Park Predators - The Tourist

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

In the middle of the night while returning home from a camping holiday with his two young sons, a father is gunned down in a violent execution-style murder at a quiet rest area. Evidence of a ruthless assassin emerges, but resolution evades law enforcement in two separate countries.If you or someone you know has any information on the murder of Xavier Baligant please visit:France’s Ministry of Justice National Unit for Serial or Unsolved Crimes (PCSNE)https://www.justice.gouv.fr/pole-national-crimes-seriels-ou-non-elucidesView source material and photos for this episode at: parkpredators.com/the-touristDid you know you can listen to Park Predators ad-free? Join the Crime Junkie Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/fanclub/ to view the current membership options and policies.Park Predators is an Audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @parkpredators | @audiochuckTwitter: @ParkPredators | @audiochuckFacebook: /ParkPredators  | /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Dillia Diambra. And the story I'm going to tell you today is one of those cases that has literally been in the back of my mind for years. I first came across it while researching a previous two-part episode of Park Predators titled The Shootings. In this episode, I'm diving into another mind-boggling case from the French countryside. The two investigations involve different victims, different locations, and different agencies. But there's an all-too-familiar theme. A lone shooter emerges from seemingly nowhere, guns down innocent tourists on a scenic roadway and has no problem doing so in front of young children. Because these crimes are so similar, there's even been some speculation that they could be connected to the same killer. So buckle up, because if you think you know the story of what happened to 29-year-old Xavier Balagant in the summer of 2011, you're probably wrong. This is Park Predators. Between 4 and 5 in the morning on Tuesday, July 19, 2011, a man named, named Jose, who lived in Nivelle Belgium, awoke to the sound of someone knocking on his door. When he got up and answered, I imagine he was a bit surprised to see law enforcement officials

staring back at him. The officials informed Jose that they weren't there to speak with him. They wanted to speak with his girlfriend, 28-year-old Mejela, because they had some unfortunate news they needed to inform her of. When Mejela came to the door, she learned that her ex-husband and father of her two young sons, 29-year-old Xavier Balagan, was dead. The officials explained to her that French authorities about three and a half hours away near Nancy, France, had found him with gunshot wounds outside arrest area on a highway called the A-31. Even more shocking was that officials told her they suspected Xavier had died by suicide, which right away was a detail that did not sit right with Mahala.

You see, she and Xavier had been divorced and co-parenting their two boys for years. She'd known him since she was 19, and at least to her, him dying by suicide, just wasn't something that she'd ever see him doing. Several days earlier, Xavier and their sons had traveled from Belgium to France to spend a week camping with his parents, Jean-Luc and Katia. That trip was reportedly something he and the boys would do with his side of the family every summer. The particular town they'd holiday in was Joyous, France, which is about 10 hours south of Nivelle. Obviously concerned by the situation, Mejala and Jose grabbed their stuff and immediately headed to the region of France that Xavier had been found in. In addition to the horrific news about her former partner, she was also worried about the status and well-being of their two young sons.

The previous evening, around 8 o'clock, Xavier had told her he and the boys were going to drive 10 straight hours through the night to avoid hitting traffic. The plan was for him to text her when they got going so that she would have a rough idea of when he'd be back in Neville to drop them off. But Mahila had never received a text message from Xavier. She'd stayed up waiting for one, but eventually when it got super late, she ended up falling asleep and didn't wake up until those. officials showed up to speak with her at Jose's place. The Malvo Rest area, which is where Xavier had been found, is only about six hours away from Joyus, where he'd been vacationing. And like I mentioned earlier, it was less than four hours from Nivelle, which meant

he'd driven most of the distance that he'd told Mejala he was planning to travel for. So the question became, who'd come across his path in that time? It didn't take long, though, before French authorities informed their Belgian counterparts and, in turn, Mehala, that both of their sons were safe. They'd been found in Xavier's car at the rest area, still groggy from sleeping through the night. As she'd made the three-and-a-half hour or so drive to get to her boys, she'd dialed her former father-in-law to let him know what was going on. John Luke was a former law enforcement official in Belgium,

so his instincts to want to push for more answers kicked in right away. He could hardly believe what Mahela was telling him, which was that she'd been told Xavier had reportedly died by suicide. John Luke had just been with his son and his grandsons the previous day, and everything had seemed fine. Xavier had shown no signs of being troubled or that he intended to take his own life. Right after getting off the phone with his former daughter-in-law, Jean-Lute called Xavier's cell phone, but no one answered. After that, he and his wife, as well as their two other children, went to the police station in the local village of Colombe Lebel, which was near the crime scene.

It's important to note for context. In France, there's a military force that enforces the law and upholds the same duties as a police officer or deputy would, like in the United States. They refer to this force as the gendarmerie. The ballagants had a lot of questions for French investigators because, just like Bahaela, they did not think Xavier had died by suicide. And they were right. Turns out, the first responding officials with the gendarmoury who'd responded to the crime scene had been working the investigation as a homicide the entire time.

Somehow, though, there had been a terrible miscommunication between them and the Belgian police, which resulted in Xavier's manner of death being misreported to his family. When that was all finally straightened out, though, officials with Nancy's deputy prosecutor and members of their gendarmerie office told the ballagence what they could. According to the coverage, around two in the morning on the 19th, a patrolman who worked for the highway company was picking up trash at another rest area across the highway from the Malvo restop. When he heard what he suspected were at least five gunshots, he reported the sounds to his

counterparts and was instructed to investigate the source himself. So within five minutes or so, he used a survey. road and went across the street to check things out. And it was there near the entrance to the women's restroom that he found a man lying on his back in a pool of blood. It was a neary scene because other than the lit-up restroom facilities, everything else in the area, including the surrounding woods, was dark. By 245 a.m., officials with the Colombe Le Belle Gendarmerie had arrived and identified the victim, Xavier. They were able to make his ID so quickly because he had identification papers on him. His vehicle, with his boys still inside,

was parked in the rest area's parking lot. Its registration information confirmed that it belonged to him and that he was not a French citizen. After discovering the murder, authorities cordoned off the rest stop and tried their best to keep the scene contained. It was dark, though, basically the middle of the night, so they waited until shortly after 8 a.m. to start thoroughly searching the area for evidence.

Something that became apparent right away was that Xavier had been shot at least four times. Investigative technicians from the nearby city of Nansi had found four cartridge casings near his body that were spaced out in such a way that indicated whoever had killed him had fired at him while walking directly towards him. What no one could initially make sense of was why the highway worker who'd first found him had reported hearing five shots, not four. It was a puzzling discrepancy that was later sorted out when the pathologist arrived on scene. That official ended up

finding a fifth cartridge casing obscured by a strap on Xavier's bag, which was tucked beneath his arm. The location of that fifth casing seemed to indicate to authorities that it had been fired at very close range. Otherwise, it likely wouldn't have ended up where it ended up. After collecting the casings, investigators had an analyst who specialized in ballistics come to the scene and conduct an examination. They concluded that the shooter had used an older model Swiss Army rifle loaded with 7.55 caliber ammunition. To get a better understanding of the type of firearm that had been used, authorities sent the car. cartridge casings to a lab for further testing. While they waited on the findings to come in, detectives split officers into groups

to search the crime scene in three different areas. One group was tasked with looking in front of and behind the restroom building itself. Another group of searchers were told to scour the rest stops two parking lots. Now for context, one lot was for regular cars and the other was for trucks, and they were both situated on each side of the restroom building. So it made sense to comb each of them for any potential evidence. And the last group of officers was assigned to search the toilets themselves and the immediate area around where Xavier's body had been discovered.

Investigators also tried to review surveillance footage from a camera at the rest area's entrance, but unfortunately, the camera would only capture footage of activity that happened in real time, and those recordings weren't archived. So investigators' only option was to interview the camera operators who'd been working on the night of the crime to find out if any of them had seen anything strange. Once again, though, authorities hit a wall. Turns out the morning of Xavier's murder, the rest stop's camera had been facing away from the toilet facilities building toward the highway's traffic lanes. So the operators hadn't noticed anything that could help police.

Authority's next avenue of investigation was determining who might have been parked at the rest area at the same time Xavier was. According to the coverage, there were 24 trucks occupying the nearby parking lots at the time of the crime. And many of those drivers were not French. Some were, but others were Romanians. Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Germans. So investigators had to bring in several interpreters just to get statements from them. And time was of the essence here because authorities couldn't keep these drivers in France forever. Eventually, they'd need to leave the country and return to wherever they lived and worked.

Of the 24 truck drivers, though, only four of them told police they'd heard gunshots. And one of those four, a man from France, had a very interesting recollection of the night of the crime that he thought investigators might want to know about. The truck driver who gave investigators, what appears to be the most detailed account, was this guy named Jean-Noelle Forrest. He explained that between 8.30 and 9 p.m. on the night of Monday, July 18th, he'd pulled into the Malvo Rest area to take a much-needed break. But when he went to the parking lot designated for trucks, there were no spots left.

So he drove around to the car lot instead, which he told the officials was totally empty at that time. Around 10 o'clock, he said he fell asleep for a few hours, but then woke up to the sound of several gunshots. nearby. He estimated he'd heard the shots around two or two-thirty in the morning, and it was so concerning to him that he crawled out of his bunk and into the front seat of his cab so he could check things out. But as he sat there in the darkness, he didn't hear any other sounds. No more gunshots, no screaming, nothing. Now, he had a clear view of the rest stop's exit, though. However, he didn't notice any cars or vehicles take off from the area. From his front seat, he said he glanced over into his truck's right side rearview mirror and saw the headlight of a car parked directly behind

and to the right of his vehicle. It was kind of pulled in at an off-center angle, which is seemingly why it got his attention. Authorities were able to determine that the car Jean-Noelle said he saw was Xavier's. But what was kind of strange was that, according to Jean-Noelle, he'd never gotten out of his cab to see if anything was amiss with that car. In his statement, he explained that since he hadn't seen anyone get out of the vehicle and no other truck drivers had emerged from their cabs to investigate the situation, he just stayed put. He hadn't noticed two young boys sitting in the vacant car or anything that appeared out of place.

From the angle he was positioned in, he didn't have a direct line of sight to the restroom building, so he hadn't seen Xavier's body lying there. Something he did note, though, was that, in his opinion, the truck driver who was parked in the truck lot closest to the bathroom facility should have definitely heard the attack, which is why it made it all the more puzzling to officials that neither Jean-Noewell nor any of the other drivers had dialed emergency services when the crime occurred. In the end, investigators followed this truck driver line of inquiry as far as they could. They questioned all the drivers, tested their hands for gunpowder residue,

and searched their trucks and trailers for any evidence associated with the crime. But nothing was found. And one by one, the drivers were all cleared. A key detail that officials did take away from Jean-Noelle's account, though, had to do with the fact that he'd said he hadn't seen any cars or vehicles leave the rest-up area right after he heard the gunshots, which implied, whoever the shooter was, likely had come and gone on foot. And wouldn't you know it, after authorities wrapped their ground searches, they discovered that there was a section of fence that went around the rest area that had been cut and flattened down,

almost as if someone had sliced through it to get in or out of the area undetected. If one were to have done that, it would have been a fairly easy parallel walk to the highway for someone to get away. Also near said flattened piece of fence was a partial footprint on the ground and a dry cigarette butt. Now, the cigarette butt being dry was an important detail also because, you see, it had been raining in that part of France shortly before the crime. So there was no way the cigarette butt could have been left well before the murder or else it would have gotten wet. The fact that it was dry strongly indicated it had been discarded recently. However, if it was the killers or just another piece of trash, no one knew for sure. Investigators also interviewed Xavier's sons, who were elementary school age at the time,

but neither of them were awake when their dad was murdered. They didn't hear any gunshots, but one of them did mention he might have heard a scream, which wasn't a detail any of the truck drivers who'd heard the gunshots remembered. So I'm not sure what to make of that information, just given the boys' ages and level of awareness in the middle of the night. It's difficult to know for sure whether one of them thought they heard even happened. During their first conversation with police, Xavier's sons hadn't even been told their dad was dead. They went over what they knew, but it mostly involved him making just a few

stops during their road trip back to Belgium. The boys recalled pulling over at least three times after leaving their campsite in Jouilleuse. They stopped one side of gas station, one set of rest area, and then finally at the Melvo Resto. And toll receipts investigators had collected from Xavier's car corroborated those movements. The record showed that Xavier had left the south of France on Highway A7, headed toward Lyon, then he'd taken Highway A6 and passed through a toll. booth in another area before eventually getting on the A-31, which is the highway Malvo Rest area is located off of. Something investigators couldn't get to the bottom of, though, was the source of a text

message that one of the boys said he'd remembered his dad had received just prior to stopping for the last time. Authorities had recovered Xavier's cell phone at the crime scene and begun forensically analyzing it, but they were never able to determine who'd sent that middle of the night last text message, because apparently the tech analyzing the phone had been unable to turn it back on. I don't know if that means the device died at the crime scene and then once police got there, they couldn't get into it or what. But from what I was able to find in the available source material, the text message history of Xavier's device wasn't something authorities were ever able to

retrieve. The only info about this that police could confirm was that none of Xavier's relative said they'd texted him while he was approaching the parking lot. When his autopsy was completed nearly a week after the crime, investigators learned that not all five of the shots that had been five had actually been fatal. Le Republicans' coverage stated that one of the rounds struck Xavier in his abdomen and another fatally damaged his skull. There were also two bullet wounds on his hands that authorities surmised had likely come from him trying to defend himself.

A fifth shot had been fired near the base of his neck and pierced his body but exited. To try and make headway by early August, investigators in France had started to turn their attention more towards Xavier himself, where he lived, his background, and so forth. Coverage by Le Republicans explained that French officials had asked Belgian authorities to begin their own investigation into Xavier's life to try and determine if there were any clues there that might point to why this happened. I assume the reason that French authorities couldn't do this themselves was because potential sources of information in Belgium were legally outside their jurisdictional grasp. But try as they might, authorities in Belgium couldn't find

anything suspicious in Xavier's life. He didn't have a criminal record. He didn't have a criminal record, nor anything in his background that overtly stood out as a reason someone would want him dead. A robbery motive was also ruled out pretty quickly because nothing of value like his bag and cell phone had been taken from the crime scene. So that's why I think investigators in France wanted to look at him more closely. That effort was ongoing even when Friday, August 5th, rolled around. That was the day Xavier's family laid him to rest in Nivelle. Hundreds of people attended the funeral, but because the circumstances of his murder were still under investigation and the killer was at large, there were some safety concerns for his family members.

So it seems for either their protection or perhaps just their preference, his actual burial ceremony in his family's vault was a very private service. At the time of his murder, Xavier worked as a technician for a British pharmaceutical company called GSK. He was described as single, but like I mentioned earlier, he and his ex-wife Mahala remained very close because of their co-parenting situation. And it was their relationship history that, for a time, grabbed investigators' interest. Some of the first people authorities interviewed from Xavier's life were his ex-wife, Mahala, and her partner at the time, Jose. While questioning Jose, investigators asked to see his text message history and most recent phone calls,

but that information on his device had been deleted. Jose's response, when asked why all that data was gone, was to say that it was normal for him to delete his texts and call history. Now, full disclosure, my husband and older sister are both like Jose. They almost immediately delete anything on their phone that isn't top of mind for them. And they've explained it to me as their way of reducing their chances of getting overstimulated, which I can understand. However, I, on the other hand, have text messages in my phone literally as I speak, which are like four and five years old.

I know that's probably anxiety-inducing for some of you, but my point is everyone organizes their phone or deletes texts and call history differently. Not having your most recent activity on your device isn't necessarily suspicious. But in Jose's case, investigators weren't letting up. It's very possible that Mahala and Xavier might not have been like through through despite being divorced. According to some of the source material I read, including an interview Mahela gave to the television, she and Xavier were considering getting back together or even planning to be remarried. So investigators had to consider whether Jose, the new partner, might have been jealous,

of their relationship or had a motive to want Xavier gone. But Jose personally being the shooter wasn't a viable theory because he was with Mahala in Belgium several hours away from the crime scene when the shooting occurred. Still, authorities speculated whether he might have hired someone to take out Xavier. But Jose's response to coming under suspicion was that he didn't hold any ill will towards his partner's former husband and he'd accepted the fact that if they got back together, he'd need to move on. Not to mention, there was zero evidence.

pointing to Jose being involved. All officials had were circumstantial theories. Mejala later told the Irish son that Jose being considered a person of interest was, in her opinion, total nonsense. Naturally, she was also questioned by officials, but it became apparent right away that she was not involved in what happened to Xavier. She was described as a loving mom who would never have wanted this to happen to her ex-husband, especially since their kids were with him. She retained a lawyer and cooperated fully with the French officials who were heading up the investigation, but as time passed with no progress, she later told the Irish son that the way she was treated was an outrage and that authorities would not give her any information about the case when she'd asked.

It was no secret that French authorities suspected Xavier's murder was potentially a contract killing. The prosecutor handling the case told reporters as much at a press conference in late September 2011. Something that didn't align with a hitman theory, though, was the fact that apparently Xavier had decided at the last minute to come home early. According to the coverage, his plans to return overnight on the 18th into the early morning hours of the 19th were only known to a few people. His parents, Mahala, his best friend who he texted about having a barbecue with and his young sons. So it seemed almost unbelievable that a contract killer would have known where he'd be at any given time in his trip unless they were following him. The prosecutor explained that there were 13 investigators working the case around the clock, and the collaboration between French and Belgian authorities was going well.

The problem was the case was just challenging. Authorities had to comb through a vast amount of information, including lots of video that had been captured on the roadways at toll booths around Movo Restop that night. They also went through records for people who'd committed speeding violations, you know, just in case one of those motorists could have been involved. But those leads led nowhere. Around the same time as the prosecutor's press conference, Xavier's parents and Mahala traveled to Nancey to have a long meeting with officials about the case. A few months later, in January 2012, the ballistics testing on the shell casings from the crime scene had concluded, and the findings were eye-opening.

The lab that had examined the evidence determined that the exact type of gun that had been used in the crime was a rifle which had last been manufactured for military use in 1958, so a very old friend. firearm. It was specifically a Schmidt-Rubin K-31 model. An expert who was interviewed by La Republican explained that this particular type of gun had been issued to members of the Swiss army from the early 1930s to the 1950s. It was a bolt-action rifle that had a slide you'd have to like manually maneuver to eject a spent round and reload a new one. Meaning with respect to this crime, it wasn't the type of weapon most people would pick if they were going to try and shoot someone five times in a row at close range. The source material essentially described this gun as a collectible, which might have been a clue

about the killer in and of itself. The question was, who would have had such an old firearm and why? Was it a weapon that had been passed down from one generation to the next, or had it been obtained more recently by someone with a particular interest in collectible guns? I'm sure the police were asking all those questions. And to try and get answers, they interviewed gun dealers who'd sold K-31 models or 7.55. of caliber ammunition. They also let other officials across France and neighboring countries know that they were trying to identify who would have possessed such an unusual gun. A firearms expert

who spoke with the Republican explained that the specific caliber ammo the shooter used was difficult to come by in France. According to him, there were more units of that kind of ammunition sold in Belgium. Also noteworthy was the fact that in France, a Schmidt-Rubin K-31 rifle was considered a war-caliber firearm, meaning there were stringent restrictions on where you could store it and where you could operate it. The firearms expert that spoke with the newspaper said that most folks, for fear of getting in trouble, would never put it in their personal vehicle, because French law stated it could only be operated as part of a shooting activity, like at a gun range or in a shooting competition. There had been about 600,000 of these rifles made, but the upside was

that each gun left a unique trace of itself on rounds that were fired from it. So, ballistic Basically speaking, police knew they were looking for a one-of-one somewhere. But by the one-year anniversary in July 2012, no suspects had been identified, and the case remained unsolved. A French deputy prosecutor told the press at that time that despite exploring all avenues of investigation, there appeared to be no reason for why Xavier had been the victim of such a ruthless crime. By that point, the investigation had been handed over to a new judge for review, and it seemed that the Bolligants and Mahal's patience with authorities was wearing thin. The public, the press, and even Xavier's family couldn't help but speculate about what

might have happened. Some coverage suggested the theory that he might have witnessed something at the rest area he wasn't meant to see, a drug deal perhaps, or something else sketchy that he had no connection to but was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the fall of 2012, the case made a resurgence in news headlines when once again, a lone gunman struck on a mountain road in France, murdering a family of tourists and a local cyclist before disappearing into landscape. These are the Lake Anisee killings from September 2012 that I mentioned at the start of the episode. The victims in that crime were British citizens, Sad al-Hili, his wife Iqbal Al-Hili, and Iqbal's mother, Sahela, as well as French cyclist Silvan Molié. The only survivors of that attack

were Sad and Iqbal's two young daughters. That case remains unsolved as well, but early on, authorities looking into the quadruple homicide case couldn't help but notice the similarities between the two crimes, including the fact that a unique Swiss Army firearm had been used in both incidents. The only big difference was that the gun used in the Lake Anisee killings was a Swiss-made pistol, and the firearm in Xavier's case was a rifle. Still, authorities and both investigations began to collaborate and share information to see if there was a connection. It was hard to ignore the fact that the Lake Anisee victims had all been gunned down

while traveling and enjoying recreation activities while in southern France. The Alhili's and Xavier were both in cars that had had been gunned down. foreign license plates, which could have been a detail that alerted their attackers that they weren't from the country. There was also the fact that the shooters had not killed any of the children present at both crime scenes. With respect to the Lake Anisee case, Mahala, Xavier's ex, told the Irish son, quote, I pray this new lead will finally help catch the person who took away my children's father. If it does prove to be the same killer who murdered the British family, fresh clues may emerge. I desperately hope so.

Until now, there has been so much speculation and so few answers. End quote. Xavier's grandfather spoke with that same news outlet and echoed Mahala's comments. He told the publication straight up that he believed the cases were connected. But an official link has never been established between the two crimes. Around the two-year anniversary of Xavier's murder, the lieutenant colonel who'd been the supervisor of his case transferred out. The second judge assigned to the investigation had moved on as well. and for a while the case file was waiting for a third judge to take over.

At that point, a lawyer who'd become a spokesman for the Balagant family told the press that from their side of the fence, the status of the investigation was disheartening. This lawyer had written letters and called the second judge for a while but never heard anything back. He explained to La Republican that Xavier's family and supporters were disillusioned by the whole thing and all they could do was hold out hope that maybe the gun used in the murder would surface again in another crime, or that in time people who were loyal to the killer would no longer be so loyal. In 2016, on the five-year anniversary of the crime, Xavier's mother Katia told a reporter for De H. Le Spore that she wouldn't give up until the truth was known.

Earlier that year, Xavier's dad, John Luke, had passed away, never knowing who killed their son, and Katia was adamant that justice needed to be served. She explained to the news outlet that living every day without answers was difficult. She said, quote, I don't sleep. anymore, or almost. I never really got over it. Since my husband's death, it's even harder to live. I feel even sadder. Many people tell me that we will probably never know what really happened, but I want to know who killed my son and why. I want to know the truth." End quote. Shortly before the six-year anniversary in 2017, the family's lawyer told a Belgian news publication that he'd learned from French officials that DNA had been found in Xavier's car,

and reportedly that DNA was linked to someone who was already known to French investigators. However, later coverage by RTL News explained that the DNA was found on the car's dashboard, but it didn't actually come back to anyone. So it seems that the family's lawyer might have been mistaken. I don't know, it's hard to sort that discrepancy out. But what's wild to me is that this lawyer was reportedly no longer in touch with Katya, Xavier's mother at that time. In fact, she said she learned about this whole DNA development from watching the news, which to me is probably awful to go through.

And sadly, she would never get the answers she desperately wanted. Reporting by Patrick Michal stated that by 2021, Katia had passed away too, and the only surviving family of Xavier's that were still around were his sons and siblings. For the past few years, new and old theories have emerged that have tried to make sense of his murder. A book has come out, a documentary, and of course, routine news articles. Some folks still speculate that the Unsolved Lake Anisee murders are linked to his case. But without concrete proof, it's all just speculation. I read an article by La Republican that cited reporting by French newspaper La Parisian

that stated, as recent as February 2025, authorities had determined that the same Danish camper had been camping where the Alhili's were in September 2012, and also staying at a campsite about 12 miles away from the rest area where Davier was killed in 2011. That detail is super interesting to me, especially when, when I read about something else that was discovered in 2025. According to the coverage, authorities were viewing the evidence in Xavier's case went back and tested nine cigarette butts that had been collected from the crime scene. They discovered that four of those cigarette butts contain Xavier's DNA,

which makes sense, at least according to one source I saw, because back in the day, his sons had apparently told police that they remembered seeing their dad take his pack of cigarettes with him when he left to go use the restroom. But what's strange is that according to some other reporting published in 2025, Xavier apparently didn't smoke cigarettes regularly. And that night, reportedly, he didn't have a pack with him. One of his sons told a reporter that he didn't specifically remember seeing his dad smoke during the holidays. However, he and his brother were pretty young at the time and weren't paying very close attention.

For the sake of theorizing, let's just go with the reporting that stated Xavier did have his own pack of cigarettes. What I can't understand is how in just a few minutes he was supposedly gone to the restroom, he managed to smoke and discard four of them. I'm not personally a smoker, but that seems like a lot for one quick pit stop. RTL's coverage suggested that the number of butts left behind with Xavier's DNA on them could mean he spent longer than anyone originally thought outside the toilet facilities building. But there's contradictory evidence regarding Xavier even using the restroom at all that night. Turns out when his autopsy was done, the pathologist noted that his bladder was full when he was killed,

which means unless he relieved himself for the other reason, it's kind of odd he still had urine in his bladder. Do the cigarette butts with his DNA mean he stood there and smoked for a bit? Is the reporting that he didn't have his own pack to be believed? If so, then where did the cigarettes come from? What about the other butts? And don't even get me started on wanting to know everything about that dry cigarette butt that was found by the cut fence. whose DNA is on that? I've been asking myself all of these questions for years, but to date, there are still no clear

answers. According to reporting by Eric Nicholas, as of March 26, Xavier's case has been transferred to a national cold case unit for additional evaluation. As part of my reporting, I reached out to Xavier's ex-wife, Mahala, for an interview, but as of this recording, I've not heard back. It's heartbreaking to me that she and Xavier's sons have had to go so long without answers. They've had to grow up without their dad. It's terrifying to think that they were so close to his killer, and yet so far. I hope that if any of you listening heard details in today's episode

that stand out to you, or you have familiarity with the collectible firearms market, particularly in the parts of Europe I've talked about. Kindly get in touch with the National Unit for Serial or Unsolved Crimes with France's Ministry of Justice, which is handling the investigation. A link on how to do that is in the blog post for this episode, as well as in the show notes. Park Predators is an audio Chuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpreditors.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, at Park Predators.

I think Chuck would approve.