Skip to playerSkip to main content
BRITCOM 4
  • 4 hours ago

Category

📺
TV
Transcript
00:00This program is rated 14 plus and contains scenes of violence and mature subject matter.
00:08Viewer discretion is advised.
00:12Our call started around 8.30 a.m. and then just as she says he just left, somebody walks
00:19back into the house and she starts yelling, get the f*** out of my house, get the f***
00:23out of my house and the phone just dropped.
00:30I look everywhere, everywhere, and I saw she's laying down downstairs and there's blood
00:36over the floor.
00:38Forensic pathologists mentioned that she had been hit with a dumbbell at least twice.
00:43There was noticeable tread from what appeared to be a Timberland boot on the floor that was
00:48left inside the pool of blood.
00:50We need to identify who this person is.
00:52Is this a person that harmed Marie and ultimately killed Marie?
00:55One of the heartbreaking things was that those two young children would have been there
01:01whenever their mother was being murdered.
01:06Good evening and welcome to Crime Beat.
01:08I'm Anthony Robart.
01:10When Ottawa police respond to a call at a townhouse in the city's south end, what they discover
01:16reveals a scene of unimaginable brutality.
01:19The victim, 24-year-old Marie Gabriel, a young mother of two.
01:24But who would want her dead?
01:27As investigators would soon learn, Marie didn't spend her final moments with just her killer.
01:34Here now is Final Call, the murder of Marie Gabriel.
01:39Hi there, it's 911. Do you need the police to fire the paramedics?
01:46Yes, I just want to bring my kid here for the mom.
01:50On Monday, March 28, 2022, the Ottawa police received a 911 call.
01:57I look everywhere, everywhere, and then when I look downstairs, I saw she's laying down, downstairs,
02:02and then there's blood over the floor.
02:04I want you to go down there right now and try to wake her up.
02:06The caller was Mr. Jean Fenelon, who reported that he attended his partner's residence, Marie Gabriel,
02:15with his two kids, that he was to drop off.
02:19And upon entering the house, he could not find his partner.
02:24Mary, she's not moving.
02:27She's not moving? Is she breathing?
02:29No, there's nothing at all.
02:31And she's not breathing.
02:32She's not breathing. Okay.
02:33Okay. Okay, so, real quick here, with my help, would you like to start CPR?
02:40Yeah, I can try that.
02:41I'm with my two kids, so they keep coming downstairs.
02:44I don't want them to see it, so...
02:45Okay, I understand, but we really need to try right now because every second counts, okay?
02:51There's actually blood everywhere now.
02:53There's blood?
02:54Where is the blood coming from?
02:56From her head.
02:57And then there's blood, blood, blood on the count.
02:59I understand this is difficult, but you really need to push as hard and as fast as you can.
03:04Yeah, I'm doing that.
03:05Okay.
03:06She's not moving or not.
03:07She's not moving? I understand.
03:09Is there any response from her at all?
03:11No, nothing at all.
03:12Nothing? Okay.
03:13It's just like somebody smacked her head or something.
03:15I arrive at the scene.
03:22Uniformed officers are already at the scene.
03:24Paramedics are also now on scene.
03:26Nothing stood out at that location, that neighborhood I'm familiar with.
03:30They direct us to the unit in question where the victim, Marie, was located.
03:35Marie-Gabrielle was found deceased on her back with trauma to her face and a bloody 30-pound iron cast dumbbell beside her head.
03:46The scene was a very gruesome scene.
03:50There was a lot of blood.
03:52There was a lot of blood spatters.
03:54There was also a lot of footprints.
03:58Marie-Gabrielle was found barefoot, so there was a lot of her footprints within the scene and some drag marks.
04:04And those footprints led to the stairwells, and they stopped at the stairwells, and the drag marks lead further in the basement towards her last resting place.
04:21It was obvious by the footprints and the drag marks that Marie-Gabrielle tried to get away from her attacker.
04:28We were aware that the 911 caller was present, and part of our role is to interview that person to get as much information as we can about what transpired.
04:38I speak to Jean, I identify myself as an investigator.
04:42I ask him a few simple questions, his name and a little bit of background information.
04:46He was sitting in his car on the roadway a short distance from the house, and he had two small children in the car with him.
04:54We make some arrangements to have the children picked up by a family member, and Jean agrees to attend the police station to be interviewed.
05:05Coffee's good?
05:07Yes, sir.
05:07So, before we get started, just so you know, it's being recorded?
05:17Yeah, I know.
05:17Okay.
05:17I come into the interview room.
05:20Unfortunately, I did tell you, sadly had to tell you at the scene, that she passed away.
05:28So, this is a homicide investigation?
05:31Okay.
05:32This is still early, well, mid-morning at this point.
05:36You last saw her on Sunday?
05:38Saturday.
05:39Saturday?
05:40Yeah.
05:40He tells us he doesn't have any communication with Marie over the course of the weekend, and then returns Monday morning to drop off the children.
05:48He explained he arrived at the house.
05:51The front door is unlocked.
05:52He enters the house.
05:53He's yelling out her name.
05:55So, when I knock, knock, knock, knock, there was nothing.
06:00No response.
06:01So, I touch the door.
06:03The door just opened.
06:05So, I went upstairs.
06:07I was like, Mary, Mary, Mary.
06:09Nothing.
06:10I checked the washroom.
06:12Nothing.
06:13There's no response, and then ultimately he goes down to the basement of the house and finds Marie on the floor.
06:19So, I went downstairs.
06:22She was just laying down there.
06:23There was blood all over the floor.
06:26And my thing, my lifted ribs, was like next to her.
06:31One of the number one thoughts that's going through my head is, who is Marie Gabriel?
06:36Who is the victim?
06:38Why would someone want to hurt her?
06:40Why would someone want to kill her?
06:42How did I find out that she was dead?
06:46I was at work, packing up to go home.
06:48And as I'm driving, I get a call from her best friend.
06:51I called her brother, David, and I had to break the news to him.
06:59That Marie was found dead.
07:03And she's crying.
07:04And then I believe my mom called me and said that the detectives are on their way to the house and I should get home quickly.
07:12On Monday night in March 2022, 9.25 p.m., my phone rang.
07:19And I just looked at my phone and it was my son, Mimi's brother.
07:24I knew there was something wrong in the tone of his voice.
07:28Your daughter is dead.
07:29When he said these things to me, everything was churning over and over and over.
07:38Last conversation with me, when did I last speak to her?
07:40How did this happen?
07:41The detectives did not disclose any details because it was still an investigation.
07:45I found Jean Bernalot, like, he's the father of the kids.
07:50The mother is gone.
07:51And he starts crying.
07:53And he's telling me the story of basically what happened.
07:55And I said to him, okay, like, what do you mean she was laying in a pile of blood?
08:00And he says, well, it looked like somebody, like, did it.
08:03Somebody beat her.
08:04At the start of the investigation, we had no suspects.
08:21Welcome back to Crime Beat.
08:22The murder of Ottawa's Marie Gabriel was reported by her on-again, off-again partner, Jean Bernalot-Fennelon.
08:29Jean told police he had come home to a horrifying scene, Marie beaten to death in their basement.
08:37Now, detectives were left with one critical question.
08:41Who would want the mother of two young children dead?
08:46We now return to Final Call, the murder of Marie Gabriel.
08:52She's my younger sister.
08:55We were close.
08:56We grew up together.
08:58I call her Marie or Nini.
09:00And my father calls her Mimi.
09:03As a young child, she was always wanting to be outside the house and playing, playing in the sand, playing in the dirt.
09:11We grew up together in Gambia, and we came to Canada, Ottawa, in 2007.
09:18And her mum, her mum had pet somebody else.
09:21I eventually moved back to the UK.
09:25So eventually, for them to get in touch with me, it was like having children all over again, even though they were mini-adults.
09:33We were in middle school when we met.
09:39She was very lively.
09:41She loved to laugh.
09:42She loved to pull pranks.
09:44Marie was very kind.
09:46She was just the most beautiful smile.
09:49She was funny.
09:50And then, once I moved to Fredericton, our friendship became slightly distant.
09:59But then we'd find our way back to each other and just pick up like nothing ever happened.
10:05Yeah, she just became a rock to lean on, and I became a rock for her to lean on, too.
10:11Yeah.
10:11Jean-Bernot is the one that told me that there was a dumbbell beside her head, and the dumbbell was full of blood.
10:20Forensic pathologist mentioned that she had been hit with that dumbbell at least twice.
10:26She sustained two holes on the side of her right here, and a hole on her forehead.
10:33And just the thought of using a 30-pound dumbbell, that's obviously quite a heavy object.
10:40That takes quite a bit of force to swing.
10:43Obviously, we do see some blunt force trauma-related injuries and homicides,
10:48but the 30-pound dumbbell, that was not something I had ever seen used before.
10:53The impact was so forceful that it caused two hinge fractures at the base of her skull.
10:59Normally, you see those kinds of injuries during a motor vehicle collision or a fall from a great height.
11:08Marie-Gabrielle was also hit several times with the stick that we found.
11:13She was hit on her chest, on her back, on her hands, on her legs, on her forearms.
11:20That's the indentation.
11:22That's a piece of wood.
11:23Yeah, that's her right hand.
11:27The marks on her forearms were described by the forensic pathologist as defensive wound.
11:32There's the indentation, the exact, like, measurement of the side of that stick, yeah.
11:38There was also something very important, too, within the crime scene.
11:43We found a boot print.
11:45There was noticeable tread from what appeared to be a Timberland boot on the floor that was left inside the pool of blood.
11:51And with the amount of blood that was found at the scene of the crime, it was also likely that there would have been some bloody clothing that belonged to the accused.
12:00Once you look at the whole scene, the bloody footprints, the drag marks, piece of wood, the dumbbell that was used to kill their 30-pound dumbbell,
12:11in my opinion, this crime was a personal, was very personal.
12:17You said she had a friend over on Friday or Saturday?
12:21Has Jean provided some information about other, how he described Marie being with other males?
12:28And that it possibly may be one of those people that came in and killed Marie Gabriel?
12:35She did mention one time that she was seeing a guy and the guy was good to her.
12:39Later on, because I started, like, doing research about the guy and I found some of his, like, social media pages
12:46and I saw that he was a boxer and I'm like, okay, so this could be him because he's a boxer, he likes to fight
12:56and he could have lost his temper and, like, took a hold of her and beat her to death.
13:00Through looking at their social media history, it was clear that there appeared to be a new man in the victim's life
13:12and then it was my duty to look into the nature of that particular relationship.
13:17Maybe she was or had returned with Jean-Franc Long and had resumed a relationship with him because of the children,
13:26they wanted to be a family, and the jealous boyfriend or jealous ex-boyfriend might have been involved in killing her.
13:35That was another theory that was possible.
13:37And he goes on to provide a theory that, oh, maybe she invited someone over and that person hit her over the head
13:45or maybe someone came in and hit her over the head.
13:50Jean did bring up a theory that Marie Gabriel was involved in sex trade.
13:55Presenting the victim as a high-risk sex worker, it potentially could lead us down any number of rabbit holes.
14:03It could be any number of unknown persons.
14:05These are all investigative avenues that need to be pursued now that this information has been provided to us.
14:14When the officers arrived at the scene, it was obvious that Marie Gabriel had not just died.
14:20Like, the pool of blood around her head was darker, the blood was darker, and it was dried up.
14:27She was killed a few days ago.
14:31It had actually very likely happened a couple days before.
14:34In looking at Marie Gabriel's cell phone billing records,
14:37it was clear that there were no more outgoing communications after about 11.50 a.m. on March 26th.
14:45So that suggests to me that she's no longer using the phone.
14:50Either she is deceased at this point or the phone has been taken from her.
14:54I have all those kids here.
14:56I thought it was going to help me to put them to sleep, you know?
14:59He's like, well, I'm going out.
15:01Raphael describes the weekend prior to Marie's death as he had spent some time with Marie.
15:07They were together during the evening.
15:09They had the children with them.
15:11And then he describes the vehicle picking Marie up.
15:15We need to identify who this person is.
15:17Is this a person that is a friend with Marie?
15:20Is this a person that harmed Marie and ultimately killed Marie?
15:25She came back in the morning.
15:28She came back to me upstairs.
15:30Ozan talks about Marie returning home and then that Marie called a friend.
15:34She went back downstairs.
15:36She was on her phone the whole time.
15:38This is a new person that we need to follow up with.
15:41This is someone that's going to also help us with the timeline.
15:44The little girl of my brother.
15:45This is now a new widow.
15:46She was laying on my chest.
15:47I was like feeling it, giving her milk, you know?
15:50Welcome back.
16:04Jean-Bernot Fenelon called 911 on the morning of Monday, March 28, 2022,
16:10after his on-again, off-again partner Marie Gabriel was found bludgeoned to death in her home.
16:15With multiple theories circulating around who would have wanted Marie dead,
16:21police now believe she may have been killed days earlier.
16:26We now return to Final Call, the murder of Marie Gabriel.
16:32It's unclear when exactly, but Jean indicates that he leaves with the children for the weekend
16:43with the promise that he's going to return the children to Marie on Monday morning.
16:48So I took them, and then she's like, you know what, just bring them back on Monday, which is today.
16:55So he's now given me a timeline, saying he last spoke to Marie early morning on Saturday.
17:02So I didn't stay during the full interview, but at one point I came back,
17:09and that's when the information came in during the interview about Marie Gabriel's friend Norland Tassi.
17:17She was talking to that Norland girl.
17:20Okay.
17:21So the Norland girl is more like a best friend, best friend.
17:24So I followed up on this by calling Norland Tassi that morning.
17:30The day I got the call from the detective, it was a Monday morning, the 28th of March.
17:40And he's like, hi, I'm with the Homicide Department.
17:43I'm calling Gardner Marie.
17:45And the whole world stopped around me.
17:49I broke down.
17:51She informed me that on the Friday before, so March 26th, 2022,
17:59Marie Gabriel had left with another man.
18:02She had gone out the previous night, the Friday night, with her boyfriend, Jean-Israelon.
18:07When we first approached him, he was unaware of Marie Gabriel's death.
18:16When we informed him that Marie had passed, he became extremely emotional.
18:21Visibly upset.
18:23Analyzing Jean-Israelon's phone revealed that he was nowhere near the scene of the homicide at the time it occurred.
18:30We collect video security footage that clearly places that mail at those locations during those times,
18:38making it almost impossible that he had any involvement in the death of Marie Gabriel.
18:45The Saturday morning, we were on the phone on and off.
18:47And she had told me then that she was completely done with her relationship with Jean-Israelon.
18:55She wanted to break things off with him and everything.
18:59So that morning, when we called each other, that's exactly what she was doing.
19:03She was breaking things off with him.
19:04She was calling him to get out of the house, to pack his things and leave.
19:08And he was just arguing back and forth with her that he wasn't leaving, that he didn't want to leave.
19:14Our calls, I believe, started around like 8.30 a.m., 9.30 a.m. that morning, that Saturday morning.
19:23And our last call was around 12.
19:26And she goes, he just left.
19:29And I go, okay.
19:32And then just as she says he just left, somebody walks back into the house.
19:36And she starts yelling, get the f*** out of my house.
19:39Get the f*** out of my house.
19:41So I was just like, okay, she's standing her ground.
19:43And the phone just dropped.
19:46But the call was still going on.
19:49But I just couldn't hear anything.
19:50So I just thought she might have muted me.
19:52So I just stayed on the phone and I waited for her to come back on.
19:54So I stayed on the phone for about seven minutes.
20:00And I just said, hey, if you can hear me, call me back.
20:05And I hung up.
20:06And then, yeah, I never heard back from her.
20:10We were also missing, during this investigation, Marie-Gabrielle's phone,
20:16which is another piece of information we really wanted to find.
20:20Instead of searching your phone now, we're going to get a search warrant to do it, okay?
20:25Just because it's a criminal investigation.
20:27We're also going to seize your vehicle.
20:30And I'm not saying that you're involved.
20:32We just have to cover all bases, okay?
20:36Well, Mr. Fenelon's vehicle was seized.
20:40And no evidence linking to the crime was found in the car.
20:44So we didn't find any blood, basically, in the car.
20:47The purpose of seizing Jean-Fenelon's phone is to extract data to either corroborate what he's telling us in his interview
20:57and to see if he's actually truthful.
21:01Because he speaks about sending text messages, phone calls with Marie-Gabrielle, being at certain locations.
21:08We wanted to confirm that.
21:11One of the first things I did whenever I received this data was I went straight to the location information that was found on the phone.
21:19Basically, what this allowed me to do was see where his phone was and at what time.
21:24And I have a look at the cell phone towers that the cell phone is actually using.
21:29So some inconsistencies from Mr. Fenelon's police interview in the sequence of events.
21:37Mr. Fenelon said in his original statement that once he left, he went straight to his mother's place and he stayed there the whole day.
21:45Well, GPS data location on his phone shows that from the Edrington address, he went to his mother's address.
21:55But 20 minutes later, he went to Petrie Island in Orleans and he stayed there for almost 15 minutes.
22:03Once the phone arrived at Petrie Island, it appeared to stop in the area of the parking lot.
22:09And it remained stationary in the parking lot where the user went in that amount of time, I don't know for sure.
22:18So on the 30th of March, our search team was given a task with a very narrow search, just to check the area where the GPS data locations are on the map.
22:31We're trying to find clothing and a cell phone.
22:33So we'll be here at Petrie Island and the search unit had come here, searched the parking lot area, down in this bush area as well, and down these footpaths.
22:49And they searched all the way down to the entrance of Petrie Island.
22:55Ultimately, we were looking for, and the main piece of evidence was her cell phone, but unfortunately at the time, they weren't able to find anything.
23:05The phone then leaves the area of Petrie Island and begins traveling west.
23:09It then travels south down Highway 417 and then exits again and eventually it arrives back at the scene of the crime.
23:18It then remains there for about 54 minutes before it begins moving again.
23:22One of the witnesses that we spoke to was another residence of the same housing complex.
23:28She had observed Jean Fenelon coming and going in the afternoon.
23:32And this was one of the first pieces of evidence that we actually received that began to contradict the story that Jean Fenelon was giving us.
23:41So that was the first moment where I was thinking it's possible that he's not telling us the truth.
23:47At this point, we were able to obtain some surveillance video located at opposite ends of the street that led up to the residence.
23:57Soon after the homicide was reported, we did also speak to the mother of Jean Fenelon.
24:04Another slight red flag, she said he had arrived in the early afternoon, which would have actually been about a few hours after whenever he said he had arrived.
24:13And another interesting thing that revealed itself in doing so was that I realized while he was going to Petrie Island, while he was returning to the scene, while he was going back to Orleans,
24:26throughout that time period, he was still texting with Marie Gabrielle.
24:30The part that stood out, or parts, I should say, that stood out the most about that interview is Jean Fenelon's criticism towards Marie Gabrielle.
24:39I would call her like, you know, because, you know, like, if you're a woman, you want to be respected.
24:46So why are you cheating? Why are you doing all those kind of things, you know?
24:49In the moment I'm listening to Jean describe Marie Gabrielle, and I'm thinking to myself, there is no love there, there's no compassion there, he doesn't care about Marie one bit.
25:03He called her names, he said she was cheating on him, he didn't show any emotions, but that doesn't give us grounds to believe that he killed her.
25:13Because she was with him, and he didn't want her to hang out with me, and he would make a fuss about that, so she became very distant towards me.
25:24Sometimes, I'd be having two or three months' conversations with Mimi, and then suddenly Mimi was gone.
25:34I challenged my daughter over, why are you often changing your phone number, why are you often disappearing for months at a time?
25:44And she confided that Bernal was quite hands-on with her, and he would lose his temper, smash her phones up.
25:54Like, pushing me and all that, even like, choke me by the neck, like, all those kind of things.
26:04But I always keep it cool, I never fight her.
26:08He talks about the past arguments, physical arguments they've had, maybe from both parties at this point, I don't know.
26:15There was something there that wasn't added up, like, either they're living together and they're jointly involved in raising the children,
26:23or they're separated, and they have some sort of separation agreement and child custody agreement.
26:28And he described the situations as being merged, which didn't make sense to me.
26:45We FaceTimed every single day.
26:48I want the baby.
26:49I want the baby.
26:50I want the baby.
26:51I want the baby.
26:52Hi, Asher.
26:53Oh, okay, I'm sorry.
26:54Okay.
26:55Oh, I'm sorry, Asher.
26:56Yeah.
26:57These are the text messages from the Friday night, so Friday the 25th, at 11.30.
27:11I text Marie, and I say, where are you?
27:14Bruno is freaking out.
27:16And Marie responds, f*** Bruno.
27:18Bruno said he wants to cut my legs off.
27:24She then proceeded to text me Saturday morning at 4.49 a.m.
27:29She said, hey, sis, I'm home.
27:32I can't do it anymore.
27:33And I'm literally here crying while texting you.
27:36I don't want anyone of them.
27:38I'll stay by myself and raise my children and just do me.
27:43Later that morning on March 26th, Marie is again texting Jean Israelon about Jean Fenelon
27:50and how he's refusing to leave the residence.
27:53The text messages she sends at 10.24 a.m. read, I need help.
27:58This guy don't want to leave the house.
28:00This guy wants to fight me.
28:02He wanted to put his hands on me.
28:04He's fighting me right now.
28:06I should have been like, hey, maybe I should call the cops to go check in on her.
28:11I heard a faint voice and I could recognize that it was his, but I didn't hear what he said.
28:17I didn't hear a threat or anything.
28:21She tried to reach her the following days by calls and text messages with negative results.
28:30I do believe that the homicide would have taken place probably very close in time to when that phone call with Norland was cut off.
28:39And she wasn't able to reach her again.
28:41Based on the fact that Mr. Fenelon had failed to provide us with the information that he went to Petrie Island
28:49and he also failed to tell us that he returned to the scene, which to me are two big mistakes he made.
28:56Compiling all this information, I was satisfied that we had enough grounds to arrest Mr. Fenelon for murder.
29:02So, he came in on his own, on the alert that would return his car, then we arrested him.
29:11Until I arrest someone, I don't have a motive, right? I don't know a motive.
29:15Well, sir. How are you? How are you? I'm very good, thanks. Nice to meet you.
29:22This is March 30th, 2022. This is my first time meeting Mr. Fenelon.
29:27He had been arrested a few hours before. I want to establish cooperation.
29:32What did I do? What did I do? That's a good question. Exactly. So, I'm here.
29:39Like, I'm here because I called the police and be like, oh, I found my girlfriend laying on the ground dead.
29:44Do you find that to be unfair? It is very unfair.
29:47They decided to do what's called a reenactment.
29:50Tell me exactly the words she used.
29:52She's like, get out of my house. Get out of my house. That's why she said.
29:57She pushed me. Push me. Get out. Get out. Get out of my house. So, I get out.
30:02I went inside the car again. I was just sitting there.
30:05And then she kept dropping bags one by one, one by one outside.
30:09So, what I'm trying to do is basically, let's bring him back to the actual scene.
30:14Let's bring him back to that actual day.
30:17Like this. Okay. So, kind of show me how she was doing it.
30:21Like? Yeah, like, like, without hurting me, but, you know, kind of show me.
30:26You really want me to do that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
30:28She was like, like this. Yeah. Like this, you know. Yeah.
30:30Get out of my house. Get out of my house. Okay.
30:32And then I was like, fine. And then I left.
30:34She had the phone the whole time. She just pushed me with one hand.
30:36Oh, she was pushing you with one hand. Yes. Okay.
30:38So, in this particular stage of the statement that Mr. Fanlon is providing me,
30:45he's confirming that Mary had a phone in her hand. She was on the phone,
30:50which this corroborates the actual statement from Norland.
30:54There's a gap in the timeline. And on the 26th, the 11.30ish mark,
31:01between 11.30 and noon, is a critical time.
31:05This is the end of cell phone activity of Miss Gabrielle.
31:10So, on this day, did you ever come back?
31:14No, I was, but I didn't come back.
31:17Okay. I didn't get inside the place, so.
31:19Because initially, you said you stayed at your mom the entire day,
31:22and you were there all day. Okay.
31:27Now, sometimes, you know, people think about things after the fact. Okay.
31:34Do you remember returning here on the Saturday?
31:41I don't think I did.
31:45Oh, yeah. I left with two kids.
31:47I left with two kids.
31:49And then I came back for my two other kids.
31:52The first was my brother kids.
31:54Yeah.
31:55And then after that was my two kids.
31:57We didn't, like, there was no agreement,
32:00like, saying bad things to each other, no.
32:02So, the original timeline provided by him,
32:06he leaves at the 11.30ish mark,
32:08and then he never returns up until the Monday morning
32:11when he discovers her body.
32:13This is a major blow to the actual timeline.
32:18He brings us back to the actual house
32:21about an hour-ish after when you originally left,
32:24when there is that altercation.
32:26Based on the evidence that we've gathered here so far,
32:29all right, we know who killed and caused the death of Mary.
32:34Okay.
32:35And that was you.
32:37That was me.
32:38That was you.
32:39I didn't kill me.
32:43Who did then?
32:45I don't know.
32:46You think it's me, but I have no idea.
32:51This is where he needed to know that there was absolutely no doubt
32:56in the mind of the investigators, especially Detective Guy Seguin,
32:59that he was the one responsible for the murder of Mary Gabrielle.
33:03So, this is the tracker that was connected to you.
33:08Okay.
33:09Pertaining to your phone.
33:12So, everywhere we go with our phone, it leaves a trace.
33:15You leave your mom's place, and you go to Petrie Island.
33:20I didn't go exactly into Petrie Island.
33:23I passed by Petrie Island.
33:24He wants to distance himself very much from Petrie Island.
33:30And what brought you there, going from your mom to there?
33:33Well, maybe, uh, took her up nine.
33:38Or what evidence are they going to find in that vicinity, even in the water?
33:43There's no knife.
33:44There's nothing.
33:45Well, I'm not talking about knives or any item whatsoever
33:50that will be connected to either you or Mary.
33:53What I found here, he was non-confident about Petrie Island.
34:10He was denying at first, now he's back at Petrie Island.
34:14Petrie Island was a red flag to us.
34:18We need to resend a search team at Petrie Island.
34:22Welcome back.
34:23Marie Gabriel was beaten to death in her basement.
34:39Her body left for two days before being discovered by the very man now arrested and charged in her murder,
34:45the children's father, Jean-Bernot Fenelon.
34:48With Jean denying any involvement, police make the decision to return to Petrie Island,
34:53where they believe he may have discarded key evidence.
34:58Here now is the conclusion of Final Call, the murder of Marie Gabriel.
35:08That morning, we decided to come to Petrie Island after Detective Sugain decided to expand the search.
35:15We searched the parking lot a little bit.
35:17Eventually, we decided, let's go have a look at the shoreline, because the search unit hadn't searched this area.
35:24And it'd be a great area to get rid of evidence, you know, throwing anything in the water.
35:31On March 31st, this was covered in snow and the water was frozen.
35:37And that's where we saw the boot, the Timberland boot, just at the frozen edge was the boot standing right there.
35:45And then when we continued to look around, we saw some clothing just at the beginning of the ice shelf, close to the edge of the water.
35:54There was grey, like a hoodie sweatshirt, and some black pants as well.
36:00During that time, another investigator located the other boot on the beach, just a little bit further down.
36:09Ultimately, we couldn't find her cell phone.
36:12A few days later, the ice would have melted and would have lost all of this evidence.
36:19And eventually, we sent both boots and the clothing to the Center of Forensic Science to be analyzed for DNA.
36:26Marie Gabrielle's blood was found on all four items.
36:31The inside back collar of the shirt was a swab, and it returned to be Mr. Fenelon's DNA.
36:41As for the boots, the boots were covered with blood spatter, and it returned to Mr. Fenelon's DNA.
36:54Fenelon's trial occurred in the fall of 2024. It lasted seven weeks.
37:02I did testify at the trial. One of the tricky things in files like this is that the suspect resides at this address.
37:10You expect to find his DNA. In this case, the location information was so important that I knew I had to go up there and do a good job to ensure that justice was going to be served in this case.
37:21It was daunting. Every opportunity he had insulted me. He made gestures towards me. And even when I gave a tiny little bit of evidence, he laughed at me.
37:39Shockingly, I heard that she was weakened from his previous beating with the wood. She was on the floor defenseless, and he towered her above her with that dumbbell.
37:52It has yet been a word invented for how I feel to this day and for that.
38:00I go to work at 10.
38:02Jean Fenelon portrayed himself as a good person.
38:04I'm done at 5. 5.15, I'm there, you know? That's how serious, honest I was with him, you know?
38:10He said he was a security guard, that he was a good father, that he wanted to live with Marie Gabriel as a family unit.
38:16He was relaying to me that he was a victim of Marie Gabriel being unfaithful towards him.
38:24Based on Mr. Fenelon saying that he believed that Marie Gabriel was involved in the sex trade industry and it could be anyone that killed her,
38:32there was no information in our database involving Marie Gabriel in any sex trade work.
38:43In my mind, listening to him describe Marie that way, he was trying to justify, in a sense, her death. She deserved to die.
38:53I believe the motive for Mr. Fenelon to brutally kill Marie Gabriel was jealousy and control.
39:02We're going to switch gears here and talk about the reports over in Gatineau.
39:06When we were reviewing this case at the beginning, we learned that there were three incidents in Gatineau, Quebec.
39:12Those who may not know, Ottawa and Gatineau are just separated by a couple bridges and the river.
39:18They lived together in Gatineau before. They had been living together since 2017.
39:25We understand that she had called the Gatineau police indicating harassment, potentially even threats that may have happened.
39:31In November, she reached out to social services and she moved from Gatineau to a shelter, a hotel in downtown Ottawa.
39:50And the next day, he called the Gatineau police to report that she left with his children and is concerned for the safety of his children.
40:00As a result, the Gatineau police officer reached out to Marie Gabriel by phone.
40:05She said, no, I left with the kids because he threatened to cut my throat and he says he has a million ways to kill me.
40:13The officer asked her if she could attend the police station in Gatineau to file a report and Marie Gabriel never went to the police to file a formal complaint.
40:26I remember getting a text message from Mimi telling me that it may be her last text.
40:32Just in case something happens to me or my kids, just know that I tried.
40:39Last night I took the kids and left their fathers home as I was fearing for my life and theirs as they started saying things that make someone fear for their life.
40:50I'm at a safe place now, right now, just letting you or anyone know.
40:59She'd already indicated that wherever she goes, he was tracking her down, finding her, where she was.
41:05After a month in a shelter, social services found her a place at 1485 Etherington where she moved.
41:13As a result of moving there, she reached out to the Ottawa police and she explained the situation to the police officer.
41:19She told the officer that I don't want to prevent Mr. Fenelon to see our children, but I want him to stop communication.
41:28So the officer contacted Mr. Fenelon.
41:31He told him to stop calling her, stop threatening her and warn him about criminal harassment.
41:38I absolutely think that more could have been done.
41:41I remember sitting in court and hearing like police officers have been there a couple of times.
41:46And I'm like, why didn't they like follow up? Why didn't they go through and check again?
41:51It's actually mandatory in the province of Ontario to arrest whether the victim wants a charge or not,
41:57if there's an evidence of the offense.
41:59There was no additional reports of any violence until we got a call about this incident.
42:03Without physical evidence that indicates that there was some level of violence or a crime that's been committed,
42:08you're left with leaving the couple together.
42:13Once Marie-Gabrielle moved to the Edrington address, her daughter became sick.
42:18So based on this, Marie-Gabrielle allowed Mr. Fenelon to move with her at the Edrington address in January 2022.
42:27What stands out about this case is how much Marie was threatened, how she was fearful.
42:36Mr. Fenelon was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
42:44So it was definitely a relief whenever the verdict was handed down and it was what I very much believed to have been right.
42:53Her smile. I miss her smile.
43:04Her laugh, her voice.
43:08There's many things to miss about Marie.
43:16When I see the photos, it's crazy because it's almost like she's looking at you.
43:22And I'm looking back at her, so it's kind of like you want to have a conversation with her.
43:28I have a tattoo on my wrist.
43:34It's a purple ribbon which symbolises survivors of domestic violence.
43:41You'll note I have it ripped, torn, broken.
43:45Because Mimi wasn't a survivor of domestic violence.
43:52She's a victim of domestic violence.
43:54There's other women out there, and men, suffering like my daughter suffered, putting up with it.
44:03Everybody said she got justice.
44:08Yeah, 25 years ain't enough.
44:23I know we're near enough.
44:24I know we're near enough.
44:25But it's what your laws call justice.
44:30And I'll accept that.
44:33On her behalf.
44:36To this day, Jean Fenelon continues to deny that he had anything to do with Marie's murder and that he ever threatened her.
44:49He has filed an appeal.
44:51In 2024, Alison Yuraskovic was named Outstanding Crime Analyst of the Year for her work on the Marie Gabriel case.
45:03Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat.
45:06I'm Anthony Robart.
45:08Want more episodes of Crime Beat?
45:10Listen to the Crime Beat Podcast now for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favourite podcasts.
45:18And for past episodes of Crime Beat, go to the Global TV app, visit GlobalTV.com, or check out our Crime Beat YouTube page.
Be the first to comment
Add your comment