Episode Transcript
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0:01
Hi, it's Kellyanne Conway. And I'm David
0:03
Plouffe, and we have some surprising news.
0:05
We're teaming up for a brand new
0:07
podcast, The Campaign Managers. I know
0:09
what you're thinking. Why would Plouffe and
0:11
Kellyanne do this? Because frankly, Kellyanne,
0:14
we disagree on just about every issue, except
0:16
about what it takes to win a presidential
0:18
campaign. Kellyanne ran Donald Trump's
0:20
campaign, Iran Barack Obama's campaign. We understand
0:23
things like early vote. We understand how
0:25
to leverage an opportunity and how to
0:27
play defense when you've made a mistake.
0:31
2024 is an election like none other. And David
0:33
Plouffe and I are going to take you behind
0:35
the scenes like no one else can. We're
0:37
going to lean into our one-of-a-kind experiences,
0:39
really educate our listeners about what to
0:41
keep an eye on, and discuss the
0:43
current strategies and tactics that both campaigns
0:46
are deploying on the campaign trail. We're
0:48
going to disagree. We're going to dissent. But
0:50
we're going to deliver. You won't
0:52
want to miss this unique pairing. Join us
0:54
by listening to The Campaign Managers with Kellyanne
0:57
Conway and David Plouffe. The first episode
0:59
is out May 22nd, available wherever you
1:01
get your podcasts. This
1:04
episode of The Prosecutors is brought to you by
1:06
Huggy's Little Movers. Get your baby's
1:08
butt into Huggy's Little Movers. We got
1:10
you, baby. I'm
1:19
Brett. And I'm Alice. And
1:22
we are The Prosecutors. Today
1:30
on The Prosecutors.
1:37
A young woman goes missing after a night out on
1:39
the town with her ex. Six
1:41
years later, Jermaine Charleau's family
1:43
is still wondering, where
1:46
is she? Hello,
2:13
everybody, and welcome to this episode
2:15
of The Prosecutors. I'm Brett,
2:18
and I'm joined as always by
2:20
my Zun Gidee, a co-host, Alice.
2:24
Hi, Brett. I think we've just
2:26
officially shifted to like any
2:28
descriptor outside of the English language because after
2:30
four years, I think that's what happened. You
2:33
run out of English words to describe me.
2:35
That's true. I mean, I really have. That
2:37
was a rough take on
2:39
Ojibwe that means brave, and
2:41
we have Sophie to thank
2:44
for that. And you
2:46
are brave, Alice. I think that's a
2:48
good description of you. Not when
2:50
it comes to like spiders and cockroaches and snakes, but
2:52
you know. Well, that's
2:54
a different kind of bravery, right? Sometimes
2:57
you just have to know. Knowing
3:00
what you're afraid of is a form of bravery in
3:02
and of itself. So that's all I'm
3:04
saying. I said every not brave person. Yes,
3:07
well, that's true. That's
3:12
true. Well, actually speaking of bravery, I do
3:14
think this is really important because we have
3:17
covered a number of
3:19
missing and murdered indigenous women
3:21
cases, and there are
3:23
not enough episodes to give the
3:25
amount of airtime these cases deserve.
3:28
And we've told you this in past cases
3:30
where part of the problem with covering these
3:33
cases is that there's so little information about
3:35
them, whether it's because they don't get a
3:37
lot of investigation or that they just don't
3:39
get kind of the attention, media attention
3:42
that other cases may get. And
3:44
so there are people and podcasts
3:46
and organizations that have cropped up
3:49
over the years specifically to speak
3:51
out on MMIW, Missing and Murdered
3:53
Indigenous Women. And they are really
3:55
incredibly brave because a lot of these people
3:58
who cover these cases live those
4:00
lives on these reservations themselves and to speak
4:02
out is a form of bravery in itself.
4:04
So not to make light of bravery but
4:07
when I think about people who are doing
4:09
that type of reporting like I'm
4:11
anything but brave next to them. And
4:14
one podcast we have to mention is
4:16
the stolen podcast which covered this case
4:18
in depth and has covered a number
4:20
of other cases of a
4:23
similar nature. Very good podcast, you should check
4:25
it out. It's really enjoyable. We listened to
4:27
this podcast and sort of preparation for this.
4:31
And Germaine's case is one like
4:33
so many that I think shines a
4:35
light not only on her individual case
4:37
but also the greater problem. When you
4:40
listen to these cases, we
4:42
talk about this, you can wax poetic about
4:44
true crime all day long and
4:46
we talk about sometimes what's the point,
4:48
why do we do this, yes it's
4:50
entertainment, but what else? And
4:52
obviously focusing on the victims is always
4:54
important but when you listen to the
4:56
stories like this you also learn about
4:59
other bigger problems that are
5:01
pervasive in a lot of areas.
5:04
And I think it's worth shining light on
5:06
that. Stolen does a really good job of
5:08
that and sort of uses Germaine's story to
5:11
speak to a bigger issue. So I hope you
5:13
guys will listen to that podcast. Look I know some of
5:15
y'all don't like it when we cover the cases that don't
5:17
have a lot of information but we think it's important to
5:19
cover these cases because there's a reason
5:21
they don't have much information because not many people
5:23
cover them and it can be a vicious cycle.
5:25
Nobody covers it, so nobody talks about it, there's
5:27
not a lot of information and we
5:30
think getting these stories out is important
5:32
and look they're also their mysteries just
5:34
like the other ones and they have
5:36
answers and somebody out there has those
5:38
answers and we're gonna keep covering these
5:41
whenever we can because we think
5:43
it's important and we
5:45
think these are cases that more people
5:47
need to know about. Indeed so with that
5:49
and those of you who are listening live already we're seeing
5:51
a lot of people say you haven't heard of
5:53
this case and so I'm doubly
5:56
glad that we're getting to cover it today so let's dive
5:58
in to who we are talking
6:00
about today, and that's Jermaine Charlo, who
6:02
was only 23 years old
6:05
when she disappeared without a trace on June
6:07
16, 2018
6:09
from Missoula, Montana. So one thing to note here,
6:11
so this one's in the United States. We've covered a
6:14
couple of MMIW cases in Canada.
6:16
So not only is this in
6:18
the United States, but it's a really
6:20
recent case. She disappeared almost
6:23
six years ago to the day, and
6:25
these cases are so difficult when you
6:27
have someone who really just disappears seemingly
6:30
into thin air. But
6:32
hopefully, as we go through the timeline, we can
6:34
glean some information and try
6:37
to reach some answers, because six years is too
6:39
long for her children. She
6:42
has two sons and her family not to
6:44
know what happened to her. Now, as
6:46
we've mentioned, Jermaine is an indigenous woman
6:48
who is a member of the Confederated
6:50
Salish and Kutanag tribes.
6:53
She was born in Dixon, Montana,
6:56
which is a small community within
6:58
the Flathead Indian reservation, where she
7:00
lived up until the time of
7:02
her disappearance. Jermaine has two sons,
7:05
Thomas and Jake, and
7:07
they were very, very young when their
7:09
mother disappeared. Thomas was not even four
7:11
years old yet, and Jake was two
7:13
and a half years old. And
7:16
you can see pictures of Jermaine on
7:18
our YouTube page or on our website,
7:20
and you can see for yourself that
7:22
she's been described as very beautiful,
7:24
highly social, loved people, an
7:27
outdoorsy type whose main priority
7:29
was being a good mom to
7:32
her boys. Jermaine
7:34
seemingly up and vanished after
7:36
leading the Bad Lander, which
7:38
is a bar in downtown
7:40
Missoula. She had been at that
7:42
bar and a couple other bars that night
7:44
with her ex-boyfriend, who was also the father
7:46
of her children, Michael de France. And
7:50
she was last seen in the early
7:52
morning hours of June 16, 2018. Nearly six
7:54
years later, Jermaine's
7:58
family is seemingly no closer to her. to
8:00
getting any answers about her
8:03
strange disappearance. Now,
8:05
Jermaine's story is a sad one, but
8:07
unfortunately not an uncommon one
8:09
for indigenous women in America.
8:11
In 2015, the National Congress of American
8:14
Indians found that an estimated 40% of
8:17
women who are victims of sex
8:19
trafficking identify as American Indian,
8:22
Alaska Native, or First
8:24
Nations. Additionally, a 2016 study
8:26
by Urban Indian Health Institute found
8:29
that the murder rate for women
8:31
living on reservations is 10 times
8:33
higher than the national average, and
8:35
that murder is the third leading
8:38
cause of death for Native women.
8:40
These are staggering statistics, is
8:42
a reality for Native
8:44
women living in the United States, and
8:46
Jermaine's story is but one of them.
8:49
And we've discussed the reasons for this, and
8:52
we won't dwell on them, but
8:54
the interaction of different police authorities,
8:57
tribal police, state police,
9:00
federal authorities, different
9:02
laws, the way they interact, the
9:04
fact that so many problems
9:07
that are endemic to the
9:09
reservations, poverty, drug
9:12
abuse, alcoholism, sort
9:14
of generational trauma that includes
9:16
a lot of domestic violence.
9:19
This all combines to cause this, and there are a lot
9:22
of people who are working very hard
9:24
to make the situation better, but it's obviously
9:26
a big problem, and it's one that doesn't
9:28
get a lot of attention and doesn't get
9:30
a lot of resources, and
9:32
it perpetuates, and it perpetuates from generation
9:34
to generation, and Jermaine was
9:36
part of that. We're going to talk about her
9:38
relationship with her boyfriend. It wasn't the first time
9:40
she was in a violent relationship
9:44
because her father was also violent with
9:46
her mother, and so I
9:48
think her aunt was in
9:50
a relationship with a lot of domestic violence. Domestic
9:52
violence was something that plagued the
9:54
area and it plagued Jermaine's life, and you're going
9:56
to see that as we begin to walk through.
10:00
The history leading up to her disappearance
10:02
so let's start with her relationship with
10:04
michael de france because it's hard to
10:07
talk about this case and i talk
10:09
about their relationship germane
10:11
and michael de france they had
10:13
a very tumultuous relationship. With
10:16
documented incidents of domestic abuse
10:19
on the part of michael de france the
10:21
exact timeline of their relationship is difficult to
10:23
confirm. But michael's mother
10:26
recall them dating on
10:28
and off for about eight years.
10:31
April thirteen twenty thirteen germane and michael
10:34
got in an argument at their home
10:36
in dixon montana michael is the father
10:38
of germane children and they're living together
10:41
according to police. germane
10:44
told the police that de france held her
10:46
down across the hood of a van hit
10:48
her four times in the face and head
10:50
through on the ground and spat on her.
10:53
Michael i think said he only hit her once. As
10:56
if that you know makes it better
10:58
michael would plead guilty to the charges
11:01
of partner or family member assault pfma
11:03
which is the statute in montana but
11:05
i actually have some pretty good domestic
11:08
violence laws will talk about those. More
11:10
as we go on he's ordered to
11:12
pay a fine spend a day in jail forfeit
11:15
firearms for a year and complete
11:17
forty hours of domestic violence treatment.
11:20
This was in twenty thirteen it is
11:22
likely that in twenty eleven he also
11:24
had a similar charge against him though
11:27
it's a little unclear his record is
11:29
sealed. He would have been a minor
11:31
at the time so that's probably why but pretty
11:34
good pretty good argument that this is
11:36
not the first time he did this at the
11:38
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11:41
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this is something helpful to bring up
15:27
here. So Jermaine was drawn to Michael
15:29
for a lot of reasons, as we
15:32
all are as teenage girls. But one
15:34
thing that she lacked was a stable
15:36
home. She had a
15:38
mother and a father, but I think her
15:40
father self-professed was really not in her life
15:42
because her parents were very young. They
15:44
were teen parents. I think her mom was only 15 when
15:47
she was born. She did
15:49
have grandparents and great-grandparents around who
15:51
I think served as a huge
15:53
stabilizer in her life. But
15:56
because of her family situation, she
15:58
kind of bounced around. multiple
16:00
family members homes. And this
16:02
is worth mentioning because a lot of
16:04
women who are vulnerable across the board,
16:07
whether indigenous or not, have
16:09
these kind of family situations that make them
16:11
vulnerable. She didn't really have a father in
16:13
her life. And she didn't
16:15
have really even a stable mother figure at
16:17
the time her mom had to go work,
16:19
I think was out of town sometimes, whereas
16:22
Michael had a mother and a father and
16:24
siblings who all lived under one roof. And
16:27
I think that likely
16:29
had something to do with the attraction to
16:31
him as well. It was something that she
16:33
lacked in her own life that she was
16:35
seeking to fill. In the summer of
16:38
2014, they're still together.
16:40
At this point, Germaine
16:42
is pregnant. In
16:44
fact, she's eight and a half weeks, eight
16:46
and a half months pregnant. So
16:48
she's about to have the baby. And
16:50
when you know it, Michael DeFrancis arrested
16:52
again after a fight with Germaine.
16:55
In this fight, Germaine's aunt actually intervenes
16:58
because once again, Germaine is eight and
17:00
a half months pregnant and DeFrancis throws
17:03
her onto the ground. He
17:05
is arrested, but it doesn't appear
17:07
that any charges are pressed against
17:09
him for this event. And this
17:12
is not unusual in domestic violence
17:14
situations. Usually for
17:16
every conviction in the domestic violence situation,
17:18
you're going to have multiple arrests that
17:20
never lead to charges or never lead
17:22
to convictions. A lot of times the
17:24
reason for that is fairly simple. The
17:27
victim doesn't want to testify. They don't
17:29
want the person to be charged. And
17:31
we've said this before, it's a myth.
17:33
The whole pressing charges thing is a
17:35
myth. You can prosecute someone whether the
17:37
victim wants to press charges or not.
17:39
But practically speaking, if the person
17:42
who is the subject of the attack is
17:44
not willing to testify about the attack, it's
17:46
impossible to continue with that case. You
17:49
can imagine why that is if you
17:51
don't have the person who was there
17:54
and who suffered the abuses of the
17:56
perpetrator describing and testifying under oath what
17:58
happened, what you're left with. is
18:00
likely very little evidence,
18:02
right? Usually other people are not around, but
18:04
then it becomes a he said, she
18:07
said, except she's not saying anything because
18:09
she's not testifying. And usually these abuses,
18:11
no matter how violent they are, they're
18:14
difficult to capture as evidence
18:16
in pictures. Bruises take days to
18:18
develop. You can hit someone very
18:20
hard and do immense emotional, even
18:22
physical damage, but it may not
18:24
show up in a picture. Right?
18:27
We've seen this a lot where we've heard of just, horrific
18:30
beatings and the pictures don't
18:32
quite match what we know happened to
18:34
the person because again, we'll
18:37
take some time to develop, but when you call the police,
18:39
you take the pictures right away. And
18:41
of course, by the time a case goes
18:43
to trial or goes before a jury or
18:45
a judge, those scars or those wounds likely
18:47
have already healed. So it's not like you're
18:50
showing up with a freshly beat up face
18:52
to be able to show the jury what
18:54
happened. And again, the person with the
18:56
freshly beat up face is not showing up in
18:58
these instances. And you know,
19:00
we talk about strangulation sometimes in
19:03
reference to other cases. And one
19:05
thing that's interesting about strangulation, oftentimes
19:07
you will have bruising, but
19:09
a lot of times you don't. You know, it's, and
19:11
this goes, I just go back to this, whenever you
19:13
hear a case and anybody tries
19:16
to put definitive weight on something
19:18
that you do or do not see, and
19:20
they're gonna, the whole case turns on that. One
19:23
problem with that is the body's weird
19:25
and everybody is different. You
19:27
know, all that we talked about the various rigor
19:30
mortis and liver mortis
19:32
and all that stuff. And people want to put
19:34
so much weight on that. And it's so hard
19:36
because everybody's different. Strangulation, a lot
19:38
of times you'll have pretty
19:40
severe damage internally. So
19:43
usually strangulation, if you die,
19:46
they're gonna be able to figure it out. Because even if there's
19:48
not external signs of it, you're gonna
19:50
see internal stuff, whether it's broken hyoid bones
19:52
or just all sorts of damage to the
19:54
muscles. I
19:56
bring this up because strangulation is something that often happens
19:58
in domestic. violence and
20:01
is alleged in some
20:03
of what's going on here. The
20:05
one thing I want to say about strangulation, I've said this before,
20:07
but I can't say it enough because I just want people to
20:09
know this. If
20:13
someone strangles you, the
20:16
chances they're going to kill you one day. Increase
20:20
massively. I mean, frankly, I think if
20:22
someone strangles you, your assumption should be
20:24
given a long enough timeline, they will
20:26
eventually murder you. And
20:29
we've seen that a lot.
20:31
There is incredibly strong correlation
20:33
between strangulation and domestic
20:35
partner murder. So I just
20:38
always want to say that because I know
20:41
there are people out there that are in
20:43
relationships where stuff like that's happening and just
20:46
know that that is an incredibly
20:48
dangerous situation. And as we're going
20:50
to see in this case, getting
20:52
out of those relationships is so
20:54
hard. It's like a spiderweb you're
20:56
trapped in so many ways. Just take this case.
20:58
Jermaine's in a situation where she's eight and a
21:00
half months pregnant. What is she supposed
21:02
to do? You know, she doesn't have
21:05
a lot of resources. She's got a baby that's about
21:07
to be born. She needs Michael
21:10
in her life. So I think that
21:12
probably has something to do with the fact that we don't
21:14
see these charges pressed. Anyway, that's
21:17
an aside, but I think an important one. And
21:19
that's, you know, we talk a lot about personal
21:22
crimes and strangulation is one of the most personal
21:24
ways you can kill someone. We've also said stabbing
21:26
too, because there's a level of being close to
21:28
a person and having to physically touch them. Strangulation,
21:31
oh my goodness, because when the physicality
21:33
of strangling someone is you are incredibly
21:35
close to them and you're incredibly close
21:37
to their face, which is showing all
21:39
of the pain and all of the
21:42
suffering that you are imposing on them.
21:44
And in seeing that and you continue
21:46
to do it, that
21:48
level of suspending
21:50
any care for the other person, I
21:52
think is what leads to that correlation.
21:55
Of murder in down
21:57
the road. Right. So these are these, they
21:59
study. There's statistics behind it, but when you
22:01
think about the psychology of it, there are
22:03
things there, right? Like think about a toddler
22:06
or a child who doesn't know the results
22:08
of their actions. Once they see someone react
22:10
to what they're doing, if they truly didn't
22:12
mean to hurt someone, they immediately stop. That's
22:15
the opposite in a strangulation case. Most
22:17
of the time, you're not strangling someone from the
22:19
back because your thumbs, opposable thumbs, are the strength
22:22
of your strangulation. You're going for the hyoid one,
22:24
which is right below your chin. You're
22:26
not strangling someone from the spine, from the C7.
22:29
That's plenty of protection for your neck. Of
22:31
course, you can strangle someone from the back, but
22:33
typically these types of cases, you're facing them,
22:36
looking straight into their faces, seeing the evil
22:38
you're doing to them and continuing and having
22:40
no regard for them. That
22:43
level of anger
22:46
and disregard for the other person, I think,
22:49
is you can begin to imagine why
22:51
you can see murder down the road. So
22:55
July 11th, Jermaine gives birth to the
22:57
couple's first child together. That's 2014. So
23:00
by November of 2014, Jermaine is calling
23:02
the police again. This time she's reporting
23:04
an argument between her and Michael. She
23:08
claims that Michael took her phone, dropped it
23:10
in water and broke it. The responding officer
23:12
says this is a civil issue, not a criminal
23:14
issue, and nothing further was done. Not really
23:16
right about that for a couple different reasons, not the least of
23:19
which, in a lot of states, if you
23:21
destroy someone's phone to prevent them from calling the police, to
23:23
report the fact that you're abusing them, that in
23:26
and of itself is a crime. That's
23:28
2014. The year,
23:30
another year passes. In December of 2015, Jermaine
23:34
has given birth to the couple's
23:36
second child together. So
23:38
now you're beginning to see, over the
23:40
course of just a couple of years,
23:42
seemingly prolonged abuse,
23:45
if not escalating, and even
23:47
more intertwined lives between Jermaine and
23:50
Michael because of the birth of
23:52
additional children. And you heard
23:54
earlier that Jermaine loved her children. May 15th,
23:56
2017, Jermaine makes a Facebook page. post
24:00
about DeFrancis abuse. Now the
24:02
stolen podcast reports that it
24:04
said quote people think
24:06
it's fun to be in an abusive
24:08
relationship. Well it's not. Michael
24:11
DeFrancis hurt me to the point where now
24:13
he's threatening me to be with him to make
24:15
things right or I lose my kids. My
24:17
kids are my all and my heart. This
24:20
morning because I refused a kiss and just
24:22
wanted a ride to work he decided to
24:24
leave. I gave him his things.
24:26
Yes I did push him out of the
24:28
door so I could lock it but he
24:31
had no reason to put his hands on
24:33
me. So this is a public post and
24:35
shortly after this Jermaine and
24:37
Michael broke up. But
24:40
even though they broke up you know they
24:42
they've been together what eight years they lived
24:45
down the street from each other they have
24:47
two children together those are really difficult
24:49
lives to un-intertwine from each
24:51
other. And we see that just
24:53
about two weeks later despite breaking
24:55
up or less than two weeks
24:57
from breaking up on May 30th
24:59
2017 Jermaine and Michael attend a
25:02
concert together in Bozeman Montana while
25:04
still broken up. When they were driving home that
25:06
night it was around midnight and
25:08
you might think okay maybe they're broken up
25:10
so maybe Jermaine has some leverage now Michael
25:13
will treat her better. Quite the
25:15
opposite. During that drive
25:18
Michael in his rage was
25:20
mad again at Jermaine and he
25:22
actually pushes her out of a moving car and
25:24
she's left there. He doesn't turn around he didn't
25:26
say you've learned your lesson get back in the
25:28
car. He pushes her out of a moving car
25:30
and drives off and a
25:33
police officer picked Jermaine up.
25:35
Now Michael was again charged
25:37
with partner or family member
25:39
assault in that instance. As
25:42
serious as that sounds pushing someone out of
25:45
it a moving vehicle and leaving them what
25:47
for dead for abandonment she's far from home
25:49
she's not gonna be able to walk home
25:51
from Bozeman. Despite
25:54
that the charges against Michael would
25:56
later be dismissed. Maybe it
25:58
had something to do with Jermaine not when
26:00
he charges press, we don't know. But
26:03
he was not ever prosecuted or convicted
26:05
for that charge. On July 29th, 2017,
26:08
Jermaine called the police on Michael again.
26:10
So this is what, just a couple
26:12
months after they'd broken up. And
26:15
she claimed that Michael had gotten handsy
26:17
with her and she had kicked him out.
26:20
This time, Michael took the kids with
26:22
him because he knows that would hurt
26:24
Jermaine badly. So she loved her boys.
26:27
But the police said there was no
26:29
custody order in place. And so there
26:31
was nothing they could do about it.
26:33
So that was the end of that
26:36
conversation. So already you're beginning
26:38
to see how difficult
26:40
it is for Jermaine to disentangle herself
26:42
from Michael. She loves
26:44
her children. There's no custody order in place. Law
26:46
enforcement is telling her we can't do anything about
26:48
it. But every time she essentially stands up
26:51
for herself, even though they're broken up, he
26:53
has the ultimate trump card, her
26:55
kids, he gets to take her kids
26:57
from her and their small children, they're, you
27:00
know, one in three,
27:02
they can't really have agency or
27:04
independence, you know, to walk away
27:06
from their dad, nor may they
27:08
want to. These are very difficult
27:10
situations for young children. And
27:12
so he has a leash on her,
27:15
despite them not being in a relationship. Yeah.
27:17
And look, I think there are those
27:19
of you out there who are thinking, why
27:22
doesn't she just leave him? Why does she
27:24
stay in this situation? And it's
27:26
just not that simple. It's never that simple. And
27:28
it's never that simple for all sorts of
27:30
reasons. And in this case, the added fact
27:34
of the children and his willingness to use
27:36
them as pawns in this game,
27:39
makes it even more difficult, even more difficult than it
27:41
always is. All of the various connections
27:43
that keep you with someone, even when you want to leave
27:45
them, not the least of which is
27:48
the most dangerous moment in
27:50
an abusive relationship is when
27:52
you leave. That is
27:54
when things can go from really
27:57
bad to murder. And a lot
27:59
of of women know that and they
28:01
fall into a trap where they're
28:04
trying to keep the person happy to
28:06
stay safe and the only way
28:08
to stay safe is to try and not make
28:10
the person mad and they're certainly not gonna leave.
28:12
So I understand that
28:14
feelings I really do but
28:17
I think when you think about this a little
28:19
bit deeper you start to see it's just not that simple.
28:21
So fast forward to June 15th 2018 about a year
28:25
later. Now at this point and for a while
28:27
and this sort of goes to what I was
28:29
just saying they are broken up
28:32
like they're not together as a couple in
28:34
fact Jermaine is dating someone else at this
28:36
point but they are
28:38
still involved in each other's lives
28:40
they have children together and they
28:42
still will spend time together and
28:44
on this night they're gonna
28:47
do that. So on the evening leading up
28:49
to Jermaine's disappearance Michael and
28:51
Jermaine they begin a night out together
28:53
at a bar called the Dark Horse
28:56
in Missoula Montana. The bartender
28:58
that evening remembers seeing the two of them and
29:01
on the stolen podcast you actually hear
29:03
him describe them as chatting on
29:06
the end of the bar sort of sitting
29:08
on the end of the bar chatting but
29:10
they never have any physical contact. Neither of
29:12
them appear particularly upset but he did recall
29:14
that Jermaine spent most of her time on
29:16
her phone and didn't seem all that interested
29:18
in Michael. She seemed more interested in what
29:21
was going on her phone than whatever Michael
29:23
was doing. They didn't stay at the bar
29:25
very long. Now one thing that's
29:27
interesting Jermaine and
29:29
her phone usage was a issue
29:32
for Michael. Remember one of the events that
29:34
led to calling the police was he destroyed
29:36
one of her phones and
29:38
so it was known that that was
29:40
something that would make him mad and you have
29:42
the situation where the bartender does not see him
29:44
mad but does see a situation where the two
29:46
of them are together and she is
29:48
spending more time on her phone than she is talking to
29:50
him. We have a lot of kind of points
29:53
of reference because they're seen out in public but then
29:55
all of a sudden things drop off. So the next
29:57
kind of period of time that we have is is
30:00
that night from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. After
30:03
leaving the dark horse, Jermaine and Michael made
30:05
their way to two other bars in
30:07
Missoula, the Golden Rose and
30:10
the Badlander. Both are in the
30:12
same building, and there's security cameras
30:14
outside that actually catch Jermaine and
30:17
Michael in an alleyway behind the
30:19
Badlander. Lowell Hocklter, who
30:21
works coordinating searches for the Lighthouse
30:24
group, has seen this footage, but
30:26
it's actually under seal because
30:28
it's an ongoing investigation. So I don't think
30:30
it's available online anywhere to see. But
30:33
Lowell, who did view this footage,
30:35
noted that Jermaine appeared to be happy. She
30:37
didn't seem to be agitated in any way,
30:40
but she was very social. She was floating
30:42
easily between different groups and chatting with many
30:45
people. She seemed very sure of herself, very
30:47
confident. For example, when a group of people
30:49
would leave to go back in the bar,
30:51
she didn't stand around awkwardly by herself or
30:53
follow them. She would just move seamlessly into
30:56
another conversation group, and it seemed that she
30:58
was well-liked by everyone back there. She was
31:00
just having a good time catching up with
31:02
friends, is what it appeared. Now, this
31:04
video is video only. There's no
31:07
audio with it, so you don't get to
31:09
hear what they're saying, but no one seems
31:11
agitated. Just seems like a typical relaxed night
31:13
out with friends. Now,
31:15
Michael, on the other hand, who's also caught on
31:18
this footage, he does not
31:20
appear to have the same type
31:22
of outgoing social demeanor as Jermaine.
31:24
Rather, he appears to hang back more. I
31:27
think he's wearing a baseball cap, and he
31:29
keeps to himself, and he doesn't talk very
31:31
much. Seems like he's kind of just tagging
31:33
along where Jermaine is, and she's the one
31:36
who is there to see people. Jermaine
31:38
has her last communication with her current
31:41
boyfriend, Jacob Love, via text message at
31:43
11.52 p.m. The
31:46
two of them very recently started dating. As we
31:48
said, he was out of town. He's 200 miles
31:50
away on the evening that Jermaine
31:53
goes missing, but she was planning on
31:55
staying at his house. Which
31:57
I think is an interesting point. So she's out. with
32:00
the father of her two kids, they're hanging
32:02
out. She has no intention of
32:05
going back home with him that night. She's
32:07
fully intending to stay at Jacob's house. And
32:09
if you think about this, those of you who may
32:11
be thinking, well that's weird, if she's already dating someone,
32:13
is she serious? Or not, who knows how serious
32:15
it is. But why would she be out with an ex? Think
32:18
about it, she's only 23 years old. She's been
32:20
with this guy for basically a decade. She grew
32:22
up with him. I mean, they were
32:24
children together. They had children as essentially
32:27
children together. When you have
32:29
someone who's been in your life for basically half of
32:31
your entire life, and they still live in the street,
32:33
and you share children together, your
32:37
lives are just so intertwined, it doesn't surprise me at
32:39
all that they are still on these terms
32:41
where they can go out together.
32:43
Because he is so much a part of her
32:45
life. Kids
32:48
are no kids. I mean, he is
32:51
essentially her entire childhood. Yeah, I mean, look, you can think this
32:53
is weird if you want to, but I think Alice
32:55
is right. I think this is
32:57
just a very complicated situation. And people are complicated. They
33:00
just are. Everyone is. We
33:03
all have weird complications in our
33:05
lives, and this was a complication for her.
33:08
And once again, I think it's
33:10
important to note what
33:13
Alice said earlier. It's
33:15
not like they're out on a date, and
33:18
she's like sitting in his lap, and they're totally focused on
33:20
each other. She's being a social butterfly. He's
33:22
there, but he's just one of the people. She's
33:25
just one of the people that she's seeing
33:27
and hanging out with. We're focusing on him for
33:29
a reason, as we're about
33:31
to get to. So at around midnight,
33:33
Jermaine and Michael are caught on the
33:35
same surveillance camera walking down the alley
33:37
behind the badlander and turning the corner
33:39
out of frame. So
33:42
on the footage, it appears that both of
33:44
them are acting normally. The situation
33:46
did not seem hostile, and Jermaine
33:48
did not appear to be intoxicated.
33:51
So that's where they are around
33:53
midnight of the night and
33:55
going into the morning where Jermaine is going
33:57
to disappear. Now that's
33:59
the one. last like verifiable sighting
34:01
we have of Jermaine. Oh,
34:05
when you have these footages and you know,
34:07
someone just turns the corner and
34:09
you know what's going to happen next, which is that she's
34:11
never going to be seen again. It's
34:14
just so hard to show like what if this camera
34:16
could just follow her a little bit longer to see
34:18
where she goes. But like we
34:20
said, she didn't leave after a fight. It
34:22
wasn't a agitated situation. All night she's been
34:24
kind of walking back and forth among
34:26
people. And this is just another one of those walks
34:29
except what happens next. So
34:31
this is between 12 and 1 a.m. Michael
34:34
De France talks to the police and
34:36
he says that he dropped Jermaine off
34:39
by the Orange Street food farm in
34:41
Missoula, Montana somewhere between 12 and 1
34:43
a.m. This
34:45
is really important because later on when
34:47
there is a search for Jermaine, every news
34:50
outlet, every missing poster says she
34:53
was last seen at the Orange Street food
34:55
farm. The only reason we know
34:57
this is because of what Michael told
34:59
police. So
35:03
this is a problem because Michael changes
35:05
his story later. He reportedly
35:07
tells two different stories of where
35:10
he dropped Jermaine off that evening. So
35:13
he told her family because after, you know,
35:15
her family members couldn't get a hold of Jermaine,
35:17
they start calling around and Michael is one of
35:19
the first people they call because, well, she
35:21
was with him that night and because they are
35:23
so close because of their children and their history
35:26
that he is a natural person for them to
35:28
call. And he tells the family,
35:30
oh, I dropped her off at the Orange Street
35:32
food farm. And he
35:34
told law enforcement later on, though, a
35:37
different story than what he told the
35:39
family. He told her he
35:41
dropped Jermaine off at an intersection which
35:44
was about eight blocks from the
35:46
food farm. So not exactly close.
35:49
It should be noted that the food farm is
35:51
pretty close to where she was planning to stay
35:53
that night. So move it by eight
35:55
blocks. Not impossible to walk, but
35:58
kind of a strange distance. asked
36:00
to be dropped off if it's already 12
36:02
or 1 a.m. Law enforcement state
36:05
that they have determined Germaine was dropped off
36:07
at the intersection and not at the food
36:09
farm. They don't go into why that is.
36:11
Again, this is an open investigation but I
36:15
would imagine they probably looked at some cell
36:17
phone pings or they were able to verify,
36:20
I don't know, traffic stops, something like
36:22
that. But they looked into those two
36:24
stories and determined the more likely story
36:26
was that Germaine was actually dropped off
36:29
at the intersection. Now Michael
36:31
claims this is where Germaine wanted
36:33
to be dropped off at this intersection
36:35
and that he last saw her walking
36:37
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36:39
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36:42
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there's a couple points are they go or a fleshing
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your mind and never seen that before and
41:06
and that never happens and any of these
41:08
cases but in this case it's gonna take
41:10
the police allowed. Take this seriously. gonna take.
41:13
Think. About ten days before, the officer who
41:15
has been very dedicated to uncovering what happened
41:17
in this case finally got on the case.
41:19
But up until that point there wasn't a
41:21
whole lot in the family in this lighthouse
41:24
group. The do in the search by themselves.
41:26
So of course the first thing the family
41:28
does as they call Michael the hey, have
41:30
you seen Germain he says oh yea I
41:32
dropped her off at the food place. Now
41:35
then you know two weeks later he does
41:37
a blaze. He dropped her off at this
41:39
intersection. Of think it's important when
41:41
our said the more likely thing as the
41:43
intersection think the reason for that and we
41:45
don't have specifics but. We. Know
41:48
enough about what the police know that I think. It
41:50
is the cell phones, the cellphones or near
41:53
the intersection but there were never near the
41:55
food market. Now we would make sense for
41:57
him to drop her off at the food.
42:00
Organ a the food for him because Allah
42:02
said and our understanding This is close to
42:04
where she was going so it makes sense
42:06
for her to ask to be dropped off
42:08
their but it doesn't seem like she was.
42:10
And. All. Though
42:13
in isolation if for the very beginning,
42:15
he had told the story of the
42:17
intersection. It. Makes sense to some
42:19
extent because as I said she was always planning
42:21
on staying somewhere else. He was always going to
42:23
drop her off somewhere so it makes sense for
42:26
her him to have done it. But
42:28
not there. And it certainly
42:30
does. It make sense for him to
42:32
have changed the story. Now look, It's.
42:36
Possible he just. You. Know.
42:38
Remembered. Later, something he didn't remember
42:40
the day after. That's. Not
42:42
normally how memory works. And wanting to
42:45
now sell. I'll think that this particular
42:47
area is is their neighborhood right? Like
42:49
I don't think Michael knows the scary
42:51
of a wealth of Y Se the
42:53
Audience street food farm for that's we
42:55
specific. it's something to come up with
42:57
by the way. Wow just as I
43:00
have no inside knowledge of the investigative
43:02
file yes but if he were talking
43:04
to me or I'm hearing this after
43:06
the fat as the investigator as the
43:08
question as the first thing that popped
43:10
in my mind is o sea told
43:12
him to drop her off. At that the
43:14
farm. That's why it's in his mind because the first
43:17
thing he says his health. I did what she told
43:19
me to do. The. Food Fine. that's
43:21
why doctor us. Otherwise, it would
43:23
be a little confusing why you
43:25
would insert an area that under
43:27
any investigation would probably rule out
43:29
that you actually did that. So.
43:32
I get I have no inside knowledge on that, but that
43:34
would be my sense. If I were listening
43:36
to him till two different stories as
43:38
someone told you to drop them off
43:40
at the food while it was probably
43:42
German. Several. to
43:44
am to ten am we have
43:47
cell phone records from for rise
43:49
and that show cell tower pings
43:52
that put germain cell phone about
43:54
three point six miles north north
43:56
east of the if voros cell
43:59
phone tower in this
44:01
eight-hour period. This will
44:03
probably surprise no one is
44:05
very close to Michael DeFrancis'
44:08
home. What also will probably
44:10
surprise no one is they also
44:12
pulled Michael DeFrancis' cell phone records
44:14
and his tower pings and when
44:16
you know it his cell phone
44:18
is in very close proximity to
44:21
Jermaine's cell phone. Now
44:23
Michael at some point is going to
44:25
have to tell the police that he
44:27
did in fact have Jermaine's cell phone
44:29
that evening after she left his vehicle.
44:31
Presumably his cover story here is she
44:34
left it in the car. So
44:36
you know he did what any normal
44:39
person would do if a friend
44:41
of theirs left a cell phone in
44:43
their car. He destroyed it and
44:46
disposed of it and police have
44:48
never been able to recover the phone. Brett
44:51
if you left your phone in my car and
44:53
let's say my fat bottom sat on it
44:55
and I accidentally broke it even
44:58
if I broke it I would bring it back to you
45:00
and be like dang it I'm so sorry
45:02
I sat on your phone and I broke it because
45:04
I know you have pictures on it. I know you
45:06
have contacts on it. I know that even if it's
45:08
broken there's probably a SIM card in there and you
45:10
could probably put that card into another phone and recover
45:12
all of your data. I would
45:15
not throw away your broken cell phone.
45:18
No that seems like a little bit of a
45:20
red flag there for Michael that he not only
45:22
had the phone but he
45:24
destroyed it and and when
45:26
exactly did that happen? You know when
45:28
when did he so you know imagine
45:31
his story presumably is they left on
45:33
good terms. He
45:35
dropped her off after a nice night out with
45:37
the mother of his children she walked off into
45:39
the darkness. He finds her cell
45:41
phone at some point either that night or
45:44
the next day he hears
45:46
from the family the next day asking where she is. At
45:48
what point did he decide you know what I need to
45:50
do with his cell phone? Not turn over to the police.
45:52
Not give it to the family. I'm going to destroy it
45:55
and get rid of it. Does this sound familiar by
45:57
any chance? Maybe from another police report when he broke
45:59
her cell phone. cell phone on
46:01
purpose, likely from a
46:03
heated discussion or a fight, and
46:05
he dropped it in the water. I mean, just
46:07
sounds like this seems to be a thing he does
46:10
specifically to Jermaine. Right. So
46:12
June 17th, Jermaine's grandmother cannot get
46:15
in contact with her and
46:17
she reaches out first to
46:19
Jermaine's boyfriend, Jacob, and he
46:21
confirms that he hasn't had any contact with her
46:23
either. Now, given this
46:25
was very unlike Jermaine, her grandmother
46:27
reports her missing to tribal police
46:29
on June 17th. No,
46:32
this is sort of a multi-jurisdictional issue, right?
46:35
You have the tribal police, she lives on
46:37
tribal land, but she didn't disappear on
46:40
tribal land. She disappeared in Missoula.
46:42
So the next day, June 18th,
46:44
Jermaine's family files missing person reports
46:47
for Jermaine with the Missoula
46:49
city police. But like
46:52
everything else, the report is not actually
46:54
filed until June 20th, which
46:56
is four days after Jermaine
46:58
had last been seen. So Jermaine's
47:01
grandmother does the right thing, right? I mean, she, she
47:03
has a gut feeling. She talks to Jermaine all the
47:05
time. They're very close and
47:07
she doesn't hear from her. So she immediately
47:09
reports her missing. We
47:12
talked about these multi-jurisdictional issues before
47:14
and look, this is
47:16
like the ultimate administrative
47:18
red tape. It doesn't mean any of
47:20
these jurisdictions can't and oftentimes in these
47:22
cases, they do work together, which
47:24
is wonderful. But administratively there's
47:27
like file openings and file closings. And
47:29
sometimes if you have the wrong person,
47:31
they don't know how to open a
47:33
file if it's not in their jurisdiction.
47:35
And so it's quite literally red tape
47:37
that prevents a lot of these files
47:39
from being opened. And when you have
47:41
reservation lands, which are their own jurisdiction,
47:43
apart from federal or state localities,
47:45
it gets very hairy, especially
47:47
when you are going to bars that
47:50
are outside of your reservation, you often go off
47:52
your reservation to go do many
47:54
things as Jermaine did that night.
47:56
And because of that, that's
47:58
part of what causes the delay. and her
48:00
actually being reported. So
48:03
because they're not getting much help from police,
48:05
on June 22nd, 2018, Jermaine's
48:07
mother, Jennifer, contacted the Lifeguard
48:09
Group, which is a group
48:11
working to end human trafficking. And you
48:13
may be thinking, whoa, human trafficking, what
48:15
are we talking about? All
48:18
we know is Jermaine disappeared. Human trafficking is
48:20
a real problem, especially for indigenous
48:22
women, for any vulnerable woman. And Jermaine was
48:25
young, she was 23 years old, she
48:28
was beautiful. She can
48:30
imagine that she could very well
48:32
be the target of
48:35
a pimp who thinks they can make a lot
48:37
of money off of her. This
48:39
happens way more than you'd like to
48:41
think. Unfortunately, both Brett and I have
48:44
investigated and prosecuted a number
48:46
of these cases. Oftentimes, these
48:48
women can be the gamut, right? They can
48:50
be young runaways. I would
48:52
not call a 12 or 13 year old
48:54
runaway who has no other options consenting, but
48:57
it's difficult when you're in those situations, they're
48:59
vulnerable, they're picked up by an older pimp who
49:01
says, I'm gonna give you all the food and
49:03
all the shelter and even money and
49:06
dress you up real nice. You have nothing else
49:08
in the world because you just ran away from
49:10
even tougher situations. You're gonna
49:12
say yes, but is that consenting? No, that's
49:15
human trafficking, especially because then you become indebted
49:17
to that pimp until you stop
49:19
making him money and then he throws you out or
49:21
kills you. Second,
49:23
women who are just kidnapped, snatched
49:25
off the streets. Your mothers
49:28
may have scared you when you were younger,
49:30
that does happen. It doesn't quite
49:32
happen like so much as you may think like
49:34
a white van rolls by and they open a
49:36
sliding door and they just grab a girl off
49:38
the street, that can happen. But
49:40
oftentimes, they are canvassing a particular
49:42
area, probably a low income area
49:45
and they know and see the
49:47
types of women who are unattached, like
49:50
they're independent, maybe they don't have stable families who
49:52
would know that they're missing, that they may have
49:54
people around them who want to do them harm.
49:57
Oftentimes, these women are sold into human trafficking.
50:00
five loved ones, family members,
50:03
boyfriends, whatever, it
50:05
happens. And so when you have
50:07
something like this happen, even
50:10
though we don't know for a fact that human
50:12
trafficking may be something that happened to Jermaine, it
50:14
is absolutely statistically a possibility,
50:17
which is why they reach out to the life guard
50:19
group. And so six
50:22
days after Jermaine disappeared, this volunteer
50:24
group canvassed the area of downtown
50:26
Missoula, and you're
50:28
not going to be surprised that after
50:30
nearly a week, there's no signs of
50:33
Jermaine found. They asked people
50:35
if they seen her. Jermaine is known in
50:37
the area. She's very social. She's well liked.
50:39
People remember generally seeing her, but
50:41
you're talking six whole days later. There's
50:43
very little usable information that people have
50:45
at that point. So in June
50:48
27th, which is 10 days after Jermaine
50:51
is initially reported missing, the
50:53
Missoula County Sheriff's department applies for a
50:55
search warrant for the deference home, her
50:57
personal property belonging to Jermaine, including her
51:00
cell phone, so they're starting to work
51:02
this case. Now we know
51:04
about these search warrants because the county for
51:06
whatever reason did not seal them. Oftentimes
51:09
search warrants are sealed. The city is
51:11
also investigating Jermaine's disappearance and in fact
51:13
has the lead on the case. We
51:15
know they issued search warrants, but we
51:17
don't actually know what they say because
51:20
they are not sealed. But we do know in
51:23
this case that no items were seized during the
51:25
search that there were photos taken.
51:27
As we said, one of
51:29
the reasons the cell phone wasn't seized is because
51:31
by this point it had been destroyed and disposed
51:34
of. It's unfortunate
51:36
that it took 10 days. Maybe if it had taken
51:38
less time, the phone wouldn't
51:40
have been destroyed, but that's where we're
51:42
at. So this investigation begins to run
51:45
long. We've already lost
51:47
a lot of time. We're going to lose more. July
51:49
13th, 2018. So
51:52
nearly a month later, the county is
51:54
applying for a search warrant for Jermaine's
51:56
EBT records in order to look at
51:58
her financial activity. Once
52:00
again, would have been nice if they had
52:02
done that a little bit earlier, but I know they
52:05
don't have a ton of resources
52:07
and they're quickly running out of
52:09
leads to the extent they even had any
52:12
other than the big one, Michael
52:14
DeFranz. And I'll say they didn't stop
52:16
there. The Missoula County Sheriff's Department applies for
52:18
yet another search warrant on August 1, And
52:22
this one is related to Michael
52:24
DeFranz. This warrant is for his
52:27
location history, his browsing history, search
52:29
history from Google, which Google does
52:31
provide. And this is when
52:33
it's determined that Jermaine and Michael's phones
52:35
were in close proximity to each other
52:37
between 2 and 10 a.m. the day
52:39
that Jermaine disappeared. So what is that? Two
52:43
months later is when we're figuring out
52:45
that their phones are together
52:47
during the times that no one sees
52:49
her ever again. So the
52:51
next day on August 2, 2018,
52:54
one day later, the Sheriff's Department applies
52:56
for another search warrant this time
52:58
to search for the DeFranz's family
53:00
property a second time. I'll
53:03
say they are moving quickly. As soon as they find out this
53:05
information, they're applying for the second search warrant. In
53:08
the warrant, they ask for a
53:10
10-day surveillance of the DeFranz property,
53:13
including infrared photography and drones. And
53:16
the department wants to capture
53:18
evidence of hidden buildings, bunkers,
53:20
storage areas and other areas
53:22
of concealment. What you're hearing
53:24
here is maybe a hostage situation,
53:26
right? They're trying to use
53:28
all of these seemingly very high-tech devices
53:31
to see if there's any underground bunkers
53:33
that she's being held. Their investigation is
53:35
leading them to this particular
53:37
search warrant. We said that there has to be
53:39
probable cause to support why you want to search for these
53:41
things. But as you can
53:43
probably tell, this is a pretty big search.
53:46
It's not one day. It's 10 days. It's
53:48
using infrared photography, drones. That
53:51
costs a lot of money. And it's not clear if
53:53
this surveillance, even though the warrant
53:55
was granted, it's not clear if
53:57
the surveillance ever actually occurred. Because
54:00
of how involved that is, this particular
54:02
search is, they don't have to document
54:05
what they have or have not done
54:07
back to the court. You have
54:09
to fill out what you take, but
54:12
we don't know if this surveillance happened as
54:14
they described it to get permission for. That's
54:17
a really important thing to note, by the
54:19
way. The warrant just asks permission to do
54:21
something. Then what you do with the warrant,
54:23
that's kind of like your ticket to
54:25
what you're able to do, but you
54:27
have to stay within the parameters of what you've been given
54:30
permission to do. But it's not an order for
54:32
you to have to execute everything that you've
54:34
listed out for permission in that warrant.
54:38
So on the previous three warrants, unlawful
54:41
restraint was listed as the reason for
54:43
the warrant. So the reason
54:45
was they thought that Jermaine was being
54:47
unlawfully restrained by Michael. But
54:50
in this particular warrant for the search
54:52
of the property, it
54:55
now changes from unlawful restraint to
54:58
deliberate homicide as the reason for
55:00
the warrant. So
55:02
whether it was just the cell phone
55:04
information that led them to change their
55:06
reason from that she's being
55:08
held hostage to this is a
55:10
homicide investigation, we don't know.
55:12
They haven't spoken about that,
55:15
but that change is stark
55:17
within the warrant. So by October 2018,
55:20
now the FBI is involved in the
55:22
defense property, the searched with
55:25
FBI cadaver dogs. Now there
55:27
were some logistical financial issues
55:30
that prevented this search from being
55:32
complete until October. And that was four months
55:34
after Jermaine's disappearance. The good thing is cadaver
55:36
dogs are pretty good. I think even after
55:38
four months, if there was a body there
55:40
or had been a body there, they're
55:43
pretty good at finding them. The property was searched
55:45
for two days. Blood was found
55:47
on two items. These items were
55:49
sent to the crime lab to
55:52
determine if the blood was Jermaine's.
55:54
Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive. So
55:58
that's the last sort of significant case. event
56:00
in the investigation into Jermaine's
56:02
disappearance. The case has sort
56:05
of hit a dead end,
56:08
but it's not the last interaction
56:10
with Michael DeFrance and the police.
56:13
On July 28th, 2021, he
56:15
was indicted for possession of
56:17
firearms. He had been convicted
56:20
in 2013, as we said earlier, of a
56:22
violent crime when he assaulted Jermaine. That was
56:24
when she was 17. He may remember
56:26
that. Because of that under
56:28
federal law, he is not allowed to
56:30
have a firearm. He had four of
56:33
them. So he was
56:35
indicted for that. He pled not guilty as
56:38
everyone always does. He
56:40
was released under strict conditions. He
56:45
attempted to challenge this. This is actually,
56:47
there's been a lot of challenges to
56:49
this particular federal statute. So
56:51
he launched some constitutional challenges here. And it
56:54
was reported on the stolen podcast that the
56:56
two dates that Michael was said to possess
56:58
firearms were the dates of the searches of
57:00
the property. So basically they searched the property.
57:03
They didn't find Jermaine, but they found firearms
57:05
and he can't have firearms. So
57:08
this is all getting tied together, right? Basically
57:10
they searched his property, found the firearms,
57:12
found him in possession. And their time
57:15
is back to the domestic abuse charge
57:18
against Jermaine. About eight years earlier,
57:20
these cases take a very long
57:22
time. Nearly two years later on
57:25
April 27th, 2023, the France was found guilty on four firearm
57:29
violations, including being a prohibited person in
57:31
possession of a firearm and three counts
57:33
of false statements during a firearms transaction.
57:35
That's pretty typical. What that basically means
57:38
is he was a person who was
57:40
not allowed to have guns. He
57:42
lied about being able to possess guns because
57:44
when you fill out the forms to buy
57:46
a firearm, you have to say, are you
57:48
a convicted felon? And he likely said, I
57:50
am not, but he really was. That's why
57:52
you have the false statements in connection
57:54
with the firearm transaction. So
57:57
those, these charges are not
57:59
directly. related to Germaine's case, the
58:01
nature of Germaine and Michael's relationship
58:03
was obviously central to this trial
58:06
and these charges. The basis of
58:08
the defense's argument was that de
58:10
France should have never been charged
58:12
with PFMA as his and Germaine's
58:15
relationship didn't reach the legal definition
58:18
of spouse, right? Because they were not
58:20
spouses. More in a situation similar to
58:23
that of spouses. I
58:25
call BS. They
58:28
were living together. They were in
58:30
a romantic relationship. At
58:33
this point, they had not had a child yet. But
58:35
if you wanted proof of a romantic relationship
58:37
in the following two years, they had two
58:39
children. So the defense was saying it was
58:42
a technicality, right? They're arguing that that
58:44
first conviction was not valid and you
58:46
need that first conviction to
58:49
have the secondary conviction because the secondary
58:51
conviction completely relies on the fact that
58:53
you're a felon in possession of a
58:55
firearm. If you're not a felon,
58:57
you're a person who can have a firearm. And
58:59
so they're saying that first conviction never should have
59:02
been charged with it because Germaine was not his
59:04
wife. They were not legally married. They were not
59:06
under the definition of a family member. Obviously
59:09
that statute is supposed to capture
59:12
domestic relationships. And
59:16
in this instance, the defense, I mean it's a
59:18
creative argument, I will say. It's
59:20
a little bit of a step
59:22
too far, I would say. I'm not sure I could make that argument.
59:25
I don't know if I were a defense counsel there,
59:27
but it did not win the
59:29
day. But because central
59:32
to this trial was that
59:34
particular relationship because they're contesting
59:37
that the relationship falls under
59:39
the category of this
59:41
domestic violence statute, they
59:44
discuss Germaine and Michael's relationship
59:46
in depth, including the 2013
59:49
assault. And
59:52
it's devastating. I mean it's clear
59:54
that their lives are intertwined
59:57
and that they are in fact in a romantic relationship.
1:00:00
Now, even though De France was
1:00:03
convicted of all four firearm violations and
1:00:05
he was looking at 10 years in
1:00:07
prison for these convictions, he
1:00:09
received just 21 months in prison. Which
1:00:12
is embarrassing. That judge should be embarrassed.
1:00:15
The prosecutors were obviously asking for more than
1:00:17
that. He should have gotten more than that.
1:00:19
There are so many reasons he should have gotten more than
1:00:21
that. But the
1:00:24
judges have the discretion at the end of the day
1:00:26
and he got, what is that,
1:00:28
a year and nine months. So
1:00:32
that's the justice system for you sometimes. And
1:00:35
it's unfortunate he's going to spend a little time in
1:00:37
prison but not a whole lot of time in prison.
1:00:40
And remember, he hasn't spent really any time
1:00:42
in prison, he spent what, one day in
1:00:44
prison for that domestic violence assault
1:00:46
and the other ones all got dismissed.
1:00:49
So in some ways when you see
1:00:51
these types of charges, it's not about
1:00:53
the gun. It's not about him possessing
1:00:56
a gun at all. It's about
1:00:58
everything that preceded it. This
1:01:00
is essentially Germaine's trial that she never
1:01:02
got to have. Yeah. And
1:01:05
one of the things that good judges will often take into
1:01:07
account is the fact that you've done all these things in
1:01:09
the past and never been punished for them. You spent a
1:01:11
day in jail after you did
1:01:13
all this stuff. You were never charged for throwing
1:01:15
her out of a car. We talked about this
1:01:18
some in a recent legal brief. The
1:01:20
judges can consider that kind of stuff. They don't
1:01:22
just have to consider what you're convicted of. They
1:01:24
can consider everything. And this should
1:01:26
have been a case where, I mean,
1:01:29
the thing is felon possession
1:01:31
of a firearm is a 10, he's not
1:01:33
a felon, but in this case, prohibited person,
1:01:36
you can get 10 years for it and get 15 years for it now.
1:01:39
And judges are supposed
1:01:41
to determine when should
1:01:43
you get closer to 10 versus closer
1:01:46
to probation. This guy should have got a lot
1:01:48
more. He should have got a lot more. And
1:01:50
it's unfortunate that he did not. I don't
1:01:52
know if some of these arguments in trial,
1:01:55
even though the state or
1:01:57
the government won those arguments, if the judge took that
1:01:59
into account. into account at sentencing and thought,
1:02:01
well, it was close. It was
1:02:03
close that you should even be convicted. So I'm not going to give
1:02:05
you as much time, but it
1:02:08
is what it is. So that's how
1:02:10
long he'll be in prison about
1:02:13
ish. You know, there's interesting
1:02:15
sort of little legal things that we've mentioned
1:02:17
throughout the different ceiling of the indictment, the
1:02:19
challenges that Michael attempted to raise, you know,
1:02:22
one challenge he attempted to raise, which I
1:02:24
see all the time is
1:02:26
it was actually legal for him to possess a
1:02:28
firearm in Montana, but
1:02:31
it was not legal for him to possess a firearm
1:02:33
under federal law and you often
1:02:35
see defendants trying to use that as
1:02:37
a reason. But if fortunately
1:02:39
the constitution is Supreme federal law
1:02:41
is Supreme. So if it's illegal
1:02:43
for you to do it federally,
1:02:46
you won't go to state prison, but you still
1:02:48
got a federal prison. So that's where he's at. And
1:02:51
the good news is he's now been convicted
1:02:53
of this. So he is a felon going
1:02:55
forward. And hopefully if he's ever caught with
1:02:58
a firearm again, they'll they'll give
1:03:00
him a little bit more time. Okay. So
1:03:02
that's the case. That's
1:03:05
the evidence. It's not a
1:03:07
lot. I know you're hoping for more. It's
1:03:10
one of the reasons we wanted to do this, but now we're going
1:03:12
to move into. Theories,
1:03:15
as I said earlier, there
1:03:18
is a detective guy, Baker. He is a detective
1:03:20
for the city of Missoula. He is passionate about
1:03:22
this case. He wants to solve this case. He's
1:03:25
been working on this case since 2018. And
1:03:28
he says, he will tell you, this is not a
1:03:30
cold case working it. Want
1:03:32
to get to the bottom of this. And he's essentially
1:03:34
said there are three theories of
1:03:36
what he thinks could have happened and
1:03:38
we are going to talk about those
1:03:41
theories. I'll just go ahead
1:03:43
and say one theory that no one
1:03:45
thing's happened is that she left
1:03:47
voluntarily. I know that's always something that comes up.
1:03:49
Maybe she decided to go off and start her
1:03:51
new life. No one thinks she
1:03:53
ever would have left her kids. As you
1:03:55
heard from her Facebook post, that was not something
1:03:57
she was willing to do. Hey
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There was no mass amounts of
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the cash been withdrawn in. Anticipation.
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Of running away. There were no bags packed.
1:06:08
There was a me. She was in constant
1:06:10
communication with her new boyfriend that night. You
1:06:12
know how you wouldn't cost of communication with
1:06:14
her family members who heard from her earlier
1:06:17
that night. She was about to start a
1:06:19
new training program. i think of the fire
1:06:21
department. That Monday she had things she was
1:06:23
looking forward to as she. Made plans
1:06:26
to attend and if she
1:06:28
word have disappeared. She. Didn't have
1:06:30
the means along with her she never car she didn't
1:06:32
have close other than what she was wearing student have
1:06:34
credit. Card or cash on her video
1:06:36
and like and some of these cases
1:06:38
you mention that. The. Firefighter thing.
1:06:42
And. She. Was starting
1:06:44
their training. Her grandmother actually
1:06:46
went on a true. In. Assets
1:06:48
Germane to go Whether. The.
1:06:50
Edge of A was like I'm starting this
1:06:53
new training in it or my grandmother's like
1:06:55
we the you don't have to do it
1:06:57
on Monday you can come with me and
1:06:59
you can doodle of it later. But she
1:07:01
was committed to answer. She stayed so obviously
1:07:03
like in some way these cases her grandmother
1:07:05
nail sort of things if she had just
1:07:07
come with me. Things. That
1:07:10
of indifference less as an added level of
1:07:12
tragedy for the get. Okay so the
1:07:14
first theory I think is one that probably
1:07:16
is obvious detective basis. First the the is
1:07:18
that a person he was laughing The Germain
1:07:20
is connected to her disappearance. That's not rocket
1:07:23
science. If you're the last person seen with
1:07:25
somebody disappeared, you're gonna be at the top
1:07:27
of the suspect list until your ruled out
1:07:29
We of course now the last person she
1:07:31
was seen with with Michael de France. He
1:07:33
says it himself now. The. Slant seems
1:07:36
to be the subject of a lot
1:07:38
of investigation as you can tell with
1:07:40
all of these sets once. he starts
1:07:42
with fire and violations stemming from the
1:07:44
investigation, but there were other suspects who
1:07:46
were investigated as well. Now there are
1:07:48
several reasons why to France is a
1:07:50
top suspect here, right? Will kind of
1:07:52
go see them really quickly hear that
1:07:54
you've already heard. germain and
1:07:56
michael had a tumultuous relationship
1:07:59
with documented abuse, where law enforcement
1:08:01
was called, not just by Germaine, but also
1:08:03
by family members and third parties who witnessed
1:08:05
what was going on. In fact, third parties,
1:08:07
her aunt tried to intervene on her behalf
1:08:09
when things got so violent. We
1:08:13
know that Michael was with Germaine on the
1:08:15
night of her disappearance, was the last person
1:08:17
to see her. Self-proclaimed said
1:08:19
he was the last person to see
1:08:22
her, dropped her off at her last
1:08:24
known quote unquote location. DeFrancis' story
1:08:26
about where he dropped off Germaine, shifts,
1:08:29
changes. That
1:08:32
may not mean he's lying, could be bad
1:08:34
memory, but whenever you are shifting stories on
1:08:36
a key fact, the most important fact about
1:08:38
a missing person, the last place they were
1:08:41
seen, that will
1:08:43
draw a lot of suspicion to you. So
1:08:45
remember what those differing accounts
1:08:47
were. He claims to have dropped Germaine off
1:08:50
between 12 and 1am, yet her
1:08:52
phone pinged in the area of his
1:08:54
home from the time of 2
1:08:56
to 10am. And Michael explained
1:08:58
this by saying that he broke her phone and
1:09:00
then disposed of it. Also
1:09:02
a strange story. Also where
1:09:04
are the broken pieces?
1:09:06
Police have never found them. Family
1:09:09
and friends of Germaine's claim that DeFrancis
1:09:11
really wanted to get back together with
1:09:14
Germaine. Even one
1:09:16
of Michael's ex-girlfriends claimed that he
1:09:18
was obsessed with Germaine and cited
1:09:20
that as the reason for their
1:09:22
breakup. And shortly before
1:09:24
Germaine disappeared, we know that she has
1:09:26
started a brand new relationship. This
1:09:29
could have angered DeFrancis. If we're
1:09:31
talking about motive, new
1:09:33
relationship might be getting really
1:09:35
serious. If she's even going to stay over
1:09:38
at his apartment when he's not there, you
1:09:40
can see the level of familiarity is one
1:09:42
that Germaine clearly had with
1:09:44
Michael at one point when they lived together
1:09:46
but no longer. And
1:09:49
it is worth noting though that
1:09:51
obviously Michael's been asked about the fact of
1:09:54
the fact and he claims now that he
1:09:56
never wanted to get back together with Germaine.
1:10:00
Or has not been charged with anything
1:10:02
specifically related to Germain's. Disappearance.
1:10:04
But. Of course we've talked about this for fire
1:10:07
on violations as stem from the search warrant. In.
1:10:09
Germain investigation. The.
1:10:12
Second theory we have mentioned. Human.
1:10:15
Trafficking. Though. The
1:10:17
police have looked into several trafficking
1:10:19
theories basically early on in the
1:10:21
investigation and they did receive multiple
1:10:24
tips. The Germain may have been
1:10:26
a victim of human trafficking. But
1:10:29
the police have not been able
1:10:31
to find anything conclusively linking Germane
1:10:33
to any of these trafficking rings
1:10:35
working in the area. Know.
1:10:38
They haven't been able to rule out
1:10:40
the theory definitively either, and we know
1:10:42
that human trafficking in Montana has boomed
1:10:44
concurrently with the growth in the oil
1:10:46
and gas industry that they've seen. Their
1:10:48
you have a lot of people, thousands
1:10:51
of workers who were coming to Montana
1:10:53
leaving their families behind. If they have
1:10:55
them, a lot of them are single.
1:10:57
They're coming to temporarily work on these
1:10:59
pipeline projects. On the oil and gas
1:11:01
industry. They stay in these little boom
1:11:04
tales, a kind of pop up around
1:11:06
wherever the pipelines are being. Built. And
1:11:09
then they leave. And this has led
1:11:11
to a massive increase above violent crime,
1:11:13
sexual assaults, A and sex
1:11:15
trafficking. And. You've seen increases as
1:11:18
great as seventy five percent. In.
1:11:20
Some areas. Interstate. Ninety
1:11:22
which many women are trafficked a
1:11:24
runs directly through Missoula. were Germain
1:11:26
we're missing from. So look, it
1:11:29
is not impossible that she was
1:11:31
a victim of human trafficking. The
1:11:33
one thing I'll say about this
1:11:35
is she obviously had some vulnerabilities.
1:11:38
She. Was not as vulnerable
1:11:40
as someone he would typically
1:11:42
see. who is traffic
1:11:45
she's not as young as a
1:11:47
lot of trafficking victims she doesn't
1:11:49
appear to have any serious substance
1:11:52
abuse problems which can often lead
1:11:54
to human trafficking so actually don't
1:11:57
think she's a good candidate for
1:11:59
it But given everything else that's going
1:12:01
on, I don't think you can rule it
1:12:03
out. Also, that's a really good point. Obviously, anyone
1:12:06
can be the victim of sexual
1:12:08
violence, but she also is not
1:12:10
the personality profile that sex traffickers
1:12:12
will typically go after. She's confident.
1:12:14
She looks you in the eye.
1:12:16
She's social. She talks to a
1:12:18
lot of people. Honestly, oftentimes they
1:12:20
prefer girls, young girls who are
1:12:22
unsure of themselves, don't know where
1:12:24
to turn to for help. And
1:12:26
so they feel helpless trapped in
1:12:28
a hotel room, having to turn
1:12:30
tricks to make their pimps money.
1:12:32
And she, as we see from
1:12:35
two hours of footage behind the Badlander is
1:12:37
very confident. She has plenty of friends that she
1:12:39
can talk to. She knows where to turn to
1:12:43
talk, right? That is
1:12:45
unattractive to a sex trafficker. They
1:12:47
do not want anyone who is going to
1:12:49
talk, anyone who has ties to the community
1:12:51
because people will come looking for them. Again,
1:12:55
does not rule out sex trafficking, but I
1:12:57
would say her profile does not fit the
1:12:59
typical, let's just pick the scroll off of
1:13:01
the street. So the third theory for Detective
1:13:03
Baker was that he actually received a tip
1:13:06
that a woman was killed on the reservation
1:13:08
during a drug deal gone wrong. Unfortunately,
1:13:11
this is also not uncommon.
1:13:15
I very much believe that a woman was
1:13:17
killed during a drug deal on the reservation,
1:13:19
probably not just one woman, and there probably
1:13:22
were multiple drug deals. He did investigate this
1:13:24
lead, though, but he was not able to
1:13:26
confirm that this particular tip and this event
1:13:29
even occurred at all. Nevermind that
1:13:31
it was Jermaine. Additionally, early
1:13:33
into the investigation, Detective Baker
1:13:35
shared that there were non-residents
1:13:37
on the reservation drug trafficking,
1:13:40
but he interviewed these individuals and there was just
1:13:43
nothing linking them to Jermaine. It wasn't obvious
1:13:45
that Jermaine was a user, that she bought
1:13:47
from them, that she was friendly
1:13:49
with them, even knew them. So while
1:13:51
there may be this illegal drug trafficking
1:13:54
crime happening on the reservation, unfortunately,
1:13:56
reservations are going to be ripe
1:13:59
with crimes. There's just
1:14:01
nothing tying Germaine to that particular
1:14:03
criminal activity where she could be
1:14:05
wrapped up into some sort of
1:14:07
drug-related death, homicide crime.
1:14:09
Now, there were several other leads
1:14:11
involving drug trafficking throughout the investigation,
1:14:14
but no charges have been made
1:14:16
related to Germaine's disappearance. And
1:14:18
nothing has been found to link Germaine to
1:14:21
drug trafficking in any way. I
1:14:23
think it's really important that night. She spent most of her
1:14:25
time outside of the bar, not even with a drink, right?
1:14:28
When she walks away, it doesn't appear she's impaired.
1:14:31
We don't know because there was no audio. We
1:14:34
obviously don't have her body. We don't have any
1:14:36
sort of drug tox test. We don't know if
1:14:38
she had anything in her system. But she wasn't
1:14:40
reported by her family or friends as
1:14:43
being someone who used drugs, who
1:14:45
consorted with these drug trafficking
1:14:47
organizations. Unfortunately, this is just
1:14:50
a situation where we
1:14:52
know these reservations have
1:14:54
sex trafficking on them and have drug trafficking on
1:14:56
them. But based
1:14:58
on the information we know so far,
1:15:00
there's been no links tied to those
1:15:03
criminal activities with the disappearance of Germaine.
1:15:05
And look, is it possible that
1:15:08
Germaine got out of Michael's
1:15:10
car that night? Maybe
1:15:13
they had an argument. So she
1:15:15
got out quickly at the intersection, didn't make it
1:15:17
all the way to the food farm. They had
1:15:19
a little spat. She
1:15:22
gets out of the car. He drives off
1:15:24
in a huff. She leaves her phone in
1:15:26
his car. He destroys the phone. Then
1:15:30
as she's walking, she just happens to
1:15:32
run into some sort of predator, serial
1:15:34
killer. Somebody just
1:15:36
decides to take her and murder her. Is
1:15:38
that possible? I mean, of course it's possible.
1:15:41
That would be quite the coincidence and all that stuff coming
1:15:43
together. But it's possible.
1:15:47
I don't think it's likely. I think the
1:15:49
most likely answer here is that Michael has something
1:15:51
to do with what happened. And I
1:15:53
think the fact that he
1:15:55
not only had her phone, but it was
1:15:57
in close proximity to his phone until 10
1:15:59
o'clock. clock when it stops transmitting,
1:16:03
you know, when he destroyed it, I guess, or it
1:16:05
turned off and then threw it
1:16:07
away. And mysteriously has never been found. I
1:16:11
think that that is a huge red flag. Could
1:16:13
you indict him? No. Is
1:16:15
that enough? No. Is it enough
1:16:18
to investigate him very seriously? Absolutely.
1:16:21
But we have to have something else there.
1:16:24
How, and I believe there's somebody out
1:16:26
there who has some information. There's somebody
1:16:28
he's taught to about this. There's somebody
1:16:30
who saw something. There's somebody who knows
1:16:32
something and that person needs
1:16:35
to come forward. This case can
1:16:37
and should be solved. There's no
1:16:39
way that we should still
1:16:42
be wondering what happened to this
1:16:44
woman six years after she
1:16:46
disappeared. This case should be solved
1:16:48
and it will be solved if we ever
1:16:51
knows the right information will come
1:16:53
forward to the police. And here's the thing.
1:16:55
Likely someone does know something because where did
1:16:57
the two phones ping near his house? He
1:16:59
didn't live by himself. He
1:17:01
lived with other people, family
1:17:04
members, and he lived in
1:17:06
close proximity to people that the two of them
1:17:08
had grown up with, close friends,
1:17:11
close neighbors, people who were
1:17:13
intertwined in their lives. Now it's the middle of
1:17:15
the night somewhere between two and 10 AM. But
1:17:18
when that phone stops pinging at 10 AM, I think
1:17:21
it's over at that point. That's
1:17:23
an afterthought. Something bad happened
1:17:25
before that point. Now we're
1:17:27
just disposing of evidence. But
1:17:31
if you heard or saw
1:17:34
anything between the hours of 12 and
1:17:37
10 AM that morning, come
1:17:40
forward. You may think it's insignificant that you
1:17:42
saw car lights turn on, but it could
1:17:44
be the very thing in the timeline that
1:17:46
breaks things. And clearly
1:17:49
Jermaine is not there. She's
1:17:52
somewhere. Someone knows something. We've
1:17:55
talked about digging holes. Takes a
1:17:57
lot of strength to dig a
1:17:59
grave. or to dump a body, if
1:18:02
that's what's happened. Someone probably
1:18:04
knows something. And
1:18:07
I know we're speaking about this in
1:18:09
very morbid terms. We're assuming that Jermaine
1:18:11
is gone, but I think very
1:18:14
likely looking at the timeline and looking
1:18:16
at the history of their relationship, Jermaine
1:18:18
was gone by that morning. And
1:18:21
I wish that were not the case. You
1:18:23
know, there's this devastating interview
1:18:26
with her grandmother, who
1:18:28
she's very close to, and she says, I
1:18:30
pray that she was sex trafficked because it
1:18:32
means she's still alive and I
1:18:34
can find her. And
1:18:37
those are like the two hells her family is
1:18:39
having to live in. So
1:18:41
I fully believe someone knows something and
1:18:43
they're protecting someone, but
1:18:46
what's done has been done and
1:18:49
Jermaine deserves justice
1:18:52
and her family deserves answers and her sons
1:18:55
deserve answers. They were just two and a
1:18:57
half and four when she
1:18:59
disappeared. They barely
1:19:02
knew their mom, a mom who may
1:19:05
have given her life for them and
1:19:10
they deserve answers just as well. And
1:19:13
the devastating thing about this story is this
1:19:15
is but one of too many stories.
1:19:18
And if you're in this situation, but you're
1:19:20
a couple years ahead, you've had
1:19:23
the situation where someone you love
1:19:26
or you think loves you regularly
1:19:28
breaks things like your phone, regularly
1:19:30
grabs you by the neck, they've never strangled me, but
1:19:32
when they get mad, they grabbed me by the throat
1:19:34
because I wasn't listening. It's not
1:19:36
okay, it is not okay. And
1:19:38
these situations are really difficult to disentangle
1:19:41
yourself from, especially when children are involved.
1:19:44
Take your kids, get out of there.
1:19:46
There will be people there to help. There
1:19:48
will be resources, there will be money, there will be shelter
1:19:50
for you. You do not
1:19:52
have to stay behind because if it's
1:19:54
not you, next, it could be your kids. And
1:19:57
The more we talk about this, I think the
1:19:59
more.... That message can really get
1:20:01
through your loved ones because I think
1:20:03
oftentimes will whisper be like wow, how's
1:20:05
that a bad relationship Somebody should say
1:20:07
something. Maybe you should be the person to
1:20:09
say something. It may. Ruin that relationship for the
1:20:11
time being, but you may be saving. That
1:20:14
person's life. Maybe their kids' lives may
1:20:17
be something more so. Thank you guys
1:20:19
for giving us the opportunity to talk
1:20:21
about Germain's. Case it's. Deeply.
1:20:24
Unsatisfying to end with no answers
1:20:26
right now. But I also think
1:20:28
that answers are just. Just.
1:20:31
Beyond our grasp, they are not far
1:20:33
at all and read over disappearances. Burden
1:20:35
is sort of a misnomer is no
1:20:37
and disappears. The. She somewhere
1:20:39
she's out there. somewhere. And.
1:20:43
The. Thing. Is. We've said
1:20:45
some a dozen or something and I would
1:20:47
hope. If not for her
1:20:49
for kids, You. Need to say
1:20:51
something. Well. As the into this case
1:20:53
I know this has been mrs been
1:20:56
of a heavy when they often or
1:20:58
and his sister reminder of. The
1:21:00
struggles that a lot of people are going through
1:21:02
out there and we know some of you who
1:21:04
are listening or those people. We. Hope
1:21:06
that something he said today's at least given
1:21:09
a little comfort or help. Obviously.
1:21:12
Reach out as if you have any
1:21:14
questions, thoughts, If you need advice,
1:21:16
whatever he does need somebody to the talk him.
1:21:18
We're always happy to thought you guys I. Will
1:21:20
venmo you over matter? Yeah to get
1:21:22
out of the air ago we will will
1:21:25
be there for Unity where we can be.
1:21:27
We want to hear from you if you
1:21:29
have thoughts about case. If you have any
1:21:31
information reach out to Missouri City Police but
1:21:33
if you own or each other networks to
1:21:35
will make sure he gets to the right
1:21:38
people. Prosecutors pod at Ge va.com and Prosecutors
1:21:40
pod for all your social media. Enjoy talking
1:21:42
you guys doing a gallery. Think. It
1:21:44
all of you who told your friends that
1:21:46
we are all the time to people fail
1:21:48
this podcast because a friend said something to
1:21:50
them. They start listening and they fell in
1:21:52
love with it. Hope everyone of you go
1:21:54
out and tell friend this week but the
1:21:57
prosecutors. To stay there. Buddy told
1:21:59
a friend. The friendless and. How.
1:22:01
Fun would have twice as many listeners
1:22:03
and every go go go do that.
1:22:05
Thank you to everyone on patriot on
1:22:07
he supports of I guess and as
1:22:10
you he joined us tonight it is
1:22:12
difficult case. Always good to have
1:22:14
you guys along for the rods. Mouse.
1:22:16
Has been a heavy when you want to do a question.
1:22:19
Try. The and other I guess happier? No. No.
1:22:21
as a test flowers little tough one. Okay, yeah,
1:22:23
let's see a lesson. Okay, let's
1:22:26
see. Ah
1:22:28
Muffin Man wants to know
1:22:30
if we would consider doing
1:22:32
as Scioli presentation at their
1:22:34
annual conference. Sure,
1:22:37
Is the conference in how Why does this is that? Get
1:22:41
you should email as we've done
1:22:43
many as the alleys before. Actually
1:22:45
you may not believe this. Billie
1:22:47
like talking. With the like I can say
1:22:49
oh we absolutely do a series. Of. Email us at at
1:22:51
at Lead. Deathly done it before. Here we have
1:22:53
fun doing that kind of stuff, so
1:22:55
that would be, you know, Muffin Man,
1:22:58
he does. listener. The
1:23:01
muffin man said. As if he hit
1:23:03
it out. C L E as it's continuing Legal
1:23:05
Education When did you eat. And many
1:23:07
hours. To. Keeping my it every year. Jonah
1:23:10
wants to know what did you talk about
1:23:12
with my other favorite prosecutor, Crane Waters a
1:23:14
Chrome Con I would love to been a
1:23:16
part of their conversation. I asked if
1:23:18
I could take a picture, thanked him and then.
1:23:21
Fleet. Away because he so intimidating
1:23:23
that very nice guy. I can't.
1:23:25
Believe brat ran away I saw him in
1:23:27
a different thing. I just assumed you had
1:23:29
a great conversation because like bourbon. That well
1:23:32
as a late so we could have. For.
1:23:34
All of that it may when we did y U
1:23:36
s. Ou. De ya de
1:23:38
outlets Iraq because I want to bed
1:23:40
at that point So maybe I had
1:23:42
like bonding karaoke night you don't remember
1:23:45
but I saw have and I. Totally
1:23:47
Sandra Literally I was like I just want
1:23:49
you to now I'm also Prosecutor sell. This
1:23:52
is like only slightly creepy. but I watched
1:23:54
year entire trial and I thought you did
1:23:56
an excellent job that I I literally just
1:23:58
saw them live him. Prosecuted or another.
1:24:00
I was like that was you face.
1:24:03
I'm really intense. fuck fuck fuck up
1:24:05
struggles in that trial add it. Thanks
1:24:07
for being a great representative for prosecutors
1:24:09
and is like banks. who are you
1:24:11
So it's think I'm a prosecutor. Approached
1:24:13
a matter of. Money
1:24:16
was incredibly nice. Okay, we'll
1:24:18
have finished the case today. The.
1:24:21
We need to sign Anyone We do
1:24:24
and we're about to. Obviously we'll be
1:24:26
back with a new case. They actually
1:24:28
frankly not really sure which one it
1:24:30
will be, but we will have one.
1:24:32
so. Until
1:24:34
then. I'm Brett
1:24:37
and I'm Alice in We
1:24:39
Are The Prosecutors. And
1:25:07
have you seen that and I don't
1:25:10
know? l as like a real on
1:25:12
Instagram tic tac in address that it's
1:25:14
like how you deal with telephone scammer.
1:25:16
and it was like my credit card
1:25:19
number. Three.
1:25:21
Two. One
1:25:24
and now we're live with the As The. I tried to
1:25:26
tell if a gamer served in your be your name.
1:25:30
But I also hard to like only done
1:25:32
that before I'd. Like it when they say they claim
1:25:34
to be some federal aid. And
1:26:43
I know and I'm like oh they did the
1:26:45
other minerals and wells and will be his right?
1:26:47
That's so funny. Says I'm literally sitting next to
1:26:50
an F B. I give her last thing you
1:26:52
read me your badge number. Neglect the do. You.
1:26:56
Know of all the things are they know
1:26:58
that federal crime less several. Years.
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