204: Husband Posts Online Ad Asking Strangers to Come SA His Wife & 72 Men Do it | Dominique & Gisele Pélicot
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Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. Now, as you can see, we are dropping an extra bonus episode this week, and it is outside of our normal regular release schedule, which is Monday for our deep dives and Thursday for headline highlights. And the reason I'm releasing this bonus episode is...

Quite honestly, I just feel like this case needs more attention. I feel like we need more ears on it because not only is it one of the more wild cases I think any of us have ever heard about, but the amount of bravery involved in this case and courage, it just truly is unbelievable.

Now, I first released this case on my YouTube channel, 10 to Life, about a week or two ago, I think it was now. But I know a lot of you don't watch YouTube. I know a lot of you are just solely podcast listeners. So I wanted to release it here again just because I

Not only is it very fascinating, disturbing, and unbelievable, but a lot of you in the Q&A section on Spotify have been asking if I would cover this case, you know, not knowing that I already had done such a deep dive. And what I will say about it too is people who have heard about this case...

they know what it's about but I guarantee you there is so much more beneath the surface when we started digging into it it wasn't just these allegations that everybody's talking about now that are involved it goes back way beyond that all the way into murder so I am breaking down the entire dirty history of it all we're going through everything and we have a lot to talk about

Let me start by saying this. Many people hope for this once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. And if you're lucky enough, sometimes you will find the person who makes you laugh, makes you feel comfortable, makes you feel loved, you know, all the warm and fuzzy feelings, and a person that you can grow old with and just live your life with.

But today's case is maybe one of the more sick and twisted ones that we have ever done. And I've got to warn you, it's a really difficult one to hear and to go through just exactly what went down in this situation. And it's the story of Giselle Pellico and how her knight in shining armor, love of her life, grow old with you, all sorts of, you know, the warm and fuzzies, was actually her worst possible nightmare come true.

Dominique and Gisele Pellico were that couple that you looked toward with almost a sense of envy. They were the couple who seemed to have a picture-perfect marriage, the couple that everyone looked at and thought, "I hope that I can experience a love like that someday." And even their friends who were also in happy relationships and marriages would tell them all the time that they were just the ideal couple. The couple met in a region of Paris in France when they were both just 19 years old.

This was back in 1971, and when they met, sparks pretty much flew immediately. Dominique was more of a reserved man. He didn't really share much about his life growing up, even as he and Giselle's relationship began forming into something, you know, really palpable.

But Gisele didn't think much of it or really mind. I mean, a person's past is their past, and if he insisted that there wasn't much to share, then there just wasn't much to share. So just two years later, when they were both 21 years old, they sealed the deal and they were married. Husband and wife till death do us part. The day-to-day lives of their marriage wasn't exactly the picture-perfect story tale that many people on the outside thought it was, though.

But overall, no matter what, they believed that their marriage was a pretty good one. There were of course some ups and downs, like every single marriage goes through, but in the end, they always came together and made things work as a team. A true partnership. Giselle said that Dominique was truly the great love of her life. And you can just tell that for many years, she really thought the absolute world of him. Right away after getting married, they started their family, and they ended up welcoming three children into the world.

Caroline, David, and the baby of the family, Florian. The Pelico kids have described their childhood as being a really good one too. Their mother was nurturing, their father was very present and was always there for them. What more could a kid ask for, right? There were at times during their marriage some bouts of financial issues, and that of course wasn't easy and it put a strain on their relationship, but it wasn't anything that they couldn't get through together.

You see, Dominique had been studying to qualify as an electrician, but at some point he quit his studies, so he ended up bouncing around job fields going from the nuclear energy industry then into real estate. And Giselle had been the breadwinner for many years. This was after working her way up to a manager position that she stayed in for 20 years. Eventually, their money problems seemed to subside, or at least Giselle thought that they had.

It turns out that at some point, Dominique started trying to hide those money problems from Giselle. Maybe he didn't want her to worry and he wanted to protect her from the harsh reality. Maybe he felt like less of a man. I don't really know. But apparently, he had always spent well above his means, regardless of their financial situation. And that being said, he was very in debt. His

His older brother at one point even loaned him 75,000 euros, and he didn't pay back a dime. That just kind of goes to show how things were financially and how in debt the Pelicos really were. In 2001, 30 years after their marriage first started, Dominique and Giselle ended up getting divorced.

Now, the reasoning for it was described as, quote, financial reasons, which that could mean a lot of things, but you get the gist of it. Money was the basis of their problems, as it had been for many years. I saw one report that claimed that the divorce was to protect their assets from creditors. However, I'm not sure if that has actually ever been confirmed.

The divorce hadn't kept them apart, so maybe there was some truth to that reasoning. Because after they finished all of the nitty-gritty paperwork, they continued to live together. It could have been out of comfort, it could have been out of love that they still had for each other. I don't know, it could have also been a fake divorce, I'm not really sure.

But either way, things eventually rekindled or reconnected in a larger way. The spark between them came back, and they agreed that when they first said they loved each other and wanted to be with each other until the very end, they meant it. So six years after the divorce, they ended up getting remarried. Nothing could keep them apart. They were simply meant to be. They felt like they were each other's soulmate.

Meanwhile, their children grew up, left the house, and started their own families. In 2013, the couple had done their job raising their kids, and they finally hit retirement age. Dominique had been working for a French energy company called EDF and also was dabbling in real estate, while Giselle had spent the last 20 years working as a company manager, as I said. And all throughout their life, they had lived in the Paris area. But now, they decided that they were ready for a change.

a more fit lifestyle for their older ages, something more peaceful, more down-to-earth. So they packed their bags, and they moved to the south of France. They moved to a place called Mouzon, a very small, quiet, and serene community.

It's the ideal place for anybody looking to lead a slow life, especially for a couple of retirees. It's beautiful, it's picturesque, and you can go on beautiful walks, things like that. It's surrounded by fields of grapevines, fruit trees, beautiful countryside, and art, and it literally seems like a dream within a dream. So they were together, despite the problems that they had in the past.

Now they had no responsibilities. They just had grandkids who made them feel just absolutely whole, like their hearts were bursting, like every struggle in life had been worth it just to lay eyes on their grandkids. And I remember once hearing, there is no love like the love for a grandchild. I remember my own mom even admitted to me that she has a different kind of love for my children than she does for me, probably more so. But like...

That's, I think, a very common thing. When grandkids come into the picture, it's like that becomes your entire universe. Now, at this time, money still wasn't great for Dominique. The 2008 financial crash had really affected his income from real estate. Luckily, Giselle had spent those last 20 years working and saving as much money as she possibly could. So because of that, they were able to afford to buy a beautiful home.

The cute little bungalow had a pool, a garden, plenty of room to host their ever-growing family. They hosted every family Christmas party and family dinner. And that should have been a really exciting new adventure for Dominique and Giselle. But it was tainted by Giselle becoming very sick. She started losing weight really quickly, her hair was falling out, and on top of that, she started forgetting things.

health issues that had never once been an issue in her life ever. And it wasn't like she was just forgetting where she laid something down or what an old acquaintance's name was. She was having complete moments of total blackouts, complete periods of time that she didn't remember a single thing about. She'd wake up in the morning after going to the hairdresser and she would freak out with her totally different haircut. She wouldn't remember going to the hairdresser and definitely wouldn't remember even getting that haircut.

She would call her kids, telling them that she missed them, that it has been way too long, only for them to tell her that they just saw her. So her symptoms were obviously very concerning. Sure, she was getting older in age, but it just seemed to have come on really fast. Dominique and Giselle started going to multiple different doctors, all in an attempt to get to the bottom of whatever was happening. And at first, Giselle feared the worst. She thought, surely it's Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer, a brain tumor, something.

She wanted to get to the bottom of what was happening to her. Even if it was something incurable or inoperable, she wanted answers. She wanted to know if there was anything that she could do to lessen these awful symptoms that she was having. She was starting to feel incredibly desperate, and I can only imagine that fear and that desperation and just uncertainty.

And Dominique was nothing but a supportive husband through all of this. He hated seeing her almost fade away right before his eyes. He was supportive and encouraging, helping her find specialists that she could go to, and just hopefully getting some solid answers. He was willing to do whatever it took to get answers and give Giselle some peace of mind.

Giselle tried to hide her dwindling health from her kids, though, but even they started to notice a stark difference in their mom. She had always been so on top of things, and it was just now like she was waking up every day, and it was making her feel foggy and disoriented. So after finding a few different specialists that they trusted, they began to perform countless tests and brain scans on Giselle, hoping to finally get some answers.

All that they were met with, though, was more confusion. Each of the scans was turning up empty. She didn't have a brain tumor. She didn't have Alzheimer's. None of it. And from the scans, she seemed to be a perfectly healthy, fit, older woman. But obviously, that just wasn't the case at all.

So, what the heck was causing all of these problems for her? Her husband Dominique, while still trying to be supportive and, you know, as there for her as possible, was just assuring her, you know, you're probably just getting older. It's probably just exhaustion. You're tired. You're getting older. She was still running at the time. I mean, running, running, running as busy as the same way she was when she was younger in age. But maybe now her body just couldn't take it anymore. Maybe she couldn't be so hard on her body anymore.

She also had been babysitting her grandkids a lot, and after all, that had to be draining. That's a lot on your body, right? So this continued to go on for years. Doctor after doctor told her she was fine, but she knew that she wasn't. So eventually, feeling so out of body and out of control just kind of became her new normal. As horrible as it was, she was still a little girl.

Giselle had always been a very strong woman, and that was never going to change. She

She just woke up every day. She dealt with whatever it was that was going on in her body. Even though her illness had caused her to lose a significant amount of independence and happiness, she focused on her family. For her safety and for the safety of others, she stopped driving. She stopped taking the train to see her family. She was fearful that maybe she would forget that she was on the train or she would forget her stop and then get lost.

and she just kind of dealt with this for years fast forward to september 12th of 2020 and giselle had now been sick for quite a few years but like i said she didn't let it stop her she had actually been out of town for around a month when she received a very strange phone call dominique her husband was

was in trouble. And not the kinds of trouble that they had grown accustomed to throughout her life. No, this was a whole other kind of trouble. Because Dominique had been taken into police custody. Giselle knew her husband, and hearing the words arrested and Dominique in the same sentence, they didn't go together. She was immediately confused, and she was even more confused when she heard why. Dominique had been caught taking photos up multiple different women's skirts and dresses. What?

voyeurism, peeping Tom, her husband? Now, although he was only caught taking these disgusting secret recordings, it seemed like he may have had other plans had he not been caught, because inside of his bag when he was arrested was a camcorder, a camera, and condoms. Now,

Now, maybe that's just me jumping to conclusions, but why on earth would you need condoms, plural, if you only had the intention of recording women? I don't know. That's just me. It just seems a little odd. Now, apparently, the security guard at this grocery store was the one to notice what he was doing and to inform the victim, who then, of course, decided to press charges, which is ultimately what led to his arrest.

Now, when he was taken into custody, he was of course asked, you know, why on earth would you do such a thing? And when I say that he had a sob story prepped and ready to go, I really mean it.

He said, full of what he claimed was remorse, that he was just so overcome with these vile sexual urges because his wife hadn't been home for a month. That because she was out of town, because she was gone for so long, he was just overcome by all of these urges and he just couldn't stop himself. So that's why he was recording up these women's skirts. As if that was all actually a viable excuse. Like,

Like, we're just supposed to believe men when they say, oh, I just couldn't help it, or I couldn't resist the urge. I mean, give me a break. Now, this was all pretty much the most absurd thing that Giselle had ever heard. Her husband was a loyal husband, a good dad, a good grandfather. He kept to himself. He never hurt a fly. So there was just absolutely no way that they had the right guy. I mean, it had to be some huge confusion, some big screw-up, some other Dominique, not hers. And

Unfortunately, though, everything that she knew to be true was about to be completely turned upside down because all of these allegations were true. It was her husband, her Dominique, and this was obviously really difficult for her, but it was only the beginning of a huge nightmare to come. Dominique was released on bail, but this storm in the Pelicos' lives, it was far from over.

You see, after this whole incident at the grocery store, law enforcement felt really suspicious about Dominique. Whether it was intuition, years of experience, I don't really know. But they just felt like there was more to him than what meets the blind eye, and not in a good way. He was released on bail pending a more thorough investigation of his devices. So law enforcement ended up searching through two mobile phones, a laptop, and other digital equipment.

And Giselle was just ready for them to go through everything and to move on. She wanted to move on with whatever that looked like for them, because honestly, I don't really know how she felt after this, but she just wanted to, like, close the chapter. I don't know if she believed her husband of literal decades and decades, and that this was just a one-time thing and he just couldn't help himself, or maybe she was fed up and disgusted by him, I don't really know. But before Giselle could even make up her mind, she was called back into the police station for an interview.

At this point, I'm sure they both just figured, okay, it was to ask more questions about this whole grocery store incident. Seems pretty reasonable, right? It had been a few weeks. It was now November 2nd, 2020. But as soon as they got to the police station, they were separated. Giselle and Dominique both put completely separate areas, and the questions that they started asking her were far from what was expected. Right.

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Now, this was more than shocking to her. I mean, she knew Dominique had used their lack of a sex life the past month as an excuse for what he did, but that hardly seemed like something that they would really need to verify. But then they started asking even more personal questions and very intimate questions. They asked Giselle if she and Dominique ever wife-swapped or if they ever had threesomes.

And this basically had Giselle's jaw on the floor. I mean, remember, she's an older lady. She probably was not very open with her sex life, let alone felt comfortable for random strangers to now ask if she and her husband were having threesomes. I mean, I think that would shake a lot of people up. So she felt pretty awkward and honestly offended. But still, she firmly told them, uh, no, absolutely not.

And she has been specifically quoted as saying, I told him I had never practiced partner swapping or threesomes. I said I was a one-man woman. I couldn't bear any man's hands on me other than my husband's.

But then, they showed her a photo. And this photo was no ordinary photo. Because in the picture, it was a man that Gisele had never seen before, and he was performing sexual acts on a woman. A woman who Gisele also didn't recognize and who appeared to be sleeping in this photo. So again, she was confused, you know, why am I being shown something so gross, so intimate, so private?

She was confused what it had to do with her husband's current case. I mean, she didn't even know these people. Surely the investigators didn't think that she knew anything about whatever was going on, and she pretty much told them as much. Kind of like, sorry, I wish I could be more of help for whatever it is that you're trying to figure out, but I don't have any information. I don't know these people. But then they urged her to take a closer look at the photo. They said, ignore the people in it.

and instead look at the background of the photo. They were asking her questions like whether or not anything looked familiar to her, and if the bed or the side table looked familiar. More specifically, was it the same one in the home that she shared with her husband Dominique? Again, she really didn't think that she did recognize anything, but with the way that they were talking and the way that they were now beginning to question her, she kind of started to question herself and if she really knew the right answers or not.

Was this all part of her illness, the unexplained blackouts? Should she recognize it? Was she just experiencing another bout of memory loss? And then she was shown a second photograph. And things now became astonishingly more clear. The woman in the first photo wasn't some random woman that Giselle had never seen or met. No, that sleeping stranger was

was her. She hadn't even recognized herself in the first photo, but the second picture really started putting together the puzzle pieces in her mind. She recognized herself clear as day. That was her. That was her bed, her side table, her sheets, her favorite pillows. All of it was her. And it was her home.

But who the heck was this man, and when had this happened? Well, it turns out that what the investigators found might literally go down in history as one of the most disturbing things that we have ever talked about. On Dominique's computer, not even really all of that hidden, there was a folder, and this folder was titled Abuses.

I mean, already not looking great, right? Why would you even ever name a folder that? It's beyond me, but yet here we are. We love when people are that dumb. And in this folder, there were thousands of photos and videos.

At the forefront of almost every picture or video was a very clearly unconscious Giselle. She was being assaulted by countless different men and Dominique alike. Each clip showed another new horror of assaults being done to her. This whole strange interview that Giselle had been pulled into was their way of seeing if Giselle knew about these pictures and these videos, though it seemed pretty clear she had no idea about them.

So it was more of a way to gently break the news to her that this was happening, though I doubt there was any way to make that realization gentle at all. According to thecut.com, law enforcement would eventually find up to 20,000 different videos and pictures of Giselle being assaulted. Now these files that he so idiotically labeled abuse were also labeled by date and time.

And these assaults hadn't been happening over the last few weeks or months or even years. These videos went back almost an entire decade. Each different video was meticulously labeled with the date, the assaulter's name, the type of sexual act being done,

And for one instance, one of them was titled, quote, Abuse, Night of 26 May 2020 with Mark Soto, Fifth Time. Meaning, he's not only documenting what happened, but he's literally librarianing every single instance. So much so that in this instance, it's not only just indicating the date, the time, the person, but it's also indicating the fifth time. How deranged is that?

In each video, one thing was very clear. Giselle was without a doubt unconscious. The camera quality changes, the men standing over her changes, even her appearances change as each video shows the inevitable test of time in her growing older and older. And law enforcement was able to confirm that these abuses spanned from 2011 to 2020. And I don't think I need to even say that this was absolutely incomprehensible to Giselle.

She swore on her life that she had no idea about any of these videos being taken. And usually, I feel like a woman in this situation, I'll be honest, might not be taken seriously. But thank God law enforcement believed her and took her side from day one. I mean, it was pretty obvious from these videos they saw that Giselle was not conscious at all. She never moved an inch. Her eyes always remained closed. Her body was limp.

So this was a lot to take in. But a bigger question still remained for Giselle. How could I have not known? It's not like in each video you could actually see Giselle going from conscious to unconscious. She wasn't beaten. She had no clear bruises, no gashes on her head. Nothing like she had been knocked out. It just looked like she was asleep.

Even though we and she obviously know better, Dominique admitted very quickly to the investigators that prior to every single video, he tranquilized his own wife by giving her high amounts of sleeping pills. He also would give her anti-anxiety medication called Temeza. This is what caused her to be unconscious and stay unconscious for extended periods of time.

And it might sound insane to consider, but it was honestly really easy to do. He would either slip it into her dinner or her evening wine. She would never know. She would never taste it. She would never feel it. It was just all too easy for Dominique. And it was those medications that had been causing Giselle's mysterious illnesses all this time. This whole time that Giselle was going to all of these doctors, these specialists begging for answers for literal years,

when all along it had been her own husband doing this to her. The same man who had held her hand through every appointment, who assured her that she wasn't crazy and that he would be by her side until the very end. He was actively spiking her drinks and spiking her food, knowing that her symptoms were only getting worse and worse.

I can't even begin to imagine that kind of betrayal, and that's not even getting into the things that were found on his computer. Dominique admitted that it all first started when Giselle had been prescribed the anti-anxiety drug, because he noticed how drowsy it made her. So this was when he started experimenting with it, slipping it into her food, her drinks, saying, how drowsy can I get her?

He continued experimenting with the amounts, making sure that she would be completely unconscious before he started the abuse. In the beginning, it had just been him assaulting her, performing anal sex on her while she was unconscious because it was something that she had always firmly denied him. She would never allow him to do that to her. But then he escalated.

And he started recording it. He did that so that he could rewatch it and he could, you know, pleasure himself with those videos. Just absolutely vile and disgusting and such the ultimate betrayal.

Now, a big question both investigators and Giselle had in all of this is, who are these men in these videos? And how the heck did they pull these assaults off for literal years without ever being caught? Well, a deeper investigation through Dominique's devices showed that he was part of an online chatroom. The title of this chatroom translates to English as, quote, "...without her or his knowledge."

He had ironically found this chatroom not long after he started abusing Giselle himself. This chatroom, as the name implies, was solely focused on members discussing sexual acts done to their partners, all without their knowledge or consent.

And it makes me sick to my stomach that something like that even exists, can be real, and that people are even a part of it. Now one thing most of these members had in common was that they often chatted and bragged about giving their partners drugs to knock them unconscious, exactly what Dominique had done. He was even one of those in the chat room who was very open about doing it.

He then started posting the videos of him assaulting Gisele, and his openness in the chat gave him a lot of popularity among the other sick individuals in there. He continued posting multiple different videos bragging about things like how he had just taken a Viagra before the assault or how he had knocked Gisele out so well, I mean, just truly disgusting things. But remember though, it wasn't just Dominique who assaulted Gisele without her knowledge.

There were so many different men in these videos and in these photos, and it turns out that the chat room was exactly how Dominique met these men. There were countless messages in the chat room and on Skype where Dominique invited these men into their home to assault Giselle.

And there's just something about the fact that he didn't even just allow these assaults to happen. He literally welcomed it to happen into their own home with open doors, open arms. He wanted it to happen. He pretty much started posting the videos of himself assaulting Giselle to draw these men in, kind of show them what they could do, what they could be a part of.

On June 19, 2023, a 370-page report was released, and it showed that in total, 51 men were being indicted for sex.

Giselle. There was actually a 52nd man who got to escape any backlash because he died of cancer before he was ever able to be arrested. And even though 52 is an insane number, that was just the number of men that law enforcement were able to successfully identify. Some of these men assaulted her multiple times, making the total number of assaults, honestly, astronomical.

It's believed, based on evidence, that Giselle was assaulted a total of 92 times over the years. The investigators on this case have identified that there were actually 72 separate men who assaulted her. These assaults started in July of 2011 and ended in October of 2020.

And it took the investigators two full years to even identify all of these men who were involved, despite Dominique labeling each one of these files, each assault, so clearly. The fact that so many men still aren't caught to this day is absolutely terrifying. All of the men who were found to be involved in the assaults have varying charges.

Some men were charged with just one count of sexual assault, while others were charged with multiple, since they assaulted her multiple times. I mean, one man, for example, was charged with six whole counts. Five men were also charged with possessing images of child material on top of the counts or counts of abuse against Giselle. And even now, the identities of all of the men aren't very publicized.

though some Reddit pages say that if you really dive deep into the names, they are out there. Just the fact that their names aren't broadcasted on every news article covering this, though, absolutely infuriates me. I mean, each and every name and face should be posted right up on the headlines. There should be a bulletin board. All of the men's names, all of their faces,

all of their life, their information, like, they should be blasted for who they are. And even though the assaulters' information out there is all pretty vague, we do know that the ages of these assaulters range from 25 years old all the way up to 70 years old. I mean, that is insane to me. Obviously, the fact that so many different men were involved is absolutely terrifying.

Possibly even more terrifying though is that these men were all just regular people. They went out in their day-to-day lives, they served the community, they were loved by many, and then they just went home and they prepped for a night of truly brutal assault against Gisele. These men included a firefighter, a former law enforcement officer, a soldier, a journalist, a nurse, a truck driver, even a local counselor.

One man was actually Dominique and Giselle's neighbor also. Giselle would literally see him outside. She would wave. She would ask how his family was doing, all the while not knowing what he was doing at night when she was unconscious. Giselle said that they both had cycling in common too, and they would have these long chats about it, and they would run into each other at the local bakery very often. I mean, just very much your normal everyday neighborly thing.

Except the fact that she had no idea he was coming over at night and assaulting her. Now, each assault followed a very strict routine, and this routine, to me at least, just goes to show how wrong Dominique knew this entire thing was. Every little detail was to avoid ever getting caught, and it's just so disgusting the amount of thought and planning that he put into it.

Each man was instructed to park far away from their house, so that the neighbors wouldn't notice anything that was going on, and of course Giselle wouldn't notice anything if she hadn't gone unconscious yet. Each man was then instructed to wait outside of the house for at least one hour while Giselle went fully unconscious. Then, each man was told to come into the kitchen where they would get completely naked and leave their clothing.

This detail was to ensure that their clothing was never accidentally left behind. You know, like Giselle maybe making the bed one day and is kind of like, whose underwear is this? Or these aren't my husband's pants. He doesn't own this. That sort of thing. Then, after removing their clothes, they had to warm their hands either under hot water or by the radiator in their home. Dominique said that this detail was so somebody's cold hands wouldn't wake up Giselle.

These men also were not allowed to wear any kind of clone. They weren't allowed to smoke, not even beforehand. And this was a huge rule. And the reason for this rule was that Dominique claimed that Giselle had a very strong sense of smell. So he didn't ever want her to smell something and question where that smell had come from. Maybe once she wakes up being like, that clone smells different. Who was here? Was somebody smoking cigarettes in here? So it was absolutely a hard rule. No clone, no smoking, none of that.

Lastly, for no reason other than Dominique's disgusting desires, he told the men that they were absolutely never allowed to use condoms. And this wasn't just a suggestion or a loose rule. This was a demand. No ifs, ands, buts about it.

And because of this, Giselle later learned that her body was ridden with sexually transmitted infections, as one would imagine. Throughout her assaults, she had contracted four different STIs.

One of her assaulters, who was found to have assaulted her six different times, was also HIV positive. Which that, of course, is extremely serious because it interferes with the body's ability to fight off infections and diseases, and we also know there's no cure for it. Luckily, she never got HIV or Hepatitis B or C. But another non-negotiable from her husband, her loving husband of decades, Dominique, was that each assault was to be recorded.

And I have to say, that seems like a ballsy move to make. But hey, ultimately, it's what got him caught. So these videos were rewatched by Dominique, and then they were later posted into that chat room. Basically, as some sort of sick and twisted form of advertisement to get even more disgusting men who would be interested in coming in and being Giselle's next assaulter. And the last part of the routine was that after each assault was finished, and the assaulter was, you know, long gone,

Dominique would thoroughly clean his wife, making sure there was absolutely no way that she would ever notice something strange by the time she woke up.

He would put her back in her clothing that she went unconscious in, he would clean her up, he would lay her back in bed, and it was like nothing ever happened. He went through so much trouble and was so meticulous to every little attention to detail, all to make sure that he was never caught. And clearly, it worked for many, many years. Now earlier I mentioned that Dominique was terrible with money and heavily in debt.

So you're probably wondering whether or not these men were paying him a large sum of money, right? Get this. Never took a dime. Money was the last thing on his mind. It's not like this abuse happened for the sole purpose of, you know, basically pimping her out without her consent because they were in so much financial trouble. It was solely for Dominique's pleasure. He enjoyed watching his wife

by these men. It turned him on. There were even a few instances where he had sex with the assaulters. Now, I will say, in all of the coverage that has come out, I have noticed a lot of victim blamers have been quick to say, well, how could she have been assaulted all of these times and not known? Wouldn't she have woken up? Wouldn't she have felt the pain down there? The answer is, she would wake up in pain.

There were times even where she would go to the doctor, not even for memory loss or blackouts, but for cervix pain. Each time, they would examine her and nothing would stand out as being off. I mean, she was still sexually active when she would consent with Dominique, so it's not like the doctors would be able to put two and two together and conclude that she might have been assaulted, like they might be able to do with a child who maybe isn't sexually active or grown, where it would show clear signs that an assault had taken place.

There were just no answers. Nobody knew. Now, after learning all of this, Dominique was luckily re-arrested on November 2nd, 2020. He was charged with aggravated RAPE, drugging, and multiple other sexual offenses.

And Giselle has been very open about the intense emotions that she felt after learning not only the truth about who her husband really was, but the things that he allowed to happen to her, and her mystery illness all being caused by him. She has said that she completely wanted to die, and that she had no desire to even move forward with her life.

According to Giselle, though, her mom instincts just kicked in, and she knew that even though she was mourning and grieving and just devastated and heartbroken, she had to be the one to tell her kids.

So she sat them all down, all three of them, and she explained what she had learned and explained that their dad had been arrested. Now, as hard as this was for Giselle, I can only imagine how their kids felt too. And I'm using the term kids pretty loosely because they were all born in the 70s and this was now 2020, so they definitely weren't kids anymore.

they were grown. Dominique was the man that they called dad, the man that they looked up to for inspiration and guidance when becoming parents of their own, the man that they led around their own small children. So they experienced the pain of mourning the man that they thought that he was, and they blamed themselves for even letting him around their children. Thankfully, his grandchildren were never victims that anybody knows of or can confirm for sure, but I mean, who's to say that they wouldn't have been eventually?

If Dominique was never caught that day, he may never have stopped and things could have just gotten worse and worse. And as awful as everything that Dominique had allowed to happen to his wife Giselle was, there were even more disgusting secrets that just had not yet been discovered yet.

It turns out that Giselle wasn't the only woman whose intimate and non-consensual pictures were on Dominique's devices. Giselle and Dominique's only daughter Caroline, as well as their two daughter-in-laws, were also sadly at the forefront of these pictures and videos. His two daughter-in-laws had multiple pictures of them naked, clearly taken in secret. And as much as that alone was so terrible, Caroline's was unfortunately much worse.

Instead of pictures, there were videos of her unconscious in bed, just like Giselle had been so many times before. And in these videos, she was wearing nothing but her mother's underwear. Now Dominique denies ever assaulting or having anybody else for that matter assault Caroline, and the investigators never found any other videos to prove otherwise, but I think that the unknown would probably be something that kept me up at night for the rest of my life.

And like I mentioned earlier, Dominique was the perfect dad. Before all of this news came out, if you would have gone down the line and asked each of his children what he could have done better as a father, they probably would have said absolutely nothing. He's the best. Now, since all of this has come out, Caroline has written a book. And in this book, she really goes into the detail describing the relationship that she had with her father.

She said that growing up, even though she had a good relationship with her mom, she was always a big daddy's girl. He was the parent that she went to for comfort. He was the parent that she knew that she could call if she was out late at a party and she wasn't supposed to be there, and he would drop everything and just come rescue her.

Her exact description of him was the perfect doting dad, which hearing all of that breaks my heart even more for her now, knowing what we now know. Unfortunately though, that still is not even all of the sick things that Dominique had been up to. He was clearly a very busy man living a complete double life. Because somehow between his life as a loving husband, dad, and grandpa by day, and committing the unthinkable sexual crimes at night,

He was also training a man to essentially be his protege. I guess the awful things being done to Gisele just weren't enough for him. He wanted more men to be able to feel the way it made him feel when he watched another man assault his wife. And so this is when a man named Jean-Pierre comes into the picture. He and Dominique met on the website that I mentioned earlier, so their relationship was pretty much doomed from the start.

Jean-Pierre showed some interest in Dominique's vile pictures and videos he had uploaded of himself, you know, assaulting Giselle, so much so to the point that these two men started really striking up these private conversations. Jean-Pierre and his wife Celia had a very similar story to Dominique and Giselle. They had been together for many years, through thick and thin, they had five children together.

And at some point in these conversations between the two men, Dominique just straight up asked Jean-Pierre if he could assault Celia.

the same way that he had been assaulting his wife Giselle. And at first he said, no, absolutely not, though it didn't take long until he was convinced. And in no time, Jean-Pierre flipped a switch and told Dominique that he essentially wanted to be trained. He wanted to be just like him. So Dominique would travel to their home, supplying the concoction of medications that he knew would knock her out,

And then the next thing you know, Celia became a victim just like Giselle. Many of the assaults were from Jean-Pierre to his own wife, but eventually he let Dominique join.

and he started assaulting her as well. This went on for five years, in between 2015 and 2020. Both Jean-Pierre and Dominique were later accused of assaulting Celia 10 times. When you sign up at WorkMoney, you could win $50,000. With the average renter paying around $2,100 per month, that means you can have rent covered for a whole year and more. So you can be more, and when you're more, that means you get more.

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Now I know I've covered so much already, but I keep saying it, and it's true, there's still even more that the investigators learned about Dominique's cruel past. It turns out that Dominique's

It turns out that his disgusting urges hadn't actually started with Giselle. In 2010, a year before the assaults on Giselle began, Dominique had actually been caught for taking videos of women up their skirts at the local supermarket. So, literally, the exact same thing that he was caught doing just a decade later. This time, though, when he was caught, I don't want to say nobody cared, but it is kind of what it seems like.

He was only given a little slap on the wrist and fined only 100 euros for the incident. Also, Giselle was never informed, and the whole thing was just easily kept a secret.

Giselle has said that she wishes so badly that she would have learned about that incident when it happened, because it would have made her re-evaluate Dominique as a person, and their entire marriage as a whole. Remember, until 2020, she thought that he was a loving, dedicated, and devoted man. That certainly would have proved otherwise. Not to say it could have potentially stopped the assaults from ever happening, or that it wouldn't have ended up being somebody else, but you never really know.

It again was the unknown and the, you know, hindsight's always 20-20. They just understandably really bothered Giselle so much when she learned this information. And as much as I could just say that, you know, 2010 is when it all really first started, it wasn't. Not at all. In 1999, a 19-year-old real estate agent named Estella B was showing an apartment to potential clients in the suburbs of Paris. And as she was showing the apartment, she was attacked.

The man choked her, held a knife under her throat, and forced her to lie on her stomach with her hands behind her back. The man then tied her hands, put a rag soaked in something over her face to knock her out, and then waited. Once she was unconscious, he began taking her pants off so that he could assault her. Luckily though, something made her wake up and somehow she was able to fight back and eventually escape.

For years, this attacker went unknown, and Estella just had to fear for her life that he was going to find her again one day. So for years, she was hypervigilant, looking behind her back, watching her shoulders, just checking her surroundings. Until one day in 2010, when a man was arrested for taking videos of women up their skirts at the local supermarket.

And the DNA of that man matched the DNA that was found on her shoe. So yes, Dominique had been the man who brutally attacked Estella. And remember, that was back in 1999, 12 whole years before he ever began assaulting Gisele. Now this is really confusing and frustrating, but for whatever reason, even though they literally had his DNA matched, they never pursued him, and he stayed a free man.

So he didn't just get away with one crime in 2010, he somehow managed to get away with two at that point. After he was arrested in 2020, his DNA was again matched to the DNA that was found on Estella's shoes. And at first, he tried to lie. But then he just didn't bother, and he confessed that it was him. And even though he confessed to attacking her, he still claims to this day that his intentions were never to sexualize her.

which I'm just not believing. He literally made sure that she was unconscious and he had her pants down. So nobody's buying that, Dominique. He was ultimately charged with attempted...

with a weapon. But that 1999 attack still was not his first rodeo with crimes of violent nature. Eight years prior, in 1991, a 23-year-old real estate agent named Sophie was found deceased, completely naked, and lying face down in the apartment that she was scheduled to show a potential client. The investigators were able to identify that she had been drugged, she had been

and then she was stabbed to death. Now, the investigators had a working theory that Sophie was murdered by a serial killer named Michael, but they were never able to come up with the evidence to actually link the two. So her case went cold, and Sophie and her family never received any justice.

That is until almost 30 years later. Because in 2020, when Dominique was arrested, his DNA matched the DNA that was found at Sophie's crime scene. So on October 14th, 2020, he was charged with the assault and murder of Sophie.

Though unlike Estella's case, he denies he was ever involved to this day. So now that we've gone over Dominique's whole criminal background, let's get into the trial, which is still ongoing at the time that I'm recording this. Even though it's still ongoing, there has been plenty to debrief on.

Starting with the fact that Dominique's entire trial could have been done a lot more private and Giselle's name wouldn't have been released. However, Giselle herself made the very incredibly brave decision to make everything public.

Up until the trial, Giselle was anonymous. When that 370-page report was released, she was referred to as Francois P. That was it. But then she wanted to take this public, and her reasoning for wanting this to go public and making the trial so much more public with her name actually being out there was that she doesn't want any other women out there who have gone through something similar to ever feel like they should hide or be ashamed of what happened to them.

She even added that she made this decision so that, quote, Which I cannot think of anything more admirable or remarkable to just not only be so brave as to stand up to the person who did this to you, but to be this like,

public platform for this to just try to make other women brave and comfortable coming forward themselves it's honestly incredible another really amazing detail that i want to add in is that as soon as giselle learned about what happened she packed two suitcases of what she describes all that was left of me after 50 years of marriage and she left the house and dominique behind

She immediately filed for divorce and everything was finalized on the first day of his trial on September 2nd, 2024. This trial wasn't just that of Dominique, but also Jean-Pierre and 49 other defendants. Like I said, this trial is still ongoing and it's expected to last until the end of December if nothing comes along and slows it down or pushes it back. This is the queue of defendants in the room.

...face that has sent chills through France. There are 51 men on trial, including Dominique Pellico, who is accused of drugging his wife and inviting strangers over to rape her in their home. They shield their faces as they go through security.

By contrast, Giselle Pellicoe held her head high on arrival at the criminal court in Avignon. The 71-year-old woman chose to be named and to hold a public trial in solidarity with all women who had faced similar crimes.

and to prevent it from ever happening again. Interestingly enough, Dominique isn't necessarily denying everything that is stacked against him. He has always admitted to drugging and premeditating Giselle's assaults, and with little to no empathy in my personal opinion, he just kind of acknowledges this and admits it. I mean, he's saying he's sorry, but then he provides reasons for why he is the way that he is, essentially trying to take the blame away from himself.

He and his defense team have claimed in court that he was not born perverted, which is the term that they've loved using this whole trial, not me, but that he didn't just become this way on his own. He claimed to have been sexed when he was nine years old and then forced to watch a sex at the age of 14. And they claim that this is what traumatized him. He was at the Chateauroux Hospital when he was nine years old. He was present at a game where others wanted him to participate when he was 14 years old.

and he witnessed some scenes of sexual violence between his parents that he shouldn't have seen because a 14-year-old kid mustn't see that kind of thing. Now, I have no doubt that it did traumatize him. Those are really terrible and awful things to go through, especially as a child. But as for it being the reasoning of why you grow up to be sick, perverted, disgusting, vile...

How many times have we heard that one, right? And on top of his past trauma, he really had the balls to testify that he had once in his and Giselle's marriage asked her to spice things up and partner swap, to which she said no and didn't give her consent to doing. So he claimed that it was her refusal on top of his trauma that created the monster that he is today.

He constantly says things like that, where the blame is all on Giselle. Then he will talk about how meeting her made him forget so much of his trauma in his childhood and how he's so thankful for her. It just doesn't make any sense. And

And even though he's never denied drugging and assaulting Giselle, he did deny ever assaulting, drugging, or taking pictures of his daughter Caroline and his daughter-in-laws. And they also all gave heartbreaking testimonies throughout the trial. Caroline testified that the moment she saw the pictures of herself, quote, asleep in nothing but her mother's underwear, she knew that she had been drugged. Caroline also testified that she still has her suspicions that her father did send

her. She has been quoted by Times as calling Dominique, quote, the greatest sexual predator of the last 20 years. And she even was asking open-ended questions to the courtroom during her testimony like, what can you do for a person like me to heal? To have a normal life of a woman? A normal sex life? And as for one of his daughter-in-law's, Celine, her testimony really broke my heart. She

She wasn't even really focused on what had been done to her. She was focused on if her own children, who were often left in his care, ever experienced anything. Which, as a mom, literally breaks my heart to hear because I think we can all probably relate.

She was quoted as saying in court, We are all asking our children, whom we left with their grandparents, things that we normally don't ask them. What did he do to you? Which, it just makes me sick. His other daughter-in-law's testimony was very similar. She testified that she felt immense guilt over one scenario in particular. She spoke about a time when she heard Dominique ask one of her children if they wanted to play doctor. And at

And at the time, she hadn't thought anything of it. But looking back, it makes her sick.

She has been quoted saying, Now Dominique was quick to speak on the testimonies of his daughter-in-laws, denying ever laying malicious hands on his grandkids. He stated,

I would never touch one. And as much as I really hope and pray for the kid's sake that what he's saying is true, it's hard to believe it because he's basically saying, I was assaulted as a child, so I would never assault a child. And because of that, you got to believe me.

me. But also, wouldn't you think, I was assaulted as a child, so I would never assault another human being? Wouldn't that be the case? And sadly, we know that it wasn't. There are also rumors that Giselle and Dominique's two sons, David and Florian, are also set to testify, but I haven't seen that come through yet. Now, some of the other defendants have testified, and I really can't go through each testimony, but one thing I will say, and one thing that is pretty common, is that not many of these men can take accountability for their actions.

The various testimonies were full of pointed fingers just ranging from Giselle consenting to her pretending to be drugged, her pretending to be unconscious, to them having Dominique's consent to assaulting his wife, which they think should be sufficient enough consent, which, saying that out loud, makes my stomach hurt and makes me sick. Other people, such as Jean-Pierre, pretty much tried to say that everything was all Dominique's fault. Jean-Pierre,

Jean-Pierre was quoted as saying, Now Jean-Pierre also came with a depressing backstory, claiming that his mother drank too much, that his father abused him, abused his siblings, all of the things. Again, very traumatic and awful that he and his siblings ever had to go through that.

But are his siblings out here doing the same things? I sure hope not. Jean-Pierre also had one not-so-in-common thing with Dominique.

possible actual remorse. Now he may have been faking it and he may just be mad that he was ever caught, but he took the time to really announce what he considers to be his regrets and sorrow. He was quoted as saying, "I regret my actions. I love my wife. I'm in jail and I deserve it. What I did is appalling. I'm a criminal. I'm an RAPIST." He even was begging for what he called a tough punishment.

So I don't know, even if it's fake, at least he faked it. I don't know, sort of. Well, at least he has remorse. I don't know. Now, I obviously can't go through all of the defendant's testimony, so I'll just go over one or two to give you an idea of how these people felt about the situation.

One man, a father of three named Lionel, testified that Dominique came to him proposing that he have sex with his wife. He claimed that he found the request odd at first, but ultimately agreed. He testified that Dominique gave him all of the rules and informed him that he was going to drug Giselle. So he says it's not like he can really say that he thought that she was pretending. He claimed that he thought that it was all just one big game, though.

though. So in December of 2018, Lionel testified that he came to the family's home, following every single one of Dominique's rules, and he proceeded to assault Giselle for about 30 minutes. But then he says Dominique made him stop.

And the reasoning for this was that Giselle apparently had moved a little bit. She wasn't awake or anything, but she had moved, and Dominique was afraid that she was about to wake up, so he didn't want to take any chances. So Lionel testified that it was in that moment when Dominique was freaking out over Giselle moving that he realized it was all real. This wasn't a game. He was quoted in his testimony saying, "...I realized that there was a big problem if she couldn't wake up in front of me."

Again, another defendant, a man referred to as Jacques, testified something very similar. He said,

He claimed that even though Dominique told him that Giselle would be drugged and unconscious by the time he came to their home, he thought that they were just a promiscuous couple. Similarly to Lionel, he assaulted Giselle by performing oral sex on her until she, quote, Dominique again freaked out and made him stop and made him get out of the room in case she woke up.

He even admitted during his testimony that he knew from Dominique freaking out that they weren't just a couple into some, you know, freakier role-playing, among other things. His reasoning for not going to the police, though, even though he allegedly considered it, was because, quote, "...life resumed its course."

The next day I went to work very early, and that was that. Like I said, there were plenty more testimonies, but they're all pretty similar in the grand scheme of things. Even when they're apologizing and they're so sorry for what they've done to Giselle, they're still just giving excuses at the end of the day.

But no matter what, at the end of every single day so far, Giselle has left the courtroom with her head held high. I think I've said everything I wanted to say. It's not easy, of course. It's an exercise in style. It's not easy.

And then there's the pressure of all these people behind me, and I can feel that they're trying to trap me with their questions. So I try to answer as best as I can. And then, of course, we'll have to fight to the end because this trial is going to last four months. Many of their lawyers have all been quick to advocate for them in the media, vouching for the fact that they're really good people, that they have no criminal backgrounds. But I guess that's their job as lawyers, but who cares? These are people who are not delinquents at all.

who for the most part have clean criminal records and had normal family lives and professional activities. And they found themselves involved in this case, which is obviously a very important one. It's honestly really depressing that these grown men are still confused on what consent is.

Basically admitting that Dominique had orchestrated the entire thing, so therefore his wife must have consented. That is, of course, if what they're saying is even believed to be true, which his consent is not her consent. So Dominique was pretty pissed with all these testimonies, and he pretty much said that all of the defendants need to take accountability for what they had done, which, I gotta say, is pretty bold coming from him. Today I maintain that I am a

Like the others concerned in this room, they all knew her condition before they came. They knew everything. They cannot say otherwise.

Of his ex-wife, he said, she did not deserve this. Thankfully, Giselle has received so much support, and it makes me feel like there is actually hope for the world amidst something as awful as this case is. Each time she's seen leaving the courtroom for breaks, she's greeted by applause, by cheering, and I'm sure that that no doubt helps keep her going and helps assure her of her decision in going public.

In both her and her attor outside of the courtroom, been advocating for not e what happened to her, bu who has ever been a victi is not a victim of sexual fear of filing a complaint. fear of going to court.

to confront situations where we will feel that it is the victim's trial. You shouldn't be afraid, you should have confidence in justice. And she has confidence in justice. That's why she's here. She has nothing to hide. She's not ashamed of anything at all. And every day that will pass and this trial continues, she will come as much as she can. Even though hundreds of women of all ages continue to stand outside of the courthouse, there are also many men showing their support for Gisele.

which also gives me at least a slight hope for humanity. I came in support of Gisele Pélico because I thought there weren't enough men present to support the cause. Because we have a feeling that the voice of women is not heard enough. I am confronted next year because I have my daughter who is a victim.

Now, perhaps one of the more powerful moments so far was when Dominique was allowed to speak directly to Giselle in court. He told her, I am guilty. I regret everything I did. I ask you for forgiveness, even if it's unpardonable.

And when Giselle was given the chance to respond, she simply turned around and left the stand. And that right there feels like taking back your power.

Like I said, this trial is set to go on for weeks still, so I'm sure there will be plenty of updates. And I know that this case was really heavy and is probably very triggering for some people to hear, but I appreciate it. Because every case we go over is unimaginable, but there's something that makes it even more difficult when the perpetrator is somebody that the victim knew and loved and trusted for decades. So I want to take a minute to just say that if you or a loved one is going through something similar,

please reach out to someone and get the help that you need. You're stronger than you know, and you are definitely not alone. Thank you for hearing Giselle's story. I will keep you updated as this trial continues, and let's hope that all of these sleazy, garbage human beings are held accountable.

Thank you guys so much for joining me for today's bonus episode. I hope that you found this coverage informative and educational, and it is just one of those unbelievable cases that makes you wonder if you really know who you are sleeping next to at night.

Thank you guys for tuning in. If you're enjoying this podcast, whether you're new or you've been a listener for a while, please take 30 seconds if you have it to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It helps push our podcast out so it's seen to more people. And I love hearing from you in the review section what kind of cases you want me to cover more of, what you like about this podcast, maybe what you don't like, so that we can pivot to make it what it is you want.

All right, other than that, I will be back on the mic with you first thing tomorrow morning for Headline Highlights, where we will be talking about everything going on this week in the true crime world, which there is a lot. All right, guys, until then, stay safe. Bye. When you sign up at WorkMoney, you could win $50,000. With the average renter paying around $2,100 per month, that means you can have rent covered for a whole year and more. So you can be more...

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Look, I get it. Going back to school might seem unrealistic for your hectic life, but it's achievable when it's with WGU. WGU is an online accredited university that makes higher education accessible for real people with real lives. With tuition starting at around $8,000 per year and courses you can take 24-7, WGU provides the flexibility and personalized support that can help you go back to school successfully. So, what are you waiting for? Apply today at wgu.edu.

Look, I get it. Going back to school might seem unrealistic for your hectic life, but it's achievable when it's with WGU. WGU is an online accredited university that makes higher education accessible for real people with real lives. With tuition starting at around $8,000 per year and courses you can take 24-7, WGU provides the flexibility and personalized support that can help you go back to school successfully. So, what are you waiting for? Apply today at wgu.edu.