Latest / Crime and Horror / Wealthy French playboy found in his own TRUNK - MrBallen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On a cold night in early February of twenty ten,
- 0:03Speaker 1: a group of friends gathered around the table at a
- 0:05Speaker 1: restaurant inside of a French ski resort. They had been
- 0:08Speaker 1: out on the slopes all day and now they were
- 0:10Speaker 1: warming up and relaxing with some muld wine by the fire. Eventually,
- 0:14Speaker 1: a cell phone bust and one of the friends. They
- 0:16Speaker 1: looked at their phone and immediately frowned. Then, without saying anything,
- 0:20Speaker 1: they excused themselves and stepped away from the table to talk.
- 0:24Speaker 1: And then when they came back, they were pale, their
- 0:26Speaker 1: hands were shaking, and the others asked them, what are
- 0:29Speaker 1: you okay? Like, who are you talking to? But this
- 0:32Speaker 1: person they just shook their head, grabbed their coat and
- 0:34Speaker 1: said they had to leave right now. Someone they cared
- 0:36Speaker 1: about very much needed their help. But before we get
- 0:39Speaker 1: into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange,
- 0:42Speaker 1: dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come
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- 0:48Speaker 1: we upload two, three, even four times a week. So
- 0:51Speaker 1: if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the
- 0:53Speaker 1: like Button's house and replace all the foam in their
- 0:56Speaker 1: mattress with rocks. Also, please subscribe to our channel and
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- 1:02Speaker 1: of our uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On
- 1:27Speaker 1: the afternoon of Saturday, February sixth, twenty ten, sixty one
- 1:31Speaker 1: year old Alan Lailou set up the ironing board behind
- 1:34Speaker 1: the couch in the living room of a little house
- 1:37Speaker 1: outside the town of Chartre in northern France. From the kitchen,
- 1:41Speaker 1: he could smell the beef borgignon simmering on the stove,
- 1:45Speaker 1: but Alan and the thirty seven year old woman who
- 1:47Speaker 1: was cooking the beef borgegnon were not talking. The woman's
- 1:51Speaker 1: name was Alexandra Nicola, and Alan had actually bought this
- 1:55Speaker 1: house for her and her ten year old daughter. Alexandra
- 1:59Speaker 1: used to be alan assistant, but over the years they
- 2:02Speaker 1: had developed a really close relationship that was much more
- 2:05Speaker 1: like father to daughter. Now, Alexandra had not worked for
- 2:08Speaker 1: Alan in a number of years, but you know, they
- 2:11Speaker 1: remained close. And also, you know, remember Alan literally bought
- 2:15Speaker 1: her this house, and so as a result of this
- 2:17Speaker 1: bond they had, Alan found himself visiting her quite a
- 2:21Speaker 1: bit at this house, you know, helping out where he could,
- 2:23Speaker 1: and he also paid for her car and also for
- 2:25Speaker 1: their vacations. And Alan could afford to be this generous
- 2:29Speaker 1: because he was a very successful, high powered producer of
- 2:33Speaker 1: circus shows, which were a huge moneymaker in France. Lots
- 2:37Speaker 1: of companies booked circus shows for end of the year
- 2:39Speaker 1: parties for their employees, and Alan had lots of major
- 2:43Speaker 1: contracts and so as a result, Alan's office was in
- 2:46Speaker 1: this fancy chateau in the countryside, and his wife actually
- 2:50Speaker 1: lived in this luxury ski town near the Swiss border.
- 2:53Speaker 1: And Alan was constantly traveling all over Europe for work.
- 2:57Speaker 1: But this life could also be a grind. Just in
- 3:00Speaker 1: the past twenty four hours, Alan had traveled more than
- 3:03Speaker 1: twelve hundred miles meeting with potential clients and scouting new performers.
- 3:08Speaker 1: So he put a lot of value on the time
- 3:10Speaker 1: where he could escape to Alexandra's house, where he could
- 3:14Speaker 1: recharge in the quiet of the suburbs and obviously spend
- 3:17Speaker 1: time with somebody he cared a lot about. Now, Alan
- 3:20Speaker 1: knew all of his friends and coworkers thought that he
- 3:23Speaker 1: and Alexandra were blatantly having an affair here, and he
- 3:27Speaker 1: was sure that's what his own wife assumed too. And
- 3:30Speaker 1: this was fair because, after all, Alan did have lots
- 3:34Speaker 1: of extramarital relationships. He also engaged with sex workers all
- 3:39Speaker 1: the time, and he really didn't even try to hide
- 3:41Speaker 1: any of it. He and his wife, Elizabeth, they lived
- 3:44Speaker 1: in separate homes, and they sort of had this understanding
- 3:47Speaker 1: that she can have this life and he can have
- 3:50Speaker 1: this life in exchange. However, Alan's relationship with Alexandra really
- 3:54Speaker 1: was different. It had always been platonic. They'd never even
- 3:59Speaker 1: kissed or held hands. Alan had no kids of his own,
- 4:02Speaker 1: and he genuinely enjoyed playing the role of, you know,
- 4:05Speaker 1: doting father and grandfather to Alexandra and her daughter, respectively.
- 4:10Speaker 1: But now they were in this big fight, and Alan
- 4:13Speaker 1: was anxious to repair it. Alexandra's daughter was out of
- 4:17Speaker 1: the house for the weekend, so he and Alexandra had
- 4:19Speaker 1: planned to have this nice dinner tonight before Alan had
- 4:22Speaker 1: to head out again on business on Sunday afternoon. But
- 4:26Speaker 1: Alan somewhat stupidly had brought up Alexandra's past and then
- 4:31Speaker 1: ended up getting into this horrible fight and just continued
- 4:34Speaker 1: to yell at each other. Ever since, Alexandra was very
- 4:37Speaker 1: defensive about her troubled history. When she was a young woman,
- 4:41Speaker 1: she had moved to Paris, and she had fallen in
- 4:43Speaker 1: love and she had had a baby, but the baby
- 4:45Speaker 1: had tragically died and her relationship with her love had
- 4:49Speaker 1: fallen apart, and so she had spiraled into very self
- 4:52Speaker 1: destructive behavior by the time Alan finally met her in
- 4:56Speaker 1: two thousand and two, so this is eight years before
- 4:59Speaker 1: they were in the house having this big fight. You know,
- 5:02Speaker 1: Alexander was really struggling by this point. She had a
- 5:05Speaker 1: two year old daughter, and she was really struggling to
- 5:08Speaker 1: provide for her because all she could muster in terms
- 5:10Speaker 1: of work was like this combination of minimum wage jobs
- 5:14Speaker 1: and side hustles. And so when Alan had hired her
- 5:17Speaker 1: as his you know, full time secretary, it had completely
- 5:20Speaker 1: transformed her life. But you know, deep down, sometimes she
- 5:25Speaker 1: seemed more resentful of Alan's power than grateful for his help.
- 5:29Speaker 1: It's like he had total control over her well being
- 5:32Speaker 1: and she didn't necessarily like that. And so with at
- 5:35Speaker 1: as context, Alan left the ironing board and walked into
- 5:39Speaker 1: the kitchen, hoping that Alexandra had cooled down enough that
- 5:42Speaker 1: they could actually have a real conversation here. And so
- 5:45Speaker 1: once he was in the kitchen. He sort of looked
- 5:47Speaker 1: over at Alexandra and couldn't really tell where she was at.
- 5:50Speaker 1: And then he turned opened up the fridge and just
- 5:52Speaker 1: kind of stared inside of it, not really looking for
- 5:55Speaker 1: any food or drink or anything, you know. He was
- 5:57Speaker 1: just hoping that Alexander would say something to him, And
- 6:01Speaker 1: to his relief, Alexandra did turn around and kind of
- 6:04Speaker 1: playfully swung her dish towel at him, telling him that
- 6:07Speaker 1: he had to wait for dinner. She didn't seem mad
- 6:09Speaker 1: at him anymore, so Alan felt very relieved, and he
- 6:12Speaker 1: smiled and closed the fridge, and then he told her
- 6:15Speaker 1: to come sit with him and have some wine while
- 6:17Speaker 1: they waited for the laundry to dry so she could
- 6:19Speaker 1: iron it. A few minutes later, they both sat down
- 6:22Speaker 1: on the sofa with their wineglasses and Alexandra asked Alan
- 6:26Speaker 1: how business was going. He told her it was good,
- 6:28Speaker 1: which technically it was. This company was on track to
- 6:32Speaker 1: bring in around four million euros that year, which is
- 6:35Speaker 1: the equivalent of about five million US dollars. But despite
- 6:39Speaker 1: how things looked on paper, Alan was pretty stressed. He
- 6:43Speaker 1: made the majority of his money through contracts with companies
- 6:46Speaker 1: but he was not the only person competing for those
- 6:50Speaker 1: lucrative contracts. His number one competitor was another circus owner
- 6:54Speaker 1: whose name was Michelle de la Rule, and recently, Michelle
- 6:59Speaker 1: had been beating Alan on one contract after another, and
- 7:03Speaker 1: it was starting to feel to Alan like Michelle was
- 7:05Speaker 1: actually targeting Alan's contracts, trying to steal them from him,
- 7:10Speaker 1: rather than trying to cultivate his own clients. Alan told
- 7:13Speaker 1: Alexandra that on Monday he had a very important meeting
- 7:17Speaker 1: in Vishi, which is a city in central France about
- 7:19Speaker 1: a four hour drive south of Alexandra's house. At this meeting,
- 7:23Speaker 1: Alan was hoping to win a big contract as long
- 7:27Speaker 1: as Michelle didn't steal it out from under him. Alexandra
- 7:30Speaker 1: put her hand on Alan's arm and told him don't worry.
- 7:33Speaker 1: She said she was sure his meeting on Monday would
- 7:36Speaker 1: be a huge success and they could celebrate in a
- 7:38Speaker 1: few weeks on the ski trip that he had booked
- 7:41Speaker 1: for the two of them and her daughter. Then she
- 7:43Speaker 1: put down her now empty wineglass and went to go
- 7:46Speaker 1: do the laundry. As Alexandra disappeared into the back of
- 7:49Speaker 1: the house, Alan just kind of sat by himself for
- 7:52Speaker 1: a minute, he was looking forward to the vacation that
- 7:54Speaker 1: she had mentioned, and bart because Alexandra had been a
- 7:58Speaker 1: lot busier lately with her new boyfriend, a forty two
- 8:01Speaker 1: year old IT engineer from Paris named Eve Bernard. Now,
- 8:06Speaker 1: Alan and Eve got along just fine, but he could
- 8:09Speaker 1: tell that Alexandra and Eve were getting pretty serious. They
- 8:13Speaker 1: might even get married, and Alan couldn't help but worry
- 8:16Speaker 1: that eventually, if that happened, Eve might start to resent
- 8:20Speaker 1: him for sort of stepping in as this paternal figure
- 8:24Speaker 1: in Alexander's life, that perhaps he would come off as
- 8:26Speaker 1: being sort of overbearing. But he was not going to
- 8:30Speaker 1: let that fear wreck the evening, so as Alexandra came back,
- 8:34Speaker 1: now with the laundry, picked up a book from the
- 8:36Speaker 1: coffee table, then took the last step of his wine.
- 8:39Speaker 1: The rest of the weekend passed by quickly, and by
- 8:42Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon, Alan was back in his car, headed back
- 8:45Speaker 1: out of town. But what no one would realize until
- 8:49Speaker 1: much later was there was actually a second car following
- 8:53Speaker 1: closely behind him. The following day, on the morning of Monday,
- 9:03Speaker 1: February eighth, Alan Leelou's wife Elizabeth, was drinking a coffee
- 9:07Speaker 1: inside her home in the mountains when her phone rang.
- 9:10Speaker 1: She picked it up and she heard the voice of
- 9:12Speaker 1: Alan's assistant, Sylvie. Then Sylvie sounded very worried, and she
- 9:16Speaker 1: said she was calling to see if Elizabeth had heard
- 9:19Speaker 1: from her husband recently. And this was pretty strange because
- 9:22Speaker 1: Alan was not the type of person to just disappear
- 9:26Speaker 1: from work without telling his secretary. So Elizabeth told Sylvie
- 9:30Speaker 1: that no, she hadn't heard from Alan in a few days.
- 9:33Speaker 1: And then she asked Sylvie, like, why, what's going on here?
- 9:36Speaker 1: And as Elizabeth listened to Sylvie's answer, she felt herself
- 9:40Speaker 1: growing really nervous because apparently Alan had this very important
- 9:45Speaker 1: meeting in vs that morning, but he had not shown
- 9:48Speaker 1: up for it. In fact, he'd never even checked into
- 9:51Speaker 1: the hotel in v She where he was supposed to
- 9:53Speaker 1: be staying. Sylvie said she had already reached out to
- 9:57Speaker 1: several of Alan's friends in business contacts, but nobody had
- 10:01Speaker 1: heard from him, and he was not answering the repeated
- 10:04Speaker 1: phone calls to both of his cell phones, which appeared
- 10:07Speaker 1: to be turned off. None of this made any sense
- 10:10Speaker 1: to Elizabeth. Alan was famous for spending entire days on
- 10:15Speaker 1: his various phones. She couldn't even recall a time when
- 10:18Speaker 1: he'd been unreachable even briefly. So Elizabeth told Sylvie she
- 10:23Speaker 1: was glad she called, but she would take it from here.
- 10:26Speaker 1: Then Elizabeth hung up the phone with Sylvie and called
- 10:29Speaker 1: the police. Hey guys, I have some pretty big news.
- 10:39Speaker 1: I know many of you are excited to hear. I
- 10:42Speaker 1: am going to be doing another live storytelling tour this year.
- 10:46Speaker 1: You can find me in a bunch of cities, including
- 10:48Speaker 1: new ones on the West Coast and across the United
- 10:51Speaker 1: States where I have never played before. Plus, I'm really
- 10:54Speaker 1: excited to share that I will also be performing in
- 10:57Speaker 1: an international city, since so many many of you have
- 11:00Speaker 1: been asking me to visit. We put together an absolutely
- 11:03Speaker 1: amazing show with a whole bunch of awesome stories, including
- 11:07Speaker 1: stories you will not hear anywhere else, new content you
- 11:10Speaker 1: can only get if you come to this show. And
- 11:13Speaker 1: guess what. Tickets for this tour are available right now
- 11:17Speaker 1: at tour dot ballinstudios dot com. In terms of the
- 11:20Speaker 1: types of tickets you can buy, they range from general
- 11:23Speaker 1: admission to VIP. Again, that's tour dot ballinstudios dot com.
- 11:27Speaker 1: I'm also going to be giving away a trip to
- 11:29Speaker 1: meet me at one of my live shows, and so
- 11:32Speaker 1: if you want to enter for your chance to win that,
- 11:34Speaker 1: all you have to do is donate to win at
- 11:37Speaker 1: FANDM dot com slash mister Ballin Again. That's f A
- 11:41Speaker 1: N D e M dot com slash mister Ballin. Get
- 11:46Speaker 1: your tickets and enter the sweepstakes today. I can't wait
- 11:49Speaker 1: to see you at the show. A week and a
- 11:55Speaker 1: half later, on February nineteenth, a young police officer knocked
- 11:59Speaker 1: on the front door of a little house outside the
- 12:01Speaker 1: town of Chartre in northern France. Now, up until this point,
- 12:06Speaker 1: Alan's case had been treated as a simple missing person's case,
- 12:10Speaker 1: with the local police in Alan's wife's hometown handling the inquiry,
- 12:14Speaker 1: which was pretty basic. But now enough time had passed
- 12:18Speaker 1: without Alan being found and no evidence coming in that
- 12:21Speaker 1: the original report had been kicked over to the crime
- 12:24Speaker 1: division because they were thinking this could potentially be a
- 12:27Speaker 1: kidnapping or something worse. This young officer was here at
- 12:31Speaker 1: this home because it was the last place Alan was
- 12:34Speaker 1: known to be before he went missing. The door of
- 12:37Speaker 1: the home opened and a thin, blonde woman looked out.
- 12:40Speaker 1: The officer asked her if her name was Alexandra Nikola,
- 12:43Speaker 1: and she said yes. When he explained to her why
- 12:46Speaker 1: he was there, Alexandra looked immediately concerned and invited him inside.
- 12:51Speaker 1: And as she led him into her living room and
- 12:53Speaker 1: offered him a seat on her couch, the officer looked around,
- 12:56Speaker 1: taking stock of the space. It was clean, but a
- 12:58Speaker 1: bit cluttered with toy that appeared to belong to a
- 13:01Speaker 1: young girl scattered about. The officer scanned for any signs
- 13:04Speaker 1: of a physical fight or violence of some kind, like
- 13:07Speaker 1: damage to the walls or the furniture, but there was
- 13:10Speaker 1: nothing that stood out, nothing concerning. Alexandra began asking the
- 13:13Speaker 1: officer pretty anxiously, all these questions about what was going
- 13:17Speaker 1: on with Alan. Was he hurt? Was he in some
- 13:20Speaker 1: kind of danger? Like what do you know? But the
- 13:23Speaker 1: young officer just shook his head and said, for now,
- 13:25Speaker 1: they really didn't know much. He was just here to
- 13:28Speaker 1: try to build a timeline of Alan's last known movements,
- 13:31Speaker 1: and so, speaking of that, he asked Alexandra to please
- 13:35Speaker 1: walk him through what she remembered about her last interaction
- 13:38Speaker 1: with Alan. The officer took careful notes as Alexandra began
- 13:42Speaker 1: to rattle off all the details she could remember. She
- 13:45Speaker 1: said that Alan was like a surrogate father to her,
- 13:48Speaker 1: and he had come over on the evening of Friday,
- 13:50Speaker 1: February fifth. He had been there on Friday, also on
- 13:53Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday, and then he had taken off on
- 13:56Speaker 1: that Sunday because he had to go to Vshi for
- 13:58Speaker 1: this big meeting on Monday. She told the officer that
- 14:01Speaker 1: after he left for that meeting, she hadn't heard from him,
- 14:04Speaker 1: but that was pretty typical. She said, their relationship was
- 14:07Speaker 1: not remotely romantic. It really was platonic. And you know,
- 14:11Speaker 1: he didn't always check in the way you know a
- 14:13Speaker 1: spouse would. You know, this is more like really close friends.
- 14:17Speaker 1: The officer nodded while he wrote down what she said.
- 14:19Speaker 1: Alexandra seemed very helpful and appropriately worried, but he was
- 14:24Speaker 1: suspicious of the idea that she and Alan were not
- 14:28Speaker 1: romantically involved at all, So before he left, he asked
- 14:32Speaker 1: to see the rest of her house, in part just
- 14:35Speaker 1: to see what her reaction would be. If she said
- 14:37Speaker 1: no or got defensive, he would probe a bit more deeply.
- 14:41Speaker 1: But she immediately agreed, and she actually took him all
- 14:44Speaker 1: around the house, showing him anywhere he wanted to go,
- 14:47Speaker 1: and what he found is the rest of the house
- 14:49Speaker 1: seemed just as normal as the living room and the entryway.
- 14:53Speaker 1: She eventually brought the officer back to the door and
- 14:55Speaker 1: promised him she would call if Alan reached out, And so,
- 14:59Speaker 1: after leaving Alan Alexandra's house to be thorough, the officer
- 15:02Speaker 1: actually went door to door up and down Alexandra's street,
- 15:06Speaker 1: asking her neighbors what they remembered about that particular weekend
- 15:10Speaker 1: and over the past several days, seeing if there was
- 15:13Speaker 1: anything that contradicted what Alexandra had said, But everybody more
- 15:18Speaker 1: or less confirmed Alexandra's story. Alan was indeed a regular
- 15:22Speaker 1: visitor in the neighborhood, and several people did remember seeing
- 15:26Speaker 1: him on the weekend in question and said that really
- 15:29Speaker 1: nothing had seemed off. So eventually the officer just left
- 15:33Speaker 1: and went back to the station, and when he got
- 15:36Speaker 1: there he wrote a report highlighting Alan's last known destination
- 15:40Speaker 1: of Vshi. Over the next week, police in Vshi, as
- 15:44Speaker 1: well as in the ski town where Alan's wife lived,
- 15:47Speaker 1: followed up on the loose threads of the investigation. They
- 15:50Speaker 1: poured over Alan's cell phone history and his bank account
- 15:53Speaker 1: and credit card transactions, which all showed no activity after
- 15:57Speaker 1: he left Alexandra's house on February seven. They also spoke
- 16:01Speaker 1: to his business connections and his friends, but no one
- 16:04Speaker 1: had heard anything, and they even put in a request to
- 16:07Speaker 1: the car company Audi for the GPS data that was
- 16:10Speaker 1: stored in Alan's car, which was an Audi Q seven.
- 16:14Speaker 1: Now the investigators knew it was entirely possible that Alan
- 16:17Speaker 1: had chosen to disappear. I mean, he was very wealthy,
- 16:20Speaker 1: he had lots of connections, you know, that was a
- 16:23Speaker 1: possibility that he had basically chosen to be gone, and
- 16:26Speaker 1: if that was the case, it would be pretty difficult
- 16:28Speaker 1: to find him. However, it was a lot harder to
- 16:32Speaker 1: hide a car that logged all of its travel data,
- 16:36Speaker 1: and so whether Allan's disappearance was voluntary, accidental, or the
- 16:40Speaker 1: result of foul play, the police knew finding his audi
- 16:44Speaker 1: was likely the best hope they had of knowing where
- 16:48Speaker 1: to even look for Alan. On February twenty sixth, twenty ten,
- 16:58Speaker 1: so nineteen days since Alan was reported missing, a detective
- 17:02Speaker 1: named Pierre Martin stood in a secure impound lot in
- 17:05Speaker 1: the city of Orleon, France, looking at Alan's gray Audi
- 17:10Speaker 1: Q seven. The GPS data that police had requested from
- 17:14Speaker 1: Audi had come back a few days earlier, and it
- 17:16Speaker 1: had led detectives to a surprising place. So again, the
- 17:20Speaker 1: last place where Allan was known to have been before
- 17:23Speaker 1: he vanished was leaving the home of his surrogate daughter
- 17:27Speaker 1: Alexandra Nikola near Chartre, France and heading to Vsh, France
- 17:31Speaker 1: for a business meeting. But his AUDI had not been
- 17:34Speaker 1: found in CHARTREI or Vshi. Instead, it had been discovered
- 17:39Speaker 1: in the parking lot of a train station in Orleon,
- 17:42Speaker 1: which was in between those two cities, and so to
- 17:45Speaker 1: the police, it sort of looked like he had gotten
- 17:47Speaker 1: halfway to his destination and just stopped. Now, when they
- 17:51Speaker 1: found this car, the first thing they did is they
- 17:54Speaker 1: just put it under surveillance for two days to see
- 17:56Speaker 1: if maybe Alan or somebody else would return to it
- 18:00Speaker 1: or context. The parking lot where this car was was
- 18:02Speaker 1: in a pretty rough area where violent crime and sex
- 18:06Speaker 1: work were pretty common, So I mean, any number of
- 18:08Speaker 1: people could potentially, you know, break into this car or
- 18:12Speaker 1: who knows what. It just seemed like a CD area
- 18:14Speaker 1: where something might happen here if we keep watching. But
- 18:18Speaker 1: nobody had shown up, so Finally, they just towed the
- 18:21Speaker 1: car to the impound lot for forensic technicians to process
- 18:24Speaker 1: it and look for evidence, and Detective Marton was here
- 18:28Speaker 1: to watch that process. The forensic texts circled the vehicle
- 18:32Speaker 1: and began taking photos of the outside and also dusting
- 18:36Speaker 1: for fingerprints. There was no visible damage anywhere on the
- 18:39Speaker 1: outside of the car, and there were no traces of
- 18:41Speaker 1: any effort to try to break into the car. Plus,
- 18:44Speaker 1: Allan's briefcase and luggage were clearly still inside the car,
- 18:48Speaker 1: which meant, you know, the fact the car was found
- 18:50Speaker 1: where it was was likely not a product of a robbery.
- 18:54Speaker 1: This didn't seem like somebody just stole his car. It's
- 18:57Speaker 1: here and it has nothing to do with Alan's disappearance.
- 19:00Speaker 1: It seems like how this car got here is connected
- 19:03Speaker 1: in some way to what happened to Alan, and you know,
- 19:07Speaker 1: sort of going down that path, it seemed more and
- 19:10Speaker 1: more likely that what happened to Alan probably fell into
- 19:14Speaker 1: the category of foul play. However, when the technicians opened
- 19:19Speaker 1: up the car doors and began dusting for prints inside,
- 19:23Speaker 1: the upholstery was disappointingly clean, which doesn't exactly sort of
- 19:28Speaker 1: enhance the idea that foul play happened here. It just
- 19:30Speaker 1: sort of seems like what's going on. But after a
- 19:33Speaker 1: few minutes, after you know, kind of thoroughly scanning the
- 19:36Speaker 1: inside of the car, one of the texts pushed the
- 19:39Speaker 1: button near the driver's side that opened up the trunk,
- 19:42Speaker 1: and then after it was open, Detective Martin walked around
- 19:45Speaker 1: to the back to look inside and see what was
- 19:47Speaker 1: in there, and what he saw was this bulky object
- 19:51Speaker 1: wrapped in a pink sheet, And right away Martin had
- 19:55Speaker 1: this sinking feeling in his chest as one of the
- 19:57Speaker 1: texts reached forward with a gloved hand and pulled the
- 20:00Speaker 1: sheet back, and pretty much immediately Martin's suspicions were confirmed.
- 20:06Speaker 1: Underneath that pink sheet was a body, a man's body,
- 20:09Speaker 1: fully clothed and curled in the fetal position. There was
- 20:13Speaker 1: no doubt this was Alan Leelou. But there was no
- 20:17Speaker 1: visible blood or wounds or bruises anywhere on his body,
- 20:21Speaker 1: and there was no blood in the trunk. When Detective
- 20:24Speaker 1: Martin reached in to try to move Alan's body to
- 20:28Speaker 1: further examine him, he found his body was already incredibly
- 20:31Speaker 1: rigid with brigor mortis. The coroner told Martin that she
- 20:35Speaker 1: would hopefully have some answers for him after she did
- 20:38Speaker 1: the autopsy. The weather over the past few weeks had
- 20:41Speaker 1: been pretty cold, which was good for evidence collection because
- 20:44Speaker 1: it basically meant the trunk had sort of acted like
- 20:47Speaker 1: a refrigerator and preserved Alan's soft tissue. As the coroner
- 20:51Speaker 1: wheeled the body away, Martn just stood there staring at
- 20:54Speaker 1: the now empty trunk. He had no theories about when,
- 20:58Speaker 1: or why, or even how Alan had died. All he
- 21:02Speaker 1: knew was that this was now officially a murder investigation.
- 21:17Speaker 1: Detective Martin returned to his office at the police station
- 21:19Speaker 1: and got to work. Since Alan's body was found in
- 21:22Speaker 1: early On, he was now in charge of the murder investigation.
- 21:26Speaker 1: His first step was to review all the witness statements
- 21:29Speaker 1: and other evidence that had already been gathered by the
- 21:32Speaker 1: other departments, and right away the picture they painted told
- 21:36Speaker 1: Marton that this was going to be a very complex investigation,
- 21:40Speaker 1: with lots of suspects and multiple locations. Alan was a
- 21:44Speaker 1: workaholic who was always on the move, and he had
- 21:47Speaker 1: no apparent connection to the city of Orleon, where he
- 21:50Speaker 1: had ended up. In fact, he rarely seemed to spend
- 21:53Speaker 1: more than a few days in the same place. He
- 21:55Speaker 1: didn't live with his wife. Instead, he seemed to balance
- 21:58Speaker 1: between his office and a series of hotels, with stops
- 22:02Speaker 1: at the home of a woman named Alexandra Nikola in between.
- 22:05Speaker 1: According to reports, Alexandra had been interviewed and she said
- 22:09Speaker 1: that Alan was at her house the weekend before he disappeared,
- 22:13Speaker 1: and so this made her the last person to see
- 22:15Speaker 1: Alan alive, which in Martin's mind, clearly made her a
- 22:18Speaker 1: suspect right off the bat. However, Alexandra's story about Alan
- 22:23Speaker 1: leaving her house on Sunday, February sixth matched up with
- 22:27Speaker 1: the data Martin had from Alan's car, cell phone, and
- 22:31Speaker 1: credit card records, which all showed that Alan really did
- 22:34Speaker 1: leave her house and went to Orleon on that day,
- 22:37Speaker 1: and then, for reasons unknown, stopped communicating or spending money.
- 22:41Speaker 1: Maybe that was the day he was killed. Right off
- 22:43Speaker 1: the bat. Like the police officer who originally visited Alexandra
- 22:47Speaker 1: and took down her original story, Detective Martin found it
- 22:51Speaker 1: pretty hard to believe that her relationship with Alan was
- 22:55Speaker 1: not romantic. It just seemed like based on how frequently
- 22:58Speaker 1: they apparently saw each other and the fact that Alan
- 23:01Speaker 1: was buying her things and you know, bought her house
- 23:04Speaker 1: and paid for vacations and things like that. It just
- 23:06Speaker 1: seemed like there was more to the story than what
- 23:09Speaker 1: he had been told. But even though that did totally
- 23:12Speaker 1: cast some level of suspicion on Alexandra, there was also
- 23:16Speaker 1: just the logical side of it for Detective Martin, which is, like, Okay,
- 23:19Speaker 1: the size difference between Alan and Alexandra was stark. I mean,
- 23:24Speaker 1: Alan was two hundred and forty pounds, a really big guy,
- 23:27Speaker 1: and Alexandra was just very small and petite. Now, is
- 23:32Speaker 1: it impossible for her to kill him and put him
- 23:35Speaker 1: in the trunk of the car in orlean. No, but
- 23:38Speaker 1: it just makes it sort of unlikely. And so that's
- 23:41Speaker 1: just sort of floating in the background of Detective Martin's mind.
- 23:44Speaker 1: But for now, what Martin found himself much more interested
- 23:47Speaker 1: in was some of the other information that Alan's business
- 23:51Speaker 1: associates and wife had supplied. First off, Alan apparently had
- 23:55Speaker 1: lots of affairs with lots of women, and so that
- 23:58Speaker 1: meant every one of those women and any husbands or
- 24:01Speaker 1: boyfriends or other romantic partners of any kind connected to
- 24:04Speaker 1: them were also suspects. It also meant that Alan's wife, Elizabeth,
- 24:09Speaker 1: had a motive to want her husband dead. I mean, basically,
- 24:13Speaker 1: he's cheating on her openly all the time. That's got
- 24:15Speaker 1: to be motivation for her to do something to him. Now,
- 24:18Speaker 1: Martain didn't think that Elizabeth literally would have done the
- 24:22Speaker 1: killing herself, because she was actually four hundred miles away
- 24:26Speaker 1: at her home when her husband died, but she certainly
- 24:29Speaker 1: had the financial means to hire a hitman. And the
- 24:33Speaker 1: second thing that Detective Martain got from the associates and
- 24:36Speaker 1: from Alan's wife was Alan's business dealings were both very
- 24:41Speaker 1: high stakes and very ugly. Alan's employees and colleagues clearly
- 24:46Speaker 1: respected him, but they also described him as a very
- 24:49Speaker 1: tough boss and a ruthless business person. He could be
- 24:53Speaker 1: very loud and abrasive, and he had already made his
- 24:56Speaker 1: fair share of enemies in the circus business, which was
- 24:59Speaker 1: already known to a cutthroat industry where a lot of
- 25:01Speaker 1: money was flying around. And so, because Martin had been
- 25:05Speaker 1: handed this murder investigation, and really there's like an overwhelming
- 25:09Speaker 1: number of people that could have been involved here. Instead
- 25:12Speaker 1: of just you know, not being sure where to start,
- 25:15Speaker 1: Martin just assembled a team of his very best deputies,
- 25:19Speaker 1: and they set to work literally reinterviewing everybody and from
- 25:23Speaker 1: that making a list of suspects that they deemed were appropriate.
- 25:34Speaker 1: Three weeks later, on March seventeenth, Detective Martin walked into
- 25:38Speaker 1: an interrogation room in the Orlean Police Station and he
- 25:42Speaker 1: sat down across from a relatively fit looking fifty year
- 25:45Speaker 1: old man who was waiting for him quietly and apparently
- 25:48Speaker 1: very calmly. The man's name was Michel de la Rule,
- 25:52Speaker 1: and he was Allan's biggest rival in the circus business.
- 25:55Speaker 1: He was also, at this very moment, Detective Martin's number
- 25:59Speaker 1: one suspect in this murder. Martin and his team had
- 26:02Speaker 1: spent the last few weeks conducting dozens and dozens of interviews,
- 26:06Speaker 1: and Michelle's name had come up more times than anybody else's,
- 26:10Speaker 1: and this was because immediately after Alan disappeared, Michelle had
- 26:15Speaker 1: begun contacting Allan's clients, trying to get them to all
- 26:19Speaker 1: sign new contracts with him, sort of a pretty cutthroat
- 26:22Speaker 1: and cold thing to do. And Detective Martin had done
- 26:25Speaker 1: the math on these contracts Michelle was going for, and
- 26:29Speaker 1: they added up to the equivalent of millions of dollars, which,
- 26:32Speaker 1: in the detective's mind, was a very compelling motive for murder.
- 26:35Speaker 1: You know, maybe Michelle killed this guy specifically to gobble
- 26:40Speaker 1: up these contracts. And not only that, but the coroner
- 26:43Speaker 1: had by this point come back with Alan's cause of death.
- 26:47Speaker 1: He had been strangled using some kind of ligature like
- 26:50Speaker 1: a rope or a belt, and it likely took between
- 26:53Speaker 1: five and maybe ten minutes for Alan to actually be
- 26:57Speaker 1: strangled to death. So like the idea is someone's act
- 27:00Speaker 1: of strangling him for that long. That is a long
- 27:03Speaker 1: time to be right there on top of somebody killing someone.
- 27:06Speaker 1: And then the scratches that were found on Alan's legs
- 27:09Speaker 1: suggested that his body had been lifted into the trunk
- 27:12Speaker 1: after he was already dead. So the death struggle, the
- 27:15Speaker 1: actual strangling clearly took place outside of the trunk. And
- 27:19Speaker 1: so all that meant whoever killed Alan had to be
- 27:22Speaker 1: pretty strong, and looking at Michelle now, you know, detective
- 27:26Speaker 1: Martin thought that he did fit the description. He seemed
- 27:29Speaker 1: like a pretty fit, strong guy. However, as Martin began
- 27:34Speaker 1: asking Michelle questions and watching his face and body language
- 27:38Speaker 1: for signs of anxiety or defensiveness that could suggest he
- 27:41Speaker 1: was hiding something. What he found was Michelle seemed pretty
- 27:45Speaker 1: open and very straightforward, like he was not hiding a thing.
- 27:49Speaker 1: Michelle immediately acknowledged poaching Allan's clients, but he just shrugged
- 27:54Speaker 1: as he explained it. You know, that was business. He
- 27:56Speaker 1: said he was sure if somehow the positions were reversed,
- 28:00Speaker 1: Alan would do the same thing to him. And also
- 28:02Speaker 1: he said he had an airtight alibi. On the weekend
- 28:05Speaker 1: when the coroner believed Alan had been killed, Michelle had
- 28:09Speaker 1: been hundreds of miles away skiing. And then Michelle produced
- 28:12Speaker 1: this folder full of these receipts and all these phone numbers,
- 28:16Speaker 1: and he handed it over to Martin, who took it
- 28:19Speaker 1: and he told Michelle, okay, you know, sit tight. And
- 28:22Speaker 1: then the detective got up and he left the interrogation
- 28:24Speaker 1: room and he handed over this folder to another detective
- 28:28Speaker 1: to check out. But after that, Detective Martin did not
- 28:31Speaker 1: go back into the interrogation room. Instead, he grabbed another
- 28:35Speaker 1: detective and told them to take a shot. The idea
- 28:38Speaker 1: was to sort of have a good cop bad cop
- 28:41Speaker 1: sort of dynamic to see if maybe that would rattle Michelle.
- 28:45Speaker 1: And so Detective Martin watched from behind the two way
- 28:48Speaker 1: mirror as the next detective walked inside and took a
- 28:51Speaker 1: stab at, you know, breaking Michelle, But their conversation basically
- 28:56Speaker 1: played out the same way that Marton's had, So Martin
- 29:00Speaker 1: signaled for another detective to go in there and have
- 29:03Speaker 1: them take a shot, but they too had a sort
- 29:05Speaker 1: of run of the mill conversation with Michelle, and they
- 29:08Speaker 1: didn't make any progress. And then, finally, after basically hours
- 29:12Speaker 1: of cycling different detectives into the room to try to
- 29:16Speaker 1: catch Michelle and a lie, Detective Martin felt a tap
- 29:19Speaker 1: on his shoulder, and when he turned around, it was
- 29:21Speaker 1: one of his deputies who told Martin that unfortunately, he
- 29:26Speaker 1: had called all the people that Michelle had given them,
- 29:28Speaker 1: information for all the witnesses from the ski resort, and
- 29:32Speaker 1: he had also even called the manager of the ski lodge,
- 29:35Speaker 1: and basically Michelle's alibi checked out. He clearly had not
- 29:39Speaker 1: been physically able to kill allan he was at that
- 29:42Speaker 1: ski resort at the time of the murder. At this point,
- 29:46Speaker 1: Martin knew he could not just keep Michelle indefinitely and
- 29:49Speaker 1: just keep trying to catch him in a lie. You know,
- 29:52Speaker 1: even if there was some possibility here that he was
- 29:54Speaker 1: involved in this murder. At this point, there just wasn't
- 29:58Speaker 1: enough evidence, and so he had to let Michell go.
- 30:12Speaker 1: A few days later, Martin was back at his desk
- 30:14Speaker 1: combing through reports when a uniformed officer came up and
- 30:18Speaker 1: told him there was somebody at the front desk who
- 30:20Speaker 1: really wanted to talk to him. And this was exactly
- 30:23Speaker 1: the kind of news that Martin had been hoping for.
- 30:25Speaker 1: He had recently put out a statement to the local
- 30:27Speaker 1: papers basically saying, Hey, if there are any witnesses out there,
- 30:30Speaker 1: please come in and talk to me, and he hoped
- 30:33Speaker 1: that whoever this was was potentially a witness, and so
- 30:37Speaker 1: Detective Martin followed the uniformed officer out to the lobby
- 30:40Speaker 1: and there he saw the person who had come in
- 30:43Speaker 1: to see him. It was this man who appeared to
- 30:45Speaker 1: be in his early fifties, who was dressed all in black,
- 30:48Speaker 1: with these shiny black shoes and glasses, and Martan wondered
- 30:52Speaker 1: if maybe this was a business contact of allance, and
- 30:54Speaker 1: as he went up to shake the man's hand, he
- 30:57Speaker 1: sort of felt himself getting excited. But then this man
- 31:00Speaker 1: introduced himself and when he did, Martin had to resist
- 31:03Speaker 1: the urge to just turn around and walk away right there,
- 31:07Speaker 1: because the man said his name was remy Son Duren
- 31:10Speaker 1: and he was a professional psychic. Martin did not believe
- 31:15Speaker 1: in psychics, and he was annoyed with the police officer
- 31:18Speaker 1: for even bringing him out here to meet this person.
- 31:21Speaker 1: And so Martn was literally about to just tell Remy
- 31:24Speaker 1: to you know, thanks for coming in, but I don't
- 31:26Speaker 1: have time for this. You need to go, But then
- 31:28Speaker 1: he thought better of it, because Martin was really having
- 31:31Speaker 1: no luck with this case. There had been very little
- 31:34Speaker 1: forensic evidence recovered from Alan's car. There were no usable fingerprints,
- 31:40Speaker 1: and while the bedsheet Alan's body was wrapped in did
- 31:42Speaker 1: have some DNA on it, they didn't match anything in
- 31:45Speaker 1: their system. And then the business leads that Martin had
- 31:49Speaker 1: been pretty excited about hadn't panned out either, and he'd
- 31:52Speaker 1: found no evidence that anyone in either Alan's personal or
- 31:56Speaker 1: business circles took out a paid hit on him. Martin's
- 31:59Speaker 1: team spoken at length to Alan's surrogate daughter Alexandra, and
- 32:04Speaker 1: all the women he was having affairs with, and all
- 32:07Speaker 1: the sex workers he'd engaged with, and none of them,
- 32:10Speaker 1: nor any of their boyfriends or husbands or partners made
- 32:14Speaker 1: sense as the killer. So out of a mixture of
- 32:17Speaker 1: a little curiosity and a lot of desperation, Morton brought
- 32:22Speaker 1: Remy the psychic back to an interrogation room and asked
- 32:25Speaker 1: him what he thought. Remy explained that he had heard
- 32:27Speaker 1: a news bulletin about Alan while he was driving, and
- 32:30Speaker 1: when he heard it, he had a vision that was
- 32:33Speaker 1: so vivid that he actually had to pull over. He
- 32:36Speaker 1: said he saw Alan Leelu as clear as day, in
- 32:39Speaker 1: this physical struggle with a woman. Remy didn't know her name,
- 32:44Speaker 1: and he couldn't describe her, but he was certain that
- 32:47Speaker 1: a woman was somehow involved in Alan's murder. Martin was
- 32:51Speaker 1: disappointed because, unsurprisingly, this just sort of felt like a
- 32:55Speaker 1: generic stab in the dark by somebody parading around as
- 32:58Speaker 1: a psychic who could see things that now nobody else could.
- 33:01Speaker 1: It just seemed like he threw this random, generic thing
- 33:04Speaker 1: out there as if it was some big revelation, and
- 33:06Speaker 1: it just didn't feel like it was. But Remy wasn't done.
- 33:10Speaker 1: He went on to say he was sure that Alan
- 33:13Speaker 1: was not killed in Orleon, even though that's where his
- 33:17Speaker 1: body had been found. He said Alan's body had been
- 33:20Speaker 1: taken away from the murder scene and actually placed in
- 33:23Speaker 1: the trunk after he was dead, And this caught Martin's
- 33:27Speaker 1: attention because the corner had been certain that Alan was
- 33:30Speaker 1: strangled in one place and then placed into the trunk
- 33:33Speaker 1: afterwards for transportation. But critically, the police had not released
- 33:39Speaker 1: that information to the press, specifically because they wanted to
- 33:42Speaker 1: be able to weed out fake tips. And so for
- 33:45Speaker 1: Remy to say that, I mean, how would he have
- 33:47Speaker 1: access to that? Now, Martan knew this could have just
- 33:50Speaker 1: been a lucky guess by Remy, but it just seemed
- 33:53Speaker 1: so on the nose that he began considering what else
- 33:57Speaker 1: Remy had said. This idea that okay, Alan was struggling
- 34:01Speaker 1: with this woman, you know, that was something that you know,
- 34:04Speaker 1: Martin had not really considered. He'd sort of ruled most
- 34:07Speaker 1: women out as the potential suspect because of how big
- 34:10Speaker 1: Alan had been and how physical this murder had to
- 34:13Speaker 1: have been, So it just seemed more likely that a big,
- 34:16Speaker 1: strong man was responsible for the killing. But now Martin
- 34:21Speaker 1: wasn't so sure, and suddenly it seemed entirely possible that,
- 34:24Speaker 1: you know what, maybe a woman really did do this,
- 34:28Speaker 1: and so eventually Detective Martin thanked Remy for coming in
- 34:31Speaker 1: and sharing his ideas about the case, and then after
- 34:34Speaker 1: walking him out of the station, Detective Marton sped back
- 34:37Speaker 1: to his desk. Because Marton had an idea. Lots of
- 34:42Speaker 1: people in Alan's life had told the police investigating his
- 34:46Speaker 1: murder that Alan had had lots of extramarital affairs. Now,
- 34:51Speaker 1: Detective Marton and his team had spoken to all the
- 34:54Speaker 1: women they could possibly find who had had these affairs
- 34:57Speaker 1: with Alan, and basically all of them had been ruled out. However,
- 35:02Speaker 1: now after talking with Remy the psychic, something about the
- 35:06Speaker 1: location where Alan's body was found was jumping out at
- 35:11Speaker 1: Detective Martin. The part of Orleon where Alan's car had
- 35:14Speaker 1: been parked was pretty sketchy, you know, his crime ridden,
- 35:18Speaker 1: and critically it was known for being a hotbed for
- 35:21Speaker 1: sex work. Now Marton already knew clearly that Allan engaged
- 35:26Speaker 1: with sex workers, you know, it just seemed like that
- 35:29Speaker 1: was one of the things that he did. And they
- 35:30Speaker 1: spoke to numerous sex workers and ruled them out as
- 35:34Speaker 1: being suspects. And so for the most part, sex workers
- 35:37Speaker 1: were not really on Detective Martin's radar, as you know,
- 35:41Speaker 1: primary suspect Pool. However, now with fresh eyes, he was thinking,
- 35:46Speaker 1: you know, maybe the reason Alan was in Orleon was
- 35:51Speaker 1: because he was there to meet a sex worker and
- 35:54Speaker 1: while he was there, something went wrong and it resulted
- 35:57Speaker 1: in his death. So Detective Martin spent the next few
- 36:01Speaker 1: days absolutely scouring Allan's laptop. Now, the forensic techs had
- 36:06Speaker 1: already been through at once, looking at all of Alan's
- 36:08Speaker 1: emails and business records, but Marton was looking at something different.
- 36:13Speaker 1: He was using the laptop to search through all the
- 36:16Speaker 1: websites where Alan had found sex workers to go visit. Basically,
- 36:20Speaker 1: what he was doing is making a true exhaustive list
- 36:24Speaker 1: of every single sex worker he had ever really engaged with.
- 36:29Speaker 1: So this is an even bigger list than they had before.
- 36:32Speaker 1: There were dozens of names and profiles to sift through,
- 36:36Speaker 1: and as Martin found them, he would send members of
- 36:39Speaker 1: his team out to speak to all the women he
- 36:41Speaker 1: possibly could. But as he was doing this, Detective Martin
- 36:45Speaker 1: discovered that really none of these sex workers that Alan
- 36:48Speaker 1: was engaging with had any connection to Orleon, and they
- 36:53Speaker 1: also did not appear to have any real issues with
- 36:55Speaker 1: Alan himself. At least based on the messages that were
- 36:58Speaker 1: on his laptop. However, as detective Martin dug deeper and
- 37:03Speaker 1: deeper into this laptop, going further and further back in time,
- 37:07Speaker 1: he eventually came to one new profile, this woman named
- 37:11Speaker 1: Marie Eve. And when he took in who this woman
- 37:15Speaker 1: was and got a picture of her and saw her information,
- 37:19Speaker 1: he knew right then and there he had solved the case.
- 37:29Speaker 1: Based on the entire police investigation, as well as a
- 37:32Speaker 1: confession from the killer, The following is a reconstruction of
- 37:36Speaker 1: what police belief happened to Alan Lelou on the day
- 37:40Speaker 1: he was murdered. The killer found themselves standing behind Alan,
- 37:50Speaker 1: and inside they were burning with rage. Alan seemed to
- 37:54Speaker 1: think he was so much better than the killer, just
- 37:57Speaker 1: because he was this powerful businessman and the killer was
- 38:01Speaker 1: just a sex worker. And the killer had tolerated Alan's
- 38:04Speaker 1: behavior because you know, Alan had money, but now Alan
- 38:08Speaker 1: had pushed it too far, and the killer felt like
- 38:10Speaker 1: they had to shut him up for good. Alan's belt
- 38:14Speaker 1: lay nearby, and impulsively the killer grabbed it and lunged
- 38:18Speaker 1: forward and looped the belt around Alan's throat, and at
- 38:22Speaker 1: first Alan struggled he reached up. He's trying to pull
- 38:25Speaker 1: the belt off. He has no idea what's happening, but
- 38:27Speaker 1: the killer just held on tight and for several minutes
- 38:31Speaker 1: there's this unbelievable death struggle going on, and Alan he's fighting,
- 38:35Speaker 1: he's a big guy, and he's getting close to pulling
- 38:37Speaker 1: this thing off. But then something sort of unbelievable happened.
- 38:41Speaker 1: The killer had sort of braced themselves against an object
- 38:44Speaker 1: behind them, and so they're back us up against it,
- 38:46Speaker 1: and they're pulling as hard as they can with his
- 38:48Speaker 1: belt against Alan's throat, and as they're leaning back, the
- 38:52Speaker 1: object they're up against suddenly broke and because you know,
- 38:56Speaker 1: the killer didn't let go of the belt and is
- 38:58Speaker 1: applying max pressure, when they fell backwards, it created almost
- 39:03Speaker 1: like this whiplash effect. Their body tumbles and all that
- 39:06Speaker 1: force is driven into Alan's throat, and what happened is
- 39:10Speaker 1: that sudden whiplash crushed Alan's larynx and he immediately went still.
- 39:16Speaker 1: And so just for good measure, the killer held on
- 39:18Speaker 1: for a couple more minutes, pulling as tightly as they
- 39:21Speaker 1: could across his throat, really ensuring that Alan was dead.
- 39:25Speaker 1: And when Alan did not move at all. Eventually, the
- 39:28Speaker 1: killer let go of the belt and stood up, you know,
- 39:30Speaker 1: their heart pounding, just sort of taking in the scene. Then,
- 39:34Speaker 1: as reality began to set in for the killer, they
- 39:37Speaker 1: realized they needed help getting rid of this body. I mean,
- 39:40Speaker 1: this is a huge guy. How are they going to
- 39:41Speaker 1: get rid of it on their own? So the killer
- 39:44Speaker 1: called their accomplice, and the accomplice was hundreds of miles
- 39:48Speaker 1: away in a ski resort, but they immediately told the
- 39:52Speaker 1: killer to wait and they would drive to them. Sure enough,
- 39:55Speaker 1: the next day, the accomplice arrived and they helped the
- 39:58Speaker 1: killer load allan body into the trunk of Alan's car.
- 40:03Speaker 1: Then the killer climbed into Alan's car and drove it
- 40:06Speaker 1: to the train station in Orleans. Behind them. As they
- 40:11Speaker 1: made this ride, police would realize much later there was
- 40:14Speaker 1: a second car being driven by the killer's accomplice. The
- 40:18Speaker 1: killer and the accomplice would abandon Alan's car and his
- 40:21Speaker 1: body in Orleon and then together they would drive away,
- 40:26Speaker 1: and shortly thereafter they would actually get married. Because the
- 40:30Speaker 1: killer was Alan's own surrogate daughter, Alexandra Nicola. Alexandra's troubled
- 40:37Speaker 1: past that she was very defensive about included the fact
- 40:40Speaker 1: that she was actually a sex worker under the name
- 40:44Speaker 1: Marie Eve. Her accomplice was her new boyfriend, Eve Bernard.
- 40:50Speaker 1: So Alexandra and Alan had fought previously about her troubled history,
- 40:55Speaker 1: and she was especially mad that at one point Alan
- 40:59Speaker 1: had implied that Alexandra's daughter could sort of end up
- 41:03Speaker 1: like her, as if that would be a horrible thing.
- 41:05Speaker 1: So on Saturday, February sixth, when Alan brought up Alexandra's
- 41:11Speaker 1: daughter just sort of in conversation, for Alexandra, something snapped.
- 41:15Speaker 1: It just felt so disrespectful that he again was talking
- 41:19Speaker 1: about her daughter, and sort of out of impulse, she
- 41:23Speaker 1: grabbed the belt, wrapped it around Alan's neck, strangled him,
- 41:26Speaker 1: and ultimately stumbled backwards and crushed his larynx and killed him.
- 41:31Speaker 1: In a way, it was sort of true what Alexandra
- 41:33Speaker 1: had told the police when they initially questioned her, that
- 41:36Speaker 1: Alan had left her house in his car on February
- 41:39Speaker 1: seventh and she had not seen him again. What she
- 41:42Speaker 1: had left out was that Alan was already dead in
- 41:45Speaker 1: the trunk of his car when he left. Alexandra Nikola
- 41:50Speaker 1: confessed to the murder of Alan Leelou and was sentenced
- 41:52Speaker 1: to fifteen years in prison. Her boyfriend, Eve Bernard was
- 41:56Speaker 1: sentenced to two years for concealment of a dead body.
- 42:01Speaker 1: The couple has since been released and together they have
- 42:04Speaker 1: a child who was born before Alexandra went to prison.
- 42:20Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
- 42:22Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember,
- 42:25Speaker 1: we have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready
- 42:28Speaker 1: for you to binge right now, so click here and
- 42:31Speaker 1: give them a watch. All right, until next time, see
- 42:34Speaker 1: you