Laureline Garcia-Bertaux | Truth About My Murder | FilmRise True Crime | Forensic Files

[dramatic music] - When a murder's committed, it's always a race against time to find the truth,
to separate fact from fiction, to catch the killer and to make sure that justice is served.
[dramatic music] But what happens when the truth vanishes with the victim? I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd and I've spent my entire career
as a forensic pathologist performing nearly 23,000 autopsies. [music intensifies]
I've learned that the dead don't hide the truth, and they never lie. Through me you'll be hearing directly from the victim
with the aid of a state-of-the-art laboratory using groundbreaking technology. I'll be investigating a series of intriguing crimes.
Where from the victim's bodies. I'll reveal to you the truth behind these murders.
[camera snapping] [pensive music] On the 6th of March, 2019, police in West London made an awful discovery
in the back garden of a flat in Richmond. In a flowerbed covered by loose soil, they found the body of a woman buried in a shallow grave.
The discovery came about after London's metropolitan police received a missing person report.
Beat officers were sent to an address on Richmond's leafy Daryl Road. - Local police have attended the address.
Having gone in, there was no, no signs of a big disturbance or anything like that,
and inside the flat assault. But in the back garden at the bottom, they found a raised flower bed with some wild flowers
just placed on the top. There was a spade with some fresh earth on it and a bag of compost.
- The soil was brand new that the garden looked like it had a makeover just in one side of it.
Fresh soil. - So they made a decision to do a, a gentle sift through this mound.
And about six inches down, they came across a blue plastic bag. Went on a little bit further and about another six inches,
another blue plastic bag, only this bag they felt like they could feel like a human toe.
- And it was right at that point that very, very shallow in there, a couple of inches,
they discovered what they thought was potentially a human being wrapped in bags.
- They must have wondered, what on earth have we come to here? It must have been a most traumatic shock.
- What is clear is that this is a suspicious crime scene. And of course the person in that grave
didn't put themselves there. So the officer's training and all that information they've had as police officers kicks in,
and they know then to get out of that property as quickly as possible, secure it at the front and the back,
any possible routes in and out, because you are looking at what is quite obvious
at that point a murder scene. - [Richard] Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding
was brought in to head up the case. - At the time I was the senior investigating officer,
the DCI in charge of one of the murder teams in London. When I first got there, the,
the cord and tape was literally on the front gate. So we expanded that, you know, very, very quickly to,
to both ends of the road, because if someone has done something, they've made their way off up a road
and thrown something in a hedge, then you know, you, you want to be as sure as you can to try and identify
if there is a weapon or even a dropped something personal like a credit card or driving license.
- [Richard] Scenes of crime officers were rushed straight to the property. - And the forensic archeologist has attended scene
to do a fingertip excavation to sift and find that anything may be relevant to the scene
and discard anything else that isn't. Once we get down to the level of the body,
we can then have a better idea of what we're dealing with. And this is when we were able to see
that we had a female in a bag in the ground. She was, she was wrapped in a inflatable mattress,
which appeared to have been gaff taped around the knee and the neck area. So the body is now removed from this grave,
placed into a body bag, secured and taken to the mortuary for the postmortem. [gentle piano music]
- The woman found buried in her own back garden was identified as 34-year-old Laureline Garcia Bertaux.
- Laureline was found naked, wrapped in plastic, with her hands bound behind her back by duct tape.
There was also an electrical cable around her neck. And so the first thing I would do is look for evidence
whether this was the cause of her death. In cases of ligature strangulation, there's tremendous pressure placed on the neck,
and it can cause damage to the larynx here in the front of the throat. And here's the hyoid.
It's a horseshoe shaped piece of cartilage in the top of the larynx, and it's important for swallowing and tongue movements.
You can see here below the hyoid that there are portions of the thyroid cartilage that stick up and stick down.
And when the neck is squeezed, these can be damaged and can even snap off. And the postmortem showed that there was this damage
to Laureline's larynx that could only have been caused by severe and consistent pressure to her neck.
And that confirmed that she died of asphyxiation. Now, police knew that Laureline had been strangled,
they had to work out why anyone would want her dead. So detectives put Laureline's life under the microscope.
- So when you start looking back at someone's life, friends and family and work,
we saw that Laureline was incredibly popular. No one had a bad word to say about her.
She was so well liked. She was incredibly hardworking. - Her neighbors described her as very quiet.
They knew her 'cause she had two big dogs. They'd often see her walking her dogs around the area.
Originally from France, she moved to the UK in around 2009, as well as working in PR,
She also worked in the film business as a producer, where she worked with people including Dame Joan Collins.
- She worked on some very big productions, and with some incredibly famous people as well.
- Her friends who she had many of, described her as very confident, outgoing, talkative, very creative,
and someone who's full of promise. - [Richard] There were no clues in Laureline's character
to suggest the motive. - The body had been bound and, from behind her feet and legs.
And it could have to all intents and purposes suggested a sexual sadistical murderer here.
But this is more of a coldly executed murder. The body was actually lying in an extremely shallow grave.
So clearly this is somebody yes it was planned, but they hadn't really taken a lot of time.
- [Richard] To identify her killer, Simon and his team poured over Laureline's case file,
starting from when she was first reported missing. - The police local to where Laureline Garcia Bertaux lived
were called by some friends of her, because they hadn't seen her or heard from her
in a few days. - So Laureline failed to turn up to work at a PR firm in London on Monday morning.
And her friends and colleagues were extremely worried. It's completely out of character for her.
- They'd waited 24 hours, and by the Tuesday she still hadn't made contact with anybody or been to work.
And so they called the police and reported her missing. - And the police obviously took this very seriously,
because unusually, they released an appeal for her. So they obviously knew something was wrong.
- And it got to the point where there's still nothing, still no traffic on her phone,
no sightings, doesn't contact friends or family, which she does on an absolute regular basis.
And so now there's a real concern. - [Richard] The officer's notes from the first check
of Laureline's home revealed some intriguing clues. - There's no, no signs of any forced entry.
So it wasn't like somebody broken in and this is a burglary gone wrong. There was nothing untoward or outta place.
There was no, no visible blood, no weapons. - From friends and from all sorts of things that we,
we hear about, Laureline is moving house. Inside the house were boxes that were packed.
A bed had been dismantled and, and with the information that had that she was supposed
to be moving house and she should have gone, then obviously that was very odd to find that
and not find her. What they could see was the dogs, the dogs were there, they were very subdued,
and there was enormous amount of food. So almost too much food had been put out for them,
which again is, is slightly suspicious, you know, why would you do that if you're looking after dogs?
[pensive music] - [Richard] As forensic specialists scoured Laureline's home, reporters arrived on the scene.
- Already there was a huge police cord and up around the garden. You could see forensics officers working at the scene,
a tent erected over the garden. And there's still a missing poster for Laureline
on the railings of a nearby primary school. There was still children playing. So for this to happen in a very affluent area
of West London, very quiet area, very leafy, it's completely unexpected for the neighbors.
They're absolutely horrified that something like this could happen on their streets.
And it's not just any kind of murder, it's cold calculated. It's horrifying. And you know, police haven't made an arrest.
So this person, whoever did it, is still out there. [gentle piano music] - [Richard] In March 2019,
police found 34-year-old Laureline Garcia Bertaux strangled with a cable and buried in a shallow grave
in her garden at her west London home. Here, police hunted for forensic clues that could lead to Laureline's killer.
- There is so much to do in, in the first especially 24 hours, 48 hours of a murder inquiry.
Officers would do fingertip searching in gardens. We'd, we'd have the drains in that road as well,
what we call gully sucks. And that is where they put these big sucking mechanisms down there,
and bring everything up in there. And then officers would, would search through the muck
to see if there's anything there. So all that was being done. We couldn't find anything at that stage that was,
that seemed relevant. - So detectives hoped Laureline's body could reveal more truths about her murder.
Laureline's neck was crushed with such force that the coroner said they had never seen
such a severe case of asphyxia. The postmortem showed damage to Laureline's larynx
that could only have been caused by severe and consistent pressure to her neck. And that confirmed that she died of asphyxiation.
But the clues to her last moments are the bruises and fractures of her ribs. While squeezing her neck with the cable,
the killer was also compressing her chest, and this is known as Burking. It's named after William Burke,
who in 1828 together with his accompanied William Hare, murdered a number of people
and sold their bodies to medical schools. He killed his victims by simply sitting on their chest.
When we breathe, our ribs and lungs work together as a single sealed unit. As the ribs expand upwards, the chest cavity is enlarged
and air is drawn into the lungs to let oxygen get into the body. If there's pressure on the front of the chest,
the ribs can't move, the lungs can't expand, the air can't enter the lungs, and the person will asphyxiate.
It's a particularly cruel way to kill someone, slowly depriving their body and brain of oxygen.
But who would inflict this kind of death on her? - The pathologist said there was extreme
pressure on the chest area. You know, these are things that, that show that that person is extremely violent and very strong as well,
and also very determined. - [Richard] So who was this powerful and violent killer?
A clue, perhaps late in the last text messages Laureline sent to her friends. - Laureline has started to go onto dating sites.
No success, but there were messages to friends saying, "I've met this fit vet." And of course we then thought, well, there's a potential
that she's with somebody she's met in a dating site, and it could be this person that has done this.
And of course, so we go into that company and identify, you know, anybody that she's been linked with,
and she might have met. She wasn't linked with anyone. So we thought, well, this is, this doesn't make sense.
- [Richard] Laureline's friends told police about other text messages they'd received from her
that seemed out of character. - The messages kept coming, that she was having a great time spending all this money,
buying shoes, clothes, and that she was going out shopping now, which was unusual because Laureline used to shop online,
would never really go out shopping. - And they also said she was going to spend money
on a boob job or a hot tub, which was completely not Laureline. - And the friends were like, this isn't,
this is not the way that Laureline talks. And also, you know, the manner in which these texts
were being said that the, the phraseology used, they said, this is nothing like her whatsoever.
- [Richard] One name kept coming up in the text, A man called Kirill. Many of them thanked him or spoke highly of him.
They said he'd recently paid Laureline back money he owed her, totaling thousands of pounds.
- A lot of saying how grateful she was for him giving her money and helping her move
to a new beautiful house. - This person was identified as Kirill Belorusov, a boyfriend that was on and off for 10 years,
and more off than on. She'd kind of split up with him a couple of years ago and she was trying to, to move on with her life.
Officers dive into his life to try and find out what he's about. And what we identify is mainly what people tell us about him
as opposed to what we can actually find out about him. - Belorusov was born in Russia,
but he was an Estonian national. He came to the UK at around the same time as Laureline,
in around 2009. He claims to have been in the Navy before moving to the UK to learn English.
He also said he worked in the film industry as a stunt man. - Not just a stunt man locally,
but a stunt man for Hollywood. That he'd been in loads of films with people like Brad Pitt,
and that this was, this was his lifestyle. You know, this is, this glamorous lifestyle.
- [Richard] But friends told police of a darker side to Laureline's on off boyfriend.
- He would bring her down in what he said, whatever it might be, just to consistently put her down.
- He was very controlling. He was controlling even how she thought about her own body image, telling her that,
you know, she needed to lose weight. Picking at her, picking at her, finding fault,
but at the same time, boosting his own ego. - He would always be the person that's working in Hollywood.
So, you know, you are nowhere near as good as me. You don't deserve the things that that,
that I get and everything else. - So he's becoming this big person in his own mind.
- You know, Laureline was actually in the film industry. She was doing that work.
He couldn't afford for her to be better than him. He hated that kind of relationship
where he felt underneath somebody. - [Richard] Detectives trawled through movie databases
to find proof of Belorusov's glittering career. - No trace whatsoever. You know, there is no existence for him having a job,
or getting any form of funding in the UK at all. - He'd bragged and boasted that he was a somebody
in a film business when clearly he wasn't. - He also claimed to be a bouncer or a security guard,
providing close protection to important people. In reality, he mainly worked in bars and clubs
around London. - This man was a fantasist. - We also find out that, that Belorusov has told everybody
for the last 10 years that he has cancer, and that this cancer is, is advanced, and that he,
he's seeking treatment in the UK and abroad for it. - It seems they often argued about money.
He would ask Laureline for money, which he claimed he needed to pay for cancer treatment.
And when she asked for it back, he refused to repay it. Came up with excuses. - Laureline was living on her own.
She had a flat to run, dogs to look after, train fares to pay. She was, she was more or less down to her last penny,
giving this man everything that she could. - He names the, the hospitals he goes to,
and that he's away for four or five days. So we start to look at that, and we can find no trace in the UK
privately or within the public health system of him ever, ever seeking any treatment
for any form of cancer whatsoever. - So this lovely young woman who would've had
this amazing career is being chipped away bit by bit by this man who will have control.
And even when he is not living with her, he's still actually controlling her. He's texting her and getting her to send him images
of herself naked while asking for money, telling her they'll be together again. He's very, very controlling.
- [Richard] Investigators needed to find a link with Belorusov in the days leading up to Laureline's death.
- The friends had said, well, she was with him on, she was with him days before.
And when we looked back at her finances, you could see that there was transactions
in local restaurants only a matter of days before the body was found. When you spend money in a shop or a restaurant,
then most of the time there is CCTV to go with it. [pensive music] On Friday, the 1st of March,
you can see that she is at a restaurant with a man. And this man is, is Belorusov.
And he's with her in a restaurant, they're holding hands, they're drinking Prosecco or champagne.
Then you see them on CCTV we managed to get from a bus as they traveled home. And you can see there that that Belorusov is,
is stroking her leg. - He was being very cozy to her on the bus going back to her house, looking like he was very caring.
So when he gets to the flat, he stays that night. - And then we see the Saturday where the pair of them
go out shopping. They go to Pets At Home and buy dog food. They go to Sainsbury's, they do normal sort of shopping
that they would do. - They had a nice day together so yes, had a good weekend, but he's using Laureline for sex,
and he's using her for cash. She's a cash cow, and he'll keep coming back for cash
even though he owes her this money. - [Richard] The pictures from that Saturday were the last images of Laureline alive.
[pensive music] But on CCTV, the day Laureline was found, detective spotted Belorusov some 40 miles from Richmond.
- He's already got himself to Luton Airport on the Wednesday. He then flies out to Estonia.
So of course he was still in the country when the body was discovered, but had already booked
and was already on his way out. - So he ends up back in Estonia where he, where he is celebrating his 32nd birthday with his friends.
He just acted normally, nothing out of place. - We have a phone number for him. Officers are calling him,
and they're getting in contact with him, and he's, he's now abroad, he's in Estonia.
And they're saying to him, you know what, what's happened? Can you help us? We understand that you were with her only on Saturday,
and she was moving house. And what they got response for him was, "oh yes I was, but I left her. She was fine.
She was going off to, to this new house." And what's clear to those officers is that
he really has no intention of coming back and helping. Everyone thought, well, if you are,
and especially the family and friends, you know, if your girlfriend of 10 years had gone missing
in these circumstances, which are highly suspicious, then you would be here. - [Richard] Investigators hoped Laureline's body
could give up more evidence linking her to Belorusov. Meanwhile, detectives had a manhunt on their hands.
- So we know we're dealing with a really callous, coercive controlling type of human being.
And, and, and so we know we had somebody really dangerous and we needed to get him as quickly as possible.
- In March, 2019 as police in West London were on the hunt for the killer of 34-year-old film producer
Laureline Garcia Bertaux, her body gave up more grim secrets for the investigators.
Laureline's body tells us that she was asphyxiated, but there were no other signs of a struggle.
Her fingernails were intact, and there was no obvious bruising, scratches, or other cuts around the arms to suggest Laureline
had tried to fend off her killer. It would appear the attack was completely unexpected.
Internal swabs were taken to look for signs of a sexual assault, and toxicology samples were tested
to see if her attacker had drugged his victim. Toxicology showed no evidence of date rape
or indeed any other drugs. And it was concluded that she hadn't been sexually assaulted.
This evidence from Laureline's body suggested she knew her attacker. And there was more proof pointing to her ex-boyfriend,
Estonian Kirill Belorusov. - We can obviously see him on CCTV with Laureline in the restaurant and on the bus on that Saturday.
But then we start to see other things on the Sunday. Now of course we believe that Laureline
had been killed late, very late Saturday night, or in the early hours of Sunday morning.
So what was he doing now in the following days? On the Sunday, we can see him with the financial
transactions and CCTV going into a home base, which is literally five minutes walk from,
from the address itself. - Belorusov is on CCTV on his own, that this is one of the few times
CCTV actually shows them being apart. - And he's buying things like rubble sacks,
an ax, garden shoes, and also buying soil. - When I'm working on a murder inquiry,
it's not just the body that I look at, it's everything associated with it. And in Laureline's case,
we know that her hands were bound together by duct tape. Now, duct tape has two surfaces that are superb
in retaining both fingerprints and DNA. The tape would be sent off to the laboratory
to try and lift fingerprints or swab for traces of the suspect's DNA, so these could be matched on police databases.
But neither showed a link to Belorusov or anyone else. There was however damning evidence found on CCTV.
- The footage caught him buying the duct tape, all the tools he needed to dispose of her body.
And he even bought some beer for himself on the way home. - What we could see in the address was a bag of soil.
What we could see on the body was bags, which were identical. And of course we can see him as clear as anything
on CCTV buying these items the day after we believe that Laureline had been murdered.
Then we see him in the days afterwards starting to make his way out of the country.
- He's decided that he will make his way to Estonia. He was searching flights, so,
and then onto the train station up to Luton Airport. And he was gone. - [Richard] As police worked to get a precise location
for their suspect, they had a major breakthrough in the investigation. - The body had been wrapped in an inflatable mattress.
Now, each end of this mattress there was a silver colored gaffer tape wrapped around the knee area and the neck area.
And she also had a cord around her neck. They would be submitted for fingerprints and DNA.
With the results that we had back, the cord around Laureline's neck had both a match of her DNA and Belorusov's DNA.
He has an awful lot of explaining to do, how his DNA managed to get on that cord.
- [Richard] But actually pinning Belorusov down was another matter. - So officers are speaking to Belorusov
whilst he's in Estonia. You know, apparently he's celebrating his birthday, and with with friends, and he has family over there.
And it was clear there was no way he's coming back. So that's when we start to, we instigate different proceedings to,
to basically go and get him. And at the time we could do a European arrest warrant.
[pensive music] - [Richard] With the CCTV and forensic evidence stacked against their suspect,
they convinced a UK court to issue the paperwork. - Myself and a colleague flew to the Hague
to the Euro Poll Building, and we'd hand delivered this European arrest warrant to get Kirill Belorusov.
And we sat in a room with the Estonian prosecution service and a senior police officer from Europol, from Estonia.
And we handed the paperwork over, they were ready, and they believed they had enough and we had enough.
And it was in that room that that officer called his officers once it had been agreed
and they arrested Belorusov immediately. [sirens] So it was almost instant, you know,
incredible cooperation that we had from those authorities to secure his arrest. [pensive music continues]
Part of the process then is to get our expedition unit team to, to go to Estonia and bring him back.
They brought him back to Heathrow. He's then taken into custody at Heathrow Police Station,
where the first thing that happens to Kirill Belorusov is that he is charged formally with the murder
of Laureline Garcia Bertaux. - [Richard] Now they had their suspect in custody. Police seized Belorusov's phone.
His deleted messages revealed what happened in Laureline's final hours. - Laureline is moving house.
This is a fundamental important part of this case because she's going, she should have gone on Saturday morning,
but she hadn't gone. - She's been spending days boxing everything up ready. So you can imagine her excitement at this point,
thinking where she was off to. - So why didn't she move on the days that she was supposed to?
And what we start to see through telephone calls is that she had a removal company booked,
but she canceled that removal company on the Friday. Friends started to call and say to her,
what, you know, what's happening? And she comes up with this story to her friends to say,
well actually what's happened is I'm moving to a place that Belorusov has found me free of charge.
And it's somebody that he knows within the film industry, and they've got this amazing house.
I don't know where it is 'cause he hasn't told me, but we're gonna go there anyway.
But I've also had to cancel my removal company, because he sorted one out for me as well.
- She was waiting for the removal van. She had everything there, and yet no removal van came.
- She starts to panic, where are they? And she's speaking to her friend saying, well, they've not arrived. What's going on?
People are saying, well, where are you going? "I still don't know yet, he hasn't told me yet."
- There was nowhere she was going. It was all one big lie. So she was left high and dry.
- We believe it gets to that point now where she said, "what's going on? This is all a complete lie."
- This could well have led to an argument that put her at risk because this man was ruthless.
- And we think that's when Belorusov decided to, he, he can go no further. He has to murder her.
- This man was so cold and calculated, and so lacking in empathy for this poor girl
that he'd murdered. He just logged onto her internet, working out what her password would be,
which sadly happened to be his name, and has started to watch porn. It's hatred. It, it's somebody who hates women,
probably frightened of women. He's got no empathy, no respect. - [Richard] To add to that,
a forensic scan of Laureline's phone revealed more about those suspicious text messages.
- These were actually being sent within the cell of her home address. And, and of course this was on a day when she was dead.
So we knew whoever was doing that was pretty much sitting within her wifi of her address.
What we could also see is that Belorusov's phone was hit in the same cell as well.
He was using Laureline's phone to actually message her friends and telling her that he'd paid 7,000 pounds,
another lump sum of 10,000 pounds back to Laureline. - [Richard] This 17,000 pounds was only part of the debt
Belorusov owed Laureline. - He also used the phone to send messages to himself thanking him for the money that he'd given her.
One of the messages was obviously trying to throw investigators off the scent, saying she was due to meet a vet for dates, for coffee.
- He hijacks Laureline's phone, and is texting friends to like cover for himself.
He's so self-possessed. He's not upset, he's not nervous, not sorry. - He was using Google Translate
in French to message her brother. - Google Translate, to translate French into a language he would understand.
And of course, this was being done on Laureline's phone. Well, she wouldn't need that, would she?
[pensive music] - [Richard] Meanwhile, the deep forensic search of Belorusov's phone revealed something yet more sinister.
- We identify there's another phone number, which is a regular contact, and what we find there is another woman,
another girlfriend who lives in another part of London. When we speak to her, he's, he's doing the same thing.
He's taking money from her, he's living with her. She thinks he's got cancer. She thinks he's a stunt man.
And when he said he's going away for five days to seek treatment in a hospital in London for cancer,
what he's actually doing is going to stay with Laureline. And when Laureline believes he's going to five days
in a hospital to seek treatment for cancer or go on a stunt film, he goes to live with the other female.
- Belorusov was a game player. He was playing games the whole time. He was boosting his ego, boosting his pocket,
using these women in a very cruel way. - [Richard] In a text to one woman, Belorusov said chillingly, I'd kill for you.
- He practiced death holds on another girlfriend. - We found one particular person who talked about
how violent he was during their sexual intimacy, and he would often use quite severe force in strangulation
and believe it was something that, that they would enjoy. - Clearly when somebody's doing that, they're practicing.
He's moving on up this chain towards actually committing murder. But clearly, if he's prepared to do that,
he, he's a very, very amoral dangerous man. - [Richard] The case was building against Kirill Belorusov.
- The evidence was, was very, very strong against him. We were very confident that we had enough
that a jury would find him guilty. [gentle music] - In 2019, the ex-boyfriend of 34-year-old
Laureline Garcia Bertaux became the main suspect for her murder after the postmortem revealed
she had been asphyxiated. Laureline was buried in the garden of her west London home.
She was wrapped in rubble sacks and covered in soil bought by Estonian Kirill Belorusov.
And Laureline's broken ribs suggested he'd fatally compressed her chest and neck.
She'd been found strangled by a cable that had Belorusov's DNA on it. The evidence against him was compelling.
[pensive music] Six months after Laureline's murder, Belorusov was brought before the old Bailey.
- Laureline's family came over from France, and they listened to the evidence at trial every day.
- It's an incredibly emotional and difficult place to be when you are hearing everything
that's happened to your, to your loved one. And then you come face to face with the person
that is being prosecuted for doing it. Belorusov. And he stays with you forever because one,
he's got those eyes that just look so evil. And he was so smug and so confident about everything.
- [Richard] The prosecution outlined the case against Belorusov. In court we heard that in the lead up to her murder,
Laureline had been begging him for the thousands and thousands of pounds that he owed her.
And he kept promising to pay it back. - She's in debt with the rent and she's got no food.
She sends him a text. There's nothing for the dogs. There's nothing for me. And so when he sells her this line
that he's actually got her this lovely house to move into, and it'll all be wonderful.
Well, of course this is offering her a way out of this situation. - He told lies and lies and lies.
So he essentially tricked her to coming to her home. And really his plan was to kill her
so she wouldn't expose him as the fraud he was. - [Richard] The court also heard how the possessive
ex-boyfriend stopped Laureline from starting new relationships. - That was a big thing for Belorusov
because she was a source of money for him. And it sounds, it's really callous, isn't it,
when you think that but you know, he wanted her because she had given him thousands
of pounds over the years, and if he lost that funding stream, then he would struggle to find money from anywhere else.
He didn't want her to go, he didn't want her to be with anyone else, and he didn't want her to move forward without him.
- And the minute she's ready to start again is the worst point in time. If you're going to leave a narcissist,
a psychopath, where domestic violence is a feature, that is when they will pull you back,
and that's when you are at your most vulnerable. She would not come out of that alive.
- [Richard] Next, the defense was heard. Belorusov himself decided to take the stand.
- Everyone wants to know what he's gonna say. And if he speaks in a, in basic form that well, I,
I left her, she was fine, and somebody else must have done it. It wasn't me. - Belorusov came across as a very arrogant,
cocky individual, and his interactions with the jurors gave the impression he really thought that they believe his lies,
and he could get away with this. - When Belorusov gave evidence, all these things were put to him.
Like, you, you don't have cancer. We can't find it. Yeah, I do. Prove it. Can't.
You know, you're not a stunt man. I am, you're not. Prove it. It was really unnerving to see how, what, how he behaved,
because he just gave lie after lie after lie about all the evidence that we presented.
And of course, when it was so factually correct, he just says, well, he's trying to fit me up.
It's your, it's an easy get out. - [Richard] The text Belorusov sent Laureline asking for nude pictures were also read out in court.
- Even in court he was actually laughing at some of the messages that he'd sent her,
which is just horrible. He was fooling himself you know, all this laughter was so nasty and inappropriate
and you have the victim's family there, which it must have been terrible for them to hear this,
you know, but he didn't care, you know, it was all about him and making himself look good.
And I think he really enjoyed the attention that he got. - And when he was talking about things,
or when he would leave the box after giving evidence, he would walk past the family or just nod and smile,
and, you know, all those sort of things as though he was a, their best friend. - [Richard] But the real Belorusov revealed himself
to the judge and jury. - He blames the victim of course, he blames Laureline. - That coercive, controlling, bullying,
manipulative personality came out in that trial when he talked about her. You know, she needed to sort herself out.
She needed to lose weight. He continued with all of his lies, even to the point where I think at the end the judge said,
"you even believe your own lies." - But the prosecution had to show Laureline's killing was a deliberate act.
Her body would reveal the proof. The coroner concluded that it took four minutes
for Laureline to die. It was a very long four minutes of deliberate compression of her neck and chest.
Compression that caused collapse and convulsions, and finally starved her brain of oxygen.
So this was not an accident. It simply took far too long for her to die for that ever to be the case.
- This wouldn't have been a panicked moment for Belorusov. It wasn't a a, a spur of the moment's attack.
- It's not an argument that's gone wrong, and he's just snapped and strangled her.
That this is, methodical. - Four minutes, that's 240 seconds. Imagine that? That somebody's twisting a ligature around her neck.
This person that he's lived with and been in a relationship with for 10 years, and he's coldly strangling her,
and she must have been looking at him. It must have been terrifying for her. And he didn't have a scrap of mercy, not a scrap.
But the fact that he could keep doing it tells you everything you need to know about him.
This is an extremely dangerous man. - Belorusov showed absolutely no remorse throughout the trial.
And when he was finally found guilty, after the jury deliberated for less than two hours,
he even looked at Laureline's family, smiled and nodded at them as her mother was sobbing.
- [Richard] Kirill Belorusov was sentenced to life for a minimum of 24 years. - This, this case is one that sticks in the memory
for many reasons, not least the tragedy of the victim. Laureline had so much promise,
so, so much life ahead of her. It was an absolute tragedy that this man took it all from her.
- There are so many red flags around the kind of person that he was within that relationship.
Belorusov suffocated her with his coercive and controlling behavior and how abusive he was to her.
There's a legacy behind this that everybody can learn from. You know, to see somebody like that,
and identify somebody who displays this kind of personality, you know, you need to stop and you need to intervene.
- Clearly, this man, in my opinion, is a psychopath. He's a danger particularly to women.
And I have no doubt if he'd have gone free, he would've murdered again. - Laureline believed that her ex-partner,
Kirill Belorusov had come to help her move house. She couldn't have known that he had in fact
come to kill her. But bodies never lie. And the truth was that Laureline had been brutally strangled
by the man she had loved and trusted. But the evidence was enough to convict him,
and to bring justice for Laureline and for her family. [dramatic music]

Dr Richard Shepherd investigates the murder of Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, who seemingly vanished from her London home in 2019 before police discovered her body buried in her garden.

In The Truth About My Murder, Dr. Richard Shepherd showcases a state-of-the-art digital autopsy table featuring digitally scanned sample bodies to investigate a series of intriguing murders where the victims' bodies help reveal the truth behind horrific crimes.

For More FilmRise Check Out Our Other Channels: FilmRise Television: https://www.youtube.com/⁨@FilmRiseTelevision⁩ FilmRise Movies: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseMovies Highway to Heaven - Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@HighwaytoHeavenFullEpisodes

Brief Summary

Laureline Garcia Bertaux was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Kirill Belorusov, who was later convicted based on compelling forensic evidence.

Key points

A Shocking Discovery. Police find the body of Laureline Garcia Bertaux buried in her garden.
The Investigation Begins. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding leads the investigation into Laureline's murder.
Unraveling Laureline's Life. Detectives explore Laureline's life to find motives behind her murder.
The Dark Side of Kirill. Laureline's on-off boyfriend Kirill had a controlling nature that raised suspicions.
CCTV Evidence. CCTV footage reveals Laureline's last moments with Kirill before her death.
The Evidence Against Belorusov. CCTV and forensic evidence stack against Kirill Belorusov, leading to his arrest.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What happens when the truth vanishes with the victim?

Introduction to the investigation

0:20WatchFeb 11, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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