05x15 - The Graveyard Shift

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: a 37-year-old woman disappears without a trace.

What do you mean, no one has seen her?

She's supposed to be with her mother.

Her car is here, but I don't see her anywhere.

Goulet: when we think it may be an abduction,

It is a race against time

'Cause there's always clues that could disappear.

Narrator: her friends and family struggle for answers.

It feels unreal.

It feels like you're in a nightmare.

Nothing never hurt that much ever in my life.

Narrator: with no witnesses,

Detectives must follow a stone-cold trail.

And could one camera six stories up hold the answer

To what happened that fateful night?

Hogg: she had gone through what is a nightmare

For women walking into the darkness.

[ Siren wails ]

Goulet: you have a predator on your hands,

And you're gonna have to find him and hunt him down.

--Captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: wednesday, september 30, 2009 --

Laval,

Located in the french-canadian province of quebec.

[ Knocking at door ]

Hi, kristine! Natasha!



Has recently moved back to the area,

Where high school best friend kristine laflamme still lives.

Laflamme: natasha was kind of my sister.

We became friends so easily and so fast.

Just felt good, like, being together.

Cheers. Cheers.

Narrator: but natasha's return to laval has been an emotional one.

How's your mom doing?

Hmm, I don't know.

She's having a pretty rough time with it.

Laflamme: the reason why she came back to montreal from ottawa,

It was because her father was really sick.

Narrator: he passed away six months ago,

And natasha has stayed on to support her mother.

Have you heard from marjolaine?

Yeah. She's staying for the weekend.

Luckily for natasha, her friends are like family

And there when she needs them.

I was going to montreal for the weekend,

And I asked her if I could stay with her

At her parents' cottage and spend the weekend there.

I hadn't seen her in two weeks,

So I was quite happy to go see her.

Narrator: this will also allow marjolaine to be there for her friend.

Friday will be an emotional day for natasha.

She and her mother have plans

To pick up her father's headstone.

So, how are you feeling about friday?

You know, I think it'll be good.

Finally, some closure.

That was a special morning,

And so she took a special day off

To be there for her mom. [ Cellphone buzzing ]

Oh, you know what? I should go.

I have to work late tomorrow to make up for friday, so...

Yeah, of course. [ Laughs ]

Thank you so much, again.

No worries.

Narrator: that friday, october 2nd...

[ Telephone rings ]

...kristine gets an unexpected call

From natasha's boyfriend of four years.

Michel! What's up?

When michel called, he asked me if natasha was with me,

And I said, "no. She's supposed to be with her mother."

No. I haven't seen her.

And he was a bit confused, and he was stressed out.

What do you mean, no one has seen her?

Have you talked to her mom? Has her mom seen her?

And I said, "okay, just go to her workplace

And see if her car is there."

Narrator: natasha works in the communications department

Of canada's federal prison system.

When michel arrives, he makes an alarming discovery.

Kristine, it's michel.

Now, he was really confused and emotional.

Her car is here, but I don't see her anywhere.

I said, "call the police, and I'm coming."

Narrator: michel calls 911 in his native french

To report his girlfriend missing.

[ Speaking french ]

[ Siren wails ]

Within minutes,

Detective patrick boisvert from laval pd arrives

And meets kristine and michel at the scene.

Detective boisvert.

Oh, hi. I'm kristine.

I'm natasha's friend.

And...? I'm michel.

I'm her boyfriend.

Boisvert: [ speaking french ]

When was the last time you saw natasha?

Uh, two nights ago. We had dinner.

Laflamme: they were asking all different kind of questions.

"Do you think she'd just run away

To hide from something?"

Like, obviously, no.

[ Police radio chatter ]

Narrator: boisvert now turns his attention

To natasha's vehicle.

♪♪

Crime-scene investigators move in,

Searching the car for more clues on what's happened to natasha.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Boisvert is joined by detective goulet

To question natasha's co-workers.

Goulet: when I arrive at the crime scene,

It is a race against time

'Cause there's always clues that could disappear

Or people that didn't think what they had to say is important

And could be crucial to the case.

And when was the last time you saw natasha?

The information we had was that she had had no problems at work.

You know, she was a model employee.

They speak to people that she's been in contact with.

Was there anything unusual the day...

They know that she finished work late at night,

At around 8:00.

When we have a good timeline,

We kind of know at what hour that the trouble starts.

[ Telephone rings ]

Narrator: meantime, kristine calls marjolaine

To break the terrible news.

Hello?

Kristine called me and told me

That natasha had been missing since thursday night.

What do you mean, you haven't seen her?

It almost feels unreal.

It feels like you're just in a nightmare.

I just talked to her like two days ago.

I was so worried, and...

We always think these kind of things will happen to others,

But it does happen to your closest friends.

I'm leaving now.

[ Telephone beeps ]

Narrator: with the first 48 hours critical in a missing-persons case,

Detective denis hogg from the montreal police department...

Detective hogg.

...assists laval with the investigation.

Still in the dark as to natasha's whereabouts,

Police search for a reliable yet silent witness.

Hogg: we'll go looking for videotape all the time.

Surveillance of a crime -- it's the ultimate.

Narrator: as they walk through the office building,

Detective goulet spots a lens staring back at her.

Surveillance footage in this type of case is indispensable.

It will be our eyes and our ears,

And we'll make progress to the investigation.

Narrator: and that's not the only camera.

The building is rigged with 24-hour surveillance.

As the security officer cues up the footage,

Detectives prepare to get their first glimpse

Of the missing woman.

Goulet: when you do look at the surveillance camera,

You say to yourself,

"This might be the last footage that we have of her alive."

Cheers. Yeah.

Narrator: in the hours after natasha cournoyer vanished,

Detectives hope they can pick up a lead

From her office security footage.

Goulet: every time somebody goes missing,

It's a race against time.

Narrator: detectives goulet and hogg cue the footage

To just before 8:00 p.m.,

The time colleagues say natasha left.

The camera is above the exit

And points directly into natasha's office.

Her cubicle is just visible...

...but empty.

Come on, natasha. Where are you?

The minutes tick by.

♪♪

♪♪

There she is.

Pause it there.

Hogg: the first video that we have of her

Is her through the glass doors leading into her office.

We see that she's got her coat on,

She's got an umbrella in her hand.

♪♪

♪♪

Goulet: a couple of minutes later in the footage,

We can see a cleaner come by natasha.

They exchange a couple of words.

♪♪

Narrator: they carry on watching to see if anyone else enters the office.

♪♪

Approximately 30 seconds later,

Natasha reappears from behind the cubicle.

Goulet: we can see natasha getting back into the frame.

We can see her getting ready to leave.

So, she puts her bag on her shoulder,

She picks up the white bag and her umbrella, and she goes away.

♪♪

Narrator: natasha then leaves the office.

It's the clearest footage so far of the missing woman.

Can we rewind that?

Hogg: we see the shirt that she's wearing.

It's turquoise.

It's a very distinct color.

Goulet: we continued to look at the footage

Just to make sure that nobody followed her.

And it wasn't the case.

We didn't see anybody.

Let's see where she goes next.

Narrator: the security officer cues up the camera

Covering the elevators on natasha's floor.

Hogg: one of the things we're looking at

Is if she comes into contact with anyone,

Be it in her office,

Be it in the building, in the corridors.

Narrator: a crowd of people leave an elevator

And walk towards a front exit.

Goulet: who are the people that are there?

Are they workers?

Did they have a good reason to be there?

Were they strangers?

Narrator: as they near the end of the hallway, a door opens.

Look. There she is.

Natasha waves to the group

Before making her way towards the rear exit

And the parking lot.

Let's see what she does next.

Goulet: we can see natasha going down a corridor.

Nobody is following her, she didn't seem scared --

Nothing suspicious.

Narrator: they track natasha through the building

As she makes to leave.

Goulet: we can see natasha going by with her umbrella

And swinging it away.

Narrator: the same umbrella found in natasha's car.

Seconds later, natasha walks out of the building alone.

Detectives are desperate to know what happens

Between the office building and natasha's car.

Can you pull up the exterior cameras?

But there's a problem.

The exterior security footage is still being processed

And cannot be viewed.

For now, they'll have to wait.

The next day, marjolaine arrives at kristine's apartment.

So glad that you're here.

I knew natasha enough to know

That she would not just run away and not tell anyone.

It just wasn't her.

So I was extremely concerned

That something really bad had happened.

No one knows anything.

And kristine was very upset and worried.

We were trying to find out what could've happened,

But since natasha didn't have any enemies, we...

There was no clues of what had happened.

Belair: I remember just praying the whole time and crying

And just being so upset.

♪♪

Narrator: meantime, officers are dispatched

To businesses and motels adjacent to natasha's work

To canvass for any cctv footage.

Goulet: we do go around different business places

To see if they have any recording

At the time of the disappearance.

I was wondering if I could ask you some questions

About the security cameras?

[ Speaking french ]

Most likely, that's been recorded over by now.

Narrator: it's a huge letdown.

However, detective hogg has an idea.

I obtained the hotel registers

Of all the people that had rented rooms

On the days prior to the 1st of october

And the days after.

What we figured out

Was that when people would check in to this hotel,

Some people would give their driver's license number.

I'll get these back to you.

Okay, fair enough. All right?

-Yep, thanks. Good luck. -Thank you.

Once we got this information, our analysts started

Probing the information for each of the rooms.

Narrator: with police working feverishly to find natasha,

Boyfriend michel trottier reaches out to the media

To make a public appeal.

Help me find my angel, natasha.

But michel's media campaign raises some eyebrows.

He's on the news talking to the media

About how much he loves her and how much he misses her.

As an experienced investigator, when somebody goes missing,

The first person we're probably gonna look at is the spouse.

I just don't get a good feeling from michel trottier.

Narrator: with suspicion mounting,

Detective hogg keeps a close eye on michel.

Thank you. That's all for now.

Finally, goulet and boisvert receive good news --

The exterior camera at natasha's workplace is ready to view.

To confirm natasha parked her car

In the same spot it was found in,

Detectives start at the beginning of her working day.

They cue the video to 9:00 a.m.,

The time colleagues said she arrived.

Hogg: it's an extremely large parking lot.

It equated to the size of maybe four football fields,

Two beside each other.

Narrator: but there's a problem.

There's so many cars, but I can't see her or her car.

Detectives have an idea.

They locate natasha arriving on an interior camera

And rewind the footage

In the hopes of tracking her back to her car.

Hogg: we see her walking through different corridors

In her building,

Eventually going outside, and then from a video camera

That's situated up on the top of the building,

We see it's pointing into the parking lot

In the direction where she's heading to her car.

♪♪

Narrator: natasha reaches her car.

Hogg: because she had gotten to work after 9:00 that morning,

She was forced to park in the farthest part of the parking lot

That you could actually park in.

Narrator: it's in the same spot detectives found it the following day.

Let's load up the next clips.

Now, detectives need to confirm their theory

That whatever happened to natasha

Occurred when she left her office

And entered the dark parking lot.

Could detectives be about to see

A predator stalking from the shadows?

♪♪

Narrator: detectives track

Natasha cournoyer's last movements

On surveillance tape the day she disappeared.

Next, they cue up the exterior footage

As she heads to her gray mazda just after 8:00 p.m.

♪♪

There's natasha.

It's quiet. No one else is around.

There aren't more than seven or eight actual lighting posts

That give some actual lighting in this parking lot.

She walks through the area that's lit up,

But as she's getting closer and closer to her vehicle

That's at the far end of this parking lot,

She's walking into the darkness.

Goulet: it's really frustrating

'Cause you're gonna be looking at the footage

Knowing something might've happened or could've happened,

But you won't see anything.

Wait. What was that?

Where?

Can we rewind that?

Narrator: a mysterious flash of light is seen

Exactly where natasha disappeared into the darkness.

Was it a car door was opened

And we could see the light inside of the car?

Was it a camera flash?

It was really difficult to know

What kind of a flash we were looking for.

Narrator: detectives keep their eyes fixed on the spot

Where natasha's car is parked,

But there are no more flashes of light or movement,

Just complete darkness.

Keep it rolling.

Goulet: we continue looking at the footage

After the flash of light, but the car is not moving.

It's staying there.

Narrator: suddenly, a set of car headlights turn on.

Look.

At 8:31 p.m., A vehicle drives across the parking lot.

Having already found and searched natasha's car,

Detectives know it didn't move.

♪♪

But to the detectives' surprise,

The car does not leave the parking lot.

It parks in the opposite corner, just on the edge of frame.

Then the lights turn off.

What's going on in that car? Why is it just sitting there?



♪♪

Then we can see the vehicle passing through

And getting out of the parking lot.

♪♪

Can you pause it on that vehicle and zoom in?

And at that point, we knew that it wasn't natasha's car.

It was a minivan -- dark minivan.

Narrator: it's a chilling discovery.

If we were in third gear at that point,

If there's a fourth gear, it just kicked in.

I think she was taken.

♪♪

Hogg: all this together is supporting the theory

That she's been kidnapped.

We need to get this footage back to the police department.

♪♪

Narrator: detectives visit natasha's mother

To share what they've found.

Why don't we all take a seat?

Hogg: it's hard not to get emotional,

But you have to let them know

That the investigation is in good hands

And it's gonna be treated professionally.

But, you know, we're human.

It's easy to get emotional, for sure.

Natasha may have been kidnapped.

[ Gasps ]

For natasha's mom,

It's like a part of her just died.

She was saying, "she's gonna come home.

She's gonna arrive soon."

Now I have to be there for her mom.

She cried.

She cried a lot.

Thank you for letting us know.

[ Sniffles ]

We'll be in touch.

No, that's okay.

I'll see myself out.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: back at the station,

Investigators turn their attention

To natasha's boyfriend, michel.

Hi.

[ Speaking french ]

Michel has a weak alibi,

But detectives don't have enough to hold him.

♪♪

Later that evening,

Detective hogg visits michel's apartment building

To confirm his alibi.

Your surveillance cameras -- can I take a look?

The building manager cues the footage from october 1st.

And it doesn't take long before hogg spots a familiar figure.

Pause it.

Hogg: we saw him in the hallway near his apartment

In the building at or around the time that she disappeared.

Okay. That's our guy.

So it helped to eliminate him as a suspect.

Narrator: michel is officially ruled out as a suspect.

Five days after natasha disappeared,

On the banks of the lawrence river,



Two city workers make a gruesome discovery.

[ Speaking french ]

[ Siren wailing ]

Narrator: five days after natasha cournoyer vanished

From her office parking lot, there's a grim development.

Hogg: so, when we have a fresh crime scene,

Before anything is displaced, it's videotaped and pictured,

And then they look for evidence,

Dna, look for clues, that kind of thing.

The area where the body was found

Is a pretty desolate area.

♪♪

It was a woman lying on her back.

I could see bruising in her face.

The fact that she had markings on her wrists

And on her ankles gave me the impression

That she had been tied up at some point.

But it was not a crime scene that was bloody, or...

There were no weapons found around her.

I remember seeing that she had a t-shirt on

That was turquoise in color and that she had dress pants on.

She had no shoes on her feet. Her feet were bare.

Based on the clothes she was wearing

And the description we had of her,

I had no doubt that it was natasha cournoyer.

Narrator: their missing-person case

Has just turned into a homicide investigation.

♪♪

♪♪

Detectives now have the difficult task

Of informing natasha's mother.

Belair: we were all at natasha's mother's place,

And the police came, and they told us

That they thought that they had found natasha.

There's no easy way to put this.

We found a body in montreal.

And natasha's mother just screamed.

It was just like a heartbreaking...

Almost like an animal scream. It was so...

So intense and heartbreaking.

I never felt nothing so intense, and through my body,

Nothing never hurt that much ever in my life.

I really felt like someone was trying to tear me apart.

[ Crying ]

[ Voice breaking ] it's kind of hard because she's not there anymore.

[ Sniffles, exhales deeply ]

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: a few hours later,

Detective hogg gets the preliminary results

From the medical examiner.

Hogg: after the autopsy,

I was in communication with our pathologist,

And he informed me that the cause of death was strangulation

And that he had found evidence of sexual as*ault on the body.

Any idea when we can hope for the dna results?

I need them as soon as possible.

♪♪

Narrator: as they wait for the forensic results,

Hogg and goulet review the exterior camera

In the hope of tracking the suspect van

On the day natasha disappeared.

Hey. Come have a look at this.

We eventually had access to a big-screen tv

That was connected to our computers

That seemed to be in higher definition

And gave us a better view.

It's from that camera that I would say

We get the most information from.

Our idea was to try and figure out

When that van had actually come into the parking lot.

We watch the video in reverse.

♪♪

♪♪

There he is.

Narrator: at 6:36 p.m.,

Detectives see the suspect vehicle move.

They track it back to when it entered the parking lot.

Hogg: we were convinced we had the right vehicle,

So we had him isolated at about 6:30 p.m.

When he came in.

Narrator: approximately 90 minutes before natasha leaves her office.

But even in daylight,

The van's features are still not clear enough.

Camera's too far to get the plate.

Maybe if we get our surveillance people to look at it.

Absolutely.

Thanks.

For now, investigators will have to wait.

♪♪

It's not long before the mystery vehicle

Is identified by surveillance analysts.

We have an audiovisual department

That will try and sharpen the image,

Zoom in, zoom out.

It was their opinion that it was a ford windstar.

Narrator: armed with the make and model of the suspect van,

Detectives start by studying cars

Closest to natasha's workplace.

As the lido motel is only a few hundred yards away,

Investigators scrutinize the guest register,

Specifically the logged vehicles and registrations.

[ Speaking french ]

Narrator: and it's not long before detective boisvert gets a hit.

Hogg: the inquiries that we did around motel lido

Led us to identify someone by the name of claude larouche.

Claude larouche?

He drives the same van as our suspect.

Claude larouche had rented a room on the 1st of october

At 2:12 in the afternoon.

Narrator: six hours before natasha was abducted on camera.

The police database reveals a horrifying discovery.

We saw that he had previously had been involved

In a kidnapping case of a young girl.

We need to find him.

You have a predator on your hands,

And you're gonna have to find and hunt him down.

♪♪

Narrator: known sexual predator claude larouche

Is now the prime suspect in natasha cournoyer's m*rder.

But officers can't make an arrest without concrete proof.

November 5, 2009. [ Telephone rings ]

Detective hogg speaking.

The pathologist finally calls.

Please, tell me you've got some good news.

The samples taken on natasha's body

Match claude larouche.

It's a match.

It's joy. It's -- we've got him.

Narrator: 49-year-old claude larouche

Is arrested and brought in for questioning.

We had the evidence to arrest him at that point.

We had to hurry up and get him off the street.

♪♪

Narrator: search warrants are also obtained

For his home and van.

During the investigation, he was very evasive.

[ Speaking french ]

He didn't give much information

About what we were investigating.

You know, he chose not to speak.

At one point, the word "hunting" comes up.

It suggested to me that he was making himself out

To be some sort of a predator.

Narrator: even without a confession,

Detectives now have the dna evidence

To charge larouche with natasha cournoyer's m*rder.

Investigators piece together

What they believe happened on october 1st.

Hogg: that day, natasha cournoyer got to work

At approximately 9:00.

Because of her late arrival,

She's forced to park quite far in the parking lot.

Narrator: while natasha is inside of the building, working...

...at 6:30 p.m.,

Claude larouche's van enters the parking lot

And parks next to natasha's vehicle.

Hogg: did he target natasha?

It just seems strange to me

That he had driven into the parking lot,

Parked right beside her car...

...and he took the time to wait there an hour and a half.

♪♪

Natasha was working late that night.

We were able to see that she leaves work around 8:00.

She calmly walks out of the building...

...and walks into the parking lot.

She walks slowly towards her vehicle.

♪♪

Narrator: there's a flash.

Detectives believe he used a distraction technique

To startle natasha.

Was she surprised by a camera flash?

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Narrator: that's the moment

Claude larouche emerges from the shadows

And unleashes a brutal attack.

[ Screams ]

[ Screaming continues ]

[ Groans, shouts ]

Hogg: she ends up in his vehicle.

I'm quite confident that she was probably struck there.

♪♪

A few minutes later, the vehicle changes its parking spot,

Goes a little bit north in the parking lot.

Narrator: and stays there for 20 minutes.

Hogg: she had marks on her ankles and on her wrists...

...which gave us an idea that she may have been bound.

And then he drives out of the parking lot

In the direction of the lido motel.

Witnesses who had rented rooms

Heard an argument coming from that room.

Our forensic team went in there, and they were able to find

Natasha cournoyer's blood on a curtain

And also on the floor of that hotel room.

As far as where natasha was k*lled,

I think that it probably happened in the hotel room.

Narrator: claude larouche then drives to a remote area

Along the saint lawrence river,

Where he dumps natasha's lifeless body.

♪♪

Ahead of trial, investigators uncover more damning evidence

Against larouche.

Hogg: we were able to find natasha cournoyer's dna.

Her blood was found inside his vehicle, in the carpet.

♪♪

Narrator: on june 23, 2011,

Claude larouche is found guilty of murdering natasha cournoyer

And is sentenced to life in prison.

I am so happy that he's behind bars,

So he's not gonna be able to hurt anybody anymore.

He's a crazy man. He really is.

He's a predator.

Videotape is very important

Because it corroborates the dna evidence,

And the dna evidence corroborates the video.

It's a complete package.

Narrator: a decade after natasha's m*rder,

Her friends and family still struggle with their loss.

I just miss having her there for me

Every time I needed to talk, or to spend some time with me.

She was a good listener and one of my most trusted confidants.

♪♪

Laflamme: it's been 10 years,

And there are still some times I just cry and cry.

Just knowing someone goes that way, so violently,

And someone having that power over the life of someone else --

That should not be.