Dark Poutine - True Crime & Dark History
A podcast about notorious Canadian crimes, dark history and other creepy topics as told by real-live Canadians
Episode 054 – In this episode we find out that the iconic story by Dr Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is actually a true crime tale about a man living in the mountains above Squamish B.C. Mike and Scott dive into a thoughtful and serious break down of what may have motivated the man known only as “The Grinch” to commit such heinous acts as ripping off an entire town’s Christmas in the late 1950’s.
Episode 053 – In Thornhill Ontario, on a warm summer night in August of 2005 25-year-old Alicia Ross vanished from her family home without a trace. The intense search proved fruitless and foul play was expected early on. Alicia’s disappearance left a city in fear and her family and friends sick with worry. When someone came forward with news, it was the worst kind.
NOTE: Show co-hosted by temp co-host @carolbrowne as Scott is away in Australia.
Episode 049 – On the evening of November 8, 2010 a woman called 911 in a panic. She claimed that intruders had entered her house, tied her up, took her family’s cash before shooting her parents. Police responded finding Jennifer’s mother Bich Ha Pan, dead of multiple gunshot wounds. Jennifer’s father had escaped the house and was bleeding from wounds of his own. Police found Jennifer bound but unharmed upstairs. What at first appeared to be a random house invasion, turned out to be far more cold blooded.
Episode 043 – After over 6 years of apparent harassment and a number of, what appeared to be violent assaults, Cindy James, a 44-year old nurse, went missing in May of 1989. On June 8, 1989, two weeks later, Cindy’s family’s greatest fears were realized. She was found dead near an abandoned home in Richmond B.C., a suburb of Vancouver. She appeared to have been drugged and strangled, with her hands and feet tied behind her back. A medical inquest into the cause of Cindy’s death was inconclusive, leaving this one of the most talked about unsolved cases in Canadian history.
Episode 041 – In 2014 on a warm summer morning, Calgary mother, Jennifer O’Brien, went to pick up her 5-year-old son, Nathan, from his grandparents’. When she walked in the bloody scene she found, shocked even the most seasoned Calgary Police Service members.
Kathy and Alvin Liknes and their grandson were nowhere to be found. A suspect was quickly identified, Douglas Garland, of Airdrie, Alberta. The trio was never seen alive again, nor were their bodies recovered. Polce were certain they had been murdered.
The mountain of evidence linking Garland to the crime, however, revealed a conniving mind, seething with resentment. Garland, after being shutout of a partnership in a product that went nowhere, had been planning murder for years.
Read more041 – The Murders of Nathan O’Brien and Kathy and Alvin Liknes
Read more040 – The Cook Family Massacre & Alberta’s Last Man Hanged
Episode 037: In early July, 2010, Lyle and Marie McCann, retirees, beloved grandparents and great-parents packed up their RV and SUV in St. Albert, Alberta to head west to BC and visit more family. They were never seen again. After the McCann’s were declared deceased a year later, 38-year-old, Travis Edward Vader was charged with their murder, but prosecuting him has not been easy. The whereabouts of Lyle and Marie’s remains continue to be a mystery.
Episode 036: Elisa Lam, a University student from Vancouver, BC was on a solo trip in California in January of 2013. When she disappeared, foul play was suspected. However, when she was found deceased more than two weeks later under odd circumstances there were far more questions than answers and much speculation as to what actually took place.
Episode 035: Leston Lawrence privately sold almost 5 kilos of gold over a short period. He worked at the Royal Canadian Mint as a gold refiner, but could not explain where he’d obtained the gold he had been selling. If it came from the mint, how did he get it out without being discovered? The answers to these questions made for a story that went global.