Fan Favorite - "The Monaco Matriarch"

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. But 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 fall of button out for a beach day. But, secretly replace their sunscreen with cooking oil. Okay, let's get into today's story. Late in the afternoon on May 6, 2014, 77-year-old Haleen Pestor sat at her office desk in Monaco

with a phone pressed to her ear. And on the other end, was one of Haleen'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. And Haleen, like she always did, listen patiently,

because she was a landlord and this was her job. But, when this tenant was finished, Haleen 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.”

Haleen knew her tenant wouldn't like this, but she also just didn't have patience for entitled wealthy snobbs. Unfortunately for her though, she spent a lot of time with people like that, because Haleen 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. And 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 Haleen and her family, the Pistores, owned most of those condos, which meant they were among

“the wealthiest landlord's not just in Monaco, but on the whole planet. The Pistores”

multi-billion dollar real estate empire had started three generations ago, and Haleen was

now in charge of it. It was a lot of work, and Haleen could have passed it off to somebody else. But she was a Pistore, and Pistores worked for what they had. Which was why, despite her wealth, Haleen was a very hands-on landlord, and spent long days in her office with her staff, you know, dealing with accounting and handling tenants for quests and complaints, like about, you know, the plumber not being on time. Now, Haleen 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. So Haleen, 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, Haleen 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. Haleen 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. Haleen knew she was a very demanding parent, and, you know, generally was not particularly warm, but she loved Sylvia. And lately it seemed like her daughter just didn't necessarily reciprocate that. And Haleen knew exactly who to blame for this, and it was not Sylvia, and it wasn't even Haleen.

It was Sylvia's boyfriend, Boycheck. Now, Sylvia had been with Boycheck for almost three decades, and it seemed like everyone in Monaco absolutely loved this guy. I mean, he was charming and

gregarious and gave it a ton of money to charity, but Haleen 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 Haleen and Sylvia about Boycheck, you know, the fact that clearly Haleen 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, Haleen and Sylvia were just having all these

completely different things. It was like they were just quick to argue with each other. But for now,

“Haleen 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. So Gildo, Haleen's son, had been in the hospital for the last few months after having a stroke. Haleen visited with him daily, making the 45-minute drive from Monaco to where he was hospitalized in these france. Now, the daily commute was definitely

a lot, but Haleen didn't care. She always worked it into her very busy schedule.

Now, Gildo was 47, but he was still very much Haleen's child. And the whole ordeal had been just awful and very emotional for Haleen, especially on top of, you know, her daughters, cancer diagnosis, and the tension between her and her daughter, like, right now life was pretty tough. Seeing her children like this, had reminded Haleen that "Money just could not save you from everything, even in Monaco." Now, Haleen grabbed her arm as purse, and she headed out the door.

“Minutes later, Haleen was outside and was climbing into a black minivan that was waiting for her”

at the curb. And as Haleen slid into the back seat, she was greeted by her 64-year-old driver, Mohamed Darwich. So Mohamed had actually been working with Haleen now for 15 years. And so the

two of them spent the entire 45 minute drive to niece just chatting about their kids, because in

some ways they were, you know, long time friends. Mohamed told Haleen about how he really missed his daughter, who lived back in Egypt with her mom, and he also updated Haleen on his son, was Sam, and how he liked living in France. Their conversation made the drive go fast, and before Haleen knew it, they were at the hospital. Around 6pm that night, Haleen 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 pastoral work ethic. Despite the family money, he was constantly starting ventures and investing in businesses. So Haleen knew the hospitalization had been really hard for him,

“not just physically, but just from a work perspective. You 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. Haleen 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 seem soon. Just after 7pm, Haleen 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. And pretty much right away, they got stuck in absolutely stand still traffic. And so Haleen 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 Haleen, she just stared at this person and 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 Mohamed to drive, but before Mohamed could react, Haleen heard a loud bang and the sound of shadowing glass. About 15 minutes later, the commissioner of the Nice Police, Philippe Frisone,

pulled up to the hospital with the sirens on. He'd been in his office about to finish up 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 monocoplates and also a shattered passenger side window. Frisone 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. Apparently, 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 witnessed a second man dressed in black follow after him. The firefighter said

that both victims have 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 Frisone's mind went to carjacking. Now, niece 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 and they would they would rob these cars. And so he wondered if maybe carjackers had approached

this vehicle and attempted to rob it, something happened, they drove a weapon and then obviously the victims inside were shot and then the carjackers took off. And so Frisone radioed back to

what he's dealing with here is murder. 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 Frisone that she had recently learned and 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 Halene Pestor. The other victim was her driver, Mohamed Darwich. When Frisone heard this, he couldn't believe it. I mean, of course he knew who she was.

Everyone in Monaco knew who Halene Pestor was or at least had heard the past door name. And so now that Frisone 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. I mean, this had to be a hit. And so Frisone, 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 canfire. And this struck Frisone as being very strange. I mean,

a shotgun was an odd choice for a, you know, 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 Frisone that very likely whoever had shot Haleen and her driver was not an experienced hitman, which was also just not what he would have

“expected. Just then Frisone heard the sound of sirens cut through the air and he knew his backup”

had arrived. A few hours later, Frisone was back at the police station talking to his team, which now included one of the city's very best detectives, investigator Catherine Massinio. Both of their victims, Mohamed and Haleen had survived at least to this point. They were in coma. And their attack was already the leading news all around Europe. But Frisone 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 Frisone's officers had found two security cameras near the scene that likely recorded the entire shooting. So 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 niece had more of those cameras than any other city in the country. So Frisone

was optimistic about what the footage might show once it finally arrived. But in the meantime, he wanted to speak to Haleen's immediate family and friends and see if she had any enemies. The way Frisone saw it was, you know, Haleen'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,

but Frisone also knew that her children were not just potential sources of critical information.

They were also suspects. Frisone didn't have access to the details of Haleen's estate, but he knew enough about the family to guess that whatever inheritance Haleen left behind was literally in the billions, which meant that her death would likely make both Sylvia and Gildo billionaires. Now Frisone didn't think that either of them had actually pulled the trigger here, but what Frisone did think was that both of them definitely had the motive and the means

to hire somebody else to do the shooting. But Frisone had one big problem. Sylvia and Gildo and really all of the people he really wanted to speak to lived in Monaco. And since Frisone and his team were French and this crime had happened in France, they had no jurisdiction in Monaco. So in order to speak to Haleen'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, Frisone sat in a very

expensive looking living room overlooking the beautiful Monaco harbor. Now Frisone had been up all night and was basically running on fumes at this point, but he hoped that was going to be worth it, because sitting across from him was Haleen's daughter, Sylvia Pestor, entered 64-year-old boyfriend foie-check Janowski. When Frisone had reached out to Sylvia and Boichak 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

just no big deal. But now that he was face a pace with them, I mean it was clear that they were

“absolutely devastated. I mean, especially Sylvia. Now Frisone knew as much as he”

wanted to ask some sort of pointed questions here, he needed to be very careful, because Sylvia and Boichak did not have to be speaking to him at this point. Like 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 Frisone, when he began, he just started out with some very light background questions about Haleen. 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 Frisone 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. But she really didn't get out much. She didn't really

“engage with the Monica social scene. She pretty much just worked all the time and looked after”

the family, like she just kept herself. So I certainly can't think of anybody that would have wanted to harm her. When Frisone turned to Boichak, Boichak seemed equally mystified by this whole thing. He told Frisone that he and Sylvia had been together for 28 years and they had a daughter together. And so, you know, he knew Haleen very very well. And he said that, you know, his relationship with Haleen had always been great and that Haleen generally was like this incredibly generous person.

I 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 past doors, Haleen still would give him and his family money. The mention of finances, though, made Frisone perk up. And so, he asked foichak to be more specific about the type of financial generosity he was describing. And when he asked that question, Frisone noticed there was this look of uncertainty that crossed Boichak's face.

And for a second, Frisone wondered if he had just touched on something that was kind of a source

spot. But Boichak went from looking uncertain to sort of recovering very quickly and then an easy smile came across his face. And he explained that Haleen gave her daughter and sons of Sylvia, his girlfriend and Gildo, a monthly allowance of about 500,000 euros each, which was around 600,000 US dollars. When Frisone 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 Frisone doubt whether either of Haleen's children would feel in need to kill her. I mean, if she's already giving them this much money every month, what else do you need? But Boichak wasn't done. He cleared his throat and sort of shifted in a seat like he was uncomfortable. And then he said that, you know, he and Sylvia used this very generous amount of money that Haleen gave them on household expenses. But, you know, Boichak said

if he was being honest, he'd heard that Gildo spent it on other stuff. Boichak said, you know, Sylvia's brother, Haleen's son, he owns some companies that were not doing well. And so he was in very deep debt. For Frisone, you know, he couldn't tell if this was true or not, but it's certainly opened up a new investigatory door, so he jotted down this information on his no-pad. He was actually meeting with Gildo next. And so if Boichak was right, then this debt was definitely

a huge red flag. 45 minutes later, when Frisone 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 house sick.

“Gildo could barely move or speak. The only way he could communicate was actually by blinking.”

But nonetheless, Frisone 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 Frisone that even with the short answers, he just was not going to get much. And 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 Frisone 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 Frisone thought it could be, that that Gildo had begun preparations before his stroke, which had only happened two months earlier in March. And Frisone 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. So far, Frisone 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

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 seem sort of fishy.

“And so Frisone began to wonder about Sylvia's boyfriend, Foychek. Could he have planned the hit?”

Because he, not Sylvia, wanted access to Helene's money? And so Frisone pulled out his phone and he called Massinio. He 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 a suspects. Massinio completely agreed with Frisone. And then, she shared something that she had learned during her own interviews about Voychek. She said that one of Helene's friends told her

that Sylvia had been with Voychek 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.

Frisone considered what this meant. It told him that Sylvia didn't completely trust

“Voychek, but it also tanked his theory that Voychek might have planned the hit.”

Since he had zero claim to the past or a state, whether Helene was alive or not. But then, Massinio said something else that made Frisone stop thinking about the past nor was 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 Massinio had gotten the number from Mohamed's adult son who

lived with him in France, so they could just ask him about it. And so as Frisone 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, Frisone was back at the station with Massinio.

“It had been 24 hours since the shooting and neither of them had slept, but Frisone did not think”

they'd be able to do that anytime soon because the security camera footage had just arrived. And Frisone had put a lot of stock into this footage. Like 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. He'd just gotten off the phone with Mohamed's son, Wissam, who he had hoped might shed some light on the possibility that Mohamed was the intended

target of the attack. But Wissam 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 Mohamed's life for a long time. And to be honest, nobody was particularly upset about it. Now, unlike Sylvia and Gildo, Wissam was a young and healthy man. So theoretically, he could have been one of the shooters. But Frisone hadn't heard anything in their call that made him think Wissam wanted to kill his father.

Or Haleen for that matter. So now Frisone and Massinio 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 witness is it said, Haleen's car is seen turning out of the hospital parking lot and then a man

with a shotgun approached a window and fired twice. Frisone 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. And so Frisone rewound the tape to see when these men arrived. And he saw they showed up about 20 minutes before the shooting, but it was not when they showed up that was particularly significant. It was how they showed up. When Frisone saw how they arrived, his jaw dropped. Because finally, he'd found lead, he could follow. Both men were separately driven to the hospital in Taxis. And one of the Taxis license plates was clearly visible on screen.

That evening Frisone, Massinio, and a group of officers burst into the lobby of Hotel Azor and Nisse. And Frisone's hand was a photo of both of the shooters. After calling the taxi company, everything had moved very quickly. The taxi dispatch had a record of these two men's rides and gave detectives the mobile numbers that were used to book each cab. And it didn't take long for Frisone's team to connect those numbers to two burner phones that were purchased just hours

before the shooting at a store about two hours away from the hospital in a French city called Marseille.

shooter's movements prior to the shooting. First, as they left that store with their burner phones

and then as they boarded a train to Nisse and then stopped at Hotel Azor before getting Taxis

“to the hospital. So, that's why Frisone and his team were at the hotel now. In order to find out”

who planned this attack, they needed to ID the shooters. And they were hoping somebody here could. So Frisone approached the reception desk with the picture of the shooters and asked the person manning it if they had seen either of the men in the photo. And the reception desk said, "Yes, those men had rented two separate rooms just the day before, but they'd already checked out." And so Frisone wrote down the names the reception desk gave him for these two men,

but the names were not familiar. Then Frisone and Massinio split up to actually go search

the rooms. Moments later, Frisone and some officers hurried into a very clean hotel room.

And the reception desk had told him that this was going to be the case, because the maids had already been in and out of that room. They cleaned it. And so, for Frisone, even though he did expect a clean room,

“it was still disappointing to walk in there and see it, because you know, had there been any evidence”

still in here? By now it was very likely gone. However, just then he heard one of his officers call out from the bathroom. And so Frisone went in there and found one of his officers pointing to where a used bottle of shower gel sat on the side of the tub. Frisone couldn't believe it. I mean, he knew no other gas had been in this room since the shooters had been, which meant that gel was almost certainly theirs. The maids must have missed it during their cleaning.

And so Frisone told the officer to bag it. I mean, it was a long shot, but he wanted to maybe get it sent to often, tested for DNA. On May 16, 2014, investigators Frisone and Massinio paced around Frisone's office. Every now and again, they clanced at a document that was sitting on the desk. It had only been 10 days since Heline Pasteur and her driver, Mohamed Darwitch, were shot outside a hospital in these France. Heline was still alive and in Akoma, but Mohamed Darwitch

had died, which meant Frisone was now officially leading a murder investigation. Now, this was daunting for Frisone, but at the same time, he felt like they were close to breaking this case. Because that document on his desk told him that the shower gel they collected during a search of the shooter's hotel rooms actually did have DNA on it, and it had matched to someone in their system. A 24-year-old man named Samine Saeed Ahmed, and through a series of

phone taps, they'd also managed to figure out the name of Samine's accomplice. A 31-year-old man named All Hyer Hamadi. Now, these names were different from the ones that the hotel had given Frisone. So, clearly, the men must have used pseudonyms when they checked into that hotel. Now, both of them did have prior criminal records, but like Frisone had suspected, they were not like professional killers. They were just petty criminals and drug dealers

from a neighborhood in Marseille that had the highest crime rate in the entire country. So, it sort of did make sense that two men from that area might agree to carry out a hit for money. But, what didn't make sense to Frisone or Missineo was how Samine Saeed Ahmed, or all Hyer Hamadi, could possibly be connected to anybody in Heline's life? The Pestores in their inner circle, were some of the richest people in the world. If any of them were planning a hit, Frisone

would have expected them to hire, you know, more experienced and professional assassins. So, now, Frisone wondered if maybe they needed to take a closer look into other areas of Heline's life, like maybe her tenants, to see if anyone had obvious connections to Marseille. He knew from speaking with Heline's friends that she often handled many of her tenants personally, and so it was possible that maybe there was a feud or dispute that they just didn't know about.

However, thousands of people lived in Heline's buildings, going through that list would be

“nearly impossible, which was why Frisone and Missineo had decided that the best way to approach”

this whole thing was with a method Frisone called the fishing rod. Instead of arresting the shooters, Samine, and all her year, they would watch them, and keep their phones tapped, and see if they led police to whoever hired them. However, while they were figuring all this out, Frisone's phone suddenly rang, and when he answered it, he got very unexpected news. It was the hospital.

Heline had woken up from her coma. And so first thing the next morning, Frisone sent Missineo

to the hospital to interview Heline, and then after sending her out, Frisone waited anxiously at the station for her to return. He was hoping that Heline could simply tell Missineo who wanted her dead, and then they could just close the case. Easy. But when Missineo came back that afternoon, she did not have good news. Heline had told Missineo that she was terrified, and she had lots of things that she wanted to tell the police. And at one point, she seemed

meaningful, but then she'd literally just struggled to breathe and medical staff and rushed into

“stabilize her, and they hadn't been able to finish the interview. Frisone was so disappointed.”

I mean, they'd been so close to maybe hearing the truth directly from the mouth of their victim,

and now they might never know. It would turn out four days later, you know, before the police

ever had a chance to have another interview with Helineo, she died. Two weeks after Heline's death, so in early June of that year, Frisone parked his car and began to walk into the station to start his day. And he was feeling incredibly anxious, because Heline and Mohamed's case had really stagnated, and Heline's death really only made the public pressure on him and his team way more intense. Frisone still had his team watching the shooters and tracing their phone calls,

but so far they hadn't gotten any more leads from that. They were also slowly chipping their way down the list of Heline's tenants, but so far they hadn't found anyone with the kind of motive

“they were looking for. Frisone had not totally eliminated his first suspects, which were Guildo,”

Sylvia and Boycheck, but he just didn't feel like any of them stood out above the rest.

Guildo potentially needed a windfall because of alleged money problems, although Frisone had not confirmed that with bank records. But Guildo's poor health made it extremely unlikely he could have planned this hit. Then there was Sylvia, who was entitled to an enormous inheritance from her mother's death, but she already had a massive monthly allowance when her mother was alive and really did not seem desperate for cash at all.

And then as for Boycheck, he wasn't even married to Sylvia, so he literally had no legal claim to the Pistora State, so Heline's death really didn't do him any good. So all this was sort of going through Frisone's mind as he stepped inside the station. And as he did, right away he saw

“Ms. Nio come running towards him, carrying a piece of paper. And this paper was covered in lines”

of numbers that Frisone immediately recognized as a call lock. And Ms. Nio explained that they

had traced one of all high years recent calls, and finally found a link to Monaco.

The guy he called was somebody named Pascal Doriac, and unlike the shooters, Pascal had direct ties to Monaco. He was a personal trainer, and some of his clients were a elite families who lived in Monaco. And a few of those clients were also people that Frisone and his team had examined in connection with the murders. Frisone grabbed the piece of paper and read and re-read its contents before he finally looked up at Ms. Nio and said they needed Pascal's

phone records right now. Later that same day, Frisone was sitting at his desk staring at a name written on a piece of paper. He had gotten access to Pascal's phone records, and he discovered that every time there had been a significant event in this entire case, like on the day of the actual shooting, or the days of Mohamed or Halene's death, Pascal had texted the same number. And now the Frisone knew who that number belonged to. He realized he had been at least half-right

the whole time. These murders were about money. Based on the police investigation, multiple confessions, video surveillance, and back records, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Halene Pestor and Mohamed Darwich on the evening of May 6th, 2014. Around 7pm, the hitman named Samine Saeed Ahmed, strode toward Halene's black fan. And as he did, he could see her terrified face through the

passenger side window as she realized what he was carrying, a shotgun, and she looked at her driver and screamed at him to drive. But before Mohamed, the driver could hit the gas, it raised a shotgun, and fired twice into the passenger side door. And then Samine just stood there and watched as Halene and Mohamed sort of slouched forward in their seats and began to convulse. Samine didn't know who the people were, he just shot. But he wasn't thinking about that.

He was thinking about the payday he was about to receive for doing this. After a moment, Samine was convinced that he had been successful, that Halene and Mohamed were dead. And so he turned and sprinted away as fast as he could. Knowing that his accomplice, all high-year, would follow shortly after, just like they had planned. And so, Samine, as he ran away, he pulled his baseball hat down over his eyes, hoping that would be enough to avoid any cameras

that might be in the area, any ran, any ran through the streets of niece, eventually slowing to a walk before going inside of his hotel, where once he was inside he went to his room, sat on his bed and called the man who hired him. Across the city, Pascal Doriac, the personal trainer, her postponing, and he politely told the client he was with, that he'd be right back. He then

this grand marble hallway to take the call. And what he heard on the other end of the line,

“was Samine, telling him the good news that the job was done. Pascal smiled, he hung up,”

and then he began typing out a text message. This text message was for the real killer,

that is the person who'd actually ordered the hit in the first place, to let them know that everything

had gone off without a hitch. Seconds later, the real killer looked down and saw they had just gotten a text message, and it was from Pascal, their trainer. And as soon as they saw that, their heart began to race. They were very nervous about what this text was going to say. But, eventually, they scooped up their phone, and they opened the message. But, when the real killer read what was on their phone, they felt this enormous sense of relief that they hadn't

“felt in years. Because their plans sort of unbelievably had worked. Then the real killer just”

sank back down in their comfy, expensive couch and looked out their window at an amazing view

of the Monaco Harbor. It would turn out Sylvia's boyfriend of 28 years, boy Chuck Janowski was lying about everything. It was Voichak, not Guildo, who was drowning in debt. Voichak claimed to be this very successful businessman, but in reality, all the companies that he was involved with were failing and in deep financial trouble. This had been going on for years. And Voichak had just been swindling his girlfriend Sylvia out of her assets and monthly allowance to stay afloat.

And when Sylvia was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, he panicked. They weren't married.

So if she died, he'd lose everything. But, he believed if Sylvia inherited the family fortune

all at once. He could easily steal it from her and wipe out his debts. Voichak had also been lying to investigators about his relationship with Heline. The reality was, they hated each other. Heline was very suspicious, rightfully so, that Voichak was after the pastoral family fortune. In 2018, Voichak was found guilty of murdering both Heline and Mohammed and was sentenced to life in prison. The other accomplices, Pascal Doriac, Simine Sajid Ahmed, and Al-Hayir Hamadi

all received between 22 years and life in prison. As for Guildo, he would eventually recover from a stroke and he moved to the United States. All Sylvia, at least as of 2025, is still alive, and she would give Mohammed's son a job and let the Darwich family live in one of our family's properties. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events. But, we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

The Mr. Ballem Podcast, strange-dark and mysterious stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballem. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone and Kolakasio. This episode was written by Kate Murdoch. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Xu, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, Camille Callahan, Alex Paul, Ben Fassiano. Research and fact-checking supervision by Steven Eher. Audio editing and post-produced by

Whitley-Kasio and Jordan Stitham. Production support by Antonio Manada and Delana Corley. Artwork by Jessica Klogst and Kiner, theme song, "Something Wicked" by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballem Podcast, and just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballem Podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballem YouTube channel that very same day, and trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe.

“Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballem. If you want to listen to episodes,”

one week early and add free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast+ on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com/podcast+ to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So, that's going to do it, I really appreciate your support, until next time, see you. [BLANK_AUDIO]