In 2012, Sandrine Jourdan's death was ruled a suicide. A troubling phone call tells another story.

Content warning: This story includes descriptions of child sexual abuse and suicide that may be distressing to some readers.

On July 13, 2012, Sandrine Jourdan received a phone call. The 37-year-old was visiting a friend in the Queensland town of Caboolture when she answered the call. 

"250 people go missing every year," the person on the other end of the call reportedly told Sandrine. "What makes you any different?"

Sandrine was visibly shaken after the call, her mum later said. In the days leading up to this call, Sandrine had told her loved ones that she was scared for her life. 

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Later that day, Sandrine visited the home of another friend - a man named John Boegheim who also lives in Caboolture, located between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. 

Boegheim's property is set on five secluded acres, much of which is dense vegetation and swamp land. It's the last known place Sandrine would be seen alive. 

For years, her suspected death was ruled a suicide. But her family, three children, and one retired detective believe there's far more to the story.

Her body has never been found. And while most of the people in her life have concluded that she is probably dead, many suspect she may have met with foul play.

"She told me this two days before she went missing, that she had upset the wrong people and she didn't want to put my family in jeopardy so she stayed away," Sandrine's sister Christine told the Brisbane Times. 

"I said, 'What do you mean?' and she goes, 'I can't tell you any more, you'll be in trouble'. As far as we're concerned, the police never did their job for Sandrine. They just put it in a too-hard basket and put it down as a mental health case and that was not the case."

At the time of Sandrine's death, her children were aged 12, 14 and 17, and she was separated from her their father. When Sandrine disappeared, her three kids were staying with their dad in Western Australia, as they split their time between the two parents. 

Sandrine had experienced mental health issues throughout her life, predominantly post-traumatic stress disorder. Her family has said this was in relation to sexual abuse she endured as a child at the hands of her father.

"Sandrine struggled - she was on medication and had attempted suicide at least twice before. Sandrine's family were adamant that at the time of her disappearance, she was not suicidal. The police investigation was focused on the fact that she had mental health issues," retired detective-turned-private investigator Graeme Crowley said on Mamamia's True Crime Conversations podcast.

Remembering Sandrine Jourdan (37), #missing since 13 Jul 2012, after leaving a friend's home on Tomlinson Rd Caboolture Qld. She is deeply missed by her family including her three kids. If you have info to help locate Sandrine call Crimestoppers on 1800333000. pic.twitter.com/yqBEU4gVnk

— David Jenkins (@DavJenks) July 18, 2019

At the time of her disappearance, Sandrine had been in a relationship for about 18 months with a man called Ian. That relationship ended about two weeks before she went missing. In those two weeks, she had been living at friends' places or at her mother's house.

"Sandrine was saying that she had 'upset the wrong people'. She was saying she had sent 'an email to the wrong person'. She was saying she was in fear of her life. And she refused offers of accommodation from family because she said she would be putting them at risk."

Crowley said there are suggestions that some of Sandrine's friends were involved in drug use or allegedly even making drugs, and she had perhaps come across this and told the wrong person. 

Sandrine also kept a journal. In that journal, one of the lines allegedly read: "I have lived amongst criminals, thieves, and yes, someone I believe to be a serial killer." And then she allegedly went on to name the person she believed to be the alleged serial killer.

Police were not able to trace the 'wrong email' she sent, as her email account had been wiped. Crowley is now in the process of getting Sandrine's laptop forensically tested.

On the day Sandrine went missing, she spent at least six hours at John Boegheim's residence. They had been friends for some time and had worked together previously in the horticulture industry. 

"He called her his soulmate, and that they were going to move in together. That's a claim [Sandrine's family reject]. He, his son, and his son's friend had loaded up some motorcycles into the back of his van to go to motocross. Boegheim told the police that Sandrine had gone down to the back gate at 5.29pm, he drove down at 5.30pm, and she wasn't there. She hasn't been seen since," Crowley said.

Witnesses in the area later said they never saw Sandrine standing at the back gate. 

The Missing Sandrine Jourdan Facebook page. Image: Facebook. 

After vanishing on July 13, 2012, it took quite a while for police to formalise a missing person's case for Sandrine.

Boegheim said that after motocross was cancelled that day, he returned to his property to look for Sandrine around the local streets, but could not find her. At 10pm, he called Sandrine's brother to tell him she was missing. 

Boegheim wasn't the only person looked at by detectives for the case.

"The second man was Brad. He was a long-term friend of Sandrine's. He was supposed to take Sandrine to a Buddhist retreat on the day she disappeared. He was angry with her because she had got in between him and his girlfriend, and they had then broken up," Crowley said on True Crime Conversations.

"The third one is Ian, her former partner. Police have interviewed all three persons and eliminated them as persons of interest or suspects. Police said they weren't involved."

Days later, the Jourdan family reported Sandrine missing after being unable to locate her. On July 22, police notified the public of her disappearance. 

"Time is critical in missing person's cases. It didn't make front-page news," Crowley said. "That same year, Allison Baden-Clay had gone missing. She came from an upmarket suburb, her husband was a high-profile businessman. I think in his case, the media smelt blood. For Sandrine, it was two weeks before the media even got to hear about it. By then, it was yesterday's news."

Crowley explained that Sandrine's previous suicide attempts had been drug overdoses. With this in mind, he raised the argument that if Sandrine had taken her own life in 2012, her body would have been found. 

In 2015, some of her belongings were found in a property three doors down from Boegheim's residence.

"The [Boegheim] property was originally searched and nothing was found. But between 2012 and 2015, there were floods and some carpet had been washed down from the direction of Boegheim's place."

Crowley continued: "A [private investigator] went to go search. Wrapped in a piece of carpet and black plastic was a pair of black pants, a purple top, a bra, sunglasses, a belt, and a hessian bag and miscellaneous things. At the time of her disappearance, Sandrine was wearing black pants, a purple top, and had a hessian bag and sunglasses."

Police advised that no DNA was found on these items. And after three years out in the open, it's likely the items were weathered significantly.

It's important to note Boegheim was cleared of any suspicion at the time of the coroner's ruling.

In January 2015, two years after Sandrine went missing, the police officer on the case filed a report to the coroner recommending death by suicide was the probable cause of death. It then took 18 months for the coroner to finalise.

Sandrine's death was then ruled a closed case.

"Other missing persons which are open cases, the government at some point will announce a reward. That might motivate someone to come forward with information. If it's an open case, then it's actually assigned to a police officer. The clothing found behind the property [where Sandrine went missing] was found five months after the office had closed his report," Crowley said.

Crowley lives only 30 kilometres away from where Sandrine lived. It's a case that stuck with him, and Sandrine's family were thankful when Crowley said he wanted to start a podcast, Bring Home Sandrine, examining the case further.

As he said on True Crime Conversations: "They're grateful for any media coverage. They've been begging for media coverage for 10 years and have had very little.

"There are so many questions and so few answers. The family are very unhappy with how the whole thing was handled. No one in the Jourdan family accepts the coroner's report that it was suicide."

Today, Sandrine's three children are adults. They've spent the past decade desperate to see their mum or know what exactly happened to her. 

"Three months after her disappearance, it was the birthday of one of her children, and there was no contact. They concluded at that point that this wasn't a missing person's case. She would never miss her child's birthday."

If you have information, you can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. You can listen to retired detective-turned-private investigator Graeme Crowley's Bring Home Sandrine podcast here.

If this brings up any issues for you, contact Bravehearts, an organisation dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse, on 1800 272 831.

If you think you may be experiencing depression or another mental health problem, please contact your general practitioner. If you're based in Australia, 24-hour support is available through Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.

Feature Image: Queensland Police.