Latest / Crime and Horror / Her killer tried to burn the evidence, and failed - MrBallen

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Her killer tried to burn the evidence, and failed - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: One day in January of 2018, a police officer walked
0:03
Speaker 1: through the woods near the small town of Grey, France.
0:06
Speaker 1: And as he walked, he was looking at the ground
0:08
Speaker 1: because he was following a literal trail of blood. And
0:12
Speaker 1: this trail eventually led the officer to the body of
0:15
Speaker 1: a person who clearly had been shot in the head. Now,
0:18
Speaker 1: this appeared to be a suicide, but the police officer
0:21
Speaker 1: had some questions because this was not the first body
0:25
Speaker 1: that had been found in these woods near the small
0:28
Speaker 1: town in France. Another body had been found a couple
0:30
Speaker 1: of months earlier, and it was starting to seem like
0:33
Speaker 1: there was a pattern here. But before we get into
0:35
Speaker 1: that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark,
0:38
Speaker 1: and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to
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1:02
Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. At around 5 p.m. on
1:26
Speaker 1: the evening of October 27th, 2017, a 29-year-old woman named
1:31
Speaker 1: Alexia Duval drove her car down a cul-de-sac in the small,
1:34
Speaker 1: quiet town of Grey, France. She was on her way
1:37
Speaker 1: to her parents' house to celebrate her nephew's second birthday,
1:40
Speaker 1: and it was going to be this big family get-together.
1:42
Speaker 1: Her sister, her brother-in-law, and her little nephew had come
1:45
Speaker 1: in all the way from Paris, which was about a
1:47
Speaker 1: four-hour drive away. But Alexia realistically had mixed feelings about
1:52
Speaker 1: seeing them all tonight. So Alexia had been going through
1:55
Speaker 1: a pretty hard time recently, She and her husband of
1:57
Speaker 1: 13 years, Jonathan, had been trying to get pregnant, and
2:00
Speaker 1: so she'd done several rounds of fertility treatments, which had
2:03
Speaker 1: thrown her hormones completely out of whack and seemed to
2:06
Speaker 1: affect her a lot more than was typical for most women.
2:09
Speaker 1: And then finally, when all that had led to her
2:12
Speaker 1: actually getting pregnant, she unfortunately had miscarried just a couple
2:16
Speaker 1: of months ago. And so even though Alexia loved her
2:19
Speaker 1: sister's family and got along with them really well, her
2:22
Speaker 1: miscarriage was still really fresh in her mind. And she
2:25
Speaker 1: just knew it was going to be very difficult for
2:27
Speaker 1: her to be around her young nephew. It was just
2:30
Speaker 1: a reminder of what she had lost. Now, Alexia came
2:33
Speaker 1: to a stop outside of a gated driveway at the
2:35
Speaker 1: end of the cul-de-sac, and she rang the intercom. And
2:38
Speaker 1: then when the gate opened up, she drove up the
2:41
Speaker 1: driveway toward a nice house with a very well-kept garden.
2:44
Speaker 1: She parked her car in the driveway behind her father's
2:46
Speaker 1: white van and then got out of her car. She
2:48
Speaker 1: grabbed a wrapped present out of the back seat, along
2:51
Speaker 1: with a couple of desserts that she'd made, carried them
2:53
Speaker 1: up to the house, and rang the doorbell. And a
2:56
Speaker 1: few seconds later, her mother, Isabelle Fouillot, answered the door
2:59
Speaker 1: with a big smile and led her into the dining
3:01
Speaker 1: room where Alexia's father, Jean-Pierre, sat at the table, talking
3:05
Speaker 1: with Alexia's brother-in-law, Gregory, and also her sister, Stephanie. They
3:09
Speaker 1: all stood up and they greeted her, and then as
3:11
Speaker 1: Alexia began to explain that Her husband Jonathan was running late,
3:15
Speaker 1: and he'd be here later in a separate car because
3:17
Speaker 1: the job he'd been working that day as an electrician
3:20
Speaker 1: had run long. As she was saying all that, Alexia
3:23
Speaker 1: heard the sound of little feet making their way towards her.
3:26
Speaker 1: A moment later, her two-year-old nephew, James, ran around the
3:29
Speaker 1: corner and threw his arms around Alexia's legs. And surprisingly,
3:34
Speaker 1: to Alexia's relief, she didn't feel sadness. All she felt
3:37
Speaker 1: was happiness. And so she bent down and scooped him
3:40
Speaker 1: up and gave the boy a big hug. and then
3:42
Speaker 1: she also handed him his birthday present. Eventually, the group
3:46
Speaker 1: settled in for dinner, and for a while, all of
3:48
Speaker 1: Alexia's worries just kind of faded away. She was really
3:51
Speaker 1: close with everybody at the table, especially her mother and
3:54
Speaker 1: her sister Stephanie, and being around them always put her
3:57
Speaker 1: in a good mood. Alexia's husband, Jonathan, finally arrived sometime
4:00
Speaker 1: around 8.30, and he, along with the rest of the group,
4:03
Speaker 1: had a wonderful night, eating and drinking and chatting. After
4:07
Speaker 1: dinner was cleaned up, Alexia's father did go to bed,
4:09
Speaker 1: but everybody else stayed up, and they all just continued
4:12
Speaker 1: having this nice time until around 11 p.m., when Alexia
4:15
Speaker 1: said it was really time for her and Jonathan to
4:17
Speaker 1: head home. They both had early mornings ahead of them,
4:20
Speaker 1: Jonathan had some errands to run in the morning, and
4:22
Speaker 1: Alexia was hoping to get a workout in. A few
4:27
Speaker 1: minutes later, on the drive home, Alexia sat in the
4:30
Speaker 1: passenger seat of Jonathan's car. She'd left her own car
4:33
Speaker 1: at her parents' house because she'd been drinking, and she
4:35
Speaker 1: was planning to pick it up when they came back
4:37
Speaker 1: the next day. Alexia and Jonathan's house was on a
4:39
Speaker 1: quiet residential street, only about a mile away from Alexia's
4:42
Speaker 1: parents' house. And as they made their way down the road,
4:45
Speaker 1: Alexia glanced out the window at a particular house that
4:48
Speaker 1: was just up the street from where they lived. And
4:50
Speaker 1: as she looked at it, she frowned. The neighbor who
4:53
Speaker 1: lived in that house had an adult grandson who had
4:56
Speaker 1: been harassing Alexia all summer. He'd been obsessed with her
5:00
Speaker 1: and would call and text her constantly, to the point
5:03
Speaker 1: where Alexia didn't feel safe even communicating going out for
5:06
Speaker 1: a jog around the block when she was by herself. Now, fortunately,
5:10
Speaker 1: the harassment had stopped a couple of months ago, but
5:13
Speaker 1: only because the man had been committed to a mental hospital.
5:16
Speaker 1: But Alexia didn't really know how long it would be
5:18
Speaker 1: until he got out again, or if he'd already been released,
5:21
Speaker 1: she didn't know, so it just sort of felt like
5:22
Speaker 1: a reprieve, not a long-term solution. But, on this night
5:26
Speaker 1: at least, there was nobody peering out at her from
5:28
Speaker 1: the neighbor's window. A minute later, their car pulled into
5:31
Speaker 1: their garage, and Alexia and Jonathan got out. And as
5:34
Speaker 1: Alexia went from the garage into the main house, she
5:37
Speaker 1: passed by a treadmill in the corner of the garage,
5:39
Speaker 1: which had broken down a few weeks ago. She asked
5:41
Speaker 1: Jonathan if he'd gotten around to fixing it yet, and
5:43
Speaker 1: he said no. Alexia just sighed. It was supposed to
5:46
Speaker 1: be a very cold and gloomy morning the next day,
5:49
Speaker 1: and so it looked like she was going to have
5:51
Speaker 1: to run outside. The following morning, around 11am, Jonathan walked
5:59
Speaker 1: up to the door of Alexia's parents' house and rang
6:01
Speaker 1: the doorbell. And as he did, he sort of gave
6:04
Speaker 1: a worried look over his shoulder at Alexia's car, which
6:06
Speaker 1: was still parked where they'd left it the night before.
6:09
Speaker 1: Jonathan took a deep breath and tried not to show
6:11
Speaker 1: how anxious he felt as Alexia's mother, Isabel, answered the door.
6:16
Speaker 1: And then, in a very shaky voice, Jonathan said hello
6:19
Speaker 1: and asked her if she'd seen or heard from her
6:21
Speaker 1: daughter recently. And when Isabel said she had not... Jonathan
6:25
Speaker 1: completely lost his composure. He said that morning Alexia had
6:29
Speaker 1: gone out for a jog, but not come back, and
6:31
Speaker 1: now he was starting to get really worried. He explained
6:34
Speaker 1: that he'd tried texting Alexia, but she still hadn't answered,
6:38
Speaker 1: and by this point, she should have been home a
6:40
Speaker 1: long time ago, so something was wrong. A moment later,
6:42
Speaker 1: Jonathan saw Stephanie and Gregory coming out of the guest
6:45
Speaker 1: room with very concerned looks on their faces. They joined
6:48
Speaker 1: Jonathan and Isabel at the front door and asked what
6:51
Speaker 1: the commotion was about. And so Jonathan sort of frantically
6:53
Speaker 1: re-explained the situation and asked if either of them had
6:57
Speaker 1: heard from Alexia in the last hour or so. But
6:59
Speaker 1: they shook their heads and said they hadn't. But Stephanie
7:02
Speaker 1: showed Jonathan that she had received a text from Alexia
7:05
Speaker 1: at 9.30 that morning, just to say that she was
7:07
Speaker 1: going out for this jog. But after that, none of
7:09
Speaker 1: them had received any texts or calls from Alexia. Jonathan
7:12
Speaker 1: was crying at this point. And so Alexia's family... tried
7:15
Speaker 1: to assure him that, you know, Alexia would probably just
7:17
Speaker 1: show up at the house any minute here. Like, nothing's
7:19
Speaker 1: going on. I'm sure she's just running late. And Jonathan,
7:22
Speaker 1: he wanted to believe this, but this was completely unusual. Like,
7:26
Speaker 1: this was not normal for Alexia to be gone for
7:29
Speaker 1: this long without being in touch. It just didn't make sense.
7:32
Speaker 1: It was at this point that Jonathan's brother-in-law, Gregory, reached
7:36
Speaker 1: out and put his hand on Jonathan in a sort
7:38
Speaker 1: of comforting way and just said, Look, if it makes
7:40
Speaker 1: you feel any better, I'll go back with you and
7:42
Speaker 1: we can literally go look for Alexia together or at
7:44
Speaker 1: least be together until she comes back. Jonathan didn't really
7:47
Speaker 1: know what to do, but he was very thankful and said, Yep,
7:50
Speaker 1: that would be great. And so a couple of minutes later,
7:52
Speaker 1: the two men got in Gregory's SUV and they began
7:55
Speaker 1: driving back towards their house. But Jonathan actually navigated him
7:59
Speaker 1: through the streets along the running route that Alexia usually
8:02
Speaker 1: took to see if maybe they could find her. They
8:04
Speaker 1: drove down all the side streets looking for her. And
8:07
Speaker 1: then when they reached the edge of town, Jonathan and
8:09
Speaker 1: Gregory got out of the car and began checking the
8:11
Speaker 1: paths leading into the countryside and also the ditches and
8:15
Speaker 1: the banks of the river. But they didn't find Alexia anywhere.
8:18
Speaker 1: And then eventually they just drove back to Jonathan and
8:20
Speaker 1: Alexia's house to see if maybe she'd finally come home
8:23
Speaker 1: with an explanation for all this. But she had not
8:26
Speaker 1: come home. At this point, Jonathan was completely beside himself,
8:30
Speaker 1: and so Gregory, doing his best to stay calm, said,
8:32
Speaker 1: you know what, let's go to the hospital and see
8:34
Speaker 1: if Alexia had turned up there. A few minutes later,
8:38
Speaker 1: when they stopped in the parking lot of the local hospital,
8:40
Speaker 1: Jonathan jumped out of the car and ran towards the
8:43
Speaker 1: main entrance, where two nurses were taking a cigarette break.
8:46
Speaker 1: Jonathan told these nurses that he was here looking for
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Speaker 1: his wife, and that she'd gone on a run three
8:50
Speaker 1: hours ago, and no one knew where she was now,
8:52
Speaker 1: and maybe she's here. So the nurses, who could clearly
8:55
Speaker 1: tell this was an emergency, They put out their cigarettes
8:58
Speaker 1: and went inside to check the register. But a minute later,
9:01
Speaker 1: they came back and told the men that no, Alexia
9:04
Speaker 1: Duvall had not been admitted that morning. She was not here.
9:07
Speaker 1: Before Jonathan or Gregory could protest or ask more questions,
9:10
Speaker 1: the nurses just said, look, you've got to go to
9:12
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9:28
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10:20
Speaker 1: slash mrballin. Later that afternoon, a police officer named Adeline
10:29
Speaker 1: Pio sat across from Jonathan in a room at the
10:32
Speaker 1: Gray Police Station as he explained what had happened with
10:35
Speaker 1: his wife, that she was missing. Jonathan also gave a
10:37
Speaker 1: description of what Alexia had been wearing when she went
10:39
Speaker 1: out running. Bright pink shoes, black leggings, and a red jacket,
10:43
Speaker 1: so pretty easy to spot. And then after describing her
10:46
Speaker 1: and sort of realizing the weight of what he was
10:49
Speaker 1: here for, he just put his head in his hands
10:51
Speaker 1: and continued to weep as he had been doing much
10:53
Speaker 1: of the morning. Now, Pio could obviously tell that Jonathan
10:56
Speaker 1: was very upset here, but she had to ask the
10:59
Speaker 1: question that was already forming in her mind. So, as
11:02
Speaker 1: delicately as possible, she asked Jonathan if his wife had
11:05
Speaker 1: any suicidal tendencies or any reason she might have run
11:08
Speaker 1: off without telling anybody. Jonathan looked up really quickly and
11:11
Speaker 1: just shook his head and said no, and said that
11:14
Speaker 1: overall his wife was very happy and definitely not suicidal. However,
11:18
Speaker 1: as he sat there thinking about it, he said she
11:20
Speaker 1: had been taking hormones for fertility, and realistically, those hormones
11:25
Speaker 1: appeared to have affected her really badly. For example, sometimes
11:28
Speaker 1: she would lose control of her emotions entirely and even
11:31
Speaker 1: become violent. Or in other instances, he said that she
11:34
Speaker 1: would even have memory lapses where she wouldn't even know
11:37
Speaker 1: what she was doing when she was doing it. It
11:39
Speaker 1: was like she'd become this different person. P.O. nodded and
11:41
Speaker 1: just listened to Jonathan and wrote down everything he was saying.
11:44
Speaker 1: And then when he was done, she followed up and said,
11:47
Speaker 1: you know, can you think of anybody who might have
11:49
Speaker 1: had a problem with Alexia? And for a moment, Jonathan
11:52
Speaker 1: just sat there in silence, kind of mulling over the questions.
11:55
Speaker 1: And then suddenly his eyes went wide like he had
11:58
Speaker 1: just realized something. He told P.O. that they had a
12:01
Speaker 1: neighbor who had been completely obsessed with Alexia earlier that year.
12:05
Speaker 1: He said his name was Arnaud and he'd been obsessively
12:08
Speaker 1: calling and texting her so many times that Alexia had
12:11
Speaker 1: actually had to block his number and had actually talked
12:14
Speaker 1: about how she was fearful of going out alone because
12:17
Speaker 1: of this neighbor. But just a couple of months earlier,
12:20
Speaker 1: he had been sent to a psychiatric hospital and And
12:23
Speaker 1: because he was literally removed from the neighborhood, the harassment
12:26
Speaker 1: had stopped. But Jonathan said they were kind of worried
12:30
Speaker 1: that at some point he would come back and then
12:32
Speaker 1: he would be a problem again. And realistically, Jonathan said
12:35
Speaker 1: he could be home now. I just don't know. I
12:37
Speaker 1: don't know where he is. Pio was obviously very intrigued
12:40
Speaker 1: by this. And so after this interview was over with Jonathan,
12:44
Speaker 1: she and her investigative team began digging into this Arnaud
12:47
Speaker 1: guy to see where he was and what was going
12:49
Speaker 1: on with him. And pretty quickly, they discovered that while
12:51
Speaker 1: Arnaud had... gone to that psychiatric hospital, that was true.
12:55
Speaker 1: He was not there anymore. He had been released. And
12:58
Speaker 1: so that night, another officer with the gray police knocked
13:01
Speaker 1: on the door of Arnaud's mother's house, where Arnaud was staying,
13:05
Speaker 1: which was about an hour away from Alexia and Jonathan's house.
13:09
Speaker 1: After the officer knocked, a middle-aged woman answered the door.
13:12
Speaker 1: And when the officer asked if she was Arnaud's mother,
13:15
Speaker 1: she said she was. The officer looked past her, and
13:19
Speaker 1: he could see there was this disheveled-looking young man sitting
13:21
Speaker 1: right inside, and he asked the mother if that was Arnaud.
13:25
Speaker 1: And again, the woman said yes. At this point, the
13:28
Speaker 1: officer asked the mother if he could come inside, because
13:31
Speaker 1: he said he needed to speak privately with her son.
13:34
Speaker 1: The mother and Arnaud in the background both seemed very
13:37
Speaker 1: confused by this, but after a minute, they both agreed,
13:40
Speaker 1: and the officer came inside. And so the officer went
13:43
Speaker 1: inside the house and sat down in the living room
13:45
Speaker 1: with Arnaud, while Arnaud's mother went to the kitchen to
13:48
Speaker 1: give the men some privacy. And then once the mother
13:50
Speaker 1: was gone, the officer looked at Arnaud and just said
13:54
Speaker 1: he had some questions about Alexia Duvall. Arnaud immediately looked
13:58
Speaker 1: down at this question, like he was embarrassed and couldn't
14:00
Speaker 1: even look at the officer. But then he looked back
14:02
Speaker 1: up again and told the officer that he had bipolar disorder,
14:06
Speaker 1: and sometimes when he was in a manic state, he
14:09
Speaker 1: acted inappropriately towards women, including Alexia. The officer followed up
14:13
Speaker 1: about all those messages that apparently Arnaud had sent to
14:16
Speaker 1: Alexia that summer. Like, what was going on with that?
14:19
Speaker 1: And Arnaud admitted that he had done that, but he
14:22
Speaker 1: insisted it really was no big deal. He said that
14:24
Speaker 1: he and Alexia knew each other because they had been
14:26
Speaker 1: neighbors at one point, and they'd also hung out in
14:28
Speaker 1: a group setting once. And so him being in touch
14:31
Speaker 1: with her was not totally weird, like they had a
14:33
Speaker 1: real connection. But Arnaud clarified that when Alexia told him
14:37
Speaker 1: to stop contacting her, he did. And that was the
14:40
Speaker 1: end of it. But this caught the officer's attention because
14:43
Speaker 1: according to Alexia's husband, Jonathan, the only reason that all
14:46
Speaker 1: the calls and texts had stopped was because Alexia literally
14:50
Speaker 1: had to block Arnaud's phone number. So the officer just
14:53
Speaker 1: cut to the chase here and told Arnaud that Alexia
14:56
Speaker 1: was missing. And then before Arnaud could say anything, the
14:58
Speaker 1: officer asked him where he'd been that morning at 9 a.m.
15:02
Speaker 1: And Arnaud said, you know, I was right here. I
15:04
Speaker 1: was at home with my mom. For a moment, the
15:06
Speaker 1: officer just stared at Arnaud, trying to read his body
15:09
Speaker 1: language to see if maybe he was being deceptive or not.
15:12
Speaker 1: So eventually, the officer just stood up and went into
15:14
Speaker 1: the kitchen where the mother was. And he asked the mother,
15:18
Speaker 1: where was your son this morning? And she told the
15:20
Speaker 1: officer with sort of a bewildered look on her face
15:22
Speaker 1: that he was here with me all morning. And so
15:24
Speaker 1: at this point, it was clear to the officer that,
15:27
Speaker 1: you know, if the mother was telling the truth here...
15:29
Speaker 1: it would officially rule out Arnault as a suspect because,
15:32
Speaker 1: you know, he was here. But the officer also knew that,
15:35
Speaker 1: generally speaking, mothers do not make the best alibis because
15:39
Speaker 1: mothers are known to lie, cheat, steal, and do anything
15:43
Speaker 1: to protect their kids. The following afternoon, on Sunday, October 29th,
15:51
Speaker 1: Chief Officer Frank Paredes glanced out his office window as
15:55
Speaker 1: yet another news van sped past outside down the usually
15:58
Speaker 1: quiet streets of Gray. By now, Alexia's disappearance had blown
16:03
Speaker 1: up into this huge national news story, and this was
16:06
Speaker 1: making it really difficult for Paredes, who was in charge
16:09
Speaker 1: of the investigation. Now, it was still early in the investigation,
16:13
Speaker 1: but already he and his investigators were being hounded by
16:16
Speaker 1: reporters and camera crews at every step. Paredes closed his
16:20
Speaker 1: eyes and tried to focus on what his next step
16:22
Speaker 1: should be. The search effort was well underway. They had
16:25
Speaker 1: called in reinforcements from nearby towns and even organized search
16:29
Speaker 1: teams with volunteers from the public. At that very moment,
16:32
Speaker 1: law enforcement was also using drones and dogs to scour
16:36
Speaker 1: the town and the surrounding woods. Paredes' investigation team had
16:40
Speaker 1: also searched Jonathan and Alexia's home by now, secretly hoping
16:44
Speaker 1: they might find something to pin the disappearance on Jonathan.
16:47
Speaker 1: But there was no blood, no sign of a struggle,
16:49
Speaker 1: and no clues that gave them any direction there. And also,
16:53
Speaker 1: all of Alexia's other family members, her parents, her sister Stephanie,
16:56
Speaker 1: and her brother-in-law Gregory, they could all vouch for each
16:59
Speaker 1: other's whereabouts on the morning of Alexia's disappearance. They claimed
17:03
Speaker 1: they had all been at the house together. And so
17:05
Speaker 1: without any real leads, Paredes had gotten so desperate for
17:08
Speaker 1: any information that that he'd literally told his team to
17:11
Speaker 1: set up checkpoints out in the streets and just stop
17:14
Speaker 1: random people and ask them if they had seen or
17:17
Speaker 1: heard anything that could help them find Alexia. And now,
17:20
Speaker 1: as Paredes sat in his office wondering what he was
17:22
Speaker 1: going to do today, he heard a knock at his door.
17:25
Speaker 1: And a moment later, one of his investigators entered with
17:28
Speaker 1: fairly surprising news. The checkpoints actually had turned up something.
17:32
Speaker 1: Paredes listened intently as the investigator explained that a number
17:36
Speaker 1: of people he'd spoken to had mentioned a van. Now,
17:40
Speaker 1: no one had actually seen the van themselves, but they
17:43
Speaker 1: all appeared to have heard the same rumor, that apparently
17:46
Speaker 1: there was a man driving around the area in this
17:49
Speaker 1: white van, and he was known to harass girls and
17:52
Speaker 1: women right out on the street. Now, at first glance,
17:55
Speaker 1: you know, Paredes was worried that perhaps this was just
17:57
Speaker 1: like an unfounded rumor, but then he remembered there were
18:01
Speaker 1: actually two men in Alexia's family who literally drove white vans.
18:06
Speaker 1: Her father, Jean-Pierre, he owned one, and her husband, Jonathan.
18:10
Speaker 1: He drove one for work. On the afternoon of Monday,
18:14
Speaker 1: October 30th, so a little more than two days after
18:16
Speaker 1: Alexia went missing, Paredes brought his car to a stop
18:19
Speaker 1: next to a news van parked in the middle of
18:21
Speaker 1: the woods about four miles outside of town. Minutes ago,
18:25
Speaker 1: he had received a call from an officer in the
18:27
Speaker 1: field telling him that Alexia's body had been found. And
18:31
Speaker 1: so Paredes had driven out to the scene as fast
18:33
Speaker 1: as he could. But now that Paredes was here at
18:35
Speaker 1: the crime scene, he could tell obviously he was late
18:37
Speaker 1: to the game. because, you know, a news crew was
18:39
Speaker 1: already here setting up their cameras near a row of
18:42
Speaker 1: police barriers. And Paredes was disappointed to see this, because
18:47
Speaker 1: he'd hoped that if and when her body was discovered,
18:50
Speaker 1: if she was found dead, at that time he would
18:53
Speaker 1: have had at least one suspect, or hopefully multiple suspects,
18:56
Speaker 1: identified and under surveillance before the word got out to
19:01
Speaker 1: the general public that Alexia was found dead. But now
19:04
Speaker 1: he obviously would not get that chance. Paredes sighed, climbed
19:07
Speaker 1: out of his car, and flashed his badge to an
19:10
Speaker 1: officer who led him around the barriers and into the
19:12
Speaker 1: crime scene. Paredes approached one of the forensics experts, who
19:16
Speaker 1: was taking photos and placing yellow-numbered markers around on the ground,
19:20
Speaker 1: and Paredes introduced himself as the lead investigator. The expert
19:23
Speaker 1: then led him over to Alexia's body, which was lying
19:26
Speaker 1: on the ground between two tree trunks covered by a
19:29
Speaker 1: white bedsheet. Her pink running shoes were poking out from
19:31
Speaker 1: under the sheet. and Paredes noticed that her feet and
19:35
Speaker 1: the sheet were both partially burned, as if someone had
19:38
Speaker 1: tried to set them on fire at some point. Once
19:40
Speaker 1: the scene had been fully photographed, Paredes bent down and
19:43
Speaker 1: lifted the sheet to get a better look at Alexia's body.
19:46
Speaker 1: She was lying on her back, and there were bruises
19:48
Speaker 1: all over her face, and there were also marks on
19:50
Speaker 1: her neck that looked like they were from strangulation. And
19:53
Speaker 1: right away, Paredes noticed a couple of things that were unusual. First,
19:57
Speaker 1: Alexia's hands were placed neatly in the pockets of her coat,
20:01
Speaker 1: as though her body had been placed there on the
20:03
Speaker 1: ground with a lot of care. Second, despite the beating
20:06
Speaker 1: that Alexia's face had apparently taken, her glasses were placed
20:11
Speaker 1: perfectly on her face. And so to Paredes, it seemed
20:14
Speaker 1: like whoever killed Alexia had felt some sort of remorse afterwards.
20:18
Speaker 1: It was as though the killer had committed this incredibly
20:21
Speaker 1: violent murder, but then had tried to kind of put
20:24
Speaker 1: everything back in order afterward. And this made Paredes think
20:27
Speaker 1: that Alexia's killer was very likely someone who knew Alexia
20:31
Speaker 1: and not a stranger who simply, you know, accosted her
20:34
Speaker 1: during a jog. Just then, Paredes heard somebody call his name,
20:37
Speaker 1: and he stood up to take a look. Nearby, there
20:39
Speaker 1: was a forensics tech that was waving him over. And
20:41
Speaker 1: so Paredes walked over, and the tech showed Paredes what
20:44
Speaker 1: he had just found. It was a gray plastic cap
20:47
Speaker 1: that looked like it belonged on some kind of spray can.
20:50
Speaker 1: Paredes thought, you know, maybe this could help explain the
20:53
Speaker 1: strange burn marks on the bed sheet and also Alexia's shoes.
20:56
Speaker 1: You know, the killer had probably sprayed something on the
20:59
Speaker 1: body to try and help it catch fire, but it
21:01
Speaker 1: didn't work as well as they thought it would. Just then,
21:04
Speaker 1: another forensics tech called Paredes over to them to show
21:07
Speaker 1: him something else they had found, tire tracks in the dirt.
21:11
Speaker 1: Paredes immediately thought about that tip that he had been
21:13
Speaker 1: given about this van with this person driving around town
21:16
Speaker 1: harassing women and girls, and he wondered if maybe that
21:19
Speaker 1: was true, that this van was involved and that these
21:21
Speaker 1: had been left by the killer when they were transporting
21:23
Speaker 1: Alexia's body. And so as this forensics expert began taking
21:27
Speaker 1: photographs of the tire tracks, Paredes made a mental note
21:31
Speaker 1: to examine the tires of every suspect, family member, and
21:34
Speaker 1: other persons of interest they came across, just in case
21:37
Speaker 1: one of them was a match. And so Paredes was
21:40
Speaker 1: about to turn his attention back to the body when
21:43
Speaker 1: he noticed one more unusual thing out in the woods.
21:46
Speaker 1: There was this young man who did not appear to
21:48
Speaker 1: be a reporter, just kind of wandering around out there
21:52
Speaker 1: in the trees, almost lurking near the crime scene. And
21:55
Speaker 1: so immediately, Paredes went over to this guy and demanded
21:58
Speaker 1: to know what he was doing here. And at this,
22:01
Speaker 1: the man went completely wide-eyed, and just started stuttering like
22:04
Speaker 1: he was totally caught off guard. Eventually, the guy managed
22:07
Speaker 1: to mumble that he was just out here picking mushrooms,
22:10
Speaker 1: but Paredes could tell he was obviously lying. That was
22:13
Speaker 1: not why he was out here. And so, operating on
22:15
Speaker 1: sort of a gut instinct, Paredes pulled out his handcuffs
22:19
Speaker 1: and placed the man under arrest. Later that same afternoon,
22:32
Speaker 1: just hours after Alexia's body had been discovered in the
22:35
Speaker 1: woods outside of town, Paredes sat down at a table
22:38
Speaker 1: at the Gray Police Station, across from this suspicious young
22:41
Speaker 1: man he'd just arrested for lurking near the crime scene
22:44
Speaker 1: for no clear reason. And Paredes was pleased. I mean,
22:47
Speaker 1: he'd only been in charge of what was now a
22:49
Speaker 1: murder investigation for a couple of hours. And here he was,
22:52
Speaker 1: about to speak to a legitimate suspect, really like the
22:55
Speaker 1: first suspect, who was in custody. But as soon as
22:58
Speaker 1: Paredes actually began speaking to this suspect, he realized that
23:02
Speaker 1: the young man's stutter was not really a sign of
23:05
Speaker 1: him being nervous. He actually had speech issues, and he
23:08
Speaker 1: struggled to speak at all, even when he wasn't nervous.
23:11
Speaker 1: The man was eventually able to explain that his name
23:14
Speaker 1: was Anthony, and he was 29 years old. He said
23:16
Speaker 1: he lived with his parents in Apremont, another small town
23:19
Speaker 1: about five miles away, and he admitted that he had
23:22
Speaker 1: lied about being there to pick mushrooms. And so Paredes
23:25
Speaker 1: pressed Anthony to explain then why he was there. And Anthony,
23:28
Speaker 1: I mean, he seemed a little embarrassed as he began
23:30
Speaker 1: to explain. But what he said was he didn't know
23:33
Speaker 1: Alexia personally. He had just heard about her disappearance in
23:36
Speaker 1: the news and he wanted to help with the search effort.
23:39
Speaker 1: But Anthony said he couldn't read or write. So he
23:42
Speaker 1: had not been able to fill out the paperwork to
23:45
Speaker 1: join the official search party. So instead, he just driven
23:49
Speaker 1: out to the woods in his own car to look
23:51
Speaker 1: for Alexia himself. But while he was out there, you know,
23:54
Speaker 1: the police showed up and clearly there was something going on.
23:57
Speaker 1: And When Paredes walked over to him, Anthony said he
24:00
Speaker 1: got scared and just lied and said, oh, I'm out
24:02
Speaker 1: here picking mushrooms. Like he said, it was just embarrassment.
24:05
Speaker 1: And as Paredes sat there listening to the story, he
24:08
Speaker 1: wasn't quite sure what to make of it or really
24:10
Speaker 1: what to make of Anthony. I mean, Anthony's demeanor seemed
24:13
Speaker 1: almost childlike, but his behavior was not childlike. It was
24:17
Speaker 1: very adult-like and pretty suspicious. So Paredes followed up by
24:21
Speaker 1: asking him what he was doing on the morning of
24:23
Speaker 1: October 28th, which was the morning Alexia went missing. Anthony
24:27
Speaker 1: said he'd woken up at his parents' house and had
24:29
Speaker 1: breakfast with them before he went out with his girlfriend
24:32
Speaker 1: and also another friend. And he gave Paredes their names
24:35
Speaker 1: and also their phone numbers so they could confirm it.
24:37
Speaker 1: So Paredes stepped out of the room, and he did
24:40
Speaker 1: exactly that. He called the various phone numbers and spoke
24:43
Speaker 1: to the people in Anthony's life, and they all corroborated
24:46
Speaker 1: his alibi. So despite how suspicious Anthony had been acting,
24:50
Speaker 1: Paredes had no choice but to let Anthony go. A
24:54
Speaker 1: week later, on November 5th, A march was organized in
24:57
Speaker 1: Alexia's honor. 10,000 people turned out to show their support
25:01
Speaker 1: for Alexia's family and also to protest violence against women.
25:05
Speaker 1: And hidden among this huge crowd was a pair of
25:08
Speaker 1: police officers who'd been assigned to follow Alexia's husband, Jonathan Duvall.
25:13
Speaker 1: At this point, Jonathan really was looking like the most
25:16
Speaker 1: obvious suspect since he was the husband and also the
25:19
Speaker 1: last person to see Alexia alive. So the police had
25:23
Speaker 1: tapped his phone and put him under surveillance. But all
25:26
Speaker 1: they had learned so far from the phone taps was
25:28
Speaker 1: that Jonathan made frequent calls to Alexia's family, to his
25:31
Speaker 1: own siblings and his friends, to talk about how much
25:34
Speaker 1: he missed his wife. And the officers who were literally
25:37
Speaker 1: following Jonathan around found that he really rarely left his
25:41
Speaker 1: house except to visit Alexia's parents, which he did almost
25:44
Speaker 1: every day. But so far, it was like none of
25:47
Speaker 1: Jonathan's behavior actually seemed really suspicious at all. And now,
25:51
Speaker 1: at this big march, the investigators stood in the crowd
25:54
Speaker 1: and watched as Jonathan hobbled his way up the steps
25:57
Speaker 1: to the podium, followed by Alexia's mother and father. And
26:00
Speaker 1: in fact, Jonathan was trembling so much by the time
26:02
Speaker 1: he got up there that Alexia's parents had to physically
26:05
Speaker 1: prop him up before he could begin reading his speech
26:08
Speaker 1: to the crowd. And so at this point, the investigators
26:11
Speaker 1: just kind of exchanged a glance. Either they were wasting
26:14
Speaker 1: their time following an obviously grieving husband with nothing to hide...
26:19
Speaker 1: or Jonathan was like a world-class actor giving the performance
26:22
Speaker 1: of a lifetime. But the investigators knew that until new
26:26
Speaker 1: evidence presented itself, there was really nothing they could do but,
26:29
Speaker 1: you know, watch and wait, which included watching Jonathan and
26:32
Speaker 1: just seeing what he did. They were also still waiting
26:35
Speaker 1: on the tire analysis from the crime scene, but they
26:38
Speaker 1: didn't expect much to come from it. At this point,
26:40
Speaker 1: the creepy white van story seemed to be more like
26:43
Speaker 1: an urban legend in this town. And so, you know,
26:45
Speaker 1: as the weeks turned to months and still there was
26:48
Speaker 1: no progress on this case, the investigators, including Paredes, began
26:52
Speaker 1: to wonder if this case would ever be solved. But then,
26:55
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, new evidence did appear. And when
26:59
Speaker 1: it did, the investigators realized they might have been following
27:02
Speaker 1: the wrong lead this whole time. Because while they'd been
27:05
Speaker 1: focused on surveilling Jonathan, a second body had just turned
27:10
Speaker 1: up in the woods outside of Gregg. On the evening
27:18
Speaker 1: of Saturday, January 6th, 2018, Chief Officer Paredes was at
27:22
Speaker 1: his desk, pouring over the evidence that had been flooding
27:25
Speaker 1: in all day. The new victim, whose body had been
27:27
Speaker 1: found earlier that same day in the woods, very close
27:30
Speaker 1: to where Alexia's body had been found, was a 38-year-old
27:33
Speaker 1: father of three. He looked to have died from a
27:35
Speaker 1: gunshot wound to the head. Although, according to the autopsy report,
27:39
Speaker 1: the man had a blood alcohol level of almost 0.4%,
27:42
Speaker 1: which is huge. I mean, that can be fatal on
27:44
Speaker 1: its own. or at the very least, knock somebody unconscious.
27:48
Speaker 1: Investigators had found gunpowder on the man's hand, so for now,
27:52
Speaker 1: they were treating his death as a suicide. But the
27:55
Speaker 1: more Paredes looked into the evidence, the less convinced he
27:58
Speaker 1: became that he was looking at a suicide. Because, you know,
28:01
Speaker 1: a gun had been found at the scene, but it
28:03
Speaker 1: had not been located very close to the dead man's body.
28:06
Speaker 1: In fact, the gun was found 130 feet away from
28:09
Speaker 1: the body in a trash can. The only explanation would
28:12
Speaker 1: be he shot himself and then put the gun in
28:15
Speaker 1: the trash can and then somehow wandered 130 feet away
28:19
Speaker 1: before collapsing and dying, that was possible, albeit highly unlikely.
28:24
Speaker 1: Being shot in the head typically is immediately incapacitating or lethal,
28:29
Speaker 1: but it is possible he could have shot himself and
28:31
Speaker 1: lived long enough to travel to 130 feet. It just
28:34
Speaker 1: seemed very unlikely. So now, Paredes sat back in his
28:37
Speaker 1: chair and just tried to think. It was strange enough
28:40
Speaker 1: to have two violent deaths in this same quiet town.
28:43
Speaker 1: let alone to have the bodies be found basically in
28:46
Speaker 1: the exact same spot in the surrounding woods. It just
28:49
Speaker 1: seemed too coincidental not to be looked into. So he
28:52
Speaker 1: had to wonder, you know, maybe there was a connection
28:54
Speaker 1: between this man's death and Alexia's. But later that same month,
28:59
Speaker 1: as Paredes scanned over a document that had just arrived
29:01
Speaker 1: from the crime lab, he wasn't thinking about that second
29:04
Speaker 1: body in the woods anymore. Because this new document in
29:07
Speaker 1: his hands was an expert analysis of those tire tracks
29:10
Speaker 1: that had been found in the woods near Alexia's body.
29:13
Speaker 1: and the analysis showed that there was a tiny defect
29:16
Speaker 1: in the tread of one of the tires. And this
29:18
Speaker 1: defect was so specific that the experts had been able
29:22
Speaker 1: to determine exactly which vehicle left those tracks in the woods.
29:26
Speaker 1: And this vehicle just so happened to be a white van.
29:30
Speaker 1: Paredes felt his pulse quicken as he kept on reading,
29:32
Speaker 1: and a moment later, he reached for his phone and
29:35
Speaker 1: he called his supervisor to tell him the good news.
29:38
Speaker 1: He knew the identity of Alexius killer. Based on that
29:44
Speaker 1: tire track analysis and also other evidence, including an eventual
29:48
Speaker 1: confession from the killer, this is how police believe Alexia
29:51
Speaker 1: Duvall was killed. the killer was almost blind with rage.
30:01
Speaker 1: They slammed Alexia's head against a nearby wall and then
30:04
Speaker 1: hit her over and over again. And then they wrapped
30:08
Speaker 1: their hands around her neck and they squeezed for so long,
30:11
Speaker 1: they like lost track of time. They were just crushing
30:13
Speaker 1: her neck. And then finally, they couldn't feel her pulse
30:17
Speaker 1: under their fingers anymore. Then looking down at Alexia's motionless
30:22
Speaker 1: body on the ground, they realized the severity of what
30:25
Speaker 1: they had just done. And so the killer in a
30:27
Speaker 1: panic crouched down next to her and actually tried to
30:30
Speaker 1: wake her up. But it was too late. She was dead.
30:32
Speaker 1: And so now they're really panicking. They thought about maybe
30:35
Speaker 1: killing themselves out of guilt, but they were too scared
30:38
Speaker 1: to go through with it. So instead, they hatched a
30:41
Speaker 1: plan to get rid of Alexia's body. The killer very
30:44
Speaker 1: carefully put Alexia's glasses back on her face, and then
30:47
Speaker 1: they lifted her up and they carried her body out
30:50
Speaker 1: to their vehicle. Then they drove out to the woods
30:53
Speaker 1: and dragged her body by the feet to a secluded
30:56
Speaker 1: spot deep in the trees where where they hoped nobody
30:59
Speaker 1: would ever find her. They covered Alexia's body in a sheet,
31:02
Speaker 1: and then they sprayed the sheet with this foam that
31:04
Speaker 1: they thought was flammable, hoping that once they lit it
31:07
Speaker 1: on fire, it would help dispose of the body. But
31:10
Speaker 1: when they got their lighter out and held the flame
31:12
Speaker 1: to the sheet, it didn't really work. And so finally,
31:15
Speaker 1: when it was clear they were not going to be
31:17
Speaker 1: able to burn the body here, the killer just left
31:21
Speaker 1: her there and then drove away in their white van,
31:24
Speaker 1: getting home in time to dispose of all the evidence,
31:26
Speaker 1: take a shower, and start the next phase of the cover-up,
31:30
Speaker 1: which was to knock on Alexia's mother's door in a
31:33
Speaker 1: fake panic, asking if anybody had seen her daughter. Because
31:37
Speaker 1: Alexia's killer was her own husband, Jonathan. It turns out,
31:42
Speaker 1: Alexia never even went for a run on the morning
31:44
Speaker 1: of October 28th. She was murdered the night before, after
31:48
Speaker 1: she and Jonathan had gotten back from her parents' house.
31:51
Speaker 1: They'd gotten into a big fight, which obviously resulted in
31:54
Speaker 1: her death. From the outside, Jonathan and Alexia appeared to
31:57
Speaker 1: be a very happy couple. But in reality, they'd been
32:00
Speaker 1: arguing more and more often, primarily because they were not
32:04
Speaker 1: able to have a baby. It was causing a lot
32:06
Speaker 1: of friction in their marriage. And so on the night
32:08
Speaker 1: of October 27th, in the middle of this horrible fight
32:11
Speaker 1: they're having, Jonathan grabbed his keys and tried to leave.
32:15
Speaker 1: But Alexia told him to stop running away from their
32:17
Speaker 1: problems and tried to literally take the keys from him.
32:21
Speaker 1: And according to Jonathan, that's when he just snapped. and
32:24
Speaker 1: he killed her, and then he used his work van
32:26
Speaker 1: to dispose of the body. As for that second body
32:29
Speaker 1: that was found in the woods months later, that was
32:32
Speaker 1: determined to be a suicide and completely unrelated to Alexia's death.
32:37
Speaker 1: Jonathan was arrested on January 28, 2018, and two days
32:41
Speaker 1: after his arrest, he confessed to the murder. At the
32:43
Speaker 1: end of his trial in 2020, he was convicted and
32:46
Speaker 1: sentenced to 25 years in prison. Thank you so much
32:57
Speaker 1: for watching. Let me know what you thought of today's
32:59
Speaker 1: episode in the comments. And remember, we have a whole
33:02
Speaker 1: playlist of true crime episodes ready for you to binge
33:05
Speaker 1: right now. So click here and give them a watch.
33:08
Speaker 1: All right, until next time, see ya.