American chocolatier to be charged with killing 3D film pioneer on picturesque Caribbean island

An American chocolate businessman has been arrested over the grisly killing of a 3D film pioneer on a picturesque Caribbean island.

Jonathan Lehrer, the operator of the Bois Collette Inc. chocolate makers, is expected to appear in Roseau Magistrate Court on the island of Dominica Wednesday to be charged with the murders of Daniel Langlois and his partner, Dominique Marchand, Dominica News Online reported.

The bodies of Langlois, 66, and Marchand were found around 7 a.m. local time Friday in the carcass of a burned-out car that appeared to have veered into a ravine from the nearby road, the outlet explained.

The couple – who were reported missing before the bodies were discovered – are believed to have been shot before the car plunged off the road and caught fire, the Telegraph reported, citing police sources.

Langlois founded the animation firm Softimage – which pioneered CGI for the likes of “Jurassic Park” and other famous franchises – in the 1980s and sold the company to Microsoft for $200 million in 1994, the outlet noted.

He moved to Dominica in 1997, where he and Marchand spent 20 years building Coulibri Ridge, a 285-acre off-grid luxury resort that opened just last year.

Coulibri Ridge neighbored Lehrer’s chocolatier business, and Langlois and the American businessman previously engaged in a years-long dispute over the use of a public road that cut through the chocolate maker’s property, Dominica News Online said.

At one point, Lehrer allegedly blocked part of the road with boulders and other debris, which prompted Langlois to take him to court, citing damages and interference in his economic interests, the outlet noted.

The back-and-forth had already dragged on for four or five years until, in 2019, a high court judge affirmed the road’s public designation, and granted Langlois’ employees and guests unrestricted access, according to Dominica News Online.

In the days after Langlois and Marchand’s bodies were discovered, police detained four people – Lehrer, his wife, Victoria, a man named Robert Snider, and an unnamed local man – into custody, the outlet said.

Only Lehrer and Snider, however, are expected to face charges this week.

It is not clear how Snider is connected to Lehrer or the victims. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Dominica did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.

“Jonathan is a successful businessman, not a murderer,” Lehrer’s father, Robert Lehrer, told the Journal de Montréal of the accusations against his son on Tuesday.

“We are very close and he is not a violent man at all. I have a hard time believing it…“He was fed up with illegal crossings on his route and it bothered him a lot, but it had been a while since I had any news,” he added.

Just one month before his death, the local government gave Langlois the Meritorious Service Award for his contribution to sustainable development on the island, Radio Canada reported.

Those close to the couple –Langlois and Marchand, both from their native Quebec and their adopted home of Dominica – were devastated by the killings.

“They were an inspiration to all of us. We want justice to bring Jonathan to us so that we can take care of him. The community is in crisis, we want to take care of him ourselves,” an anonymous woman who worked at Coulibri Ridge told the Journal de Montréal.

“We don’t want him to go to prison and be fed with our taxes and those of Daniel and Dominique,” the woman insisted.

In addition to their resort, Langlois and Marchand founded two charities – The Humane Society of Dominica and REZDM – in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017, the Telegraph said.

“He was really instrumental in the rehabilitation of the Soufrière primary school with an amount of more than $1 million invested,” school director Ericson Degallaire told Journal de Montréal of Langlois’ involvement in rebuilding the school after the storm.

“He did a lot of good for the school. It’s unfortunate that he and his partner came to such an end,” Degallaire lamented.

The Coulibri Ridge resort did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the incident.