Ex-police officer accused: she allegedly encouraged a friend to commit suicide in order to pocket $2 million

A former Saint-Jérôme police officer is facing serious criminal charges after allegedly inciting a friend to commit suicide and lying to the coroner to try to receive nearly $2 million in life insurance benefits, our Office discovered. investigation.

Anne-Marie Bélanger, 43, must appear on November 19 at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse to be charged with fraud and obstruction of justice. He is also accused of having advised a woman to kill herself.

The story has all the makings of a spine-chilling Hollywood thriller. According to the police theory, Anne-Marie Bélanger encouraged Julie Lasnier to take her own life, a fatal gesture that she finally committed on August 9, 2021.

The deceased, aged 57, was found mysteriously lifeless, at the foot of a steep staircase, in her stable in Nominingue, in the Laurentians. Following the tragedy, coroner Steeve Poisson was mandated to shed light on this death.

Former agent Anne-Marie Bélanger, who was an heiress, would then have “intentionally” obstructed the investigation by destroying a piece of evidence linked to the death of her friend and by “lying” to coroner Poisson, maintains the mandate of arrest.

According to our information, the heiress tried to convince him that Julie Lasnier had been the victim of an accidental fall. This would have allowed him to access the deceased’s life insurance.

“If it was suicide, there was no bounty. Insurance companies do not pay in the event of suicide within two or three years of purchasing a policy, to prevent a person from taking out $20 million in life insurance and committing the act the next day. , illustrates an informant.

Julie Lasnier obviously held more than a life insurance policy, since Anne-Marie Bélanger is accused of having defrauded three different companies, for potential fraud which could have reached $1.94 million in benefits.

The legacy company

Following the death of her friend, the ex-patroller would also have inherited the 119-acre farm, several animals – including ten horses – and a canine rehabilitation center worth half a year. -million dollars, in Nominingue.

Anne-Marie Bélanger and her husband – a former Sûreté du Québec police officer, who faces no charges in this case – have since made it an animal grooming and welfare center “in order to honor the memory of this great devotee of animals,” we can read on the company’s website.

Resignation

The pot aux roses would have been discovered when new information on the circumstances of the death of the fifty-year-old emerged from the authorities, according to our sources. These elements would have shed light on the alleged shenanigans of Anne-Marie Bélanger.

The internal affairs department of the Sûreté du Québec got to work in October 2022. Anne-Marie Bélanger finally resigned on August 30, 2023, confirms Inspector Dominique Boulay, of the Saint-Jérôme police, who speaks of her as an “experienced police officer”.

Suicidal

Note that in his report completed in September 2022, coroner Steeve Poisson attributes the death of Julie Lasnier to alcohol and medication intoxication. He concluded it was suicide.

The coroner emphasizes in particular that the deceased had significant financial difficulties, was depressed and had already expressed suicidal thoughts in the month preceding her death. She had also informed her relatives that she had prepared her succession, he continues.

– With the collaboration of Ian Gemme.

The deceased had a secret lover

The deceased Julie Lasnier is said to have maintained a secret affair for around twenty years with a wealthy man, whose children were also allegedly defrauded by ex-police officer Anne-Marie Bélanger.

“Julie was my father’s secret mistress. It was a huge secret,” confirms Jonathan Germain, who knew the lady, who was first introduced to him as a work colleague of his father.

Hugues Germain, who remarried after his separation from the mother of his children, practiced medicine at the same hospital where Julie Lasnier worked, in the archives. It was there that they met and their affair developed, according to Jonathan Germain, who however believes that his father had more than one mistress.

A gift of ranch

The doctor, however, seemed very in love with Julie Lasnier, according to his son. He also suspects him of having offered his mistress a ranch, the same place where she committed suicide in August 2021.

“There was something beautiful in their story, it was that they were animal lovers. How Julie managed to have a ranch with horses, sheep, dogs… It was my father who financed that,” he relates.

Another suicide

Hugues Germain, however, ended his life in September 2014, at the age of 60. Julie Lasnier then inherited several hundred thousand dollars, says Jonathan Germain. And that’s when his father’s double life came to light. Julie Lasnier then began to visit, on occasion, the children of her late lover.

“I think she was happy to have a little access to my father’s life. My sister has three children. The ranch was like Disney World for them. We went there two or three times,” he explains.

At some point, Julie informed Jonathan and his sister that she had included them in her will. It must be said that the siblings had inherited nothing when their father died.

«[Julie] did not have children, I think she wanted to repair this injustice a little,” he says.

When she died, the Germains therefore effectively inherited her. It was there that they received a call from ex-police officer Anne-Marie Bélanger, whom they did not know, and who demanded $10,000 each from them. According to the police theory, the reasons given by Anne-Marie Bélanger to obtain this money would have been misleading.

Jonathan and his sister still acquiesced in good faith. But they did not know the exact circumstances leading to the death of their father’s mistress.

Anne-Marie Bélanger is today accused of having defrauded them of $20,000, according to the arrest warrant issued against her.