EERIE security footage shows the moment a mom-was last seen before she went missing over six years ago.
Jermain Charlo, 23, was outside of a bar with her on-and-off again ex-boyfriend and the dad of her two kids on the night she went missing on June 15, 2018.
Jermain Charlo, who has been missing since June 2018[/caption]
Surveillance video shows Charlo walking with her ex, Michael DeFrance[/caption]
Charlo’s face is on a billboard[/caption]
Michael DeFrance’s mugshot for gun crimes[/caption]
Footage from a local bar shows Charlo walking down a street in downtown Missoula, Montana, with her ex, Michael DeFrance, lurking behind her before they both leave the area.
Six years later, cops released the never-before-seen video to CBS’ 48 Hours in hopes that someone will come forward with answers about Charlo’s disappearance.
In a preview for the CBS special, Missoula Police detective Guy Baker said the footage shows the last known images of Charlo before she vanished without a trace, leaving her two sons behind.
“Jermain walks out of view, so maybe somebody saw something that never thought about contacting us,” Baker said.
“So, if anybody has any information about that night or any aspect of this investigation, I encourage them to call me.”
No suspect has ever been arrested or publicly named in Charlo’s disappearance.
Charlo’s family said that DeFrance and Charlo broke up in 2017 and that their relationship was tense.
Police believe DeFrance was the last person to see Charlo – and he told investigators he dropped his ex-girlfriend off around 1 am that night near a downtown food market.
DeFrance told cops that Charlo told him she was going to meet her friend, but police found that she had been regularly going to the area to see a man she was dating named Jacob.
Jacob was out of town on the weekend Charlo disappeared, but the couple spoke in the hours before she disappeared.
The boyfriend told police that he tried to call Charlo before 1 am on the night she disappeared and found it strange that he was met with voicemail after hearing the phone ring – and he even told police he thought someone might’ve ended the call on purpose.
An hour after Jacob’s call was silenced, cops found that Charlo’s phone pinged from 2 am to 10 am in an area on the Flathead Reservation about 14 miles away from downtown Missoula.
PHONE DETAILS
Officials later discovered that the call was silenced by someone.
When police interrogated DeFrance, he admitted that he took Charlo’s phone and threw it away after she left it in his car.
Timeline of Jermain Charlo’s disappearance
June 16, 2018, between midnight and 1 am – Jermain Charlo is seen on security footage in an alley outside of a Missoula bar called The Badlander with her ex, Michael DeFrance
June 16, 2018, from 2 am to 10 am – Charlo’s phone pings in Evaro Hill on the Flathead Reservation
June 18, 2018 – Charlo’s family reports her missing to Missoula Police and the search begins
July 28, 2021 – DeFrance is indicted on a weapons possessions charge
May 1, 2023 – DeFrance is found guilty of gun charges
September 21, 2023 – DeFrance is sentenced to 21 months in federal prison
October 12, 2024 – Where is Jermain Charlo? 48 Hours special airs
DeFrance, a truck driver, told cops he tried to access Charlo’s phone before getting rid of it in Idaho.
Charlo’s phone was never located. DeFrance has not been named as a suspect.
“Why would you get rid of the cell phone if someone was around to give the phone back to ’em?” Baker asked on 48 Hours.
Last September, DeFrance was found guilty of gun crimes and sentenced to 21 months in federal prison.
He wasn’t legally allowed to own guns due to a 2013 misdemeanor when he was convicted of assaulting Charlo.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the Missoula Police Department for comment.
SEARCH CONTINUES
The search for Charlo is still ongoing over six years later as her picture has been featured on a missing persons billboard in Montana for the past five years.
Charlo’s disapperance is just one of the unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
“I feel like we’re all of the human race and should be looked for the same,” Jen Murphy, the Montana resident who had the idea to put Charlo’s picture on a billboard, told 48 Hours.
“It’s not like we’re asking for special treatment, we’re just asking for the same treatment. We’re not going to stop looking for our people. We’re not. Our lives matter.”
The investigation into Charlo’s disappearance remains active.
“I feel like I got this puzzle in front of me, but I don’t have all the pieces on the table quite yet,” Baker said.
“One or two pieces could break this case.”
Where is Jermain Charlo? airs on Saturday at 10 pm ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or chat at thehotline.org.
Charlo in the last images taken of her in June 2018[/caption]
