Couple found guilty of 1st-degree murder in Montreal despite no known cause of death

A jury has found a couple guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of a woman three years ago in Montreal's east end — despite the victim's cause of death never being determined.

In May 2022, Odna Daudier was found dead in her car in Rivière-des-Prairies.

The Crown argued that Jacques Adonai Charpentier and his new girlfriend, Mélissa Estimé, planned the murder because Charpentier was obsessed with Daudier, his ex. 

To kill her, the couple used an undetectable poison concocted in Haiti, the Crown said. Tracking her movements with the GPS unit in her car, they attacked Daudier in her driveway and then transported her body to Rivière-des-Prairies where it was later discovered, according to the Crown. 

But Crown prosecutor Philippe Vallières-Rolland says the cause of death was never established by the coroner.

He said there aren't many historical examples of first-degree murder convictions without a known cause of death, making this an unusual, challenging case, he told reporters after the verdict on Monday.

But because of surveillance cameras and cellphone data, the Crown was able to prove the couple's guilt, he said.

"Without that, I don't think we could have managed," Vallières-Rolland said.

First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years. 

Another example of someone being convicted of first-degree murder despite no known cause of death is in the case of Lyne Massicotte, whose body was never found.