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MrBallen – This French hotel owner's final shift · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In the fall of 2010, a detective was digging through
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a dresser drawer in a bedroom near Paris, France.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: He was looking for evidence.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And when he pulled open the last drawer, he found
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: five cell phones hidden inside of it.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: So he powered one of them.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: On and he first checked the call history and then
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: also the text messages. And then he opened up the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: photos app and he froze. There was this collection of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: photos on this phone. They were all very similar and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: there were just dozens of them. and they all showed
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the same disturbing thing. But before we get into today's story,
• 0:34
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• 0:36
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• 1:05
  Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. On the night of October 14th, 2010,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: a 46-year-old woman named Natalie Vierme was standing behind the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: counter at the Rose Garden, a bar on the outskirts
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: of Paris, France, that she owned. And currently, she was
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: counting that day's earnings from the register when a couple
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of regulars at a nearby table began shouting.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: At each other.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Natalie immediately, you know, yelled at them to keep things
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: civil or she'd have the bartender cut them off. And
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the argument at that point did die immediately, and Natalie
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: went back to counting the money. Natalie was used to
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: drunks and to rough characters because her bar and the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: boarding house attached to it that she also owned were
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: full of people like that. Like just last week, Natalie
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: had caught one of her tenants, a very heavy drinker
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: named Bruno Martin, sneaking money out of this cash register. Now,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: she'd banned Bruno from the bar for obvious reasons, but
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: she'd stopped short of kicking him out of the boarding
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: house completely. She knew she'd have to watch him closely,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: but she just couldn't bring herself to throw him out
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: on the street because he really had nothing else. You know,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: as difficult as her tenants and the patrons at her
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: bar could be, Natalie did really care about them. She
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: sort of felt like she was born to be a landlady,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and she got real satisfaction out.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Of putting a roof over the heads of people who
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: really needed one, even if they were sort of rowdy
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: and difficult.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: So even with all the headaches, Natalie wouldn't have traded
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the Rose Garden or, you know, the attached boarding house
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: for anything. And so now she shut the cash register
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and she placed all the money that she had made
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: into a zip-up pouch that she then put into her
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: jacket pocket. Then she looked over at the clock and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: saw it was 8.30 p.m. So she reached for the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: phone behind the bar and dialed the number for her
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: own apartment. After a few rings, Natalie's long-term boyfriend answered.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: He was a 47-year-old man named Marc Detrebeck. So Natalie
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and Mark had been together for 25 years and, you know,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: never got around to having a wedding. But Mark had
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: actually recently begun talking about doing a ceremony to make
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: things official, which caught Natalie off guard because in these
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: 25 years they had been together, Mark had really never
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: shown any real interest in getting married. And so this
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: change in Mark, for the most part, Natalie was actually
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: happy about it. But every now and again, she sort
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: of felt like why is this happening now? What changed
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: with Mark? But now, she told Mark on the phone
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: that she was getting ready to leave work and she
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: was going to head home now. And he said that
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: he'd already eaten and might be asleep when she got there.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And Natalie said that was fine and she would just
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: heat up some leftovers and, you know, see him in
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the morning. As she hung up, her bartender, a 47-year-old
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: man named Patrice Chevalier, came out.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Of the storage room and he was wheeling a keg
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: on a hand truck.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Patrice had turned up at the Rose Garden two years
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: ago with practically nothing. And Natalie had given him a
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: cheap room inside of the boarding house and a job
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: behind the bar. And he turned out to be surprisingly reliable.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And by now, she thought of him less as an
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: employee and more as a friend. Natalie asked Patrice, as
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: he was walking by with this keg, if he still
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: wanted a ride to his girlfriend's place that night. Because
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: if he did, she was getting ready to leave now.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: And Patrice said, actually, yes, he did. And he would
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: go grab his stuff right now. And then he put
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the keg away and he ducked into the back again.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: A moment later, when he came back out with his
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: coat on, you know, ready to leave, Natalie nodded to him.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: And then she also checked that the waitress had the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: keys and was good to.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Close up when they were gone.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: And then Natalie grabbed her scarf off the hook by
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: the door and headed out with Patrice right behind her.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: It was cold outside, so Natalie wrapped that scarf around
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: her neck. And then she and Patrice headed across the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: parking lot toward her white van. The next morning, around 11.25 a.m.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: on October 15th, A man was out for a walk
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: along this wooded road about a 30-minute drive from the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Rose Garden. And as he was walking, he happened to
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: glance down into the ditch that was running alongside the road.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: And he spotted a pair of women's boots sticking out
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: of a pile of branches. The man thought the boots
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: might be worth something. So he stepped down into the
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: ditch to get a better look. But as he got closer,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: he froze. Because through these branches, he could see there
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: was more.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: There was patches of skins. and clothing.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: And he realized that these boots were not just lying
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: there on their own, they were on the feet of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: a woman. And so at this point, the man scrambled
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: right back out of the ditch, pulled out his phone,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: and he called the police. About 30 minutes later, Police
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Colonel Joel Ferry of the Local Criminal Investigations Unit stepped
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: down into that ditch to join a team of crime
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: scene techs. He watched them clear away the last of
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the branches, and then he moved in.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Closer for a better look at the body.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: The deceased was a middle-aged woman who was lying face
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: down on the ground, and her hands were tied with
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a belt behind her back. The techs checked her pockets
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: for ID and came up empty. Then they carefully rolled
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: her over and very winced at the sight. The victim's
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: face was severely disfigured, like it had been smashed in
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: by something really heavy. Now, there was a ton of
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: blood on her face and her head, but very little
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: around the rest of her body. or really anywhere else
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: in the ditch. And since head wounds do tend to
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: bleed a lot, that told Ferry that this woman had
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: very likely been killed somewhere else before being dumped here.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Ferry also noticed when he was looking at this woman's
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: hands that there were signs of scratches on them, as
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: if she had been in a struggle.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: And also he saw that her pants, her shirt, and
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: bra were all ripped open.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: So there had very likely been a sexual assault component
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: to this attack. As Ferry was taking all this in,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: another officer called him over to a spot that was
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: further down the ditch, about 50 yards away. And so
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Ferry walked over and he looked down at what they
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: had found. And it was this thick, heavy branch that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: was kind of like a big club with blood smeared
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: along one end of it.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: It looked like it very likely was the murder weapon.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: And looking down at this huge piece of wood, you know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: this big club, if you will, I mean, it really
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: drove home just how brutal this murder really had been.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, smashing someone's face in with a branch, that's
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: something that would take a lot of strength and probably
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of rage. And so whoever killed this woman
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: had wanted to destroy her. Early the next morning, on
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: October 16th, 2010, Colonel Joel Ferry walked into the interview
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: room of a small town police station near Paris. A
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: lot had happened since yesterday. but the biggest development was
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that the body from the woods now had a name.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: The victim had been identified as Natalie Vierme, a 46-year-old
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: bar owner whose boyfriend had reported her missing yesterday morning.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: An autopsy had.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Been completed overnight, and it confirmed that Natalie was savagely
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: beaten to death, that very likely the killer had used
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: that bloody branch that was found 50 yards away from
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the body, and had ultimately broken her skull, literally caved.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Her head in.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: However, the killer had not left any physical evidence on
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the body or in the body, which actually suggested that
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: very likely sexual assault did not occur, which meant that
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Ferry's best shot at IDing the killer came down to
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: that bloody branch that was believed to be the murder
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: weapon and also the belt that was used to bind
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Natalie's hands. And both of those items were currently on
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: their way to the crime lab. But, you know, despite that,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: analyzing them would take a few weeks. So in the meantime...
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Ferry was just plowing ahead with the investigation in other ways.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: One of his main priorities right now was finding Natalie's vehicle,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: which according to her boyfriend who had filed the missing
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: person report, was a white van. And so that van
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: had still not turned up yet. And so Ferry's team
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: was currently out searching the roads for the vehicle, while
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Ferry was more focused on just speaking to the people
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: that were closest to Natalie. And so now Ferry took
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: a seat across from his first interview subject, Natalie's boyfriend,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Marc de Trebecq. And so as the victim's partner and
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the one who actually called the police about her absence,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Mark was an obvious suspect. But right now, Ferry felt
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: like he at least looked the part of a grieving boyfriend.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: He was pale, he was shaky, and he kept breaking
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: into tears and saying he just couldn't believe Natalie was dead.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And when he finally got himself together, Mark explained that
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: he had last heard from Natalie two nights ago when
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: she called around 8.30 p.m.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: To just say she was leaving work.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: He had gone to bed thinking, you know, he'd be asleep,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: she'd get home any minute, and then he'd wake up
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and he would see her. But when he woke up,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: the house was empty and her van was not there.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Mark instinctively immediately reported her missing, and then he'd driven
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: over to the Rose Garden, but Natalie hadn't been there either.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: So Mark and a friend from the bar had gone
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: out looking for her, and they'd still been driving around
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: scanning the roads for Natalie or her white van when
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Mark had gotten the call that.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Her body had been found.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Colonel Ferry took detailed notes the whole time Mark was speaking.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: It seemed kind of strange that Mark wouldn't notice that
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: his girlfriend, who he lived with, was missing until the
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: next day. Like, even if you went to bed, it
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: just sort of seems like if you expected her any minute,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, wouldn't you have sort of.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Noticed if she just didn't show up? Wouldn't you have
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: not been able to drift off to sleep?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: And also, Mark's story in general about just having been
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: asleep at the time that his partner was killed is
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: like the worst kind of alibi, really because nobody is
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: going to be able to confirm or disprove it. It's
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: sort of like his word against everybody else's. And so now,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Ferry began asking some sort of uncomfortable follow-up questions about
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Mark and Natalie's relationship. Like, was there any infidelity? Did
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: they have any money problems? Had they been fighting?
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: You know, that kind of thing.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: He was looking to see how Mark handled these questions
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: as much as he was listening to his answers. Because
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: in Ferry's experience, guilty boyfriends or guilty partners tended to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: get really defensive when you started poking at their relationship.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: But Mark, he just looked sort of confused. He said, no,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: they were really happy, and they'd actually been talking about
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: getting legally married soon, finally, you.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Know, after 25 years.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: And so Ferry wrote that down, and then he asked
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: about the friend who had helped Mark look for Natalie
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: on the morning that he discovered she was missing. And
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Mark explained that the man was actually Natalie's bartender, a
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: guy named Patrice Chevalier. Patrice didn't drive, so Natalie would
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: sometimes drop him off at his girlfriend's place on her
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: way home from work. And from speaking to Patrice yesterday,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Mark understood that she had given him a ride on the.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Night she was ultimately killed.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Ferry's pen immediately stopped when he heard that, because this
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: was the first time he was hearing that Natalie hadn't
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: been alone when she left the bar that night.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: And it meant that he needed to speak to Patrice
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: as soon as possible.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Later that afternoon, Colonel Ferry sat in a corner of
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Natalie's bar, the Rose Garden.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: It was closed because.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Of the murder, and so Ferry was now using the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: space for interviews, starting with the bartender, Patrice. And Patrice
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: confirmed what Mark had said, that Natalie did sometimes give
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: him a ride after work to his girlfriend's place, and
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: on the night that she was killed, she had done
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: just that. Patrice said, you know, on the night that
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: she was killed, you know, after he got dropped off,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: he said she just drove off and that was the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: last he saw of her.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: He didn't think anything of it. It was sort of
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: like business as usual.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: At this point, Ferry told Patrice that while he understood
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: that from, you know, his POV, this seemed like, you.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Know, hey, this is what happened. I don't remember anything else. Fine.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: But at this point, you are officially the last known
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: person to see Natalie alive and right before she likely
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: was killed. And so because of that, The police needed
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: to take his DNA, and also they needed the contact
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: information for his girlfriend so they could verify the time
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: that Patrice had gotten home. And Patrice immediately nodded and
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: said he understood and was genuinely happy to cooperate, you know,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: whatever they needed. He said he owed Natalie a lot
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: for giving him a job and a place to live
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: when he was really down on his luck. Now, he
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: sounded very genuine as he said that, but Ferry couldn't help.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: But feel really skeptical.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: And he wanted to see what Patrice would do if
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: he gave him the chance to point the finger at
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: somebody else. So before ending the interview, Ferry asked Patrice
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: if he was aware of anyone that Natalie was having
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: trouble with, like in particular of late, has she had
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: any recent issues with anybody? And Patrice did not hesitate.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: He said there was one tenant in particular, a very
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: mean drunk named Bruno Martin, who'd been giving Natalie problems
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: really for months. Ferry made a note of the name
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and would follow up with him. but he also made
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: a note that Patrice had taken the bait a bit
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: too easily. But either way, this Bruno was definitely somebody
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Ferry did need to speak with. An hour later, Ferry
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: was still sitting in that same corner of the bar,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: only now he was sitting across from this very scruffy-looking
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: man in a stained jacket. This was Bruno Martin, the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: tenant that Patrice had mentioned that apparently had been giving
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Natalie issue. And by now, a bunch of other tenants
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and employees had confirmed that Bruno was sort of like
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: a violent alcoholic who really had clashed with Natalie on
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a pretty regular basis. And in fact, just a week
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: before the murder, Natalie had apparently caught Bruno breaking into
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the bar's cash register. And she'd slapped him across the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: face before throwing him out of the bar. Apparently for
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: good this time. Like he was banned from the bar
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: because of this. So it really did sound like Bruno
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: might be a pretty suspicious guy here. He could have
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: harbored a grudge. But there was something else Ferry had
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: learned that made Bruno's history actually even more interesting. And
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: that was that on the night of the murder, right
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: before Natalie left the Rose Garden for the last time,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: she had emptied the cash register and taken the money
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: with her. But no money had been found on or
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: anywhere near her body, which meant that one possible motive
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: for this crime was simply robbery. And the fact that
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Bruno had recently been caught stealing literally from the same
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: register by the same woman who was murdered was starting
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to make him look really suspicious. And so when Ferry
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: pretty aggressively pressed Bruno on all of this, Bruno got
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: really flustered. He snapped that, you know, he wasn't a
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: thief and that Natalie had been wrong to blame him
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: in the first place. You know, he thought it was
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: just a cash register discrepancy, he called it. He admitted
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: that he and Natalie had never really gotten along.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: That was true.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: But he still said that he hadn't killed her and
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: that he'd spent the night of the murder alone in
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: his room. Like he wasn't out there doing anything. And
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: so Bruno, you know, he diligently took these notes and
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: he's just letting Bruno talk. And then at some point
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: when there was a break, Ferry said, OK, well, will
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: you give a DNA sample so you can be ruled out?
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: He said that he was taking samples from everybody at
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the Rose Garden, tenants and staff included. But right away,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Ferry could see that Bruno did not.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Like this idea.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Bruno glared at Ferry with his teeth visibly clenched. And
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: so Ferry is getting ready for this guy to refuse
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the DNA sample. But then, much to Ferry's surprise, Bruno,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you know, with gritted teeth and with this angry look
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: on his face, he nodded and said, fine.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: If that's what it took to get the police office back,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: you do it.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: So Ferry started getting out the DNA kit to swab
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Bruno while also processing everything he'd just learned. The interviews
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: so far had turned up three strong suspects. There was Bruno,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the alcoholic with an apparent grudge. There was Patrice, the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: bartender who had left the bar with Natalie on the
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: night she was killed.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: And there was Mark, the boyfriend.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: With, you know, the sleeping alibi. At this point, any
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: one of them could be the killer, and Ferry knew
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: he wasn't going to be able to rule any of
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: them out by interviews alone. What he needed now was
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: some real hard evidence. About a week later, on the
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: morning of October 24th, Ferry was standing in the police
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: station's garage in front of what looked to be like
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: an evidence gold mine. His team had finally found Natalie's
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: missing white van. It had been abandoned on the side
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: of a road about five miles or so from where
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: her body had been dumped. And this van was covered
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: in blood on the hood and on the grill and
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: inside on the floor. And so now a blood spatter
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: analyst took Ferry and was walking him around the vehicle
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: explaining what they could learn from all the blood. The
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: analyst explained that based on the shape of the droplets
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: and the distance between them all, their team could tell
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: that the blood on the van's front had sprayed onto
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the hood, which meant that Natalie's heart had been beating
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: when this blood left her body that wound up right here. Meanwhile,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the blood that was inside the van, in the back
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: of the van on the floor, had clearly leaked there
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: rather than sprayed, implying that she was dead before she
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: was loaded into the van because her heart was not beating.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: So for Ferry, you know, putting those details together had
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: actually told him quite a bit. It looked like someone
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: had killed Natalie in front of her van. And then
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: after she was dead, they put her body in the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: back of the van and then drove her van with
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: her in it to the ditch, dumped her and then
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: drove the vehicle away and dumped it nearby. And so
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: at this point, it was like Ferry had what he
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: believed was like the clearest picture of.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: The crime yet.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: But, you know, despite having this clarity, he still didn't
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: know who killed Natalie. And so for that, Ferry had
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: spent the last few days looking into his suspect's alibis.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: And two of them turned out to be pretty solid.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Bruno's alibi checked out because several phone calls had been
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: made from his room in the middle of the night.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: And so unless someone else had gone into his room.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: And placed those calls, it looked very much like Bruno
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: really had spent the night at home.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Patrice's alibi had also held up.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: His girlfriend had confirmed that Patrice really had been dropped
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: off at her apartment soon after leaving the Rose Garden,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: which left him virtually no time at all to kill Natalie,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: dump the body, dump the car, and get back.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Like, it seemed virtually impossible.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Now, Ferry knew that the girlfriend could definitely be covering
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: for Patrice, but still, this was a stronger alibi than Mark's,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the long-term boyfriend who had said he'd been home asleep
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: all night with absolutely nobody.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: There to confirm or deny it.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And so Mark, by process of elimination, was really starting
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to look like the guy, like he is the killer.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: But still, all three suspects are still in play, despite
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the two strong alibis. And so now, Ferry really just
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: needed the crime lab to get back to him with
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the results from the DNA testing. A few weeks later,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: in November of 2010, Colonel Ferry was in his office
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: when he got the call he'd been waiting for. The
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: crime lab had found DNA on the belt that was
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: used to bind Natalie's hands.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: And the DNA belonged to one of Ferry's three suspects.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: So, Ferry immediately made some phone calls, And later that
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: same afternoon, he walked back into the police station's interview
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: room and sat down across from the bartender, Patrice Chevalier.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: When Ferry told Patrice that his DNA was found on
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Natalie's belt, Patrice turned pale and put his face in
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: his hands. And for a second, Ferry thought he was
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: about to confess. And when Patrice looked up again, he
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: even did say that there was something he needed to
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: tell Ferry that he had left out in the first interview.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: But it was not a confession. Patrice, who looked visibly
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: pretty shaken up here, like he was sort of panicking,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: he said that he actually wasn't that surprised that his
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: DNA was found on that belt, because he said they'd
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: been sleeping together for weeks before she was killed.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: This was shocking for Ferry.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, he did not expect there to be like
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: a secret affair going on. But instead of interrupting or
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: asking questions, he just let Patrice keep going. And Patrice
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: would go on to explain that Natalie had apparently been
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: very frustrated with her long-term boyfriend, Mark. She thought that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: he was cheating on her and that his recent talk
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: about them getting.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Married was just a way to cover up his bad behavior.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: And he said that her suspicion around Mark had been
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the main driver that had prompted her to make a
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: move on him, on Patrice. Patrice said, you know, he
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: was attracted to her and when she came on to him,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: he just, he couldn't say no. Colonel Ferry just stared
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: at Patrice as he finished the story he was telling.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: To Ferry, this had to be a lie. It just
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: felt way too convenient. Like, Patrice was literally just spinning
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: a story to explain away the DNA found on the
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: dead body. I mean, this is quite the convenient story here.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: But if there was any chance that this was true,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: obviously Ferry had to know. Because if Natalie had been cheating,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: it gave Mark a very powerful motive, like if he
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: knew about it. Which meant the DNA on the belt
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: had not closed the case at all. It had actually
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: just shifted it in a new direction. And so Ferry
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: would spend another hour questioning Patrice all about this affair
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and getting all the details he could before ultimately releasing him.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: And then he made a call to a local judge.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: There was one way to know for sure if Mark
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: was hiding something. Ferry was going to tap Mark's phone
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: and spy on him. One morning in November of 2010,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: about a month after Natalie Vierme was murdered, police colonel
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Joel Ferry sat in his office at a police station
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: near Paris reviewing a transcript from the wiretap on Mark's phone.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: And Ferry almost couldn't believe what he was reading. because
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: it looked like Patrice had been telling the truth about
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Mark cheating on Natalie. The wiretap had recorded phone calls
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: between Mark and a woman. And reading between the lines,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: it seemed like these two had been seeing each other
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: for some time, maybe even for years. On one of
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: these calls, Mark had complained to this woman that he
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: had always been the one who had had to travel
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: to see her like in the past. And it was
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: time that she came to him for a change. And
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: then before they hung up during the same phone call,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: This woman signed off by calling Mark, my love. And
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: so this completely upended Ferry's view of Mark, while Patrice's
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: story suddenly seemed a lot more plausible. And if both
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Mark and Natalie had been unfaithful like Patrice was saying,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: it gave Mark a really serious motive here.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Around 9 a.m.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: The next morning, Ferry sat in the police station interview
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: room across from Mark, who was staring back at him
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: with a truly stunned expression. Ferry had just confronted Mark,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: revealing that he knew about the affair. When Mark finally
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: found his voice, he stammered that Ferry had it all wrong.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: The woman he'd been talking to was just an old
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: boss that he kept in touch with, and he insisted
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: that despite what you may think about what we were
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: saying to each other, there had never been anything sexual
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: between them. Ferry found this extremely hard to believe, and
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: certainly based on how Sort of frantic Mark seemed right now.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: It did seem like he was being overly defensive. And
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: also now that Ferry knew Mark, assuming this affair was real,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: that he was cheating on Natalie, that that meant he
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: had a real motive to get rid of Natalie. And
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the fact that he didn't have an alibi for the
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: night of the murder, that he was asleep, was really
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: a glaring red flag at this point. But even so,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Ferry knew he couldn't just arrest Mark on a hunch.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Mark's DNA had not been recovered from the belt, from
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the body, from the murder weapon, or the van, so
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: without any evidence actually tying him to the murder, Ferry
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: had no choice but to eventually turn him loose. And
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: after Mark left, Ferry just sat alone for a moment,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: just thinking over the case. The evidence of a potential
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: affair between Mark and this former boss of his had
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: certainly launched Mark to the very top of the suspect list.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: But Ferry was still quite suspicious of the other two
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: men on it, despite their alibis being much more solid.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: After all, Patrice's DNA had literally been found on Natalie's
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: belt that was used to bind her arms. And no
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: matter how plausible his affair story was of his affair
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: with Natalie, that fact doesn't just go away.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, your DNA was basically on a dead body.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: And then there was Natalie's very difficult tenant, Bruno, The
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: missing cash from the cash register had never turned up,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: which meant robbery was still very much a potential motive here.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: And Bruno had.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Already been caught stealing from the same register once before,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: so it seemed like he really could have done this
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: just for the money. And so after a little while,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: after thinking over these three suspects really closely, Ferry came
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: to a decision. There was one person he really needed
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: to talk to, and if he was right, they could
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: help clear all of this up. A few days later,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Ferry was once again back inside of a police interview room,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: but this time he was sitting across from a woman.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: He believed she held the key to this whole case.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: He just needed her to tell him the truth. At first,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: she was very hesitant, but Ferry, he kept on pushing
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and pushing, and eventually she broke, and she told him
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: everything he needed to know. Based on forensic evidence and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: witness testimony, this is what police believe happened to Natalie
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Vierme on the night of October 14, 2010. The killer
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: stood in the dark, watching Natalie as she crossed in
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: front of her van. The killer had been.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Thinking about this for a long time.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Thinking about Natalie, and thinking about the way things were
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: supposed to be between them.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: And they'd prepared for this moment.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Earlier that day, they had found this heavy branch that
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: would make a perfect weapon, like a big club, and
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: they had stowed it away. And that same afternoon, the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: killer had made a phone call to ensure.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: They got away with what they were planning.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: So as Natalie passed by her van, the killer made
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: their move. They rushed up and they grabbed Natalie from behind.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: And as she twisted around, the pouch with the cash
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: register money fell from her pocket. Natalie, she fought back,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: thrashing and screaming as loud as she could, but the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: killer wrestled her to the ground and managed to strip
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: off her belt and then bound her hands. The killer
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: tried to undress her further, but Natalie just would not
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: stop fighting. And so the killer began to panic, and
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: they decided they needed to silence her before anybody heard.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: And so they tried strangling Natalie with her own scarf,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: but Natalie kept on fighting. She wasn't passing out, and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: so when this didn't work, they pulled out that heavy branch,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: their club. They smashed Natalie in the face until she
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: went still. By the time it was all over, the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: front of Natalie's van was splattered all over the place
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: with blood. The killer scooped up that money pouch off
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the road, and then they carried Natalie's body inside to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the back of the van, loaded her inside, and then
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: tossed the branch in with her. Then they took the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: keys to her van from her pockets, and then the
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: killer climbed into the front seat and drove off, looking
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: for somewhere remote. where the body might go unnoticed. When
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: they found a spot that looked pretty good, they pulled over,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: they pulled her body out of the van, and dumped
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: it into a ditch off the side of the road,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and then threw some branches on top of it. By
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the time the killer got back to the van, it
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: was nearly 5 a.m. And so they hopped back in
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: the van. They drove it a few miles down the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: road before they abandoned it. And so at that point,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: they just started the long walk back to the Rose Garden.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: And this same person was there at the Rose Garden
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: when Mark, the longtime boyfriend, showed up saying that Natalie
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: was missing. And that's when the killer volunteered to go
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: help him look for her. It would turn out Natalie
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: was murdered by Patrice Chevalier, the Rose Garden's bartender. The
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: crucial clue came from Patrice's own girlfriend, who was the
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: woman Ferry had summoned to the police station for that
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: critical interview. The girlfriend had previously confirmed Patrice's alibi, but
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: when Ferry pressed her on it the second time she
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: was brought in to be spoken to, She admitted that
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Patrice had asked her to lie, and she had. And apparently,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Patrice had not asked her to lie after the murder
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: had been committed. No. Patrice called his girlfriend hours before
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: he murdered Natalie and instructed her on exactly what to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: tell the police, which proved that he had planned Natalie's
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: murder ahead of time. After his girlfriend came clean, investigators
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: searched Patrice's room at the Rose Garden and And they
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: found a stash of hidden cell phones. And on these
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: phones were dozens and dozens of photos of Natalie that
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: clearly had been taken secretly of her, like from under
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: tables and, you know, from behind her, clearly designed to
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: try to capture, you know, images of her that were
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: sort of risque. Patrice had never been Natalie's lover. He'd
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: been obsessed with her for years, you know, secretly taking
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: those photos of her and watching her all the time.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: But his story about the two of them having an
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: affair had been a total fabrication. One, it was a
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: story that was designed to cover up the fact that
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: his DNA was found on the belt used to bind
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: her hands. But also, one could assume that he was
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: sort of living out this lie because he still, even
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: after killing her, even after basically being caught for murder,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: was like pretending that he had this real relationship with Natalie.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: And so maybe it gave him some satisfaction to pretend.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: that they had had this affair because, you know, who's
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: going to say otherwise? Natalie at this point was dead.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: And so ultimately, Patrice Chevalier was convicted of murder and
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: sentenced to 20 years in prison. Thank you so much
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: for watching. Let me know what you thought of today's
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: episode in the comments. And remember, we have a whole
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: playlist of true crime episodes ready for you to binge
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.