Author: Mike Browne

Episode 259: After she’d been missing only one day, on the evening of May 7th, 2002, the body of 14-year-old Jessica Grimard was discovered by her father in a stream within a wooded area near her home in Rivière-des-Prairies, a suburban borough on the eastern tip of the city of Montreal, Quebec.

As her killer had placed Jessica in the water, washing away evidence, there was not much for the cops to go on. At first, police considered that Jessica had been killed by someone known to her. However, thanks to a few strange twists, the case would head in a new direction, eventually capturing a known sexual predator and suspected serial killer who had bragged about his crimes. The boasting included confessions of responsibility for two other 1993 deaths around Montreal, initially ruled accidental, that of 12-year-old Christine Speich and 20-year-old Anna Lisa Cefali. The killer had used water and fire to cover his crimes.

Sources:

Angelo Colalillo | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Une marche pour commémorer le triste événement | TVA Nouvelles

Meurtre de Jessica Grimard: un an plus tard, la douleur reste vive | TVA Nouvelles

Grimard (Jessica) – La Mémoire du Québec

2000 CanLII 6067 (QC CQ) | R. c. Paccione | CanLII

2003 CanLII 10002 (QC CQ) | R. c. Chalfoun | CanLII

2005 CanLII 49803 (QC CS) | R. v. Colalillo | CanLII

2005 CanLII 49804 (QC CS) | R. v. Colalillo | CanLII

2006 QCCS 274 (CanLII) | R. c. Colalillo | CanLII

2006 QCCS 7903 (CanLII) | R. c. Colalillo | CanLII

Search – Newspapers.com: Angelo Colalillo

The Man Behind the Letters | PressReader.com

Letters to be examined in Chalfoun trial | CBC News

Colalillo laisse derrière lui son testament criminel | TVA Nouvelles

Colallilo (Angelo) – La Mémoire du Québec

West Island man who sexually assaulted about 20 women denied parole | Montreal Gazette

Cold Careers and Occupational Hazards: The Occupational Preferences of Canadian Serial Killers

Accused Quebec serial killer dies in hospital | CBC

Quebec murder suspect took own life: report | CBC News

The sudden death of a man ‘like a wolf amongst the lambs’ – The Globe and Mail

The Murderer Who Used Water To Hide His Trace | Real Stories |YouTube

Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder | Scribd

Angelo Colalillo (1964-2006) – Find a Grave Memorial

Lifeless in a Stream | Real Crime | By Real Crime

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Episode 258: On the morning of February 20, 1989, stay-at-home mother of two Janice Faye Johnson was found unconscious, gravely injured and barely clinging to life at the foot of a flight of basement stairs in the Shelburne, Nova Scotia home she shared with her family, Clayton Norman Johnson and daughters Darla and Dawn. Even though she was still alive when she was found by a neighbour, who called for an ambulance immediately, Janice died in the hospital just after noon that day.

More than three years after her death, police arrested Janice’s husband, Clayton, a high school industrial arts teacher, and charged him with first-degree murder. Consistently maintaining his innocence throughout subsequent proceedings, on May 4, 1993, Clayton was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his wife. He was later sentenced to life in prison — his appeals, citing spurious forensic evidence, were rejected. He spent the next five years in prison.

Sources:

Clayton Johnson – Innocence Canada

Crown Halts Clayton Johnson Murder Prosecution – Government of Nova Scotia, Canada

Clayton Johnson Settlement – Government of Nova Scotia, Canada

Clayton Johnson: Innocent man convicted by so-called experts

Clayton Johnson walks as Crown balks at new trial | CBC News

Shelburne man, wrongly convicted of wife’s murder, dies | CBC News

1998 NSCA 14 (CanLII) | R. v. Johnson | CanLII

1994 NSCA 79 (CanLII) | R. v. Johnson | CanLII

Clayton Johnson – Wrongful Conviction – Pyzer Criminal Lawyers

Clayton Johnson: obituary and death notice on InMemoriam

Clayton Johnson wrongful murder conviction: Tide of Suspicion (1998) – The Fifth Estate — YouTube

Wrongly convicted man cleared in wife’s death – The Globe and Mail

Accident or Murder? | Forensic Files Wiki | Fandom

“Forensic Files” Accident or Murder? (TV Episode 1999) – Reference View – IMDb

Obituary | Clayton Norman Johnson of Barrington, Nova Scotia | H.M. Huskilson’s Funeral Home

Scribd | Justice Miscarried: Inside Wrongful Convictions in Canada 

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Episode 257: In Victoria, B.C., on the rainy evening of Friday, September 29, 1899, on her way home from work alone, forty-four-year-old Agnes Bings walked across a railroad bridge, cutting through the Songhees Reserve as she did every other night without incident. This night, however, would be her last. Someone took her life somewhere during the 20-minute walk between her bakery on Store Street and the Bings family home on Russell Street. The next morning, Agnes Bing’s body was discovered. She’d been strangled, and her body mutilated. Her slaying has never been solved, although there have been a few suspects, interestingly including the world’s most famous serial killer, Jack the Ripper, whose 1888 crimes also remain unsolved.

Sources:

HISTORY OF DOWNTOWN VICTORIA | LIVE SITE

Home | Victoria

Canada’s Jack the Ripper

Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency Records Relating To The Murder of Agnes Bings | PDF

Historical police records give a glimpse into Victoria’s seamier side | Times Colonist

The British Colonist 1858-1961

Agnes Bings (1855-1899) – Find a Grave Memorial

Murder & Mutilation In Victoria – Jack The Ripper Forums – Ripperology For The 21st Century

Unlocking the Dark Secrets of Victoria – Monday Magazine

Coroner Inquests in BC around the time of Agnes Bings’ Murder

Seeing Dead People E23 — Mrs. Bings Meets a Madman

The History of Garrick’s Head Pub | Victoria, BC, Canada

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Episode 256: Colten Boushie was a 22-year-old Indigenous man from the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, who was shot and killed on a farm near Biggar, Saskatchewan, on August 9, 2016. His death received widespread attention and led to a national conversation in Canada about systemic racism and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system. The trial and acquittal of the farmer who was charged with Boushie’s death, a man named Gerald Stanley, also sparked controversy and led to calls for reforms in the Canadian justice system.

Sources:

Red Pheasant Cree Nation – A prospering Nation

2017 SKQB 366 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII

2017 SKQB 367 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII

2018 SKQB 27 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII

Colten’s friend Eric talking about the shooting | Twitter

Victim, friends needed help with flat tire before farmyard shooting: witness | 650 CKOM

DocumentCloud | FSIN Media Release

The night Colten Boushie died | The Globe and Mail

The Legal Trial of Gerald Stanley – a second look at the case through the lens of law | CanLII Connects

CRCC Final Report on the Death of Colten Boushie

‘Have to keep talking about it,’ says Boushie’s mother, five years after Stanley acquittal | Star Phoenix

Colten Boushie, Gerald Stanley and a case that’s hard to defend | The Star

Read ‘The Rodney King of Western Canada’: Killing of Indigenous Man Heads to Trial Online

Who was Colten Boushie? | CBC News

Colten Boushie Archives – APTN News

‘White Lives Matter’ signs show up in North Battleford Saskatchewan

Debbie Baptiste | Canada’s National Observer: News & Analysis

Brad Wall – Racism has no place in Saskatchewan. | Facebook

We Will Stand Up | CBC Docs POV |YouTube

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Episode 255: On September 28, 2016, a police dog discovered the nude and decomposing body of a young woman on the grounds of Gabriola House, a famous and, at that time, abandoned mansion on Davie Street in Vancouver’s West End. The body was that of Natsumi Kogawa, 30, a Japanese woman who’d been in Canada on a Visa to study English since May that year. Natsumi’s friends and family had not heard from her since September 8, and she’d been officially listed as a missing person four days after that. 

On the same day as discovering Ms. Kogawa’s body, police arrested William Victor Schneider, a man from Vernon, B.C. Schneider’s brother Warren turned him into the police after William had told him where he’d put Natsumi’s body and that he ‘done something bad.’ Warren also recalled to police about overhearing a phone conversation during which he said he’d thought William had admitted to having killed Natsumi.

The legal proceedings that followed dragged on into the fall of 2022.

Sources:

Hirosaki – Travel guide at Wikivoyage

Tonari Gumi – Japanese Community Volunteers Association – Vancouver, Canada

FIND Natsumi Kogawa／古川夏好さん捜索情報 — Facebook

Search for Natsumi Kogawa – TokyoReporter

Japanese woman missing in Canada – Japan Today

Vancouver Shinpo – 古川夏好さん三回忌しめやかに

Vancouver Shinpo – その三十五　古川夏好（こがわなつみ）さんの一周忌

古川さん殺害、終身刑の男が控訴 | 日加トゥデイ/JC Today

Police Looking for Missing Woman | Vancouver Police Department

Update: Body of Missing Woman Found | Vancouver Police Department

EXCLUSIVE: Friends of murdered Japanese student, Natsumi Kogawa, speak out – BC | Globalnews.ca

A look at the troubled life of William Schneider, the killer of Natsumi Kogawa – Vernon News – Castanet.net

‘It’s my fault,’ court hears accused tell police in murder trial of Japanese student | The Star

Man gets life in prison for killing Japanese woman in Canada | The Japan Times

‘People listened’: Mother of murdered Japanese student grateful for guilty verdict | CBC News

New trial ordered for man found guilty of murdering Japanese student Natsumi Kogawa | Globalnews.ca

Murder conviction of B.C. man who killed exchange student restored: Supreme Court of Canada | Globalnews.ca

‘People listened’: Mother of murdered Japanese student grateful for guilty verdict | CBC News

1523 Davie St, Vancouver, BC • Vancouver Heritage Foundation | Vancouver Heritage Site Finder

YOU SHOULD KNOW: About The History Of “The Gabriola Mansion” In The West End – Scout Magazine

2021 BCCA 41 (CanLII) | R. v. Schneider | CanLII

2022 SCC 34 (CanLII) | R. v. Schneider | CanLII

Supreme Court of Canada – SCC Case Information – Docket – 39559

Supreme Court of Canada – 39559

Supreme Court of Canada – SCC Case Information – Webcast of the Hearing on 2021-12-10 – 39559

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Episode 254: On Saturday, June 23, 1990, three teenagers, Brigitte Grenier, 16, Kyle Unger, 19, and Timothy Houlahan, 17, all separately attended a music festival at a ski resort near Roseisle, Manitoba. The following morning, Brigette was discovered dead in a creek in a heavily forested area within the resort. She’d been sexually assaulted, beaten, tortured and strangled to death. As both had been seen with the victim during the hours before her death, police quickly targeted Kyle Unger and Timothy Houlahan as suspects in Brigette’s slaying. 

Forensic evidence pointed to Houlahan, and he, in turn, pointed to Kyle Unger as Brigette’s murderer, but Kyle was adamant he’d had nothing to do with Brigette’s death. The physical evidence against Kyle Unger was a single strand of hair found on Brigette’s sweatshirt. RCMP needed more, so they turned to their tried and true Mr. Big technique and, sure enough, acquired a confession from Kyle Unger. In February of 1992, both Unger and Houlahan were convicted of first-degree murder. Both appealed. Houlahan’s appeal was successful, and in July 1993, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for him. Tim Houlahan completed suicide before his second trial. Kyle Unger’s conviction was upheld.

Did the justice system get it right? Unfortunately, we will see that it did not, at least not right away.

Sources:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Roseisle Pioneer Monument (Roseisle, RM of Dufferin)

1992 CanLII 13202 (MB KB) | R. v. Unger (K.W.) and Houlahan (T.L.) | CanLII

1993 CanLII 4409 (MB CA) | R. v. Unger | CanLII

Kyle Unger settles wrongful murder conviction | CBC News

Kyle Unger — Innocence Canada

Kyle Unger | News, Videos & Articles — Global News

Real Justice: A Police Mr. Big Sting Goes Wrong: The Story of Kyle Unger by Richard Brignall

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Episode 253: At 12:53 am on the morning of October 15, 2018, a frantic, garbled 911 came in from the Closs Family just west of the City of Barron, Wisconsin, U.S.A. There is screaming throughout the 45 seconds of the call from what seems to be two different females. Police arrived shortly after 911 was placed. Inside the home were the bodies of James and Denise Closs. They’d both been shot to death. It was soon discovered that the Closs couple’s 13-year-old daughter, Jayme Lynn, was missing.

Sources:

JAYME CLOSS — FBI

www.facebook.com/barroncountysheriff

FBI Milwaukee (@FBIMilwaukee).

State of Wisconsin v. Jake T Patterson

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Evidence logs. Case 1831604. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Police report. BNSO 1831604 Primary, Closs/Patterson. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Barron County SO 911 call.mp4. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Erik Sedani squad video.mp4. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of James Pressley squad video 1.mp4. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of James Pressley squad video 2.mp4. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of James Pressley squad video 3.mp4. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Jon Fick squad video 1.mp4. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Jon Fick squad video 2.mp4. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Erik Sedani body camera video 1 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Erik Sedani body camera video 2 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of James Pressley body camera video 1 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of James Pressley body camera video 2 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Jon Fick body camera video 1 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Jon Fick body camera video 2 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Jon Fick body camera video 3 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Jon Fick body camera video 4 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Transcription of Jon Fick body camera video 5 audio only.wav. 2018. 

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office — Report for case 19DC00130. 2018. 

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office — Douglas County SO 911 call.mp4. 2018.

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office — 140202_001-Patterson transport w919.mp4. 2018.

Wisconsin Department of Justice — Division of Criminal Investigation. Case Master Report 18-7648.

Wisconsin Department of Justice — Department of Transport footage. 18-7648. 

Wisconsin Department of Justice — Interview of Kyle Jaenke-Annis. 

Associated Press. “Statement of Jayme Closs at Sentencing for Abductor.” 24 May 2019

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Episode 252: Starting when Amanda Michelle Todd was just 11 years old, a person began a campaign of sexual extortion, relentless harassment and cyberbullying. Over the next three years, Amanda endured constant pressure from the man who used 22 online aliases on four different social media platforms to coerce and lure her into performing pornographic cam shows for him.

On September 7, 2012, Amanda posted a now-famous video on YouTube in which she used a series of flashcards to tell her experience of being blackmailed into exposing her breasts via webcam, which later led to her being bullied and physically assaulted. The video gained global attention when it went viral after Amanda completed suicide at her family home in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a month before her 16th birthday on October 10th, 2012. As of this writing, the video, still up on YouTube, is just about to crack 15 million views.

Amanda’s mother, Carol Todd, was driven by grief of her daughter’s loss to become an activist. She established the Amanda Todd Trust at the Royal Bank of Canada, which receives donations to support anti-bullying awareness education and programs for young people with mental health problems.

In 2014, a Dutch-Turkish man, Aydin Coban, in his 30s when the abuse of Amanda Todd began, was identified as the man who’d been harassing her and at least 39 other young girls and young gay males in the Netherlands, U.K., and Canada. After legal proceedings in the Netherlands wrapped up, Coban was imprisoned there. Although charged with five offences related to Amanda Todd here in Canada, Amanda’s family would have to wait for justice for her.

In June 2022, almost ten years after Amanda’s death, after being extradited to Canada, Aydan Coban stood trial in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. On August 5, 2022, the jury found Coban guilty of all five of the charges he was facing.

Sources:

Amanda Todd Legacy Society Official Site – Home

My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self-harm | YouTube

The Story of Amanda Todd | The New Yorker

2022 BCSC 1810 (CanLII) | R. v Coban | CanLII

Dutch man Aydin Coban convicted of sexually extorting B.C. teen Amanda Todd | CBC News

Amanda Todd – Transcript of video – Pastebin.com

Amanda Michelle “Manda” Todd (1996-2012) – Find a Grave Memorial

Get help & support for suicide – Google Search Help

Canadian Association For Suicide Prevention

International Association for Suicide Prevention

Amanda Todd Legacy – Staying Strong

Carol Todd’s Snowflakes | http://amandatoddlegacy.org/

https://snowflakes4amanda.tumblr.com

My Name is Amanda Todd | Life Reflected | National Arts Centre

‘She shared everything with me’: Amanda Todd’s mother talks about her life with her daughter (with video)

Timeline of the Amanda Todd cyberbullying case | Vancouver Sun

Timeline: Amanda Todd investigation | CTV News

Amanda Todd blackmailer Kody Maxson outed another pedophile blackmailer

Cyberbullying trial: Closing arguments in B.C. | CTV News

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Episode 251: In the rural area known as Drummond Township, near Perth, Ontario, about a mile north of the village of Balderson’s Corners, in the early morning hours of December 10, 1828, what appeared to be an accidental fire resulted in the deaths of Thomas Easby’s wife and four eldest children. Only a month later, it was the word of Thomas’s only surviving son that painted a different, more sinister picture. Thomas was arrested, charged with the murders and tried. Easby’s trial was brief, he was convicted and sentenced to hang for what has been called Canada’s first mass murder.

Sources:

Rampage: Canadian Mass Murder and Spree Killing

The Thomas Easby Murders in 1829 — Foulest Ever in Lanark County | lindaseccaspina

Perth & District Historical Society – Perth, Ontario, Canada

THE DEVIL VISITS DRUMMOND TOWNSHIP

Thomas Easby Murders « Arlene Stafford Wilson

A Matter of Honour: And Other Tales of Early Perth – Susan Code – Google Books

The Early History of Balderson’s Corners

Historic Lanark County Documents from the Perth Courier

Uncovering the Secrets of the Perth Museum Archives: A Q&A with Debbie Sproule – Lanark County Tourism

A History of Drummond Township – John C. Ebbs – Google Books

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