Pierre Roux: The Case Of Arson

Pierre Roux had been an outstanding detective, or so he had believed till he came across the case of arson in which a 25-year-old man was found burnt to his death in his apartment. After further investigation, the man was found to be Nicolas Garcia, a college student studying at University of Manitoba.

Nicolas Garcia was an out of province student who came to Manitoba from British Columbia for post-secondary studies. He was an aspiring Doctor who was going to start his residency at the Seven Oaks General Hospital in September. His parents, Mateo Garcia and Mary Garcia, were both family physicians who owned a clinic by the name of Garcia clinics located at Surrey Central on King George Blvd.

When Nicholas’ parents were contacted about the

incident they said that the last time Nicholas had contacted his parents was three weeks prior to the incident. They reported that Nicholas had been feeling nervous for his upcoming residency however he was also excited and they could not believe what had happened to him.

Suzan Taylor – Nicholas’ neighbour – was the one who called the police and reported smoke coming out of Nicholas’ apartment.

Suzan Taylor, 23 years old, was also a student at the University of Manitoba. In her testimony, she says that she was going to take her dog, Max, on a walk when she smelled something burning and noticed that there was smoke coming out of Nicholas’ apartment door. She continues and says that after notifying the police she had tried opening the door but was unable to do so.

When the police – along with the fire brigade – had reached the scene, the flames had already engulfed the door to Nicholas’ apartment. By the time the fire was extinguished, the kitchen and the living room were already burnt, however the bedroom and the bathroom still had objects which were not completely harmed by the fire. In the mess caused by the fire, Nicholas’ body was found in the

kitchen.

Pierre Roux was the one who was put in charge of Nicholas’ case. After looking at the pictures taken at the scene, everything pointed at this being an accident occurring due to “carelessness”- the fire originated at the kitchen and unfortunately Nicholas was caught in it. However, Pierre Roux was not really convinced with this case being an accident so he decided to return to the scene of the fire. As he did so, he noticed that there were no signs of struggle that should have been there. According to what Roux was witnessing, there was no sign or evidence of Nicholas trying to either put out the fire or Nicholas trying to get away from the fire. This made Roux suspect that this case was not an accident and a murder.

His suspicion was proved right when he checked through Nicholas’ messages in his iPhone which was left on his bed and fortunately did not get consumed by the fire. After looking through the pictures in Nicholas’ phone, Roux came to a realization that Suzan and Nicholas were acquainted and very close friends. Furthermore, on the day of the incident, Nicholas had received calls from Suzan Taylor in the morning and several messages as well.

These messages were:

Suzan had not mentioned anything about these messages in the statement that she had given to the police. These messages had made it clear that Suzan was not just the prime witness but also the last person to have come in contact with Nicholas before the incident occurred.

Roux also noticed that before Suzan’s call in the morning, Nicholas had received a call from an unknown number. After further looking around in Nicholas’ room, Roux discovered a half-burnt crumpled up piece of paper. When he opened up the paper, he spotted “July 16 @ 4” written along with an unreadable address.

The note that Roux had found: (…indicate unreadable/burnt information)

--------------------------------------------------- July 14, 2012 ---------------------------------------------------------

It was already July 14, and Roux still had not been able to understand the meaning of the note. Suzan Taylor was investigated however no concrete evidence against her was found. She had met Nicholas at 2:00 pm however she left right after she got her assignment that she had forgotten at his house. This matched with the CCTV footage that was obtained from the building in front of the apartment, in which Suzan was seen leaving the building at 2:20 pm and coming back at 5:00 pm – when she reported the fire.

When browsing through the computer, Roux discovered that there was a cycling relay-race occurring on July 4 throughout the city and one of its stops was the Arch Park. Roux decided to attend the race as an audience in hope of finding a clue.

Roux and his team – Aarush Mehra and Mark Wilson – reach the Arch Park at 3 pm and start looking around the stalls for unusual activities. As he is walking around he gets a call …

“Hello, Pierre Roux speaking”

“Hey, Roux it’s Spencer and from the forensics report we found out that Nicholas had ingested sleeping medicine prior to the occurrence of the fire, furthermore some traces of cocaine were found in his bloodstream.

Furthermore, we found a wound on his head, probably caused by the corner of an object.”

“I see thanks a lot this cleared up a lot of questions that I had regarding this case.”

Just then he sees Suzan walking towards two guys wearing black hoods and he decides to follow her. He messages Aarush Mehra and Mark Wilson that he saw Suzan and is following her at the moment. Suzan and the two guys go towards the trees and when Roux reaches them, he comes upon a drug deal occurring in front of him. The guys are giving Suzan money as she gives them a plastic bag. One of the guys takes the bag and checks the contents of the bag. As he is checking he takes out a small plastic bag filled with white powder.

While witnessing this, Roux remembers that cocaine was found in Nicholas’ bloodstream and understands exactly what had happened. Pierre Roux, along with Aarush Mehra and Mark Wilson capture Suzan and the other two guys – namely Johnathan Smith and Wil Maris.

In Suzan’s testimony, she

tells:
“I have been supplying drugs to Nicholas and on July 12 when I went to meet him he was under the influence of drugs already. We got into an argument over him owing me money and so I ended up pushing him. His head hit the table and his head started bleeding very badly. He fainted right there and fearing that he had died I panicked. I didn’t want to be involved with him so I decided that it would be better to make it seem that it was an accident, so I decided that death by fire would make it look like an accident. I had expected that by the time I come back, someone would have discovered the apartment burning but it seemed that the fire didn’t spread as fast as I had expected and I ended up being the first witness…”