on the outside of the car,
18:40
Speaker 1: and there were no traces of any effort to try
18:42
Speaker 1: to break into the car. Plus, Alan's briefcase and luggage
18:46
Speaker 1: were clearly still inside the car, which meant the fact
18:49
Speaker 1: the car was found where it was was likely not
18:52
Speaker 1: a product of a robbery. This didn't seem like somebody
18:55
Speaker 1: just stole his car. It's here, and it has nothing
18:58
Speaker 1: to do with Alan's disappearance. It seems like how this
19:02
Speaker 1: car got here is connected in some way to what
19:05
Speaker 1: happened to Alan. And, you know, sort of going down
19:08
Speaker 1: that path, it seemed more and more likely that what
19:11
Speaker 1: happened to Alan probably fell into the category of foul play. However,
19:17
Speaker 1: when the technicians opened up the car doors and began
19:20
Speaker 1: dusting for prints inside, the upholstery was disappointingly clean, which
19:26
Speaker 1: doesn't exactly mean enhanced the idea that foul play happened here.
19:30
Speaker 2: It just seems like, what's going on?
19:32
Speaker 1: But after a few minutes, after thoroughly scanning the inside
19:36
Speaker 1: of the car, one of the techs pushed the button
19:39
Speaker 1: near the driver's side that opened up the trunk. And
19:42
Speaker 1: then after it was open, Detective Martin walked around to
19:45
Speaker 1: the back to look inside and see what was in there.
19:48
Speaker 1: And what he saw was this bulky object wrapped in
19:52
Speaker 1: a pink sheet. And right away, Martin had this sinking
19:55
Speaker 1: feeling in his chest as one of the techs reached
19:58
Speaker 1: forward with a gloved hand and pulled the sheet back.
20:01
Speaker 1: And pretty much immediately, Martin's suspicions were confirmed. Underneath that
20:06
Speaker 1: pink sheet was a body, a man's body, fully clothed,
20:10
Speaker 1: and curled in the fetal position. There was no doubt
20:14
Speaker 1: this was Alan Leeloo. But there was no visible blood
20:18
Speaker 1: or wounds or bruises.
20:20
Speaker 2: Anywhere on his body, and there was no blood in
20:22
Speaker 2: 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.
20:30
Speaker 2: Was already incredibly rigid with rigor mortis.
20:33
Speaker 1: The coroner told Martin that she would hopefully have some
20:36
Speaker 1: answers for him after she did the autopsy. The weather
20:39
Speaker 1: over the past few weeks had been pretty cold, which
20:42
Speaker 1: was good for evidence collection because it basically meant the
20:45
Speaker 1: trunk had sort of acted like a refrigerator and preserved
20:48
Speaker 1: Alan's soft tissue. As the coroner wheeled the body away,
20:52
Speaker 1: Martin just stood there staring at the now empty trunk.
20:56
Speaker 1: He had no theories about when or why or even
21:00
Speaker 1: how Alan had died. All he knew was that this
21:03
Speaker 1: was now officially a murder investigation. Detective Martin returned to
21:18
Speaker 1: his office at the police station and got to work.
21:21
Speaker 1: Since Alan's body was found in Orléans, he was now
21:24
Speaker 1: in charge of the murder investigation. His first step was
21:27
Speaker 1: to review all the witness statements and other evidence that
21:30
Speaker 1: had already been gathered by the other departments. And right away,
21:34
Speaker 1: the picture they painted told Martin that this was going
21:38
Speaker 1: to be a very complex investigation with lots of suspects
21:41
Speaker 1: and multiple locations. Alan was a workaholic who was always
21:46
Speaker 1: on the move. and he had no apparent connection to
21:48
Speaker 1: the city of Orléans, where he had ended up. In fact,
21:52
Speaker 1: he rarely seemed to spend more than a few days
21:54
Speaker 1: in the same place.
21:55
Speaker 2: He didn't live with his wife.
21:57
Speaker 1: Instead, he seemed to bounce 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 6th, 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 Orléans on that day, and then, for
22:38
Speaker 1: reasons unknown, stopped communicating or spending money.
22:41
Speaker 2: Maybe that was the day he was killed.
22:43
Speaker 1: Right off the bat, like the police officer who originally
22:46
Speaker 1: visited Alexandra and took down her original story, Detective Martin
22:51
Speaker 1: found it pretty hard to believe that her relationship with
22:54
Speaker 1: Alan was not romantic.
22:56
Speaker 2: It just seemed like.
22:57
Speaker 1: Based on how frequently they apparently saw each other and
23:00
Speaker 1: the fact that Alan was buying her things and, you know,
23:03
Speaker 1: bought her house and paid for vacations and things like that.
23:05
Speaker 1: It just it just seemed like there was more to
23:08
Speaker 1: the story than what he had been told. But even
23:11
Speaker 1: though that did totally cast some level of suspicion on Alexandra,
23:15
Speaker 1: there was also just a logical side of it for
23:17
Speaker 1: Detective Martin, which is like, okay, the size difference between
23:21
Speaker 1: Alan and Alexandra was stark. I mean, Alan was 240 pounds,
23:26
Speaker 1: a really big guy, and Alexandra was.
23:29
Speaker 2: Just very small and petite.
23:31
Speaker 1: Now, is it impossible for her to kill him and
23:34
Speaker 1: put him in the trunk of the car in Orléans? No.
23:38
Speaker 1: But It just makes it sort of unlikely. And so
23:41
Speaker 1: that's just sort of floating in the background of Detective
23:43
Speaker 1: Martin's mind. But for now, what Martin found himself much
23:47
Speaker 1: more interested in was some of the other information that
23:50
Speaker 1: Alan's business associates and wife had supplied. First off, Alan
23:54
Speaker 1: apparently had lots of affairs with lots of women. And
23:58
Speaker 1: so that meant every one of those women and any
24:01
Speaker 1: husbands or boyfriends or other romantic partners of any kind
24:04
Speaker 1: connected to them were also suspects. It also meant that
24:08
Speaker 1: Alan's wife, Elizabeth, had a motive to want her husband dead.
24:12
Speaker 1: I mean, basically, he's cheating on her openly all the time.
24:15
Speaker 1: That's got to be motivation for her to do something
24:17
Speaker 1: to him. Now, Martin didn't think that Elizabeth literally would
24:21
Speaker 1: have done the killing herself because she was actually 400
24:25
Speaker 1: miles away at her home when her husband died. But
24:29
Speaker 1: she certainly had the financial means to hire a hitman.
24:33
Speaker 1: And the second thing that Detective Martin got from the
24:35
Speaker 1: associates and from Allen's wife, was Allen's business dealings were
24:40
Speaker 1: both very high stakes and very ugly.
24:44
Speaker 2: Allen's employees and colleagues.
24:46
Speaker 1: Clearly respected him, but they also described him as a
24:49
Speaker 1: very tough boss and a ruthless business person. He could
24:53
Speaker 1: be very loud and abrasive, and he had already made
24:56
Speaker 1: his fair share of enemies in the circus business, which
24:59
Speaker 1: was already known to be a cutthroat industry where a
25:01
Speaker 1: lot of money was flying around. And so because Martin
25:04
Speaker 1: had been handed this murder investigation and really there's like
25:08
Speaker 1: an overwhelming number of people that could have been involved here,
25:12
Speaker 1: instead of just, you know, not being sure where to start,
25:15
Speaker 1: Martin just assembled a team of his very best deputies
25:19
Speaker 1: and they set to work literally re-interviewing 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 17th, Detective Martin walked into
25:38
Speaker 1: an interrogation room in the Orleone police station, and he
25:41
Speaker 1: sat down across from a relatively fit-looking 50-year-old man who
25:46
Speaker 1: was waiting for him quietly and apparently very calmly. The
25:49
Speaker 1: man's name was Michel De La Rue, and he was
25:52
Speaker 1: Allen's biggest rival in the circus business. He was also,
25:56
Speaker 1: at this very moment, Detective Martin's number one suspect in
26:00
Speaker 1: this murder. Martin and his team had spent the last
26:03
Speaker 1: few weeks conducting dozens and dozens of interviews, and Michel's
26:07
Speaker 1: name had come up more times than anybody else's. And
26:11
Speaker 1: this was because, immediately after Alan disappeared, Michel had begun
26:15
Speaker 1: contacting Alan's clients, trying to get them to all sign
26:19
Speaker 1: new contracts with him.
26:21
Speaker 2: Sort of a pretty cutthroat and cold thing to do.
26:24
Speaker 1: And Detective Martin had done the math on these contracts
26:27
Speaker 1: Michel was going for, And they added up to the
26:29
Speaker 1: equivalent of millions of dollars, which in the detective's mind
26:34
Speaker 1: was a very compelling motive for murder. You know, maybe
26:36
Speaker 1: Michelle killed this guy specifically to gobble up these contracts.
26:41
Speaker 1: And not only that, but the coroner had by this
26:44
Speaker 1: point come back with Alan's cause of death. He had
26:47
Speaker 1: been strangled using some kind of ligature, like a rope.
26:50
Speaker 2: Or a belt.
26:51
Speaker 1: And it likely took between five and maybe 10 minutes
26:55
Speaker 1: for for Alan to actually be strangled to death. So
26:58
Speaker 1: like the idea is someone's actively strangling him for that long.
27:01
Speaker 1: That is a long time to be right there on
27:04
Speaker 1: top of somebody killing someone. And then the scratches that
27:07
Speaker 1: were found on Alan's legs suggested that his body had
27:10
Speaker 1: been lifted into the trunk after he was already dead.
27:14
Speaker 1: So the death struggle, the actual strangling, clearly took place
27:17
Speaker 1: outside of the trunk. And so all that meant, whoever
27:21
Speaker 1: killed Alan had to be pretty strong. And looking at
27:24
Speaker 1: Michel now, you know, Detective Martin thought that he did
27:28
Speaker 1: fit the description.
27:29
Speaker 2: He seemed like a pretty fit, strong guy.
27:32
Speaker 1: However, as Martin began asking Michel questions and watching his
27:36
Speaker 1: face and body language for signs of anxiety or defensiveness
27:40
Speaker 1: that could suggest he was hiding something, what he found
27:44
Speaker 1: was Michel seemed pretty open and very straightforward, like he
27:47
Speaker 1: was not hiding a thing. Michel immediately acknowledged poaching Alan's clients.
27:53
Speaker 1: but he just shrugged as he explained it. You know,
27:55
Speaker 1: that was business. He said he was sure if somehow
27:58
Speaker 1: the positions were reversed, Alan would do the same thing
28:01
Speaker 1: to him. And also, he said he had an airtight alibi.
28:05
Speaker 1: On the weekend when the coroner believed Alan had been killed,
28:08
Speaker 1: Michel had been hundreds of miles away skiing. And then
28:11
Speaker 1: Michel produced this folder full of these receipts and all
28:15
Speaker 1: these phone numbers, and he handed it over to Martin,
28:18
Speaker 1: who took it, and he told Michel, okay, you know,
28:20
Speaker 1: sit tight. And then the detective got up and he
28:23
Speaker 1: left the interrogation room and he handed over this folder
28:27
Speaker 1: to another detective to check out. But after that, Detective
28:30
Speaker 1: Martin did not go back into the interrogation room. Instead,
28:34
Speaker 1: he grabbed another detective and told them to take a shot.
28:38
Speaker 1: The idea was to sort of have a good cop,
28:40
Speaker 1: bad cop sort of dynamic to see if maybe that
28:43
Speaker 1: would rattle Michel. And so Detective Martin watched from behind
28:47
Speaker 1: the two-way mirror as the next detective walked inside and
28:51
Speaker 1: took a stab at, you know, breaking Michelle. But their
28:55
Speaker 1: conversation basically played out the same way that Martin's had.
28:59
Speaker 1: So Martin signaled for another detective to go in there
29:02
Speaker 1: and have them take a shot. But they too had
29:05
Speaker 1: a sort of run-of-the-mill conversation with Michelle and they didn't
29:09
Speaker 1: make any progress. And then finally, after basically hours of
29:13
Speaker 1: cycling different detectives into the room... to try to catch
29:16
Speaker 1: Michel in a lie, Detective Martin felt a tap on
29:19
Speaker 1: his shoulder. And when he turned around, it was one
29:22
Speaker 1: of his deputies who told Martin that, unfortunately, he had
29:26
Speaker 1: called all the people that Michel had given them information for,
29:30
Speaker 1: all the witnesses from the ski resort, and he had
29:32
Speaker 1: also even called the manager of the ski lodge. And basically,
29:36
Speaker 1: michelle's alibi checked out he clearly had not been physically
29:40
Speaker 1: able to kill alan he was at that ski resort
29:43
Speaker 1: at the time of the murder at this point martin
29:46
Speaker 1: knew he could not just keep michelle indefinitely and just
29:49
Speaker 1: keep trying to catch him and lie you know even
29:52
Speaker 1: if there was some possibility here that he was involved
29:55
Speaker 1: in this murder at this point there just wasn't enough
29:58
Speaker 1: evidence and so he had to let Michelle go. A
30:12
Speaker 1: few days later, Martin was back at his desk combing
30:15
Speaker 1: through reports when a uniformed officer came up and told
30:18
Speaker 1: him there was somebody at the front desk who really
30:20
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to him. And this was exactly the
30:23
Speaker 1: kind of news that Martin had been hoping for. He
30:25
Speaker 1: had recently put out a statement to the local papers
30:27
Speaker 1: 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.
30:39
Speaker 2: 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 50s, who was dressed all in
30:47
Speaker 1: black with these shiny black shoes and glasses. And Martin
30:51
Speaker 1: wondered if maybe this was a business contact of Alan's.
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 Saint-Turenne,
31:10
Speaker 1: and he was a professional psychic. Martin did not believe
31:15
Speaker 1: in psychics, and he was annoyed with the police officer
31:18
Speaker 1: for even bringing him out here to meet this person.
31:21
Speaker 1: And so Martin was literally about to just tell Remy to,
31:24
Speaker 1: you know, thanks for coming in, but I don't have
31:26
Speaker 1: time for this.
31:27
Speaker 2: You need to go. then he thought better of it.
31:29
Speaker 1: Because Martin was really having no luck with this case.
31:33
Speaker 1: There had been very little forensic evidence recovered from Alan's car.
31:37
Speaker 1: There were no usable fingerprints. And while the bedsheet Alan's
31:41
Speaker 1: body was wrapped in did have some DNA on it,
31:44
Speaker 1: it didn't match anything in their system. And then the
31:47
Speaker 1: business leads that Martin had been pretty excited about hadn't
31:50
Speaker 1: panned out either. And he'd found no evidence that anyone
31:54
Speaker 1: in either Alan's personal or business circles.
31:57
Speaker 2: Had took out a paid hit on him.
31:58
Speaker 1: Martin's team had also spoken at length to Alan's surrogate daughter, Alexandra,
32:04
Speaker 1: and all the women he was having affairs with, and
32:07
Speaker 1: all the sex workers he had engaged with, and none
32:09
Speaker 1: of them, nor any of their boyfriends or husbands or partners,
32:13
Speaker 1: made sense as the killer. So, out of a mixture
32:17
Speaker 1: of a little curiosity and a lot of desperation, Martin
32:21
Speaker 1: brought Remy the psychic back to an interrogation room and
32:25
Speaker 1: asked him what he thought. Remy explained that he had
32:27
Speaker 1: 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 2: He said he.
32:36
Speaker 1: Saw Alan Leeloo as clear as day in this physical
32:40
Speaker 1: struggle with a woman.
32:42
Speaker 2: Remy didn't know her name, and he.
32:44
Speaker 1: Couldn't describe her, but he was certain that a woman
32:47
Speaker 1: was somehow involved in Alan's murder. Martin was disappointed because, unsurprisingly,
32:53
Speaker 1: this just sort of felt like a, generic stab in
32:56
Speaker 1: the dark by somebody parading around as a psychic who
32:59
Speaker 1: could see things that nobody else could. It just seemed
33:01
Speaker 1: like he threw this random generic thing out there as
33:04
Speaker 1: if it was some big revelation, and it just didn't
33:06
Speaker 1: feel like it was.
33:08
Speaker 2: But Remy wasn't done.
33:10
Speaker 1: He went on to say he was sure that Alan
33:13
Speaker 1: was not killed in Orléans, even though that's where his
33:17
Speaker 1: body had been found. He said Alan's body had been
33:20
Speaker 1: taken away from the murder scene and actually placed in
33:23
Speaker 1: the trunk after he was dead. And this caught Marton's
33:27
Speaker 1: attention because the coroner had been certain that Alan was
33:30
Speaker 1: strangled in one place and then placed into the trunk
33:33
Speaker 1: afterwards for transportation. But critically, the police had not released
33:39
Speaker 1: that information to the press, specifically because they wanted to
33:42
Speaker 1: be able to weed out fake tips. And so for
33:45
Speaker 1: Remy to say that, I mean, how would he have
33:47
Speaker 1: access to that? Now, Marton knew this could have just
33:50
Speaker 1: been a lucky guess by Remy, but it just seemed so,
33:54
Speaker 1: you know, on the nose. that he began considering what
33:57
Speaker 1: else Remy had said. This idea that, okay, Alan was
34:00
Speaker 1: struggling with this woman. You know, that was something that,
34:03
Speaker 1: you know, Martin had not really considered. He had sort
34:06
Speaker 1: of ruled most women out as the potential suspect because
34:10
Speaker 1: of how big Alan had been and how physical this
34:13
Speaker 1: murder had to have been. So it just seemed more
34:15
Speaker 1: likely that a big, strong man was responsible for the killing.
34:19
Speaker 2: But now, Martin wasn't so sure. Suddenly, it seemed entirely
34:24
Speaker 2: possible that, you know what? Maybe a woman really did
34:26
Speaker 2: do this.
34:28
Speaker 1: And so eventually, Detective Martin thanked Remy for coming in
34:31
Speaker 1: and sharing his ideas about the case. And then after
34:34
Speaker 1: walking him out of the station, Detective Martin sped back
34:37
Speaker 1: to his desk because Martin.
34:40
Speaker 2: Had an idea.
34:42
Speaker 1: Lots of people in Alan's life had told the police
34:45
Speaker 1: investigating his murder that Alan had had lots of extramarital affairs. Now,
34:51
Speaker 1: Detective Marton and his team had spoken to all the
34:54
Speaker 1: women they could possibly find who had had these affairs
34:57
Speaker 1: with Alan, and.
34:59
Speaker 2: Basically all of them had been ruled out.
35:02
Speaker 1: However, now, after talking with Remy the psychic, something about
35:06
Speaker 1: the location where Alan's body was found was jumping out
35:10
Speaker 1: at Detective Marton. The part of Orléans where Alan's car
35:14
Speaker 1: had been parked was pretty sketchy.
35:16
Speaker 2: You know, it was crime-ridden.
35:18
Speaker 1: And critically, it was known for being a hotbed for
35:21
Speaker 1: sex work. Now, Martin already knew clearly that Alan engaged
35:26
Speaker 1: with sex workers. You know, it just seemed like that
35:29
Speaker 1: was one of the things that he did. And they
35:30
Speaker 1: spoke to numerous sex workers and ruled them out as
35:34
Speaker 1: being suspects.
35:35
Speaker 2: And so for the most part, sex workers were not
35:38
Speaker 2: really involved.
35:39
Speaker 1: On Detective Martin's radar as, you know, primary suspect pool. However,
35:44
Speaker 1: now with fresh eyes, he was thinking, you know, maybe
35:47
Speaker 1: the reason Alan was in Orléans was because he was
35:51
Speaker 1: there 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 Alan's laptop. Now,
36:05
Speaker 1: the forensic techs had already been through it once, looking
36:07
Speaker 1: at all of Alan's emails and business records.
36:10
Speaker 2: But Martin was looking at something different.
36:13
Speaker 1: He was using the laptop to search through all the
36:16
Speaker 1: websites where Alan had found sex workers to go visit. Basically,
36:20
Speaker 1: what he was doing is making a true exhaustive list
36:24
Speaker 1: of every single sex worker he had ever really engaged with.
36:29
Speaker 1: So this is an even bigger list than they had before.
36:32
Speaker 1: There were dozens of names and profiles to sift through,
36:36
Speaker 1: and as Martin found them, he would send members of
36:39
Speaker 1: his team out to speak to all the women he
36:41
Speaker 1: possibly could. But as he was doing this, Detective Martin
36:45
Speaker 1: discovered that really none of these sex workers that Alan
36:48
Speaker 1: was engaging with had any connection to Orleone, and they
36:53
Speaker 1: also did not appear to have any real issues with
36:55
Speaker 1: Alan himself, at least based on the messages that.
36:58
Speaker 2: Were on his laptop. However... As.
37:01
Speaker 1: Detective Martin dug deeper and deeper into this laptop, going
37:05
Speaker 1: further and further back in time, he eventually came to
37:09
Speaker 1: one new profile, this woman named Marie Eve. And when
37:13
Speaker 1: he took in who this woman was and got a
37:16
Speaker 1: picture of her and saw her information, he knew right
37:19
Speaker 1: then and there he had solved the case. based on
37:30
Speaker 1: the entire police investigation as well as a confession from
37:33
Speaker 1: the killer. The following is a reconstruction of what police
37:37
Speaker 1: believe happened to Alan Leeloo on the day.
37:40
Speaker 2: He was murdered.
37:47
Speaker 1: The killer found themselves standing behind Alan, and inside, they
37:51
Speaker 1: were burning with rage. Alan seemed to think he was
37:55
Speaker 1: so much better than the killer, just because he was
37:58
Speaker 1: this powerful businessman and the killer was just a sex worker.
38:02
Speaker 1: And the killer had tolerated Alan's behavior because, you know,
38:05
Speaker 1: Alan had money. But now Alan had pushed it too
38:09
Speaker 1: far and the killer felt like they had to shut
38:11
Speaker 1: him up for good. Alan's belt lay nearby and impulsively
38:16
Speaker 1: the killer grabbed it and lunged forward and looped the
38:20
Speaker 1: belt around Alan's throat.
38:22
Speaker 2: And at first, Alan struggled. He reached up.
38:24
Speaker 1: He's trying to pull the belt off. He has no
38:26
Speaker 1: idea what's happening. But the killer just.
38:28
Speaker 2: Held on tight. And for several minutes, there's this unbelievable
38:32
Speaker 2: death struggle going on. And Alan, he's fighting.
38:35
Speaker 1: He's a big guy and he's getting close to pulling
38:37
Speaker 1: this thing off. But then something sort of unbelievable happened.
38:41
Speaker 1: The killer had sort of braced themselves against an object
38:44
Speaker 1: behind them. And so their back is up against it
38:46
Speaker 1: and they're pulling as hard as they can with this
38:48
Speaker 1: belt against Alan's throat. And as they're leaning back, the
38:52
Speaker 1: object they're up against suddenly broke. And because, you know,
38:56
Speaker 1: the killer didn't let go of the belt and is
38:58
Speaker 1: applying max pressure, when they fell backwards, it created almost
39:03
Speaker 1: like this whiplash effect.
39:04
Speaker 2: Their body tumbles and all that force is.
39:06
Speaker 1: Driven into Alan's throat. And what happened is that sudden
39:10
Speaker 1: whiplash crushed Alan's larynx.
39:14
Speaker 2: And he immediately went still.
39:16
Speaker 1: And so just for good measure, the killer held on
39:18
Speaker 1: for a couple more minutes, pulling as tightly as they
39:21
Speaker 1: could across his throat, really ensuring that Alan was dead.
39:25
Speaker 1: And when Alan did not move at all, eventually the
39:28
Speaker 1: killer let go of the belt. and stood up, you know,
39:30
Speaker 1: their heart pounding, just sort of taking in the scene.
39:33
Speaker 1: Then as reality began to set in for the killer,
39:37
Speaker 1: they realized they needed help getting rid of this body.
39:40
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a huge guy. How are they
39:41
Speaker 2: going to get rid of it on their own?
39:43
Speaker 1: So the killer called their accomplice and the accomplice was
39:47
Speaker 1: hundreds of miles away in a ski resort. but they
39:51
Speaker 1: immediately told the killer to wait and they would drive
39:54
Speaker 1: to them. Sure enough, the next day, the accomplice arrived
39:58
Speaker 1: and they helped the killer load Alan's body into the
40:00
Speaker 1: trunk of Alan's car. Then the killer climbed into Alan's
40:05
Speaker 1: car and drove it to the train station in Orléans.
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Speaker 2: Behind them, as they made this.
40:11
Speaker 1: Ride, police would realize much later there was a second
40:15
Speaker 1: car being driven by the killer's accomplice. The killer and
40:19
Speaker 1: the accomplice would abandon Alan's car and his body in Orléans,
40:23
Speaker 1: and then together they would drive away, and shortly thereafter,
40:27
Speaker 1: they would actually get married.
40:29
Speaker 2: Because the killer.
40:31
Speaker 1: Was Alan's own surrogate daughter, Alexandra Nicola. Alexandra's troubled past
40:37
Speaker 1: that she was very defensive about included the fact that
40:40
Speaker 1: she was actually a sex worker under the name Marie Eve.
40:46
Speaker 1: Her accomplice was her new boyfriend, Yves Bernard. So Alexandra
40:51
Speaker 1: and Alan had fought previously about her, you know, troubled history.
40:56
Speaker 1: And she was especially mad that at one point, Alan
40:59
Speaker 1: had implied that Alexandra's daughter could sort of end up
41:03
Speaker 1: like her, as if that would be a horrible thing.
41:05
Speaker 1: So on Saturday, February 6th, when Alan brought up Alexandra's daughter,
41:11
Speaker 1: just sort of in conversation, For Alexandra, something snapped. It
41:15
Speaker 1: just felt so disrespectful that he again was talking about
41:19
Speaker 1: her daughter and sort of out of impulse, she grabbed
41:23
Speaker 1: the belt, wrapped it around Alan's neck, strangled him and
41:27
Speaker 1: ultimately stumbled backwards and crushed his larynx and killed him.
41:31
Speaker 1: In a way, it was sort of true what Alexandra
41:33
Speaker 1: had told the police when they initially questioned her, that
41:36
Speaker 1: Alan had left her house in his car on February
41:40
Speaker 1: 7th and she had not seen him again. What she
41:42
Speaker 1: had left out was that Alan was already dead in
41:45
Speaker 1: the trunk of his car when he left. Alexandra Nicola
41:49
Speaker 1: confessed to the murder of Alan Leeloo and was sentenced
41:53
Speaker 1: to 15 years in prison.
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Speaker 2: Her boyfriend, Eve Bernard.
41:56
Speaker 1: Was 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
42:04
Speaker 1: a child who was born before Alexandra went to prison.
42:20
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
42:22
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
42:24
Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
42:26
Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
42:29
Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
42:32
Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.