MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Gone for a Jog (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

One day in January of 2018, a police officer walked through the woods near the town of Gray, France, following a trail of blood. It led to the body of a person who had been shot in the head. It seemed to be a suicide, but the police officer had some questions. Because this wasn’t the first body they had found here in the past few months.   You can WATCH all new & exclusive MrBallen podcast episodes on my YouTube channel, just called "MrBallen" - https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

One day in January of 2018, a police officer walked through the woods near the small town of gray France, and as he walked, he was looking at the ground, because he was following a literal trail of blood. And this trail eventually led the officer to the body of a person who clearly had been shot in the head. Now, this appeared to be a suicide, but the police officer had some questions, because this was not the first body that had been found in these woods near the small town in France. Another body had been found a couple of months earlier, and it was starting to seem like there was a pattern here. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do.

So if that's of interest to you, the next time you make coffee for the follow button, don't use a coffee filter, so there's just a ton of grinds in their drink. Okay, let's get into today's story. At around 5 p.m. on the evening of October 27, 2017, a 29-year-old woman named Alexia Deval drove her car down a cul-de-sac in the small, quiet town of Grey France. She was on her way to her parents' house to celebrate her nephew's second birthday, and it was going to be this big family get-together. Her sister, her brother-in-law, and her little nephew had come in all the way from Paris, which was about a four-hour drive away. But Alexia, realistically, had mixed feelings about seeing them all tonight. So Alexia had been going through a pretty hard time recently.

She and her husband of 13 years, Jonathan, have been trying to get pregnant, and so she'd done several rounds of fertility treatments, which had thrown her hormones completely out of whack, and seemed to affect her a lot more than was typical for most women. And then finally, when all that had led to her actually getting pregnant, she unfortunately had miscarried just a couple of months ago. And so even though Alexia loved her sister's family and got along with them really well, her miscarriage was still really fresh in her mind. And she just knew it was going to be very difficult for her to be around her young nephew. It was just a reminder of what she had lost. Now, Alexia came to a stop outside of a gated driveway at the end of the cul-de-sac, and she rang the intercom. And then when the gate

opened up, she drove up the driveway toward a nice house with a very well-kept garden. She parked her car in the driveway behind her father's white van and then got out of her car. She grabbed a wrap present out of the back seat, along with a couple of desserts that she'd made, carried them up to the house, and rang the doorbell. And a few seconds later, her mother, Isabel Fouyo, answered the door with a big smile and led her into the dining room where Alexia's father, Jean-Pierre, sat at the table, talking with Alexia's brother-in-law, Gregory, and also her sister, Stephanie. They all stood up and they greeted her, and then as Alexia began to explain that her husband, Jonathan, was was running late and he'd be here later in a separate car because the job he'd been working that day

as an electrician had run long. As she was saying all that, Alexia heard the sound of little feet making their way towards her. A moment later, her two-year-old nephew, James, ran around the corner and threw his arms around Alexia's legs. And surprisingly, to Alexia's relief, she didn't feel sadness. All she felt was happiness. And so she bent down and scooped him up and gave the boy a big hug, and then she also handed him his birthday present. Eventually, the group settled in for dinner, and for a while, all of Alexia's worries just kind of faded away. She was really close with everybody at the table, especially her mother and her sister Stephanie, and being around them always put her in a good mood.

Alexia's husband, Jonathan, finally arrived sometime around 8.30, and he, along with the rest of the group, had a wonderful night, eating and drinking and chatting. After dinner was cleaned up, Alexia's father did go to bed, but everybody else stayed up, and they all just continued having this nice time until around 11 p.m. when Alexia said it was really time for her and Jonathan to head home. They both had early mornings ahead of them, Jonathan had some errands to run in the morning, and Alexia was hoping to get a workout in. A few minutes later, on the drive home, Alexia sat in the passenger seat of Jonathan's car.

She'd left her own car at her parents' house because she'd been drinking, and she was planning to pick it up when they came back the next day. Alexia and Jonathan's house was on a quiet residential street, only about a mile away from Alexia's parents' house. And as they made their way down the road, Alexia glanced out the window at a particular house that was just up the street from where they lived. And as she looked at it, she frowned. The neighbor who lived in that house had an adult grandson who had been harassing Alexia all summer.

He'd been obsessed with her and would call and text her constantly to the point where Alexia didn't feel safe even going out for a jog around the block when she was by herself. Now, fortunately, the harassment had stopped a couple of months ago, but only because the man had been committed to a mental, hospital. But Alexia didn't really know how long it would be until he got out again. Or if he'd already been released, she didn't know. So it just sort of felt like a reprieve, not a long-term solution. But on this night at least, there was nobody peering out at her from the neighbor's window. A minute later, their car pulled into their garage, and Alexia and Jonathan got out. And as Alexia went from the garage into the main house, she passed by a treadmill in the corner of the garage, which had broken down a few weeks ago. She asked Jonathan if he'd gotten around to fixing it yet, and he said no.

Alexia just sighed. It was supposed to be a very cold and gloomy morning the next day, and so it looked like she was going to have to run outside. The following morning, around 11 a.m., Jonathan walked up to the door of Alexia's parents' house and rang the doorbell. And as he did, he sort of gave a worried look over his shoulder at Alexia's car, which was still parked where they'd left it the night before. Jonathan took a deep breath and tried not to show how anxious he felt. As Alexia's mother, Isabel answered the door. And then, in a very shaky voice, Jonathan said hello and asked her if she'd seen or heard from her daughter recently.

And when Isabel said she had not, Jonathan completely lost his composure. He said that morning Alexia had gone out for a jog, but not come back. And now he was starting to get really worried. He explained that he'd tried texting Alexia, but she still hadn't answered. And by this point, she should have been home a long time ago, so something was wrong. A moment later, Jonathan saw Stephanie and Gregory coming out of the guest room with very concerned looks on their faces. They joined Jonathan and Isabel at the front door and asked what the commotion was about. And so Jonathan sort of frantically re-explained the situation and asked if either of them had heard from Alexia in the last hour or so.

But they shook their heads and said they hadn't. But Stephanie showed Jonathan that she had received a text from Alexia at 9.30 that morning, just to say that she was going out for this jog. But after that, none of them had received any text or calls from Alexia. Jonathan was crying at this point. And so Alexia's family tried to assure him that, you know, Alexia would probably be. just show up at the house any minute here. Like nothing's going on. I'm sure she's just running late. And Jonathan, he wanted to believe this. But this was completely unusual. Like this was not normal for Alexia to be gone for this long without being in touch. It just didn't make sense. It was at this point

that Jonathan's brother-in-law, Gregory, reached out and put his hand on Jonathan in a sort of comforting way and just said, look, if it makes you feel any better, I'll go back with you and we can literally go look for Alexia together, or at least be together until she comes back. Jonathan didn't really know what to do, but he was very thankful and said, yep, that would be great. And so a couple of minutes later, the two men got in Gregory's SUV and they began driving back towards their house. But Jonathan actually navigated him through the streets along the running route that Alexia usually took to see if maybe they could find her. They drove down all the side streets looking for her. And then when they reached the edge of town, Jonathan and Gregory got out of the car and began checking the paths

leading into the countryside and also the ditches and the banks of the river. But they didn't find Alexia anywhere. And then eventually they just drove back to Jonathan and Alexia's house to see if maybe she'd finally come home with an explanation for all this, but she had not come home. At this point, Jonathan was completely beside himself, and so Gregory, doing his best to stay calm, said, you know what, let's go to the hospital and see if Alexia had turned up there. A few minutes later, when they stopped in the parking lot of the local hospital, Jonathan jumped out of the car and ran towards the main entrance, where two nurses were taking a cigarette break. Jonathan told him, told these nurses that he was here looking for his wife and that she'd gone on a run three hours ago

and no one knew her she was now and maybe she's here. So the nurses who could clearly tell this was an emergency, they put out their cigarettes and went inside to check the register. But a minute later, they came back and told the men that no, Alexia Deval had not been admitted that morning. She was not here. Before Jonathan or Gregory could protest or ask more questions, the nurses just said, look, you've got to go to the police. Later that afternoon, a police officer named Adeline P.O. sat across from Jonathan in a room at the gray police station as he explained what had happened with his wife that she was missing. Jonathan also gave a description of what Alexia had been wearing when she went out running. Bright pink shoes, black leggings and a red jacket, so pretty easy to spot.

And then after describing her and sort of realizing the weight of what he was here for, he just put his head in his hands and continued to weep as he had been doing much of the morning. Now, Pio could obviously tell that Jonathan was very upset here, but she had to ask the question. that was already forming in her mind. So as delicately as possible, she asked Jonathan if his wife had any suicidal tendencies or any reason she might have run off without telling anybody. Jonathan looked up really quickly and just shook his head and said no, and said that overall his wife was very happy and definitely not suicidal. However, as he sat there thinking about it, he said she had been taking hormones for fertility and realistically, those hormones appeared to have affected her

really badly. For example, sometimes she would lose control of her emotions entirely and even become violent. Or in other instances, he said that she would even have memory lapses, where she wouldn't even know what she was doing when she was doing it. It was like she'd become this different person. P.O. nodded and just listened to Jonathan and wrote down everything he was saying. And then when he was done, she followed up and said, you know, can you think of anybody who might have had a problem with Alexia? And for a moment, Jonathan just sat there in silence, kind of mulling over the question, and then suddenly his eyes went wide like he had just realized something. He told P.O. that they had a neighbor who had been completely obsessed with Alexia earlier that year.

He said his name was Arnault, and he'd been obsessively calling and texting her so many times that Alexia had actually had to block his number and had actually talked about how she was fearful of going out alone because of this neighbor. But just a couple of months earlier, he had been sent to a psychiatric hospital, and because he was literally removed from the neighborhood, the harassment had stopped. But Jonathan said they were kind of worried that at some point he would come back and then he would be a problem again. And realistically, Jonathan said he could be home now. I just don't know.

I don't know where he is. Pio was obviously very intrigued by this. And so after this interview was over with Jonathan, she and her investigative team began digging in to this Arnaud guy to see where he was and what was going on with him. And pretty quickly, they discovered that while Arnaud had, had gone to that psychiatric hospital, that was true, he was not there anymore. He had been released. And so that night, another officer with the gray police knocked on the door of Arnaud's mother's house, where Arnaud was staying, which was about an hour away from Alexia and Jonathan's house. After the officer knocked, a middle-aged woman answered the door. And when the officer asked if she

was Arnaud's mother, she said she was. The officer looked past her, and he could see there was this dishebled-looking young man sitting right inside, and he asked the mother if that was Arnault. And again, the woman said yes. At this point, the officer asked the mother if he could come inside because he said he needed to speak privately with her son. The mother and Arnaud in the background both seemed very confused by this, but after a minute, they both agreed, and the officer came inside. And so the officer went inside the house and sat down in the living room with Arnaud, while Arnaud's mother went to the kitchen to give the men some privacy. And then, And once the mother was gone, the officer looked at Arnault and just said he had some questions

about Alexia DeValle. Arnaud immediately looked down at this question, like he was embarrassed and couldn't even look at the officer. But then he looked back up again and told the officer that he had bipolar disorder. And sometimes when he was in a manic state, he acted inappropriately towards women, including Alexia. The officer followed up about all those messages that apparently Arnaud had sent to Alexia that summer. Like what was going on with that? And Arnaud admitted that he had done that, but he insisted it really was no big deal. He said that he and Alexia knew each other because they had been neighbors at one point, and they'd also hung out in a group setting once. And so him being in touch with her was not totally weird, like they had a real connection,

but Arnaud clarified that when Alexia told him to stop contacting her, he did. And that was the end of it. But this caught the officer's attention, because according to Alexia's husband, Jonathan, the only reason that all the calls and texts had stopped was because Alexia, literally had to block Arnaud's phone number. So the officer just cut to the chase here and told Arnaud that Alexia was missing. And then before Arnaud could say anything, the officer asked him where he'd been that morning at 9 a.m. And Arnaud said, you know, I was right here. I was at home with my mom. For a moment, the officer just stared at Arnaud, trying to read his body language to see if maybe he was being deceptive or not. So eventually, the officer just stood up and went into the kitchen

where the mother was. And he asked the mother, where was your son this morning? And she told the officer with sort of a bewildered look on her face that he was here with me all morning. And so at this point, it was clear to the officer that, you know, if the mother was telling the truth here, it would officially rule out Arnaud as a suspect because, you know, he was here. But the officer also knew that, generally speaking, mothers do not make the best alibis, because mothers are known to lie, cheat, steal, and do anything to protect their kids. The following afternoon on Sunday, October 29th, Chief Officer Frank Paredes glanced out his office window as yet another news van sped past outside down the usually quiet streets of gray. By now, Alexia's disappearance had blown up into this huge national news story, and this was making it really difficult for Paredes, who was in charge of the investigation.

Now, it was still early in the investigation, but already he and his investigators were being hounded by reporters, and camera crews at every step. Paredes closed his eyes and tried to focus on what his next step should be. The search effort was well underway. They had called in reinforcements from nearby towns and even organized search teams with volunteers from the public. At that very moment, law enforcement was also using drones and dogs to scour the town and the surrounding woods.

Paredes' investigation team had also searched Jonathan and Alexius Home by now, secretly hoping they might find something to pin the disappearance on Jonathan. But there was no blood, no sign of a struggle, and no clues that gave them any direction there. And also, all of Alexia's other family members, her parents, her sister Stephanie and her brother-in-law Gregory, they could all vouch for each other's whereabouts on the morning of Alexia's disappearance. They claimed they had all been at the house together. And so without any real leads, Peretti's had gotten so desperate for any information that he'd literally told his team to set up checkpoints out in the streets and just stop random people and ask them if they had seen them.

or heard anything that could help them find Alexia. And now, as Paredes sat in his office wondering what he was going to do today, he heard a knock at his door. And a moment later, one of his investigators entered with fairly surprising news. The checkpoints actually had turned up something. Paredes listened intently, as the investigator explained that a number of people he'd spoken to had mentioned a van. Now, no one had actually seen the van themselves, but they all appeared to have heard the same rumor, that apparently there was a man driving around the area in this white van, and he was known to harass girls and women right out on the street. Now, at first glance, you know, Paredes was worried that perhaps this was just like an unfounded rumor, but then he remembered

there were actually two men in Alexia's family who literally drove white vans. Her father, Jean-Pierre, he owned one, and her husband, Jonathan, he drove one for work. On the afternoon of Monday, October 30th, so a little more than two days after Alexia went missing. Perettas brought his car to a stop next to a news van parked in the middle of the woods about four miles outside of town. Minutes ago, he had received a call from an officer in the field telling him that Alexia's body had been found. And so Perettus had driven out to the scene as fast as he could. But now that Perettas was here at the crime scene, he could tell obviously he was late to the game, because you know, a news crew was already here setting up their cameras near a row of police barriers.

And Paredes was disappointed to see this because he'd hoped that if and when her body was discovered, if she was found dead. At that time, he would have had at least one suspect or hopefully multiple suspects identified and under surveillance before the word got out to the general public that Alexia was found dead. But now he obviously would not get that chance. Paredes' side climbed out of his car and flashed his badge to an officer who led him around the barriers and into the crime scene. Paredes approached one of the forensics experts who was taking photos and placing yellow numbered markers around on the ground, and Paredes introduced himself as the lead investigator. The expert then led him over to Alexia's body, which was lying on the ground between two tree trunks covered by a white bed sheet. Her pink running shoes were poking out from under the sheet, and Paredes noticed that her feet and the sheet were both partially burned,

as if someone had tried to set them on fire at some point. Once the scene had been fully photographed, Peretta's bent down and lifted the sheet to get a better look at Alexia's body. She was lying on her back and there were bruises all over her face, and there were also marks on her neck that looked like they were from strangulation. And right away, Peretta's noticed a couple of things that were unusual. First, Alexia's hands were placed neatly in the pockets of her coat, as though her body had been placed there on the ground with a lot of care. Second, despite the beating that Alexia's face had apparently taken, her glasses, were placed perfectly on her face. And so to Paredes, it seemed like whoever killed Alexia had felt some sort of remorse afterwards.

It was as though the killer had committed this incredibly violent murderer, but then had tried to kind of put everything back in order afterward. And this made Paredes think that Alexia's killer was very likely someone who knew Alexia, and not a stranger who simply, you know, accosted her during a jog. Just then, Paredes heard somebody call his name, and he stood up to take a look. Nearby, there was a forensics tech that was waving him over. And so Paredes walked over, and the tech showed Paredes what he had just found. It was a gray plastic cap that looked like it belonged on some kind of spray can.

Peretti's thought, you know, maybe this could help explain the strange burn marks on the bed sheet and also Alexia's shoes. You know, the killer had probably sprayed something on the body to try and help it catch fire, but it didn't work as well as they thought it would. Just then, another forensics tech called Paredes over to them to show him something else. they had found, tire tracks in the dirt. Paredes immediately thought about that tip that he had been given about this van with this person driving around town harassing women and girls, and he wondered if maybe that was true that this van was involved and that these had been left by the killer when they were transporting

Alexia's body. And so as this forensic expert began taking photographs of the tire tracks, Paredes made a mental note to examine the tires of every suspect, family member, and other persons of interest they came across, just in case one of them was a man. And so Paredes was about to turn his attention back to the body when he noticed one more unusual thing out in the woods. There was this young man who did not appear to be a reporter just kind of wandering around out there in the trees, almost lurking near the crime scene. And so immediately Paredes went over to the sky and demanded to know what he was doing here. And at this, the man went completely wide-eyed and just started stuttering like he was totally caught off guard.

Eventually, the guy managed to mumble that he was just out here picking mushrooms, but Peredez could tell he was obviously lying. That was not why he was out here. And so, operating on sort of a gut instinct, Peretti pulled out his handcuffs and placed the man under arrest. Later that same afternoon, just hours after Alexius' body had been discovered in the woods outside of town, Perretz sat down at a table at the gray police station, across from this suspicious young man he just arrested for lurking near the crime scene for no clear reason. And Paredes was pleased. I mean, he'd only been in charge of what was now a murder investigation for a couple of hours. And here he was about to speak to a legitimate suspect, really like the first suspect, who was in custody. But as soon as Paredes actually began speaking to this suspect, he realized that the young man's stutter was not really a sign of him being nervous.

He actually had speech issues, and he struggled to speak at all, even when he wasn't nervous. The man was eventually able to explain that his name was Anthony and he was 29-year-old. years old. He said he lived with his parents in Apremont, another small town about five miles away, and he admitted that he had lied about being there to pick mushrooms. And so Paredes pressed Anthony to explain then why he was there. And Anthony, I mean, he seemed a little embarrassed as he began to explain, but what he said was he didn't know Alexia personally. He had just heard about her disappearance in the news, and he wanted to help with the search effort. But Anthony said he couldn't read or write. So he had not been able to fill out the paperwork to join

the official search party. So instead, he'd just driven out to the woods in his own car to look for Alexia himself. But while he was out there, you know, the police showed up and clearly there was something going on. And when Paredes walked over to him, Anthony said he got scared and just lied and said, oh, I'm out here picking mushrooms. Like he said it was just embarrassment. And as Paredes sat there listening to the story, he wasn't quite sure what to make of it,

or really what to make of Anthony. I mean, Anthony's demeanor seemed almost childlike, but his behavior. behavior was not childlike. It was very adult-like and pretty suspicious. So Paredes followed up by asking him what he was doing on the morning of October 28th, which was the morning Alexia went missing. Anthony said he'd woken up at his parents' house and had breakfast with them before he went out with his girlfriend and also another friend. And he gave Paredes their names and also their phone numbers so they could confirm it. So Paredes stepped out of the room and he did exactly that. He called the various phone numbers and spoke to the people in Anthony's life.

and they all corroborated his alibi. So despite how suspicious Anthony had been acting, Paredes had no choice but to let Anthony go. A week later, on November 5th, a march was organized in Alexia's honor. 10,000 people turned out to show their support for Alexia's family and also to protest violence against women. And hidden among this huge crowd was a pair of police officers who'd been assigned to follow Alexia's husband, Jonathan DeVall.

At this point, Jonathan really was looking like the most obvious suspect since he was the husband and also the last person to see Alexia alive. So the police had tapped his phone and put him under surveillance. But all they had learned so far from the phone taps was that Jonathan made frequent calls to Alexia's family, to his own siblings and his friends, to talk about how much he missed his wife. And the officers who were literally following Jonathan around found that he really rarely left his house except to visit Alexia's parents, which he did almost every day. But so far, it was like none of Jonathan's behavior actually seemed really suspicious at all.

And now, at this big march, the investigators stood in the crowd and watched as Jonathan hobbled his way up the steps to the podium, followed by Alexia's mother and father. And in fact, Jonathan was trembling so much by the time he got up there that Alexia's parents had to physically prop him up before he could begin reading his speech to the crowd. And so at this point, the investigators just kind of exchanged a glance. Either they were wasting their time following an obviously grieving husband with nothing to hide, or Jonathan was like a world-class actor giving the performance of a lifetime. But the investigators knew that until new evidence presented itself,

there was really nothing they could do but, you know, watch and wait, which included watching Jonathan and just seeing what he did. They were also still waiting on the tire analysis from the crime scene, but they didn't expect much to come from it. At this point, the creepy white van story seemed to be more like, like an urban legend in this town. And so, you know, as the weeks turned to months and still there was no progress on this case, the investigators, including Perretta's, began to wonder if this case would ever be solved. But then, all of a sudden, new evidence did appear. And when it did,

the investigators realized they might have been following the wrong lead this whole time. Because while they'd been focused on surveilling Jonathan, a second body had just turned up in the woods outside of gray. On the evening of Saturday, January 6th, 2018, Chief Officer Perretta's was at his desk pouring over the evidence that had been flooding in all day. The new victim, whose body had been found earlier that same day in the woods, very close to where Alexia's body had been found, was a 38-year-old father of three. He looked to have died from a gunshot wound to the head. Although, according to the autopsy report, the man had a blood alcohol level of almost 0.4%, which is huge. I mean, that can be fatal on its own, or at the very least, knock somebody unconscious.

Investigators had found gunpowder on the man's hand, so for now they were treating his death as a suicide. But the more parades looked into the evidence, the less convinced he became that he was looking at a suicide. Because, you know, a gun had been found at the scene, but it had not been located very close to the dead man's body. In fact, the gun was found 130 feet away from the body in a trash can. The only explanation would be he shot himself and then,

put the gun in the trash can and then somehow wandered 130 feet away before collapsing and dying, that was possible, albeit highly unlikely, being shot in the head typically is immediately incapacitating or lethal, but it is possible he could have shot himself and lived long enough to travel to 130 feet. It just seemed very unlikely. So now, Perretta sat back in his chair and just tried to think. It was strange enough to have two violent deaths in this same quiet town, let alone to have the bodies be found basically in the exact same spot in the surrounding woods. It just seemed too coincidental not to be looked into. So he had to wonder, you know, maybe there was a connection between this man's death and Alexius.

But later that same month, as Perretta scanned over a document that had just arrived from the crime lab, he wasn't thinking about that second body in the woods anymore. Because this new document in his hands was an expert analysis of those tire tracks that had been found in the woods near Alexia's body. And the analysis showed that there was a tiny defect in the tread of one of the tires. And this defect was so specific that the experts had been able to determine exactly which vehicle left those tracks in the woods. And this vehicle just so happened to be a white van. Paredes felt his pulse quicken as he kept on reading. And a moment later, he reached for his phone and he called his supervisor to tell him the good news.

He knew the identity of Alexia's killer. Based on that tire track analysis and also other evidence, including an eventual confession from the killer, this is how police believe Alexia Deval was killed. The killer was almost blind with rage. They slammed Alexia's head against a nearby wall and then hit her over and over again, and then they wrapped their hands around her neck and they squeezed for so long. They like lost track of time. They were just crushing her neck.

And then finally, they couldn't feel her pulse. under their fingers anymore. Then, looking down at Alexia's motionless body on the ground, they realized the severity of what they had just done. And so the killer, in a panic, crouched down next to her and actually tried to wake her up, but it was too late. She was dead. And so now they're really panicking.

They thought about maybe killing themselves out of guilt, but they were too scared to go through with it. So instead, they hatched a plan to get rid of Alexia's body. The killer very carefully put Alexia's glasses back on her face and then they lifted her up and they carried her body out to their vehicle. Then they drove out to the woods and dragged her body by the feet to a secluded spot deep in the trees where they hoped nobody would ever find her. They covered Alexia's body in a sheet,

and then they sprayed the sheet with this foam that they thought was flammable, hoping that once they lit it on fire, it would help, you know, dispose of the body. But when they got their lighter out and held the flame to the sheet, it didn't really work. And so finally, when it was clear they were not. not going to be able to burn the body here. The killer just left her there and then drove away in their white van, getting home in time to dispose of all the evidence, take a shower, and start the next phase of the cover-up, which was to knock on Alexia's mother's door in a fake panic asking if anybody had seen her daughter. Because Alexia's killer was her own husband, Jonathan.

It turns out, Alexia never even went for a run on the morning of October 28th. She was murdered. the night before, after she and Jonathan had gotten back from her parents' house. They had gotten into a big fight, which obviously resulted in her death. From the outside, Jonathan and Alexia appeared to be a very happy couple, but in reality, they'd been arguing more and more often, primarily because they were not able to have a baby. It was causing a lot of friction in their marriage. And so on the night of October 27th, in the middle of this horrible fight they're having, Jonathan grabbed his keys and tried to leave. But Alexia told him to stop. running away from their problems and tried to literally take the keys from him.

And according to Jonathan, that's when he just snapped and he killed her. And then he used his work van to dispose of the body. As for that second body that was found in the woods months later, that was determined to be a suicide and completely unrelated to Alexia's death. Jonathan was arrested on January 28th, 2018, and two days after his arrest, he confessed to the murder. At the end of his trial in 2020, he was convicted and sentenced to sentenced to 25 years in prison. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized

for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone. This episode was written by Kate Gallagher. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacassio and Cole Lacassio. Additional audio editing by Jordan Stidham. Production coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Manata and Delana Corley. Artwork by Jessica Klogstenkiner. Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. And just a reminder.

Every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and ad free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see you.