Podchaser Logo
Home
250. The Disappearance of Jermain Charlo -- Behind the Wall

250. The Disappearance of Jermain Charlo -- Behind the Wall

Released Monday, 3rd June 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
250. The Disappearance of Jermain Charlo -- Behind the Wall

250. The Disappearance of Jermain Charlo -- Behind the Wall

250. The Disappearance of Jermain Charlo -- Behind the Wall

250. The Disappearance of Jermain Charlo -- Behind the Wall

Monday, 3rd June 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

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

time of this instant germane is only seventeen years

11:41

old. These

11:44

days a lot of people are learning about

11:46

all the benefits of fasting like weight loss

11:49

mental and physical performance and got help but

11:51

worry about the whole not eating part well

11:53

that's exactly why pro on was created. Introducing

11:56

pro on a revolutionary plant

11:58

based nutrition program. that nourishes

12:00

the body while making cells believe

12:03

they're fasting. Researched and developed for

12:05

decades at the University of Southern

12:07

California Longevity Institute and backed by

12:10

leading U.S. medical centers, Prolon helps

12:12

promote healthy blood sugar, support cardiovascular

12:14

health, and reduce abdominal fat. But

12:17

Prolon isn't a diet. Prolon

12:19

is science. Science based on Nobel

12:21

Prize winning discoveries in medicine and

12:23

this all starts with Prolon's five day

12:25

program. Snack, soups, and beverages all designed

12:28

to keep your body in a fasting

12:30

state. It's unlike anything

12:32

you've ever experienced. And I

12:34

know what you're thinking, five days seems like a long time. I

12:36

don't know that I can do it. I hear you. I

12:39

didn't know if I could do it either when I

12:41

started Prolon's program. And I

12:43

was amazed by just how effective

12:45

their balanced meals are at keeping

12:47

you where you don't feel hungry,

12:49

you don't feel tired, you have

12:51

plenty of energy, but you're also

12:53

getting the benefits of fasting. It's

12:55

no wonder why thousands of doctors

12:57

now recommend Prolon to support healthy

12:59

blood sugar and cardiovascular health. Right

13:02

now Prolon is offering the prosecutors listeners 15%

13:05

off their five day nutrition program. Go

13:09

to prolon.com/prosecutors. That's

13:12

p-r-o-l-o-n-l-i-f-e.com/prosecutors for

13:14

this special

13:16

offer. This

13:19

show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This

13:21

year has gone so quickly. I am

13:23

stunned that it is almost, as we

13:26

record this, the end of May. You

13:28

guys are hearing it in June.

13:31

What's something you're proud of in 2024 so far? What's

13:33

something you still want to accomplish this year?

13:35

Life goes so fast and it's important to

13:38

take a moment to celebrate your wins and

13:40

make adjustments for the rest of the year.

13:43

Therapy can help you take stock of your

13:45

progress and set achievable goals for the next

13:47

six months. Therapy isn't just

13:49

for people going through big life

13:51

changes. It's always helpful to

13:53

learn positive coping skills and how to

13:55

set boundaries. It empowers you to be

13:57

the best version of yourself. If

14:00

you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp

14:02

a try. It's entirely online designed to

14:04

be convenient, flexible, and suited to

14:06

your schedule. Just fill out

14:09

a brief questionnaire to get matched with

14:11

a licensed therapist and switch therapists

14:13

anytime for no charge. Take

14:15

a moment. Visit betterhelp.com/prosecutors

14:17

today to get

14:19

10% off your

14:22

first month. That's betterhelp, help.com/prosecutors.

14:29

homes.com knows when it comes to home

14:31

shopping, it's never just about the house

14:33

or condo, it's about the home. And

14:36

what makes a home is more than just

14:38

the house or property, it's the location and

14:40

neighborhood. If you have kids,

14:43

it's also schools, nearby parks, and

14:45

transportation options. That's why

14:47

homes.com goes above and beyond to bring

14:49

home shoppers the in-depth information they need

14:52

to find the right home. And when

14:54

I say in-depth, I'm talking deep.

14:57

Each listing features comprehensive information about

14:59

the neighborhood complete with a video

15:01

guide. They also have details

15:04

about local schools with test scores, state

15:06

rankings, and student to teacher ratio. They

15:08

even have an agent directory with the

15:10

sales history of each agent. So

15:13

when it comes to finding a home, not

15:15

just a house, this is everything you need

15:17

to know all in one place. homes.com.

15:20

We've done your homework. And

15:25

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

away into the darkness. After

36:39

this point, Germaine was never seen

36:42

or heard from again. You know

36:47

what's better than coffee? Coffee with

36:49

a cause. Criminal Coffee was created

36:51

by YouTuber Stephanie Harlow and police

36:54

detective Derek Lavasour. Stephanie

36:56

and Derek also host the podcast Crime

36:58

Weekly and after covering so many cases

37:00

and learning that in some instances the

37:03

cases aren't fully investigated due to lack

37:05

of funding, they decided to do something

37:07

about it. That's what Criminal Coffee comes

37:10

in. When you buy coffee from

37:12

the store, it may have been a month or

37:14

two before that coffee ended up on the shelf.

37:16

At Criminal Coffee, once the beans

37:18

arrived, they're roasted, nitrogen sealed and

37:20

shipped right to your doorstep ensuring

37:23

the best tasting, freshest coffee possible.

37:25

They offer light roast, medium roast,

37:27

dark roast, and decaf in ground,

37:29

whole bean and cake cups. However

37:31

you brew your coffee, they

37:33

have you covered. This is really good coffee and

37:35

if you enjoy true crime, you're going to love

37:38

the design of their bags and boxes which feature

37:40

characters from the Criminal Coffee universe. All you have

37:42

to do is scan the QR code on the

37:44

bag or box and you'll see the latest developments

37:47

and which characters are solving crimes and

37:49

which ones are committing them. And the most

37:51

important thing is that a portion of the

37:53

profits of every bag or box sold goes

37:55

directly to solving cold cases utilizing the latest

37:57

technology in DNA testing. They've already raised over

38:00

$15,000 and were able to

38:02

solve the first case they funded, which was

38:04

a Jane Doe case that actually had an

38:06

interesting twist. For over 50 years, investigators

38:08

thought the victim was a woman. Criminal Coffee got

38:10

involved, funded the DNA testing, and it turned out

38:12

that the victim was actually a man. And

38:15

not only were they able to figure out who the

38:17

victim was, they also found his living relatives. Now

38:19

they have the answers they've been seeking for

38:21

all these years. So if you want delicious,

38:23

high-end coffee delivered right to your door, head

38:26

over to criminalcoffeeco.com and

38:28

use our code, prosecutors,

38:30

for 10% off your

38:32

order. Once again, that's

38:35

criminalcoffeeco.com. Code

38:37

prosecutors for 10% off. Let's

38:39

drink some coffee and solve some tree crime.

38:43

I remember when I first got access to the

38:46

internet. I went into some of those roulette

38:48

chat rooms and some creepy guy

38:50

messaged me right away and I

38:52

was utterly freaked out as a 12-year-old. When

38:55

I didn't grow up with the internet the way kids do today,

38:57

I can only imagine what it's like

38:59

for them. Who knows what they're seeing on social

39:01

media, what music or videos they're looking up. It's

39:04

unnerving to think of everything they can do on

39:06

their phones now. Which is why

39:08

I want to tell you about this life

39:10

saver for both parents and children, GAB.

39:13

GAB is the leader in safe

39:15

smartphones and watches for kids, teens,

39:18

and tweens. With no social media

39:20

apps, no internet browser, and GPS

39:23

tracking, GAB devices were built for kids

39:25

from the ground up specifically for kids

39:27

and teens and are the way to

39:29

keep your kids safely connected. And

39:31

GAB phones and watches are still tech

39:33

kids actually want. There's unlimited

39:36

talk and text, a clean music streaming

39:38

app, and over 100 third party apps

39:41

that can be installed at parents' discretion. It's amazing

39:43

to me. My kids are still pretty young, but

39:45

they already know how to use the phone and

39:47

they already want to use it. And

39:49

they're going to get their hands on a phone

39:52

eventually and I want it to be one that

39:54

I can trust and that I can monitor. Other

39:57

Safe device options or parental controls let you know what's

39:59

on your phone. Already been accessed. but

40:01

yeah, sounds and watches are built was

40:03

smart filtration that pro actively blocks harmful

40:06

content before it ever reaches your kid.

40:08

That's why I really think Gab as

40:10

a game changer and I can't recommend

40:13

enough that you give them a try.

40:15

This is the absolute best time

40:17

to check them out because right now

40:19

Gap is offering twenty five dollars off

40:22

any device to the customers with no

40:24

contract required. That's twenty five dollars. Have

40:26

any Gaps, smartphone or Smart was just

40:29

go to Gab. Dot coms

40:31

last Prosecutors That's where

40:33

you'll get the best

40:35

deals that's gab g

40:38

a bb.com/prosecutors. Gab. Dot

40:41

Com/prosecutors. And

40:46

there's a couple points are they go or a fleshing

40:48

out here. You may be wondering why would he tell

40:50

the family one thing and then turn around until the

40:52

play? Something else was because he didn't talk to them

40:54

at the same time or or near the same time

40:57

is going to shock you. To. Know.

40:59

That. Initially, The. Police didn't do

41:02

a lot this guess my know that blows

41:04

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

1:04:03

guys, whether you love true crime

1:04:05

or comedies, celebrity interviews, news, or

1:04:07

even motivational speakers, you call the

1:04:10

shots on what's in your podcast

1:04:12

queue, right? And guess what? Now

1:04:15

you can call the shots on your auto insurance too.

1:04:17

Enter the name your price tool from Progressive. The

1:04:20

name your price tool puts you in charge of

1:04:22

your auto insurance by working just the way

1:04:24

it sounds. You tell Progressive how

1:04:26

much you want to pay for car insurance,

1:04:28

then they'll show you a variety of coverages

1:04:30

that fit within your budget, giving you options.

1:04:32

Now that's something you'll want to press play on. It's

1:04:35

easy to start a quote and you'll be able to

1:04:37

choose the best option for you fast. It's just one

1:04:39

of the many ways you can save progressive insurance. Quote

1:04:42

today at progressive.com to try to name your

1:04:44

price tool for yourself and join the over

1:04:46

28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive

1:04:49

Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Price and Coverage

1:04:51

Match, limited by state law. This

1:04:54

episode of The Prosecutors is brought to you by

1:04:57

Huggies Little Movers. Huggies knows that

1:04:59

babies come in all shapes and sizes and their

1:05:01

tushies do too. Huggies

1:05:03

Little Movers with its curved and stretchy fit.

1:05:06

Moms know that there's nothing worse than

1:05:08

an ill-fitting diaper, especially for your active

1:05:10

babies. I love Huggies

1:05:12

because I can rely on them to

1:05:14

keep my baby covered while she moves

1:05:17

around. You guys have heard about my

1:05:19

sweet little baby. She just turned one

1:05:21

deep into mobility. I am

1:05:23

so excited about Huggies Little Movers

1:05:25

because she can roll around, jump

1:05:28

around, climb, which is everything she's doing

1:05:30

and I know that she is covered

1:05:32

and so am I in the cleanup.

1:05:35

And we all want the very best for

1:05:37

our babies and that's Huggies. Huggies

1:05:40

Little Movers are curved so babies feel

1:05:42

comfy no matter how much they're moving

1:05:44

around and they're moving around a lot.

1:05:47

They also offer up to 12 hour protection against

1:05:49

leaks, which is a game changer. Get

1:05:51

your baby's butt into Huggies Little Movers. We

1:05:54

got you baby. Record:

1:06:00

There was no mass amounts of

1:06:02

the cash been withdrawn in. Anticipation.

1:06:05

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.

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features