48 Hours - A Case For Murder

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

On June 2, 2007, the body of 36-year-old Hugues de la Plaza was found in his locked San Francisco apartment. He had been stabbed in the neck, chest and stomach. His apartment was covered in blood, and the scene seemed to have all the characteristics of a homicide, but there was no sign of a struggle, no sign of anyone else’s DNA at the scene, and no image of an assailant on nearby security cameras. “48 Hours" correspondent Maureen Maher reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 6/19/2010. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. It was just a typical San Francisco day where the fog's really dense, but the air is very crisp and clean. Saturday morning, typically what you do is you find your open coffee shop, go grab a cup of coffee.

It was kind of foggy and I'm always a little foggy in the morning. I remember enjoying the coffee. . And the tones go off. OK, we got to go. So we grabbed our coffee, and off we went. I think we even said to each other, it was time to wake up.

We pulled up to the scene. The police tape was already up. I remember seeing lots of cops. As we were walking up to the house, the wind started to blow. But as soon as I hit the door, the smell was very distinctive because blood smells like iron. It hit me like a wall. And there was so much of it.

It was just unbelievable, the amount of blood. I've never seen anything like that. I couldn't imagine what his last moments were like. We were only in the house maybe. I'm not even sure we were there for a minute, and it was kind of hard to put together what had happened. You can see when he started to pass out because the handprints and smears are going down the wall because he's falling backwards. It was very sad because you could tell he's just grabbing at anything. That was the most unusual crime scene I've ever seen, and I did deem it as a crime scene. We want the truth! We want the truth!

36-year-old Oud De La Plaza's family and friends refused to believe he killed himself. What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! De La Plaza, a French-American citizen, was stabbed three times after coming home from a neighborhood bar. Our friend, Hugues De La Plaza, was murdered on June 2nd, 2007.

His door was locked. There was no signs of a struggle. No weapon was found. My name is Melissa Nix, and I'm the ex-girlfriend of Hugues De La Plaza. The San Francisco police still won't admit that they failed to properly investigate the murder of a San Francisco citizen. Hugues was the love of my life. Once you fall in love with somebody,

there's always a part of you that loves that person. Walking into that crime scene, anyone with any kind of experience would not ever think that that was a suicide. I did not call this a suicide at the scene. In fact, I remember saying, this is a homicide. The medical examiner's report determined that Ug died of stab wounds. She was not able to determine whether they were self-inflicted

or if he was stabbed by somebody else. I've been swayed back and forth because none of this makes sense. Who would want to kill this guy? What's the motive? It wasn't robbery. There's no evidence of a struggle. My gut tells me that it's a crime of passion.

Ug was dating a lot of different women and maybe not using a lot of discretion about who he dated. Things that you wouldn't expect to happen can and do happen. People can spontaneously decide to kill themselves. If you're going to commit suicide, you don't stab yourself three times. If De La Plaza was murdered. A case for murder. Tonight's 48 Hours Mystery. When you love somebody, they don't die on your watch.

I loved Ugg. They don't die on your watch. I loved Oog. If I could have protected him, if I had made sure that he was okay, if I was still in his life, maybe he would still be alive. Two years after the death of Oog de la Plaza, Melissa Nix is a woman consumed. Do you feel a sense of guilt, a sense of responsibility? Yes. Since the day de la Plaza was found dead

inside his locked San Francisco apartment, Melissa has been fighting for answers as to how and why he died. I'm going to a march for families whose loved ones have been murdered. She refuses to accept that the man she loved could have possibly died by his own hand, a theory raised by the San Francisco Police Department. I knew Oog, and I knew that he did not commit suicide. He was, she says, too full of life. His smile is something that everyone talks about.

And that is what caught Melissa's eye when she first met him at a party. He's also pretty handsome. Well, that and his French accent. So I just went over and introduced myself and I asked him out. He was cosmopolitan. He loved art, music.

He traveled a lot. He was so many things that I wanted in somebody. Melissa and De La Plaza dated for four years, but even after the relationship ended, the two still had strong feelings for each other. He was gentle. He was really gentle. The kind of connection that I feel to Ugg is invaluable. The kind of connection that I feel to Oog is invaluable. So when he was found stabbed to death, Melissa felt she owed it to him to find out why. My way of mourning him is to take action.

A journalist by trade, Melissa began to piece together the last day of Oog's life. June 1st, 2007. In the morning he was fine. We went and had lunch together, played pool for the last time. Neil Zurama worked side-by-side with Oog at Leapfrog, an educational toy and software company. Oog was a top sound engineer. I didn't really actually like him at first. I mean he's French. He looked, you know, he was, it was funny because he had this thing with French music, everything with French was better. And then as we started working together on projects, we became pretty good friends. Oog enjoyed playing this game of being the Frenchman,

and he liked being French in American bars. Marco Luchito was their boss and friend. He had watched how Oog would bait women with his unusual name. When he would introduce himself, he would pronounce it with the thickest French accent. It would become almost like, . A twinkle would come in his eye

when women would ask him about French kissing. It was very fun and it was playful. He was a man who loved women. Yes. That's a fair comment. Yes. And true to his reputation, De La Plaza had a date

that fateful evening with one of the many women he had met online. He said the date didn't go too well. We were just going to be really good friends. Afterwards,

he went to meet Neal at a club, Underground SF, to celebrate his recent job promotion. He was laughing. He was smiling. He was hitting on girls. Classic Oog.

Friends Marin and Ray were also at the club. Saw him at the bar talking, smiling, laughing. He came up, gave me a hug, a kiss on the cheek. All agree Oog was in a great mood. He's had three whiskeys, He's happy, he's smiling. They passed around a camera that night, capturing one final photo of Oog. He did get a little drunk, as we all were. I was trying to get him to dance with me and he wouldn't.

Soon it was closing time and Oog left, but not before making specific plans for the next day. I'll see you tomorrow because we were supposed to go on a motorcycle ride. Like, okay, cool, I'll call you tomorrow. On his way out of the club around 1.45 in the morning, Hugues de la Plaza joked that he was going to look for a woman to sleep with. The last time any of those friends saw him alive, he said goodnight, set off in that direction, heading towards his apartment,

alone. His walk home is not through the best of neighborhoods. At 2.06 a.m., a security camera captured this image. Melissa and others are convinced it is Oog. I knew it was Oog. It's a shadow, but I recognized his silhouette. He was still alone. Steps from his apartment. It blinks and then it's gone. The next day, Della Plaza had those plans to ride with Neil.

I ended up going by myself because he didn't answer his cell phone. And I recall stopping and looking around and just calling him and just cursing at him like, you, where are you? I can't believe you're missing. This is great out here. Then I did the same thing the next day. I called him up and he didn't answer. On Monday, he never showed up for work.

I went to his house and I saw the yellow tape. There was still blood outside. It was blood on the street as well. And what was your reaction? I mean, it was shock. Melissa was back on the East Coast when she heard the news. I can't describe the pain. It was piercing to know that, you know, to know that he was dead, that he was so young. I put on my journalist hat and I called the police department in San Francisco to confirm that he was dead.

I screamed. I screamed. I screamed. I screamed. Desperate for details, Melissa immediately hopped a plane to San Francisco and tracked down the inspector in charge of the investigation. He wouldn't talk to me. And he had no questions for you? No. There's something strange here. I have a sense that nothing's being done,

that the San Francisco Police Department was not investigating this. Melissa's grief would soon turn to anger. Frustrated, she called a local crime reporter. I said, are you reporting this case? She was stunned by his response. And he said, oh, I don't report suicides. Was that the first time you heard that word? Mm-hmm. And what was your response? I said, how can you call it a suicide? A good question, given all the blood that was found outside Oog's apartment. So I said to this reporter, why would someone commit suicide and go outside?

It doesn't make a lot of sense. It was 1989 in Titusville, Florida. Kim Hallig said she and her ex-boyfriend Chip Flynn were kidnapped and attacked at gunpoint. Kim fled the scene, but Chip didn't make it out alive. Did you kill Chip Flynn? No, ma'am. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most, involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother.

They always say lies, you can't remember lies. A lack of physical evidence. And questions about whether Crosley Green was accused, arrested, and convicted because he's black. Just because a white female says a black man has committed a crime, we take that as gospel. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the Trouble Case Against Crosley Green, early and ad-free with a 48-hours-plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly. Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin

stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.

It's just The Best Idea Yet. Still reeling from the news of her ex-boyfriend's death, Melissa Nix had one more painful call to make. It was probably one of the worst things I've ever had to do. To Oog's parents, Francois and Mireille de la Plaza, living half a world away on the coast of France. I woke them up at four in the morning, and Francois said, oh, Melissa, it's so nice to hear from you. Why are you calling?

And so in broken French, I don't speak very good French, I said, you know, you okay, mon? He's dead? And Francois said, No, c'est pas vrai, c'est pas vrai. It's not true. Je ne crois pas. I don't believe it. How can it be?

And his mother was on the other line, and she got off the phone, and I could hear her screaming. It was devastating, the sudden loss of their only child. Were you close with your son, Francois? Extremely close. We'd talk on the phone almost every week or email each other. That must have been terribly shocking to you. Extremely shocking, extremely unimaginable. Compounding their anguish was the fact that their son had been dead for two days before they had been told.

San Francisco police never called? No. Not even the homicide detective to ask questions? No. It was 8.20 a.m. on June 2, 2007, when Oog's body was discovered by police inside his apartment, about six and a half hours after he left the underground SF. While collecting the morning paper, a neighbor noticed what appeared to be blood here on the landing and called 911, triggering an investigation that is still at the center of an international debate. There was blood everywhere. I mean, everything in the house had blood on it. There was blood everywhere. I mean, everything in the house had blood on it.

Fire Department paramedics Shannon Stabile and Chris Moore arrived shortly after Oog's body was found. And you could trace his footsteps through the apartment, like watch how he traveled. You could see his bloody handprints as he's sliding down the wall. The body was right next to this wall, and I distinctly remember his hands were kind of up a little bit. When I got there, it looked like a homicide. The situation seemed pretty clear-cut to assistant medical examiner Dr. Venus Azar, when she arrived about an hour and a half after the 911 call. He was lying face up, and I could see the areas of the stab wounds, and I moved his shirt and I could see the stab wounds through the shirt, through the clothing. Yet the more she saw, the less certain she was.

You've been to a lot of crime scenes. How would you describe this one in comparison to others that you had been to? Oh, it was unusual. Unusual because despite having the appearance of a homicide, the scene was a collection of contradictions, starting at the front door. That was found deadbolted. The back door to the kitchen, that door was locked as well.

Did you see any sign of anyone else who may have been in there? The back door to the kitchen, that door was locked as well. Did you see any sign of anyone else who may have been in there at the time that he was stabbed? At the time, I didn't know. Although it looked like there was some struggle with the TV overturned. There was broken glass and his watch was broken. And you did notice that his watch had been ripped off? When we moved him, his watch was under him. Was under him.

Yes. And did that say anything to you? It looked like a struggle, I mean, that part. But Azar says the blood evidence did not show any signs of a violent struggle for survival. I remember me in the crime scene, people walking through and saying, well, that's weird. He didn't really move very fast. You know, literally looking at the blood drops, there wasn't any evidence of any high-velocity blood stains. Didn't look like he was in a fight or in a hurry to do anything.

What would have been an indication of him moving around more quickly? Well, the blood stains were circular on the ground. They're generally rounded. And if he was running, the blood would have more of an elliptical shape with some tails to them. They would have had a different appearance. The fact that he walked around slowly bleeding, that was the part of the scene that didn't make sense. And something else didn't make sense to Dr. Azar.

There was a cellular phone on the coffee table, which he never picked up to use. No 911 calls were made from that. He walked by it. There were no bloody handprints on the cell phone at all? No. There had been no calls to the authorities for any kind of emergency assistance at the time. A 30-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, Inspector Antonio Casillas has led the De La Plaza investigation since he first arrived at the scene at 10.28 a.m.

I walk up to the patrol officers and identify myself. I ask them, what do they think happened? And they said, well, we think somebody killed the guy. And I can see the blood on the sidewalk, on the stairs, on the stoop, on the railing. And I say to them, any evidence of a blood trail leading away? And they said to me, no. Looking, you see evidence of somebody who may have walked away from whatever happened, who might have been injured?

Right. It is not uncommon at the scenes of stabbing, violent stabbings, for an assailant to injure themselves. But the security camera never captured an image of an assailant or anyone else that night. It wasn't long before investigators began to wonder, could Oog have done this to himself? Who would want to kill this guy? Where's the, what's the motive? It wasn't robbery, his wallet and keys were there.

What is the reaction of Oog's friends to the notion that he may have committed suicide? Impossible. No one thought it was possible. It's impossible that he would have committed suicide. We would have known something wasn't right. It might be easy to dismiss these protests as a passionate reaction to the loss of a loved one. Except for one very significant fact. When you were inside Oog's apartment, did you find any weapon near his body? No.

There's no weapon. There's no weapon in the house. He was obviously murdered and the murderer took the weapon with him. I heard some people talking about, like, what's all this blood out here from? And then someone knocked on my door, and it was a police officer. Within hours of Oog de la Plaza's body being discovered, Inspector Casillas interviewed Oog's neighbors, Orion Denley and Jetangeli Boussan. The first thing I remember hearing was a really loud thud. I remember hearing was a really loud thud. The couple told Casillas that around 2.38 a.m.,

shortly before the time Oog is believed to have died, they were awakened by a disturbance outside their window. It sounded really loud, the way they're opening the door. A little while later, I heard the door open and close again, and it sounded like somebody ran down the stairs, and then someone, it sounded like they sat down and fell over. It was pretty loud. Three days later, Dr. Venus Azar performed an autopsy on Oog's body and documented three significant wounds. A puncture in Oog's abdomen, a puncture in Oog's chest and a deep vertical wound in the left side of his neck,

which severed major blood vessels and punctured his left lung. Wounds so severe, it seems like they would have to be from an attack. But in Azar's expert opinion, they could have been self-inflicted. He's right-handed. The wound to the neck goes from right to left and downward. The wound in his chest goes right to left and downward. The wound in his abdomen goes straight in. She also found other injuries which could be considered defensive wounds.

He had a superficial sharp force injury on his left forehead. He had about a two-inch bruise on the front of his right forearm. With no definitive clues from the autopsy, investigators looked to the physical evidence recovered at the scene to tell them if anyone else was there. But the only blood, hair, and DNA they found belonged to Oog. and DNA they found belonged to Oog. We knew that there were shoe prints. They did match Oog's shoes, and nobody else's shoe prints were ever found in there.

There was other critical evidence to test. These two knives were collected from the kitchen. Investigators wondered, could Oog have used one of them to kill himself? Those two knives could have inflicted those injuries. They're not inconsistent with having been the knives used. But when those knives were tested, no blood was found. Would you expect, if there was a knife that is consistent with the wounds,

that it would have blood on it? Yes, it would be. Investigators have an explanation for that as well. They believe it's actually possible that after Oog stabbed himself three times, he then washed the knife clean. So someone is in the mind to commit suicide, stabs himself, is dying, bleeding everywhere,

and goes back and washes the knife. And another theory they considered, that after critically wounding himself, Oog walked outside. They said, we believe that Oog could have hidden or buried the knife that he used against himself or thrown it out the window. After he stabbed himself three times. But Casillas and Azar say the theory of suicide was never seriously explored until Casillas talked to an unlikely source. The real notion of a suicide started with Melissa Nix, yes.

I know that specifically, very specifically, came out of my conversation with Ms. Nix. Casillas and Melissa talked four days after Oog's death, a conversation recorded for police records. While we were not permitted to hear it, Dr. Azar was, and shared it with us. She was telling him that he was into Japanese culture, that he watched a lot of samurai movies. Can I ask you? She says, can I ask you one thing? Was this a Harry Caray?

Did he go into his stomach? She asks him that. The person that allegedly knew him the most said literally she would not be surprised if the investigation concluded he had done this to himself. She literally says that. It has been out there that you were the one that first told San Francisco police that maybe it was suicide. Is that true? I was, I was, there were, there were questions that were very leading on the part of Detective Casillas. Do you feel like you led Melissa into a discussion of suicide?

No. If I wanted to ask her, did he commit suicide, I'm very capable of asking those kinds of questions. And did you ask those questions? I don't recall, and I don't believe I asked those questions. I didn't ask her, did he kill himself? But Oog's neighbors say they were questioned by Casillas about the possibility of suicide

within hours of Oog's body being discovered. He asked us if we thought he seemed suicidal, and we both immediately just seemed like, said no. He was asking us things about Oog, whether or not he took drugs, whether or not he associated with prostitutes, whether or not he was depressed. Why do you think you're getting labeled as the one then who brought up this whole notion of suicide? Because they don't actually want to take responsibility for their lack of investigation.

One of the charges made against the investigators is that the crime scene was never properly processed. Do you feel confident that all of the pertinent DNA evidence was collected at that scene that day? No. You don't think it was? I think in hindsight there's a lot more that could have been done, and it wasn't. And that's probably true for any crime scene. Did you walk away that day, Inspector, thinking this is a suicide? I didn't walk away with any preconceived notions.

I walked away thinking it's a homicide because that's the way we're treating it. But I don't know what happened here. It doesn't make sense to say it's a homicide, and it doesn't make sense to say it's a suicide based on what't know. I don't know what happened here. It doesn't make sense to say it's a homicide, and it doesn't make sense to say it's a suicide based on what I know. And for that reason, Dr. Azar says she had no choice but to classify Oog's manner of death as undetermined. This, in my opinion, makes the best sense. But that is a conclusion Oog's father refused to accept.

Instead, he took matters into his own hands and hired a private investigator. Do you believe definitively that Oog was murdered? Yes, absolutely. Somebody killed Oog de La Plaza. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's

most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney,

I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now.

As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. He's walking alone in a neighborhood. Dark. It's at night.

And there's a bunch of bad guys walking around. It's not safe. With 25 years of experience as a private investigator, John Murphy knows the streets of San Francisco. And he knows the kind of attention Oog may have attracted on his way home from Underground SF. home from underground SF. After 2 a.m., you have the night people. You have drug dealers, pimps, hoes. It's not a safe place to be.

So if he went Webster to Linden and turned right, he'd walk right by the projects there, just like he walks by them here if he went here. Either way is dangerous to me. Murphy was hired by Francois de la Plaza eight days after his son's death. I immediately went to the scene. I started interviewing neighbors, just knocking on doors. And then I come to find out after a day that there was three stab wounds in Oog de la Plaza, but there was no murder weapon. That's not a suicide. Murphy spent hundreds of hours chasing leads and interviewing contacts,

and he could only come to one conclusion. Do you believe definitively that Oog was murdered? Yes, absolutely. Investigators know Oog arrived home safely, had a bite to eat, and used his laptop to cruise some dating and sex websites. At this point, Murphy believes for some reason Oog opened his front door and walked outside. I think he's stuck right at the first landing. Based on this blood evidence, Murphy and Oog's father believe they know what happened to Oog. There was blood dripping down here. With the help of an interpreter, Francois demonstrated their theory.

So he's the attacker, I'm the victim. He stabs me in the stomach. I lean forward and then he hits me twice more on the upper parts of my body. My son went back into the apartment by way of protecting himself. But if Oug was murdered, who did it and why? There's two sides to Oog. There was the worker who got up every day. Then there was the after hours. He loved music. He loved drinking and hanging out with his buddies. And he loved women.

He was dating a new woman every night. I said to him, you are going to burn yourself out. As a fellow expat, Christophe Schumann was one of Oog's best friends. Would he date somebody else's woman? Oh, yes, of course. If they had a boyfriend? Didn't care. If they had a husband? Didn't care.

If it was your girlfriend? Didn't care. Was he looking for a relationship, or was he just looking to hook up? He was looking for sex. He was looking for sex. Yes, definitely. There are several themes in every case. In this case, there was a theme about the jilted lover or the husband or the boyfriend that found out and lay in wait and killed him.

I didn't find it. Something else Murphy didn't find? Any signs in Oog's life that he was suicidal. Oog had money in the bank. He had friends. He had plenty of girlfriends. He was living the life. There was no suicide note and no reason for him to kill himself. Things that you wouldn't expect to happen can and do happen. People can spontaneously decide to kill themselves.

That happens. Is it possible from a physiological standpoint that he could have been stabbed and if he was even in a slightly inebriated state, not have an understanding of what was going on, of how seriously wounded he was. That doesn't make any sense. I've talked to two surgeons, trauma surgeons. That doesn't make sense to them.

You don't walk around in a daze when you've just been attacked. A dying person will crawl out. But Murphy decided to get a second opinion. I'm told by physicians and other experts that he's in a state of shock. He doesn't know what he's doing. He can't do anything logical because he can't think logical. He's unable to make any kind of rational decision. At one time, investigators believed drugs could be the reason why Oog may have acted irrationally that night.

Early on, I was told by unnamed police officers that it will come out that he was high. Casillas tried to convince us that it picked up some sort of psychotic drug on his way home from SF Underground. He was high off of his mind, used a steak knife in the kitchen to stab himself. But later, toxicology reports put that theory to rest. There was no drugs at all, no amphetamine, no heroin, no cocaine, nothing. A team of investigators from France arrived this morning... Having lost all faith in the SFPD,

Francois de la Plaza called the French authorities for help. of investigators from France arrived this morning... Having lost all faith in the SFPD, Francois de la Plaza called the French authorities for help. Acting under a rarely used treaty, they got right down to business. They interrogated all the witnesses, all the friends. They interrogated more than 52 people in San Francisco. When I was interrogated by the French police, I was a suspect. How did you feel about being considered a suspect

during the French questioning or interrogation? I loved it. You loved it? I loved it because I was really certain that those people were doing a real poor work. The French reviewed all the investigation materials, retested all the evidence, and according to Francois, they made a remarkable discovery.

Unknown DNA on Oug's watch band. It wasn't Oug's DNA on the watch. Oug always wore his watch on his right arm. We think that maybe he tried to protect himself with that arm. his watch on his right arm. We think that maybe he tried to protect himself with that arm. The watch broke and it fell off, and maybe has DNA belonging to the attacker on it.

So this could be proof that there was actually a struggle. After nine months of work, the French issued their findings in a 2,000-page report, which had a very simple conclusion. They're 100% sure. There's no doubt that it's a homicide. You know, it's just an opinion. The cause of death and the manner of death are opinions. They're my opinion. You can have a different one.

Does it impact your investigation in any way? Not in any truly material way. And that is because the San Francisco Police Department's official position is that Oog's death has always been treated as a homicide. We weren't there, and we would not have been there if we didn't think it was a homicide. Plain language, what do you think of the SFPD's initial investigation? They dropped the ball. That week, there were five death cases that were signed to the homicide detail for investigation.

How many of them did you have? I had three of the five that week. There's always going to have to be a balancing between the demands of the situation and the resources available. Justice for all! of the situation and the resources available. Justice for Igg! Justice for Hall! Spurred on by the results of the French report, Melissa is taking her fight to City Hall.

His parents are here. In February 2009, Francois de la Plaza offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. There is one thing everyone agrees on. Someone, somewhere knows what really happened to U de la Plaza. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn,

and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of them. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse

and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It is so painful to wake up every morning and not know what happened to the love of your life, to your baby boy, to your best friend. Thank you, all of you, for coming. Two years after his passing,

Oog's friends held a vigil in his honor. There hasn't been a day in two years that I haven't thought of my best friend. We will not forget, and we will not give in. His death was treated very callously. So am I going to go away? Am I going to give up? No. In 2008, Melissa Nix asked the Office of Citizen Complaints to conduct an independent investigation. She accused the San Francisco Police Department and Inspector Antonio Casillas of neglect of duty and their work on the Dela Plaza

case. 17 months later she received these surprising results. The OCC report actually said that there was a failure for the first time in a public manner. This was an announcement, a public announcement that there was a failure. The report found no misconduct, but detailed how the investigation fell short. Basically, it was too little, too late. They found that there was a lack of resources and there had been a lack of cooperation between the medical examiner, the crime lab, and the SFPD homicide detectives. Do you take any responsibility or feel a sense of responsibility for some of the things in this case that may not have been done correctly from the beginning?

As a lead investigator, I am responsible for everything that was done or failed to be done. I am responsible. Nobody held a gun to my head when I took this job. In August of 2009, San Francisco got a new police chief, George Gascon, who made the De La Plaza case a top priority. Gascon took the unusual step of asking an outside agency, the Los Angeles Police Department, to evaluate the case. I recognized that it was important for us to have a third-party reviewer.

Gascon also met behind closed doors with Melissa Nix and Oog's parents. And out of that meeting? parents. And out of that meeting? It's just unbelievable. A bombshell. It's unbelievable that we just happened to find out about this. Gascon confirmed that the San Francisco Police Department had quietly commissioned an outside review of the case. They received the report in February 2009. Something about this is really fishy. Something smells bad to me. An independent medical examiner from Marin County concluded, the death of Hugues de la Plaza is a homicide. Of course it's a homicide.

The shock is that this report has been hidden for as long as it has. 48 Hours has obtained a copy of the report by Dr. Michael Ferencz, who did see evidence that Oog was attacked. On the outside wall adjacent to the staircase, he found blood consistent with cast-off from the arm movements of a knife being plunged and removed. Ferencz also observed what may be an abrasion on the palm of Oog's right hand that could represent what is typically called a defense wound. He also concluded that blood loss from the neck injury was so severe, Oog would expire in a matter of a minute or two. This could explain why Oog never called for help.

So we have the French national report. Homicide. Dr. Ferenc, Marin County Examiner. Homicide. It's plain and simple, a murder. And yet, despite the fact that now two outside reviews have labeled Hugues de la Plaza's death a homicide, Dr. Azar continues to stick to her conclusion of undetermined.

What the hell is going on? Here's a report that says this is a homicide. What else do you need? going on? Here's a report that says this is a homicide. What else do you need? What would you need to change Hugues de la Plaza's death from undetermined to homicide? Somebody that steps forward and says, I know what happened. Someone told me they stabbed him. This was a drug deal gone bad. This was a wife's husband, someone that knows something. Come here, we're going to do a toast. We missed you.

Is there ever a time that you'll be able to just walk away and say, we just won't know? This is something you can't walk away from. You can never get away from this. We would not be honoring our son if we walked away. To love and life and sexy Frenchmen. Hugues might be up in heaven saying, have some champagne, relax, go to the beach, but it is unbelievably painful to never know what happened. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app.

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