WEBVTT - The Butcher [6] 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.840 The Butcher of Moss is released weekly absolutely free, but 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:09.000 you can binge the entire season now with iHeart True 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:13.160 Crime Plus exclusively on Apple Podcasts. You'll also get ad 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:17.440 free listening and exclusive bonus episodes. So head to Apple Podcasts, 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:23.919 search iHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe today. 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.240 The views and opinions expressing this podcast are solely those 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:33.480 of the podcast's author or individuals participating in the podcast, 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.239 and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, or 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:41.440 their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter which may 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.840 not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:56.800 It was November two thousand and six, approximately ten years 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.800 after the first victim of The Butcher of Moss was murdered. 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:06.000 Agent Mike Clarke and two profilers from the FBI's Behavioral 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:10.399 Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia, found themselves thousands of miles 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.560 away from home in the eastern European country of Albania. 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.920 They were there to assist local authorities to investigate a 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:23.920 series of gruesome murders that they believed could be the 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:28.400 work of a serial killer. Weeks earlier, the torso of 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.200 a new Jane Doe victim was found floating in a 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:36.200 small lake near Tirana, the capital city of Albania. Police 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.600 had located several body parts, but the head was missing. 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.959 Shortly after arriving, the FBI agents found themselves standing over 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.360 a badly damaged corpse in the examination room of an 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:53.560 unrefrigerated morgue. They were shocked to find that doctors had 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.360 crudely stitched the body back together and incorrectly attached the 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.320 left leg to the right hip and the right leg 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:04.760 to the left. Properly examining the corpse and these conditions 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.160 was impossible, so they sealed the body into a lead 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:16.680 lined casket and shipped it back to Quantico. They had 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.000 no way of knowing this at the time, but the 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.000 gruesome discovery would soon lead them to Belgium to examine 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:34.840 the infamous unsolved case of the Butcher of Moss, a. 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:42.760 Mysterious sect of all the rest unity, the disappearance of 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:44.000 a woman from Mount Xa. 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.160 The condition of the victims was sickening. 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.000 And the question remains, where is the killer? 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:08.040 From Tenderfoot TV and Iheard podcasts, I'm your host Matt 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:12.160 Graves and this is le Monstre Season two, The Butcher 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:19.760 of Moss by the summer of nineteen ninety seven, women 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.760 in and around mass were being urged to avoid going 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.520 out alone, and any new female missing person's cases were 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:30.320 treated with urgency. It was against this backdrop that a 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.320 woman returned to her home near Moss after a vacation 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:37.279 to notice that her neighbor, a woman named Boggia Valencia, 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:41.000 seemed to be missing. Begonia was thirty eight years old 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.280 at the time and lived a few doors down from 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:47.320 the neighbor in the municipality of Fremerie. It was a quiet, 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.840 working class suburb on the outskirts of Moss, the type 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.400 of street where neighbors knew each other and looked after 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.680 one another. She had already been worried about Begonia before 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:01.120 leaving on her vacation because she hadn't been well. Investigative 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.600 journalist Frederic Lau covered Bogoonia's disappearance in real time and 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:06.760 spoke with his neighbor. 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:12.640 So after her disappearance, I went to the neighborhood. I 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:20.600 had several contacts with the neighbors of Beagonia, and I 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:27.039 remembered that someone a woman who were living next to Bagonia, 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:35.279 and that neighbor told me that before, she used to 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:40.360 meet Beagoniac quite often. She had a quite good relationship 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:45.160 with her. She told me that she had changed at 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:51.680 that time, she was mentally unstable and she was afraid 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:57.160 of her because of her appearance physical appearance, because at 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:01.279 that time, she told me, Begonia was very kinney, she 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:06.960 had lots of spots in her face, and that neighbor 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:12.240 was afraid about our children. She didn't want our children 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.960 could meet Bagonia into the streets, and the situation was 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:17.400 all full. 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:21.719 At that time, Bogonia suffered from depression and serious mental illness, 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:26.120 often slipping in and out of psychotic episodes. Her husband 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.480 also suffered from mental illness and was in psychiatric care, 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:34.279 leaving Bogonia alone and in a deteriorating state. When family 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:38.000 members confirmed they hadn't seen Bogonia, the neighbor contacted the 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:39.719 police to report her missing. 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.440 A thirty eight year old woman disappeared two weeks ago 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.760 in Mon's Investigators are exploring a link with the butcher 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.119 of Mon's case in so far as the missing woman 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.080 has a similar profile as other victims of the serial killer. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.839 For the first time, an active missing person was a 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.400 suspected victim of the butcher of Moss. 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.000 Bogonia Valencia disappeared during the month of July. She lived 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.960 in a small working class home with her husband. Plagued 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:11.000 by depression, the young woman had changed recently. At the 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:15.120 time of her disappearance, she only weighed around seventy pounds. Apparently, 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.719 she also frequented the area around the Mons train station, 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.600 from where the four other victims of the serial killer disappeared. 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.640 Police discovered that Bogunia Valencia was often seen around the 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.560 train station, the epicenter of the killer's hunting ground, and 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:34.720 like other victims, Madame Gange, the owner of the Hotel Metropol, 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:36.080 also knew Bogunia. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.400 I knew Bogonia. She had a lot of blemishes on 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.880 her face, so she was easy to recognize. She came 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:50.320 to La Metropol from time to time with friends. She 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:51.719 would come at night to have a drink. 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:10.080 Summer turned into fall with no sign of Bogognia Valencia. 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.520 It had been three months since her disappearance when some 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.680 local kids playing in the woods stumbled across skeletal remains. 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:24.440 It was a human skull found just off of Bethlehem Road, 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:29.760 next to a small river named Feer Creek. Police searched 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:34.080 the area closely and found fragments of vertebrae. They concluded 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.920 that the head had been decapitated with a handsaw. Further 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:43.640 tests were able to identify the victim as Bogugnia Valencia. 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.080 Saw marks were identical to those of the other women 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:51.120 who had been dismembered. She was confirmed as the fifth 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.880 victim of the butcher of Moss. Hopes that the serial 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:59.080 killer had either stopped or moved elsewhere were immediately crushed. 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.320 The fact that Pagonia was murdered at the height of 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:06.440 the then sprawling investigation proved that the killer was unfazed 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:20.400 by the increased police presence and media attention. The end 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.040 of nineteen ninety seven was the beginning of a long 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:27.240 period of frustration. Police were furiously working the case, but 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.520 no new arrests were made. I was able to track 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.880 down the clerk of the investigating judge overseeing the entire 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.720 case when it started. Alain Cardon was right there from 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.800 the beginning, visiting each of the gruesome dumb sites as 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:45.000 they were discovered, and coordinating the entire judicial investigative process. 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.360 He sat down with me for an interview. 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.120 I was the clerk of the investigating judge who attended 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.080 the scene on Saturday, the twenty second of March nineteen 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.400 ninety seven during the discoveries of the first thrashbags. I 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.200 remember it very well. It was a Saturday and we 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.360 had already had a busy morning in an affair or 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:11.560 norm The scene was completely out of the ordinary and 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.080 we had to move quickly and try to determine who 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:16.840 was in the trash bags. We noticed that there were 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:21.200 multiple victims and that there were women. It's certain that 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.720 for me and many others there was a before and 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.960 after the twenty second of match, because to be confronted 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.280 with a scene like that, with body parts that had 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:30.040 been cut up. 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:35.040 The complete himselt from a man. 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:42.880 Arms, legs, hands. We never found the heads. It's traumatizing. Afterwards, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.880 we spent thousands of hours on the case. In the days, 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.920 weeks and months that followed, we spent ninety percent of 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.680 our time on it. You have to understand that this 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.120 was one of one hundred thirty active cases we were 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.640 working at the time, and it happened at the same 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:01.599 time as the dou Treux affair, and police officers, investigators, 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.960 forensics experts, and generally the whole judiciary was focused on 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.200 the Dutra case, which is normal, but the extra reinforcements 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.439 we would have needed never arrived. I can't share the details, 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.240 but after Le Paul Bogaert was arrested, charged and then 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.960 later released, there were several other lines of investigations that 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:25.520 were analyzed, and there were suspects who were interesting, even disturbing, 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.920 but not enough to make an arrest. Over the years, 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:31.320 we continued to work on the case and interviewed over 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:38.319 one thousand people America, and then at one point we 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.240 were contacted by the Americans. 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.760 At the top of the episode, he heard about FBI 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:58.680 agents investigating a mysterious case in Albania. They were assisting 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.360 local authorities so file a potential serial killer who was 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:06.560 murdering and dismembering women. So they transported the latest victim's 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.480 remains to the United States for examination. When the FBI 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.680 agents returned to Quantico, they learned that their colleagues in 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:15.960 New York were also working on a case from the 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.920 region from which they just returned. They were searching for 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.640 a man who they believed was responsible for the murder 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:27.160 and dismemberment of a woman on us soil. The forensics 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.000 of this American case were eerily similar to the Jane 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.000 Doe from Albania, whose autopsy had revealed that she was 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:37.079 murdered and then dismembered with a sharp instrument, likely a handsaw. 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.040 Could this just be a coincidence The suspect they're pursuing 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.360 for the murder and dismemberment of an American woman happens 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.199 to hail from the same region from where another woman 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.600 was found murdered and dismembered in almost the exact same way. 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.600 Coincidence or connection, they had to look into it. The 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.480 problem was that the suspect had apparently fled from the 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:05.120 United States dates to Belgium. To understand this complicated international 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.959 investigation and how it relates to the butcher of Moss, 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.160 we have to go back to the year of nineteen ninety. 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:19.359 In Brooklyn, New York. On the morning of September fifteenth, 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.240 nineteen ninety, a woman spotted a black garbage bag on 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.280 the sidewalk near her office in the Vinegar Hills section 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.600 of Brooklyn, New York. When she picked up the bag 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.160 to move it off the sidewalk, it seemed to be 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.839 leaking blood, so she called the police. The trash bag 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:40.640 contained human remains. Within hours, two more trash bags containing 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.080 body parts were found in the same area. The remains 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.600 belonged to the same female victim, and the dismemberment appeared 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.119 to have been carried out using sharp instruments, including a handsaw. 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:57.679 Her head was never found. A week later, police received 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.720 a tip about a woman who went missing on the 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:03.640 same day the bags were found. Her name was Mary 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.080 Beale from the Bronx. Here's a clip from a nineteen 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.920 ninety news interview with one of Mary's neighbors. 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.880 She always thought that you know that she was being 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.720 harassed by someone. I don't know that someone was, I 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.280 can really tell you, and she went out. She always said, 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.280 if I'm not back in my store by two days, 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:23.320 come up for me. 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.960 Police use Mary's medical records to compare X rays from 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.960 a previously broken ankle to the recovered remains. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.280 Police are now confirming that the body, cut into pieces 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.240 and stuffed into two plastic garbage bags found in this 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.720 lot near the Brooklyn Navy Yard last month, is indeed 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.240 that of sixty one year old Mary Beale. 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.760 It didn't take long for police to identify a prime suspect. 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:51.280 Mary had been seeing a man named Smayo Jerlik. Smayo 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:55.360 was originally from the former Yugoslavia near the Albanian border, 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.480 but had been living in New York for over twenty 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.400 years working as a taxi driver. He was fifty years 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.080 old at the time. At under five feet tall, with 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.440 a pudgy frame and balding sma Yo didn't seem threatening, 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.640 but he had a rap sheet with violent offenses, including 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.960 a case where he beat a man in Midtown with 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.440 a night stick because the man banged on the roof 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:21.000 of his taxi. Police found several lewde messages from Smayu 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:24.480 on the victim, Mary Beale's answering machine, and several people 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.239 who knew her confirmed that she was seeing him romantically, 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:29.840 despite him being married to another woman who was his 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.880 third wife. They also confirmed that Mary had complained that 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:41.520 Smayo was manipulative and that he constantly harassed her. After 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.760 acquiring a warrant, authorities went to his residence only to 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.360 find it empty, with a stack of unopened mail at 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.200 the entrance. When they carried out a search, they found 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.960 a knife on the breakfast table and blood was detected 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:57.160 in his residence that was consistent with Mary Beale, Smayo 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.360 had apparently skipped town with his wife. It would be 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.320 years before authorities would find any trace of him. In 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.960 nineteen ninety four, they tracked down his then estranged wife, 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.720 who was living in Belgium, and confirmed that she had 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.520 moved there from New York with Smayo, but she claimed 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.640 that she didn't know where he was. Just over a 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.400 year later, the gruesome murders of the butcher of Moss 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.960 would begin. We now know that Smayo was living in 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.320 Belgium in nineteen ninety six and nineteen ninety seven. The 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.440 striking similarities of the murder, dismemberment, and disposal method of 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.760 body parts gave pause to both American and Belgian investigators. 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.920 I spoke with the award winning journalist Nicholas Schmidtl, who 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.400 reported extensively on the Smayo Jurlik case in the New 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:42.360 York Times. 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:46.960 I was writing for the New York Times magazine. And 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.840 we know when you're into a story and you realize 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.720 that no one else has that story, and it's something 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.640 that it feels like you could really sink your teeth 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:01.160 into it. Schmeo Deserlich. This individual who had been identified 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.760 as the probable killer of this woman in I believe 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.200 in nineteen ninety in New York. And then there was 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:13.119 this string of murders that bore a very similar signature 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:15.600 to the New York murder that took place in Belgium 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:17.960 in the mid nineties at the time that that Schmeo 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:18.800 was living there. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.720 And then you have at least. 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:26.640 One, but maybe more murders in Albania in two thousand 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.040 and six, and Smeo de Gerlich was living in New 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.920 York and was ultimately convicted of the murder in nineteen ninety. 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:37.040 He was living in Belgium around the time of the 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:42.160 unsolved murders in Moms, and he was living in southern Montenegro, 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:47.440 not far from the site of these other murders. It 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:50.360 took place in two thousand and six. So there was 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.080 from an investigative perspective, at least one constant to all 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.680 of these murders, and that was the style of which 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.680 these bodies were dismembered, and the fact that Smeo de 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:04.199 Gerlich was living in or near these places when they 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.159 took place. I remember the type of saw that was 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.080 used to dismember the body's post mortem appeared to be 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.240 the same kind of saw. You likely know the details 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:16.679 of the Mons murders better than I do, but there 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:21.520 there were similarities to the style. And because Smeo once 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.440 he had been implicated and was about to be charged 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.400 for the murder of Mary Beale, he fled the country 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.120 and went to Belgium. And so the fact that he 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:34.120 was in Belgium around the time of the Mons murders, 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:38.160 which remained unsolved but bore many of the same hallmarks, 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.640 if you will, kind of macabre hallmarks of the Mary 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.560 Beeal murder, I think, left many to suspect that he 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.520 may have been involved in those as well. 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:52.160 Nicholas was able to interview the FBI agent Mike Clark extensively, 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.840 and he even traveled to Belgium and Albania to investigate 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:57.240 this Smyoerlic case. 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.520 So I went up to New York and some time 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.280 with the New York Police Department detectives who worked in 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:08.320 that case, and then I went to Belgium and spoke 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.200 to authorities there in Mons. And it was an interesting 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.800 conversation because I think the FBI agents whom I spoke 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:22.200 with felt that the Belgian authorities were convinced that Smeo 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:26.040 de Zerlik was not the butcher of Mons, but they 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.040 were in the minds of the FBI agents sort of 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:34.680 insufficiently curious upon subsequent evidence, which was the two thousand 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.119 and six murder, that maybe he was involved. 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:42.000 After reviewing the case in detail, authorities in Belgium were 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.200 not convinced that Mayo Jerlik was the butcher of Moss. 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:47.640 He could never be placed in Moss at the time 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.600 of the murders, and police believed he'd been outside of 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.760 Belgium when some of the crimes were committed. No proof 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.400 of this was ever shown to the FBI, leading them 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:00.399 to still question Smayo's involvement. In our extensive review of 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.280 the case, it seems highly unlikely that Smayo Gerlik is 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.399 the butcher of Moss. Not only are police confident that 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.639 he wasn't there when some of the murders took place, 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.160 but as you've heard, we believe the perpetrator spent time 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.879 around the central station area of Moss, and that he 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.400 must have been known by or was familiar to the victims. 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.720 Smayo had never been identified as someone who knew any 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.520 of the victims. Alain Cardon, the Clerk of the investigating 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.120 judge in Belgium who I spoke to earlier, explains. 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.080 He was a serious person of interest. This line of 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.160 investigation followed a certain amount of time until the points 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.560 that after all of the investigations possible, we concluded that 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:47.640 it couldn't be him. We had to verify everything, including 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.679 his timeline in Belgium because it traveled a lot, but 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:55.720 he was eliminated because of lack of proof. 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.560 Nonetheless, Smayo Jerlik was eventually tracked down and and arrested 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:02.680 for the murder of Mary Beale in Brooklyn. 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.399 Schmeda moves from Belgium in the mid nineties, I think 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.680 ninety six ish and he returns to his ancestral home 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:16.000 in the former Yugoslavia, and the authorities in Montenegro, working 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:20.880 very closely with the FBI, arrested Smandriashrlik and tried him 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:25.000 remotely for the murder of Mary Beale in New York 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:29.080 in nineteen ninety and ultimately convicted him for that murder, 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.320 and he was sentenced to twelve years in prison. And 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:38.040 through a extraordinary fixer who I've worked with on multiple 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.960 stories in the former Yugoslavia and in that region, was 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:46.280 able to gain access to the prison and with a 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:51.399 New York Times magazine photographer and this fixer, and the 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.960 three of us went into the prison and interviewed Schmeo 0:20:55.119 --> 0:21:01.840 for about an hour. And it was eerie and very 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.919 very unsettling experience because at this point I knew that 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:10.160 he had already been convicted, even though he denied it, 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.240 of murdering Mary Beale, and not just murdering Mary Beale, 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:17.320 but and dismembering her body. And then, you know, I 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.840 ultimately asked him what no one had asked him before, 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.760 which was as to whether he was also responsible for 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.600 these other murders in Belgium and Albania. And I asked 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.960 him and he denied it, and he said that that 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:35.879 it was destiny. And I was like, you know, what 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:37.720 do you mean destiny. He's like, well, it's my it's 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.040 my destiny to be accused, and he, you know, he 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:46.480 was dismissive, but like I said, in the most vacuous 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:51.440 and unconvincing of manners. And I do remember when we left, 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.640 the photographer who I was with, who has photographed some 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:59.119 of the most awful war zones in the nineties, and 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:03.600 he just said that was among the most terrifying conversations 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:07.960 that I've ever witnessed. We felt like we were in 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:10.119 the presence of someone who was going to the grave 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:12.080 with with nightmarish secrets. 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.800 Smaiyo Jerlik may not have been the Butcher of Moss, 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:19.680 but his known and suspected crimes earned him a different moniker, 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:38.600 the Bronx Butcher. Our team investigating the case holds regular 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:40.960 zoom calls to divide up work and follow up on 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.520 various leads. This week, Fred provided an update on what 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:47.080 he's learned about the DNA that was extracted from a 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:49.640 strand of hair from one of the trash bags and 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:55.480 partially matched to Shesai. Okay, so Craig, could you say 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:56.919 that in English real quick? Please? 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:05.680 Yes, this simple was entered into the DNA database for 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:10.760 compar reason that no direct match was phoned. 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:13.800 So just the other day we weren't even sure if 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:17.560 it was tested against gizls DNA specifically. Do you know 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:18.119 if it was. 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:22.640 Yes, they didn't find any direct match. 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:25.280 God, that's such a bummer because I really thought we 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:27.639 had something there. What I don't understand is that if 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:32.520 you if you find an unidentified DNA profile that could 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:36.320 be anyone anywhere in the world technically, and it hit 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:38.960 on this woman living in most in nineteen ninety six, 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:41.919 actually very close to where the crime scenes took place. 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:45.320 Also kind of in a strange circumstances, you know. So 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:50.000 I just don't understand. It just seems too strange to 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:52.439 me that they thought it was a match, they had 0:23:52.480 --> 0:23:55.640 a partial match, and then suddenly it's not a match. 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:56.320 Yeah. 0:23:56.480 --> 0:24:01.760 But when they carried out this research resulting in a 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:06.520 list of one hundred and fifty genetic profiles. 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:10.200 Right, so they weren't searching, they weren't searching like everywhere. 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:13.119 They were kind of narrowing their search on us. 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:13.880 Yeah. 0:24:14.080 --> 0:24:21.000 Yeah, and the investigators were based on what we've learned, 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:23.840 it was a restricted search of profiles, meaning that they 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:26.960 weren't searching for partial matches everywhere in the world, but 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:30.800 rather casting a targeted net. On one hand, it's disappointing, 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:33.280 but on the other hand, I'm encouraged that police were 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:36.080 able to isolate and test the strand of hair from 0:24:36.080 --> 0:24:38.920 the gruesome evidence of thirty seven different body parts and 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:41.600 fifteen different trash backs, and it means that they have 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:45.240 at least one unidentified profile mixed with the remains. Any 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:47.840 future match of this profile could lead to a number 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.240 of avenues, ranging from another victim, to an accomplice or 0:24:51.240 --> 0:25:00.680 even the perpetrator. The Gounia Valencia was the as confirmed 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:04.399 victim of the Butcher of Monts. Apart from her skull 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:07.680 and pieces of vertebrae, the rest of her remains were 0:25:07.680 --> 0:25:12.280 never found. The murder stopped after mid nineteen ninety seven. 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:16.119 To this day, there's only been one arrest in the case, 0:25:16.800 --> 0:25:20.560 that of Leopold Bogart discussed in the previous episode, who 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:28.560 is cleared and released shortly after his apprehension. According to 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:33.200 Belgian law, statute of limitation for murder is thirty years. 0:25:33.720 --> 0:25:36.520 If charges are not laid in the next fourteen months 0:25:36.560 --> 0:25:39.480 from the time of this recording, the Butcher of Man's 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:43.359 case will be closed indefinitely. This means that even if 0:25:43.400 --> 0:25:47.000 the perpetrator were to come forward and confess after the fact, 0:25:47.320 --> 0:25:52.240 he could not be charged. Technically, the investigation by Belgian 0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:56.000 authorities is never stopped and is still active today, but 0:25:56.080 --> 0:25:58.919 as far as we know, there's very little activity on 0:25:58.960 --> 0:26:10.480 the file. However, thanks to Morgan's painstaking work, we've identified 0:26:10.560 --> 0:26:14.960 a new person of interest. You'll recall that the first 0:26:15.040 --> 0:26:18.280 victim we covered in this series was Jacqueline Leclaire, who 0:26:18.280 --> 0:26:23.280 went missing just before Christmas in nineteen ninety six. Shortly 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:26.399 before her murder, she'd mentioned to her sister that she 0:26:26.520 --> 0:26:29.760 kept bumping into a mysterious man randomly, and that she 0:26:29.840 --> 0:26:32.439 thought he might be following her, or at least finding 0:26:32.520 --> 0:26:38.560 excuses to bump into her. And off the record discussions 0:26:38.640 --> 0:26:41.800 with former police officers, we learned that this man was 0:26:41.840 --> 0:26:45.879