All language subtitles for Murder in Concrete S01E02

[logo swooshing]

[suspenseful music]

- What had initially started out

as an admission of accidental killing

by Sebastian Bendou had now turned

into a complex murder inquiry

involving more than one person.

There was no doubt this was a murder,

it was horrendous injuries

and one person couldn't
have done this on their own.

[suspenseful music]

I found it harrowing
trying to picture

what Christophe must have thought,

trying to understand and
comprehend what's happening to him.

We need to get justice for
Christophe and his family.

Wagner and Kocher had
likely been involved,

so there was clearly a
lot of pressure on us

to bring them in for questioning
so we could start to secure evidence.

[intense music]

What we'd established is that
Kocher, Bendou and Wagner,

they had all left the courts
where they'd been living,

so we had a lot of
trouble trying to find out

where they were living,
what they'd been doing

and what had happened
in the intervening time

since they left the court.

- We specifically wanted to talk

to Manuel Wagner and Dominik Kocher.

In talking to neighbors and
acquaintances of the trio,

it became apparent that
we weren't the only ones

who had been searching
for them since they left.

Kocher had borrowed a
significant amount of money

from local residents and
members of the football team

that he ran.

- Dominik told us he was
going to move to Warrington,

not far from here.

So he said to me, "Look,
I'm a bit short of money

to pay towards my deposit."

He said, "Can you
borrow me some money?"

I said, "Yeah, yeah,
how much do you need?"

And then he said, "I need two grand."

And I thought, "Yeah, no problem.

You're my friend,
I'll give it to you."

So I gave him two grand
like that, no paperwork,

because I thought, you know what?

I trust him, we're close.

I'll give it to him.

We played football on Monday,

then on the Tuesday, he was gone.

[suspenseful music]

Thinking, oh, something strange,

has he died or something, you know,

we're like is he dead, we don't know.

Couldn't get hold of no one,
even Sebastian, Manny.

[brooding music]

- Manny and Seb moved away
with Dom and his family.

There was no warning, there
was no goodbyes, farewells.

It was just in the middle of
the night, they were gone,

but we wasn't sure why.

We were starting to assume
that it was over debt chasers.

[brooding music]

- I knew where his house was.

I went to his house
and he wasn't there.

So no one there and it
was just an empty house

and I thought, "Oh gosh,
my money's took as well."

[suspenseful music]

- And then we all received letters.

Me and Joe received one,

I think most people in the
football team received one.

- A letter sent through
to Ellesmere Port.

Friends of Kocher.

He said his father-in-law
was ill in France

and his phone wouldn't be working

and they were going over to France

so you wouldn't be able
to get ahold of him,

but in truth, they
didn't go to France.

Kocher, Wagner and Bendou
were in rent arrears

and they just upped and left.

[suspenseful music]

- It transpired that
the three of them

were keeping one step
ahead of the bailiffs

in that they moved
out of Ellesmere Port

and ended up in Scotland.

- They all moved up in mass
to start new lives up there,

where again, Kocher
was the dominant force

who controlled them, their wages

and really how they
lived their lives.

- They were getting jobs in
local hotels and the like

and Bendou did land a job.

He was working as a pot wash
at a local Dumfries restaurant.

Then one day, Bendou left the
rental property up in Scotland

and went off the face of the Earth.

[brooding music]

And this is in the May of 2013.

And in effect, he's making
his way back to Cheshire.

[brooding music]

And this is when he informs the cops

that he is responsible
for a murder back in 2009

in the Ellesmere Port area.

He pretty much walked
from Scotland, you know?

[suspenseful music]

Two teams were deployed to Scotland.

Wagner was arrested
at the rental property

where Dominik Kocher
was in a waiting room

in a local hospital where
he was going for treatment.

There was all sorts of
rumors about his health,

whether he did have cancer,
whether he didn't.

I don't know what his
appointment was for,

but he didn't have cancer.

The arrests ran smoothly.

There was no drama.

They were arrested and
they were brought back

to custody in Cheshire.

- I became involved when
all three of the defendants

were in custody awaiting charge,

and it was quite clear that
Kocher was in fact the leader,

if I can put it that way.

The others followed his lead.

The difficulty at that stage

was there was not enough evidence

to charge them with murder.

If we just released them,
the chances were

that they'd leave the country

and so I charged them with preventing

the lawful burial of a corpse
and assisting an offender

on the basis that Bendou
was charged with murder.

Then they'd assisted an offender

and then it was all
stops out for the police

to carry out their investigations.

[brooding music]

- Kocher stuck to the line
that he'd told police initially

that Christophe had moved abroad.

Wagner told police that he
believed Christophe was in China,

because Kocher had told
him that he'd spoken

to the victim's brother

and he'd confirmed that was the case.

- Christophe's brother,
Noel, had received an email,

which purported to be from
Christophe to his brother,

saying, effectively, don't worry

and that he'd met this girl

and that this is the first time

he'd had access to the internet.

- But we knew that when
this email was sent to Noel,

that these were sent
after Christophe's death,

so he's not sending the emails.

One of the experts that we approached

to forensically analyse this email

was a linguistics expert.

He looked at structure in
sentences and languages

that Christophe would use
in writing and his style,

but he also looked at the
way that Kocher wrote,

spoke and different
dialects of language

and deduced that
Kocher sent that email.

[suspenseful music]

[gentle music]

- As a link between the family
and the investigation team,

what was particularly
difficult for me

was to communicate to the family

that this email that Noel
had received back in 2009,

saying he'd left the area

and had moved to China,
was a complete lie.

It wasn't Christophe
that had sent it.

[somber music]

There was an accumulation of information that made me feel

that there was something not quite right about the story.

It was...

...hard.

[somber music]

When something like that happens,

there are days when you believe the story about him going to China.

We held onto whatever we could.

I didn’t expect him to just call us.

I was just expecting him to
show up at the door one day.

[somber music]

- Manuel Wagner told police
that he'd come home one day

and found Bendou moving a
tarpaulin-shaped package

and that Bendou had asked
for his help to move it

and him unaware of what
was in the package,

thinking that perhaps it
was rubbish or some items,

had helped move the
tarpaulin into the shed.

He expressed shock and horror

at the fact that a
body had been found

in the property where
he used to live.

- But another little
piece of information

came from a neighbour who
lived opposite number 19,

and she told us that
she was upstairs one day

and she was looking across towards 19

and she saw Kocher in the
garden of 19 doing manual labor

and she'd never seen Dominik Kocher
do any form of labor before.

- I can remember Dominik
coming out of the house one day

with a big rolled up carpet or
a bag or something or other,

heavy, struggling with it,

and the other one that was
living there was helping him

and they put it into the shed.

For the life of me, I did not know

there was a body in it, you know?

[somber music]

- Something so small
would start to back up

the lies that Kocher was telling

and this elderly
neighbour remembered it.

[suspenseful music]

- When we moved in,

we were led to believe
Dom was the landlord.

When we inquired about the shed,

he said that the landlord
has things in the shed,

so we were unable to use it.

We just assumed that it was part

of maybe his tenancy
agreement on the property

that there were private
things in there.

[suspenseful music]

Joe had a push bike
so he could go to work

and my grandma had suggested,

"Why don't you put
the bike in the shed?

It'll get rusty or stolen."

And we tried to do
that on one occasion.

You could see our back
garden Dom's place

and Dom came flying from
his property across to ours,

shouting and swearing
in a mixture of English,

French and German and said
that we, under no circumstances

were allowed to go near the shed.

[suspenseful music]

I couldn't think of anything
that would make you react that way

unless it was illegal or shameful,

but his warning
definitely stayed with us

and we never tried to
get in that shed again.

[suspenseful music]

- During the course of the
interviews of Kocher and Wagner,

they were answering the questions
that the officers were asking them.

Wagner had this
undertone of arrogance,

but they were two very,
very different characters.

[suspenseful music]

There was a multitude of evidence

that implicated Kocher massively.

The purchase of the bricks,
the purchase of the cement,

his financial history,

the monies going through his
accounts from the other two.

For me, it was the
knives that done him.

[brooding music]

As a result of the investigation

and the interviews with
Wagner, Bendou and Kocher

and all the further
stuff we are finding out,

we present to the CPS.

The Crown decided to
charge Dominik Kocher

in connection with the
murder of Christophe Borgye.

[suspenseful music]

- But we didn't have enough evidence
to charge Wagner with murder.

[suspenseful music]

- Wagner was charged with
assisting an offender

and preventing a lawful burial.

They thought that was the more
fitting charge for Wagner.

- But Bendou was being treated
for his mental health issues

having been sectioned in
the Mental Health Act.

- We charged Bendou with murder,

even though he said
it was self-defense.

- He was arguing that he
didn't have the capacity

or the intent to kill.

It was as a result of
his mental illness.

- When somebody is unwell,

in this case mentally unwell,

there can be a capacity
assessment by a psychiatrist

to determine are they well
enough to stand trial?

Meaning will they be able
to take in the information,

will they be able to understand it?

Will they be able to
give their own testimony?

- Those acting for Bendou
made an application

to have their client
not tried at that time,

and the judge granted that.

So we proceeded against
Kocher and Wagner

and we went to trial.

[suspenseful music]

- All the evidence was presented,

from the purchases to the pathology,

to what we'd been told,
the interviews,

the presentation of
the injuries in court

have to be dealt with in a
much more delicate manner.

The injury to the side of
Christophe's head, it was massive,

so it wasn't one blow.

- Because of where they lived,

family couldn't be at
the court certainly

for the duration of those trials.

Every day I would speak to Yves

and I would go through
the events of the day.

The evidence backwards and
forwards, the arguments.

It was horrific. It was savagery.

They were barbarians.

Killing someone with a hammer, stabbing him? Honestly?

It’s awful.

- I've had a few
sleepless nights thinking,

especially when I gave
evidence against Dom in court,

you know, having dreams of him coming

and doing the same to me.

Kind of put myself in
Christophe's position,

but it was me they were doing it to.

[suspenseful music]

- The financial side of
stuff was a strong part

in the case against Dominik Kocher.

Its financial gain
and the main control

and feature throughout
all of the financial

is Dominik Kocher.

[brooding music]

- If you look at the way that Kocher,

in the wake of Christophe's murder,

went on to sell all of
his possessions, his DVDs,

his CDs, his clothes, his car

and the way that he
continued to spend

using Christophe's bank
details and his bank card,

it shows that money was
the main motive for Kocher.

- He was just self-serving.

He was off the charts with his lies

and the bull that was
coming out of him.

He'd borrowed money
off people and run off.

He used to make up various
stories about illness.

He couldn't lie straight in bed.

You just couldn't trust the man.

- Over the course of nine
weeks in that first trial,

there were some days
where my confidence

was a bit shaken sometimes,

that we were gonna get the result

that we so desperately wanted,

because at the end of the day,
we present the evidence,

the jury make that decision.

[suspenseful music]

But at the end of this
trial of Kocher and Wagner,

jury were out for some
time deliberating.

I was personally quite
stressed about it,

because I was so
desperate for the family

to get the justice
that they deserved.

[brooding music]

- They convicted Kocher of murder,

but acquitted Wagner of
the other two offences,

because we just did not have
enough evidence to link him.

Once the jury had acquitted,
that's it, basically.

[gentle music]

- Kocher was jailed for life

with a minimum of 23 years in prison.

Kocher was described in court
as dangerous beyond measure

and the court heard that
this ferocious killing

had been a cold and
calculated execution.

The judge also referred
to the cruel way

that Kocher deliberately
sent a false email

to the victim's family,

giving them false
hope that he was okay.

- Yves is a retired police officer

with over 30 years of service,
so he was quite stoic.

Aurelie and Noel I think
were deeply traumatized

by what they'd learned over
the course of nine weeks

about what had happened
to their brother.

The cruelty, the deceit, the lies,

the lengthy period of time
where they'd had no idea.

[somber music]

I personally asked my father
not to tell me everything,

to protect myself, in a way, from anger.

And I have no answer to what I felt.

[somber music]

Even though I’m not a violent person,
it’s incredible how a human being

can think, why did they do this?
They deserve the same treatment

So, I tried to see and learn as little
as possible to manage my anger.

But it was… I just couldn’t believe it.

- I think there was some measure

of justice delivered to the family

and I think they at least
knew what had happened.

[suspenseful music]

- [Neil] Bendou stood trial,
charged with murder in May, 2014.

- He was arguing that he had
diminished responsibility

because of paranoid schizophrenia

and we very much as a team felt
no, he committed this murder

as knowingly as Kocher had.

- We had psychiatric evidence

to show that he was
perfectly fit for trial.

- Two psychiatrists told the court

that there was no evidence
he was in fact suffering

from delusions at the time
of Christophe's death.

- Retrospectively, we are looking

at whether they were
actively psychotic

at the time of the offense

and what you can look at,
witness testimony,

text messages, whether
they were in work,

what was happening in their life,

and if all of those things
they were able to do

and they were appearing stable,

then it suggests that they
may not be being truthful

about the delusions they were having

in relation to the offence.

[tense music]

- At his trial, Bendou
changed his story completely

from the account that he'd
initially given police

that he'd acted alone and
that it was in self-defense.

Bendou said that he was
effectively indoctrinated by Kocher

to carry out the killing.

- Kocher had invented
this fantastical story

that Christophe Borgye was
a clear and present danger

to Kocher and his
family and his children,

and that they needed to
get rid of Christophe

and that was the only option.

- Kocher was very
inventive with the stories

that he'd spin to the other two.

Bendou relayed saying
that Kocher had told him

that Christophe was actually
a spy for the Americans.

Where that come from,
I've got no idea.

He told them that
Christophe was planning

to assault Kocher's daughter,
which is total nonsense.

- He was drip-feeding information

to make them mistrust Christophe

and therefore do what
he wanted them to do.

He filled them with reasons
why this man deserved to die.

- Bendou clearly implicated
all three of them

in being responsible
for Christophe's death.

- [Neil] And it had been
him, Kocher and Wagner

who had carried out
the murder together.

[suspenseful music]

- I don't know how
long the jury were out,

but they came back with
a verdict of guilty.

[suspenseful music]

- He was jailed for life

with a minimum of 14 years in prison.

His defence of
diminished responsibility

was rejected by the jury.

It was accepted that he
had played a lesser role

in these events than Kocher

and that Kocher was no
doubt the ringleader

and that he was under his influence.

[suspenseful music]

- When we got to the end
of the trial with Bendou

and Aurelie and her
father were there,

it was clear that
the evidence pointed

to three people being
involved in this murder.

[suspenseful music]

The look on Aurelie's face

as I'm translating
the judge's comments,

commenting on this three and
three people being involved

and she looked at me and then
she said to me in French,

"So Wagner gets away with it."

I thought, “That’s not right.
Something needs to be done.”

Because there were three.
Two were convicted

but not him. Why?

If he had committed an unforgivable crime,

he couldn’t just walk away.

[suspenseful music]

- Wagner was responsible as well,

but had ultimately
walked away scot-free

and was out on the street.

[suspenseful music]

- The judge who was
summing up even said

in his closing speech

that there was three knives,
three sets of overshoes,

clearly three people involved,

and I was raging to
tell you the truth.

I was stunned.

- All the officers on the
teams went on to other cases,

but we had put our all into this.

It kind of left a gap of,
you know, unfinished business.

What could we do about it?

Is there any possible way
we could get to Wagner?

And everybody said,
"No, he's had his day in court,

walk away, move on."

- [Steve] But I just
couldn't let it go.

[tense music]

- Wagner had likely been
involved in this murder,

so we then started to
try and gather evidence

to support that theory.

We started to look at
Manuel Wagner's background.

- Wagner had had a
difficult childhood.

His mother had left him.

He'd gone to live with
Kocher's mother at one point,

which led to them referring
to each other as brothers.

He was a lot younger
than the other men

and it seemed very much he was
under the control of Kocher,

who was someone he looked up
to and was eager to please.

- Manny took a liking to me,

which made things a
little bit awkward.

Manny would knock on the door

when he knew that Joe wasn't there

and try and show me
his new sound equipment

or something he'd
made on the computer

and he tried to lock me
in on one of the days,

but I managed to run out
and lock myself in my room

and then wait 'til Joe got home.

I was too scared to
even go to the bathroom.

[suspenseful music]

It was scary.

It was really scary.

[suspenseful music]

- [Joe] I think since that day,

we kind of just avoided
each other, didn't we?

- Yeah.

[suspenseful music]

After that, Manny would start
playing music really loud,

obnoxiously slamming doors
and just yelling to himself

and there was no one there.

[suspenseful music]

- There was times where
he definitely seemed

the most unbalanced out of all

and he was going wayward
more and more wayward.

[tense music]

Every year we'd have a
bonfire night on the field

and he would be there
enjoying the fireworks,

but the last year
before they moved away,

we had the children
'round the bonfire

and he was thrown all
sorts of gas canisters

and anything what was just
exploding on the fire.

Manny's reckless behavior that night,

we felt it was putting
the kids in danger.

That was the last night
we ever had a bonfire.

[suspenseful music]

- To all intents and purposes,

it appeared that this case was over

with the conclusion
of the trials in 2014.

Wagner had been acquitted
of his lesser role

of helping to dispose
unlawfully of a body

and assisting an offender.

[brooding music]

- Reality was, the officers
in the case were not content

to leave it at that.

- Wagner was never
charged with murder.

He was only ever
charged with preventing

the lawful burial of Christophe
Borgye and he was acquitted.

- There was a lot of
skepticism, I think,

that we would find
sufficient evidence there

to persuade the CPS to consider
a charge against Wagner.

This was about securing
additional evidence,

finding more answers
that we didn't have

and we conducted an
exhaustive investigation

the first time 'round.

- We needed definite evidence
that Wagner was involved

and the only way we
could get that evidence

was from Sebastian.

[suspenseful music]

- The decision was made

that we would revisit
Sebastian Bendou.

- We went back and over
the course of four days,

we interviewed Bendou at length,

'cause we're only gonna
get one chance to do this.

We've gotta get this right.

Bendou then started to
give us key information

that we were unaware of from
the first investigations.

- I'm sure that even
Sebastian Bendou realized

that it wasn't right for
Wagner to be on the outside

when the other two were on the in.

- [Anton] And all of the bits
that we thought had happened

that we had no admissions for,

he confirmed one after the other

and all the pieces of that
puzzle were falling into place.

- And that's where we found
out about the kill room.

[suspenseful music]

The kitchen that was just
a normal domestic kitchen

had been transformed
into the kill room.

[tense music]

On the 23rd of April, 2009,

when the three of them attack

and brutally murder
Christophe Borgye.

- Bendou described in detail
how the murder took place

in terms of the
polythene being laid out

to avoid blood everywhere.

- They had overshoes on,
they had latex gloves.

All of that was clearly
designed to minimize

the risk of evidence
leaving any forensic trace.

[suspenseful music]

- All three of them under
Kocher's instruction

were going to lure
Christophe into the kitchen

on the pretense that they
were doing a spring clean.

- They prepared the
weapons they would use

and Christophe was then
called down to the kitchen,

unknowing that he was being
called down to his death.

- All three of them
were armed with knives

and Wagner had a hammer.

[tense music]

- They attacked him as
soon as he came down

and into the kitchen.

- So they all had a go at Christophe

with a knife when he was on the floor

until the hammer blows came in.

[suspenseful music]

- According to Bendou,

Wagner brought in
the hammer with him.

That was not part of
the original plan.

- Wagner had struck Christophe
in the head with the hammer

and went on to hit him a
further seven to eight times.

[suspenseful music]

- Christophe's skull was crushed in.

His head injuries were horrific.

[somber music]

- Manuel Wagner was the most
willing participant of all.

It was he who brought
the hammer to the scene.

He was the one who
struck the first blow.

It was he who fractured
Christophe's skull

and that blunt force
trauma led to his death.

Bendou said that after the killing,

they covered up Christophe's
body in the tarpaulin.

[ominous music]

They then disposed of the body

by carrying it into the
outhouse in the backyard

and by building a small brick wall

and then covering it with
three layers of cement.

[suspenseful music]

- It just looked like
another step at the back.

You would never have
guessed unless you knew.

[suspenseful music]

- One of the things we discovered

is that after they
committed this murder

and buried the victim in the grave,

the three of them went for lunch.

[somber music]

- There was not enough
evidence at that point

to charge Manuel Wagner with murder,

but Sebastian had told
us an awful lot more

that we didn't know.

[somber music]

- Bendou disclosed to us that

when it's his turn with the hammer,

he's drawn it back and directed it

towards Christophe's head,
but he's missed

and he has hit the
kitchen work surfaces

with the claw end of the hammer.

- And as Bendou gets
the hammer back out

in a jerking motion,

it's cracked Wagner on
the side of the face.

- And we certainly didn't know
about Wagner's facial injuries.

So when I go back into the kitchen,

lo and behold, there are
two really small dents

in the kitchen work surface.

[somber music]

As you can imagine, in an
investigation like this,

the amount of physical exhibits

to paperwork exhibits is colossal.

There was over 7,000 at one stage

and then that number just kept
going up, up and up and up.

We had a lot of stuff from
Facebook and pictures.

And what we're trying to do is find

if we've got anything
in the timeframe

with Manny Wagner with
an injury to his face.

It was a long shot,
but lo and behold,

the DC who's looking
at the photographs

finds a picture of Wagner
with a bruise on his face,

which fits in in timeframe, location

and the nature and
size of the bruises

to what Sebastian Bendou told us.

- We had a forensic expert
look at that injury to confirm.

It was an injury
consistent with bruising,

following a blow to
the side of his face.

[suspenseful music]

- We were always pushing
this rule of three,

the three knives,
the three pair of overshoes,

them operating as a three,

and obviously Bendou being
better and able to testify,

it put us in a much stronger position

in relation to Manny Wagner.

- We now had evidence
that he'd committed murder

and therefore he could be charged.

- We locate him in
a flat in Liverpool.

I arrest him for Christophe's murder.

He never ever thought that he
would ever, ever get charged.

He had a particular
arrogance about him,

bit of a know-it-all,
always thought he was right.

- I suppose one of the
highlights of my career

was ringing up the family

and telling them we have arrested,

charged and remanded
Wagner for murder.

In the end, it was good to know
that he would face justice,

because I think it would
have been very difficult for us

to continue living our lives
knowing that this person was still free.

I wasn’t satisfied until
Wagner was convicted.

For me, all three of them
needed to be punished.

[suspenseful music]

- Wagner appeared very
cold and indifferent

when he gave evidence.

- Bendou was in effect, the
star witness of that trial.

You're either gonna believe
Sebastian Bendou or you're not.

It's that simple.

And that type of
problematic witness comes

with a boatload of problems,
as you can imagine.

- I remember there being good days

where the evidence was really strong

and then there were other days

where, you know, the evidence
wasn't quite as strong

as we'd hoped and anticipated.

- Bendou gave evidence
saying that Wagner

had been part of the
plan to murder Christophe

and that they planned
it together with Kocher.

- Christophe having
worked his last shift,

coming home late that night,

they get up that morning,
all three of them,

knowing they're going to murder him.

- He said that Kocher had
called Christophe down

from his bedroom

and that it was Wagner
who'd struck the first blow

with the hammer as Christophe
shouted, "Stop, stop!"

[suspenseful music]

- This was the graphic detail

that Bendou sat there telling us

about how that happened step-by-step.

[suspenseful music]

As we're getting these
key bits of evidence

and information out of Bendou,

we discovered an awful
piece of the puzzle.

The original trial had centered

a lot around how the
cement had been mixed

and it created a lot of debate
and argument during the trial,

but here we were all these
years on with Bendou confirming

that they'd ordered an
electric cement mixer.

That information was fed back
to the investigation team

and they went to the shop
and found the receipt,

delivering that electric cement mixer

to the address that very
morning of the murder.

- And the eerie thing about this,
on the documentation,

it looks like Christophe
had actually signed

for the cement mixer that
was used to build his tomb.

- Christophe Borgye
had gotten out of bed

and signed the receipt
for that cement mixer,

which was ultimately
used in his murder.

[brooding music]

The trial ran on for three weeks.

It's impossible not to have

some sense of emotion about this,

because you put
yourself in the position

of the victim's family.

What would I expect?

What would I want?

[brooding music]

- When the jury were
bringing back the verdict,

you could have heard a
pin drop in that court,

'cause me and the team were
on edge, as you can imagine.

- Whilst we knew
everything inside and out,

it was about what the
jury were listening to,

how they were gonna be convinced.

[tense music]

- And thankfully, the jury
came back with guilty.

- That trial and the jury's verdict

came back faster than the other two

and he was convicted of murder.

- The jury saw through his lies

and he was jailed for life

with a minimum of 16 years in prison.

[somber music]

- We were elated when
Wagner got convicted.

That was a bit of closure.

There was not one that got
away for us as an inquiry team.

It was the right result.

- And at that point you could say,

"Yeah, now we've done our job."

- By the time it came
to the final trial,

the trial of Manuel Wagner,

and it was eight years since the
murder itself had taken place,

which really shows the painstaking
levels of the police investigation

and all the twists and
turns that this case took.

- This is down to the persistence
of the police officers

who were not prepared to let
this man get away with it.

On the one hand, it was
a relief to know that at least

they were judged for what they did.

But on the other hand,
it wasn’t enough for me.

It will never be enough
compared to what they did.

I just hope those three people
truly understand what they’ve done.

I don’t know what’s in their heads,
unfortunately we’ll never know.

But I hope they realise
the pain they’ve caused.

[somber music]

[suspenseful music]

- We looked at a number
of reasons why these three

would jointly plan
to kill Christophe,

and we always kept coming back
to the financial side of it,

what Kocher was going to lose.

[suspenseful music]

- Christophe Borgye was
planning to move abroad

and paying his wages
into Kocher's account.

- He was the bread winner,
was Christophe.

He was bringing in money.

[suspenseful music]

- I think Kocher thought that
he could manipulate Christophe

in the same way that
he manipulated Wagner

and Bendou by taking their money,

and when Kocher realized
that Christophe wanted out,

that was the trigger
point for him killing him.

- They had decided to turn
the kitchen into a kill room.

Kocher was the orchestrator,

but they were all involved in it.

- What he said went, if he said,

"We'll kill him,"
they all had to kill him.

- But what we didn't know

is the main reason Sebastian
Bendou came forward.

Council called the beating heart
underneath the floorboards,

which I get.

I mean, he was living feet
from his friend's body.

He was still living in the
kitchen on a day-to-day basis,

and it was messing with his head.

And when they fled to Scotland,

Bendou's heard a conversation

where Wagner and Kocher
are talking about him.

He's considered to
be the weakest link

of that chain of three.

So that's the real reason
why Bendou came forward.

He thought he was next in
line for the same treatment,

because he was wobbling
with his mental health

and his weakness.

[suspenseful music]

[bright music]

- We were allowed
back in the property

to get the remainder of our items.

It was scary.

As soon as you find out that
your housemates are murderers

and that you stayed with them

and that their victim was on
the property the entire time.

[gentle music]

I think the entire experience

was eye-opening in
the very worst way.

Are you okay, you're shaking?

[gentle music]

- We never went back to the house.

We never lived in
there again after that.

We stayed well away from it.

[gentle music continues]

- Do you know, all of the inquiries
and all of the background

and the history I delved
into around Christophe,

there was never a bad
word said about him.

There was, you know, he
never harmed anybody.

He never mistrusted anybody.

- Such a nice lad, such
a quiet, happy lad.

Then you think to yourself,

"What did that poor lad do
deserve anything like that?"

He just wanted to be happy
and just live a normal life.

[somber music]

- There was a service in
Liverpool Cathedral for him.

So I went over.

There was ladies there
that worked with him

and they said they couldn't believe
what had happened to him.

[somber music]

And to think that his friends,

his so-called friends
could have done it to him.

I was horrified, because
everybody thought

he was such a nice,
young man, and he was.

He was a nice young man.

[gentle music]

- It was difficult for the family,

because I suppose for them,

they'd always imagined
that one day Christophe

would just reappear and you know,

they'd get to see him again.

There's that photograph
that the family gave of him,

standing there with his glasses
and the countryside behind

and all you can see is loss,

unfulfilled potential.

Who he would've gone on to be.

If things had gone as planned,

he would have traveled more.
He had so many plans.

Maybe he would have married, had kids.

It would have been amazing

for him to meet his first nephew,
Noël’s son, the firstborn.

And later, when I became a mother,
knowing that he could have

been an uncle to my son too.

There were so many beautiful
things he could have experienced.

I think there are so
many things he missed,

but I think he would be proud of us today

and of what we’ve done without him.

- There's certain things
that stick with you,

and Christophe's
murder is one of them.

It was the brutal nature
in which he was attacked,

how he was disposed of,

the arrogance of the
attempted coverup.

- Christophe was just living his life

and unfortunately, due to
chance and circumstance,

his life collided with those
of Kocher, Bendou and Wagner.

I think they sold everything or
destroyed it. They had to erase all trace

to make it seem like he had
voluntarily disappeared.

We have nothing. No photo albums,
no personal items.

Not even his glasses.
We have nothing of Christophe.

But we remember him,
and that’s what matters.

We should remember his fun, lively side

and keep the good memories he gave us.

The death of my brother
wasn’t a normal death.

He was murdered and
that has affected me deeply.

For me, those three people will always
carry a label around their necks

for what they did,
for the harm they caused,

the emptiness they left in our family.

Sometimes I see someone on
the street, just a jacket, a colour,

or someone who looks like him.

I turn around thinking it’s him.
But it’s not.

[somber music]

- There's no happy ending
to this for anybody,

particularly the Borgye family.

The best that you can say for them

is that they've got some closure

and that three people are
serving life sentences

for having committed
the horrendous act.

So, you know, life moves on,

but it'll stay with us
for the rest of our days,

and that's why it's
important the story was told.

[somber music]

[tense music]