Mike Browne

Episode 242: On March 3, 2005, a contingent of RCMP constables, attended the property of James Michael Roszko, 46 in Rochfort Bridge, near Mayerthorpe, Alberta. The members were there to serve a search warrant for stolen property and a marijuana-growing operation on the farm, discovered the day before. Roszko, knowing the police would be arriving soon, armed himself with the help of a couple friends, Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman, and then he laid in wait for the RCMP. When four of the officers, Anthony Gordon, Lionide “Leo” Johnston, Brock Myrol and Peter Schiemann, walked into a quonset hut on the farm. Roszko, hidden inside the building, opened fire on the four members, killing them and then himself before the other RCMP members on site could come to their aid. 

In the last episode we learned of the life of the murderer leading up to the day of the slaying of the four RCMP members. In this episode you’ll hear about the crime and its aftermath.

Sources:

Town of Mayerthorpe: Home

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE STATISTICS – Darkness to Light

Report to the Attorney General : public inquiry into the deaths of Cst. Anthony Gordon, Cst. Lionide Johnston, Cst. Brock Myrol, Cst. Peter Schiemann and Mr. James Roszko – Open Government

Report to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Public Fatality Inquiry – PDF

Fallen Four | Home

Fallen Four Memorial Park & Visitor Information Centre | Facebook

Line of Fire by Edward Butts – Ebook | Scribd

James Roszko | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

RCMP Tribute to Five Officers

Mayerthorpe Tragedy – Wikipedia

2008 ABQB 242 (CanLII) | R. v. Hennessey | CanLII

2008 ABQB 282 (CanLII) | R. v. Cheeseman | CanLII

2009 ABQB 60 (CanLII) | R. v. Hennessey | CanLII

2010 ABCA 274 (CanLII) | R. v. Hennessey | CanLII

Murder charge approved in Burnaby RCMP officer’s killing | CTV News

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Episode 241: On March 3, 2005, a contingent of RCMP constables attended the property of James Michael Roszko, 46, in Rochfort Bridge, near Mayerthorpe, Alberta. The members were there to serve a search warrant for stolen property and a marijuana-growing operation on the farm, discovered the day before. Roszko, knowing the police would be arriving soon, armed himself with the help of a couple of friends, Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman, and then he lay in wait for the RCMP. When four of the officers, Anthony Gordon, Lionide “Leo” Johnston, Brock Myrol and Peter Schiemann, walked into a quonset hut on the farm. Roszko, hidden inside the building, opened fire on the four members, killing them and then himself before the other RCMP members on-site could come to their aid. 

This episode covers the life of the murderer and leads us up to the slaying of the four RCMP members. Next week in part 2, you’ll hear about the crime and its aftermath.

Sources:

Town of Mayerthorpe: Home

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE STATISTICS – Darkness to Light

Report to the Attorney General : public inquiry into the deaths of Cst. Anthony Gordon, Cst. Lionide Johnston, Cst. Brock Myrol, Cst. Peter Schiemann and Mr. James Roszko – Open Government

Report to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Public Fatality Inquiry – PDF

Fallen Four | Home

Fallen Four Memorial Park & Visitor Information Centre | Facebook

Line of Fire by Edward Butts – Ebook | Scribd

James Roszko | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

RCMP Tribute to Five Officers

Mayerthorpe Tragedy – Wikipedia

2008 ABQB 242 (CanLII) | R. v. Hennessey | CanLII

2008 ABQB 282 (CanLII) | R. v. Cheeseman | CanLII

2009 ABQB 60 (CanLII) | R. v. Hennessey | CanLII

2010 ABCA 274 (CanLII) | R. v. Hennessey | CanLII

Murder charge approved in Burnaby RCMP officer’s killing | CTV News

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Episode 240: Canada has had a long and embarrassing history of race relations, starting with the indigenous peoples who’d lived here for thousands of years prior to the arrival of European colonizers. 

Our nation has also facilitated the mass internment of people perceived as threats to our national security during war time. As World War I raged in Europe, internment camps were set up to house Ukranians, Germans, Turks and Bulgrians. Of the more than 8500 detainees involuntarily held in camps across the country, a small percentage were women and children, the dependants of the men being held. Other internees included homeless people, conscientious objectors, and members of outlawed cultural and political associations. 

At the outset of World War II, a number of Canadian citizens of German and Italian decent, as well as Jews who were immigrating to Canada, fleeing Europe were rounded up and put into internment camps. After the Japanese attack on the United States in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, on 7 December, 1941, North Americans were afraid. The Second World War had come far too close to home. Just over a month after the Pearl Harbour attack, a process began which saw the mass internment of Japanese Canadians from 1942 until 1949. Many of the detainees, including women and children, had been born in Canada. The country they’d grown up to love had uprooted them from their homes, seized their properties and taken away their rights and freedoms.

Dark Poutine is sponsored by BetterHelp.

Sources:

Internment in Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Internment of Japanese Canadians | The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation — Legalized Racism

Japanese Canadian History – The Politics of Racism

Hastings Park Internment Centre – vancouvertraces

Japanese Canadian Historic Sites in BC: Journeys of Home | Super, Natural BC

Hastings Park 1942 | Internment at Hastings Park

Tashme: A forgotten internment camp remembered – Fraser Valley Current

Tashme | Historical Project

Canada’s Internment Camps – Canadian History Ehx

“Enemy Aliens” – The Internment of Ukrainian Canadians | Canada and the First World War

From Racism to Redress: The Japanese Canadian Experience

Japanese Canadian internment and the struggle for redress | CMHR

Japanese Internment

Japanese Canadian Historic Places – Heritage BC

HOME PAGE – Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre

Internment in Canada: WW1 vs WW2 – All About Canadian History

Vanishing B.C. Japanese-Canadian internment sites in the Slocan

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The episode you’re about to hear is a sample of the “Driven By Her” series from the Ongoing History of New Music presented by Porsche Canada. On this 5 episode series host Alan Cross explores the amazing contributions some of the most talented women on the planet have made to Modern Music. From Women who made the 90’s rock to guitar heroes to the stories of some of the most talented songwriters and producers on the planet making the biggest hit we all know the words to…​ On the sample you’re about to hear you’ll learn about more than a dozen women that have changed music forever but have been given little to no credit, and Alan wants to fix that as he shines a spotlight on Trixie Smith, Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie and more. You’ll be surprised to find that behind the rock and roll… the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd ALL have women to thank for their contributions to music history.

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In our last episode we heard of the murder of eleven-year-old Kathryn-Mary Herbert in Abbotsford, B.C. The 1975 murder went unsolved for nearly 40 years. 

Less than a year after Kathryn-Mary was killed, another girl from Abbotsford, Theresa Hildebrandt, 15, also went missing. Her body turned up in 1980, she’d been murdered. Two years after that and more than 200 kilometres from Abbotsford, another girl, Monica Jack, 12, went bike riding near Merritt, B.C. and was never again seen alive. Her remains were not found until 1995 near Nicola Lake, she too had been murdered. 

Police believed that all three murders were connected. They had only circumstantial evidence on one suspect they presumed had committed all three killings. 

Sources:

2015 BCSC 1023 (CanLII) | R. v Handlen | CanLII

2018 BCSC 1330 (CanLII) | R. v Handlen | CanLII

2022 BCCA 304 (CanLII) | R. v. Handlen | CanLII

Garden Of Tears~Garden Of Hope

36 years later, Chilliwack woman believes daughter’s killer will be caught

New details emerge on alleged child killer’s history | CTV News

Are Kamloops and area murders linked to deceased American suspect? – Kamloops This Week

Family Of Theresa Hildebrandt Lives Four Decades Without Answers In Her Murder | Abbotsford News

Garry Handlen’s ‘Mr. Big’ Confession Could Have Been Fabricated, Judge Says | Abbotsford News

Garry Handlen convicted in Monica Jack killing: What the jury didn’t hear

Garry Taylor Handlen, accused child killer, evaded charges for 39 years | CBC News

Crown Proceeds by Direct Indictment in R. v. Handlen

Vancouver Sun — Handlen’s confession to murder of second B.C. girl not heard at trial

UBCIC Stands with Family of Monica Jack as her Murderer Appeals Conviction – UBCIC

B.C. court dismisses appeal of man convicted of 1978 murder of 12-year-old Monica Jack | CBC News

B.C. man convicted in young girl’s murder in 1978 loses appeal – Surrey Now-Leader

GRAPHIC CONTENT: Confession of Garry Taylor Handlen to the murder of Monica Jack | Vancouver Sun — YouTube

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Episode 238: In Abbotsford, B.C., on the evening of September 24, 1975, Kathryn-Mary Herbert, age 11, was abducted while on her way home from a friend’s home. Last seen The girl’s body was discovered almost two months later on the Matsqui Indian Reserve north of Abbotsford. Investigators determined that she was likely murdered on the day she’d disappeared.

In May 1976, Theresa Hildebrandt, 15, vanished without a trace from her Aldergrove, B.C. home. F Police believed she might be a runaway, but her family felt otherwise. or nearly four years no one knew what had become of Theresa. In March of 1980, her skeletal remains were found in a shallow grave off Downes and Mt. Lehman roads. 

Almost exactly two years after Theresa’s disappearance, in early May 1976, 12-year-old Monica Jack was riding her bicycle near Merritt, B.C. when she disappeared. As Monica was of indigenous heritage, her disappearance fell under Project E-PANA, the RCMP’s initiative to solve the multitude of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls along B.C.’s infamous Highway of Tears. In June of 1995, Monica’s remains were discovered off a logging road on Swakum Mountain, to the west of Nicola Lake and several kilometres from where she was last seen.

Families of the victims had their suspicions about suspects and worked hard to hold police on task, to solve the murders of their girls. 

Due to similarities in the cases, police believed them all, potentially, linked. After years of running down tip after tip, a man with a history of sexual assault convictions and had been living in B.C. during all three killings fell under suspicion of investigators. After a long operation which involved the employment pf their infamous Mr. Big technique to get their suspect to talk, RCMP arrested 67-year-old Garry Taylor Handlen, and charged him with the murders of Kathryn-Mary Herbert and Monica Jack in 2014, more than 36 years after the murder of Monica Jack. He was later convicted of first-degree murder.

Sadly, in regards to Theresa Hildebrant’s murder, no one has yet been charged in her killing, and 46 years later, her family has yet to receive any official answers about Theresa’s death.

Sources:

2015 BCSC 1023 (CanLII) | R. v Handlen | CanLII

2018 BCSC 1330 (CanLII) | R. v Handlen | CanLII

A Garden of Tears: The murder of Kathryn-Mary Herbert | CBC.ca

CBC: Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women — Monica Jack

Kathryn-Mary Herbert | Theyaremissing Blog

A garden of tears (2009) | ridgenfilm

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Episode 237: On a fall evening in 1991, police discovered the bodies of Alfred Critchley, 75, and Virginia Critchley, 73, in the Chatham, Ontario residence they shared with their son and his family. The couple had been brutally stabbed. Alfred was unconscious but alive and Virginia was barely alive. Virginia died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and Alfred died later in the hospital having never regained consciousness. After a brief search, the couple’s grandson, Jasen Pangburn, 19, was discovered partially buried in a nearby ravine. Jasen had been executed with a single gunshot to the chest from a .22 calibre firearm. Thanks to Virginia’s dying words, suspicion fell on two youths, who’d been acquaintances of Jasen Pangburn’s, Jason Shawn Cofell, 18, and a 15-year-old accomplice we’ll call C.B.

Sources:

2007 CanLII 76511 (ON SC) | R. v. Cofell | CanLII

The Essex and Kent Scottish – Canada.ca

Chatham triple-murderer granted parole after almost 25 years in prison | CBC News

Teenage triple-murderer whose killings rocked Chatham, region gets parole after decades in prison

Search — Jason Shaw Cofell — Newspapers.com

Cofell, Jason – Canadian Crimeopedia

Chatham-Kent, ON Crime Rates & Map

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Episode 236: In our last episode, we heard about the murder of 61-year-old retiree, and beloved mother, grandmother and recent great-grandmother, Diana Russell. On February 22, 2002, after her car was found abandoned, in out-of-the way Boston Bar, her family became concerned. Diana was not answering her phone and no one knew where she was.

She was later found by police in the basement of Kelowna ,B.C. townhome. Diana had been beaten, hogtied, raped and then strangled. The number one suspect was no stranger to the family. He was Ronald Leal Fowler, an ex-boyfriend of Diana’s eldest daughter, Michele, and father to that daughter’s two-year-old son, Brandon. 

After killing Diana, Fowler had fled in her car, but after it became hopelessly stuck after a freak winter mud and snow slide he’d hitchhiked to Vancouver. Fowler was arrested there after the truck driver who’d dropped him off in the Lower Mainland called police about the sketchy guy who’d ridden with him.

Fowler, who’d illegally walked away from half-way house in which he’d been living, claimed amnesia due to drug and alcohol binge at the time. He denied responsibility for Diana’s murder and maintains that position to this day.

Diana’s remaining family was left to pick of the pieces of their broken lives. This crime is still a painful wound for them, ripped open by Fowler’s every appeal and applications for parole. In the second part of this episode we hear from Collin Lucksinger, Diana Russell’s grandson, as he shares with us his feelings about the his grandmother and the crime.

Sources:

Facebook — Biography of Diana Russell

Search Castanet News – Ronald Fowler

2006 BCSC 1215 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

2006 BCSC 1214 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

2005 BCSC 1876 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

2005 BCSC 1875 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

2005 BCSC 1874 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

CN BC: Drug Experts Differ Over Blackouts – Rave.ca

Femicide

RamsReef — Twitch

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Episode 235: On February 22, 2002, a vehicle was found in the ditch off the Trans-Canada highway near Boston Bar, B.C.

The car was registered to 61-year-old mother, grandmother and recent great-grandmother, Diana Russell, who was nowhere around the car. RCMP obtained a key to Diana’s Kelowna townhouse and went inside finding the woman partially clothed body underneath some mattresses and furniture. She’d been hogtied, raped, beaten and strangled.

Police quickly determined that Ronald Leal Fowler, 31, was a person of interest in the murder. Fowler, father of one of Diana’s grandchildren after a brief relationship with Diana’s eldest daughter, Fowler was later dramatically captured in Vancouver. He was then charged and in 2006 was convicted of first degree murder.

Diana Russell’s daughter Valerie MacPherson kindly shared her writings about her family’s pain around the time of the murder and the twenty years since. In part 2 we will hear from Diana’s grandson, Collin Lucksinger, as he shares first hand his thoughts and feelings around Diana’s murder.

Sources:

Facebook — Biography of Diana Russell

Search Castanet News – Ronald Fowler

2006 BCSC 1215 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

2006 BCSC 1214 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

2005 BCSC 1876 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

2005 BCSC 1875 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

2005 BCSC 1874 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII

CN BC: Drug Experts Differ Over Blackouts – Rave.ca

Femicide

RamsReef — Twitch

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Episode 234: On March 26, 1997, police found the bodies of 39 members of a religious UFO cult known as Heaven’s Gate in an 830 square-metre (9,000 square foot) home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, a San Diego suburb. All, including the group’s leader, Marshall Applewhite Jr., had died in a ritualistic act of mass suicide. The headline on the cult’s website, which remains online today, stated, “Hale-Bopp brings closure to Heaven’s Gate.” Over the following weeks, as investigators probed what happened in the home, the story of the Heaven’s Gate cult emerged, each detail weirder than the next. 

I wrote about this story in my first book, Murder Madness and Mayhem. I have always wanted to cover this on Dark Poutine. I have expanded on what I wrote, especially toward the end of the story, I get into more detail about the victims. The medium of a podcast also allows for other content, including audio clips from individuals involved in the case and other details I was otherwise unable to convey in the book involving Canadian connections which includes one of the victims, Erika Ernst, 40, who was from Calgary, Alberta. That’s right, this is not an away game. 

Sources:

Get Help | Talk Suicide Canada

Heaven’s Gate — How and When It May Be Entered

YouTube — Heaven’s Gate Cult Initiation Tape Part 1

Heaven’s Gate : Federal Bureau of Investigation — Internet Archive

Video Anonymous Heaven’s Gate caller who directed police to mansion, 25 years after tragedy – ABC News

Heaven’s Gate, 25 Years Later: Remembering Lives Lost in Cult

CNN – Some members of suicide cult castrated – Mar. 28, 1997

Heaven’s Gate Survivor Lost His Soulmate to Suicide Cult

Facilitating You! – You are the love you have been looking for.

Erika Ernst (1956-1997) – Find a Grave Memorial

Cult Test | Cult Escape | Are you In A Religious Cult?

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