 Noelle Paquette would leave for work every day with two lunches in hand, one for herself and one for a child who was in need. Noelle had been teaching at the St. Matthews Catholic School for a few months and she quickly noticed just how many children were in desperate need of help, both financially and emotionally. While it wasn't part of her job description to do so, Noelle went out of her way to help every one of her students as best as she could. The children loved her for it, and she was a favorite teacher for many of the kids. Noelle was on a path to make a tremendous difference in the lives of children who attended St. Matthews, but her plans were tragically cut short on a cold winter evening in 2013. Detectives say that Noelle was heading home from a New Year's celebration. She was ambushed by two criminals with a hauntingly demented plan for the evening. Investigators believe that Noelle was grabbed before she even knew what was going on, and within minutes her life was over. She's honed in on two primary suspects, but believe me when I say, they are no one that any member of the investigative team would have ever suspected. Noelle Paquette was just 27 years old in 2013. She'd been living in Courtright, Ontario for a while, settling down and finding a job as a substitute schoolteacher at St. Matthews Catholic School. There isn't a whole lot of information available about this school online, but I was able to learn that an incredibly large portion of their students are considered to be living in poverty, or at a minimum, in low income households. To make matters worse, only between 50 and 70% of the students are considered to have passing grades. It's clear that many of these students are in desperate need of help, and Noelle wasted no time in jumping into action. Noelle was hired at St. Matthews after another teacher requested time off for maternity leave, meaning Noelle would be in charge of this teacher's classroom for several months. Noelle was known for having a very unique philosophy for teaching. She didn't just want the children to excel in life, she wanted them to be so-called smash hits, a term she coined to describe the level of success that she vowed to help her children achieve, not just in school, but all throughout their lives. As soon as Noelle began working for the school, she noticed that there was a much larger problem plaguing these students than simply their less than ideal grades. It didn't matter that over 60% of students were failing math, because nearly 50% of these students' families didn't have enough money to buy proper clothing or food. A shockingly large number of these kids didn't even wear shoes to school, and an even larger number didn't own warm coats for the winter. Noelle wanted to help these students in any way that she could, so she and her mother teamed up to begin buying as much clothing and food for these children as they possibly could. Noelle's mother says that this became a regular occurrence for them, and they would often travel out into town to scrounge up as many of life's essentials as they could find, providing them to the students who needed them most. One of Noelle's closest friends, Kyle, says that this is just the type of person that Noelle was. He says that there was no better profession for Noelle, and she was meant to be a teacher and a guardian for these students. You know, it's often the case that after someone passes away, we only recall the good things about them, and we cover up the bad. But in Noelle's case, she truly was a great person. She cared in a way that is so rare these days, and her character is something that should be celebrated. But Noelle's passion, her drive, and her dedication to her students would meet its end long before her journey should have been over. 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Better yet, Pia is even throwing in an additional four months of protection. Absolutely free if you sign up using my custom link. Just go to pavpn.com slash truecrimestories to get 83% off your subscription, then get four additional months completely free. Thanks to Pia for sponsoring today's video. It was just after 2 a.m. on New Year's Day of 2013. Noelle had been attending a New Year's Eve celebration with her boyfriend, something they'd both been looking forward to for quite some time. The party was going relatively well, but at around 2 a.m., Noelle and her boyfriend got into a disagreement. We don't know what prompted this argument, but Noelle felt that things had escalated enough that it would be best if she just left for the evening and headed home. One of Noelle's friends tried her best to stop her, but when Noelle insisted on leaving, the friend decided to leave alongside her. The two walked together for several blocks, but eventually they went their separate ways. The party had been taking place in Sarnia, but Noelle had recently moved to Courtwright, just south of Sarnia. She purchased a house here a short while back, and regardless of how long the walk was, Noelle was adamant that she was going to take the long trek back to her home, even though it was quite cold out and in the dead of the night. Noelle and her friends were spotted on several CCTV cameras in the area, but before long they had wandered out of view and were on their own. Throughout her walk home, Noelle texted her boyfriend several times. It seems that whatever had happened at the party, Noelle was incredibly upset. She was spotted by several witnesses as she wandered through the streets, sobbing about what had taken place. Her boyfriend has never spoken up about what transpired that evening, but whatever it was, Noelle was devastated. This brings us to around 2.30 a.m., only about 30 minutes after Noelle had left the party. As she was still within the boundaries of Sarnia, a few witnesses reported seeing a man walking behind her. Considering it was so dark, descriptions of this man were less than helpful, but it seems as though witnesses recalled him following her for quite some time. Within minutes of these witness sightings, Noelle's cell phone activity suddenly stopped. She never responded to her boyfriend's texts after this, and all of her calls went unanswered. Investigators used witness statements to piece together what transpired after this, and they determined that a white Pontiac Grand Prix pulled up alongside Noelle as she was heading home that evening, or early morning at this point. The car was driven by a woman in her early 30s. We don't know what the woman said to Noelle, but after a brief discussion, Noelle seems to have agreed to get inside the car. As soon as she entered, the car switched into reverse and backed up down the street, picking up the man that had been walking behind Noelle all this time. The moment he entered the car, they sped away into the night. About an hour and a half after Noelle had been picked up by the two unidentified strangers, two Ontario police officers had been patrolling the area. This was around 4 a.m. on New Year's Day. As they were patrolling the outskirts of Sarnia, they came across a white Pontiac Grand Prix that had broken down on the side of the road. When officers approached the car, a female stepped out of the driver's seat. She was crying and had blood on her face and hands, pleading with officers to help her, as her boyfriend had just accidentally cut himself in the passenger's seat and she wasn't able to help him. Paramedics were called to the scene immediately. One of the paramedics helped out the passenger, treating his injuries and making sure that he was stable before taking him to the local hospital. The occupants of the car were then revealed to be Tanya Bogdanovic, age 32, and Michael McGregor, age 22. When investigators asked what had taken place leading up to Michael's injury, Tanya revealed some pretty interesting details about the two. She said that the two were heading out into the forest to engage in what she called knife play. She explained that this was some sort of risky, sexual adventure that they were planning on acting out, but that their car had broken down on the way to the woods, so instead they decided to act out their fantasy in the car. But things went downhill very quickly when Michael accidentally got cut on his hand. It would later come to light that Tanya's relationship with Michael wasn't even public knowledge. The two had been having an affair behind Tanya's boyfriend's back. Somehow, despite the large amount of time she spent away from home with Michael, her boyfriend was none the wiser. When the two were taken to the hospital, Michael was taken into a room for treatment while Tanya was asked to wait outside of the room. All the while, she was seen with her face pressed against the glass of the observation room, pacing back and forth in the hallway. Several of the staff members believed that she was Michael's mother, but they would soon learn the reality of their relationship. The two never really described themselves as dating. Instead, they merely referred to each other as a best friend or a friend with benefits. Turns out the two had only known each other for a few months after they met through a website that connects individuals with certain interests. See, Tanya and Michael had rather dark histories of sexual fantasies. I'm not going to get into the specifics of their situation, but they were both interested in very violent activities and the website that they met on specifically catered to people with these interests. But the problem is their fantasies weren't just violent. They were full on dangerous, hence how Michael ended up in the hospital. While they were in the treatment room after Michael had been patched up, nurses and doctors recalled seeing the two lying down on stretchers staring at each other with their hands pressed over their faces, giggling and laughing. It seems that everyone in the emergency room thought that the two were very odd, but they never did anything wrong or illegal, so everyone just let them be. But then news broke that police had just uncovered a body that had been dumped in the woods about 25 kilometers away from the hospital. This is the moment that everyone's mood suddenly changed. The female victim had been subjected to a night of heartbreaking terror and it was clear that this was not the work of an ordinary person. Whoever had done this to her took pride in their work and it seemed as though they may have even enjoyed it. It didn't take long before the victim was identified as Noelle Paquet. As investigators showed up to the scene of the crime, they were taken aback by what had transpired. As detectives gathered up evidence and information from the scene, they quickly learned that the victim had been jabbed at least 49 times. She'd also been taken advantage of. A coroner revealed that the victim was alive during each and every one of the injuries. She would have lived through all of them, but she likely would have passed away quite quickly after that final strike was dealt. Whoever had done this to her, they were calculated. They wanted her to survive until that final blow. Police spoke with witnesses in the area, but no one had seen much of anything outside of mentioning that they had seen a woman matching Noelle's description, walking alone around 2 a.m. But as police gathered up more and more witness statements, they came across the aforementioned witnesses who were called seeing a white car that morning. Around the same time, Tanya and Michael were released from the hospital. Their car was towed to a nearby compound where it was revealed that the engine had run out of oil, explaining why they'd broken down so unexpectedly. After the two had left the hospital, they made plans to head to the compound a lot that afternoon to pick up the car for repairs. But at some point during the day, Michael learned that the injury to his hand was going to require surgery. So the following day, he was asked to return to the hospital for an operation. Police had noticed how strange both Tanya and Michael were acting when they were taken to the hospital earlier that day. But investigators assumed that they were simply strange people, so they didn't think much else about it. But as witness reports of a white car that was spotted around the time of Noelle's disappearance, began to pour in, detectives began to wonder if there was more to this story than meets the eye. It seems that police were hot on the trail of both Tanya and Michael long before they knew that they were even being suspected and Noelle's disappearance. As mentioned, the two had planned to pick up their car from the compound later that afternoon. But police were quick to react and they asked a tow driver to hold onto the vehicle and not give it back to the couple until they had time to search it first. The tow driver agreed and held onto the car. We're not sure what the two were told when they arrived to pick up the car later on, but the tow driver did manage to ward them off while police conducted an investigation. When police searched the vehicle, they found that it was covered in red stains. To make matters worse, they even found a knife on the floorboard on the driver's side of the car. The knife appeared to have been cleaned off since the incident, but considering the state of the rest of the car, this did little to help. It seems that Tanya and Michael explained this discovery away as being related to Michael's hand injury, but the police weren't so sure. This is around the time that the most concerning witness report of all was submitted to officers. Not only had a white sedan been seen in the area that morning, but a witness proclaimed to have seen the driver of the car pick up Noelle, but that wasn't all. The witness also reported seeing Michael get into that same vehicle after Tanya had reversed to pick him up. At this point, police knew that there was much more to the story than Tanya and Michael were letting on, but the problem was they needed to establish a motive. Otherwise, all three of these people may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without a motive, the case was sure to be kicked out of court. This led officers much deeper down a rabbit hole that they could have ever anticipated. When detectives really began to dig into the past of both Tanya and Michael, they quickly realized just how bizarre their relationship really was. The things these two were involved in were just plain weird. The two are big fans of the TV series Archer, so much so that Michael actually went by the name Archer and Tanya went by the name Kane, referencing two of the lead characters from the series. Anytime Tanya referred to Michael, she would always address him as Archer, but everyone has pet names for people that they're close with. That's not terribly unusual. What makes these two so strange is just how far they were willing to go to satisfy their sexual desires, even if it meant hurting other people. The two met as a result of their dark fantasies, but what really helped them bond was how they each had a desire to end the life of a woman. Police were able to uncover texts that had been sent between the two that documented how they both longed to end the life of a female by taking advantage of her than using a knife to finish the job. But this wasn't just some demented, hateful desire, the two wanted to do it for sexual gratification. Detectives revealed that they also found text messages that proves that the two had lined up a victim for that evening, but for one reason or another, things fell apart and the victim never showed. This was the information investigators needed to secure a conviction. They'd finally tracked down a motive, at least for the most part, but they still needed to identify why the two had chosen Noel specifically. That same day, officers issued a warrant for the arrest of both Tanya and Michael. By this point, Michael had already returned to the hospital to have the procedure performed on his hand. Tanya was patiently waiting inside the hospital to hear about Michael's recovery. As she left the hospital later that day, she was arrested in the parking lot and taken in for questioning. Michael was released a few hours later and picked up outside of a hotel. When police got the two into interrogation rooms, all the pieces started to fit together perfectly. The two confirmed their relationship with one another and the violent sexual desires that they shared. Once they knew that they had nowhere to run, they even opened up about their intention to claim the life of an innocent woman that night. But they both insisted that Noel was not their initial target. As more of the story was pieced together, detectives learned that they merely chose to attack Noel because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her attack was completely random. After their initial victim was a no-show, the two were strolling the streets in their car when they happened to pass by Noel. When they saw her, Tanya turned the car around and dropped Michael off a short distance behind Noel. He stalked her while Tanya jumped back into action, eventually convincing Noel to get into the car with her. That's when she reversed and picked up Michael, driving Noel over 20 kilometers away into the woods to carry out their fantasy. Noel had made significant efforts to fight back, but she just couldn't do it. Tanya and Michael were both handed mandatory life sentences for their crimes, but this did little to calm the minds of Noel's family. Impact statements were read by all of those who knew Noel, and despite their thoughtless crimes against an innocent woman, it seems as though Tanya and Michael may have actually realized the brevity of the situation. Both Tanya and Michael apologized profusely to Noel's family and friends, though they admitted that their apologies likely meant nothing compared to the nightmare that the family was living through. Michael addressed his own family, admitting that he had let them down and shamed them. Tanya expressed her regret at not confessing to the crime sooner, but their words may as well have fallen on deaf ears because words can't change things. Only actions can. In the wake of this tragedy, Noel's family worked together to establish a charity known as Noel's Gift. Her family recognized just how far Noel was willing to go to help out students at St. Matthew's Catholic School, and with this in mind, they made it their life's goal to help Noel's memory stay alive and to continue helping the students that she loved so dearly. The charity was established as a way to raise funds for children who come from poverty-stricken homes and may not have adequate food, clothing, or life essentials. So far, the charity has been an incredible success, and so many children have had their lives changed forever in Noel's memory. In 22 alone, the charity managed to bring in over $158,000 for children in need. In 2023, they gathered more than $188,000 for these children, with teachers at St. Matthew's School having direct access to this money to make sure that every single child gets the help they need, and these funds offer enough assistance to help out a minimum of 940 children. Noel's final moments on this planet were marred by a heartless, callous crime, but in the wake of her absence, Noel's family has proven that they will stop at nothing to ensure that her kindness, her compassion, and her genuine love for her children will never, ever be forgotten. Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of True Crime Stories. If you wanna see more true crime documentaries like this, be sure to subscribe. It's completely free and keeps you up to date with every new case I cover. If you'd like to help support the channel, the best way you can do that is simply by leaving a comment below, any comment at all. It helps out the channel a lot more than you may realize. If you love the channel and you wanna see new episodes several days early, you can do that by clicking the join button below, and you can even pick up a True Crime Stories mug, like the one you see on the desk behind me, from tieknots.com. But with that, my name is Tie Knots, and I'll catch you guys in the next video.