Gone for a Jog (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00One day in January of 2018, a police officer walked through the woods near the small town of Grey, France. And as he walked, he was looking at the ground, because he was following a literal trail of blood. And this trail eventually led the officer to the body of a person who clearly had been shot in the head. Now, this appeared to be a suicide, but the police officer had some questions. Because this was not the first body that had been found in these woods near the small town in France. Another body had been found a couple of months earlier, and it was starting to seem like there was a pattern here.

0:34But before we get into that 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, the next time you make coffee for the follow button, don't use a coffee filter so there's just a ton of grinds in their drink. Okay, let's get into today's story.

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2:20At around 5 p.m. on the evening of October 27, 2017, a 29-year-old woman named Alexia Duval drove her car down a cul-de-sac in the small, quiet town of Grey, France. She was on her way to her parents' house to celebrate her nephew's second birthday, and it was going to be this big family get-together. Her sister, her brother-in-law, and her little nephew had come in all the way from Paris, which was about a four-hour drive away. But Alexia realistically had mixed feelings about seeing them all tonight. So Alexia had been going through a pretty hard time recently. She and her husband of 13 years, Jonathan, had been trying to get pregnant, and so she'd done several rounds of fertility treatments, which had thrown her hormones completely out of whack and seemed to affect her a lot more than was typical for most women.

3:04And then finally, when all that had led to her actually getting pregnant, she unfortunately had miscarried just a couple of months ago. And so even though Alexia loved her sister's family and got along with them really well, her miscarriage was still really fresh in her mind. And she just knew it was going to be very difficult for her to be around her young nephew. It was just a reminder of what she had lost. Now, Alexia came to a stop outside of a gated driveway at the end of the cul-de-sac, and she rang the intercom. And then when the gate opened up, she drove up the driveway toward a nice house with a very well-kept garden.

3:39She parked her car in the driveway behind her father's white van, and then got out of her car. She grabbed a wrapped present out of the back seat, along with a couple of desserts that she'd made, carried them up to the house, and rang the doorbell. And a few seconds later, her mother, Isabelle Fouillot, answered the door with a big smile and led her into the dining room where Alexia's father, Jean-Pierre, sat at the table, talking with Alexia's brother-in-law, Gregory, and also her sister, Stephanie. They all stood up and they greeted her, and then as Alexia began to explain that her husband Jonathan was running late and he'd be here later in a separate car because the job he'd been working that day as an electrician had run long.

4:16As she was saying all that, Alexia heard the sound of little feet making their way towards her. A moment later, her two-year-old nephew, James, ran around the corner and threw his arms around Alexia's legs. And surprisingly, to Alexia's relief, she didn't feel sadness. All she felt was happiness. And so she bent down and scooped him up and gave the boy a big hug, and then she also handed him his birthday present. Eventually, the group settled in for dinner, and for a while, all of Alexia's worries just kind of faded away. She was really close with everybody at the table, especially her mother and her sister Stephanie, and being around them always put her in a good mood.

4:53Alexia's husband, Jonathan, finally arrived sometime around 8.30, and he, along with the rest of the group, had a wonderful night, eating and drinking and chatting. After dinner was cleaned up, Alexia's father did go to bed, but everybody else stayed up, and they all just continued having this nice time until around 11 p.m., when Alexia said it was really time for her and Jonathan to head home. They both had early mornings ahead of them, Jonathan had some errands to run in the morning, and Alexia was hoping to get a workout in. A few minutes later, on the drive home, Alexia sat in the passenger seat of Jonathan's car.

5:27She'd left her own car at her parents' house because she'd been drinking, and she was planning to pick it up when they came back the next day. Alexia and Jonathan's house was on a quiet residential street, only about a mile away from Alexia's parents' house. And as they made their way down the road, Alexia glanced out the window at a particular house that was just up the street from where they lived. And as she looked at it, she frowned. The neighbor who lived in that house had an adult grandson who had been harassing Alexia all summer. He'd been obsessed with her and would call and text her constantly, to the point where Alexia didn't feel safe even going out for a jog around the block when she was by herself.

6:04Now, fortunately, the harassment had stopped a couple of months ago, but only because the man had been committed to a mental hospital. But Alexia didn't really know how long it would be until he got out again, or if he'd already been released. She didn't know, so it just sort of felt like a reprieve, not a long-term solution. But on this night, at least, there was nobody peering out at her from the neighbor's window. A minute later, their car pulled into their garage, and Alexia and Jonathan got out. and as Alexia went from the garage into the main house, she passed by a treadmill in the corner of the garage, which had broken down a few weeks ago.

6:36She asked Jonathan if he'd gotten around to fixing it yet, and he said no. Alexia just sighed. It was supposed to be a very cold and gloomy morning the next day, and so it looked like she was going to have to run outside.

6:51The following morning, around 11 a.m., Jonathan walked up to the door of Alexia's parents' house and rang the doorbell. And as he did, he sort of gave a worried look over his shoulder at Alexia's car, which was still parked where they'd left it the night before. Jonathan took a deep breath and tried not to show how anxious he felt. As Alexia's mother, Isabel, answered the door. And then, in a very shaky voice, Jonathan said hello and asked her if she'd seen or heard from her daughter recently. And when Isabel said she had not, Jonathan completely lost his composure. He said that morning Alexia had gone out for a jog but not come back.

7:26and now he was starting to get really worried. He explained that he'd tried texting Alexia, but she still hadn't answered. And by this point, she should have been home a long time ago. So something was wrong. A moment later, Jonathan saw Stephanie and Gregory coming out of the guest room with very concerned looks on their faces. They joined Jonathan and Isabel at the front door and asked what the commotion was about. And so Jonathan sort of frantically re-explained the situation and asked if either of them had heard from Alexia in the last hour or so. But they shook their heads and said they hadn't.

7:56But Stephanie showed Jonathan that she had received a text from Alexia at 9.30 that morning, just to say that she was going out for this jog. But after that, none of them had received any texts or calls from Alexia. Jonathan was crying at this point. And so Alexia's family tried to assure him that, you know, Alexia would probably just show up at the house any minute here. Like, nothing's going on. I'm sure she's just running late. And Jonathan, he wanted to believe this. But this was completely unusual. Like this was not normal for Alexia to be gone for this long without being in touch. It just didn't make sense.

8:28It was at this point that Jonathan's brother-in-law, Gregory, reached out and put his hand on Jonathan in a sort of comforting way and just said, look, if it makes you feel any better, I'll go back with you and we can literally go look for Alexia together or at least be together until she comes back. Jonathan didn't really know what to do, but he was very thankful and said, yep, that would be great. And so a couple of minutes later, the two men got in Gregory's SUV and they began driving back towards their house. But Jonathan actually navigated him through the streets along the running route that Alexia usually took to see if maybe they could find her.

8:59They drove down all the side streets looking for her. And then when they reached the edge of town, Jonathan and Gregory got out of the car and began checking the paths leading into the countryside and also the ditches and the banks of the river. But they didn't find Alexia anywhere. And then eventually, they just drove back to Jonathan and Alexia's house to see if maybe she'd finally come home with an explanation for all this, but she had not come home. At this point, Jonathan was completely beside himself, and so Gregory, doing his best to stay calm, said, you know what, let's go to the hospital and see if Alexia had turned up there.

9:32A few minutes later, when they stopped in the parking lot of the local hospital, Jonathan jumped out of the car and ran towards the main entrance, where two nurses were taking a cigarette break. Jonathan told these nurses that he was here looking for his wife and that she'd gone on a run three hours ago and no one knew where she was now and maybe she's here. So the nurses, who could clearly tell this was an emergency, they put out their cigarettes and went inside to check the register. But a minute later, they came back and told the men that no, Alexia Duval had not been admitted that morning.

10:01She was not here. Before Jonathan or Gregory could protest or ask more questions, the nurses just said, look, you gotta go to the police.

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13:53Later that afternoon, a police officer named Adeline Pio sat across from Jonathan in a room at the Gray Police Station as he explained what had happened with his wife that she was missing. Jonathan also gave a description of what Alexia had been wearing when she went out running. Bright pink shoes, black leggings, and a red jacket, so pretty easy to spot. And then after describing her and sort of realizing the weight of what he was here for, He just put his head in his hands and continued to weep as he had been doing much of the morning. Now, Pio could obviously tell that Jonathan was very upset here, but she had to ask the question that was already forming in her mind.

14:28So, as delicately as possible, she asked Jonathan if his wife had any suicidal tendencies or any reason she might have run off without telling anybody. Jonathan looked up really quickly and just shook his head and said no, and said that overall his wife was very happy and definitely not suicidal. However, as he sat there thinking about it, he said she had been taking hormones for fertility, and realistically, those hormones appeared to have affected her really badly. For example, sometimes she would lose control of her emotions entirely and even become violent. Or in other instances, he said that she would even have memory lapses, where she wouldn't even know what she was doing when she was doing it.

15:06It was like she'd become this different person. P.O. nodded and just listened to Jonathan and wrote down everything he was saying. And then when he was done, she followed up and said, you know, can you think of anybody who might have had a problem with Alexia? And for a moment, Jonathan just sat there in silence, kind of mulling over the question. And then suddenly his eyes went wide, like he had just realized something. He told PO that they had a neighbor who had been completely obsessed with Alexia earlier that year. He said his name was Arnaud, and he'd been obsessively calling and texting her so many times that Alexia had actually had to block his number, and had actually talked about how she was fearful of going out alone because of this neighbor.

15:46But just a couple of months earlier, he had been sent to a psychiatric hospital. And because he was literally removed from the neighborhood, the harassment had stopped. But Jonathan said they were kind of worried that at some point he would come back and then he would be a problem again. And realistically, Jonathan said he could be home now. I just don't know. I don't know where he is. Pio was obviously very intrigued by this. And so after this interview was over with Jonathan, she and her investigative team began digging into this Arnaud guy to see where he was and what was going on with him.

16:16And pretty quickly, they discovered that while Arnaud had gone to that psychiatric hospital, that was true. He was not there anymore. He had been released. And so that night, another officer with the gray police knocked on the door of Arnaud's mother's house where Arnaud was staying, which was about an hour away from Alexia and Jonathan's house. After the officer knocked, a middle-aged woman answered the door. And when the officer asked if she was Arnaud's mother, she said she was. The officer looked past her, and he could see there was this disheveled-looking young man sitting right inside. And he asked the mother if that was Arnaud.

16:52And again, the woman said yes. At this point, the officer asked the mother if he could come inside, because he said he needed to speak privately with her son. The mother and Arnaud in the background both seemed very confused by this, But after a minute, they both agreed and the officer came inside. And so the officer went inside the house and sat down in the living room with Arnaud while Arnaud's mother went to the kitchen to give the men some privacy. And then once the mother was gone, the officer looked at Arnaud and just said he had some questions about Alexia Duval. Arnaud immediately looked down at this question, like he was embarrassed and couldn't even look at the officer.

17:29But then he looked back up again and told the officer that he had bipolar disorder. And sometimes when he was in a manic state, he acted inappropriately towards women, including Alexia. The officer followed up about all those messages that apparently Arnaud had sent to Alexia that summer. Like, what was going on with that? And Arnaud admitted that he had done that, but he insisted it really was no big deal. He said that he and Alexia knew each other because they had been neighbors at one point, and they'd also hung out in a group setting once. And so him being in touch with her was not totally weird, like they had a real connection.

18:01but Arnaud clarified that when Alexia told him to stop contacting her, he did. And that was the end of it. But this caught the officer's attention, because according to Alexia's husband, Jonathan, the only reason that all the calls and texts had stopped was because Alexia literally had to block Arnaud's phone number. So the officer just cut to the chase here and told Arnaud that Alexia was missing. And then before Arnaud could say anything, the officer asked him where he'd been that morning at 9 a.m. And Arnaud said, you know, I was right here. I was at home with my mom. For a moment, the officer just stared at Arnaud, trying to read his body language to see if maybe he was being deceptive or not.

18:39So eventually, the officer just stood up and went into the kitchen where the mother was. And he asked the mother, where was your son this morning? And she told the officer with sort of a bewildered look on her face that he was here with me all morning. And so at this point, it was clear to the officer that, you know, if the mother was telling the truth here, it would officially rule out Arnaud as a suspect. because, you know, he was here. But the officer also knew that, generally speaking, mothers do not make the best alibis, because mothers are known to lie, cheat, steal, and do anything to protect their kids.

19:15The following afternoon, on Sunday, October 29th, Chief Officer Frank Paredes glanced out his office window as yet another news van sped past outside down the usually quiet streets of gray. By now, Alexia's disappearance had blown up into this huge national news story, and this was making it really difficult for Paredes, who was in charge of the investigation. Now, it was still early in the investigation, but already he and his investigators were being hounded by reporters and camera crews at every step. Paredes closed his eyes and tried to focus on what his next step should be. The search effort was well underway.

19:52They had called in reinforcements from nearby towns, and even organized search teams with volunteers from the public. At that very moment, law enforcement was also using drones and dogs to scour the town and the surrounding woods. Paredes' investigation team had also searched Jonathan and Alexia's home by now, secretly hoping they might find something to pin the disappearance on Jonathan. But there was no blood, no sign of a struggle, and no clues that gave them any direction there. And also, all of Alexia's other family members, her parents, her sister Stephanie, and her brother-in-law Gregory, they could all vouch for each other's whereabouts on the morning of Alexia's disappearance.

20:29They claimed they had all been at the house together. And so without any real leads, Paredes had gotten so desperate for any information that he'd literally told his team to set up checkpoints out in the streets and just stop random people and ask them if they had seen or heard anything that could help them find Alexia. And now, as Paredes sat in his office wondering what he was going to do today, he heard a knock at his door. And a moment later, one of his investigators entered with fairly surprising news. The checkpoints actually had turned up something. Paredes listened intently as the investigator explained that a number of people he'd spoken to had mentioned a van.

21:07Now, no one had actually seen the van themselves, but they all appeared to have heard the same rumor. That apparently there was a man driving around the area in this white van and he was known to harass girls and women right out on the street. Now, at first glance, Paredes was worried that perhaps this was just like an unfounded rumor, but then he remembered there were actually two men in Alexia's family who literally drove white vans. Her father, Jean-Pierre, he owned one, and her husband, Jonathan, he drove one for work. On the afternoon of Monday, October 30th, so a little more than two days after Alexia went missing, Paredes brought his car to a stop next to a news van parked in the middle of the woods, about four miles outside of town.

21:52Minutes ago, he had received a call from an officer in the field telling him that Alexia's body had been found. And so Paredes had driven out to the scene as fast as he could. But now that Paredes was here at the crime scene, he could tell obviously he was late to the game because, you know, a news crew was already here setting up their cameras near a row of police barriers. And Paredes was disappointed to see this because he'd hoped that if and when her body was discovered, if she was found dead, at that time he would have had at least one suspect or hopefully multiple suspects identified and under surveillance before the word got out to the general public that Alexia was found dead.

22:31But now he obviously would not get that chance. Perretta's side climbed out of his car and flashed his badge to an officer who led him around the barriers and into the crime scene. Paredes approached one of the forensics experts, who was taking photos and placing yellow-numbered markers around on the ground, and Paredes introduced himself as the lead investigator. The expert then led him over to Alexia's body, which was lying on the ground between two tree trunks covered by a white bedsheet. Her pink running shoes were poking out from under the sheet, and Paredes noticed that her feet and the sheet were both partially burned, as if someone had tried to set them on fire at some point.