Latest / Crime and Horror / Monaco's wealthiest woman had a SECRET hater... - MrBallen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On a morning in May of 2014, a detective sat
- 0:03Speaker 1: next to the hospital bed of a mortally injured 77-year-old woman.
- 0:07Speaker 1: This woman had been in a coma for the last
- 0:09Speaker 1: 10 days following a vicious attack on her. And in
- 0:12Speaker 1: that time, the detective had been desperately working to try
- 0:15Speaker 1: to figure out who had attacked her. But now, somewhat amazingly,
- 0:20Speaker 1: the woman had woken up from her coma and now
- 0:23Speaker 1: this detective was finally getting the chance to ask the victim.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Directly, who did this to you? However.
- 0:29Speaker 1: when the woman began to speak. This conversation would not
- 0:34Speaker 1: go as planned. But before we get into today's story,
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- 1:00Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. Late in the afternoon
- 1:08Speaker 1: on May 6th, 2014, 77-year-old Helene Pastor sat at her
- 1:28Speaker 1: office desk in Monaco with a phone pressed to her ear.
- 1:31Speaker 1: And on the other end was one of Helene's many
- 1:33Speaker 1: tenants doing what they did best, which was to complain.
- 1:37Speaker 1: This time there was a problem with their water heater,
- 1:39Speaker 1: and apparently the plumber was late. And Helene, like she
- 1:43Speaker 1: always did, listened patiently. Because she was a landlord, and
- 1:47Speaker 1: this was her job. But when this tenant was finished,
- 1:50Speaker 1: Helene told them in a soft but firm voice... that
- 1:53Speaker 1: the plumber would be there eventually, and that they, the tenant,
- 1:57Speaker 1: were certainly not too important to wait.
- 2:00Speaker 2: Then she hung up.
- 2:01Speaker 1: Helene knew her tenant wouldn't like this, but she also
- 2:05Speaker 1: just didn't have patience for entitled wealthy snobs. Unfortunately for her, though,
- 2:10Speaker 1: she spent a lot of time with people like that,
- 2:12Speaker 1: because Helene was actually the single richest woman in all
- 2:16Speaker 1: of Monaco. So Monaco is a country located on the
- 2:19Speaker 1: Mediterranean coast, and it's surrounded on three sides by France.
- 2:24Speaker 1: And so Monaco and France share a lot of cultural similarities.
- 2:27Speaker 1: But unlike France, Monaco is very, very small, just under
- 2:32Speaker 1: a mile wide, and has only about 39,000 citizens. And
- 2:36Speaker 1: many of those 39,000 citizens are incredibly wealthy. It's essentially
- 2:41Speaker 1: a country of millionaires and billionaires living in ultra-luxury condos
- 2:45Speaker 1: and high-rises all along its coastline. And Helene and her family,
- 2:49Speaker 1: the Pastors, owned most of those condos, which meant they
- 2:53Speaker 1: were among the wealthiest landlords not just in Monaco, but
- 2:56Speaker 1: on the whole planet. The Pastors' multi-billion dollar real estate
- 3:00Speaker 1: empire had started three generations ago, and Helene was now.
- 3:05Speaker 2: In charge of it.
- 3:06Speaker 1: It was a lot of work, and Helene could have
- 3:08Speaker 1: passed it off to somebody else. But she was a Pastor,
- 3:11Speaker 1: and Pastors worked for what they had. Which was why,
- 3:14Speaker 1: you know, despite her wealth, Helene was a a very
- 3:17Speaker 1: hands-on landlord and spent long days in her office with
- 3:20Speaker 1: her staff, you know, dealing with accounting and handling tenants
- 3:24Speaker 1: requests and complaints like about, you know, the plumber not
- 3:27Speaker 1: being on time. Now Helene picked up the phone once
- 3:30Speaker 1: more to make one more call before she left for
- 3:32Speaker 1: the day. And this call was to her daughter, Sylvia.
- 3:35Speaker 1: Sylvia was 53 and had been diagnosed with breast cancer
- 3:38Speaker 1: two years earlier. So Helene, you know, naturally worried about
- 3:41Speaker 1: her a lot and checked in with her daily. And
- 3:44Speaker 1: on this day, when she heard her daughter pick up
- 3:46Speaker 1: and say hello, Helene immediately asked her, like, how are
- 3:48Speaker 1: you feeling? But Sylvia said she actually couldn't talk right now.
- 3:52Speaker 1: Her massage therapist had just arrived. And so she excused
- 3:55Speaker 1: herself and hung up. Helene took the phone off her
- 3:58Speaker 1: ear and just stared at the receiver as the dial
- 4:00Speaker 1: tone blared through it, you know, doing her best not
- 4:03Speaker 1: to feel hurt. Helene knew she was a very demanding
- 4:06Speaker 1: parent and, you know, generally was not particularly warm.
- 4:11Speaker 2: But she loved Sylvia.
- 4:12Speaker 1: And lately, it seemed like her daughter just didn't necessarily
- 4:15Speaker 1: reciprocate that. And Helene knew exactly who to blame for this.
- 4:19Speaker 1: And it was not Sylvia. And it wasn't even Helene.
- 4:22Speaker 1: It was Sylvia's boyfriend, Wojciech. Now, Sylvia had been with
- 4:26Speaker 1: Wojciech for almost three decades. And it seemed like everyone
- 4:30Speaker 1: in Monaco absolutely loved this guy. I mean, he was
- 4:32Speaker 1: charming and gregarious and gave a ton of money to charity.
- 4:36Speaker 1: But Helene had always felt like there was just something
- 4:38Speaker 1: off about him. And she worried that he was taking
- 4:41Speaker 1: advantage of her daughter's very famous name.
- 4:43Speaker 2: And so generally, there had.
- 4:45Speaker 1: Just been this sort of sitting, unspoken tension between Helene
- 4:49Speaker 1: and Sylvia about Wojciech. You know, the fact that clearly
- 4:52Speaker 1: Helene didn't really like him. Like that tension was there
- 4:55Speaker 1: between the mother and daughter. But lately, it seemed like
- 4:58Speaker 1: that tension had finally gotten to the point where, you know,
- 5:00Speaker 1: Helene and Sylvia were just having all these little arguments that,
- 5:03Speaker 1: you know, sometimes were actually about Wojciech and other times
- 5:07Speaker 1: were about completely different things. It was like they were
- 5:09Speaker 1: just quick to argue with each other. But for now,
- 5:12Speaker 1: Helene looked at the time and saw, you know, it
- 5:14Speaker 1: was time to go. And so she stood up and
- 5:16Speaker 1: she smoothed out her beautiful Chanel suit, and she knew
- 5:19Speaker 1: that if she wanted to see her son Gildo tonight,
- 5:21Speaker 1: she really needed to get a move on here. So Gildo,
- 5:24Speaker 1: Helene's son, had been in the hospital for the last
- 5:27Speaker 1: few months after having a stroke. Helene visited with him daily,
- 5:30Speaker 1: making the 45-minute drive from Monaco to where he was
- 5:33Speaker 1: hospitalized in Nice, France. Now, the daily commute was definitely
- 5:37Speaker 1: a lot, but Helene didn't care. She always worked it
- 5:40Speaker 1: into her very busy schedule. Now, Gildo was 47. But
- 5:44Speaker 1: he was still very much Helene's child. And the whole
- 5:47Speaker 1: ordeal had been just awful and very emotional for Helene,
- 5:51Speaker 1: especially on top of, you know, her daughter's cancer diagnosis
- 5:55Speaker 1: and the tension between her and her daughter.
- 5:56Speaker 2: Like, right now, life was pretty tough.
- 5:59Speaker 1: Seeing her children like this had reminded Helene that money
- 6:02Speaker 1: just could not save you from everything, even in Monaco. Now,
- 6:06Speaker 1: Helene grabbed her Hermes purse and she headed out the door.
- 6:09Speaker 1: Minutes later, Helene was outside and was climbing into a
- 6:12Speaker 1: black minivan that was waiting for her at the curb.
- 6:14Speaker 1: And as Helene slid into the back seat, she was
- 6:17Speaker 1: greeted by her 64-year-old driver, Mohamed Darwich. So Mohamed had
- 6:21Speaker 1: actually been working with Helene now for 15 years. And
- 6:24Speaker 1: so the two of them spent the entire 45-minute drive
- 6:27Speaker 1: to Nice just chatting about their kids, because in some
- 6:29Speaker 1: ways they were, you know, longtime friends. Mohamed told Helene
- 6:33Speaker 1: about how he really missed his daughter, who lived back
- 6:35Speaker 1: in Egypt with her mom. And he also updated Helene
- 6:38Speaker 1: on his son, Wassam. and how he liked living in France.
- 6:41Speaker 1: Their conversation made the drive go fast, and before Helene
- 6:44Speaker 1: knew it, they were at the hospital.
- 6:46Speaker 2: Around 6 p.m.
- 6:47Speaker 1: That night, Helene was sitting at Gildo's bedside, helping him
- 6:50Speaker 1: drink a glass of water. Like his mother, Gildo had
- 6:53Speaker 1: been both blessed and cursed with the pastor work ethic.
- 6:57Speaker 1: Despite the family money, he was constantly starting ventures and.
- 7:01Speaker 2: Investing in businesses.
- 7:03Speaker 1: So Helene knew the hospitalization had been really hard for him,
- 7:07Speaker 1: not just physically, but.
- 7:08Speaker 2: Just from a work perspective.
- 7:10Speaker 1: You know, he was missing out on so many opportunities
- 7:12Speaker 1: because he was stuck here. And even though now he
- 7:14Speaker 1: was awake and alert, he was still partially paralyzed and
- 7:19Speaker 1: just couldn't speak very well.
- 7:20Speaker 2: Helene sat with Gildo for about.
- 7:22Speaker 1: An hour, talking to him and also checking in with
- 7:24Speaker 1: his doctors. And then at some point, she kissed her
- 7:27Speaker 1: son's forehead and told him she would see him soon.
- 7:29Speaker 2: Just after 7 p.m.
- 7:31Speaker 1: Helene walked out of the hospital to where Mohammed was
- 7:33Speaker 1: waiting in the minivan. And this time, she got into
- 7:36Speaker 1: the front passenger seat. And Mohammed, he started the car
- 7:39Speaker 1: and They began to make their way out of the
- 7:41Speaker 1: lot toward the busy streets of Nice. And pretty much
- 7:44Speaker 1: right away, they got stuck in absolutely standstill traffic. And
- 7:48Speaker 1: so Helene just sat back in her seat and tried
- 7:50Speaker 1: to relax. But as she was doing that, something caught
- 7:53Speaker 1: her eye outside of the car, like out her window.
- 7:57Speaker 1: It was this person who had a hat kind of
- 7:59Speaker 1: pulled down low over their eyes, and they were jogging
- 8:02Speaker 1: right towards the minivan. And Helene, she just stared at
- 8:05Speaker 1: this person and like tried to see if they maybe
- 8:07Speaker 1: knew them because it did seem like they were coming
- 8:09Speaker 1: right towards this car, like their car. But then she
- 8:12Speaker 1: saw what this person was holding. And immediately she screamed
- 8:16Speaker 1: at Mohammed to drive. But before Mohammed could react, Helene
- 8:19Speaker 1: heard a loud bang and the sound of shattering glass.
- 8:29Speaker 1: About 15 minutes later, the commissioner of the Nice police,
- 8:33Speaker 1: Philippe Frison, pulled up to the hospital with the sirens on.
- 8:36Speaker 1: He'd been in his office about to finish up for
- 8:38Speaker 1: the day when he got a call about shots being fired,
- 8:41Speaker 1: but he really didn't know how serious it was.
- 8:43Speaker 2: So he parked and jumped out of his car.
- 8:45Speaker 1: And the first thing he saw was a crowd of
- 8:47Speaker 1: people gathered on the street across from the hospital. And
- 8:50Speaker 1: they were all staring at this parked black minivan with
- 8:53Speaker 1: Monaco plates and also a shattered passenger side window.
- 8:57Speaker 2: Frison jogged over.
- 8:58Speaker 1: And he was technically the first officer on the scene,
- 9:01Speaker 1: but a firefighter standing by the minivan told him a
- 9:04Speaker 1: few details based on what he'd seen and what the
- 9:07Speaker 1: onlookers had been saying. Apparently, a man dressed in black
- 9:10Speaker 1: had come out of nowhere on foot and fired two
- 9:13Speaker 1: shots into the minivan, striking both the man and the
- 9:17Speaker 1: woman who were in there in the head. The shooter
- 9:20Speaker 1: had then disappeared back into the crowd, and witnesses saw
- 9:23Speaker 1: a second man dressed in black follow after him. The
- 9:26Speaker 1: firefighter said that both victims had been taken to the
- 9:28Speaker 1: hospital in critical condition, but he didn't know if they
- 9:31Speaker 1: were still alive now, and he also didn't have any
- 9:34Speaker 1: information on their identities, just that it was a man
- 9:36Speaker 1: and a woman. Immediately, Frison's mind went to carjacking. Now,
- 9:41Speaker 1: Nice did not have a huge amount of crime, but
- 9:44Speaker 1: one of its more common issues was something called the
- 9:47Speaker 1: car door grab, which was when criminals would target cars
- 9:50Speaker 1: who were stuck in traffic, and they would rob these cars.
- 9:54Speaker 1: And so he wondered if maybe carjackers had approached this
- 9:56Speaker 1: vehicle and attempted to rob it.
- 9:59Speaker 2: Something happened.
- 10:00Speaker 1: They drew a weapon, and then obviously the victims inside
- 10:03Speaker 1: were shot, and then the carjackers took off. And so
- 10:06Speaker 1: Frison radioed back to the station for backup. A crime
- 10:09Speaker 1: like this, you know, whether it was carjacking or not,
- 10:11Speaker 1: you know, obviously what he's dealing with here is murder.
- 10:15Speaker 1: A crime like this needed more officers than just him.
- 10:17Speaker 1: And so he gets in touch with the dispatcher, and
- 10:19Speaker 1: he fills her in on the need for backup. And
- 10:22Speaker 1: then during this discussion, she actually passes one more piece
- 10:26Speaker 1: of information to Friesan that she had recently learned. And
- 10:29Speaker 1: that was the identities of the victims.
- 10:32Speaker 2: And the reason that.
- 10:33Speaker 1: They already knew who these people were is because one
- 10:36Speaker 1: of the victims was incredibly famous. The woman who had
- 10:39Speaker 1: been shot was Helene Pastor. The other victim was her driver,
- 10:43Speaker 1: Mohamed Darwish. When Frison heard this, he couldn't believe it.
- 10:47Speaker 1: I mean, of course he knew who she was. Everyone
- 10:50Speaker 1: in Monaco knew who Helene Pastor was, or at least
- 10:53Speaker 1: had heard the Pastor name. And so now that Frison
- 10:56Speaker 1: knew the identities of his victims, I mean, his theory
- 10:58Speaker 1: of this case immediately changed.
- 11:01Speaker 2: He felt like there was no way.
- 11:02Speaker 1: The richest woman in Monaco just happened to be targeted
- 11:06Speaker 1: by random carjackers. I mean, this had to be a hit.
- 11:10Speaker 1: And so Frison, after getting off the radio, went back
- 11:13Speaker 1: to the minivan and.
- 11:14Speaker 2: Just looked inside. And right away, he saw there.
- 11:16Speaker 1: Was a purse that was sitting untouched on the dashboard,
- 11:20Speaker 1: which made him even more certain that this was no robbery.
- 11:22Speaker 1: I mean, very likely that would have been grabbed. But
- 11:25Speaker 1: then he noticed something else. The front seats and the
- 11:28Speaker 1: floor of the minivan were covered in all these rounded
- 11:31Speaker 1: metallic pellets, which he recognized as being from shotgun ammunition,
- 11:36Speaker 1: like buckshot, like the inside of you know, what a
- 11:39Speaker 1: shotgun fires or can fire. And this struck Frison as
- 11:42Speaker 1: being very strange. I mean, a shotgun was an odd
- 11:46Speaker 1: choice for a, you know, a professional hit because it
- 11:49Speaker 1: was big and bulky and you really couldn't carry it
- 11:52Speaker 1: in public without attracting a lot of attention. And so this,
- 11:55Speaker 1: combined with the fact that this happened in broad daylight,
- 11:59Speaker 1: told Frison that very likely whoever had shot Helene and
- 12:02Speaker 1: her driver was not an experienced hitman, which was also
- 12:05Speaker 1: just not what he would have expected. Just then, Frison
- 12:09Speaker 1: heard the sound of sirens cut through the air, and
- 12:11Speaker 1: he knew his backup had arrived. A few hours later,
- 12:21Speaker 1: Frison was back at the police station talking to his team,
- 12:24Speaker 1: which now included one of the city's very best detectives,
- 12:27Speaker 1: investigator Catherine Messinio. Both of their victims, Mohamed and Helene,
- 12:31Speaker 1: had survived, at least to this point.
- 12:33Speaker 2: They were in comas.
- 12:34Speaker 1: And their attack was already the leading news all around Europe.
- 12:38Speaker 1: But Frison was not particularly worried about potentially not being
- 12:41Speaker 1: able to solve this, because he knew he would have
- 12:44Speaker 1: some answers soon. Not only had their technicians processed the
- 12:47Speaker 1: crime scene and gathered swabs and other evidence from the minivan,
- 12:50Speaker 1: but also Frison's officers had found two security cameras near
- 12:54Speaker 1: the scene that likely recorded the entire shooting. So in France,
- 12:59Speaker 1: it was common for cities and towns to to have
- 13:02Speaker 1: like a network of closed-circuit surveillance cameras that law enforcement
- 13:06Speaker 1: was able to access.
- 13:07Speaker 2: And Nice had.
- 13:08Speaker 1: More of those cameras than any other city in the country.
- 13:11Speaker 1: So Frison was optimistic about what the footage might show
- 13:14Speaker 1: once it finally arrived. But in the meantime, he wanted
- 13:17Speaker 1: to speak to Helene's immediate family and friends and see
- 13:21Speaker 1: if she had any enemies. The way Frison saw it was,
- 13:24Speaker 1: you know, Helene's daughter and son, who she was very
- 13:26Speaker 1: close with, Sylvia and Gildo, They would certainly know if
- 13:30Speaker 1: there was anyone who wanted their mother dead. But Friesan
- 13:33Speaker 1: also knew that her children were not just potential sources
- 13:37Speaker 1: of critical information.
- 13:39Speaker 2: They were also suspects.
- 13:40Speaker 1: Friesan didn't have access to the details of Helene's estate,
- 13:44Speaker 1: but he knew enough about the family to guess that
- 13:46Speaker 1: whatever inheritance Helene left behind was literally in the billions,
- 13:51Speaker 1: which meant that her death would likely make both Sylvia
- 13:54Speaker 1: and Gildo suspicious.
- 13:55Speaker 2: Billionaires.
- 13:56Speaker 1: Now, Frison didn't think that either of them had actually
- 13:59Speaker 1: pulled the trigger here. But what Frison did think was
- 14:02Speaker 1: that both of them definitely had the motive and the
- 14:04Speaker 1: means to hire somebody else to do the shooting.
- 14:08Speaker 2: But Frison had one big problem.
- 14:10Speaker 1: Sylvia and Gildo, and really all of the people he
- 14:13Speaker 1: really wanted to speak to, lived in Monaco. And since
- 14:16Speaker 1: Frison and his team were French, and this crime had
- 14:19Speaker 1: happened in France, they had no jurisdiction in Monaco. So,
- 14:24Speaker 1: in order to speak to Helene's children and her inner circle,
- 14:28Speaker 1: they couldn't just walk up and demand an interview. Instead,
- 14:31Speaker 1: they basically had to ask nicely. The next morning, Frison
- 14:36Speaker 1: sat in a very expensive-looking living room overlooking the beautiful
- 14:39Speaker 1: Monaco harbor. Now, Frison had been up all night and
- 14:43Speaker 1: was basically running on fumes at this point. But he hoped,
- 14:45Speaker 1: you know, that was going to be worth it because
- 14:47Speaker 1: sitting across from him was Helene's daughter, Sylvia Pastore, and
- 14:51Speaker 1: her 64-year-old boyfriend, Wojciech Janowski. When Frison had reached out
- 14:55Speaker 1: to Sylvia and Wojciech and asked them to speak with him, one,
- 14:59Speaker 1: he had been sort of surprised at how quickly they
- 15:01Speaker 1: had agreed to do it. But two, he sensed really
- 15:05Speaker 1: not much emotion. Like they were sort of cold and
- 15:07Speaker 1: detached and sort of quick to be like, sure, you know,
- 15:10Speaker 1: we'll meet up and chat with you about this as
- 15:12Speaker 1: if it was just no big deal. But now that
- 15:14Speaker 1: he was face to face with them, I mean, it
- 15:16Speaker 1: was clear that they were absolutely devastated. I mean, especially Sylvia. Now,
- 15:21Speaker 1: Frison knew as much as he wanted to ask some
- 15:23Speaker 1: sort of pointed questions here, he needed to be very
- 15:26Speaker 1: careful because Sylvia and Wojciech did not have to be
- 15:29Speaker 1: speaking to him at this point. Like they basically are
- 15:32Speaker 1: just agreeing to do this interview. And at any point
- 15:35Speaker 1: they can say enough, leave, and he would have to go.
- 15:38Speaker 1: So Frison, when he began, he just started out with
- 15:40Speaker 1: some very light background questions about Helene. And in a
- 15:44Speaker 1: very shaky voice, Sylvia described her mother as being very tough,
- 15:48Speaker 1: but incredibly generous. You know, she said they did fight
- 15:51Speaker 1: a lot, but it was just over silly things, and
- 15:53Speaker 1: they were actually, you know, pretty close. Sylvia said she'd
- 15:56Speaker 1: been battling breast cancer, and her mother had always called
- 15:59Speaker 1: to check in, like she really cared. When Frison asked
- 16:02Speaker 1: about enemies, Sylvia shook her head, and she said, you know, obviously,
- 16:06Speaker 1: my mother is worth a ton of money, and so
- 16:09Speaker 1: by default, she is a target. But she really didn't
- 16:12Speaker 1: get out much. She didn't really engage with the Monaco
- 16:15Speaker 1: social scene. She pretty much just worked all the time
- 16:18Speaker 1: and looked after the family like she just kept to herself.
- 16:22Speaker 2: So I certainly can't think of.
- 16:23Speaker 1: Anybody that would have wanted to harm her. When Frison
- 16:26Speaker 1: turned to Wojciech, Wojciech seemed equally mystified by this whole thing.
- 16:31Speaker 1: He told Frison that he and Sylvia had been together
- 16:33Speaker 1: for 28 years and they had a daughter together.
- 16:35Speaker 2: And so, you know, he knew Helene very, very well.
- 16:38Speaker 1: And he said that, you know, his relationship with Helene
- 16:40Speaker 1: had always been great and that Helene generally was like
- 16:43Speaker 1: this incredibly generous person. I mean, especially really with him
- 16:47Speaker 1: and with Sylvia. He said that even though he had
- 16:50Speaker 1: his own businesses and his own income, you know, totally
- 16:52Speaker 1: separate from the Pastors, Helene still would give him and
- 16:56Speaker 1: his family money. The mention of finances, though, made Frison
- 16:59Speaker 1: perk up. And so he asked Wojciech to be more
- 17:02Speaker 1: specific about the type of financial generosity he was describing.
- 17:06Speaker 1: And when he asked that question, Frison noticed there was
- 17:09Speaker 1: this look of uncertainty that crossed Wojciech's face. And for
- 17:12Speaker 1: a second, Frison wondered if he had just touched on
- 17:14Speaker 1: something that was kind of a sore spot. But Wojciech
- 17:17Speaker 1: went from looking uncertain to sort of recovering very quickly.
- 17:21Speaker 1: And then an easy smile came across his face. And
- 17:23Speaker 1: he explained that Helene gave her daughter and son, so Sylvia,
- 17:27Speaker 1: his girlfriend, and Gildo, a monthly allowance of about 500,000
- 17:31Speaker 1: euros each, which was around 600,000 US dollars. When Frison
- 17:36Speaker 1: heard this, he had to force himself not to reflexively
- 17:40Speaker 1: raise his eyebrows because this was like a staggering amount
- 17:43Speaker 1: of money to get every single month as just an allowance.
- 17:46Speaker 1: It was so high, in fact, that it made Frison
- 17:49Speaker 1: doubt whether either of Helene's children would feel a need
- 17:53Speaker 1: to kill her. I mean, if she's already giving them
- 17:55Speaker 1: this much money every month, what else do you need?
- 17:58Speaker 1: But Wojciech wasn't done. He cleared his throat and sort
- 18:00Speaker 1: of shifted in his seat like he was uncomfortable. And
- 18:03Speaker 1: then he said that, you know, he and Sylvia used
- 18:06Speaker 1: this very generous amount of money that Helene gave them
- 18:08Speaker 1: on household expenses. But, you know, Wojciech said if he
- 18:12Speaker 1: was being honest, he'd heard that Gildo spent it on
- 18:16Speaker 1: other stuff. Wojciech said, you know, Sylvia's brother, Helene's son,
- 18:20Speaker 1: he owns some companies that were not doing well.
- 18:23Speaker 2: And so he was in very deep debt.
- 18:25Speaker 1: For Frison, you know, he couldn't tell if this was
- 18:27Speaker 1: true or not, but it certainly opened up a new
- 18:30Speaker 1: investigatory door. So he jotted down this information on his notepad.
- 18:34Speaker 1: He was actually meeting with Gildo next, and so if
- 18:36Speaker 1: Wojciech was right, then this debt was definitely a huge
- 18:40Speaker 1: red flag.
- 18:45Speaker 2: 45 minutes later, when Frison.
- 18:47Speaker 1: Walked into Gildo's hospital room, he was shocked by what
- 18:50Speaker 1: he saw. Now, he had known that Gildo was sick,
- 18:52Speaker 1: but He really hadn't been prepared for just how sick.
- 18:56Speaker 1: Gildo could barely move or speak. The only way he
- 18:59Speaker 1: could communicate was actually by blinking. But nonetheless, Frison sat
- 19:03Speaker 1: down by his bedside and began with a few simple questions.
- 19:06Speaker 1: It took a long time for Gildo to blink out
- 19:08Speaker 1: his answers, and he really couldn't communicate really anything more
- 19:11Speaker 1: than a few words at a time. And it was
- 19:13Speaker 1: also just kind of obvious to Frison that even with
- 19:16Speaker 1: these short answers, he just was not going to get much.
- 19:19Speaker 1: And as time was going by, you know, Gildo was
- 19:21Speaker 1: just getting more and more frustrated with basically his lack
- 19:25Speaker 1: of being able to.
- 19:25Speaker 2: Contribute much here.
- 19:27Speaker 1: And so by the time Frison left the hospital, not
- 19:29Speaker 1: that long after he had arrived, he was very doubtful
- 19:32Speaker 1: that Gildo was really in any shape to be planning
- 19:35Speaker 1: a hired hit. I mean, the guy really was just
- 19:37Speaker 1: not doing well. But, you know, it was still possible,
- 19:40Speaker 1: at least Frison thought it could be, that Gildo had
- 19:43Speaker 1: begun preparations before his stroke, which had only happened two
- 19:46Speaker 1: months earlier in March. And Frison realized the amateurish quality
- 19:51Speaker 1: of the hit itself could have actually been a product
- 19:54Speaker 1: of Gildo's illness. Like he had to rush the hit
- 19:57Speaker 1: because he basically could barely communicate. So far, Frison thought
- 20:01Speaker 1: this case was basically full of contradictions. One of the
- 20:04Speaker 1: richest people on the planet had almost been assassinated by
- 20:08Speaker 1: by shockingly unprofessional hitmen. Both of the children, you know,
- 20:12Speaker 1: both of Helene's kids, stood to inherit billions and billions
- 20:16Speaker 1: of dollars and were therefore the most obvious suspects. But
- 20:20Speaker 1: at the same time, both kids were receiving an ungodly
- 20:24Speaker 1: amount of money already. Like, they didn't need the money.
- 20:27Speaker 1: And I mean, even if Gilda was in debt, the
- 20:31Speaker 1: idea that half a million dollars every month isn't enough
- 20:34Speaker 1: to at least keep you afloat just seems sort of fishy.
- 20:37Speaker 1: And so Frison began to.
- 20:38Speaker 2: Wonder about Sylvia's boyfriend, Voychek. Could he have planned the hit?
- 20:42Speaker 1: Because he, not Sylvia, wanted access to Helene's money? And
- 20:46Speaker 1: so Frison pulled out his phone and he called Messinio,
- 20:48Speaker 1: the very talented detective, you know, the best in the city.
- 20:51Speaker 1: And he told her about, you know, what he saw
- 20:53Speaker 1: as issues about having Sylvia and Gildo as suspects. Messinio
- 20:57Speaker 1: completely agreed with Frison. And then she shared something that
- 21:01Speaker 1: she had learned during her own interviews about Voychek. She
- 21:05Speaker 1: said that one of Helene's friends told her, that Sylvia
- 21:08Speaker 1: had been with Wojciech so long, 28 years, without getting married,
- 21:12Speaker 1: because Sylvia wanted to make sure her inheritance went to
- 21:16Speaker 1: her or her child or just stayed within her direct
- 21:19Speaker 1: family bloodline and didn't go to an outsider, to a husband.
- 21:24Speaker 1: Frison considered what this meant. It told him that Sylvia
- 21:27Speaker 1: didn't completely trust Wojciech, but it also tanked his theory
- 21:31Speaker 1: that Wojciech might have.
- 21:32Speaker 2: Planned the hit.
- 21:33Speaker 1: Since he had zero claim to the Pastore estate, whether
- 21:36Speaker 1: Helene was alive or not. But then, Messinio said something
- 21:40Speaker 1: else that made Frison stop thinking about the Pastores completely.
- 21:44Speaker 1: She said she had found something out about Helene's.
- 21:46Speaker 2: Driver, Mohamed.
- 21:48Speaker 1: Mohamed was apparently involved in a love triangle, and had
- 21:51Speaker 1: been for years. He was from Egypt, and he had
- 21:53Speaker 1: a family there, but he also had a mistress here.
- 21:56Speaker 1: And Messinio had gotten the number for Mohamed's adult son,
- 21:59Speaker 1: who lived with him in France, so they could just
- 22:02Speaker 1: ask him about it. And so as Frison hung up
- 22:04Speaker 1: the phone, his mind was spinning. I mean, this whole time,
- 22:08Speaker 1: he had thought it was so obvious who the target
- 22:11Speaker 1: of the hit was.
- 22:12Speaker 2: It had to be Helene. She's this billionaire. It's got
- 22:14Speaker 2: to be her.
- 22:15Speaker 1: But now he was wondering if maybe the real target
- 22:18Speaker 1: was Mohammed. That afternoon, Frison was back at the station
- 22:22Speaker 1: with Messinio. It had been 24 hours since the shooting,
- 22:25Speaker 1: and neither of them had slept. But Frison did not
- 22:28Speaker 1: think they'd be able to do that anytime soon because
- 22:30Speaker 1: the security camera footage had just arrived. And Frison had
- 22:34Speaker 1: put a lot of stock into this footage. Like, he
- 22:36Speaker 1: felt really hopeful that this was going to be what
- 22:39Speaker 1: they needed. Because it felt like every other lead he
- 22:42Speaker 1: had tried to follow so far in this case had
- 22:44Speaker 1: already hit some kind of dead end. He'd just gotten
- 22:46Speaker 1: off the phone with Mohamed's son, Wissam, who he had hoped,
- 22:50Speaker 1: you know, might shed some light on the possibility that
- 22:52Speaker 1: Mohamed was the intended target of the attack.
- 22:55Speaker 2: But Wissam had been skeptical.
- 22:57Speaker 1: He did not think the lead about his father's love
- 22:59Speaker 1: triangle meant very much.
- 23:01Speaker 2: He said the mistress had been.
- 23:02Speaker 1: A part of Muhammad's life for a long time. And
- 23:05Speaker 1: to be honest, nobody was particularly upset about it. Now,
- 23:08Speaker 1: unlike Sylvia and Gildo, Wassam was a young and healthy man.
- 23:13Speaker 1: So theoretically, he could have been one of the shooters.
- 23:16Speaker 1: But Frizzan hadn't heard anything in their call that made
- 23:19Speaker 1: him think Wassam wanted to kill his father, or Helene
- 23:22Speaker 1: for that matter. So now, Frizzan and Massinio began scrolling
- 23:26Speaker 1: through the security footage, looking for clues that could maybe
- 23:29Speaker 1: point them in the right direction. When they got to
- 23:31Speaker 1: the point in the recording where the shooting actually happened,
- 23:34Speaker 1: they were relieved to see they did have a clear
- 23:37Speaker 1: view of the scene, and they watched it play out
- 23:39Speaker 1: right in front of them. And just like the witnesses
- 23:41Speaker 1: had said, Helene's car is seen turning out of the
- 23:44Speaker 1: hospital parking lot, and then a man with a shotgun
- 23:47Speaker 1: approached her window and fired twice. Frison could see that
- 23:51Speaker 1: the second man watched the whole thing from across the
- 23:53Speaker 1: street at a snack bar, probably acting as a lookout,
- 23:57Speaker 1: and then after the shooting, both men ran away on foot,
- 24:00Speaker 1: and their faces were never visible in the footage. And
- 24:03Speaker 1: so Frison rewound the tape to see when these men arrived.
- 24:06Speaker 1: And he saw they showed up about 20 minutes before
- 24:09Speaker 1: the shooting. But it was not when they showed up
- 24:11Speaker 1: that was particularly significant. It was how they showed up.
- 24:16Speaker 1: When Frison saw how they arrived, his jaw dropped. Because finally,
- 24:21Speaker 1: he'd found the lead he could follow. Both men were
- 24:24Speaker 1: separately driven to the hospital in taxis. And one of
- 24:28Speaker 1: the taxi's license plates was... was clearly visible on screen.
- 24:41Speaker 1: That evening, Frison, Massinio, and a group of officers burst
- 24:44Speaker 1: into the lobby of Hotel Azur and Nice. In Frison's
- 24:48Speaker 1: hand was a photo of both of the shooters. After
- 24:51Speaker 1: calling the taxi company, everything had moved very quickly. The
- 24:54Speaker 1: taxi dispatch had a record of these two men's rides,
- 24:58Speaker 1: and gave detectives the mobile numbers that were used to
- 25:01Speaker 1: book each cab. And it didn't take long for Frison's
- 25:04Speaker 1: team to connect those numbers to two burner phones that
- 25:07Speaker 1: were purchased just hours before the shooting at a store
- 25:10Speaker 1: about two hours away from the hospital in a French.
- 25:13Speaker 2: City called Marseille.
- 25:14Speaker 1: And then by using closed circuit camera footage, the police
- 25:18Speaker 1: have been able to track the shooter's movements prior to
- 25:20Speaker 1: the shooting. First, as they left that store with their
- 25:23Speaker 1: burner phones. and then as they boarded a train to Nice,
- 25:26Speaker 1: and then stopped at Hotel Azor before getting taxis to
- 25:30Speaker 1: the hospital. So that's why Frison and his team were
- 25:33Speaker 1: at the hotel now. In order to find out who
- 25:35Speaker 1: planned this attack, they needed to ID the shooters.
- 25:39Speaker 2: They were hoping somebody here could.
- 25:40Speaker 1: So Frison approached the reception desk with the picture of
- 25:43Speaker 1: the shooters and asked the person manning it if they
- 25:46Speaker 1: had seen either of the men in the photo. And
- 25:49Speaker 1: the receptionist said, yes, those men had rented two separate
- 25:52Speaker 1: rooms just the day before.
- 25:54Speaker 2: But they had already checked out.
- 25:55Speaker 1: And so Frison wrote down the names the receptionist gave
- 25:58Speaker 1: him for these two men, but the names were not familiar.
- 26:02Speaker 1: Then Frison and Massinio split up to actually go search
- 26:05Speaker 1: the rooms. Moments later, Frison and some officers hurried into
- 26:09Speaker 1: a very clean hotel room. And the receptionist had told
- 26:12Speaker 1: him that this was going to be the case because
- 26:14Speaker 1: the maids had already been in and out.
- 26:16Speaker 2: Of that room. They had cleaned it.
- 26:18Speaker 1: And so for Frison, even though he did expect, you know,
- 26:21Speaker 1: a clean room, It was still disappointing to walk in
- 26:23Speaker 1: there and see it because, you know, had there been
- 26:26Speaker 1: any evidence still in here.
- 26:28Speaker 2: By now it was very likely gone. However, just then.
- 26:31Speaker 1: He heard one of his officers call out from the bathroom.
- 26:34Speaker 1: And so Frison went in there and found one of
- 26:36Speaker 1: his officers pointing to where a used bottle of shower
- 26:39Speaker 1: gel sat on the side of the tub.
- 26:42Speaker 2: Frison couldn't believe it.
- 26:43Speaker 1: I mean, he knew no other guests had been in
- 26:45Speaker 1: this room since the shooters had been, which meant that
- 26:48Speaker 1: gel was almost certainly theirs. The maids must have missed
- 26:52Speaker 1: it during their cleaning. And so Frison told the officer
- 26:55Speaker 1: to bag it. I mean, it was a long shot,
- 26:57Speaker 1: but he wanted to maybe get it sent off and
- 26:59Speaker 1: tested for DNA. On May 16, 2014, investigators Frison and
- 27:06Speaker 1: Messinio paced around Frison's office. Every now and again, they
- 27:10Speaker 1: glanced at a document that was sitting.
- 27:11Speaker 2: On the desk.
- 27:12Speaker 1: It had only been 10 days since Helene Pasteur and
- 27:15Speaker 1: her driver, Mohamed Darwich, were shot outside a hospital in Nice, France.
- 27:19Speaker 1: Helene was still alive and in a coma, but Mohamed
- 27:22Speaker 1: Darwish had died, which meant Frizan was now officially leading
- 27:26Speaker 1: a murder investigation. Now, this was daunting for Frizan, but
- 27:30Speaker 1: at the same time, he felt like they were close
- 27:32Speaker 1: to breaking this case. Because that document on his desk
- 27:36Speaker 1: told him that the shower gel they collected during a
- 27:39Speaker 1: search of the shooter's hotel rooms actually did have DNA
- 27:42Speaker 1: on it, and it had matched to someone in their system,
- 27:46Speaker 1: a 24-year-old man named Samin Saeed Ahmed. And through a
- 27:50Speaker 1: series of phone taps, they'd also managed to figure out
- 27:53Speaker 1: the name of Samin's accomplice, a 31-year-old man named Al-Hayir Hamadi. Now,
- 27:59Speaker 1: these names were different from the ones that the hotel
- 28:02Speaker 1: had given Frizon, so clearly the men must have used
- 28:05Speaker 1: pseudonyms when they checked into that hotel. Now, both of
- 28:08Speaker 1: them did have prior criminal records, but like Frizon had suspected,
- 28:13Speaker 1: they were not like professional killers. They were just petty
- 28:16Speaker 1: criminals and drug dealers from a neighborhood in Marseille that
- 28:19Speaker 1: had the highest crime rate in the entire country.
- 28:21Speaker 2: So it sort of did make sense.
- 28:23Speaker 1: That two men from that area might agree to carry
- 28:26Speaker 1: out a hit for money. But what didn't make sense
- 28:29Speaker 1: to Frizon or Massinio was how Samin Saeed Ahmed or
- 28:33Speaker 1: Al-Hayr Hamadi was could possibly be connected to anybody in
- 28:37Speaker 1: Helene's life. The Pastors and their inner circle were some
- 28:41Speaker 1: of the richest people in the world. If any of
- 28:44Speaker 1: them were planning a hit, Frison would have expected them
- 28:46Speaker 1: to hire more experienced and professional assassins. So now Frison
- 28:51Speaker 1: wondered if maybe they needed to take a closer look
- 28:54Speaker 1: into other areas of Helene's life, like maybe her tenants,
- 28:58Speaker 1: to see if anyone had obvious connections to Marseille. He
- 29:01Speaker 1: knew from speaking with Helene's friends that that she often
- 29:04Speaker 1: handled many of her tenants personally, and so it was
- 29:07Speaker 1: possible that maybe there was a feud or dispute that
- 29:11Speaker 1: they just didn't know about. However, thousands of people lived
- 29:15Speaker 1: in Helene's buildings. Going through that list would be nearly impossible,
- 29:19Speaker 1: which was why Frison and Massinio had decided that the
- 29:22Speaker 1: best way to approach this whole thing was with a
- 29:25Speaker 1: method Frison called the fishing rod. Instead of arresting the shooters,
- 29:29Speaker 1: Samin and Al-Hayr, they would watch them. and keep their
- 29:32Speaker 1: phones tapped, and see if they led police to whoever
- 29:36Speaker 1: hired them. However, while they were figuring all this out,
- 29:39Speaker 1: Frison's phone stopped working.
- 29:40Speaker 2: Rang. And when he answered it, he got very unexpected news.
- 29:44Speaker 2: It was the hospital.
- 29:45Speaker 1: Helene had woken up from her coma. And so first
- 29:48Speaker 1: thing the next morning, Frizan sent Messinio to the hospital
- 29:51Speaker 1: to interview Helene. And then after sending her out, Frizan
- 29:55Speaker 1: waited anxiously at the station for her to return. He
- 29:57Speaker 1: was hoping that Helene could simply tell Messinio who wanted
- 30:01Speaker 1: her dead, and then they could just close the case. Easy.
- 30:04Speaker 1: But when Messinio came back that afternoon, she did not
- 30:07Speaker 1: have good news. Helene had told Messinio that she was terrified,
- 30:11Speaker 1: and she had lots of things that she wanted to
- 30:13Speaker 1: tell the police. And at one point, she seemed like
- 30:16Speaker 1: she was on the verge of actually, you know, giving
- 30:18Speaker 1: Messinio a name or just something really meaningful. But then
- 30:22Speaker 1: she'd literally just struggled to breathe, and medical staff had
- 30:25Speaker 1: rushed in to stabilize her, and they hadn't been able
- 30:27Speaker 1: to finish the interview.
- 30:29Speaker 2: Frison was so disappointed.
- 30:31Speaker 1: I mean, they'd been so close to maybe hearing the
- 30:34Speaker 1: truth directly from the mouth of their victim.
- 30:37Speaker 2: And now they might never know.
- 30:38Speaker 1: It would turn out four days later, you know, before
- 30:41Speaker 1: the police ever had a chance to have another interview
- 30:44Speaker 1: with Helene, she died. Two weeks after Helene's death, so
- 30:53Speaker 1: in early June of that year, Frison parked his car
- 30:56Speaker 1: and began to walk into the station to start his day.
- 30:59Speaker 1: And he was feeling incredibly anxious, because Helene and Mohamed's
- 31:03Speaker 1: case had really stagnated, and Helene's death really only made
- 31:07Speaker 1: the public pressure on him and his team way more intense.
- 31:10Speaker 1: Frison still had his team watching the shooters and tracing
- 31:13Speaker 1: their phone calls, but so far they hadn't gotten any
- 31:16Speaker 1: more leads from that. They were also slowly chipping their
- 31:19Speaker 1: way down the list of Helene's tenants, but so far
- 31:22Speaker 1: they hadn't found anyone with the kind of motive they
- 31:24Speaker 1: were looking for. Frison had not totally eliminated his first suspects,
- 31:28Speaker 1: which were Gildo, Sylvia, and Wojciech, but he just didn't
- 31:31Speaker 1: feel like any of them stood out above the rest.
- 31:34Speaker 1: Gildo potentially needed a windfall because of alleged money problems,
- 31:38Speaker 1: although Frison had not confirmed that with bank records. But
- 31:42Speaker 1: Gildo's poor health made it extremely unlikely he could have
- 31:45Speaker 1: planned this hit. Then there was Sylvia, who was entitled
- 31:48Speaker 1: to an enormous inheritance from her mother's death.
- 31:51Speaker 2: But she already had a.
- 31:53Speaker 1: Massive monthly allowance when her mother was alive and really
- 31:57Speaker 1: did not seem desperate for cash at all. And then
- 31:59Speaker 1: as for Wojciech, he wasn't even married to Sylvia. So
- 32:02Speaker 1: he literally had no legal claim to the Pastore estate.
- 32:06Speaker 1: So Helene's death really didn't do him any good. So
- 32:09Speaker 1: all this was sort of going through Frison's mind.
- 32:11Speaker 2: As he stepped inside the station.
- 32:13Speaker 1: And as he did, right away he saw Missinio come
- 32:16Speaker 1: running towards him carrying a piece of paper. And this
- 32:19Speaker 1: paper was covered in lines of numbers that Frison immediately
- 32:23Speaker 1: recognized as a call log. And Massinio explained that they
- 32:27Speaker 1: had traced one of Al-Hayr's recent calls and finally found
- 32:30Speaker 1: a link to Monaco. The guy he called was somebody
- 32:33Speaker 1: named Pascal Doriac. And unlike the shooters, Pascal had direct
- 32:38Speaker 1: ties to Monaco. He was a personal trainer and some
- 32:41Speaker 1: of his clients were elite families who lived in Monaco.
- 32:45Speaker 1: And a few of those clients were also people that
- 32:47Speaker 1: Frison and his team had examined in connection with the murders.
- 32:51Speaker 1: Frison grabbed the piece of paper and read and reread
- 32:55Speaker 1: its contents before he finally looked up at Massinio and
- 32:58Speaker 1: said they needed Pascal's phone records right now. Later that
- 33:01Speaker 1: same day, Frison was sitting at his desk staring at
- 33:04Speaker 1: a name written on a piece of paper. He had
- 33:07Speaker 1: gotten access to Pascal's phone records and he discovered that
- 33:10Speaker 1: every time there had been a significant event in this
- 33:13Speaker 1: entire case, like on the day of the actual shooting
- 33:17Speaker 1: or the days of Mohamed or Helene's death, Pascal had
- 33:21Speaker 1: texted the same number. And now that Frison knew who
- 33:24Speaker 1: that number belonged to, he realized he had been at
- 33:27Speaker 1: least half right the whole time. These murders were about money.
- 33:36Speaker 1: Based on the police investigation, multiple confessions, video surveillance, and
- 33:40Speaker 1: bank records, Here is a reconstruction of what police believe
- 33:44Speaker 1: happened to Helene Pastor and Mohamed Darwish on the evening
- 33:47Speaker 1: of May 6, 2014. Around 7 p.m., the hitman named
- 33:59Speaker 1: Samin Saeed Ahmed strode toward Helene's black van. And as
- 34:03Speaker 1: he did, he could see her terrified face through the
- 34:06Speaker 1: passenger side.
- 34:07Speaker 2: Window as she realized... what he was.
- 34:09Speaker 1: Carrying, a shotgun, and she looked at her driver and
- 34:12Speaker 1: screamed at him to drive. But before Mohammed, the driver,
- 34:16Speaker 1: could hit the gas, he had raised his shotgun and
- 34:19Speaker 1: fired twice into the passenger side door. And then Samin
- 34:23Speaker 1: just stood there and watched as Helene and Mohammed sort
- 34:26Speaker 1: of slouched forward in their seats and began to convulse.
- 34:29Speaker 1: Samin didn't know who the people were he just shot,
- 34:32Speaker 1: but he wasn't thinking about that. He was thinking about
- 34:35Speaker 1: the payday he was about to receive for doing this.
- 34:38Speaker 1: After a moment, Samin was convinced that he had been successful,
- 34:41Speaker 1: that Helene and Mohammed were dead.
- 34:44Speaker 2: And so he turned and sprinted.
- 34:45Speaker 1: Away as fast as he could, knowing that his accomplice, Al-Hayr,
- 34:50Speaker 1: would follow shortly after, just like they had planned. And
- 34:52Speaker 1: so Samin, as he ran away, he pulled his baseball
- 34:55Speaker 1: hat down over his eyes, hoping that would be enough
- 34:58Speaker 1: to avoid any cameras that.
- 34:59Speaker 2: Might be in the area.
- 35:01Speaker 1: Ran and he ran through the streets of Nice, eventually
- 35:04Speaker 1: slowing to a walk before going inside of his hotel,
- 35:06Speaker 1: where once he was inside, he went to his room,
- 35:08Speaker 1: sat on his bed, and he called the man who
- 35:10Speaker 1: hired him. Across the city, Pascal Doriac, the personal trainer,
- 35:15Speaker 1: heard his phone ring, and he politely told the client
- 35:17Speaker 1: he was with that he'd be right back. He then
- 35:20Speaker 1: grabbed his phone and hurried out of the personal gym
- 35:22Speaker 1: he had just been in, and he stepped into this
- 35:24Speaker 1: grand marble hallway to take the call. And what he
- 35:27Speaker 1: heard on the other end of the line was was
- 35:29Speaker 1: Samin telling him.
- 35:31Speaker 2: The good news, that the job was done.
- 35:33Speaker 1: Pascal smiled, he hung up, and then he began typing
- 35:36Speaker 1: out a text message. This text message was for the
- 35:39Speaker 1: real killer, that is, the person who'd actually ordered the
- 35:42Speaker 1: hit in the first place, to let them know that
- 35:44Speaker 1: everything had gone off without a hitch. Seconds later, the
- 35:48Speaker 1: real killer looked down and saw they had just gotten
- 35:50Speaker 1: a text message, and it was from Pascal, their trainer.
- 35:53Speaker 1: As soon as they saw that, their heart began to race.
- 35:56Speaker 1: They were very nervous about what this text was going
- 35:59Speaker 1: to say. But eventually they scooped up their phone and
- 36:02Speaker 1: they opened the message. But when the real killer read
- 36:05Speaker 1: what was on their phone, they felt this enormous sense
- 36:07Speaker 1: of relief that they hadn't felt in years because their
- 36:11Speaker 1: plan sort of.
- 36:11Speaker 2: Unbelievably had worked.
- 36:13Speaker 1: Then the real killer just sank back down in their comfy,
- 36:16Speaker 1: expensive couch and looked out their window at an amazing
- 36:19Speaker 1: view of the Monaco Harbor. It would turn out Sylvia's
- 36:23Speaker 1: boyfriend of 28 years, Wojciech Janowski, was lying about everything.
- 36:29Speaker 1: It was Wojciech, not Gildo, who was drowning in debt.
- 36:33Speaker 1: Wojciech claimed to be this very successful businessman, but in reality,
- 36:37Speaker 1: all the companies that he was involved with were failing
- 36:40Speaker 1: and in deep financial trouble. This had been going on
- 36:43Speaker 1: for years, and Wojciech had just been swindling his girlfriend, Sylvia,
- 36:48Speaker 1: out of her assets and monthly allowance to stay afloat.
- 36:51Speaker 1: And when Sylvia was diagnosed with cancer two years ago,
- 36:54Speaker 1: he panicked.
- 36:55Speaker 2: They weren't married, so if she died.
- 36:57Speaker 1: He'd lose everything. But he believed if Sylvia inherited the
- 37:01Speaker 1: family fortune all at once, he could easily steal it
- 37:05Speaker 1: from her and wipe out his debts. Wojciech had also
- 37:08Speaker 1: been lying to investigators about his relationship with Helene. The
- 37:12Speaker 1: reality was they hated each other. Helene was very suspicious,
- 37:17Speaker 1: rightfully so, that Wojciech was after the Pastor family fortune.
- 37:21Speaker 1: In 2018, Wojciech was found guilty of murdering both Helene
- 37:25Speaker 1: and Mohammed and was sentenced to life in prison. The
- 37:28Speaker 1: other accomplices, Pascal Doriak, Samin Saeed Ahmed, and Al-Hayya Hamadi,
- 37:33Speaker 1: all received between 22 years and life in prison. As
- 37:37Speaker 1: for Gildo, he would eventually recover from a stroke and
- 37:40Speaker 1: he moved to the United States. While Sylvia, at least
- 37:43Speaker 1: as of 2025, is still alive, and she would give
- 37:46Speaker 1: Mohamed's son a job and let the Darwish family live
- 37:49Speaker 1: in one of her family's properties.
- 37:59Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
- 38:01Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
- 38:03Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
- 38:05Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
- 38:08Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
- 38:11Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.