Murder in Monaco Ending Explained: Did Edmund Safra’s Nurse Kill Him or Take the Fall?

Netflix reignites Monaco’s most baffling high-society death with Murder in Monaco, a 90-minute doc from director Hodges Usry that unpacks the 1999 penthouse inferno that killed billionaire banker Edmond Safra and his nurse. Dropping December 17, 2025, it digs into the crime, the investigation, and the secrets money couldn’t bury.

Netflix just dropped a true-crime rabbit hole that sounds made up even when it is not. 'Murder in Monaco' revisits the 1999 fire that killed banking titan Edmond Safra and one of his nurses inside his Monaco penthouse. It is 90 minutes, directed by Hodges Usry, and it is the kind of story where you start confident you know what happened, and by the end you are rethinking everything you thought you knew.

The setup

Edmond Safra was a Lebanese-born billionaire, founder of Republic National Bank of New York, and was 67 when he died from smoke inhalation in a blaze that tore through his Monte Carlo home. He had Parkinson's disease and a round-the-clock care team. Nurse Vivian Torrente also died in the fire.

Because Safra had cooperated with the FBI on global tax-evasion cases, theories sprouted immediately: money laundering grudges, political enemies, Russian mob retaliation. Officially, though, authorities in Monaco pinned the disaster on Ted Maher, an American nurse hired just months earlier at an unusually high day rate.

Maher vs. Monaco: two stories, same night

The documentary lays it out chronologically. First, Maher told police that two hooded intruders stabbed him and set the fire. He says he hustled Safra and Torrente into a steel-reinforced bathroom that functioned like a panic room, then went downstairs for help. Later, that intruder story vanished, replaced by a very different narrative that prosecutors preferred: Maher had stabbed himself and sparked a small fire to play hero in front of his billionaire boss, and things spun out of control.

Maher adds a lot of color. He says masked men with Russian accents kidnapped him the day before and threatened his family, ordering him to leave a shutter open. He also claims he was not even supposed to be on duty that day; the head of Safra's nursing staff, Sonia Herkrath, flatly contradicts that in the film.

On the night itself, Maher says two masked intruders jumped him in the gym, one of them stabbing him twice before he blacked out. When he came to, he moved Safra and Torrente into the safe bathroom. Safra, he says, told him to trigger the room alarm. Maher claims he did not know how, so he lit tissues in a wastebasket under a smoke detector to set off the system, took the elevator down to get help, and apparently fainted. When he woke up, he was told both Safra and Torrente were dead.

From there, it gets messy. Maher says detectives pushed a confession at him in a language he could not read; his Monaco attorney disputes that detail in the doc. Michael Griffith, Maher's American lawyer, recounts that Maher's then-wife, Heidi, was contacted by Lily Safra's staff and flown to Monaco, only to be diverted to a police station and held under watch in a hotel for three days with passports confiscated. Griffith says police waved Heidi's passport at Maher in the hospital as leverage to make him sign. Heidi ultimately declined to testify against Lily Safra, and Maher insists he became the convenient fall guy.

The trial that decided everything

By the time the case got to court, Maher's defense in Monaco leaned into the 'botched hero' version: he stabbed himself and ignited a small fire to manufacture a rescue, not to kill anyone. In December 2002, he was convicted of arson causing death for the blaze that killed Safra and Torrente and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Maher has stuck to the line that the deaths were accidental and were made worse by delays reaching the safe room. He maintains Safra and Torrente were alive when responders first arrived.

Then the film drops a jaw-dropper: a judge involved with the case later said the verdict was essentially decided before the trial even began. And New York Post reporter Isabel Vincent, interviewed in the doc, does not think Maher got a fair shake. It paints a picture where he could be a scapegoat.

And then the doc flips the table

Here is the curveball: after interviewing for the film, Maher vanished for months. Usry says police were looking for him on charges of burglary, larceny, forgery, and fraud. On phone calls, Maher told Usry he was innocent; the later court record did not back that up.

Post-Monaco, Maher legally changed his name to Jon Green and tried to reenter healthcare. The Texas Board of Nursing revoked his license in 2013 for failing to disclose his criminal history. He was accused of breaking into his ex-wife's office, stealing cash and a gun, and other thefts. In 2023, he was convicted on multiple counts, including forgery and solicitation of murder, after allegedly paying another inmate to kill his ex-wife and steal her money. He received an additional nine-year sentence.

As of 2025, Maher, still using the name Jon Green, is incarcerated in a medical correctional facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he is also being treated for throat cancer. He continues to deny these charges.

One more reveal cuts right at the origin story he sold everyone: according to Usry's digging, Maher was not a Green Beret after all. He had retrained as a neonatal nurse, yes, but he never completed the Special Forces medical course and did not serve in the Green Berets. That retroactively reframes a lot of his self-presentation.

So what is the film actually saying?

'Murder in Monaco' teases the espionage-thriller version of the Safra case and then needles apart the narrative until what is left is most uncomfortable: an officially solved case with a convicted culprit who may have been railroaded in some ways and who also appears to be an unreliable narrator with a long pattern of deceit. The doc does not hand you a neat answer. It wants you to sit with the contradictions.

The case in fast-forward

• 1999: Fire at Safra's Monaco penthouse kills Edmond Safra and nurse Vivian Torrente. Safra had Parkinson's and a private medical team.
• Initial story: Nurse Ted Maher says masked intruders stabbed him and started the fire; he moved Safra and Torrente into a reinforced bathroom and went for help. He also alleges a prior kidnapping by men with Russian accents who threatened his family.
• Prosecutors' version: Maher stabbed himself and lit a small fire to stage a rescue and impress Safra; the plan backfired.
• Paperwork and pressure: Maher says he was coerced into signing confessions; his Monaco attorney disputes parts of that. His American lawyer describes Heidi Maher being flown in by Lily Safra's staff, then allegedly held under watch with passports taken.
• December 2002: Monaco's criminal court convicts Maher of arson causing death; sentence: 10 years. He argues the deaths were accidental and worsened by delayed access to the safe room.
• Later revelations: A judge tied to the case says the verdict was preordained; journalist Isabel Vincent calls the trial unfair.
• After prison: Maher changes his name to Jon Green. Texas yanks his nursing license in 2013 for nondisclosure of his past. He is later accused of break-ins and thefts.
• 2023: Maher is convicted of forgery and solicitation of murder for allegedly trying to have his ex-wife killed; he gets nine more years.
• 2025: He is incarcerated in a medical facility in Albuquerque, receiving treatment for throat cancer, still claiming innocence on the newer charges.
• Military claims unravel: Usry finds Maher never completed Special Forces training and was not a Green Beret.

Bottom line

If you go in expecting a clean conspiracy takedown, the movie resists you at every turn. It is sympathetic to how the case was handled in Monaco, then it shows you why that sympathy may be misplaced, then it shows you why trusting Maher blindly does not make sense either. Bizarre story, complicated guy, no easy out.

'Murder in Monaco' is streaming now on Netflix. Directed by Hodges Usry. Runtime: 90 minutes. Released December 17, 2025.