John Allore's Blog, page 2

Bagatelle – Le meurtre de Lise Brisebois en 1990

Connaissez-vous la bagatelle?

Captain Kidd bagatelle

Considérez-le comme du boulingrin, mais les Français qui l’ont inventé ont placé des quilles sur le gazon comme obstacles pour empêcher les balles de marquer trop facilement. Lorsque le jeu s’est déplacé à l’intérieur en raison du mauvais temps, il a évolué vers le billard de bar et, plus tard, vers le flipper. Bagatelle était populaire sous le règne de Louis XVI ; une fête fut organisée en son honneur en 1777 au Château Bagatelle. Louis était mauvais aux jeux; il perdit ensuite la tête par guillotine en 1793 (les Français aimaient aussi d’autres jeux, comme “la baignoire nationale”). Vous connaissez probablement la bagatelle grâce à l’incantation du flipper portable de votre enfance. Le mot “bagatelle” signifie une “trifle” ou simplement “child’s play”.

J’ai une affaire qui est comme child’s play ; le meurtre en 1990 de Lise Brisebois, 23 ans. Il est étonnant qu’un suspect n’ait jamais été mentionné car un candidat évident est géographiquement sous le nez de la Sûreté du Québec depuis plus de vingt ans – une sorte de bagatelle d’enquête criminelle.

L’affaire Brisebois

Lise Brisebois vivait avec ses parents sur l’avenue Paquette, à quelques rues du Mail Champlain à Brossard, Québec. Brossard est comme une banlieue au sud de Longueuil, et Longueuil – comme certains d’entre vous le savent bien – est, à son tour, une banlieue de Montréal, à l’extérieur de l’île et reliée par le pont Jacques-Cartier. La famille Brisebois vivait avec deux enfants adoptifs, des garçons de 13 et 16 ans.

Lise Brisebois – 1990

Le vendredi 9 mars 1990, Lise se rend dans une boîte de nuit, le Super 9 à Saint-Mathias-sur-Richelieu, faisant partie d’une enclave urbaine qui comprend Chambly (où Hélène Monast a été assassinée en 1977), à environ trente minutes de voiture de Brossard. Au club, Lise rencontre son amie Sophie et son nouveau copain, Gaétan. C’est un vendredi soir typique dans un club au Québec; elles boivent, elles dansent, les filles sont enthousiasmées par un voyage qu’elles s’apprêtent à faire en Floride pour échapper au long hiver qui a déjà usé son accueil – pourquoi dans ces histoires y a-t-il toujours le voyage prévu en Floride à la veille de la catastrophe ?

Lise arrive à la maison vers 4 h du matin. Ses parents sont absents à leur chalet ce week-end, mais les deux garçons dorment au sous-sol. À 4 h 10, Gaétan appelle pour savoir si elle est bien rentrée à la maison. Ils parlent pendant environ 15 minutes quand Lise dit qu’elle entend quelqu’un à la porte d’entrée et raccroche pour aller voir qui c’est. Vers 5 h du matin, une voisine observe une voiture qu’elle ne croit pas être celle de Lise quittant les Brisebois avec les phares éteints.

Lorsque Lise ne parvient pas à s’engager pour un dîner avec son petit ami, Gaétan, ce samedi soir, la famille appelle la police. En fouillant les lieux le dimanche matin 11 mars, la police trouve des ongles artificiels cassés près de l’entrée.

Neuf mois plus tard, le 17 novembre 1990, un employé d’Hydro-Québec trouve des ossements éparpillés dans un champ près de Rainville. Il n’y a ni vêtements ni bijoux, mais il y a des clous en vinyle rouge. Rainville est à égale distance entre Montréal et les Cantons-de-l’Est. À ce moment-là, la SQ doit faire un choix : confier le dossier aux enquêteurs de Montréal ou le laisser entre les mains d’une force rurale. La décision a été prise de retirer le dossier des agents de Brossard et de le confier aux enquêteurs de la Sûreté du Québec à Sherbrooke. L’enquête était dirigée par Luc Grégoire du Bureau des enquêtes de l’Estrie. Le voici en 1991, intervenant dans l’émission Dossiers mystères de Télévision Quatre-Saisons (à 1:24) :

Lise Brisebois – Dossiers mystères de Télévision Quatre-Saisons

Désormais, tout le monde devrait connaître mon opinion sur la qualité d’enquête à laquelle on peut s’attendre de la part de la SQ de Sherbrooke. C’était en 1990 et seulement 12 ans séparaient l’affaire Brisebois des événements de Sherbrooke en 1977 et 1978. C’est une décision étrange. Typiquement, le Bureau des enquêtes de l’Estrie ne recevait que des cas à l’est de Cowansville. Rainville est à l’ouest de Cowansville. Au dire de tous, le cas de Brisebois aurait dû être entre les mains du siège central à Montréal dès le début. Et Luc Grégoire ? C’est une tout autre affaire et il faudra s’en occuper à un autre moment. Je mentionnerai seulement que son frère, Normand Grégoire, a réalisé les cartes des scènes de crime lorsque le corps de Thérèse a été découvert : c’est une petite boule à neige d’investigation que Quebexique.

La famille de Brisebois s’est exprimée et a critiqué la police tout au long de l’enquête. À un peu plus d’un mois de sa disparition, les policiers de Brossard semblaient déjà baisser les bras en signe de défaite : « Il n’y a aucun mouvement dans le dossier », a proposé le directeur adjoint des enquêtes Pierre Tanguay. Trois mois plus tard, alors qu’on ne savait toujours pas où se trouvait Lise, c’est exactement ce que la police a fait : ils ont abandonné. Le sergent-détective Réjean Sergerie a proclamé que nous « n’avons absolument rien », puis a brusquement annoncé qu’ils mettaient fin à leurs recherches.

Lise Brisebois – 1990

Une partie du problème était le manque d’informations qu’ils fournissaient à la famille et au public. La sœur de Lise, Marie-Andrée Brisebois, a été indignée lorsqu’elle a découvert que la police avait récupéré un sac à main sur les rives du fleuve Saint-Laurent, mais n’a pas fait de suivi auprès de la famille, décidant par eux-mêmes que le “n’avait aucun lien avec la femme disparue”.

“Ils n’auraient jamais dû arrêter l’enquête. Maintenant, c’est à nous de la retrouver.”

Marie-Andrée Brisebois, The Gazette, 26 juillet 1990

De plus, deux récits circulaient dans la presse au sujet de sa disparition, et la police de Brossard n’a jamais clarifié ce qui aurait été une information déroutante pour le public. Il aurait été utile de signaler dès le départ que la police avait développé deux théories sur ce qui était arrivé à Lise, mais cela ne s’est produit que beaucoup plus tard après la découverte des restes de Brisebois et l’affaire était entre les mains de la Sûreté du Québec.

La première théorie était la suivante : Après avoir raccroché avec Gaétan, Brisebois a répondu à la porte d’entrée, où une altercation s’est produite. Dans une lutte, les faux ongles de Brisebois se sont détachés et elle a été emmenée dans la voiture observée par le voisin. La première théorie est convaincante parce qu’elle a des preuves matérielles et un témoin. Mais attendez, la théorie deux a aussi des preuves physiques et deux témoins !

La deuxième théorie suppose que rien n’est venu du bruit à la porte; Soit Lise s’est trompée, soit la personne est partie, puis Lise est allée se coucher tôt le matin, samedi 10 mars. maison vers midi pour faire quelques courses. Le garçon a en outre déclaré qu’elle portait des vêtements correspondant à la description de ce qu’elle portait la veille au club Super 9 – les vêtements ne se sont jamais rétablis. Le témoignage de Saïd est corroboré par un autre témoin, une vendeuse du Centre commercial Champlain qui a déclaré à la police avoir observé une femme correspondant à la description de Lise vers 14h00. essayer des vêtements. Enfin, il y a la preuve matérielle : la voiture de Lise a été retrouvée abandonnée dans le stationnement du Mail Champlain.

Lise Brisebois et sa voiture

Le témoignage de Said a été rapporté initialement mais a finalement été retiré de l’histoire et n’a été réintroduit par Eddie Collister de The Gazette qu’après la découverte de ses restes. Cela aurait pu dérouter le public dans les premières étapes de l’enquête, se concentrant sur le lieu de la maison Brisebois alors qu’il aurait dû penser au Mail Champlain, un lieu très public où potentiellement des dizaines de témoins l’ont peut-être repérée ce samedi après-midi.

Lise Brisebois – La Presse

Ensuite, il y a l’affaire de la presse française. À l’exception de La Presse, qui a réussi à chronométrer sa disparition en mars et la découverte de la dépouille en novembre, le cas de Brisebois a été largement ignoré dans les médias québécois. Et cela remonte à la très mauvaise décision d’attribuer le dossier aux enquêteurs de Sherbrooke. Les journaux cantonaux comme La Tribune et The Record n’allaient jamais rapporter une affaire policière à Rainville et Brossard : ce n’était pas leur rythme. Et les journaux montréalais n’étaient pas au courant d’une enquête menée par la police de Sherbrooke : ils se concentraient sur la CUM et les Parthanais (il reste à se demander pourquoi The Gazette a réussi à couvrir l’affaire, bien qu’à l’époque ils aient des journalistes dédiés à couvrant l’actualité de la Rive-Sud). En conséquence, l’affaire Brisebois a été prise dans un black-out des médias français au moment même où elle avait besoin d’être rendue publique. Plus d’un an plus tard, Dossiers mystères prend le relais avec son émission de grande écoute sur Lise, dont la première est le samedi 30 mars 1991, mais à ce moment-là, en termes d’enquête, c’est trop peu trop tard.

Qui l’a fait ?

Pour répondre à cette question, il faut se pencher sur un autre cas, Johanne Marsolais, assassinée trois ans plus tôt, en novembre 1987.

Johanne Marsolais

Johanne Marsolais – qui s’appelait également France Tremblay – avait eu des ennuis toute sa jeune vie. En 1979, à l’âge de 22 ans, elle s’évade du centre de détention Tanguay à Ahuntsic (Bordeaux). En 1982, elle récidiva alors qu’elle purgeait une peine de quatre ans pour complot et vol avec violence. Elle avait également été condamnée pour prostitution. Marsolais venait de terminer cette peine lorsqu’elle a été retrouvée nue et étranglée dans un champ près du terrain de golf de Brossard. Marsolais a été vu pour la dernière fois le 18 novembre 1987 au Bic, un bar de Longueuil, après avoir pris un taxi depuis la station de métro Berri-UQAM à Montréal.

Comme pour l’affaire Brisebois, la police de Brossard a immédiatement confié l’enquête à la Sûreté du Québec, où elle a rapidement disparu pendant plus de 30 ans, pour être « redécouverte » lors de la récente poussée de la SQ pour promouvoir les affaires froides. Je présume que puisque le corps a été découvert à Brossard, cette fois, les manutentionnaires sont devenus la SQ de Montréal. Et je doute, trois ans plus tard, lorsque Brisebois a été retrouvé, que la police du même organisme ait jamais fait le lien entre les deux cas – parce que l’ignorance aveugle a été mon expérience avec la Sûreté du Québec.

Regardons une carte

On voit ici trois points : la maison Brisebois, le mail Champlain et le golf de Brossard. Et nous savons que Marsolais a été trouvé quelque part près du terrain de golf et perpendiculaire au boulevard Lapinière (la plus grande ligne rouge). Et cette ligne représente environ deux miles:

Lise Brisebois carte 1

Une victime a disparu du centre commercial et a été découverte à 50 milles à Rainville, l’autre victime a été vue pour la dernière fois à Longueuil et a été retrouvée près du terrain de golf, à environ deux milles de l’endroit où la première victime a disparu. Les deux victimes ont été retrouvées sans vêtements.

Qui opérait dans la région à ce moment-là avec un m.o. similaire? Guy Croteau.

Le 23 août 1987, Sophie Landry, 17 ans, a disparu d’un terminus d’autobus de Longueuil alors qu’elle se rendait du domicile de ses parents à La Prairie au centre de détention juvénile où elle vivait les jours de semaine à Saint-Hyacinthe. Le lendemain matin, le corps de Landry est retrouvé dans un champ de maïs au nord de Montréal (Saint-Roch-de-l’Achigan). Elle avait été agressée sexuellement et poignardée 173 fois. En 2002, Guy Croteau, 45 ans, est arrêté pour le meurtre de Sophie Landry. Croteau a été condamné et n’est pas éligible à la libération conditionnelle avant 2027.

Caméléon Guy Croteau

Croteau est aussi mon principal suspect dans le meurtre de Nathalie Boucher. Le 5 juin 1985, Nathalie rentre à pied du terminus du métro de Longueuil. Son corps a été découvert le lendemain matin, battu, violé et étranglé à mort.

Croteau aurait traîné Sophie Landry à l’intérieur du terminus des transports en commun de Longueuil. Comme la station de métro Berri UQAM (Marsolais) et le Mail Champlain (Brisebois), c’est une vaste place publique, beaucoup de circulation et de distractions. Mais à part Landry, Brisebois et Marsolais – tous trouvés dans des espaces extérieurs similaires – le m.o. de Croteau. était partout. En 1999, il a pris deux auto-stoppeurs de 16 ans et les a agressés sexuellement à la pointe d’un couteau. En 2000, il a soigné une fillette de 10 ans, l’a emmenée dans un parc à Chambly, puis l’a finalement enlevée et sodomisée dans un parc près de la rivière Richelieu. Croteau a profité de l’occasion où il l’a jugé bon, puis a improvisé – il devrait le faire, pour expliquer pourquoi il a poignardé une fille 173 fois, puis a dégénéré en simple enlèvement et agression sexuelle (l’escalade de la violence chez les tueurs en série est un mythe, soit dit en passant – lire Beauregard).

Les agressions sexuelles de Guy Croteau – The Gazette

La police voudrait vous faire croire que Croteau n’a été actif que de 1995 jusqu’à son arrestation en 2002, mais c’est uniquement parce que 1995 est la première date à laquelle quelqu’un s’est présenté pour le dénoncer dans une agression sexuelle. Mais une victime de meurtre ne peut pas se manifester : personne ne sait exactement ce que Croteau a fait dans les années entourant le meurtre de Landry en 1987. La vérité est que Croteau a été actif pendant 15 ans entre le meurtre de Landry en 1987 et son éventuelle arrestation pour ce crime en 2002. Pourtant, selon la Sûreté du Québec, Guy Croteau n’est pas un bon candidat pour un tueur en série. En 2021, j’ai parlé à la SQ de Croteau, et ils l’ont rejeté comme un possible tueur en série au motif qu’ils l’avaient interviewé et il leur a dit qu’après avoir poignardé Landry 173 fois, il a décidé qu’il n’aimait vraiment pas le meurtre et jamais fait à nouveau. J’étais fou de dieu que leur raisonnement était, ‘eh bien, il a dit qu’il n’avait pas commis d’autres meurtres, donc c’était assez bien pour nous.’

Guy Croteau

Bien que Croteau ait eu des ennuis toute sa vie avant son arrestation en 2002, son casier judiciaire démontre qu’il était dans la communauté dans le couloir dont nous parlons – de 1985 à 1990 (et au-delà). Sa première arrestation fut pour une infraction de conduite en 1978 alors qu’il habitait près d’Ahuntsic à Montréal-Nord. En 1982, il a eu quelques infractions mineures impliquant un stratagème d’extorsion pour lesquelles il a purgé deux ans, de 1983 à 1984. En 1995, il y a eu des infractions plus graves pour agression sexuelle armée et séquestration. Pourtant, ceux-ci sont bien après les affaires Brisebois et Marsolais et n’ont été portés à l’attention de la police qu’après son arrestation pour Landry en 2002.

Et tant qu’on y est, Vous pourriez envisager Annette Labelle. Labelle a été retrouvé par un employé du transport le 25 juin 1986, sur l’autoroute 30, à l’ouest de Saint-Hubert (entre Brossard et Longueuil). La police a décrit le trentenaire comme un “vagabond” sans adresse fixe. Labelle a été retrouvée nue avec une corde autour du cou. Elle a été vue pour la dernière fois une semaine plus tôt au Café Rialto, situé autour de la principale à Montréal, un quartier connu pour la drogue et la prostitution.

Annette Labelle

Sophie Landry vivait dans un centre de détention pour mineurs. Johanne Marsolais a été détenue au centre de détention Tanguay à Ahuntsic de 1979 jusqu’à sa libération en 1987. Croteau habitait aussi près d’Ahuntic en 1978. Ensuite, il y a l’affaire des deux enfants placés chez la famille Brisebois. Il est possible que Guy Croteau ait eu accès à des maisons de transition ou à des services sociaux qui ont croisé le chemin de certaines de ses victimes. Cela lui aurait également permis d’échapper à la détection par la police – le Québec protège farouchement ce qui se passe derrière le voile des services de protection comme les maisons de transition et la santé mentale. Nulle part cela n’a été plus apparent que la récente arrestation du prédateur sexuel Marc-André Grenon pour le meurtre de Guylaine Potvin en 2000. Grenon s’était caché à la vue de tous à l’Institut psychiatrique Douglas de Montréal, et avait même été autorisé à donner une conférence sur ses antécédents criminels – une série de vingt ans de vols et de B&E était tout ce qu’il était prêt à admettre. Pourtant, il est clair que Grenon, au moins, était un ravageur sexuel hautement qualifié avec une piste de course de deux décennies. Lorsque la police ne peut pas ou ne veut pas s’immiscer derrière les murs des institutions réformatrices, des erreurs se produiront arriver.

Si vous n’êtes toujours pas convaincu et que tout cela semble circonstanciel, permettez-moi de donner mon argument final. Guy Croteau vivait occasionnellement avec ses parents à Brossard, leur domicile au 3290 rue Massonnet, une rue à mi-chemin du boulevard Lapinière entre le centre commercial d’où Brisebois a peut-être disparu en 1990 et le terrain de golf où Marsolais a été retrouvé en 1987. Les dossiers d’arrestation de Croteau montrent lui y ayant vécu de 1982 à 2001, veille de son arrestation pour le meurtre de Sophie Landry. Il est également de notoriété publique depuis des décennies que Croteau travaillait comme concierge dans le secteur à l’école primaire George Vanier:

Lise Brisebois Carte 2 – Ajout de Guy Croteau

Sur les traces on ne voit ni la forêt ni les arbres

Je suis assis sur cette information depuis des années, m’attendant à ce qu’un super détective rassemble les pièces et se manifeste. Personne ne l’a jamais fait. De nombreuses enquêtes criminelles au Québec ont eu toutes ces informations, mais n’ont pas réussi à faire le lien. Et c’est le problème avec la détective citoyenne qui tombe dans le puits de “Infotainment.” C’est tout un mur de sombres scénarios, mais ils ne peuvent pas voir un modèle, et encore moins apprécier le contexte des crimes. Ils ne peuvent pas voir la forêt ou les arbres. Des émissions comme Sur les traces d’un tueur en série offrent choc et émerveillement mais peu de réponses.

Rien de ce que je dis ici n’est révélateur pour des gens qui auraient dû mieux le savoir – surtout la police du Québec. Le mandat des forces de l’ordre est de protéger et d’atténuer d’autres actions criminelles. Ce n’est pas votre travail d’informer simplement.

Une dernière réflexion : Croteau n’est pas le seul suspect. Quelque chose que j’expliquerai la prochaine fois.

Ripper also-rans

Every family loves a game. Puzzles are a great pastime, a necessary gift every December holiday to get you through the winter blahs of January. One Christmas, we gave my dad a puzzle of Tony Esposito, that great Chicago goalkeeper –  I remember a white Blackhawks sweater with a lot of ice, too much ice for my liking. Another Christmas, my sister, Theresa gave him a print of M.C. Escher’s Belvedere, that impossible cube structure – in a way, a reference to Soma – and told him, “you’re an engineer; you figure it out.” Recently the 1000-piece jigsaw made a comeback under two years of lockdown.

Escher’s Belvedere

Cribbage goes way back in my family. I remember marathon sessions over the holidays at my grandparents, with aunts and uncles, crouched around the dining room table, a grey oval of cigarette smoke looming overhead, intensely competitive affairs. We liked other card games, too, mostly Crazy Eights and Rummoli. I once had a girlfriend who would invite me over winters to her cottage near Creemore, Ontario. Her parents always seemed so excited to see me. It was only later that I realized I represented the fourth hand in a fine snowed-in afternoon bridge event. Another girlfriend’s parents were obsessed with the card game 500, a form of Euchre. We all became quite close; the only gift I ever recall giving them was a cheap automatic card shuffler – they were ecstatic.

Some family games are quite cruel. The HBO television series Succession has the Roy family often engaged in a number of competitive games. In episode one, there’s “The Game,” a winner-take-all grim baseball event. The memory game, I Went To Market, is featured in a Thanksgiving episode. Then, of course, there’s Boar on the Floor. I’ve witnessed families playing many of these psychological, social mind games during holiday gatherings – often the wealthy and privileged, who can afford to lose an emotional stripe. 

I supposed unsolved murder has always been considered a kind of puzzle, but the comparison reached an apex in the late 1880s with the Whitechapel murders and Jack The Ripper. After the last murder in the canonical five, Mary Jane Kelly, went unsolved, the news began to report on an “Epidemic of murder,” a world-sweeping phenomenon extending to Europe and North America. As the London Ripper’s identity was “Still a Puzzle to the Police,” the New York Herald then made the illogical leap to suggest he could be anyone, anywhere. In 1889 the newspaper described a  Paris “Jack-The-Ripper Sort Of Sensation,” then told of a 60-year-old concierge who had her throat slashed by three hooligans – not very Ripper-like. The Herald went on to report of a man arrested for “attempting to dissect” a woman on the banks of the Thames, then proclaimed, “Nobody thinks he is the “Ripper.””

“NINE BAD JACKS” shouted the 1892 headline in the St. Paul Globe, perhaps an allusion to a uniform hand of cards. The north-western paper told the tales of “Jack the Murderer” from Australia and the New York Ripper, all of them “puzzles to the police and public.” An elderly woman dubbed Shakespeare for her ability to recite long passages from the Bard was known to roam the streets of lower Manhattan. When Shakespeare was found murdered in a tenement house slashed about the lower abdomen, “police at once concluded New York had been paid a visit by the original “ripper.”” Any ruffian with even a shadow resemblance to the Whitechapel M.O. became suspect. According to the New York Recorder, the city also had a Jack The Slasher, Jack The Smiler, and Jack The Kisser. Jack The Ink Thrower wasn’t even a murderer, merely a public nuisance prone to splattering women’s skirts with… well, ink. This – and, of course, it only stands to reason – led to a copycat: Jack the Water-Thrower. You can guess what he did.

“Jack The Smiler” / “Jack The Hugger”

Jack The Peeper peeped. Jack The Hugger groped. Jack The Haircutter: The New York Recorder tells us, “This title explains itself,” but I don’t think it does. Do explain. For over three months, this gentleman “terrorized” the lower east side by snipping hair locks of women as they window-shopped along the streets of New York. Police searched for Jack The Haircutter for months without success, surmising he probably sold the hair to salon wig makers at a good price. It all starts innocent enough with a haircut, but then what?

“Puzzles The Police”

As reported in the New York Times, in 1915 five-year-old Lenora Cohn was found slashed in the tenement where she lived at Third Avenue and 25th Street. The assailant left a hand imprint on her throat; police said, “larger than  average.” Clutched in her left hand were several strands of grey hair. So, two pieces of physical evidence. Lenora had been sent by her mother to fetch a pail of milk and was found in a stairwell only a few feet from her apartment door:

“The puzzle to the detectives is why the child should have descended this flight when she was already within a few feet of her own door. A second puzzle is the appearance on the eighth and ninth steps of the south staircase of drops of blood.”

The Times said Lenora was killed “by a Jack-The-Ripper.”

Ripper News

Six weeks later, when four-year-old Charley Murray was found slashed in the same manner in the same neighborhood and also in the hallway of his apartment building, the press heralded, “Second Ripper Murder Astounds New York Police.” The murders of Charley and Lenora were never solved. Ripper lore had made the jump into the 20th century.

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Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine – Allô Police, Juillet 1982

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Who Killed Theresa Turns 20

We’re having a birthday. I launched Who Killed Theresa in early January, 2003. Twenty years is a long time to catalogue unsolved crime. If you have a memory or a favorite post, please share in the comments. Here are three fun facts about this website:

The original black design was based on a WordPress theme, I think it was called “Manson”. It had a watermark photo of Charlie Manson that I had to remove.

Original WKT template

One of the first posts was based on Kristian Gravenor’s annual Montreal Mirror column about stupid crimes in Quebec.

Kristian Gravenor at Montreal’s famous Orange Julep on Decarie Blvd.

The post that continues to generate the most traffic is The Strange Death of the Twin Gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus from 2021, though over the holidays this saw some competition from 2022’s The Model, as some Quebec podcast outfit is planning to cover the murder of Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine.

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What’s happening with U.S. homicide clearance rates?

Last summer, President Biden signed into law the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act, which requires federal agencies to revisit cold case murder files and apply new technologies to aid in potential breakthroughs. U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) who co-sponsored the bill had this to say:

“This legislation will help ensure federal law enforcement reviews sometimes decades-old cold case files and applies the latest technologies and investigative standards…. This process will help bring grieving families resolution in the midst of tragic circumstances, and I am proud of the bipartisan support for this bill which is now law.”

The legislation was inspired by quadruple homicides that claimed the lives of four teenage girls in Austin, Texas over three decades ago and remain unsolved (the yogurt shop murders).  The nonprofit Murder Accountability Project (MAP) was invited to participate in crafting the bill. MAP estimates there are more than 250,000 U.S. homicides since 1980 for which no one has been charged. The legislation was inspired by quadruple homicides that claimed the lives of four teenage girls in Austin, Texas over three decades ago and remain unsolved (the yogurt shop murders).  The nonprofit Murder Accountability Project (MAP) was invited to participate in crafting the bill. MAP estimates there are more than 250,000 U.S. homicides since 1980 for which no one has been charged, noting that U.S. homicide clearance rates continue to decline (for more on that, read on).

The Yogurt Shop Murders

The new law allows family members to request a fresh review by federal law enforcement personnel who were not involved in the original investigation. The bill directs federal law enforcement agencies “to review the case file” and to conduct “a full reinvestigation” if the review discovers “probative investigative leads.” The hope is that the new law will trickle down and be adopted by state and local law enforcement, empowering immediate family members to request a cold case review. Federal law enforcement agencies would be required to provide annual reports to Congress on what is working and not working with cold case reviews.  You can review more information about the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act on the MAP webpage and at Congress.gov (H.R. 3359)

Of course, the proof will be in the enforceability of the law. The road ahead is filled with possible traps: what if there’s a disagreement between families and law enforcement that a new, full investigation should be launched? What if law enforcement agencies fail to annually report to Congress? As the details appeared a little murky to me,  I recently spoke to former police detective and criminologist (and MAP board member) Michael Arntfield about H.R. 3359 who said:

“It allows families of victims to seek relief through the courts, and force law enforcement to turn over (share) unsolved cases in their entirety to vetted third party agencies.”

If I’m reading it right, this could be a game-changer. In the past,  groups like the Vidocq Society could step into cold case investigations only at the invitation of the host LE agency.  Now it appeared like it will be at the victims’ families’ discretion to select an accredited agency of their choosing, but when I reached out to Vidocq, they had this to say:

“As of now, the bill will not influence how the society assists law enforcement with their cold cases. The bill specifically names federal law enforcement entities, not state/local law enforcement, which encompass the majority of agencies that solicit the Vidocq Society for assistance.”

I asked Arntfield to clarify, as it seemed funny to me that the law allows for greater oversight of federal investigative agencies, yet the vast majority of cold cases are handled at the state and local level (The FBI could claim only 6 murder investigations in 2020 in which they played a major part). He said this was true, and pointed to that hope of a trickle down to the majority of agencies responsible for unsolved murder investigations. It is true that this is how these things get started, but until a state follows the fed’s lead, H.R. 3359 won’t have a profound effect. For instance, the yogurt shop murder cases which inspired the law won’t have the ability to utilize H.R. 3359 as the investigating force was the Austin Police Department.

Also, it remains to be seen what will happen when an agency refuses to turn over documents. What then? Legal challenges could tie the matter up in the courts, the last thing a cold case has is time.  

H.R. 3359 couldn’t come at a more timely moment as The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division estimates that homicide clearance rates in the United States have steadily declined from 90 percent in the mid-1960s to 62 percent in 2018. This is occurring at the same time as crime reporting by local police to the Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to also dramatically decline, creating a perfect storm of case management confusion. According to the Murder Accountability Project, homicides increased in 2021 over the previous year, but the data suggests a decline in murders, because of the under-reporting.

The main driver here is the recent change in required reporting, with the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)  now becoming the tool of record. In the past, LE agencies reported their crime numbers using the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report; a simple data entry tool, but it can be confusing to interpret the information. In the 1970s the law enforcement community saw the need for a more detailed reporting system and NIBRS was approved for use back in 1988. But it’s only recently that the FBI has begun to crack down and insist that it’s used.

Inputting NIBRS stats is much more detailed and time-consuming. NIBRS records case-level details for every homicide, robbery, assault, burglary, sexual assault, and other major crimes. About half of America’s police and sheriff’s departments have yet to become compliant with NIBRS reporting standards. Simply put, some agencies refuse to use NIBRS, continuing to only provide the UCR summary information, or, much worse, not reporting at all.

According to MAP, “Local law enforcement agencies reported only 14,715 homicides while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  so far have counted 25,988 murders. This means police reported only 56.6 percent of the nation’s homicides in 2021, the worst reporting rate on record. “

If you visit MAP’s stats page, you can see the drastic differences in reporting sorted by State. California, Illinois, and New York are missing over 80% of their homicide cases. Florida did not report a single homicide in 2021 (the CDC reports that Florida had close to 1,500 murders).  In North Carolina, where I live, there is a discrepancy of about 30 cases between the CDC and the FBI numbers, a reasonable 4% difference. At a recent City of Durham council meeting – where I work – I had the opportunity to ask the Durham police chief and her staff about NIBRS, and why so many agencies are reluctant to embrace it. She of course talked about the time-suck of putting in your numbers. Fortunately, Durham has a data analyst on staff who likes that sort of thing. She also noted that the State of North Carolina was much more proactive in providing training to LE, and allowed adequate time for agencies to ramp up to using the system. Other states may not have State Bureaus of Investigation that are so accommodating.

With all the non-compliance, legal action is already underway. Arntfield mentioned that MAP has a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Justice Department for “thousands of unreported murders.” MAP is also seeking to obtain more than 11,000 missing homicide records by contacting state and local law enforcement agencies, and “entreating them to report under the old UCR standards to MAP until they adopt the superior NIBRS standards. “ The Chairman of MAP, Thomas Hargrove had this to offer:

“We urge all law enforcement agencies to adopt the superior NIBRS standard for crime reporting. This is an investment in robust accounting in crime that will assist policy makers and local leaders to make wise decisions to assist law enforcement, We also urge state and local leaders to support our efforts to obtain crime data under the old reporting standards until all law enforcement becomes NIBRS compliant.”

You won’t find much if you go Googling for more information on NIBRS or the new law, H.R. 3359. Sadly these important issues have now become the dominion of bloggers and niche reporting.  And if you’re a Canadian and wondering if we might find anything similar happening anytime soon north of the border, don’t hold your breath. Arntfield told me,  “I don’t see that ever happening in Canada.”

The post What’s happening with U.S. homicide clearance rates? appeared first on Who Killed Theresa?.

The Model – The Murder of Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine

1982 fashion photo of Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine

This is a story about the puzzle of celebrity, excess and indulgence, the lure of centers of power like Montreal and New York City. It has a Life in the Fast Lane quality to it, with shades of Looking for Mr. Goodbar and The Eyes of Laura Mars. This is the murder of Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine, a Montreal fashion model who was stabbed repeatedly in her Gramercy Park apartment in 1982 after an evening of disco dancing in a New York club. A lot has been said about this case, most of it recently. People may say, “Oh that case, we know all about that, why you wanna do that case?” Well it’s an investigation with a very long trajectory – 40 years – and initially, there was a lot of speculation and rumor that wasn’t very helpful. Marie-Josée’s reputation got caught up in that speculation – innuendo and suspicions about the world of fashion and modeling.

I’ll say right at the opening that Saint-Antoine is alleged to have been murdered by an associate, a Montreal television personality named Alain Montpetit. But it took authorities decades to discover that Montpetit was the culprit, in part because of the difficulty of international investigations, but also because many in Quebec for years were apologists for Montpetit’s increasingly erratic behavior, in many ways enabling him as he burned through all his substance-abused work opportunities. In fact in a lot of the media coverage of the case, Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine is something of a grim footnote to the story. Always it is the personality of Montpetit that commands the center of attention.

Alain Montpetit – courtesy La PresseBring me the head of the Disco King

We pick up in the late 1970s. At that time, Saint-Antoine was just getting her modeling career off the ground in Montreal, and Montpetit had been deejaying at a series of local radio stations. The two local artists were part of a small clique that often got together on ski weekends in the Laurentians north of Montreal, with partying going on afterward into the morning hours at a local discotheque. At the time, Montpetit was married to a dancer and choreographer and had children, but the relationship periodically was on the rocks – they would often separate; Montpetit was a local Don Juan, and was known to have dated several other women.

By 1979 Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine had outgrown Montreal and moved to the fashion center of New York. Soon her modeling career skyrocketed, and she was gracing the covers of glamour magazines. And Montpetit? Certainly he was the talk of the town, but a big fish in a small pond. In 1981 he was doing summer stock theatre in the Quebec sticks, kind of like doing Oklahoma in the Catskills – the locals were impressed, but Montpetit seemed embarrassed by the venture. Here he is on a Montreal television show called Musi-Video in 1981 talking about the experience:

“I’ll be at a theater all summer.  um, between, uh, Valleyfield , near Pont Château, in Coteau du Lac. Mm-hmm  uh, and there’s a theater there called the (PTU?) theater, which is obviously a professional theater it’s, uh, summer stock.

And we’ll be doing a show, a show written by Ben Starr an American called, uh, the button. It’ll be in French though. And, uh, we’ll be doing that from June 25th through September. Ben Starr was just in town to see us. I had dinner with him the other night. He’s done a lot of things he’s written a bunch of TV shows on he’s a producer for Different Strokes. He was head writer on All In The Family at one time. Uh, he’s a very, very successful man.”

Alain Montpetit, Musi-Video – 1981

So this show is practically dinner theater, it probably was a dinner theater. Coteau du Lac is nowheresville (not Couteau du Lac, that would be something quite different) – it’s off the island of Montreal over where Barbara Myers was murdered in 1976. That’s how obscure it is: it’s where you go to dump a body. If I’m near Coteau du Lac I know one thing – I’m on my way to Toronto and I’m not staying there. And Ben Starr? Sure, he was an American television producer. He’s most famous for writing the Brady Bunch episode The Personality Kid where Peter Brady delivers the Humphrey Bogart line  “pork chops and applesauce”. So this is hardly the big time, and Montpetit is acutely aware of this. He wouldn’t be “ummming” his way through the interview if he had confidence in the project. Calling it out as “the professional theater” is a sure indication that it was anything but. So in 1981, Alain Montpetit is clearly not where he thinks he’s supposed to be in his career trajectory.

Alain Montpetit’s path was kind of like Tom Thumb, having this never ending series of misadventures. Certainly he was to the manor born. His grandfather was Édouard Montpetit, you can’t go anywhere in Montreal without running into a street or metro stop or some school named after Édouard Montpetit. He was brought up in the affluent Westmount neighborhood, though he liked to point out he was born in the more ‘peuple’-centered Outremont – no one wants to be cast as a “Westmount snob”. His father was a prominent judge, and Alain once had aspirations to go to law school, but he landed at York University studying theater. He once did a touring show with the Stratford Festival. The early 1970s saw him enrolled in political science at UCLA in Los Angeles where he also worked part-time in the student radio station. For a time he worked as a process server for the Clerk of the County Court. He never completed his studies, and we next find Montpetit back in Quebec on the border of Maine heading up a pirate radio station. In 1974 he landed a job with the English CKGM Radio and covered many true crime cases, including the infamous street chase of Richard Blass. Skilled in both languages, it was typical for Montpetit to start his day on English Radio only to hop over to French television by the afternoon and finish the day doing infotainment. At the time of the above interview he was also doing a soap opera, Le Clan Beaulieu. Busy guy.

Things changed in the late ’70s when Montpetit joined the French disco show, Et ça tourne. In the highflying era of dance divas and Donna Summer, Montpetit became a local celebrity, Montreal’s “Disco King”, though he said he never really cared for the music. During this period, it would not have been out of character for Montpetit and others to jet set between the clubs in Montreal and New York – Studio 54 on a Friday, The Lime Light on Saturday, with lots of coke and Dom Perignon along the way. At the time a lot was made of Montpetit’s celebrity, of how he was one of the 10 best good looking guys in Montreal. Yes, but he was also on the list of the 10 worst dressed, along side Mordecai Richler and Tommy Schnurmacher, endearing Montreal slobs. You need to take these things with a pound of salt; what’s a big deal in Quebec is small potatoes outside that fish bowl.

A highly publicized scandal

There’s this overriding sense that Quebec is not supposed to talk about this case. It’s okay to drag out the sordid mysteries of Sharon Prior or Cédrika Provencher or Marilyn Bergeron, but Montpetit and Saint-Antoine are off limits because they moved in a higher social circle. It’s not unlike the Michelle Perron case, where we’re not supposed to talk about it because the suspect was a famous television personality, and the case involved Claire Leger and the St. Hubert chicken empire. Hands off! When Montpetit’s sister was contacted after her brother became a suspect she brushed the matter off with an air of entitlement, “That’s an old story. I’m not interested in commenting.”

Spoiler alert: Montpetit died of a drug overdose in a Washington D.C. hotel five years after Saint-Antoine’s murder, and for years the Quebec press wouldn’t entertain even the possibility that the radio host might have been involved in the model’s murder (well, mostly the English press, the French tabloids – particularly Allo and Photo Police – had a field day with it). Many papers reported that Montpetit died of “heart failure”, leaving off the part about how it was brought on after snorting massive amounts of cocaine. The Montreal Gazette did a three page eulogy to Montpetit and never once acknowledged that he once was a suspect in Saint-Antoine’s murder. All of his sociopathic behavior was explained away in the most facile manner by saying he wrestled with demons, or had a hard time living up to his father’s expectations.

In this 1987 appreciation, his on-off wife Nanci Moretti goes along with the hollow narrative: “He had a hard drive inside him that really pushed hard. Maybe too hard”. Then in a stunning display of blithe ignorance:

“It was his own battle. He had an incredible amount of talent and it wasn’t being used. There’s no blame anywhere”

Mark Burns, “The Death of Alain Montpetit: A Struggle With Great Expectations”, The Gazette, August 24, 1987, P. 16

Outside of some tabloid red meat, where was the appreciation piece for the victim, Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine? You’d have a hard time finding it. Here’s what former CJFM program director, Mark Burns had to say about Saint Antoine’s death in that article:

So Saint-Antoine’s murder is reimagined as a scandal, and her offender is recast as a “close family friend”. Is it any wonder that two years after her death, her father took his own life by jumping off the balcony of his apartment? We don’t know much about Saint-Antoine because there wasn’t a lot written about her in English – it was the Alain Montpetit show, in life and in death. In a 2001 interview with Paul Cherry of The Gazette, Marie-Josée’s brother Jean Luc Saint-Antoine expressed the grief his family had suffered. The day after the murder, Marie-Josée was planning to fly back to Montreal to surprise her dad for Father’s Day – she never made it. After her death, their father sunk immediately into a deep depression. He had several treatments of electro-shock therapy. Their mother refused to speak of the event, even almost 20 years later in 2001 – the death of her daughter still too traumatic to discuss. In the article, Jean-Luc reveals how immediately after the murder he received a disturbing phone call from New York City:

“Alain called me from New York and asked if he could go and identify the body for the family. I asked him what he was doing there. I figured it was strange that he was there because he was supposed to still be in Belgium (in rehab)”

Paul Cherry, “Murder Still Haunts Family”, The Gazette, December 13, 2001, P. 1

Wait. What was Montpetit doing in New York City? No one found this strange? A Quebec girl is murdered in New York and a guy from Quebec she knows just happens to be there at the same time? Apparently the New York Police found it suspicious but according to them they were having a really hard time running down witnesses:

“At one point, it took us six months just to find five people who knew her and live in the U.S.”

Detective Dominic Andreno, NYPD

I’m having a hard time buying their argument here that ‘policing is really hard’, but I’m gonna let it slide. I will add that if the police were having difficulty piecing things together, Claude Poirier, the Quebec investigative reporter, was not. Poirier happened to be at Jean-Luc’s side the afternoon that Montpetit called the Saint-Antoine home, and just happened to record the telephone conversation. Poirier and Jean Luc were two of the first to adamantly insist that Alain Montpetit killed Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine.

By the turn of the century, police began to take renewed interest in the case when one of Montpetit’s girlfriends who had provided his alibi changed her story that he had been with her the afternoon of the murder. The night of June 17, 1982, Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine had been partying with Grace Jones and John F. Kennedy Jr. at a famous NYC discotheque called Xenon. Where was Alain Montpetit? He was a celebrity, but was he at the level he could hang with these people? Montpetit created a lot of press in Quebec, the majority of it was in television rags like Télé-radiomonde (TV Guide) – the publications were owned by the television and radio stations and designed to promote their products. Quebecor still does this to this day. You’ll see on Twitter the CEO, Pierre Karl Péladeau pumping some god-awful show of his as if it’s must-see-tv, when it’s just Ol’ Pierre again shilling for PKP! Alain Montpetit was a local celebrity, and he would have been punching above his weight trying to keep up with music stars and the sons of presidents. But he may have bitterly resented that Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine had risen to the point in her career where she could. By this point Saint-Antoine had left the Ford Modeling agency, and was working for the younger and hipper Elite as one of the top print fashion models in New York.

Here’s another excerpt from that Musi-Video interview with Andy Nulman in 1981. This was one year before the murder of Saint-Antoine, and Montpetit is talking about why he grew to dislike the United States, but it’s clear that what’s eating at him is that he failed there. It’s better that you view the entire interview on YouTube (I’ve place it at the end of this piece) because there is an over-arching impression that Alain Montpetit was one nasty piece of work:

Andy Nulman: “Why would you come back? Let’s say after being in LA and you know, the grand golden United States, why would you come back to Montreal home, home based?”

Alain Montpetit: “Well, the sickness that’s apparent in American society right now was, uh, just revealing itself when I left. Um, it’s very nice to talk about the golden United States until you live there. You know, a lot of people who talk of the United States have never lived there. Yeah. I lived there for six years of my life.

I can tell you a lot about the states, the west coast, the way people relate to each other, the violence, uh, there is a part of the United States. That’s very, very ugly and I’m, I’m not putting the States down. It’s still a country. I enjoy a great deal. I go there regularly. I was there two weeks ago. Uh, but, um, I don’t know.”

It’s amazing that there’s this guy preaching about the violence and ugliness in the United States – was the sickness that was revealing itself in you? – and then a year later he travels to New York, stalks a woman, chases her upstairs to her apartment and stabs her to death repeatedly in the heart. Then he comes back to Canada and immediately assumes a defensive posture of ‘poor me’, and defamation, and how the media needs to stop chasing him and let him get on with his pursuit of celebrity. A month after Saint Antoine’s murder, Montpetit complained in a La Presse interview that he felt persecuted, “lost like a hero in a Hitchcock film”. Yes, but he wasn’t cast as Cary Grant, he was playing Raymond Burr.

246 East 23rd Street

I’ve been avoiding the actual murder, because it’s like every other murder; men hunting down women. The cold case investigator for the NYPD later assigned to Saint-Antoine’s case, Stefano Braccini made a comment something like, ‘murder is always about people (crimes of passion) or money (and usually drug money), and they’re mostly committed by men’. Here is what apparently happened in June 1982.

Alain Montpetit’s alibi was this: he was not in New York City when Saint-Antoine died, he was in Madrid in rehab, then later with his girlfriend, Jackie Lee in New Orleans. Jackie Lee later confessed that while they did travel to New Orleans, their flight plans were such that they had a two day layover in New York during the timeline of the murder (and anyway, he had told Marie-Josee’s brother he was in NYC, allegedly contacting Jean-Luc before police had even spoken to the family, but why bring up facts.). Montpetit had instructed Jackie Lee to tell the police he was with her in New Orleans, but he was actually at Xenon the night before Marie-Josee died, he had gained entry using a press pass, and he and Jackie Lee both observed Marie-Josée dancing that night.

Saint-Antoine came home around 1:00 a.m. that night to her Gramercy Park apartment located at 246 East 23rd Street and 2nd Avenue. The next afternoon the actress Dana Delaney – who was then 21 and doing the soap opera, All My Children – ran into Saint-Antoine on the street in Gramercy Park accompanied by a man who she did not introduce. In a composite sketch Delaney later drew, the man looked like Montpetit, but he also kind of looked like Jamie Gillis, an apartment neighbor of Saint-Antoine. This led to a red herring that the then adult film star, Gillis might have murdered model Sainte-Antoine on the basis that 1. he was a porn star, so therefore… 2. He happened to speak French. 3. He was apparently a good actor, the “De Niro” of porn. Police also speculated that it might have been her boyfriend at the time, a fashion photographer named Dominique Silberstein. But unlike Montpetit, Silberstein had an iron-clad alibi where he was observed by several models at a photo shoot during the murder timeline.

Around 5:30 p.m., June 18, 1982, Saint-Antoine returned to her apartment. Shortly thereafter, Jamie Gillis entered the building and noticed Saint-Antoine’s white, healed shoes at the base of the ground floor stairs. Finding this suspicious, Gillis and his girlfriend, Kathleen O’Reilly, then walked up the four flights to her apartment to check on their neighbor. They had a spare key, but when they opened the door, they felt weight against it. Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine was discovered lying face down dressed in jeans and a blouse, stabbed several times in the heart, once in the back, and with defensive wounds on her arm, and bruises on her body. There were no signs of forced-entry or robbery, and police almost immediately deemed the murder an “emotionally driven crime”, believing the 23-year-old model knew her killer: “It looks like she let him in the door”, a detective commented.

The apartment building had a buzzer system for entry. Which means she either let her assailant in, or he followed her in. Police speculated she had removed her shoes to make walking (or running) up the flight of stairs easier. But cold case detective Stefano Braccini offered another theory: the assailant may have removed the shoes and brought them down to the entrance foyer, a staging mechanism to ensure Saint-Antoine would be discovered quickly, possibly indicating signs of remorse.

One early theory was that Marie-Josée got caught in the crossfire of a modeling war. In an era when the industry was ripe with allegations of being a front for drugs and prostitution, was the 23-year-old model a collateral victim? This might have had legs had not a better theory soon developed: Marie-Josée was murdered by a sociopathic associate who transposed all of his swallowed rage into this one outburst of aggression. Montpetit characterized himself as a close friend of Saint-Antoine, the truth was he barely knew her. But Marie-Josee was friends with Montpetit’s girlfriend, Paule Charbonneau. Charbonneau began a sexual relationship with the disco king where he would basically stop by for a fuck, then be off on his next adventure. She characterized it as “an unhealthy relationship” and Saint -Antoine had urged her to break it off commenting, “that guy is weird”. When Montpetit was supposed to be in Madrid or Belgium or wherever-the-fuck he was pretending to be, when he was actually back in Montreal or New York, he called Charbonneau 15 times in the middle of the night begging her to take him back. On the 16th try it was Saint Antoine who picked up and instructed him to never call again. And I am certain her words were slightly less polite than that.

Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine

Jackie Lee later admitted to police that Montpetit was off on his own for several hours the afternoon of June 18th. When he returned to their hotel he was wearing a yellow jacket that had blood stains on it. While never saying directly that he did anything, he instructed Jackie Lee that if the police contacted her, to say that the two of them stayed in their hotel room for the entire three days they were in New York. Montpetit gave his girlfriend some bullshit excuse that he wanted to given up his career in Montreal and start over as a writer in New Orleans. After two weeks of hiding out, that charade ended. He quickly decided that he no longer wanted to be a writer and returned to Montreal radio.

“I know who did it”.

Suspicions grew quickly. One month later in July 1982 Montpetit gave an interview with La Presse where he stated that “Marie-Josée, a good family friend”, and how he had telephoned her parents because:

“Sensing their distress, I wanted to provide them with my support in an active and perhaps useful way…I said to myself that these people, whom I know well, would like to know what had happened to their daughter, especially since she was very close to them and, moreover, she led a fair life. – straight.”

La Presse, July 15, 1982

One person who wasn’t buying it was Douglas “Coco” Leopold, an associate and fellow radio host who went on the air at CKMF and stated categorically that Montpetit murdered Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine – the French can be subtle but when pressed they go for the jugular. Montpetit immediately sued “Coco” Leopold for defamation and the case was settled out of court. Leopold hadn’t just been cavalier in his remarks. The source of his charge apparently came from another one of Montpetit’s former girlfriends, the singer Sophie Stanké. Stanké told investigators that after she ended her relationship with Montpetit he stalked her. Later when she confronted him about the Saint-Antoine murder he did not deny he had done it and commented, “I know who did it”. New York Police stated Montpetit also confessed to his other former girlfriend, Paule Charbonneau, but publicly Charbonneau denied it.

In a May 1982 interview with La Presse, one month prior to the murder, Alain Montpetit confided that his real ambition was to be “on American television”:

“where he admires an anchorman like Ted Koppel. He would like to specialize in public affairs, seasoned with showbiz, such as they are done on television across the border.”

“Alain Montpetit quitte le Québec”, La Presse, May 22, 1982

Alain Montpetit failed in that ambition. Montpetit’s career path could have been much like the former Toronto music VeeJay, J.D. Roberts, had not all the booze and coke and personal issues got in the way. John Robert is today a news anchor on Fox News. At the point when Montpetit should have been making the transition to a larger American market his life was spinning out of control, and he was going on live radio making incoherent rants. His Montreal producers again asked him to check into rehab.

Instead Alain Montpetit checked into the Henley Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. He had made arrangements to check into a different hotel with Jackie Lee, apparently another attempt to rekindle an old flame – he had uncharacteristically told her that he loved her – but he never showed up. The Henley Park was six blocks from the White House. On the afternoon of June 9, 1987 – five years from the anniversary of Marie Josee’s murder, and almost exactly three years to the date of her father’s suicide – Alain Montpetit ordered a martini at the lobby bar, then retired early to his room. He then called room service and ordered another martini. The maid found him the next morning in his bed, an empty plastic bag of coke in the bathroom. The autopsy revealed he had snorted seven grams of cocaine laced with morphine. An NYPD officer once pondered at the lost potential in the murder of Marie-Josee Saint-Antoine. “This is a tragedy. She could have been the next Cheryl Tiegs”, never catching the backhanded insult. Saint-Antoine was raven-haired, so maybe the next Linda Evangelista. What does it matter – It’s 2022, no one knows what we’re talking about anyway.

By 2021, the world caught up with Marie-Josée, and she finally got her in-depth true crime documentary. I am frequently skeptical of these programs, they often start great and very quickly get sloppy. If you can find it, Qui a tué Marie-Josée? – made in 2021 by Attraction Media – is an excellent piece of investigative reporting. It earns every inch of its three hour running time. I have used a lot of it here to fact check what I’ve written. A large portion of the program explains fashion culture in the era as it moved from ’70s hippie-mod cute to the sophisticated androgyny and padded shoulders of The Big ’80s. Marie-Josée’s family are given voice, chiefly through her brother, Jean-Luc, and there are great interviews with players both from Quebec and the United States. Detective Braccini is there, and it’s clear that as a cold case investigator he is a very creative thinker. At one point he talks about the importance of re-interviewing witnesses, and I wish I could get cold case investigators from Quebec to hear it. He says you need to re-interview because witnesses change their statements, they don’t remember what they said decades earlier, but detectives do because they have the written statements – brilliant and fundamental. One criticism of the program is that Montpetit’s wife and two children are barely mentioned and are scrubbed from the narrative, you’d hardly know he once had a stable family. Overall it’s a fair portrait, offering the many motives and suspects, but ultimately it comes down squarely that Alain Montpetit murdered Marie-Josée. And this is what New York Police ultimately decided in 2001 when the District Attorney granted an “Exceptional Clearance” to determine that Montpetit was the culprit, and close the case.

I’m going to close with and interview Montpetit gave to Andre Gignac in the summer of 1981 (it’s a little confusing so I’ve bolded Montpetit’s remarks). Through it I think you can see a lot of the troubled nature of Alain Montpetit. Not that I sympathize with him. I really believe Montpetit is the model of what has become fashionable to call a narcissistic personality. He was his own worst enemy, always seeming to get in the way of whatever it was he thought he should be aspiring to.

I had this friend in high school, Russell. He’s the one who introduced me to Kraftwerk, the music I’ve used generously for this podcast. If you don’t know – this is not an original idea – I think Kraftwerk is the most important and influential pop band in the world – Holed up in Düsseldorf for 40 years, creating these soundscapes. Even when they became famous, they’d visit dance centers in Berlin and New York, but they were always most comfortable back home in the north of Germany. Russell used to sing Hall of Mirrors, but he’d also act it out in full Marlene Dietrich fashion, striking these garish poses. He still remembers it. I recall it as something quite frightening, how he’d pantomime this slow robotic dance. Kraftwerk were iconoclasts, I don’t think they were working for anyone’s approval. Contrast that with the statement below from Montpetit, “As long as the public wants me. I’ll stay. It is the public that is my real boss”. I could never see those words coming out of the mouths of any member of Kraftwerk. They took half a decade to produce Electric Café, and that’s not because they were on hiatus after the success of Computer World: they took nearly 2,000 days to produce an album, and rarely left their Kling Klang studio during that time. And what was Alain Montpetit up to in 1978 when Kraftwerk released The Man-Machine and were at the apex of their creativity? Well, Montpetit released the Halloween novelty goof, Dracula Disco, I sort of Montreal Monster Mash.

If Alain Montpetit truly wanted to be a great stage actor, or music artist, or a writer (I doubt it) he was afforded every opportunity to pursue these ambitions, which for most of us, are impossibilities. Most of us don’t have the mechanism in place. Montpetit came from money, he had access to the right people, he had opportunity and influence. What he lacked was deep talent. He possessed superficial talent, he was a populist. I would suggest he knew this, and it was at the heart of his deep insecurities. He knew he wasn’t good enough to be an artist of the highest calibre, so he compensated with arrogance and bravado. I have no doubt that when he finally went to New York City to try and be the next Ted Koppel that he marched in there with a “don’t you know how important I am back in Canada!” attitude and they showed him the door. And here I’ve gone and broken my own rule by talking more about the offender than the victim. But you don’t ask the victim, “why did you do it? Why did you become a victim?” (in some cases we do). More often we ask the offender, “Why were you such a hideous person?” So why… why was Alain Montpetit such a…

“We could consider Alain Montpetit as a snob, a pest, or a very decent guy, or even a tireless worker, that we would be mistaken in taking them one by one. Because Alain is all of these things at the same time, except for what is snobbery. The host has a holy horror of anything that presents a snobbish character. We are therefore going to leave that to the jealous and concentrate more on the rather original character that is Alain Montpetit – the radio announcer, the theater actor, then I man.

It is no secret that Alain Montpetit already led a life that was eventful to say the least. Far be it from me to want to rehash these stories again, but because, during our interview, he hesitated to have his photograph taken – “I look all crooked” he gave as a reason – then he gave in. Without that I don’t intend to ask him the reason for his state, or at least the reason why – “I won’t be able to get through it!”

Alain Montpetit is a quiet man, too busy to commit some madness. This is the second time I asked him the question, and the answer was the same in both cases. So no scandal, except that, in my opinion, this guy is going to kill himself at work!

“It’s true, I’ve got a lot of work.” But what he’s done it these last few months. In each place, so to speak, we haven’t been looking for him, it’s rather he who broke down the doors one by one, proving beforehand that he could do it.

This time, and for the first time in his career in Quebec, Alain Montpetit is headed for summer theatre. From June 25 to September 5, he will gradually leave his role as a host to do summer theatre, “because I was too busy with shows, television and radio. So as you can see, I’m not as busy as you are. I think so, since I can play on summer stages. Which doesn’t prevent me from preparing nine specials for Télé-Métropole, not to mention various other specials, and the radio station CKMF-FM.”

The cat got out of the bag when he explained to me that he had just arrived from a play rehearsal in which he had to roll on the ground as part of his character before rushing to the CKMF radio station, where the interview took place just a few minutes before he went on the air.

Here, in a few lines, is the story of Alain Montpetit’s recent years: a very busy guy, so busy that you shouldn’t be surprised when he lets himself be seen in jeans, his eyes a little tired. “A chance that came to me quickly. You do your job, you don’t consider it as such. You have fun while doing your job professionally. That’s how it is” he explains.

And anyway, when the opportunity comes, you have to take it. He went from CKLM to CKGM, then to CKMF, followed by Clan Beaulieu and other special shows. But he craved the theatre, where he trained as a stage actor. The summer stock play he is doing, “Beware of the button” / “The Button” is a farce, adapted from an American play by Yvan Canuel, and presented at the Théâtre du Pont Château, in Coteau du Lac. In the play, we also find as actors, Yvan Canuel, his wife Lucille Papineau (who also plays the role of his wife in the play), and Sylvie Beauregard, with whom Alain is in love. “Previously, I didn’t have time to ask if this infernal race against time was going to last much longer. As long as the public wants me. I’ll stay. It is the public that is my real boss – they will decide my future.”

So what can we learn from all this? Very simple: Alain Montpetit is a guy who knows his limits… and who knows if he has yet reached them! “

André Gignac, “POUR LA PREMIERE FOIS AU THÉÂTRE D’ÉTÉ”, Télé-radiomonde, dimanche 12 juillet 1981, P. 20

Alain Montpetit interview / 1981 Musi-Video

Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine – Allô Police, Juillet 1982

22 years later, Quebec provincial police to charge man with murder of Guylaine Potvin

47-year-old man expected to appear in court Thursday

The Canadian Press · Posted: Oct 12, 2022 12:52 PM

Guylaine Potvin was killed in Joncquière in April 2000. (Submitted by Sûreté du Québec)

The Quebec provincial police’s four-year-old expanded cold case squad logged its first victory on Thursday after a man was formally charged in a 22-year-old murder and a separate, violent sexual assault.

Marc-André Grenon, 47, is facing charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault in connection with two separate cases against female students dating back to 2000.

Grenon appeared by videoconference in Chicoutimi, Que., about 215 kilometres north of Quebec City, to be charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in connection with the murder of Guylaine Potvin, a 19-year-old junior college student found dead in her apartment in Jonquiere, in April 2000.

Crown prosecutor Pierre-Alexandre Bernard said Grenon, of Granby, Que., east of Montreal, was also charged with the attempted murder and sexual assault of another woman who was violently assaulted and left for dead in Quebec City just months later.

A publication ban protects the identity of the victim, who survived the assault.

Quebec provincial police confirmed Thursday that Grenon’s arrest is the first since the force’s cold case squad was beefed up in 2018, when the Sûreté du Québec announced it was expanding the squad from five officers to nearly 30.

The goal was to tackle hundreds of murders and suspected murders dating back to the 1960s, but as of this summer they had yet to solve a single one.

It was only 22 years later, thanks to advancements in forensic biology, that investigators could confirm the DNA of the attacker in these two cases was the same. On Wednesday, Potvin’s case summary on the cold case website was updated to add the word “resolved.”

In a statement on Wednesday, provincial police praised the work of investigators in the cold case division and the forensic science laboratory and “the innovative methods used today in forensic biology” that allowed for an arrest.

They did not provide details, however, on which techniques were used

Grenon will remain in custody until his bail hearing on Nov. 21.

Surprise arrest

The arrest of Potvin’s alleged killer came as a surprise to those who knew her. She lived with two female roommates, also students, who were not home when the killing took place inside their Panet Street residence.

Potvin’s former classmate, Myriam Blais, says she barricaded herself in her nearby apartment days after Potvin’s death because she was scared. 

“When I heard the news [of the arrest], I was relieved,” she said. “My biggest fear was that the person died and would have taken that secret to their grave.” 

Bruno Cormier, a retired police officer who participated in the initial investigation, says he’s delighted by the news, but he can’t help but think of Potvin’s family. 

Former Saguenay police spokesperson Bruno Cormier stands in front of the house where Guylaine Potvin was found. (Priscilla Plamondon Lalancette/Radio-Canada)

“I know those people were greatly affected,” he said.

A former spokesperson for Saguenay police, Cormier says he kept a photo of Potvin in his wallet. 

“I’m also thinking of the second victim who was left for dead in her apartment,” he said. “Those are all images that come back to me when I hear the news.”

with files from Jennifer Yoon and Radio-Canada’s Catherine Paradis and Chantale Desbiens

L’équipe élargie de cold case de la Sûreté du Québec n’a pas encore résolu un meurtre

Morgan Lowrie, Presse canadienne, le 21 juillet 2022.

MONTRÉAL — Plus de 50 ans plus tard, Isabel Marcotte ressent encore chaque jour la douleur du meurtre de sa sœur.

Teresa Martin

Le 12 septembre 1969, Teresa Martin, 14 ans, est descendue de l’autobus près de chez elle dans le nord de Montréal après être allée au cinéma avec des amis. Son corps a été retrouvé plusieurs heures plus tard dans un parking, soigneusement placé en position assise avec un message gravé dans son ventre.

Marcotte se souvient de chaque détail de cette nuit et du lendemain : sa sœur ne rentrait pas dans la chambre qu’ils partageaient ; l’inquiétude croissante de ses parents; son père est allé voir le corps et a menti à sa femme au téléphone, disant que ce n’était pas Teresa, parce qu’il voulait lui dire en personne.

“Quand mon père est rentré à la maison, j’ai su que c’était elle”, a déclaré Marcotte dans une récente interview.

Près de 53 ans plus tard, le cas de Teresa reste non résolu – et c’est loin d’être le seul.

La police provinciale du Québec a annoncé en 2018 qu’elle augmentait son escouade des affaires froides de cinq agents à près de 30 afin de s’attaquer à des centaines de cas remontant aux années 1960. Sur son site Internet, la police répertorie 292 cas de meurtres ou de disparitions non résolus où un meurtre est suspecté.

Depuis que l’équipe a été agrandie, ils n’en ont résolu aucun.

“Si votre question ne concerne que ces dossiers, aucun dossier de ce type n’a été résolu depuis 2018”, a écrit le lieutenant Benoit Richard dans un courriel. La police provinciale a refusé une demande d’entrevue de suivi.

Le manque de succès du Québec dans la résolution des affaires froides n’est pas une surprise pour John Allore, un ancien Québécois dont la sœur Theresa Allore a été retrouvée morte quelques mois après avoir disparu dans les Cantons-de-l’Est au Québec en 1978. Allore, qui dirige un website sur le crime axé sur le cas de sa sœur et d’autres homicides non résolus au Québec, affirme que la police n’a “pas aidé” à enquêter sur la mort de sa sœur.

Il a dit que d’après son expérience, l’équipe adopte une approche passive, attendant que les gens appellent avec des conseils plutôt que de prendre l’initiative d’interroger des témoins ou de rechercher des preuves.

“Je dis que ce n’est pas assez bon – vous devez frapper aux portes”, a déclaré Allore. “Ils ont paniqué quand j’ai dit qu’ils devaient réinterroger des témoins clés. Ils ont dit:” Nous n’avons pas la main-d’œuvre pour cela. “”

Officiellement, les agents des affaires froides au Québec sont affectés à temps plein aux cas non résolus, mais Allore a déclaré qu’ils semblent être régulièrement déployés dans d’autres projets. Il a dit qu’au cours de la seule année écoulée, les deux derniers agents travaillant sur le cas de sa sœur ont été réaffectés.

Marcotte dit avoir repris espoir il y a quelques années lorsque la police provinciale lui a demandé une photo de sa sœur à mettre en ligne sur une page dédiée aux affaires froides. Elle aussi est devenue déçue.

Elle a dit qu’elle avait eu du mal à joindre les agents affectés au cas de sa sœur au fil des ans. Quand elle le fait, c’est une “personne différente à chaque fois”.

Lorsqu’elle a posé des questions, elle a dit que les agents semblaient ne faire que lire le dossier. “Ils ne sont jamais venus vous voir pour vous dire quoi que ce soit qu’ils faisaient”, a-t-elle déclaré.

Cela se produit à un moment où des cas froids ailleurs sont résolus par les progrès de l’extraction d’ADN et une technique connue sous le nom de génomique, qui permet à la police de faire correspondre l’ADN de la scène du crime à celui téléchargé dans des bases de données publiques telles que Ancestry.com et 23andMe pour rechercher la famille membres.

La technique, qui a pris de l’importance lorsqu’elle a été utilisée aux États-Unis pour aider à identifier Joseph James DeAngelo comme le tueur de Golden State, est maintenant utilisée pour résoudre des cas sur une base “hebdomadaire”, selon Michael Arntfield, un criminologue de l’Université Western. qui est aussi un ancien policier. DeAngelo a plaidé coupable en 2020 pour 13 meurtres et 13 accusations de viol dans les années 1970 et 1980.

Arntfield a déclaré que bien que la technique ait été utilisée à quelques reprises au Canada – notamment pour résoudre le meurtre en 1984 de Christine Jessop, neuf ans, en Ontario – elle est sous-utilisée par de nombreuses forces de police au Canada.

Il a déclaré que la méthode, qui permet à la police de comparer un échantillon de scène de crime à chaque échantillon d’ADN qui a été téléchargé dans une base de données – criminelle ou non – s’avère très efficace et ne coûte que quelques milliers de dollars, bien moins que les salaires des agents sur un équipe de cas froids.

Alors que certaines forces de police, y compris à Toronto, ont commencé à utiliser cette technique, Arntfield a déclaré qu’il ne pouvait que spéculer sur les raisons pour lesquelles d’autres semblent lents à l’adopter.

“Je suppose que cela se résume à la torsion habituelle des Canadiens sur les intérêts de la vie privée”, a déclaré Arntfield lors d’un entretien téléphonique, “et à la réticence des forces de l’ordre au Canada à, a) s’associer à un laboratoire du secteur privé qui s’occupe de la génétique des personnes informations et, b) poursuivre des voies d’enquête que beaucoup de gens, je pense à tort, pensent qu’elles portent atteinte à leurs intérêts en matière de vie privée.”

La police provinciale du Québec a déclaré dans son courriel que “les progrès technologiques, qu’ils soient au niveau de l’ADN ou de toute autre nature, sont toujours pris en compte par l’équipe” et utilisés lorsque cela est possible, mais ils n’ont pas précisé.

Diane Seguin, responsable de la biologie et de l’ADN au laboratoire médico-légal de Québec — le Laboratoire de sciences judiciaries et de médecine légale — affirme que les forces policières canadiennes et québécoises « commencent tout juste » à adopter la généalogie génétique.

Il est utilisé sur quelques “cas très médiatisés”, a-t-elle déclaré. Cependant, les chercheurs canadiens sont ralentis par le fait qu’il y a moins de profils ADN canadiens téléchargés dans des bases de données publiques par rapport aux profils américains, a-t-elle ajouté.

Elle a noté que les éléments de preuve construits grâce à l’utilisation de la généalogie et des arbres généalogiques n’ont pas encore été entièrement testés par les tribunaux canadiens.

Allore croit que la police provinciale du Québec pourrait ne pas être en mesure de se prévaloir de travaux ADN avancés dans de nombreux cas parce que le travail policier des années 1970 et 1980 était si bâclé que les preuves étaient souvent jetées.

La mort de sa sœur de 19 ans a d’abord été traitée comme une surdose présumée de drogue – même si elle a été retrouvée face contre terre dans une mare d’eau portant seulement un soutien-gorge et des sous-vêtements sans aucune preuve de drogue dans son système.

Il a déclaré que la police avait jeté les vêtements de sa sœur au bout de cinq ans et que le seul élément de preuve restant était son portefeuille, qui n’a survécu que parce qu’il a été donné à sa famille. Un travail négligent similaire s’est produit dans d’autres cas, a-t-il dit.

Seguin a confirmé que des preuves n’ont pas été conservées dans de nombreux meurtres non résolus. Dans d’autres, les preuves ont été contaminées – par exemple, par des agents ne portant pas de gants – ce qui rend presque impossible l’extraction d’ADN utilisable.

Marcotte pense néanmoins que les preuves ADN représentent la meilleure – et probablement la seule – chance de trouver l’assassin de sa sœur.

Elle a dit que toutes les quelques années, lorsqu’elle entend parler d’un autre cas résolu, elle appelle la police provinciale pour leur demander d’essayer de trouver de l’ADN sur les vêtements de sa sœur. Jusqu’à présent, elle dit n’avoir reçu que de vagues réponses.

Maintenant dans la soixantaine, elle espère toujours une résolution pour le bien de ses parents décédés, qui n’ont plus jamais été les mêmes après le meurtre, et pour Teresa, la sœur dont elle se souvient comme timide, brillante et gentille avec les animaux.

“J’aimerais avoir encore une sœur”, a-t-elle déclaré. “Cela reste toujours dans votre esprit.”

Quebexico – Why Theresa Allore’s murder was never solved

There is no simple answer to this question, so once-a-week for 24 weeks I wrote a chapter to explain the complex relationship that evolved between the police and organized crime in Quebec which resulted in so many women being treated like collateral damage.

Part I

Quebexico Folie à deux CECOThe Bikers of SherbrookeThe Dirty ReichFather Jean Salvail The Biker Priest of Sherbrooke, QuebecThe Night of the Long KnivesTheresa Allore – Case updateThe aborted abduction of Manon DubéCorporeal – Louise Camirand updateKentucky Fried MURDER!Entracte.

Part II

The murder of Carole FecteauS-Town – The murders of Raymond Grimard and Manon BergeronThree of a Perfect PairThe Aloha Motel FireThe Trial of Fernand LaplanteHow we know Regis Lachance was a police informantJean Charland – Prodigal SonMuzzled JusticeThe Raid at Disco Bob’sTheresa Allore = Gerald + Regis Lachance Rolland Giguère = Jean-Claude + Regis Lachance Twenty Four Short Films About Quebexico