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[Marilou Bonnier] And then opened my parents'
apartment door,
and I saw two officers,
and I was like, "Oh, I think that's bad."
[Jasmine Lebeau] I want to know what's happening.
I want to know, I'm the mom.
She said, "She's dead."
[Bénédicte Lebel] When I got there, a lot of...
police were still there,
and a lot of people that were traumatized
because they heard something, they saw something.
We learned pretty early
that it was a 24-year-old female.
You get to see on different cameras
that he just follows her to the streets,
and you get to see that, really, the plan was there.
He waited for her, and then followed her to the home.
And it's like you can...
live what happened almost live.
[Jasmine] They were all sorry that they couldn't do anything,
but there was nothing to do.
It was too fast, too brutal.
Welcome to Crime Beat. I'm Antony Robart.
On October 19th, 2021, a Montreal woman
living and working near McGill University
was violently attacked and killed.
With the horrific incident captured on video
and numerous eyewitnesses,
it was seemingly an open and shut case.
But as her family would soon discover,
justice doesn't always come easily.
Here now is Dan Spector with "A Part of Me Died."
♪ Nothing seems to be lasting ♪
[Spector] Romane Bonnier was drawn to the arts
from a very young age.
[Marilou] Broadway star, nothing less.
She wanted to land stuff here in Montreal
for her CV and then go off to New York.
[Spector] She decided to pursue singing
and acting as a career
with the enthusiastic support of her family.
[Guy Bonnier] She was at a few days of her first
professional paid gig,
and we were so proud.
That was a Shakespeare.
I was so proud because she worked so hard.
[Spector] It was 2021. Romane was 24 years old.
She was very driven in her career and her goals.
No, no, no, we're--
we're supposed to check up on mom in, like, 10 minutes.
[Marilou] Yeah, she worked really hard.
No, it's not.
[Spector] Along with her new acting gig,
she was still helping out at the family business,
a lighting store near the heart
of downtown Montreal,
just a few blocks from McGill University.
[Jasmine] She worked the front desk,
customer service, and she took
a lot of the order by phone.
[Spector] And that's where she was on that chilly
October afternoon in 2021.
[Jasmine] She finished at 4:30 and I finished at 5:00.
So we were at the door
and I kissed her on the forehead.
She was always tilt her head like that
so I can kiss her there.
And I said, "I'm going to miss you tomorrow."
And...
that's the last words I told her.
Well, tomorrow became eternity.
Yeah.
[Spector] In-person learning had just recently resumed
following a year-long pause during the COVID-19 pandemic.
So the neighborhood was bustling with students
returning home from class.
Romane was living in the same apartment building
as her parents, renting one of the units below them.
Shortly after the 24-year-old left work,
her mother Jasmine closed up the shop and headed home,
just a few minutes walk away in the Milton Park area,
better known as the McGill Ghetto.
Jasmine, she was, like, coming from here
to the home and she said,
"There's a lot of cars, police car on the hallway."
[Spector] At first, it never occurred to them
that there was a connection.
[Guy] And we didn't know that it was, like, our daughter.
[Spector] As they're discussing the commotion outside,
they get a call from the hospital.
[Jasmine] The emergency doctor, she called me
and she asked me, "What's your relation
with Romane Bonnier?"
"I'm the mom," so she said,
"You have to come to the hospital right now
to the emergency."
So I put my phone on speaker and I said,
"I'm with my husband.
I want to know what's happening.
I want to know. I'm the mom."
She said, "She's dead."
[Spector] With their hearts racing, Romane's parents
started to understand all the sirens
and commotion outside had something to do
with their daughter.
[Guy] We had this instant reaction
of getting our things and go to the hospital.
But the entire neighborhood was blocked by police car.
- [camera shutter clicking] - [ominous music playing]
[Jasmine] We want to get to the hospital
because I have only one thing in my mind.
I have to see Romane. You know, we have to go there.
We have to go there, we may, you know, we may hold her.
[Guy] We called an Uber and the Uber was not able
to even come near the building.
And instantly we figure out this was probably...
the scene of what happened to Romane.
And so we went to the first officer
near the gate.
They were that kind of like, everything was blocked
and we said, "We're the parents."
And he just went, like, white.
[Jasmine] It was, like, at 100 feet from our door,
everything happened so, so near home.
[Lebel] I was probably busy covering something else
or finishing my day, but then the call came.
A police source called me and said to me
that a female was stabbed.
She was in critical condition. She would probably die.
I quickly went to the place
where it happened and it was kind of chaotic
still at the time that I got there.
I happened in a neighborhood
where there's a lot of students,
a lot of people at witness, what had happened?
A lot of people were shaken.
Scream was really violent and constant.
[interpreter] It makes you scared for your safety.
This is a neighborhood full of students.
[Lebel] When I got there, a lot of police were still there.
A lot of people were still there
and a lot of people that were traumatized
because they heard something, they saw something.
We learned pretty early
that it was a 24-year-old female
and we were like, like, everybody around was her age.
But we didn't know at the time all the details
of what had happened.
We felt that the people were shaken.
We felt that the people were touched directly
because it was a young lady.
It happens right where they walk every day.
And that's what I think
that was the element that shocked a lot of people.
When people explained to us
that they heard something from the window,
some others were really, really close when that happened.
[witness] I saw him come from behind
on the other side of the street and jump her
and I didn't realize that he had a knife at first.
I thought he might have just been punching her
but then I realized there was a knife and I saw blood.
[Lebel] We were kept away, obviously
a bit far from the scene,
but we could see as we could get closer,
still the blood.
[Spector] Romane's sister Marilou gets a call
from her parents and quickly senses something is wrong.
My dad called me and just told me,
"Hey, I want to tell you something,
you need to come home."
I remember pulling on Sherbrooke
and seeing the street
lit up with police cars.
Call it intuition, but for some reason I was like,
it has to be something about my sister.
And I called her, I called her to try
to get a response, obviously didn't.
[Spector] Marilou navigates around the emergency vehicles
and police tape.
She arrives at Guy and Jasmine's apartment.
And then opened my parents' apartment door
and I saw two officers
and I was like, "Oh, I think that's bad."
[Jasmine] He said, "Okay, I'm going to bring you
to the command center.
You're going to meet all the team and after that,
someone will escort you to the emergency."
But we never went.
- The body first. - We wouldn't be able
- to see her anyway. - Yeah, and it was not very,
something very nice to see either.
[Marilou] My mom just said she was attacked.
I still think about
the cry.
I was kind of wailing.
And I talked about it with my brother at some point.
And he told me, "This was the single
saddest sound I've ever heard."
I kept just thinking...
of what had happened, like
the act her literally dying.
The victim was immediately transported to the hospital
in critical condition.
We sadly have the confirmation
that she deceased at the hospital.
[reporter] She was stabbed several times
in the upper body.
Her alleged assailant was arrested on the scene.
He just went there, stabbed her and stayed there
in front of a lot of people
in broad daylight and he never tried to escape.
He stayed there and got arrested.
[interpreter] According to this other witness,
the man who committed the crime didn't try to escape.
[witness speaking in French]
[interpreter] The attacker stayed there
until the police arrived.
They didn't run after him.
He was just there and they took him
into the police car right here.
They said, "We arrest someone."
And I was like, "What? They arrest someone?"
I couldn't think of someone who wants to do harm to Romane.
She had too good heart. She was too kind.
Instantly, I asked, is his name François?
It went out of my mouth without thinking.
♪
Welcome back.
The family of Romane Bonnier came home
to find their Montreal neighborhood
swarming with police cars and a cordoned off crime scene.
They would soon discover the young victim
was their very own daughter.
We now return to Dan Spector with "A Part of Me Died."
[Lebel] As the night advanced,
we learned more and more details about it.
The first info that came in was that it may be related
to a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend.
[speaking in French]
[interpreter] Investigators are on the scene
to determine the link between the two.
Possibly two people who know each other.
First thing that came to my mind was,
my God, not another one, because around that time,
I remember covering in 2021 a lot of femicide.
We didn't know all the details at the time.
But since I covered the Crime Beat,
there has been a lot.
And that was the element
that crossed my mind, another one.
How quickly did you find out who she was?
Quickly we could put a face on the victim.
Because there was a lot of YouTube video,
and in the video she was singing,
she was all smiling.
And that's the image that we saw of Romane quickly.
♪ Here you come again ♪
[reporter] Romane Bonnier will be remembered
by many for her shining voice.
Her friends who called her Romy say,
her musical talent is among the many things
they will miss about their friend.
She was, like, the definition
of unique and an individual.
You know, she, like, marched to the beat of her own drum.
She didn't listen to anyone's opinion of her.
She knew who she was.
[Spector] With the tearful testimonies
of Romane Bonnier's friends
beginning to come out,
she quickly became a household name.
[Lebel] I think every time we get to see the face,
it all gets more concrete.
I think people relate more.
She was breathing happiness on those videos.
♪ That all I really know, is here you come again ♪
[Lebel] And now she wasn't even breathing anymore.
That was shocking.
[woman sobbing] [indistinct]
[Spector] Memorial began to grow
at the scene of the crime.
And amid the grief, questions about the suspect
began to grow louder.
It was more the next day that we started working
to try to understand a bit more who was that guy,
why did he attack her so violently in the street.
The motive of this aggression is still under investigation,
but what we can confirm is that
the victim and the suspect knew each other.
At the beginning, it wasn't that clear.
Was he her boyfriend? Was he her roommate?
[Spector] In the summer of 2021,
Romane had been living in an apartment
in the same building as her parents.
The 24-year-old was looking for a roommate,
so she posted an ad online.
A 36-year-old man named François Pelletier responded,
and he moved in, with an understanding
that he would be moving out that September.
Well, at first, we were not very okay with this idea.
- Comfortable... Yeah, but... - No. But, you know.
[Guy] She's an adult. She was, like, 24.
[Spector] The family felt a bit uneasy with a man
more than 10 years older than Romane
moving into her apartment, but they respected her choice.
Personally, I wouldn't have...
invited a man
whom I don't know into my home.
So I was surprised, I think,
at how she trusted this man or this platform.
And, yeah, he's a bit older, too.
Yeah, but, you know, at first, it was just a roommate, so...
In 2021, we went through a little lull
in our relationship,
where we had to find ourselves a little bit more.
We just drifted apart a little bit,
but the love was always there.
[Jasmine] I was working with her every day,
so "How is it going with your roommate?"
And she never mentioned him in other terms, that roommate.
I was walking the dog, and I saw Romane in the park
at the McGill University on the campus,
and she was like, they were, like, holding hands.
That afternoon, she introduced me to François Pelletier
She said, "This is my roommate, François."
I said, "Hi." He said, "Who are you?"
I said, "I'm the father." "Ah, all right."
So he was, like, suspicious of what was supposed to be
other than her father.
So I think...
- You got a bad vibe. - A bad vibe, yeah.
[Spector] On the afternoon of October 19th, 2021,
the day that Romane Bonnier was murdered,
François Pelletier is seen hopping onto a city bus.
He goes and sits at the back
and rides toward downtown Montreal.
Around the same time, Romane Bonnier is finishing up
her shift at her family's business.
Footage from different surveillance cameras
edited together by police shows Pelletier's movements.
Pelletier gets off the bus
and lurks near Romane's workplace.
Here he's seen crossing the street
and walking out of the frame.
He's pacing back and forth, waiting.
You get to see François Pelletier,
who just showed up to her work, wait for a long time.
[Spector] Romane Bonnier says goodbye to her mother Jasmine
and leaves the shop for the short walk
back to her apartment.
[Lebel] You get to see on different cameras
that he just follows her to the street.
And you get to see that really the plan was there.
He waited for her and then followed her to the home.
And it's like you can live what happened almost live.
[Spector] She walks up the hill
toward Sherbrooke Street.
Pelletier can be seen
picking up his pace to catch up with her.
He appears to be holding flowers in his left hand.
Romane crosses Sherbrooke Street
and enters the Milton Park area
near McGill University.
Pelletier jaywalks across the street
at the top of the frame, jogging through traffic.
He's now just steps behind her.
Romane continues her brisk walk toward home,
now in the area packed with students.
Pelletier, flowers in hand, increases his pace to a run.
Romane doesn't see it coming.
♪
Welcome back.
When 24-year-old Romane Bonnier
chose a new roommate for a short-term sublet,
her family questioned her choice,
an older man named François Pelletier.
Within months, the aspiring singer was dead,
leaving her family to confront a killer
who had gone to disturbing lengths
to hunt her down that fateful day.
Here again is Dan Spector with "A Part of Me Died."
♪ I'll make you so sure about it ♪
♪ God only knows what I'd be without you ♪
[Marilou] She was very protective.
She was always the bubbly one
and the life of the party.
We liked it when people couldn't tell us apart.
It's kind of a... because you're twins,
you're kind of supposed to fool people.
She had a mole over her lip,
so that was the defining trait for most people.
But, you know, when we were both in our ballet attire
with a bun and, like, the same costume,
it would be hard to tell us apart.
[Spector] Romane and Marilou, I mean, obviously,
as identical twins, there's a special bond, right?
[Jasmine] There was a special bond.
It was a very nice period for the family.
When you found that out that you were going to have twins,
- I guess it's always a shock. - It was a good shock.
It was a shock, but I already had two boys.
It went well. It went very well.
Well, I remember when we got the news,
I had to sit down.
But it was marvelous.
♪ Building me a home ♪
[Marilou] She loved to sing...
♪ Thinking I'd be strong there ♪
...as I do, too, I think
we got that part from early on childhood.
We used to both sing in the bath together,
Disney songs, she would do covers.
She even did a few original songs.
♪ And I think to myself ♪
♪ What a wonderful world ♪
[Marilou] I think she started that during the pandemic,
the YouTube videos.
She was training by herself.
She was doing ballet in her apartment.
At some point, she even had a trampoline in her apartment,
which we made fun of all the time.
[Jasmine] I worked with Romane, and I said,
"How is your life?"
And she said, "Oh, okay. Dad told you."
"Told me what?"
And then she said, "Oh, well,
François and I, we're together."
"Oh..." so I said, "...okay, you're together."
But she wasn't telling everything.
We were not informed that they were lovers,
and she never said my friend.
It was always a roommate.
[Marilou] I met him once. We ate at their apartment.
Seemed fine.
At some point, she called me to get...
some insight, because she was wanting
to step back from her relationship with him,
and he was not giving her the space.
She never said she was worried about her safety or anything.
She was just asking
if it's normal, "What should I do?"
And at that time, I told her, "Listen, if he does love you
like he says he does, he needs to give you space."
[Jasmine] So he was moving out,
and I must say that
when he left, I was relieved.
I met him when he moved out at the door of the building,
and I wish him good luck.
[Spector] So you didn't know that there was a sort of
complicated situation afoot,
or that he had been sending her these text messages?
The complications became after, after he left.
With Romane saying that he was, like,
insisting and texting her a lot.
[Jasmine] She wrote to him. She went to his new place.
Despite all that, he was harassing her.
So at one point, I told her,
"Why don't you block his contact?"
And she said she didn't want to.
She protected him, because she told me that
he told her that he could commit suicide.
[Marilou] In retrospect, I think she felt embarrassed
or worried and didn't want to worry us.
And even her best friends at the time
didn't hear much about it.
About 10 days before the murder,
he went here, and I just opened the door,
and I said, "Well, Romane is not there.
She has a rehearsal."
So he said, "Can you please tell her to answer me?"
I said, "Well, maybe she needs a break,
but I'll do the message."
And... that's it.
You said he had a weird vibe, did you feel something similar,
- or did you just sort of... - Not the first time.
The first time, he was very polite, solid guy,
you know, good handshake.
But the last time at the door, he was, like,
a bit troubled, but in pain.
He was having a hard time with the situation,
the relationship situation, I guess.
She didn't tell everything,
because we learned a lot of things during the trial.
The suspect, François Pelletier,
appeared in court Wednesday.
He faces a single charge of first-degree murder.
The 36-year-old will remain detained
until his next court appearance.
We knew a few elements.
She was working. She was getting home.
That was the lines that we knew, basically.
But when we went to court in the trial,
then we learned really all the events,
like a plea by plea of what happened that day.
The trial of a man accused of murdering a woman
in broad daylight in the McGill Ghetto in 2021
heard from multiple witnesses.
24-year-old artist Romane Bonnier
was stabbed to death.
Our Dan Spector was at the Montreal courthouse
and joins us from there now.
Dan, the jury was shown
surveillance video of the crime.
How did the courtroom react?
Andrea, it was stunned and somber silence
as the surveillance footage was played for the jury.
[woman screaming] [indistinct]
Mind your own [bleep] business.
[Spector] As bystanders scream in horror,
Pelletier tells them to mind their own business.
- [Pelletier] I'm so sorry. - He apologizes repeatedly,
sitting over her as horrified witnesses call 911.
One man approaches and Pelletier
brandishes a knife in his direction.
Police are on the scene in moments
as the sirens grow louder.
[police sirens wailing]
[Lebel] You heard all the screamings,
you see the final moments.
That was really, really hard to see.
And you get to understand she had no chance.
He had a plan. He wanted to kill her.
And he said, "I'm sorry."
He was there to do that. And he never tried to escape.
He stayed there and got arrested.
That seems like that was the goal
that he needed to accomplish
at that time, kill Romane Bonnier.
[Spector] Marilou and her mother made the decision
not to watch the video and still never have.
[Marilou] I knew it wouldn't help me.
I heard some stuff that I had wished that I hadn't heard.
And so I was at a point in the trial where I knew
it wouldn't serve me well.
[Jasmine] I did not see it. I didn't want to see it.
I didn't want to hear her. I didn't want to see it.
I-- I-- I stayed for all the witnesses
who described what they saw.
Each of them, we thanked them because they were all sorry
that they couldn't do anything, but there was nothing to do.
♪
Welcome back.
François Pelletier is on trial
for the murder of his former roommate,
Romane Bonnier, who was killed
in a daylight attack near Montreal's McGill University.
But what unfolded in the courtroom
would be a shock for the family all over again.
Here again is Dan Spector with "A Part of Me Died."
[Spector] The jury heard testimony from six people
who witnessed the alleged crime in the McGill Ghetto,
which was described as dramatic,
vivid, and extreme.
Some came across the events as they were walking by,
others watched the drama unfold
through their bedroom windows.
Witnesses recounted hearing a woman unleash
blood-curdling screams before seeing a man
on top of her, stabbing her multiple times.
They said he screamed things like,
"This had to happen, I'm so sorry,
I had to kill her,
I didn't want to have to do this,
but she has to die."
One former McGill student said at one point
she saw the man with flowers in one hand
and a knife in the other.
She and a friend ran toward the scene, hoping to help.
The man then brandished a knife in their direction,
telling them to mind their own business
as they laid eyes on the woman covered in blood.
A growing crowd of people watched in horror,
screaming for the violence to stop,
others taking photos or videos before police arrived
and arrested the suspect without a struggle.
According to court testimony, Pelletier stabbed Bonnier
more than two dozen times.
[Jasmine] Seventeen of those were in vital organs,
so there was nothing anyone could do.
And those witnesses are,
for their life, like us, they are...
- They were traumatized. - Traumatized.
Guy, you didn't watch the video?
I did. And I'll tell you why.
It put an end to my fantasy.
It put an end to me imagining the scene.
It was the time where I'm supposed to walk the dog,
- so I could have... - [Jasmine] Seen her.
...seen her, I could have seen the murder,
I mean, and this is the kind of stuff,
that was my nightmare.
[Spector] The first-degree murder trial
permitted the family to finally learn the details
of what happened.
But getting there took a lot longer
and was a lot harder than they ever expected.
[Guy] You think that what you saw on TV
is like the real thing,
but the real thing is really worse.
I remember checking the process and waiting.
We were waiting to know when it would begin,
then more delays.
Four years before the trial,
four years where all your life is like on standby.
[Guy] And it was all due to the fact
that he was representing himself
and then he was not representing himself
and then he decided to have a lawyer and then he decided
that he was representing himself.
For the family, when they hear that
the accused is going to represent himself,
they're scared.
It becomes a circus.
[Guy] It's a freak show, I'm sorry,
and you're wondering, when is it going to stop?
He never denied,
but he never quite explained it, neither,
in his defense.
It was more like a...
strange, erratic theories.
[Spector] In court, François Pelletier
admitted to killing Romane,
but pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Prosecutors theorized that he planned her murder
because he could not accept the idea
of her being with other men.
It's not in all the cases
that you have such strong evidence
where it's not possible to deny it happened.
All the images were there.
So the main point of this trial
was more a state of mind
than the actions because we could see.
[Spector] Because Pelletier had no lawyer to guide
and question him on the witness stand,
he attempted to defend himself
by delivering long monologues.
[Lebel] The guy would just go on and on and on
towards so many directions
that were often pointing to nowhere.
[Guy] It's a shock.
He has been allowed to question himself,
and it lasts five days and a half.
♪ In the sky, you'll get by ♪
♪ If you smile through your fear and sorrow ♪
[Guy] She was supposed to be a witch,
and he was killing the witch.
He was not killing Romane.
- She had a double personality. - Yeah, yeah.
And the second personality was taking over the good one.
[Marilou] He's a soldier of God.
There's a few phrases
that have struck with me.
It was a six-day monologue.
And sometimes the judge would tell him
to stick to the point,
but then it would start all over again.
[Spector] Pelletier spoke about becoming obsessed with her
soon after the pair became roommates.
The Crown presented a vast collection of text messages
and letters Pelletier had written to Romane.
He was jealous, he was possessive,
and so that we learned at the trial.
That we didn't know.
That was kind of shocking to hear during the trial.
She told me that he was texting her a lot,
but I didn't know that much.
[Spector] Marilou had discovered handwritten letters
and turned them over to police.
Yeah, I found them in her drawer at some point,
and they were like...
pages and pages.
He would say like, "I love you,"
"We need to work on this,"
and like, "I can't wait to have a life with you,"
and like, "We can prevail."
But very, very insisting language.
I remember speaking to one of Romane's friends that day,
and she would describe to me the relationship
Romane had with François Pelletier,
that she wasn't happy anymore.
She described him as a monster.
[Spector] Pelletier described his murder plot
as Operation Wrath of Heaven.
He told the jury that Romane had to die.
There was no other solution.
He said in court that he had to do it
to protect her, and that by stabbing her to death,
he had prevented the apocalypse.
At the end of the day, it was like,
my goodness, this is impossible.
This is like a sitcom, and saying,
I'm still in love with her.
I mean, this is a nonsense.
[Marilou] The relationship lasted four months,
and at the end of it,
you decided she didn't deserve to live.
So that really didn't work well with me.
And hearing him say, he still loves her,
and she's a queen, and it's like,
you don't get to say that.
He was trying to make it as if my sister
had something to do about it.
And I'm still not sure if he was playing a, like,
mentally ill person,
or he really believed that she had bewitched him.
[Spector] One of the expert witnesses called by the Crown
was forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gilles Chamberlain.
He said in his eyes, a verdict of non-criminally responsible
due to mental health reasons was not a possibility.
That Pelletier was in touch with reality
at the time of the murder,
just overwhelmed by pain and rage.
And he said that he knew
what he was doing, that he just wouldn't accept
that the relationship was over.
I was relieved.
I was like, oh, thank God, somebody,
you know, saw that, that he's not crazy,
and he's just a very manipulative,
narcissist person.
[Spector] Pelletier had been diagnosed
with obsessive-compulsive disorder in childhood,
and had been hospitalized at age 18
after having suicidal thoughts following another breakup.
[Guy] That led him to think
in a compulsive way
that she was, like, the woman of his life.
And from there, it went south.
[Jasmine] More and more, I was realizing that,
how can Romane get rid of this man?
Because a judge and the...
- The prosecutor, - ...and five lawyers
cannot control him.
How could she ever be able
to say to that man, no, it's no.
You know, it's finished.
♪ I looked at the skies ♪
♪ Running my hands over my eyes ♪
♪ And I fell out of bed ♪
Welcome back.
As Romane Bonnier's family grieved,
her twin sister also had to face
learning to live without her other half.
Amidst their heartbreak, the family clung to hope
that Romane's murder would not be in vain
by exposing a much darker systemic crisis.
Here now is Dan Spector
with the conclusion of "A Part of Me Died."
[reporter speaking in French]
[interpreter] Nearly four years after the events,
Romane Bonnier's parents can finally
breathe a sigh of relief.
François Pelletier, 39 years old,
was found guilty this morning for the murder
of their daughter in October 2021.
He automatically gets a sentence of life in prison
without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
Did you feel a sense of justice?
Yes, of course, but--
Yes and no, I mean,
I was still in the shock wave
of discovering our judicial system.
[Jasmine] Romane was murdered.
There are 30 witnesses.
He was there on the crime scene.
When he was arrested there, it's simple in a way.
It shouldn't be a...
almost two months in the court room, you know.
The system gives the accused a lot of privileges.
[Spector] Bonnier points out how in France,
people are not permitted to represent themselves
in court when dealing with a serious criminal accusation.
Why, because you're not a lawyer
and it's very hard to manage
the 2,700 pages of the criminal code.
[Eric Sutton] You can't realistically
represent yourself, in my opinion,
on such serious charges.
I mean, it's foolish and ill-advised.
[Spector] Criminal lawyer Eric Sutton says
though he doesn't think it's a good idea
for an accused to defend themselves
against serious charges, it remains their right.
Ultimately, the most important feature of a trial
is to ensure that the accused has a fair hearing
and that the verdict is defensible
because he or she has had a fair hearing.
It could be therapeutic for some victims,
it could be traumatic for other victims,
but that's not the paramount purpose of a trial.
It's to determine the guilt or innocence of an accused.
The person may be so narcissistic
that they believe that they are quite capable
or they just want a grandstand.
[Guy] I had some communication
with the Minister of Justice, Sean Fraser.
It appears that the minister is open
to modify the law
or change the law or at least better frame
this situation of people representing themselves.
I understand the criticism, but it's probably the best
we can do because the system generally works.
[Guy] I don't have any animosity
against François Pelletier,
I mean he's going to finish his life in prison,
I mean, he's just someone
that our society didn't detect
at the beginning to taking care of.
[Spector] Even in those first few days
following Romane's death,
as her family dealt with their unspeakable grief,
they got a big boost from their community.
[reporter] The march began outside of Fay School,
where Romane Bonnier was a former student.
Friends, family and teachers thought
it would be a good place to remember
the 24-year-old budding singer.
Romane was a performer artist and it was a way for us
and the family to...
give her a show, her last show.
This whole day, I think I didn't cry once
because I was so happy that everyone came for her.
We were lucky and we were fortunate to be able
to fill this void with love we received
from all those people we don't know.
I want to thank them, everyone.
[Marilou] I was amazed.
In as little as 23 years,
or 24, she had touched so many lives.
[reporter] Her death is considered Quebec's
17th femicide this year.
Those who attended Saturday's gathering
not only wanted to remember Romy,
but also wanted to bring attention to the violence
she and many other women have faced.
If we haven't been in a violent situation,
we all know someone who's been in a violent situation.
I think it's time that we get together,
talk about it and make change.
There's a huge question to ask ourselves as a society.
What's happening? What's going around?
[Jasmine] I didn't think femicide
was for a family like us, but I was wrong.
Femicide can touch anyone and everyone.
[Lebel] How can we prevent this?
How is it happening again? How is it going to stop?
They have to get out in the streets
and say, it's enough.
It's really hard for those women to quit
and to leave, especially because they know
that around separation,
or imminent separation,
is the moment where it's the most dangerous for them.
There are red flags here and there.
I think we have to talk more about coercive control
because those signs are really important.
They're present in almost all the cases of femicide.
They're before the femicide happens.
[Spector] Guy Bonnier has become an advocate
for victims of femicides
and for reform in the justice system
to make the painful process easier for families.
Romane's mother, Jasmine, says when walking home
past the scene of the crime, she'll often touch this tree,
a little hello to her daughter.
[Jasmine] I'm writing a book right now.
I'm writing about my experience with Romane.
I feel her. I can sense her energy.
So that helped me a lot.
And I want some people who experience
the same thing maybe helped.
[Marilou] I'm preparing a documentary
on twinless twins, so twins that lost twins.
♪ I'm still, I'm still Jenny from the block ♪
Me and Romane, sometimes it would come up
of like, who's going to go first?
And it would always end up
in us bawling in each other's arms
because is it better to be left alone or to leave?
We were born together.
It's kind of a new concept almost for us
to not to live with the other.
So I hope to help twins
to make peace with this grief.
If her death can change something
in the lives of people, you know,
it wouldn't have been completely in vain.
It's Belle, the princess from Beauty and the Beast,
and it was the favorite princess.
When we went to Japan, I brought her.
I brought the figurine with us.
And I have a few pictures in Japan with Belle
in the middle of the street as Romane.
And during trial, I had her also.
[Spector] How do you want her to be remembered?
How do you remember Romane?
[Guy] Romane, the princess, the actress, the singer.
♪ I've played all my card ♪
♪ And that's what you've done too ♪
[Guy] The wannabe Broadway star,
and she had the talent to do so,
and this is how I like to remember her.
♪ The winner takes it all ♪
♪ The loser standing small ♪
♪ Beside the victory ♪
♪ That's her destiny ♪
I remember at the few days after her death,
I had this dream where we were together,
and I was asking her a question,
and she described me what happened,
and I asked her, "Did you suffer?"
And she said, "Oh, a little. It went very fast.
I went out of my body in, like, less than a minute."
[Marilou] She wanted everyone to feel good.
I think that was her sole purpose.
I want people to know that she was kind-hearted
and caring for more people
than she could have known in her life.
Such a generous light...
in this world.
Just a wonderful soul.
♪ I looked at the skies ♪
♪ Running my hands ♪
♪ Over my eyes ♪
[Antony] François Pelletier has begun the process
of appealing the guilty verdict based on the argument
that the trial judge aired in his instructions
regarding the murder,
and more specifically how his mental state
was likely to negate the specific intent to kill.
Romane's family keeps her memory close
and plans to continue advocating for justice reform
and femicide awareness in her honor.
♪ The winner takes it all ♪
♪ The loser has to fall ♪
Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat.
I'm Antony Robart.
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