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In the summer of 2006, a young Calgary woman was on top of the world. She had a supportive family, amazing friends and a great job. But life as she…

On October 21, 2021, a tragic accident occurred on the set of the low-budget old-west movie Rust, filmed on a New Mexico ranch. Wife, mother and Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, was fatally shot, and writer/director Joel Souza, 48, was injured. It was the lead actor and producer, Alec Baldwin, who was holding the prop gun that killed Hutchins and wounded Souza. Somehow, it contained a live round. Investigations also revealed other live rounds on set, which is never supposed to happen. Baldwin and the film’s inexperienced armourer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 24, were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Dave Halls, 63, serving as the first assistant director on the film, entered a no-contest plea in accordance with a deal made with prosecutors, accepting responsibility for the misdemeanour offence of negligent use of a deadly weapon linked to the death of Halyna Hutchins. Numerous civil suits have also been filed, with accusations of negligence being levelled against several parties, including the production company itself, Hannah Gutierrez and actor Alec Baldwin.

In Mike's first book, Murder, Madness and Mayhem, he wrote about an unknown man whose body was found on Somerton Park beach near Adelaide, Australia, by two trainee jockeys who’d been out with their horses on the morning of December 1, 1948. Lying in peaceful repose, the man wore a suit, overdressed for the warm Australian summer, and had no wallet or identification. He was unknown to anyone locally. The labels of his clothing had been ripped out. Some enigmatic leads proved fruitless, including the discovery of a book, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, believed to have belonged to the stranger. In that book, what appeared to be coded writing was found. Experts have yet to decrypt the supposed message. Some believe the man was a spy, possibly murdered for what he knew. Called by many Somerton Man, the stranger's identity has remained unknown for decades until recently, when two separate groups came forward claiming they had information about who he was, leading to further speculation and even more questions.

Kimberly Lynn Hallgarth was the 33-year-old mother of one and involved with former CFL football player Joshua Joseph Boden when. she was found brutally murdered at her residence in Burnaby, British Columbia, in March 2009. Her death was covered extensively in the media due to its connection with Boden, who had a long history of legal entanglements and was the main suspect in her killing. After years of awaiting a resolution, Kimberly’s family finally got a whiff of justice, when in 2018, Boden was charged with her murder. There had been a witness to the crime, and she was willing to testify.

On Friday, July 10th, 1970, around 7 a.m., near Ludlow, Maine, 45 kilometres from the border with Canada, the crew aboard a northbound Bangor & Aroostook Railway train noticed something lying on the tracks ahead. They thought at first it might be trash but reacted quickly regardless. Despite the immediate application of the brakes, the locomotive, towing 19 heavy boxcars, could not stop in time to avoid a collision. The objects on the tracks were sleeping bags containing three young males. All appeared to be in their teens or early twenties. The bodies were found without official identification, and among them, they carried just over 5 dollars in Canadian cash. After a very brief investigation, the Aroostook County Sheriff, Darrell Crandall, said he considered the deaths either accidental or a group suicide pact. The young men were soon identified as Kenny Novak (fifteen) and David Burrows (seventeen), both from Sydney River and Terry Burt (twenty) of Whitney Pier, in Sydney, Nova Scotia. It was discovered that they had hitchhiked to the location, but they were a long way from home. Their families initially had no idea why they would cross the border. There were no indications that any of the three were suicidal. Why were they there? If their deaths were accidental, how had they not heard the train approaching? And why would they have chosen to sleep on the train tracks? Information soon came to light that there may have been a darker reason for their journey, leading to speculation that the three might have been murdered and placed on the tracks to make their deaths appear accidental. Their families and friends are still looking for answers.

This week, we discuss the shooting death of American Mark Harshbarger during a 2006 hunting trip to Newfoundland. The Meshoppen, Pennsylvania, man was shot by his wife, Mary Beth Harshbarger, who claims she thought he was a black bear. In 2010, Harshbarger was extradited to Newfoundland, where she stood trial for criminal negligence causing death. The prosecution cited insurance money as Mary Beth’s motive for the killing. After two weeks of hearings in September, the presiding judge found her not guilty. The shooting death of Mark Harshbarger has been a source of controversy since it occurred. Some people believe that Mary Beth Harshbarger was guilty of first-degree murder, while others believe that she was justified in shooting her husband because she thought he was a bear. It is important to remember that this topic is very sensitive for many people. The family and friends of Mark Harshbarger are still grieving his death, and Mary Beth Harshbarger has gone through a great deal. Mark’s children have lost their father. We aim to be respectful of all parties involved when discussing this case.

Joseph LaPage, a French-Canadian rapist and necrophile known as the French Monster, was tried and hung in 1878 for the brutal, sexually motivated murder of Josie A. Langmaid, 17, in Pembroke, New Hampshire, in 1875. LaPage was also the sole suspect in the 1874 murder of Marietta N. Ball, a girl from St. Albans, Vermont. He was arrested for that crime; however, insufficient evidence prevented a trial, but the night before his execution, LaPage confessed to Marietta’s murder. Only weeks after LaPage was hanged, two more murders perpetrated in 1867, that of Mrs. George Fountie and her 16-year-old daughter, Minnie, from Saint-Alexandre, Quebec, were also tied to LaPage. It is believed that Joseph LaPage, with a long history of violent behaviour, is one of Canada’s earliest misogynistic serial killers, predating even Jack the Ripper.

On the morning of July 11, 1996, police were called to the parking lot of a hotel under construction off Interstate 40 at 7471 Crosswood Boulevard in Knoxville, Tennesee. There, they found the body of a man, later identified as Robert Dennis Blair Adams, 31, a Canadian citizen from Surrey, B.C. Family and friends called him Blair. Scattered around his body were personal items belonging to Blair and almost $4000 in various currencies, including Canadian, American, and German money. A black fanny pack near Blair’s body was found to be filled with nearly 5 ounces of gold bars, as well as gold and platinum coins and jewelry. It was later determined that Blair had been beaten and left to die in the parking lot where he was discovered. It is unclear why Blair was in Tennessee, thousands of kilometres from home and in another country. His family later said Blair had been acting strangely and was suffering from insomnia. He told them he believed people were after him and wanted him dead. He had quit his job, emptied his bank account and safety deposit box and left home for good only two days before his body’s discovery. As Blair’s significant amount of cash and valuables lay untouched, the motive for his murder remains a mystery, as does the identity of his killer or killers.

The Chowchilla school bus hijacking and kidnapping, a notorious case that occurred in 1976, involved the abduction of a school bus carrying 26 children, nineteen girls and seven boys, ages 5 to 14, and their driver, Frank Edward ‘Ed’ Ray, who was 55. It was orchestrated by three young men from affluent families — brothers Richard Schoenfeld, 22, James Schoenfeld, 24, and their friend Frederick Newhall Woods IV, also twenty-four. The crime was motivated by a desire for ransom money and as a cure for their boredom. The kidnappers hid the bus and took its occupants to a buried truck trailer in a quarry in Livermore, California, intending to demand $5 million for their release. Remarkably, led by Ed Ray and Michael Marshall, 14, one of the older children, the victims managed to escape without any ransom being paid. Even though they all made it out alive, the victims suffered psychological scars that changed their lives and persist to the present day. This was the largest kidnapping in U.S. history, and it has a Canadian connection. After their hostages escaped, all three kidnappers went into hiding but were eventually apprehended and convicted, although one of the suspects, the mastermind behind the kidnapping, Frederick Woods, fled to Vancouver, British Columbia, before being arrested by the RCMP.

On April 25, 1978, RCMP Constable Thomas (Brian) King, a 40-year-old father of three, pulled over a vehicle for a minor traffic offence at 12:35 AM on Highway 11, roughly a quarter mile (400 metres) north of the Saskatoon city boundary. Inside the car were two young men: 18-year-old Darrell Luke Crook and 19-year-old Gregory Michael Fischer. The pair had intentionally disabled the vehicle’s tail light to draw the attention of law enforcement. As the unsuspecting officer was checking Fisher’s driver’s licence, the two men overpowered, disarmed and manacled him with his service handcuffs. The pair then forced the officer into their car and drove into Saskatoon, where they showed him off to friends. Afterward, Crook and Fisher drove to a secluded spot near the Saskatchewan River, where they beat and tortured the helpless constable. Then, they executed Brian King with his service revolver, shooting him twice and throwing his body into the river.