Trapped, Tortured, and Drowned: The Au Pair Murder
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Our story starts in Southfields, a quaint, village-like suburb of southwest London just around the corner from Wimbledon, where the rich and famous reside. The quiet neighborhood surrounded by leafy parks and mom-and-pop style stores offers a safe space to escape the buzz of central London and start a family. People who move there never leave, become anchored by the strong bonds they build with their neighbors. Everybody knows everybody.

There was one exception though. A young couple living on Wimbledon Park Road never quite got into the community spirit. In late 2017, their neighbors finally understood why. On September 20th, firefighters were notified of a raging bonfire in the backyard of the couple's rented ground floor flat. A concerned neighbor had reported foul-smelling smoke and wild flames far too close for comfort. They were right to be concerned.

The thick, black, pungent smoke billowed high above the affluent neighborhood, and the crackling of the fire had grown into a dull roar. Firefighters were shocked by the intensity of the blaze. The couple, on the other hand, were calmly barbecuing a chicken, seemingly unfazed by the hungry inferno just feet away from them.

Sabrina Cuidere and Wissem Sam Meduni seemed more flustered by the firemen barging into their backyard. Despite their protests, the fire was smothered for safety reasons. Thomas Hunt, one of the first firemen to arrive at the scene, was stomping out the lingering flames when he noticed something unusual.

Hunt asked Sam what they had been burning. The 39-year-old shrugged nonchalantly and replied that it was the carcass of a sheep he had bought at Wimbledon Market. Suspicious, Hunt began sifting through the ashes. "Bollocks," he replied. Hunt had seen enough burned animal remains in his career to know it was a blatant lie. The twisted couple had been roasting the chicken in a pathetic attempt to disguise the smell of a nightmarish secret.

There, amidst the smoldering embers, Hunt saw the charred remains of a human nose and fingers, and blackened pieces of clothing and jewelry. Sam and Sabrina weren't incinerating their scraps, they were getting rid of evidence. Part One: The Body in the Bonfire The small community of Southfields was perplexed. Everybody knew about the fire, everybody knew about everything that happened there, however,

They didn't know why an irresponsibly large fire had ignited a full-blown police investigation rather than a slap on the wrist. Officers arrived minutes after the fire brigade and quickly sealed off the road. The once sleepy street corner was now littered with first responders and reporters. A crowd began to gather, drawn in by the radios, sirens, and snapping camera shutters.

They watched as a white tent was erected where the bonfire had been. Moments later, an unmarked van pulled up to Sam and Sabrina's flat. People in white hazmat suits, masks, and protective goggles emerged from the truck, cameras at the ready in their gloved hands. The tension was palpable. No one could make sense of the chaos unfolding. Then...

confused onlookers saw Sam being escorted out of his home in handcuffs, followed by the same hazmat-clad figures carrying a big red body-shaped bag. The spectators quickly pieced two and two together. They knew what was in the bag. What they didn't know was who. 36 hours after the discovery of the body in the bonfire, 39-year-old Sam Maduni and 34-year-old Sabrina Cuider were arrested and charged with murder.

The body had been burned beyond recognition and forensic investigators struggled to identify the victim, let alone their cause of death. Neighbors already had their theories though, and rumors were running rife. One week later, their suspicions were confirmed by a somber press release. The body in the bonfire was identified as Sophie Lyonnais, the couple's 21-year-old French au pair.

The timid live-in nanny had come to London to spread her wings. Instead, she succumbed to the suffering and injustice she once openly condemned. Sophie was born on January 7th, 1996, to Patrick Lyonnais and Catherine de Vaillant in the village of Paron in rural France. Her parents divorced when she was just a child, but she remained closely bonded to both.

Sophie was a soft-spoken, gentle, and deeply shy person who loved playing the guitar, reading, and ice skating. Although she often struggled to find her own voice, the self-proclaimed animal lover never hesitated to speak out against animal abuse. Sophie was described as selfless, generous, and unfortunately, naive. She dreamed of working with children and completed a vocational course in childcare after graduating high school.

She struggled to find work in France because of her lack of experience in the field. So, when a friend showed her Sam and Sabrina's advert for a French-speaking au pair, Sophie jumped at the opportunity. However, it would be no easy feat for the sheltered introvert who had never left France before. London was a far cry from the fairytale village of Paron. The busy cosmopolitan city, bustled with almost 9 million people,

making her hometown's population of 5,000 pale in comparison. Sophie wasn't afraid though. She viewed it as an adventure, a chance to get out of her comfort zone, overcome her shyness and improve her English. She was excited to gain experience for her future career and moved to Southfields in January 2016, just after her 20th birthday. Little did she know,

her first employers would be her last. Part two, a toxic start to a tragic end. Sabrina Kouider was born in Algeria in 1983 before moving to France as a child. She grew up in Paris under the watchful eye of her single mother. And by the age of 18, she had landed her first real job. In the summer of 2001, she began manning a crepe stand at a fun fair on the outskirts of the city.

It was here that she caught the eye of Wissam Maduni, a fellow French Algerian who was five years her senior. Wissam, or Sam, as he preferred to be called, was instantly mesmerized by the brunette bombshell with striking features.

He pursued the 18-year-old relentlessly, who used her charms to wrap the malleable man around her little finger. Sabrina enjoyed the attention and, despite considering herself well out of his league, she eventually gave in to his romantic gestures. This marked the beginnings of a toxic, on-and-off-again relationship that would last 17 years.

It was clear from the start that Sabrina wore the pants and their dysfunctional relationship. She frequently belittled Sam for his modest income and subjected him to fits of rage and irrational jealousy. She would even attack him in the middle of the night, fueled by dreams of him being unfaithful. She certainly didn't hold herself to the same standards. Sabrina cheated on Sam throughout their time together and regularly ran off with other men.

She always came back though, and he would welcome her with open arms. It didn't matter what Sabrina did or who she did it with. Sam seemed content with simply being deemed worthy. He felt as though he had won the Euro millions. Ignoring her obvious infidelity, he proposed to her and the couple entered into a non-legal Muslim marriage. Sabrina landed an au pair job in London soon after, which seems painfully ironic now.

She emigrated to the UK in 2005, and her submissive husband followed her without hesitation. Sabrina ultimately left her job as a nanny and turned to pyramid schemes, selling phone lines for telecommunication companies to pay the bills. Sam worked hard to earn a degree in economics, and eventually got a job as a financial analyst at the French bank Societe Generale after graduating.

Three years later, the couple had a son together. Life was good for the fledgling family, but not yet good enough to satisfy Sabrina's insatiable hunger for more. Sam invested in two flats in Paris to help keep them afloat and would fly to France for months at a time. Sabrina wasn't impressed. She accused him of being lazy and not supporting their family.

In truth, the real issue was that his income couldn't bankroll her extravagant spending habits. So she sought support elsewhere. Sabrina began referring to Sam as a friend or relative in public, ignoring the Islamic marriage certificate that bound them together as life partners.

That's when Mark Walton, one of the founding members of the Irish boy band, Boyzone, entered the picture. Sabrina and Mark met at a NatWest bank in Notting Hill in 2011. He noticed the femme fatale talking to the manager while waiting in line, and asked who she was. Apparently, she had asked the same about him. When the manager introduced them, the music mogul felt as though the stars had aligned.

Sabrina had big brown eyes, long dark hair, bronze skin, and a lush figure. He melted as a soft French accent spilled from her full lips and was immediately spellbound. Within weeks, the pair became a couple. Mark was in love with Sabrina and she was just as crazy about him, as well as the size of his wallet, of course. He moved into her flat in Queensway in early 2012 and started supporting her financially.

Sabrina fell pregnant with their son a few months later. Mark was thrilled to be a father, but his dreams were shattered when she abruptly left him in 2013 and ran back to her doting husband. He continued to send her money regardless, hoping to give their son a better life and potentially play an active role in it.

Sabrina used his donations to fund her lifestyle and cover the rent for the 900,000 pound flat on Wimbledon Park Road, where she cohabited with Sam. Eventually, Mark's handouts stopped coming, setting in motion a series of bizarre events that would ultimately end in tragedy. Sabrina went on to become a makeup artist, stylist, and fashion designer, while Sam tried to open a crepe stand near their flat.

For all intents and purposes, the couple seemed to be thriving. This did little to impress their neighbors though, who were more concerned with their behavior than their entrepreneurial spirit. Sam and Sabrina had earned an unsavory reputation in their community, with several Southfields residents calling them odd, antisocial, and unfriendly. They never joined the street parties their neighbors threw and were persistently inconsiderate of those living around them.

The couple left decaying garbage on the street outside their flat for days, parked in front of their neighbor's driveways, and frequently got into heated arguments with their landlord over unpaid rent. Sabrina was particularly selfish and became well-known for making a scene when things didn't go her way. Residents thought she was just eccentric, but in reality, something sinister was brewing beneath the surface. Part three, The Dark Side of Sabrina Cuidere.

Sophie Lyonnais was unaware of Sabrina's infamy when she applied for the au pair position. She never noticed any red flags when she moved in with the couple either. Perhaps she did, but was blinded by her naivete. Maybe she was too shy to speak out. Nevertheless, Sophie had no complaints in the first few months of her employment. She was living in a nice, safe neighborhood and got on famously with Sam and Sabrina's two young sons.

She was in her element, which is exactly what she told her mother, Catherine de Vaillant, during their calls. Sophie initially had a great relationship with Sabrina and often chatted with her at the kitchen counter over several cups of tea. The glamorous stylist even gave her a makeover at one point, hoping to help the meek 20-year-old break out of her shell. It didn't last long though. Sabrina had a dark side, one that was about to spiral out of control.

She was psychologically unstable, volatile, and had a delusional obsession with her ex-boyfriend, Mark Walton, that Sophie would soon be dragged into. To the outside world, Mark and Sabrina's relationship seemed picture perfect. They were passionately in love and lived a lavish lifestyle together. However, behind closed doors, it was marred by her violent mood swings, pathological lying, and paranoia.

After persuading Mark to move into her apartment and pay her 2,000 pound a month rent, the deception and manipulation started. She acted vulnerable and abused, telling him that she had been raped by two uncles as a child, which later turned out to be a lie. Mark began to feel sorry for her. He believed that he could help her heal, that he could save her, but that's exactly what she wanted him to think.

Sabrina had him in the palm of her perfectly manicured hand, just like Sam. She emotionally and physically abused Mark, even punching and slapping him during heated fights. Once, she woke him up with a punch to the jaw just because he was snoring. He was bruised for days. Another incident happened 14 months into their relationship.

Mark was digging around in a cupboard looking for his notebook when he found pictures of Sabrina with another man, her husband. When he confronted her about it, she exploded. She accused him of trying to control her and hurled a heavy glass ashtray at him. It shattered against the wall, narrowly missing his head. Mark often felt like he was in danger, but like most domestic abuse victims, his denial prevented him from leaving.

Instead, he tried to help Sabrina, hoping to quell her angry outbursts and prove his worth. Mark paid for four different full-time nannies to look after her and Sam's son to no avail. She accused each one of sleeping with him and even set up hidden cameras to spy on them. Sabrina convinced herself that her jealous delusions were true, even though her own camera footage proved it wasn't. When she later fell pregnant, she led Mark to believe he was the father

He was delighted by the news, but his elation was short-lived. Sabrina disappeared after a few months, claiming she had to go to France because her mother was ill. A couple of weeks later, she called Mark with some bad news. She had lost the baby. For some unknown reason, she told the celeb to get on with his life before hanging up. Devastated and confused, Mark called her brother, who revealed it was another lie. Their son was alive.

Despite being traumatized and treated like an ATM by Sabrina for two years, the devoted dad only came to his senses long after she left him. He had hired several lawyers to get her to agree to a paternity test for the baby, but she repeatedly refused. Mark knew in his heart that the boy wasn't his, so he stopped sending her money and moved to Los Angeles.

The mother of two eventually racked up 20,000 pounds in unpaid rent and became convinced Mark was to blame. Sabrina was consumed by paranoid delusions that he was out to get her and launched a venomous crusade against him. First, she went after his professional reputation. She contacted Mark's biggest clients who were world famous music stars and told them he was a pedophile.

When that didn't do enough damage to satisfy her, she went to the police. Sabrina told the officers that Mark had tried to kill her, which led to him being arrested in July of 2014. After questioning him, the authorities quickly realized that her allegations were false and released him. Mark hoped that Sabrina had finally learned her lesson. He thought it was over. In fact, it had only just begun.

Sabrina was lost in the alternative reality she created in her mind, where Mark was the villain and she was the victim. He would later learn that she never stopped seeking vengeance. It came out in her trial that she had called authorities 30 times to accuse her oblivious acts of outrageous crimes. Sabrina claimed that Mark was stalking her,

and that he had hacked into her devices and hired helicopters to spy on her. She also alleged that he had snuck into her Southfields apartment to extract semen from Sam while they slept. Astonishingly, she even accused Mark of sexually abusing a cat that never existed and controlling her with black magic. Sabrina's wild accusations were obviously untrue.

and the police dismissed each one without a second thought. It wasn't until she slandered him online that they took action against her. After creating a fake Facebook profile that claimed Mark was a pedophile, she was given a formal police caution and told to stay away from him. But for five years, Sabrina's deadly obsession never faltered, and her unassuming au pair, Sophie Lyonnais, became its next and final victim.

Part Four: Collateral Damage Sabrina's behavior deteriorated over several months. She became suspicious, paranoid, and unreasonably cold towards Sophie. It was a gradual change, like a malignant tumor, slowly but surely killing its host. The poor au pair from rural France suffered in silence. It was her first job, and she was too scared to speak out against her spiteful employer for fear that she might lose it

unbeknownst to her. Sabrina's fixation with Mark Walton had spiraled into uncontrollable delusions that Sophie was sleeping with her celebrity ex-boyfriend, who was still living in Los Angeles at the time. The innocent 21-year-old was perplexed by this. She had never even heard of Mark, let alone met him. Ignoring all logic, Sabrina accused Sophie of being seduced by the musician and conspiring with him against her family.

She believed that Sophie had taken drugs from Mark, secretly spiked her and Sam's drinks, and let the man into their apartment to sexually abuse the couple and their children. Sabrina even accused her of being a pedophile, although she continued to pay Sophie to look after her two young sons. Sophie was young, naive, and had little experience dealing with such depravity. She couldn't see that Sabrina was a ticking time bomb.

Instead of making plans to leave, she maintained her innocence, kept out of the crazed fashion designer's way, and focused on doing her job. However, Sabrina refused to let it go. She either couldn't or wouldn't acknowledge the truth. She was adamant that Mark was using Sophie as a spy and began punishing her accordingly. By the time Sophie realized she was in danger, it was too late. She was trapped.

Sabrina was so absorbed by her delusions that she managed to convince Sam they were true. He was deeply disturbed by the allegations and struggled to tell fact from fiction, especially after hearing that he had apparently been drugged and sexually assaulted. The couple wanted to get a taped confession out of Sophie to end Mark's apparent vendetta and put him in prison.

They imprisoned the soft-spoken bookworm in their home, isolating her and preventing her from fleeing to France before they gathered the evidence they needed. Sam and Sabrina stopped paying Sophie for meager 50 pound per week salary at the end of July 2017 and kept her under a strict curfew. With no money to top up her French pay-as-you-go cell phone,

She was unable to stay in regular contact with her family and was, effectively, completely on her own. She wrote to her parents occasionally, telling them that she wanted to leave. However, she no longer had the means to afford a flight back to France. Sophie considered asking her parents to help, but decided against it. She knew they had little money to spare and didn't want to worry them. Sophie couldn't go to the Southfields community for help either.

the quiet introvert who couldn't speak much English, struggled to make friends during her short stay there and was always alone or with her captors. In fact, she worked such long hours for Sam and Sabrina that their neighbors thought she was a relative rather than their employee. No one knew she was being held captive and forced to work for free.

Sophie didn't know where to go or who to speak to. And Sabrina's constant threats of using her powerful connections to have her arrested meant the police weren't an option. She was at Sam and Sabrina's mercy, and they knew it. Part Five: Sabrina's Delusions Turn Deadly The couple's abuse escalated drastically as Sabrina's delusions intensified. They starved the already thin nanny,

made her sleep in a bunk bed with her two young sons, and rarely allowed her to leave their apartment. Sabrina now viewed Sophie as a devious monster and treated her as such. The mother of two would beat her for the slightest slip-up and reviled her on a daily basis. Sophie's spirit was crushed. The Southfields community eventually noticed how unusually subdued she had become, but only one resident reached out to her.

Michael Cromer, the owner of the local fish and chip shop, had lived in the neighborhood for 14 years and knew almost everything there was to know about those who stayed there. Or so he thought. He had grown to like Sophie and sensed something was off. One day, he approached the teary-eyed girl and gently asked what was bothering her. She broke down and sobbed that Sabrina had beaten her. Shocked, Michael asked why.

"I dropped the butter," she replied. He was extremely concerned for Sophie's well-being, but didn't want to interfere. So, he tried to be subtle about it. Sabrina never hid her disdain for Sophie. When the pair next came into Michael's shop, he broached the subject with caution. Michael mentioned to Sabrina that he knew she was unhappy with Sophie and offered to help the au pair find another job.

Sabrina snapped and turned on Sophie. She yelled at the girl in French before turning to Michael and stating that Sophie was a fucking bitch who just wanted sympathy from everyone. The sheer ferocity of her outburst gave Michael goosebumps. That was the last time anyone tried to help Sophie Lyonnais. Eventually, Sophie mustered up the courage to try and help herself. She asked her mother to send her 40 pounds for a plane ticket and prepared to flee the country.

she never made it out alive. Her watchful employers discovered her plans and confiscated her passport and ticket before she could free herself. Sophie's desperate escape attempt fueled the couple's suspicions about her, and they began subjecting her to brutal interrogations to force her into admitting that she was colluding with Mark Walton.

Sophie endured hours of gaslighting and violent questioning at the hands of Sabrina, with Sam chipping in when he could get a word in edgewise. The couple recorded these sadistic sessions on their cell phones as evidence and captured every harrowing second of Sophie's suffering. They tortured her over the course of 12 days, sometimes for hours at a time. She was waterboarded, denied food, and thrashed with an electrical cable.

In the end, she had been beaten so viciously that she had broken ribs, a cracked sternum, and a fractured jaw. Sophie's tormentors took a haunting photo of her during her final moments alive in a bid to humiliate her. It was the last picture her parents would ever see. The previously vibrant young woman with long, dark, curly hair and bright gray-green eyes now resembled an Auschwitz victim.

She looked emaciated, frail, and completely defeated. Her once infectious smile replaced with a pained grimace. Two days later, her body was found burning in Sam and Sabrina's backyard bonfire. It's not known what really happened the day Sophie was murdered, but police were able to piece together a plausible theory.

After nearly two weeks of trying to torture a false confession out of her, Sam and Sabrina became frustrated by her silence and stepped up their interrogation tactics. Authorities believed her head was held underwater in a bathtub until she confessed, but she couldn't. On September 18th, 2017, Sophie Lyonnais was drowned in their tiny bathtub, surrounded by their children's toys. Part six, who killed the nanny?

Sam and Sabrina's first court appearance was on September 26th at London's famed Old Bailey Courthouse. They attended their hearing via video link from separate prisons. Sabrina wept loudly as she heard the charges being laid against her and interrupted the proceeding several times with dramatic outbursts. She shouted that she hadn't done anything wrong and demanded that Sam tell the court she never killed anybody.

The judge set their trial date for March 19th, 2018, and neither of the defendants made a bail application. Their trial was described as being stranger than fiction. The couple admitted to burning Sophie's body and attempting to obstruct the course of justice. However, both blamed each other for her murder. Sabrina insisted that Sam had been the mastermind behind it, and even claimed that he forced her to have sex near Sophie's dead body.

At one point, she screamed across the courtroom, calling him a murderer. Sam, on the other hand, told a very different story. He maintained that he had become swept up in Sabrina's delusions, but never planned to kill Sophie. Prosecutors argued that he did, referencing a statement he made in January of that year, where he confessed to killing her accidentally while interrogating her in their bathtub. Sam countered that he had been covering for Sabrina,

He pinned the murder on his now estranged wife, claiming that he had been sleeping when it happened. According to Sam, he woke up to find Sabrina in tears and Sophie dead in their bathtub. He tried to save her, but it was too late. Sabrina begged him not to call the police and came up with the idea to burn their au pair's body instead. To his credit, he did take some responsibility for what happened to Sophie. The 40-year-old admitted to feeling responsible for her death.

saying he should have done more to protect her from his wife. Sam added that he wished he had been more assertive with Sabrina and that, if he had, Sophie might have still been alive. However, with no mental health disorders to blame for his complicity, his remorseful statement fell on deaf ears. The prosecutors were adamant that both Sam and Sabrina were guilty of Sophie's murder.

And the judge in their case, Nicholas Hilliard, agreed. He concluded that their crime was a rare example of "follie a deux," which is roughly translated to "dual psychosis." This odd phenomenon is considered a psychiatric syndrome and results in the delusional beliefs of one individual being transferred to another. Fred and Rosemary West, another infamous killer couple, were also presumed to have suffered from "follie a deux."

It's believed that Sam was weak, submissive, and easily led. Prosecutors alleged that he would do anything to keep Sabrina by his side. He knew he was punching above his weight, and so did she. She treated their relationship like a marriage of convenience and would leave the moment someone more desirable came along. Sam was constantly unsure of where he stood and would bend to her every whim to solidify his position as her husband.

he became beguiled by his domineering wife and embraced her delusional beliefs as his own, eager to please. Sabrina seemed to be just as brainwashed by her delusions. No one truly knows why she developed such an irrational, hateful obsession with Mark, considering she ended their relationship. However, many think her warped view of the world was influenced by her diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.

which is marked by extreme mood swings, emotional instability, and unstable relationships. People with this mental illness are prone to paranoia, losing touch with reality, and shifting between idealizing their loved ones and hating them. Irrespective of this, Sabrina's diagnosis didn't absolve her of her crimes. Many people suffer from borderline personality disorder and don't go on to commit murder.

It was her many character flaws and extreme narcissism that ultimately sealed Sophie's fate. She was known to lie, manipulate, and pick on the weak to get her way, something that was noted by several people in her life. Sunny Patel, the owner of the corner shop across the street from her flat, recalled the day she caused a scene at a shop following a disagreement over a cell phone voucher. She called the police, only to be told by them that Sunny had done nothing wrong.

Anthony Francois, one of the fashion designer's ex-boyfriends, described her as a lunatic who would often attack random women in the street who she deemed as threats. Finally, Mark Walton, the unfortunate catalyst of Sophie Lyonnais' murder, had similar memories of the time he spent with Sabrina. He mentioned one incident that happened when he took her shopping in Oxford Street. Mark had refused to buy something for his then-girlfriend,

and she threw a very public tantrum. Sabrina ran outside into the road and began shouting that Mr. Boyzone has got no money. Part seven, no excuses. On May 24th, 2018, 35-year-old Sabrina Cuider and 40-year-old Wissam Sam Maduni were found guilty of the torture and murder of Sophie Lyonnais.

Judge Hilliard slated the killer couple as he handed down his judgment, declaring that there was no excuse for the cruelty, humiliation, and isolation they inflicted on their 21-year-old nanny. He maintained that Sabrina's allegations against Sophie were nothing but fictional claims created by her to get revenge on her equally innocent ex-boyfriend. Judge Hilliard was just as harsh with Sam, referring to his role in Sophie's murder as irrefutable.

He stated that they both willingly tortured her before her death. They made her think she would drown if she didn't give them the information they demanded, knowing that she couldn't because it didn't exist. He added that the couple was calculating and of sound mind during their interrogation and were well aware that their treatment of Sophie was unlawful.

One month later, Sam and Sabrina were sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years. While prosecutors view their verdict as a win, the couple's life sentence was nothing compared to what they inflicted upon others. Mark Walton, who had never even met Sophie Lyonnais before, was traumatized by the knowledge that she had been starved, tortured, and drowned because of Sabrina's obsession with him.

Sophie's father, Patrick Lyonnais, found no comfort in the couple's guilty verdict. After flying to London for their trial, he was forced to listen to eight hours of recordings where Sophie was beaten, berated, and ridiculed. Patrick later told reporters that the sounds of his 21-year-old daughter pleading for her life were etched into his mind as a constant reminder of the suffering she endured.

He choked up as he added that the images of her charred body, nose and fingers were now his last memory of her. Both Sam and Sabrina attempted to have their convictions overturned. However, their appeals were promptly denied. They will hopefully spend the rest of their lives imprisoned and will only be considered for parole in 2048.