MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, Md. — By all accounts, Nerlande Foreste, 41, was a devoted stepmother to her 15-year-old stepchild.
The teen – a survivor of the Haiti earthquake – is the daughter of Foreste’s husband, Jean J. Pierre.
Pierre – also a survivor of the earthquake – is accused of murdering his wife and disposing of her body so expertly that Montgomery County police still have not found her remains.
Now court documents obtained after a bond hearing Tuesday reveal that Foreste’s body may have been put in an apartment complex dumpster after she was allegedly stabbed to death by her husband last week.
Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation say investigators have repeatedly searched Montgomery County’s incinerator in Dickerson with cadaver dogs in an attempt to find Foreste’s remains without success.
The search for her body is ongoing, according to Montgomery County police spokesperson Capt. Thomas C. Jordan. “We are not giving up hope that we can find remains and learn more about exactly what happened to her,” Jordan said.
Pierre confessed to stabbing his wife and disposing of her body in a dumpster after initially reporting his wife missing, according to charging court documents.
"Several times during the interview, Pierre stated his wife was gone and he wasn't coming back," according to court documents. "Pierre continued that we wouldn't find her body...[and] admitted to stabbing his wife, Foreste, and taking her body to the dumpster."
Police said that confession does not mean they are not exploring other leads.
“Just because he told us about a dumpster does not mean that something else might have happened,” Jordan said. “We are looking into every possibility.”
The crime leaves Pierre’s 15-year-old daughter without a mother for the second time in her short, tragedy stricken life.
Pierre came to the US with his daughter after the rest of their family was crushed inside their home in the 2010 Haitian earthquake disaster.
Pierre’s surviving daughter spent at least three days buried in rubble with her dead mother and sister nearby.
Pierre, a former bank-manager in Haiti, fled with his surviving daughter to the U.S. In the U.S., Pierre married Foreste who had left Haiti just before the earthquake.
The couple, with Pierre’s daughter, settled in The Rothbury apartment complex in Montgomery Villiage, where they were active in a church and where the girl thrived in school, according to family friends who do not want their names revealed publicly.
Foreste worked as a registered nurse. Pierre was a nursing assistant working with Alzheimer’s patients, the friends said.
Foreste was a dedicated stepmother to Pierre’s daughter and their bond was close, according to friends.
The daughter has played a significant role in the investigation, according to court documents. At one point she independently contacted Montgomery County Police to report her stepmother missing.
She also told detectives about a suspicious wound on her father’s arm.
Foreste disappeared Wednesday, Aug. 21, according to the daughter.
The day of Foreste’s disappearance, Pierre failed to pick up his daughter from an evening church event, investigators wrote in court documents.
Pierre went to police on Aug. 24 to report his wife missing. He claimed she went missing on Aug. 22.
Foreste’s cousin told investigators that Forested had called her on the Aug. 21, saying that Pierre had threatened to kill her.
Pierre’s daughter said she went into the master bedroom and bath after the apparent incident and found it to be in a state of disarray. She reported he rented a carpet cleaning machine on Aug. 23 and asked her to return it to the store the next day.
With a warrant, investigators went to the family’s home and found “blood splatter in multiple places in the master bedroom and master bathroom,” according to court documents.
Investigators also found a pink cell phone case that tested positive for blood.
In an interview at Montgomery County Police headquarters Pierre gave “inconsistent statements concerning his actions and whereabouts during the investigation,” investigators wrote.
“During the interview Pierre admitted to stabbing his wife and taking her body to the dumpster in the early morning hours of Aug. 22,” investigators said, according to court documents.
Pierre was ordered held without bail at a hearing Tuesday. He faces first degree murder charges.