Archive | Who killed France Alain?
France Alain, 21, was murdered on October 25, 1982 near her apartment near the Laval University campus in Sainte-Foy.
October 25, 1982 , young student France Alain is shot at close range near the Laval University campus as she walks home. This sordid murder will never be solved, but it will lead to a whole legal skid with the arrest of his ex-boyfriend Benoît Proulx.
In the fall of 1982, France Alain began her third year in electrical engineering at Université Laval. She shares an apartment on rue Chapdelaine in Sainte-Foy with her brother Bertrand and two other roommates.
At the end of the summer, her boyfriend Benoit Proulx broke up with her. The latter works as a journalist at the CHRC radio station near her home.
On the evening of October 25, 1982, France Alain went out to do some shopping at the local convenience store to take a break from her study. On her way there, she meets her brother as well as a few other witnesses who remember having seen her on this short journey leading to chemin Sainte-Foy.
No witnesses are present at the intersection of Chapdelaine and Belmont streets, but many heard a resounding noise. Barely fifteen minutes after leaving her home, France Alain is found lying on the edge of the pavement, near the contents of her bag of shopping spread out on the ground.
The 21-year-old student died in the ambulance transporting her to hospital, unable to speak a word. Then began the greatest legal saga that the Quebec region has ever known.
Investigation by journalist Anne-Marie Dussault and director Jean-François Mercier on the unsolved murder of young student France Alain on October 25, 1982.
The France Alain affair was the subject of an in-depth report on the program Contrechamp on October 26, 1983. An investigation reported by journalist Anne-Marie Dussault, which won her the Judith-Jasmin prize in television journalism.
“It's been a year, the murderer is still on the run, and for the parents, it's a painful anniversary because that they want to know why their daughter was murdered. »
— Host Anne-Marie Dussault
This report marks a first for this public affairs program. The journalist manages to speak with three of the four investigators from the Sainte-Foy City Police Department who are working on this unsolved case, without however being closed.
If they agreed to speak, explains Anne-Marie Dussault, it is because their investigation is without conclusive result.
A year after the death of France Alain, no suspect has been identified and no witness to this murder in the middle of the street on a weeknight has not come forward. There is no apparent motive.
As the only clue, the police found bullet wads corresponding to a 12-gauge weapon at the crime scene.
The report from the program “Contrechamp” presents a reconstruction of the murder of France Alain to viewers.
In an attempt to understand the circumstances of the tragic event, Anne-Marie Dussault offers viewers a reconstruction.
In her hands, she takes a shotgun that corresponds to the 12 gauge and tests the shot on a wooden post. It is a recoil weapon that you have to know how to handle, specifies police officer Michel Gauvin. The murderer probably fired this powerful weapon about eight feet from the victim.
“The murder of France Alain is not resolved. So far, then, it's an almost perfect crime. And a rare case because murder is one of the most solved crimes.
— Host Anne-Marie Dussault
It must be admitted that this murder would also be difficult to solve for the Kojaks, Maigrets, Columbos, Quincys and all the others, underlines the journalist. They, in less than an hour, they arrest the culprit, but in reality, a murder case is more complicated.
The report of the ;emission Reverse shotmakes three hypotheses about the murderer. It could be a madman who has decided to kill to kill, a hitman who made a mistake about the person or even a troubled person who had a relationship with France Alain which has deteriorated and which is #x27;felt compelled to kill her to solve her problem.
There is always a link, believes psychiatrist Bruno Cormier interviewed as part of this journalistic investigation. There is no murder without a motive, but the relationship may exist only in the mind of the murderer.
For the family, it is difficult to envisage the possibility that the murderer is an individual of his entourage. People are afraid to speak, rather supports his father on the absence of witnesses and clues.
After the broadcast of the report, viewers send by mail their hypotheses on the murder of France Alain to the team of “Contrechamp”.
After having questioned more than 400 people and subjected a dozen serious suspects to the polygraph, the Sainte-Foy police officers believe that they can reach a conclusion shortly.
I want to know why because that France was too good and too generous for such a thing to happen to her, expresses France's mother Alain, imploring the murderer to turn himself in.
If you were told this story, it's a bit to prevent it from falling into oblivion, declares the host Anne-Marie Dussault at the conclusion of her report in 1983. It' ;is kind of with the hope that the murderer confesses, witnesses come forward, and you who may know something can tell.
Ex-boyfriend of France Alain, journalist Benoît Groulx was the main suspect in the case of his murder.
More than eight years later, the criminal investigation into the death of France Alain has a spectacular twist, shows us this report in the Montréal ce soir news bulletin of March 21, 1991.
Following revelations from a new witness, journalist Benoit Proulx is arrested. The ex-boyfriend of France Alain had been questioned by the police in the weeks following the murder, but nothing could lead to charges.
However, a witness now claims having met Benoit Proulx in the street the evening of the murder, when the journalist was supposed to be in the newsroom of the CHRC radio station.
The evidence will reveal that it was a premeditated crime, announces the crown prosecutor Robert Parrot. When an individual leaves with a firearm to shoot someone on a street corner, one can of course presume that there is premeditation or some form of premeditation.
< p class="e-p">Why is a witness coming forward now and after all the hype around this case? This is the question posed by Benoît Proulx's lawyer who questions the solidity of this new testimony.
At the time of this accusation, Benoît Proulx is preparing to file a lawsuit for defamatory libel against his fellow animator André Arthur and detective John Tardif.
On CHRC radio, the latter associated his name with the murder of France Alain, mentions journalist Josée Thibeault. Former investigator on the case, John Tardif is also the one who brought out the new witness.
Host André Arthur interfered in the investigation into the murder of France Alain by arousing suspicion on Benoît Proulx, his colleague from CHRC radio.
Journalist Josée Thibeault follows the murder trial of Benoît Proulx for Radio-Canada, which intrigues and fascinates the Quebec population.
For two weeks, the crowd has been thronging the doors of the great hall of the Quebec City courthouse so as not to miss anything, reports the journalist to Montréal this evening of October 12, 1991.
The media are also making a big deal out of this case, which indirectly involves star host André Arthur, well known for his toxic radio style.
Three years earlier, Benoit Proulx had however been cleared of all suspicion by the coroner's inquest which followed that of the Sainte-Foy police officers. We did not accept the hypothesis that the journalist had the time and the reasons to leave his job the evening of the murder and go and wait for France Alain two blocks from the radio station in order to kill her, says Josée Thibeault.
The new witness Paul-Henri Paquet – who recognized Benoit Proulx's eyes while leafing through the Journal de Québec in 1991 – nevertheless tips the scales.
At the end of this six-week trial, Benoît Proulx will be sentenced by a jury for the murder of France Alain.
Report by Josée Thibeault on the acquittal of Benoît Proulx in the Court of Appeal in the case of the murder of France Alain. The news bulletin is presented by Claude Desbiens.
“Journalist Benoit Proulx from Quebec has just been acquitted of the murder that weighed against him in relation to the death of his ex-companion France Alain murdered in October 1982 in Sainte-Foy. »
— Host Claude Desbiens
On August 20, 1992, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the guilty verdict rendered by the Superior Court jury, as announces host Claude Desbiens on the Montreal tonight news bulletin.
In a unanimous judgment, the three judges of the Court of Appeal decided to acquit Benoit Proulx for three reasons, explains journalist Josée Thibeault in her report.
First, the verdict is based on evidence that the judge should not have admitted during the trial. Second, the eye identification evidence and the motive that allegedly led Benoît Proulx to want to kill France Alain were given inadequate instructions. And finally, one can have a reasonable doubt as to the fact that the new witness in this story would have actually seen Benoît Proulx at the scene of the crime on the evening of October 25, 1982.
Terms hard for the court of first instance and for the work of the police who seem to have botched their investigation, underlines the journalist.
Very moved, Benoît Proulx declares to the press that justice has been done , although this acquittal should have been pronounced on November 10, 1991 at the end of his first trial.
In 2001, he will obtain compensation from the Government of Quebec after having brought his case before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Despite a few other avenues mentioned, but never validated, the murder of France Alain, this promising young engineering student, has not been elucidated at this day. Forty years later, the investigation remains open.
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