Season 3- The Belshaw Case

Trailer

On December 3, 1980, Canadian professor Cyril Belshaw stood trial in the city of Aigle, Switzerland charged with the murder of his wife, Betty. Her body had been discovered 21 months earlier, along a remote Swiss mountain pass not far from where the couple spent a sabbatical. Odd: Just two months before her remains were found, Belshaw had reported her missing, claiming they had been visiting Paris at the time of her disappearance. Some things just did not add up.

Episode 1, A Lady Vanishes

In January 1979, while on sabbatical in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, renowned Canadian anthropology professor Cyril Belshaw and his wife Betty embarked on an impromptu trip to Paris. Two days later Cyril reported his wife missing. Despite exhaustive efforts, she was nowhere to be found. With no leads and nothing more to be done, he returned alone to their holiday retreat in Switzerland. Months passed in desperate silence - until one day, Swiss police investigators arrived at his door with news that would shatter the tranquillity of his solitude. News that was as disturbing as it was unexpected.

Episode 2, The Alpine Corpse

Three months after Betty vanished in Paris, road workers made a grim discovery: the decomposed body of a woman near a lay-by on a remote alpine pass in Switzerland, barely 100 kilometres from Crans-Montana. Aware of the French missing-person investigation, Swiss detectives asked Cyril to provide Betty's dental records. He complied—but only after secretly altering the charts. Soon afterwards, he returned to Canada, seemingly unaware that Swiss investigators would eventually uncover not only his forgery, but an even more damaging secret. During his time in Crans-Montana, Cyril had been carrying on a clandestine love affair.

Episode 3, Fight for Justice

Confronted with the Swiss investigators' discovery, Belshaw admitted to forging his wife's dental records. His explanation, however, raised more questions than it answered. Convinced they had uncovered only a fraction of the truth, the Swiss investigators closed in, determined to stay on the suspects’ heels. Belshaw was arrested after making what would prove to be a fatal miscalculation: Traveling to Paris for a conference, where French police were waiting. Backed by some of France's most formidable defence lawyers, he fought a determined legal battle to avoid being sent to Switzerland. The outcome hung in the balance. In the end, however, the courts ruled against him.

Episode 4, The Trial - Day 1 & 2

Extradited to Switzerland, Belshaw was taken to Bois-Mermet Prison in Lausanne, where he remained in custody awaiting trial. His defence was entrusted to two of Switzerland's leading criminal lawyers, Paschoud and Stoudmann, while Swiss investigators assembled the case they believed would finally reveal the truth about Betty's disappearance.

On December 3, 1980, Cyril Belshaw stood trial for murder in Aigle. Awaiting him was not only the weight of the prosecution's evidence, but a judicial system unlike anything he would have had encountered in the Anglo-American world - one that would shape the course of the trials outcome.

Episode 5, The Trial - Day 3 & Verdict

On the final day of the trial, Cyril Belshaw finally took the witness stand. By then, the prosecution had woven together what seemed an almost inescapable account of Betty's fate. Yet one crucial element remained missing: definitive proof. Every link in the chain was circumstantial, and the defence had spent the entire trial exploiting that single weakness, determined to plant the seed of reasonable doubt. Whether they had succeeded would remain unknown until the following Monday, when the courtroom fell silent and the judges prepared to reveal their verdict.