Teen's testimony sends father to prison for 40 years in case where no body was found

ROCKVILLE, Md. — A Montgomery County man, and Haitian earthquake survivor, received the maximum sentence Friday for killing his immigrant wife in August 2019 after a rare trial that went forward even though the woman's body was never found.

Jean J. Pierre, 50, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for second-degree murder in the August 2019 death of 41-year-old Nerlande Foreste.

Foreste’s heartbroken family says they’re still struggling to put the tragedy behind them while praising the courage of Foreste’s teenage stepdaughter who helped investigators hold her own father accountable.

The teen is an amputee who survived the Haitian earthquake disaster and the death of her mother and siblings.

“For my sister, the American Dream turned out to be a tragedy,” said Foreste's brother Sam in the wake of the sentencing in Montgomery County Circuit Court Friday.

According to testimony in the case Nerlade Foreste had immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager in the 1990s as her family fled poverty. She eventually became a nurse.

But her story turned tragic when she met Jean J. Pierre after he came to the U.S. from Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. Pierre’s family had been killed except for his young daughter who survived despite the amputation.

The couple, with the little girl, married and settled in Montgomery Village, where family members testified the child came to love Foreste as her own mother, even as the couple’s relationship began to disintegrate.

August 21, 2019, Foreste went missing and the girl, who was 14 years old at the time, was the one who raised suspicion with authorities, according to testimony in the case.

Investigators found blood in the apartment despite an attempted clean up and a bulk shipping container in the apartment was suspiciously missing.

Confronted with evidence from his own daughter Pierre confessed he’d stabbed his wife and put her in a trash dumpster.

Despite an extensive search of an incinerator facility at Dickerson, Foreste’s body was never found.

“We will never find closure because we never had a body," said Foreste's brother Sam, who gave a victim impact statement during the sentencing in court Friday.

"The second woman that she called Mother -- he took that away from her.”

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said it is only the third murder conviction in Maryland history achieved without a body being found. He noted that Pierre's confession to police was not allowed as evidence because a judge ruled police did not advise him of his rights properly.

McCarthy said an avalanche of circumstantial evidence and the testimony from Pierre's own daughter convinced the jury in the case.

"This was a marriage that was falling apart," McCarthy said. "The defendant, in this case, was in this relationship solely and only for the purpose of obtaining a green card."

“We are particularly grateful for this brave young woman.  It was one of the bravest things you could ever imagine.  And I think as because she loved the victim in this case.”

The daughter is now a college student, her family said. They said they believe her American Dream is still alive.