Fan Favorite - "The Monaco Matriarch"

0:00Today's episode is a fan favorite. The audio and the story has been remastered for today's episode. On a morning in May of 2014, a detective sat next to the hospital bed of a mortally injured 77-year-old woman. This woman had been in a coma for the last 10 days following a vicious attack on her. And in that time, the detective had been desperately working to try to figure out who had attacked her. But now, somewhat amazingly, the woman had woken up from her coma, and now this detective was finally getting the chance to ask the victim directly, who did this to you? However, when the woman began to speak, this conversation would not go as planned.

0:41But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, please take the follow button out for a beach day, but secretly replace their sunscreen with cooking oil. Okay, let's get into today's story.

1:18Auto insurance should not be one size fits all, especially for people whose lives definitely aren't. That's why USAA Auto Insurance offers coverage designed for the military and their eligible families. When your life demands precision, USAA gets the details right, like helping you find savings on auto insurance when you switch. Visit usaa.com slash auto quote to see how much you could save. Membership eligibility and product restrictions apply and are subject to change. USAA means United Services Automobile Association and its affiliates, San Antonio, Texas. Adobe Firefly is the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video editing for today's creative process.

1:59Built for creators of every kind, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast because the asks aren't getting smaller, the budgets aren't getting bigger, and the timelines, oh yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Unlock a better way to make with Adobe Firefly. Late in the afternoon on May 6th, 2014, 77-year-old Helene Pastor sat at her office desk in Monaco with a phone pressed to her ear. And on the other end was one of Helene's many tenants doing what they did best, which was to complain. This time there was a problem with their water heater, and apparently the plumber was late.

2:42And Helene, like she always did, listened patiently. because she was a landlord and this was her job. But when this tenant was finished, Helene told them in a soft but firm voice that the plumber would be there eventually and that they, the tenant, were certainly not too important to wait. Then she hung up. Helene knew her tenant wouldn't like this, but she also just didn't have patience for entitled wealthy snobs. Unfortunately for her though, she spent a lot of time with people like that Because Helene was actually the single richest woman in all of Monaco. So Monaco is a country located on the Mediterranean coast, and it's surrounded on three sides by France.

3:24And so Monaco and France share a lot of cultural similarities. But unlike France, Monaco is very, very small, just under a mile wide, and has only about 39 ,000 citizens. And many of those 39 ,000 citizens are incredibly wealthy. It's essentially a country of millionaires and billionaires living in ultra-luxury condos and high-rises all along its coastline. And Helene and her family, the Pastors, owned most of those condos. Which meant they were among the wealthiest landlords not just in Monaco, but on the whole planet. The Pastors' multi-billion dollar real estate empire had started three generations ago, and Helene was now in charge of it.

4:06It was a lot of work, and Helene could have passed it off to somebody else. But she was a pastor, and pastors worked for what they had. Which was why, you know, despite her wealth, Helene was a very hands-on landlord and spent long days in her office with her staff, you know, dealing with accounting and handling tenants' requests and complaints, like about, you know, the plumber not being on time. Now, Helene picked up the phone once more to make one more call before she left for the day. And this call was to her daughter, Sylvia. Sylvia was 53 and had been diagnosed with breast cancer two years earlier.

4:40So Helene, you know, naturally worried about her a lot and checked in with her daily. And on this day, when she heard her daughter pick up and say hello, Helene immediately asked her, like, how are you feeling? But Sylvia said she actually couldn't talk right now. Her massage therapist had just arrived. And so she excused herself and hung up. Helene took the phone off her ear and just stared at the receiver as the dial tone blared through it, you know, doing her best not to feel hurt. Helene knew she was a very demanding parent and, you know, generally was not particularly warm, but she loved Sylvia.

5:13And lately, it seemed like her daughter just didn't necessarily reciprocate that. And Helene knew exactly who to blame for this. And it was not Sylvia, and it wasn't even Helene. It was Sylvia's boyfriend, Wojciech. Now, Sylvia had been with Wojciech for almost three decades, and it seemed like everyone in Monaco absolutely loved this guy. I mean, he was charming and gregarious and gave a ton of money to charity. But Helene had always felt like there was just something off about him. And she worried that he was taking advantage of her daughter's very famous name. And so generally, there had just been this sort of sitting, unspoken tension between Helene and Sylvia about Wojciech.

5:52You know, the fact that clearly Helene didn't really like him. Like that tension was there between the mother and daughter. But lately, it seemed like that tension had finally gotten to the point where, you know, Helene and Sylvia were just having all these little arguments that, you know, sometimes were actually about Wojciech, and other times were about completely different things. It was like they were just quick to argue with each other. But for now, Helene looked at the time and saw, you know, it was time to go. And so she stood up and she smoothed out her beautiful Chanel suit, and she knew that if she wanted to see her son Gildo tonight, she really needed to get a move on here.

6:24So Gildo, Helene's son, had been in the hospital for the last few months after having a stroke. Helene visited with him daily, making the 45-minute drive from Monaco to where he was hospitalized in Nice, France. Now, the daily commute was definitely a lot, but Helene didn't care. She always worked it into her very busy schedule. Now, Gildo was 47, but he was still very much Helene's child. And the whole ordeal had been just awful and very emotional for Helene, especially on top of, you know, her daughter's cancer diagnosis and the tension between her and her daughter. Like, right now, life was pretty tough.

7:00Seeing her children like this had reminded Helene that money just could not save you from everything, even in Monaco. Now, Helene grabbed her Hermes purse and she headed out the door. Minutes later, Helene was outside and was climbing into a black minivan that was waiting for her at the curb. And as Helene slid into the back seat, she was greeted by her 64-year-old driver, Mohamed Darwitch. So Mohamed had actually been working with Helene now for 15 years. And so the two of them spent the entire 45-minute drive to Nice just chatting about their kids because in some ways they were, longtime friends.

7:32Mohamed told Helene about how he really missed his daughter, who lived back in Egypt with her mom. And he also updated Helene on his son with Sam, and how he liked living in France. Their conversation made the drive go fast, and before Helene knew it, they were at the hospital. Around 6 p.m. that night, Helene was sitting at Gildo's bedside, helping him drink a glass of water. Like his mother, Gildo had been both blessed and cursed with the pastor work ethic. Despite the family money, He was constantly starting ventures and investing in businesses. So Helene knew the hospitalization had been really hard for him, not just physically, but just from a work perspective.

8:10You know, he was missing out on so many opportunities because he was stuck here. And even though now he was awake and alert, he was still partially paralyzed and just couldn't speak very well. Helene sat with Gildo for about an hour, talking to him and also checking in with his doctors. And then at some point, she kissed her son's forehead and told him she would see him soon. Just after 7 p.m., Helene walked out of the hospital to where Mohamed was waiting in the minivan. And this time, she got into the front passenger seat. And Mohamed, he started the car, and they began to make their way out of the lot toward the busy streets of Nice.

8:44And pretty much right away, they got stuck in absolutely standstill traffic. And so Helene just sat back in her seat and tried to relax. But as she was doing that, something caught her eye outside of the car, like out her window. It was this person who had a hat kind of pulled down low over their eyes, and they were jogging right towards the minivan. And Helene, she just stared at this person and like tried to see if they maybe knew them because it did seem like they were coming right towards this car, like their car. But then she saw what this person was holding, and immediately she screamed at Mohammed to drive.

9:18But before Mohammed could react, Helene heard a loud bang and the sound of shattering glass.

9:30About 15 minutes later, the commissioner of the Nice police, Philippe Frison, pulled up to the hospital with the sirens on. He'd been in his office about to finish up for the day when he got a call about shots being fired, but he really didn't know how serious it was. So he parked and jumped out of his car, and the first thing he saw was a crowd of people gathered on the street across from the hospital. And they were all staring at this parked black minivan with Monaco plates and also a shattered passenger side window. Frizon jogged over, and he was technically the first officer on the scene, but a firefighter standing by the minivan told him a few details based on what he'd seen and what the onlookers had been saying.

10:09Apparently, a man dressed in black had come out of nowhere on foot and fired two shots into the minivan, striking both the man and the woman who were in there in the head. The shooter had then disappeared back into the crowd, and witnesses saw a second man dressed in black follow after him. The firefighter said that both victims had been taken to the hospital in critical condition, but he didn't know, you know, if they were still alive now, and he also didn't have any information on their identities, just that it was a man and a woman. Immediately, Frizon's mind went to carjacking. Now, Nice did not have a huge amount of crime, but one of its more common issues was something called the car door grab, which was when criminals would target cars who were stuck in traffic.

10:52they would rob these cars. And so he wondered if maybe carjackers had approached this vehicle and attempted to rob it. Something happened. They drew a weapon. And then obviously the victims inside were shot. And then the carjackers took off. And so Frizon radioed back to the station for backup. A crime like this, you know, whether it was carjacking or not, you know, obviously what he's dealing with here is murder. A crime like this needed more officers than just him. And so he gets in touch with the dispatcher and he fills her in on the need for backup. And then during this discussion, she actually passes one more piece of information to Frizon that she had recently learned.

11:30And that was the identities of the victims. And the reason that they already knew who these people were is because one of the victims was incredibly famous. The woman who had been shot was Helene Pastor. The other victim was her driver, Mohamed Darwitch. When Frizon heard this, he couldn't believe it. I mean, of course he knew who she was. Everyone in Monaco knew who Helene Pastor was, or at least had heard the Pastor name. And so now that Frizon knew the identities of his victims, I mean, his theory of this case immediately changed. He felt like there was no way the richest woman in Monaco just happened to be targeted by random carjackers.

12:09I mean, this had to be a hit. And so Frizon, after getting off the radio, went back to the minivan and just looked inside. And right away, he saw there was a purse that was sitting untouched on the dashboard, which made him even more certain that this was no robbery. I mean, very likely that would have been grabbed. But then he noticed something else. The front seats and the floor of the minivan were covered in all these rounded metallic pellets, which he recognized as being from shotgun ammunition, like buckshot, like the inside of, you know, what a shotgun fires or can fire. And this struck Frison as being very strange.

12:44I mean, a shotgun was an odd choice for a professional hit, because it was big and bulky, and you really couldn't carry it in public without attracting a lot of attention. And so this, combined with the fact that this happened in broad daylight, told Frizan that very likely whoever had shot Helene and her driver was not an experienced hitman, which was also just not what he would have expected. Just then, Frizan heard the sound of sirens cut through the air, and he knew his backup had arrived.

13:20A few hours later, Frizzan was back at the police station talking to his team, which now included one of the city's very best detectives, investigator Catherine Messinio. Both of their victims, Mohamed and Helene, had survived, at least to this point. They were in comas, and their attack was already the leading news all around Europe. But Frizzan was not particularly worried about, you know, potentially not being able to solve this because he knew he would have some answers soon. Not only had their technicians processed the crime scene and gathered swabs and other evidence from the minivan, but also Frison's officers had found two security cameras near the scene that likely recorded the entire shooting.

13:58So in France, it was common for cities and towns to have like a network of closed-circuit surveillance cameras that law enforcement was able to access. And Nice had more of those cameras than any other city in the country. So Frizon was optimistic about what the footage might show once it finally arrived. But in the meantime, he wanted to speak to Helene's immediate family and friends and see if she had any enemies. The way Frizon saw it was, you know, Helene's daughter and son, who she was very close with, Sylvia and Gildo, they would certainly know if there was anyone who wanted their mother dead.

14:33But Frizon also knew that her children were not just potential sources of critical information. They were also suspects. Frizan didn't have access to the details of Helene's estate, but he knew enough about the family to guess that whatever inheritance Helene left behind was literally in the billions, which meant that her death would likely make both Sylvia and Gildo billionaires. Now, Frizan didn't think that either of them had actually pulled the trigger here, but what Frizan did think was that both of them definitely had the motive and the means to hire somebody else to do the shooting. But Frison had one big problem.

15:11Sylvia and Gildo, and really all of the people he really wanted to speak to, lived in Monaco. And since Frison and his team were French, and this crime had happened in France, they had no jurisdiction in Monaco. So in order to speak to Helene's children and her inner circle, they couldn't just walk up and demand an interview. Instead, they basically had to ask nicely. The next morning, Frizon sat in a very expensive-looking living room overlooking the beautiful Monaco Harbor. Now, Frizon had been up all night and was basically running on fumes at this point, but he hoped, you know, that was going to be worth it, because sitting across from him was Helene's daughter, Sylvia Pistor, and her 64-year-old boyfriend, Wojciech Janowski.

15:55When Frizon had reached out to Sylvia and Wojciech and asked them to speak with him, one, he had been sort of surprised at how quickly they had agreed to do it, but two, he sensed really not much emotion. Like they were sort of cold and detached and sort of quick to be like, sure, you know, we'll meet up and chat with you about this as if it was just no big deal. But now that he was face to face with them, I mean, it was clear that they were absolutely devastated. I mean, especially Sylvia. Now, Frizan knew as much as he wanted to ask some sort of pointed questions here, he needed to be very careful because Sylvia and Wojciech did not have to be speaking to him at this point.

16:32Like they basically are just agreeing to do this interview, and at any point, they can say, enough, leave, and he would have to go. So Frizan, when he began, he just started out with some very light background questions about Helene. And in a very shaky voice, Sylvia described her mother as being very tough, but incredibly generous. You know, she said they did fight a lot, but it was just over silly things, and they were actually, you know, pretty close. Sylvia said she'd been battling breast cancer, and her mother had always called to check in. Like, she really cared. When Frizon asked about enemies, Sylvia shook her head and she said, you know, obviously my mother is worth a ton of money and so by default she is a target.

17:12But she really didn't get out much. She didn't really engage with the Monaco social scene. She pretty much just worked all the time and looked after the family. Like, she just kept to herself. So I certainly can't think of anybody that would have wanted to harm her. When Frizon turned to Wojciech, Wojciech seemed equally mystified by this whole thing. He told Frizon that he and Sylvia had been together for 28 years and they had a daughter together, and so, you know, he knew Helene very, very well. And he said that, you know, his relationship with Helene had always been great and that Helene generally was like this incredibly generous person.

17:46I mean, especially really with him and with Sylvia. He said that even though he had his own businesses and his own income, you know, totally separate from the pastores, Helene still would give him and his family money. The mention of finances, though, made Frizon perk up. And so he asked Wojciech to be more specific about the type of financial generosity he was describing. And when he asked that question, Frizon noticed there was this look of uncertainty that crossed Wojciech's face. And for a second, Frizon wondered if he had just touched on something that was kind of a sore spot. But Wojciech went from looking uncertain to sort of recovering very quickly, and then an easy smile came across his face, and he explained that Helene gave her daughter and son, so Sylvia, his girlfriend, and Gildo, a monthly allowance of about 500 ,000 euros each, which was around 600 ,000 US dollars.

18:37When Frizan heard this, he had to force himself not to reflexively raise his eyebrows, because this was like a staggering amount of money to get every single month as just an allowance. It was so high, in fact, that it made Frizan doubt whether either of Helene's children would feel a need to kill her. I mean, if she's already giving them this much money every month, what else do you need? But Wojciech wasn't done. He cleared his throat and sort of shifted in his seat like he was uncomfortable. And then he said that, you know, he and Sylvia used this very generous amount of money that Helene gave them on household expenses.

19:11But, you know, Wojciech said if he was being honest, he'd heard that Gildo spent it on other stuff. Wojciech said, you know, Sylvia's brother, Helene's son, he owned some companies that were not doing well. And so he was in very deep debt. For Frizon, you know, he couldn't tell if this was true or not, but it certainly opened up a new investigatory door. So he jotted down this information on his notepad. He was actually meeting with Gildo next. And so if Wojciech was right, then this debt was definitely a huge red flag.

19:4645 minutes later, when Frizon walked into Gildo's hospital room, he was shocked by what he saw. Now, he had known that Gildo was sick, but he really hadn't been prepared for just how sick. Gildo could barely move or speak. The only way he could communicate was actually by blinking. But nonetheless, Frizon sat down by his bedside and began with a few simple questions. It took a long time for Gildo to blink out his answers, and he really couldn't communicate really anything more than a few words at a time. And it was also just kind of obvious to Frizon that even with these short answers, he just was not going to get much.

20:20And as time was going by, you know, Gildo was just getting more and more frustrated with basically his lack of being able to contribute much here. And so by the time Frizon left the hospital, not that long after he had arrived, he was very doubtful that Gildo was really in any shape to be planning a hired hit. I mean, the guy really was just not doing well. But, you know, it was still possible, at least Frizon thought it could be, that Gildo had begun preparations before his stroke, which had only happened two months earlier in March. And Frizon realized the amateurish quality of the hit itself could have actually been a product of Gildo's illness, like he had to rush the hit because he basically could barely communicate.

21:00So far, Frizon thought this case was basically full of contradictions. One of the richest people on the planet had almost been assassinated by shockingly unprofessional hitmen. Both of the children, you know, both of Helene's kids, stood to inherit billions and billions of dollars and were therefore the most obvious suspects. But at the same time, both kids were receiving an ungodly amount of money already. Like, they didn't need the money. And I mean, even if Gildo was in debt, the idea that half a million dollars every month isn't enough to at least keep you afloat just seems sort of fishy. And so Frizan began to wonder about Sylvia's boyfriend, Wojciech.

21:41Could he have planned the hit? Because he, not Sylvia, wanted access to Helene's money? And so Frizan pulled out his phone and he called Missinio, the very talented detective, you know, the best in the city. And he told her about, you know, what he saw as issues about having Sylvia and Gildo as suspects. Mycineo completely agreed with Frizon. And then she shared something that she had learned during her own interviews about Wojciech. She said that one of Helene's friends told her that Sylvia had been with Wojciech so long, 28 years, without getting married because Sylvia wanted to make sure her inheritance went to her or her child or just stayed within her direct family bloodline and didn't go to an outsider, to a husband.

22:24Frizon considered what this meant. It told him that Sylvia didn't completely trust Wojciech, but it also tanked his theory that Wojciech might have planned the hit, since he had zero claim to the Pastora state whether Helene was alive or not. But then, Messinio said something else that made Frison stop thinking about the Pastors completely. She said she had found something out about Helene's driver, Mohamed. Mohamed was apparently involved in a love triangle, and had been for years. He was from Egypt, and he had a family there, but he also had a mistress here. And Messinio had gotten the number for Mohamed's adult son who lived with him in France, so they could just ask him about it.

23:03And so as Frizon hung up the phone, his mind was spinning. I mean, this whole time, he had thought it was so obvious who the target of the hit was. It had to be Helene. She's this billionaire. It's got to be her. But now he was wondering if maybe the real target was Mohamed. That afternoon, Frizan was back at the station with Missinio. It had been 24 hours since the shooting, and neither of them had slept. But Frizan did not think they'd be able to do that anytime soon, because the security camera footage had just arrived. And Frizan had put a lot of stock into this footage. He felt really hopeful that this was going to be what they needed, because it felt like every other lead he had tried to follow so far in this case had already hit some kind of dead end.

23:46He'd just gotten off the phone with Mohamed's son, Wissam, who he had hoped might shed some light on the possibility that Muhammad was the intended target of the attack. But Wassam had been skeptical. He did not think the lead about his father's love triangle meant very much. He said the mistress had been a part of Muhammad's life for a long time. And to be honest, nobody was particularly upset about it. Now, unlike Sylvia and Gildo, Wassam was a young and healthy man. So theoretically, he could have been one of the shooters. But Frizan hadn't heard anything in their call that made him think with Sam wanted to kill his father, or Helene for that matter.

24:24So now Frizan and Missinio began scrolling through the security footage, looking for clues that could maybe point them in the right direction. When they got to the point in the recording where the shooting actually happened, they were relieved to see they did have a clear view of the scene, and they watched it play out right in front of them. And just like the witnesses had said, Helene's car is seen turning out of the hospital parking lot, and then a man with a shotgun approached her window and fired twice. Frizon could see that the second man watched the whole thing from across the street at a snack bar, probably acting as a lookout, and then after the shooting, both men ran away on foot, and their faces were never visible in the footage.