CA CA - Hugues de la Plaza, 36, San Francisco, 2 June 2007

[WHITEFANG]

Nikki,
Please return to this site soon. You have targeted important issues, IMO, and I want to bounce some ideas off of you.

 

[WHITEFANG]

He wasn't drunk and no drugs were found in his system. (His ethanol level was .11, slightly higher than the legal limit to drive in many states.)
I think you are correct that he was not aware how seriously injured he was. Dead in two minutes max from the neck wound alone. He began losing consciousness much sooner I would guess. Can anyone answer one question? How did Melissa Nix find out about Hugues attack?

 

[WHITEFANG]

I think you are asking the perfect questions. Motive. Means. Opportunity. Nix was on the east coast. She informed Hugues' parents of his death at 4 a.m. their time in France. That means she placed the called at 10 p.m. EDT. She told them before the French Consulate did, according to her. The ME report says the Consulate notified the Plazas by 7:10 a.m. June 4. If Nix is right, then it appears she notified the parents at 4 a.m. Sunday which means she called them on Saturday night, June 3 at 10 p.m., the same day Hugues passed away. Regardless if it was Saturday or Sunday when she placed the call, how and from whom did she learn about this tragedy? She called the detectives at 5:30 a.m. EDT on Monday the 4th. She said she wanted to confirm that he was dead. Confirm? She didn't know? Whoever told her, didn't know for sure what his condition was? Who, Who told her? Who knew where she was, how to reach her, and knew Hugues, too, and realized he should let Melissa know what had happened, all within 30 hours or so from the time his body was found? Nix stated that she had not seen him since January and that she wasn't familiar with his crowd.

 

[Steely Dan]

A man was convicted of treason during the second French Revolutionary War and sentenced to die by guillotine in just two weeks. He was placed in a dungeon to await his execution without permission to have visitors. He was unable to sleep out of overwhelming fear of his inevitable rendezvous with the large, razor sharp blade. On the eve of his appointment with death, the prison guards had mercy on him and allowed his wife into the waiting room for a final farewell. They greeted each other, sat down and within a few moments he fell asleep on her lap from complete exhaustion. Sound asleep, he began to dream. As he did, a fly flew onto the back of his neck and his wife quickly and lightly swatted it off with the back of her hand. At that precise moment, he dreamed the guillotine came down, cut off his head and he died. According to the way this story has been told, it is impossible. Why? I share this little riddle with you for a reason which you will understand soon.
Please, if you know the answer, don't share it.

There was only one French Revolution.

 

[thesaint]

I think you are asking the perfect questions. Motive. Means. Opportunity. Nix was on the east coast. She informed Hugues' parents of his death at 4 a.m. their time in France. That means she placed the called at 10 p.m. EDT. She told them before the French Consulate did, according to her. The ME report says the Consulate notified the Plazas by 7:10 a.m. June 4. If Nix is right, then it appears she notified the parents at 4 a.m. Sunday which means she called them on Saturday night, June 3 at 10 p.m., the same day Hugues passed away. .

??

According to this transcript, Nix contacted Hugues parents 2 days after Hugues murder--so it was 2 days before Nix found out as well:

"Compounding their anguish was the fact that their son had been dead for two days before they had been told."


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009...36627_page3.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

 

[Shutterfly]

Okay don't bbq me too badly, I'm going to throw it out there....

IMO.......

Nix took it upon herself to call Oog's parents and tell them that Oog was deceased. What was it that SHE said Oog's father said to her? "Melissa, how nice to hear from you...why are you calling?" Enough said.

Just one question......

WHY DID SHE ASK THE INVESTIGATOR IF HE WAS STABBED IN THE STOMACH, AND SHE IMMEDIATELY CALLED IT SUICIDE, before she knew the cause of death??????

She's a journalist, and she first didn't pay attention to what she said in a transcribed interview, then she changed her story, then she tried to blame the investigator, saying that HE led her into saying that it was suicide...HUH? And then after her "it was a Hari Kari" according to her, it then went to not only a murder, but a crime of passion as well? The only thing I heard her take responsibility for...oh yeah, Oog's death, because he supposedly "died on her watch." So she was watching?

This could easily ring eerily of "if I'm not going to have him, then neither is anyone else," if you ask me. Wasn't it she who also first used the term "a crime of passion" in this case after she did a 180 and changed her "he committed suicide" story?

She didn't want to let him go...I think....and now she doesn't have to because he can't extricate her from his life this time as I suspect he did before, so that he could play with other girls. Now, she has a link to his parents, his friends and every aspect of his life...and she seems to play every bit the grieving widow to me.

Oh look, in this article it appears as if she moved to California after this happened....imagine that..I seriously wonder if she tried to get his apartment too.

*snipped from below article
"Homicide has refused to call this murder a murder," Nix, a reporter who covers education for the Sacramento Bee, said in her complaint. She accused investigators of trying to "spin" the case as a suicide and showing a "cavalier disregard for what they are charged to do: investigate murders."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/01/MN14VEVRK.DTL#ixzz0YAAhKHOz


This relationship, by all acounts, seems to have been WAY over, and did you notice Nix doesn't discuss Oog's dating habits?

I'm all for leading a crusade to seek justice, for anyone....but this time I don't believe that her motives are what she leads us to believe. There are a lot of things that don't seem quite right to me. This is the one I'm having the most trouble getting past.

Is is possible that it WAS someone he knew or new "of"...someone he'd open the door and step out on the porch for but wouldn't necessarily be comfortable enough with them to let them in....someone who was sent there for a specific purpose...like the messenger from an old girlfriend.....driven to this by his desire to be with her, and her insistence that if they were going to be together, he had to prove his love and exact revenge against Oog on her behalf for what Oog had done..."to her"....in her mind?

Something in my gut tells me that this can be a cold, calculating, manipulative woman when she's crossed. I just don't see her letting ANYTHING go.

 

[thesaint]

Ok
I'm all for leading a crusade to seek justice, for anyone....but this time I don't believe that her motives are what she leads us to believe. There are a lot of things that don't seem quite right to me. This is the one I'm having the most trouble getting past.

Is is possible that it WAS someone he knew or new "of"...someone he'd open the door and step out on the porch for but wouldn't necessarily be comfortable enough with them to let them in....someone who was sent there for a specific purpose...like the messenger from an old girlfriend.....driven to this by his desire to be with her, and her insistence that if they were going to be together, he had to prove his love and exact revenge against Oog on her behalf for what Oog had done..."to her"....in her mind?

Something in my gut tells me that this can be a cold, calculating, manipulative woman when she's crossed. I just don't see her letting ANYTHING go.

Ah, jeez, I completely missed that angle. Yes, I now think this is an open question. Previously when I read the "Melissa Nix might have been involved" theory I was thinking "how could that be if she was on the East coast?". :banghead:

Especially if she were involved with Hugues for 4 years in SF.

 

[WHITEFANG]

Good try. Try again. (Just to let you know, my grandfather told this to me 30 years ago. I tried, without success, to convince him they didn't have flies in France back then!)

 

[WHITEFANG]

That is what I'm trying to get at. Did someone rush out to find a phone to contact all his other, former girlfriends who lived who knows where? Why Melissa? Why was it so critical for someone to make sure she knew what had happened to a former boyfriend. Melissa knew about this tragedy before his parents! Why hasn't the "contacting" person made any public statement about how he/she first heard the news and the sorrow he/she felt breaking the news to Melissa? It would make sense to have heard something from or about this individual?
Was she, in fact, on the east coast? How do we know? She says so. Has anyone double-checked?
Hugues was the "love of her life," her, "best friend" her, "baby boy." How can one be more devoted (obsessed?) than that? Lover, best pal, son.
She claims she ended their relationship in 2003. ENDED? She moved back to California around November 2006, (after attending Berkley-in CA.-about ten years after she graduated from college) partly, to see if they could make it work. Ergo, 6 months before he was murdered, in a "crime of passion," her words, and 3 plus years after she ended it, her feelings were so strong she returned to live in CA to give it another go.
After not being a couple for 3 and 1/2 years, it is pretty obvious she was deeply, deeply "in love" with him.
Can anyone corroborate her story that she was on the east coast?
Feeling as she admits she felt, and still feels, what must it have been like for her to know he was actively, aggressively, pursuing many other females?
Think it was painful? Excruciating?

 

[Shutterfly]

Here's that lone car that mysteriously seems to be the only one that came down Linden Street from the time Oog was murdered, until LE showed up just after 8 am..... It's late. I could be grasping at straws and don't have firm grasp on security footage...but....these pictures were taken 1 second apart and this car only moved what looks like maybe five feet? And, they were taken about 25 seconds before the 2:38 am time the neighbors quote. Whoever was driving this car would almost certainly have had to see something...unless they were involved.

 

[Shutterfly]

How much insurance money do you suppose he had.......

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/06/friends_family_of_slain_french.php

*snipped and BBM

The possibility of coughing up a settlement, Nix says, could force the city to confront that "this is a systemic problem." She's already communicated with the survivors of several other San Francisco murder victims whose killers were never brought to justice and would like "an explanation from [District Attorney] Kamala Harris and Police Chief Heather Fong as to how this could happen" and "an apology from the mayor would be nice. ... I'd like some public accountability"

De la Plaza's family has used Hugues' insurance money to offer a $100,000 reward in this case -- which, obviously, hasn't yet led to much.

 

[WHITEFANG]

Apparently, his life insurance had a death benefit of $100,000. Often, life policies require a two year exclusion period from the date the plan is purchased, for death that occurs as a result of suicide.
I read he had $100,000 saved at the time of death. I saw the figure $200,000, too.
I believe Hugues' parents have to rely heavily on others to translate for them to be able to manage their affairs in the U.S. In addition to the trauma of losing a child, especially like this, they live half way around the world, speak another language, and are doing their best to resolve all these issues. Sickening. Horrible. Imagine your parents in this situation. I want to see the murderer held accountable for all he/she has perpetrated against Hugues and his loved ones.

 

[Shutterfly]

Apparently, his life insurance had a death benefit of $100,000. Often, life policies require a two year exclusion period from the date the plan is purchased, for death that occurs as a result of suicide.
I read he had $100,000 saved at the time of death. I saw the figure $200,000, too.
I believe Hugues' parents have to rely heavily on others to translate for them to be able to manage their affairs in the U.S. In addition to the trauma of losing a child, especially like this, they live half way around the world, speak another language, and are doing their best to resolve all these issues. Sickening. Horrible. Imagine your parents in this situation. I want to see the murderer held accountable for all he/she has perpetrated against Hugues and his loved ones.

I cannot even begin to imagine. There is no justice in Oog's parents being forced to constantly spend money on things like lawyers, private investigator's, plane fair, etc in order to "babysit" Oog's investigation. That's what we're supposed to have LE for. To be forced to offer money to find out what happened to your child? That's a sobering reality. It's a horrible thought isn't it? To be brutally murdered in your own home, for no weapon to be located behind locked doors, and for LE to label it a suicide? Why, because they're lazy? Because they're trying to keep their crime stats down? WHY? Everyone who walked into that scene labeled it a crime scene. So what was that, mass hallucination?

 

[WHITEFANG]

Did someone contact you to inform you what happened to Hugues the weekend he was murdered? No? How come?

 

[WHITEFANG]

"It was probably one of the worst things I've ever had to do,"
Melissa said. Taking responsibility to let Hugues' parents know what had happened to him must have been gut wrenching.
There is a problem, though, with her reasoning. How did she KNOW what they knew? Why was she certain she was breaking the news to them? She could not have known.

 

[Nikki_2]

Nikki,
Please return to this site soon. You have targeted important issues, IMO, and I want to bounce some ideas off of you.

Whitefang - apologies that my message will read strange, and not make sense at all, it applies to another to another topic.

 

[Nikki_2]

People will slash their wrists and maybe their throats but I can't believe anyone would stab themselves three times.



"The real notion of a suicide started with Melissa Nix," said Azar.

"I know that specifically, very specifically, it came out of my conversation with Miss Nix," Casillas confirmed.

Casillas and Nix talked four days after Hugues’ death; their conversation recorded for police records. While "48 Hours Mystery" was not permitted to hear it, Dr. Azar was, and shared it with us.

"She was telling him that he was into Japanese culture. And that he would - watched a lot of Samurai movies. She says, 'Can I ask you one thing. Was this a hara-kiri? Did he go into his stomach?' She asks him that according to Azar.

Hinky meter to the max. Why not? I've never heard of an investigation doing that. If they are afraid of letting something out then just play them the clip of the conversation where she says that. This bothers me too.

"It has been out there that you were the one that first told San Francisco Police that maybe it was suicide. Is that true?" Maher asked Nix.

"There were questions that were very leading on the part of Detective Casillas," she said.

When asked if he felt like he led Nix into a discussion of suicide, Casillas said, "If I wanted to ask her, 'Did he commit suicide?' I'm very capable of asking those kinds of questions."

"And did you ask those questions?" asked Maher.

"I don't recall I asked those questions. I don't - I didn't ask her, 'Did he kill himself.'"

A lot of stammering and it sounds like he's trying to cover something up about his interrogation, especially when it comes to asking questions that would be considered leading. The only definitive statement he gives is; "I didn't ask her if he killed himself." That's not what Nix said. She never said he came out point blank and asked her. So that statement would be true. He evades the leading question thing.

IMO, Casillas and Azar know a lot more than he's letting on and I don't think it's to help the investigation. Azar won't change the cause of death and she's the one who tells 48 hours about the content of the conversation. JMO. I wonder what went on behind the scenes of the show when they asked to listen to the tape? They don't seem to make a big deal about it and yet don't say that they were refused because of important evidence?

In a very strange way I think the police might think Nix was part of it. She was on the other coast but could have arranged something. It doesn't make any sense that she would be pushing so hard for a murder investigation if she was involved.

My hinky meter bends the needle trying to get past the highest level at so many points in this case.

One person has voted suicide so far. I wonder why? :waitasec:

I'd love to discuss it with them. Join us we won't attack you.

Steely Dan - I agree, I am curious as to why anyone would vote - suicide -

I have watched many movies/docos in re to "Jack The Ripper', If similar murders were to occur in my district now, would I have to worry that my family/friends would implicate me as the murderer -just because I have had a fascination for Jack The Ripper movies?! I hope not.

I find it difficult to understand why anyone would mention suicide with a touch of Samurai movies, imo, this was done with a motive.

I agree strongly with most of you here in regards to how frustrating it can be when details are unknown, ei, contents of laptop, etc, no matter how trivial things are, they all form a picture which eventually leads to a certain conclusion.

I believe that this could be solved if the people in charge looked at the case more seriously and their methods to solving this were more methodical and thorough.

 

[Mia]

What a mystery this is. I am slightly confused by some posters' line of reasoning in regards to drugs. I may have missed it, but I don't remember there being any evidence of Hughes being a drug user, and if I remember correctly his tox screen came out clean. Doesn't sound like a user calling his dealer jonesing for a taste at 2am (as per thesaint's theory.) Also, drug dealers like to stay under the radar. Even IF (and that's a big IF) Hughes did rip them off, they wouldn't stab him to death! They'd just stop selling to him. I often hear theories on this board in many cases that the victim owed money to a dealer. Drug dealers do not give credit generally; if a client rips the dealer off, the dealer will simply stop selling to that person. Of course it's a whole other story if we're talking about dealer on dealer crime, but there's absolutely no evidence that Hughes was a dealer. Ultimately, I dismiss the drug angle, as there's no evidence Hughes used or was involved in drugs. In fact it sounds to me like his drug of choice was sex.

I'm pretty torn between murder and suicide at this point. I know alot of people are saying no way was it suicide, but what about the note left next to the laptop? Not exactly a suicide note, but kind of ominous nonetheless. And although stabbing oneself is a very uncommon method of suicide, it has happened. Eliot Smith killed himself by stabbing himself in the heart.

The food on the counter, then again, points to murder. After all, if he was planning on killing himself, why would he prepare a meal first? Or was the meal staged and the knife washed to to make it look like murder, when actuality it was suicide? Perhaps he wanted to commit suicide but didn't want his friends/family to know he did so and wanted them to think he was murdered instead.

Ok I'll stop blabbering. I don't think I'm making sense at this point. But wow is this a mystery. One thing is for sure I don't think anyone will ever go to jail for this death.

 

[Mia]

This case reminds me of the murder or Eddie Pieron - both handsome, well to do, girl-chasing types, both stabbed to death in their homes, neither had any enemies/lived a risky lifestyle or used drugs other than alcohol and maybe weed. Granted I don't think the two are connected AT ALL, but I'm wondering if the motives of the murderers may have been similar.

Eddie Pieron. Google it; interesting case if you've never read about it.

 

[WHITEFANG]

I know of two references.

Melissa said he admitted to doing coke, but he said he quit.

The ME report says Melissa was concerned about his mental health after she ended it. It says she found Hugues was drinking more and started using cocaine and seemed depressed. The report says she asked him if he had thought about suicide. Melissa adamantly denied the ME version.

Valuable silverware was missing from his apartment afterward. The computer, motorcycle, phone, and t.v. were left and silverware stolen.