The Pregnant Bride Murder

0:00 Speaker 1: The murder of Layelah d'Art dilu. The cold cut through

0:03 Speaker 1: Rhode Island like a blade. On the morning of December

0:06 Speaker 1: twenty first, twenty twenty two, ice floated silently across the

0:10 Speaker 1: surface of Carbuncle Pond, a quiet, wooded area known more

0:13 Speaker 1: for fishing and hiking than violence. The sun had barely

0:17 Speaker 1: risen when a local fisherman stepped carefully onto the frozen shoreline,

0:21 Speaker 1: hoping to spend the morning catching trout. Instead, he found death.

0:25 Speaker 1: Floating beneath the wooden dock was the body of a woman.

0:29 Speaker 1: She was fully clothed except for her shoes and socks.

0:33 Speaker 1: Her dark hair drifted through the icy water as bits

0:36 Speaker 1: of frozen slush moved around her motionless body. At first glance,

0:40 Speaker 1: it looked impossible, unreal, like something from a nightmare, But

0:44 Speaker 1: when police arrived and pulled her from the pond, the

0:47 Speaker 1: truth became horrifyingly clear. This was no accident. The woman

0:51 Speaker 1: had suffered severe trauma to her head. Blood droplets stained

0:55 Speaker 1: parts of the dock, and faint drag marks stretched from

0:59 Speaker 1: the wooded brush toward the freezing water. Detectives quickly realized

1:03 Speaker 1: the pond was not the murder scene, someone had brought

1:06 Speaker 1: her there, and even worse, she had still been alive

1:10 Speaker 1: when she entered the water. The autopsy confirmed every investigator's fear.

1:15 Speaker 1: The victim had sustained at least six lacerations to the head.

1:19 Speaker 1: Water was found in her lungs and stomach, proving she

1:23 Speaker 1: had drowned after the brutal beating. The medical examiner also

1:27 Speaker 1: discovered something even more heartbreaking. She was pregnant, roughly eight

1:32 Speaker 1: to ten weeks along. On her finger sat a small

1:35 Speaker 1: gold engagement ring. For days, police didn't know her identity.

1:40 Speaker 1: News reports spread across Rhode Island and Massachusetts as investigators

1:44 Speaker 1: pleaded for information about the mysterious woman found in the

1:48 Speaker 1: icy pond. Then six days later, everything changed. A missing

1:52 Speaker 1: person's report was filed in Brockton, Massachusetts. The missing woman's

1:57 Speaker 1: name was Leyla d'Art delu. Layla had moved to the

2:01 Speaker 1: United States from Cape Verdey several years earlier. Intelligent, hard working,

2:06 Speaker 1: and soft spoken, she had earned advanced degrees in business

2:10 Speaker 1: law and was trying to build a better life for herself.

2:13 Speaker 1: Friends described her as kind and caring, the type of

2:16 Speaker 1: person who avoided conflict and loved deeply. She was also

2:20 Speaker 1: pregnant with the child of her former fiancee, Gary Gronquwitz.

2:25 Speaker 1: That relationship would soon become the center of a murder investigation.

2:29 Speaker 1: According to those close to the couple, Gary and Layla's

2:33 Speaker 1: relationship had moved fast. They became engaged shortly after meeting,

2:37 Speaker 1: and Layla soon became pregnant, but the romance quickly unraveled.

2:42 Speaker 1: Gary eventually returned to his longtime girlfriend, Miranda, leaving Layla devastated.

2:49 Speaker 1: Yet somehow, despite the breakup, Layla was seen leaving her

2:53 Speaker 1: apartment in the middle of the night with Gary on

2:55 Speaker 1: December twenty first. It would be the last time anyone

2:58 Speaker 1: saw her alive. Security footage showed a black jeep Grand

3:02 Speaker 1: Cherokee arriving outside Layla's home around two thirty a m.

3:06 Speaker 1: Gary was inside the vehicle, so was another man. His

3:11 Speaker 1: name was Michael Lambert, and Michael Lambert had a violent

3:14 Speaker 1: past that terrified investigators almost immediately. Years earlier, Michael had

3:20 Speaker 1: participated in the savage murder of a homeless man beneath

3:23 Speaker 1: an interstate ramp in Providence. The killing had been so

3:27 Speaker 1: brutal that detectives never forgot his name. Family members later

3:31 Speaker 1: admitted Michael had displayed violent tendencies since childhood, including cruelty

3:36 Speaker 1: toward animals. Now he was driving through the night with

3:39 Speaker 1: Layla and Gary, and Laylah would end up dead. Police

3:43 Speaker 1: reconstructed the trio's movements using surveillance cameras and cell phone data.

3:48 Speaker 1: The jeep first stopped at a Shell gas station in Brockton.

3:52 Speaker 1: Security footage showed Michael entering the store while Gary sat

3:55 Speaker 1: behind the wheel. Layla was nowhere visible on camera. The

3:59 Speaker 1: vehicle then traveled south toward Rhode Island. At approximately three

4:03 Speaker 1: point fifty three am, all three cell phones, Gary's, Michael's,

4:08 Speaker 1: and Layla's were located in the Buttonwoods section of Warwick.

4:12 Speaker 1: They remained there for roughly forty five minutes. Investigators would

4:17 Speaker 1: later believe this was where the murder happened. Afterward, things

4:21 Speaker 1: became even stranger. At five five am, Gary's phone suddenly

4:26 Speaker 1: stopped communicating with the network. Only Michael and Layla's phones

4:30 Speaker 1: continued moving together. The jeep traveled toward Carbuncle Pond. There,

4:36 Speaker 1: Layla's final moments unfolded in darkness and freezing temperatures. Investigators

4:41 Speaker 1: believe her unconscious or severely injured body was carried across

4:45 Speaker 1: the dock and dumped into the icy water, where she

4:48 Speaker 1: drowned alone. Surveillance footage later captured Michael at a seven

4:52 Speaker 1: to eleven in Lincoln, Rhode Island. This time he exited

4:56 Speaker 1: from the driver's side of the jeep. Gary was nowhere

4:59 Speaker 1: to be seen. Detectives noticed Michael appeared injured. One of

5:04 Speaker 1: his hands looked swollen or damaged. He was also no

5:07 Speaker 1: longer wearing the hoodie he had on earlier that night. Meanwhile,

5:12 Speaker 1: Layla's phone remained with Michael as they traveled to Carbuncle Pond. Then,

5:16 Speaker 1: around seven am, both Layla's phone and Michael left the area.

5:21 Speaker 1: Minutes later, Layla's device stopped transmitting forever. At eight am,

5:27 Speaker 1: Gary's phone mysteriously reconnected to the network. Soon afterward, surveillance

5:32 Speaker 1: cameras captured the jeep arriving outside Miranda's home in Cumberland.

5:36 Speaker 1: A man matching Gary's description stepped out carrying a pink

5:39 Speaker 1: bag from the rear hatch of the vehicle, before entering

5:42 Speaker 1: the house briefly and changing clothes. By then, Layla's body

5:46 Speaker 1: had already been discovered floating beneath the ice. When detectives

5:51 Speaker 1: interrogated Gary and Michael, both men reacted differently. Gary immediately

5:56 Speaker 1: asked for a lawyer. Michael initially agreed to speak, but

5:59 Speaker 1: stop stoped cooperating once detectives confronted him with surveillance images

6:03 Speaker 1: and phone evidence placing him with Layla that night. Police

6:07 Speaker 1: believed the two men had planned the murder together. Phone

6:10 Speaker 1: records showed repeated calls and text messages between Gary and

6:14 Speaker 1: Michael in the days leading up to Layla's death. Investigators

6:18 Speaker 1: believed Gary wanted Layla gone because of the pregnancy and

6:21 Speaker 1: the complications it created in his relationship with Miranda. According

6:25 Speaker 1: to testimony later presented in court, Miranda had allegedly given

6:30 Speaker 1: Gary an ultimatum choose her or choose Layla. Gary made

6:34 Speaker 1: his choice, but Gary insisted he was innocent. He claimed

6:38 Speaker 1: Michael alone murdered Laylah. According to Gary's version of events,

6:43 Speaker 1: the three of them drove around during the night before

6:45 Speaker 1: stopping at a park in Warwick. Gary said he separated

6:49 Speaker 1: from them to walk to Miranda's house while smoking marijuana,

6:52 Speaker 1: accidentally leaving his phone inside the jeep. He claimed Michael

6:56 Speaker 1: later picked him up hours afterward. Investigators did didn't believe him.

7:01 Speaker 1: The story had too many holes. Why would Gary walk

7:04 Speaker 1: more than twenty five miles through freezing temperatures in the

7:07 Speaker 1: middle of the night, Why did he conveniently leave his

7:10 Speaker 1: phone behind during the exact window prosecutors believed the murder occurred,

7:15 Speaker 1: And why did evidence suggest someone had researched how to

7:18 Speaker 1: disable phone tracking before the killing. The case against both

7:22 Speaker 1: men grew stronger. Police recovered a rear cargo mat from

7:26 Speaker 1: Michael's jeep discarded near a cemetery. The matt tested positive

7:30 Speaker 1: for blood inside the jeep's trunk. Forensic testing identified human

7:35 Speaker 1: blood belonging primarily to Layla. Surveillance footage also appeared to

7:40 Speaker 1: show a black sneaker being thrown from the vehicle shortly

7:43 Speaker 1: after the murder. Then came one of the most damaging

7:46 Speaker 1: moments in the investigation. A woman named April bate Man

7:50 Speaker 1: testified that Gary had attempted to recruit her into providing

7:53 Speaker 1: a fake alibi. According to April, Gary offered her money

7:57 Speaker 1: to lie for him in court. That testimony he devastated

8:00 Speaker 1: the defense. In January twenty twenty five, both Gary Gromqwitz

8:05 Speaker 1: and Michael Lambert stood trial for Layla's murder in a

8:09 Speaker 1: highly unusual legal arrangement. Two separate juries were seated simultaneously,

8:14 Speaker 1: one jury for each defendant, both hearing the same evidence.

8:18 Speaker 1: Gary's defense argued there was no direct proof placing him

8:22 Speaker 1: at the murder scene. Michael's attorneys claimed he was simply

8:25 Speaker 1: being blamed because of his violent criminal history, but prosecutors

8:29 Speaker 1: painted a darker picture. Two men, one deadly plan, and

8:34 Speaker 1: a pregnant woman who trusted the wrong people. After ten

8:38 Speaker 1: days of testimony, the juries reached their verdicts quickly. Both

8:42 Speaker 1: Gary Gromqwitz and Michael Lambert were found guilty of first

8:45 Speaker 1: degree murder and conspiracy. Layla's family traveled from overseas to

8:50 Speaker 1: witness the conclusion of the trial. Her sister spoke emotionally

8:54 Speaker 1: about the woman. Layla had been excited to become a mother,

8:58 Speaker 1: hopeful for her future, and still deeply in love with Gary.

9:01 Speaker 1: Despite everything, Gary continued proclaiming his innocence even after conviction.

9:07 Speaker 1: Michael showed little emotion. But for Layelah's family, nothing could

9:11 Speaker 1: undo the nightmare that began on that freezing December night.

9:15 Speaker 1: A young woman, an unborn child, a life filled with promise,

9:20 Speaker 1: all ending beneath the icy waters of carbuncle pond