Episode 075 – In the summer of 1908 a huge explosion levelled over 2000 square kilometres in Siberia. The event happened near the remote Tunguska river. It created the loudest sound ever heard by human ears and was visible through Europe and Asia. Locals reported seeing a large fireball rumbling across the sky before the blast. To this day, almost 111 years later, the exact cause of Tunguska Event remains a mystery.

Sources:
Russian Site on the Event – photos, investigation and first hand accounts
100 Wonders: The Tunguska Event – Atlas Obscura – Video
NASA article on Tunguska
The Tunguska Event at Wikipedia
Nuclear Secrecy – Nukemap
Leonid Kulik
Noctilucent Clouds
Cornell article on Mirror Matter

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Episode 074 – In April of 1990, 14-year-old Julie Ann Stanton disappeared near her Pickering, Ontario home. Right away investigators suspected, Peter John Stark, a neighbour and father of Julie’s best, in Julie’s disappearance. After 4 years, the police and Crown finally had enough to go arrest Stark, who turned out to be a serial predator with a very dark past.

NOTE: This week’s guest host, Johanna Hemenway, went to the same high school and was in the same grade as Julie Stanton. She and some of her friends provided more insight around their experience with the crime and memories of the victim for the episode.

Sources:
R. v. Stark, 2000 CanLII 3503 (ON CA)
CBC The Detectives – Project Hitchhiker
York Police Cold Cases – Marie Woods
CP24 – Killer dies in prison

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Episode 073 – In rural Prince Edward Island, on October 7, 1994 a car was found abandoned, away from the main road and in a field. The licence plates were missing and there appeared to be blood spatter on the windshield and throughout the vehicle’s interior. The car was found to belong to a 32-year-old mother of five named Shirley Anne Duguay. RCMP investigated and were told by Shirley’s family that she had not been seen in days. She’d disappeared, but thanks to evidence found by searchers, police believed that Shirley had been murdered.

Shirley’s body was found months later in a shallow grave. Douglas Leo Beamish, Shirley’s ex common-law spouse and father of three of her children, was arrested and charged with Shirley’s murder. Some of the evidence used against Beamish had never been utilized at trial before. This case from Canada’s tiny province would be precedent setting.

Sources:
R. v. Beamish, 1999 CanLII 4537 (PE SCAD)
Douglas Leo Beamish at Murderpedia
Forensic Files – Season 7, Ep 7: Purr-fect Match
The New Detectives – Season 8, Ep 3: Material Witness
Wikpedia – The Murder of Shirley Duguay
The Guardian – Parole Denied
Tears of the Cheetah by Dr. Stephen J. O’Brien

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Episode 072 – On a freezing December morning the Castor Volunteer Fire Department braved the icy Alberta roads to attend a structure fire at a farm a few kilometers outside town. When the firefighters arrived there were red flags evident immediately.

The family dog lay dead in the driveway from an apparent gunshot wound, two 9mm casings were nearby as was a partially full gas can which lay only meters away from the front door of the home, now almost burned to the ground. Three people, Sandra and Gordon Klaus, and their adult daughter Monica, had been at home at the time of the unsurvivable inferno. The only member of the immediate family left alive was the couple’s eldest son and Monica’s brother, Jason, who lived in a trailer nearby.

Who could have committed horrific acts and why? As the investigation unfolded a bizarre coverup story emerged consisting of communication with the spirits of the deceased.

Sources:
R v Klaus, 2018 ABQB 6 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hpmwh
R v Klaus, 2018 ABQB 97 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hqf49 
R v Klaus, 2017 ABQB 537 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/h5sbp
R v Klaus, 2017 ABQB 689 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hnb4z 
R v Klaus, 2017 ABQB 720 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hnz2j 
R v Klaus, 2017 ABQB 721 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hnzzk 
After the Fire: Murder, Lies and a Missing Deer Head
Klaus Family Obituary
Jason Klaus Police Interview
Joshua Frank Confession

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