MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Episode: “Life is a Circus” (Podcast Exclusive)

Date: December 29, 2025

Host: MrBallen (John Allen)

Episode Overview

In “Life is a Circus,” MrBallen delves into the mysterious disappearance and murder of Alan Leelou, a powerful French circus producer. What begins as a missing persons case unfolds into a dark web of personal relationships, business rivalries, and deeply buried secrets. The story traverses high society, tabloid-worthy affairs, a cutthroat entertainment industry, and ultimately reveals a shocking betrayal at the heart of Alan’s seemingly charmed life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background on Alan Leelou and His World

• Setting: Northern France, February 2010.
• Introduction to Alan: A wealthy, influential circus producer with a reputation for both business acumen and personal indiscretions.
• Relationships: He supported Alexandra Nicola (former assistant, father/daughter bond) and her daughter, funded her lifestyle, and maintained multiple extramarital affairs and liaisons with sex workers.
  • “He and his wife, Elizabeth… sort of had this understanding that she can have this life and he can have this life in exchange.” (07:58)
• Lifestyle: Constantly traveling, business-heavy, moneyed but lonely. His marriage to Elizabeth is a formality; his closest relationship is a platonic one with Alexandra, despite outsider suspicions.

2. Disappearance and Initial Investigation

• Timeline:
  • Alan spends the weekend of February 5–7, 2010, with Alexandra in Chartres; they reconcile after a fight over her troubled past.
  • He leaves Sunday for a business meeting in Vichy, but never arrives.
  • His wife, Elizabeth, is contacted by Alan’s worried assistant, and reports his disappearance to the police.
• Early Theories:
  • Alan’s cell phones are off (unusual), and no one hears from him.
  • Police involvement is routine at first, but as days go by and with the absence of activity on his cards/phones, the case escalates.

Notable Moment:

“He was famous for spending entire days on his various phones. She couldn’t even recall a time when he’d been unreachable, even briefly.” — MrBallen, (12:20)

3. The Discovery: Alan Leelou’s Body

• Break in the Case:
  • The police, aided by GPS data from Alan’s Audi Q7, discover the vehicle abandoned in a rough area near an Orleans train station.
  • Surveillance yields nothing; eventual forensic search finds Alan’s body, curled in the trunk, wrapped in a pink sheet (21:27).
  • No obvious wounds or blood; body preserved by cold weather.

Notable Moment:

“There was no doubt this was Alan Leelou. But there was no visible blood or wounds or bruises anywhere on his body, and there was no blood in the trunk.” — MrBallen, (22:06)

• Cause of Death:
  • Strangulation using a ligature; evidence suggests the murder did not occur at the car’s location—body moved post-mortem.

4. The Investigation Broadens: A Web of Suspects

• Suspect Pool:
  • Alexandra (last to see him alive), Alan’s wife Elizabeth (motive as a wronged spouse, possible means), romantic partners, their spouses/partners, and business enemies, notably Michel DelaRue, a chief rival.
• Interrogating Michel DelaRue:
  • He was trying to poach Alan’s clients post-disappearance, presenting a clear financial motive.
  • Provides an air-tight alibi (skiing, receipts, corroboration); released after thorough investigation.
• No Forensic Breakthrough:
  • No DNA or fingerprints tie anyone to the murder; pink sheet DNA not in system.

Notable Quotes:

“Allen apparently had lots of affairs with lots of women. And so that meant every one of those women and any husbands or boyfriends… were also suspects.” — MrBallen, (26:05)

“Alan’s business dealings were both very high stakes and very ugly.” — MrBallen, (27:54)

5. A Psychic’s Tip and New Direction

• Remy St. Turenne:
  • A self-identified psychic walks into the police station, claiming a vision: “He saw Allen Leelou as clear as day in this physical struggle with a woman. ... He was certain that a woman was somehow involved in Allen’s murder.” (36:21)
  • Describes the body being moved post-mortem—information not public, which intrigues Detective Marton.
• Police Consider a New Angle:
  • The location (a hotspot for sex work) and Alan’s known proclivities lead Marton to investigate sex workers further.
  • Deep dive into Alan’s laptop reveals a sex worker named Marie Eve, whose real identity is shocking.

Notable Moment:

“For Remy to say that, I mean, how would he have access to that?” — MrBallen, (37:40)

6. The Unraveling: The Truth Revealed

• Marie Eve = Alexandra Nicola:
  • Alexandra, Alan’s beloved “surrogate daughter,” was also a sex worker under the pseudonym Marie Eve.
  • The murder happened during a fight after Alan made a provocative remark about Alexandra’s daughter potentially inheriting her mother’s troubled life.
    • Alexandra snapped, strangled Alan with his belt, inadvertently breaking his larynx during the struggle.
  • Her boyfriend, Yves Bernard (Eve), assisted her in transporting and dumping the body.
• Betrayal and Motive:
  • Alexandra saw Alan as controlling her fate; the murder was both impulsive and a build-up of years of complex emotions and dependency.
• Aftermath:
  • Alexandra confessed. Sentenced to 15 years for murder.
  • Yves Bernard received two years for concealment of a corpse.
  • The couple married and had a child, born before Alexandra’s incarceration; both are now released.

Reconstructed Murder (Narration):

“The killer found themselves standing behind Alan, and inside, they were burning with rage...Alan’s belt lay nearby, and impulsively, the killer grabbed it and lunged forward and looped the belt around Alan’s throat.” (43:32)

“It was sort of true what Alexandra had told the police … Allen had left her house in his car on February 7 and she had not seen him again. What she had left out was that Alan was already dead in the trunk of his car when he left.” (48:00)

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Alan’s Character:

  • “He made the majority of his money through contracts with companies, but he was not the only person competing for those lucrative contracts.” (09:31)

• On the psi connection:

  • “Remy explained that he had heard a news bulletin about Alan while he was driving. And when he heard it, he had a vision that was so vivid that he actually had to pull over.” (36:21)

• On motive and act:

  • “For Alexandra, something snapped. … and sort of out of impulse, she grabbed the belt, wrapped it around Alan's neck, strangled him and ultimately stumbled backwards and crushed his larynx and killed him.” (46:40)

Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Notes | |-----------|------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------| | 00:50 | Alan's Life and Relationships | Sets up his connections, tension with Alexandra | | 10:45 | Details of Alexandra's Background | Her troubled past and dependency on Alan | | 12:53 | The Disappearance | Alan misses meeting, phones off, police called | | 21:27 | Discovery of Audi and Alan’s Body | Break in case; body found in trunk | | 25:19 | Detective Marton Takes Over | Strategy for a complex investigation | | 26:05 | Broad Suspect Pool | Affairs, business rivals, wife—all under suspicion | | 29:28 | Interrogation of Michel DelaRue | Main business rival, ultimately cleared | | 35:45 | The Psychic’s Unexpected Tip | New angle takes investigation forward | | 37:40 | Psychic reveals secret detail | Moves case past “stab in the dark” | | 42:30 | Alexandra Identified as Marie Eve | Breakthrough moment | | 43:32 | Reconstruction of the Murder | Emotional, detailed narration of the act | | 48:00 | Truth Revealed: Alexandra’s Confession | Resolution, sentencing, aftermath |

Tone and Style

MrBallen’s signature narrative is calm but suspenseful, unfurling the story with mounting intrigue and tension. His storytelling style is personable and easy to follow, directly addressing the audience and posing rhetorical questions to deepen the mystery before pulling back the curtain in the final act. The episode is sprinkled with dark, sometimes wry humor, especially when dismissing red herrings or poking fun at the bizarreness of real life.

Memorable Takeaways

• The contrast between appearances and reality: Alan’s outwardly successful and generous persona sheltered deep resentments, manipulation, and dependency.
• The role of seemingly random tips, like the psychic, in refocusing difficult investigations.
• The tragic, cyclical consequences of power dynamics and secret lives.

Final Notes

• All names and some details in MrBallen’s stories are sometimes changed or dramatized for privacy or storytelling purposes.
• The overarching theme is the unpredictability and darkness of human relationships—sometimes, the ones closest to us harbor the strangest and most dangerous secrets.