The Pregnant Bride Murder

0:00 The murder of Layelah d'Art dilu. The cold cut through Rhode Island like a blade. On the morning of December twenty first, twenty twenty two, ice floated silently across the surface of Carbuncle Pond, a quiet, wooded area known more for fishing and hiking than violence. The sun had barely risen when a local fisherman stepped carefully onto the frozen shoreline, hoping to spend the morning catching trout. Instead, he found death. Floating beneath the wooden dock was the body of a woman. She was fully clothed except for her shoes and socks.

0:33 Her dark hair drifted through the icy water as bits of frozen slush moved around her motionless body. At first glance, it looked impossible, unreal, like something from a nightmare, But when police arrived and pulled her from the pond, the truth became horrifyingly clear. This was no accident. The woman had suffered severe trauma to her head. Blood droplets stained parts of the dock, and faint drag marks stretched from the wooded brush toward the freezing water. Detectives quickly realized the pond was not the murder scene, someone had brought her there, and even worse, she had still been alive when she entered the water.

1:12 The autopsy confirmed every investigator's fear. The victim had sustained at least six lacerations to the head. Water was found in her lungs and stomach, proving she had drowned after the brutal beating. The medical examiner also discovered something even more heartbreaking. She was pregnant, roughly eight to ten weeks along. On her finger sat a small gold engagement ring. For days, police didn't know her identity. News reports spread across Rhode Island and Massachusetts as investigators pleaded for information about the mysterious woman found in the icy pond.

1:48 Then six days later, everything changed. A missing person's report was filed in Brockton, Massachusetts. The missing woman's name was Leyla d'Art delu. Layla had moved to the United States from Cape Verdey several years earlier. Intelligent, hard working, and soft spoken, she had earned advanced degrees in business law and was trying to build a better life for herself. Friends described her as kind and caring, the type of person who avoided conflict and loved deeply. She was also pregnant with the child of her former fiancee, Gary Gronquwitz.

2:25 That relationship would soon become the center of a murder investigation. According to those close to the couple, Gary and Layla's relationship had moved fast. They became engaged shortly after meeting, and Layla soon became pregnant, but the romance quickly unraveled. Gary eventually returned to his longtime girlfriend, Miranda, leaving Layla devastated. Yet somehow, despite the breakup, Layla was seen leaving her apartment in the middle of the night with Gary on December twenty first. It would be the last time anyone saw her alive.

2:59 Security footage showed a black jeep Grand Cherokee arriving outside Layla's home around two thirty a m. Gary was inside the vehicle, so was another man. His name was Michael Lambert, and Michael Lambert had a violent past that terrified investigators almost immediately. Years earlier, Michael had participated in the savage murder of a homeless man beneath an interstate ramp in Providence. The killing had been so brutal that detectives never forgot his name. Family members later admitted Michael had displayed violent tendencies since childhood, including cruelty toward animals.

3:37 Now he was driving through the night with Layla and Gary, and Laylah would end up dead. Police reconstructed the trio's movements using surveillance cameras and cell phone data. The jeep first stopped at a Shell gas station in Brockton. Security footage showed Michael entering the store while Gary sat behind the wheel. Layla was nowhere visible on camera. The vehicle then traveled south toward Rhode Island. At approximately three point fifty three am, all three cell phones, Gary's, Michael's, and Layla's were located in the Buttonwoods section of Warwick.

4:12 They remained there for roughly forty five minutes. Investigators would later believe this was where the murder happened. Afterward, things became even stranger. At five five am, Gary's phone suddenly stopped communicating with the network. Only Michael and Layla's phones continued moving together. The jeep traveled toward Carbuncle Pond. There, Layla's final moments unfolded in darkness and freezing temperatures. Investigators believe her unconscious or severely injured body was carried across the dock and dumped into the icy water, where she drowned alone.

4:49 Surveillance footage later captured Michael at a seven to eleven in Lincoln, Rhode Island. This time he exited from the driver's side of the jeep. Gary was nowhere to be seen. Detectives noticed Michael appeared injured. One of his hands looked swollen or damaged. He was also no longer wearing the hoodie he had on earlier that night. Meanwhile, Layla's phone remained with Michael as they traveled to Carbuncle Pond. Then, around seven am, both Layla's phone and Michael left the area. Minutes later, Layla's device stopped transmitting forever.

5:25 At eight am, Gary's phone mysteriously reconnected to the network. Soon afterward, surveillance cameras captured the jeep arriving outside Miranda's home in Cumberland. A man matching Gary's description stepped out carrying a pink bag from the rear hatch of the vehicle, before entering the house briefly and changing clothes. By then, Layla's body had already been discovered floating beneath the ice. When detectives interrogated Gary and Michael, both men reacted differently. Gary immediately asked for a lawyer.

5:57 Michael initially agreed to speak, but stop stoped cooperating once detectives confronted him with surveillance images and phone evidence placing him with Layla that night. Police believed the two men had planned the murder together. Phone records showed repeated calls and text messages between Gary and Michael in the days leading up to Layla's death. Investigators believed Gary wanted Layla gone because of the pregnancy and the complications it created in his relationship with Miranda. According to testimony later presented in court, Miranda had allegedly given Gary an ultimatum choose her or choose Layla.

6:33 Gary made his choice, but Gary insisted he was innocent. He claimed Michael alone murdered Laylah. According to Gary's version of events, the three of them drove around during the night before stopping at a park in Warwick. Gary said he separated from them to walk to Miranda's house while smoking marijuana, accidentally leaving his phone inside the jeep. He claimed Michael later picked him up hours afterward. Investigators did didn't believe him. The story had too many holes. Why would Gary walk more than twenty five miles through freezing temperatures in the middle of the night, Why did he conveniently leave his phone behind during the exact window prosecutors believed the murder occurred, And why did evidence suggest someone had researched how to disable phone tracking before the killing.

7:21 The case against both men grew stronger. Police recovered a rear cargo mat from Michael's jeep discarded near a cemetery. The matt tested positive for blood inside the jeep's trunk. Forensic testing identified human blood belonging primarily to Layla. Surveillance footage also appeared to show a black sneaker being thrown from the vehicle shortly after the murder. Then came one of the most damaging moments in the investigation. A woman named April bate Man testified that Gary had attempted to recruit her into providing a fake alibi.

7:54 According to April, Gary offered her money to lie for him in court. That testimony he devastated the defense. In January twenty twenty five, both Gary Gromqwitz and Michael Lambert stood trial for Layla's murder in a highly unusual legal arrangement. Two separate juries were seated simultaneously, one jury for each defendant, both hearing the same evidence. Gary's defense argued there was no direct proof placing him at the murder scene. Michael's attorneys claimed he was simply being blamed because of his violent criminal history, but prosecutors painted a darker picture.

8:31 Two men, one deadly plan, and a pregnant woman who trusted the wrong people. After ten days of testimony, the juries reached their verdicts quickly. Both Gary Gromqwitz and Michael Lambert were found guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy. Layla's family traveled from overseas to witness the conclusion of the trial. Her sister spoke emotionally about the woman. Layla had been excited to become a mother, hopeful for her future, and still deeply in love with Gary. Despite everything, Gary continued proclaiming his innocence even after conviction.

9:07 Michael showed little emotion. But for Layelah's family, nothing could undo the nightmare that began on that freezing December night. A young woman, an unborn child, a life filled with promise, all ending beneath the icy waters of carbuncle pond