A woman, whose death at an apartment is considered suspicious by investigators, is being described by an old friend as a sweetheart and a kind person.
Cassandra Clermont, 31, was found dead at Cypress Court Apartments in Fort Myers recently.
Clermont’s body was found in a dirty apartment with several children, who are now in the care of Florida Department of Children and Families.
Crime scene techs spent the better part of Wednesday morning continuing to investigate the scene of Clermont’s death. Cause of death remains unreleased by law enforcement.
Fort Myers Police Department released its initial report naming the man who called 911 as Serge Lefevre, 37, also known at the complex as Junior or JR. Lefevre is now in custody undergoing a mental health evaluation.
Not one neighbor we spoke to told us they knew Cermont. We did speak to an old friend of hers, Carline Moreau, who always wondered what happened to her.
Moreau had already lost her friend once when she disappeared from her life. She’s lost her friend for a second and final time with the news of Clermont’s death.
“I found out that she passed away this morning,” Moreau said. “It’s so sad.”
Moreau last heard from her friend two years ago. It’s the last time Moreau believes anyone heard from her.
“Honestly, we haven’t seen her in like a couple years, probably about two good years, from about the time that she disappeared from like everyone, family and friends like that,” Moreau explained.
Clermont’s Facebook account was deleted, and her calls stopped.
“I honestly felt like she was scared. She was lonely. She had no support from anybody,” Moreau said. “It’s like she fell off the face of the earth.”
“She just disappeared, and we disappeared too. We have kids. We have our own lives, so everybody, which is doing their own things. But we never knew that was what was happening to her.”
“Some people thought she moved away,” Moreau said. “Like that’s how I come to find out she was right there. Like she was right there.”
Moreau said she would have done what she could had she known how to reach out to her friend and help.
“If we would’ve known, I promise you I would have. I would’ve did something,” Moreau said. “Me and my other friend, we would have did something. We would’ve went and got her, whether it was forcefully or willingly. We would have went and got her.”
FMPD says it will release more information when investigators determine whether Clermont’s death is a crime.
Neighbors knew very little about Cassandra Clermont
Neighbors at Cypress Court Apartments explained the mystery to them surrounding Clermont.
“In my whole three years I’ve stayed here, I’ve never seen them, kids. I’ve never seen that lady. We just had a big ol’ Halloween party out there for all the kids and everything,” neighbor Porsheytta Porter said.
Police say Serge Lefevre told officers he was concerned about Clermont and moved her to the bathroom to help her. The police report says there was apparent trauma.
“Everybody had their suspicions of this man, but you always let it go,” Porter said. “Because everybody have lives. Everybody should have pushed a little harder because we knew something was wrong.”
The children involved remain in the care of DCF.
“He was always making excuses, excuses after excuses, to the point where people around here were thinking it was a myth that there was people in the house,” Porter said. “Someone told me, ‘Oh, I thought it was just a myth. I didn’t know nobody was up there for real.’”
A neighbor who didn’t want to go on camera described the kids as emaciated, skin and bone. We still don’t know their current health statuses at this time.