American chocolatier charged in deaths of Canadian animation pioneer and his wife at Caribbean resort

[malaise]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-chocolatier-charged-deaths-canadian-animation-pioneer-wife-ca-rcna128699

Police arrested an American chocolatier and his suspected accomplices in connection with the murder of a Canadian animation pioneer and his wife near their resort on the Caribbean island of Dominica last Friday.

The charred remains of Daniel Langlois, a 3D pioneer whose company created images for films like "Star Wars," and his wife, Dominique Marchand, were discovered in a burnt vehicle around a mile away from their property, said police inspector Fixton Henderson.

Police arrested an American chocolatier and his suspected accomplices in connection with the murder of a Canadian animation pioneer and his wife near their resort on the Caribbean island of Dominica last Friday.

Police believe the slaying may be connected to a yearslong dispute between Lehrer, 57, and Langlois, 66, over a public road running through their adjacent estates

——-
Another holy shit moment.

[malaise]

1. Guardian link

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/07/us-businessman-charged-dominica-deaths

Lehrer owns property next to Coulibri Ridge, a luxury eco-resort run by Langlois and Marchand listed by Condé Nast Traveler as a “hotlist” destination for 2023 and by Travel + Leisure as the “world’s greenest resort”. He is reported to have been locked in a dispute with the couple over a public road that passes through Lehrer’s cocoa plantation estate.

Radio-Canada, citing local sources, said that Langlois and Marchand had been ambushed and killed before their car plunged into the ravine and caught fire last Friday.

The businessman and philanthropist Daniel Langlois was a pioneer in 3D animation.
Death of Canadian 3D pioneer found in burned car on Caribbean island was ‘potential homicide’

The fire that engulfed their bodies was reported to be so intense that police relied on “circumstantial evidence” to identify them. “This type of terrible and brutal crime cannot be ignored, and we cannot allow those responsible to get away with it,” Dominica’s minister of national security, Rayburn Blackmoore, said on national radio.

[MagickMuffin]

2. A beautiful light was extinguished

This makes me really sad. I loved the contributions Daniel made to the industry. It kinda brings back what happened in Japan 2019. Arsonist went into Kyoto Animation studio and set it on fire. Killed 36 people and injured 34 more.

Daniel Langlois Foundation
The Daniel Langlois Foundation is a non-profit, philanthropic organization endowed by Daniel Langlois and chartered in 1997 with the mission to support artistic and scientific projects and research dedicated to further general human awareness as well as the understanding of human relation with its natural and technological environment.

The purpose of the foundation is to further artistic and scientific knowledge by fostering the meeting of art and science in the field of technologies and the environment. The Foundation seeks to nurture a critical awareness of technology's implications for human beings and their natural and cultural environments, and to promote the exploration of aesthetics suited to evolving human environments. The Foundation Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D) seeks to document history, artworks and practices associated with electronic and digital media arts and to make this information available to researchers in an innovative manner through data communications.

In 2005, the foundation initiated the development of DOCAM (Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage). This international research alliance's primary objective is to develop new methodologies and tools to address the issues of preserving and documenting technological and electronic works of art.

The Daniel Langlois Foundation, DOCAM, and its Centre for Research and Documentation are located in Montreal. In 2011, the entire collection of the foundation was donated to the Cinémathèque québécoise.

Resilient Dominica (RezDM.org) is a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) formed in 2018 shortly after Hurricane Maria by the Daniel Langlois Foundation in an attempt to rebuild and strengthen resilience in Dominica in the communities of Soufriere, Scotts Head, and Gallion.

Death and investigation
On 1 December 2023, police in Dominica found a burnt out car near Galion containing the bodies of Langlois and his partner Dominique Marchand. According to Dominica News Online and other local sources, the couple had been missing for a few days. They reported that three people had been detained and were being questioned by police.[3] The official Langlois website says that they died on 1 December 2023.[2]

On 6 December 2023, it was reported that in fact the police in Dominica had made four arrests in the case, and that two of the suspects, Jonathan Lehrer and Robert Snyder, had been charged with murder in a court in Roseau, Dominica's capital. Lehrer, a man from New Jersey, owns a property next to Langlois's and Marchand's luxurious eco-resort and had been involved in litigation with Langlois five years before the murders in a matter dealing with a public roadway.



Double dose of Karma for Jonathan Lehrer and Robert Snyder. May the rest of their miserable lives suffer from the trauma they caused!

[malaise]

3. The madness of greed and power

This is horrific. Lock the. Up

Watch them use their money to bully the Dominican and OECS courts.

[FelineOverlord]

4. I've been following this case

It's astounding that it came to this, although there was pretty aggressive behavior on the part of the suspect for years, including blocking roads with boulders.

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/dominica-quebec-entrepreneur-daniel-langlois-and-companion-dominique-marchand-found-dead-in-burning-car-three-suspects-detained-30-nov-2023.698325/

[malaise]

5. The Dominica. Government

Should have handled this way more aggressively.
Pandering to foreign interests is a major problem on these tiny islands.

[malaise]

6. Good link

Thanks

[Bev54]

7. Glad to hear they have been arrested, they were the suspects from the beginning. I knew there

had to be more than just a car accident, in that the police immediately had said it was suspected murder. So confirmation they were dead before they went over the cliff clears that up. It all makes me sick.

[malaise]

10. Cold blooded murder and an attempted coverup

In the end this is what matters

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/07/us-businessman-charged-dominica-deaths

In 2018, after Lehrer tried to block the route using rocks and metal pipes and by digging a trench, the eastern Caribbean supreme court ruled it was a public road paid for by taxpayers. The court considered the construction of a second road but opted for mediation and later granted Langlois’ employees and guests unrestricted access.

[tinrobot]

8. Very sad about his passing. He was a true pioneer of computer animation.

I used his software (Softimage) quite a bit in the 90's/00's. Also spent a month in Montreal working on a project for his company back in the day. One of the nicest group of people out there, plus they made great software.

He will be missed.

[malaise]

9. Imagine living in a foreign country and deciding

That you can determine what is private versus public. This despite rulings from the court. And then you kill good people because you think you own the road.
There is so much evil in this effin planet.

His father, Robert Lehrer, told the Journal de Montréal that his son was “a successful businessman, not a murderer”. “I have a hard time believing it … He was fed up with illegal crossings on his route and it bothered him a lot, but it had been a while since I had any news,” he added.
—————-
There cannot be illegal crossings on a public road. Throw away the keys

[Jacson6]

16. Well if he is convicted he can make chocolate candy in a Dominca Prison.

People can be so strange.

[Sky Jewels]

11. JFC.

So cold-blooded.

[LudwigPastorius]

12. "American chocolatier charged in deaths..."

Damn! It's Killy Wonka.

[Dave Bowman]

14. Lol!

Good one!

[lame54]

15. I said good slay!

[Dave Bowman]

13. It boggles the mind...

Some people are creepier than made-up characters in novels or movies.