Dark Poutine

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

http://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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 250: At 8:00 PM on the evening of March 21, 2006, the B.C. Ferries-operated motor vessel Queen of the North departed Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The long-haul passenger and vehicle ferry, making the 18-hour overnight trip to *Port Hardy* on the Northern end of Vancouver Island, was carrying 22 vehicles, 101 people, 59 passengers and 42 crew. Many passengers were asleep when, at 12:21 A.M., at 17.5 knots, the ferry struck an underwater ledge on the northeast side of Gil Island in Wright Sound. The damage to the hull was catastrophic; it tore holes in the starboard side and took out the propellers. The ferry lost propulsion and began drifting and taking on water. Upon realizing the ferry was lost, the crew and passengers loaded into lifeboats to take them safely away from the foundering vessel, which sank in 430 m of water only 80 Minutes later. Sadly, two of the passengers, Shirley Rosette and Gerald Foisy, both of 100 Mile House, British Columbia, were unaccounted for and, as they’ve never been found, they have since been declared dead.

Investigations by B.C. Ferries and the Canadian Transportation Safety Board determined that the sinking was due to human error on the part of the ferry’s navigational crew, and the RCMP undertook a criminal investigation. Helmswomen Karen Briker was fired, as was Captain Colin Henthorne, rightfully in his cabin at the time.

But the blame for the incident fell squarely on the shoulders of another man, the ship’s fourth officer. On March 16, 2010, the Crown charged *Karl-Heinz Arthur Lilgert* with two counts of criminal negligence, causing death. Lilgert was subsequently convicted of both charges and sentenced to four years in prison.

Sources:

Connecting the Coast | BC Ferries

Marine Investigation Report M92W1057 – Transportation Safety Board of Canada

Marine Investigation Report M06W0052 – Transportation Safety Board of Canada

Skidegate Band Council

Home | City of Prince Rupert

Divisional Inquiry | BC Ferries – British Columbia Ferry Services Inc.

2013 BCSC 1329 (CanLII) | R. v. Lilgert | CanLII

Navigator was either fighting or having sex with former lover on bridge of B.C. ferry the night it sank, Crown tells court | National Post

Queen of the North, the Captain’s story – North Island Gazette

The Queen of the North Disaster by Colin Henthorne – Ebook | Scribd

Family asked to prove loved ones died at ferry sinking trial | CTV News

Family of two victims testify at B.C. ferry sinking trial | CBC News

Ferry passenger believes she saw couple before crash, thinks they went overboard | Globalnews.ca

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 249: As this is our special Christmas episode. It is our tradition to tell a Yuletide-themed yarn. This one is about a duo of bandits who burglarized various shopping malls across the United States and Canada year after year during the holidays. Their insidious M.O. was to work from the inside. The group’s leader, a safe cracker named Willie Thomas Soke and his sidekick, a little person of colour called Marcus Skidmore, would acquire jobs inside the department store. Soke, a foul-mouthed, chronic alcoholic and sex addict, would play the store’s Santa Claus, and Skidmore, his evil sidekick, would be one of Santa’s elves. Finally, after the murder of the head of a mall security manager named Johnny ‘Gin’ Calhoun at a Phoenix, Arizona, shopping complex, the pair were brought to justice in 2003. This was thanks partly to the unwitting help of a Canadian-born 10-year-old boy, Thurman Merman, who was living in Phoenix with his grandmother.

Sources:

Achondroplasia | Johns Hopkins Medicine

City of Phoenix, Arizona, Police Department

Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’ – song and lyrics by Charley Pride | Spotify

Simon Fraser University

The University of British Columbia

‘Documentary’: Bad Santa

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 248: In New York City on the 8th of December, 1980, the world was rocked by the murder of influential rock and roll icon, artist, sometimes controversial activist and dad John Lennon. After an evening recording session at the Record Plant, John Lennon and his wife, artist Yoko Ono returned to their Central Park West apartment building, The Dakota. As John and Yoko approached the entrance to the building, they passed a man for whom, only hours earlier, Lennon had signed an autograph. The man, Mark David Chapman, 25, watched the couple walk by and then pulled a .38 special from his coat and unloaded on John Lennon, shooting him in the back four times. The deadly hollow point bullets tore through the former Beatle, mortally wounding him. He was pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital later. When police arrived, they found Chapman patiently reading his book, Catcher in the Rye. 

Sources:

JOHN LENNON. GIMME SOME TRUTH.

The Beatles

This Is: The Beatles | Spotify Playlist

This is: John Lennon | Spotify Playlist

John Lennon’s “bigger than Jesus” quote | Slate

23 December 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono meet Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau | The Beatles Bible

The Catcher in the Rye | Summary, Analysis, Reception, & Facts | Britannica

Two Marks — Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon — Crime Library

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | John Lennon killer ‘wanted fame’

BBC ON THIS DAY | 8 | 1980: John Lennon shot dead

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 247: In January of 1922, the first of a series of fires broke out on a farm in the small rural community of Caledonia Mills in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia. The family who lived at the farm, Alexander, 70, and sixty-nine-year-old Janet MacDonald, 69, and their 15-year-old adopted daughter Mary-Ellen, claimed the unexplained blazes, 30 in all, had begun in rapid succession in places not close to either wood stove. The fires and other terrifying occurrences that drove them out of the home, they believed, were caused by a malicious poltergeist bent on their destruction and focused around Mary-Ellen. News of the events brought renowned international investigators of things paranormal, even catching the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories.

Sources:

Caledonia Mills: The Mary Ellen Spook Farm Case

Fire Spook by Monica Graham – Ebook | Scribd

Ghost Stories of Canada by John Robert Colombo, Jillian Hulme Gilliland – Ebook | Scribd

The Mary Ellen Spook

Folklore | Visit Antigonish

Caledonia Mills – Wikipedia

Folklore of Nova Scotia by Mary L. Fraser

Antigonish Heritage Museum – The Old Train Station News – Newsletter 8, Oct 2009

Hobgoblin – Wikipedia

Apparitions Of Black Dogs

Black Shuck: The Legendary Devil Dog Of The English Countryside

Investigating the Antigonish Fire Spook Haunting

PSICAN – Paranormal Studies and Inquiry Canada – Caledonia Mills Fire Spook

American Society for Psychical Research

A look back at the mysterious haunting of an Antigonish County farm, 100 years later | CBC News

More Canadian Poltergeists

The Mysterious Fire Spook of Caledonia Hills

Phantoms and Monsters – Real Cryptid Encounter Reports – Fortean Researcher Lon Strickler

Seeks Ghosts: Poltergeist: Fire Spook, Part l

Dark Visions: Personal Accounts of the Mysterious in Canada – John Robert Colombo – Google Books

Le cas curieux de la ferme Mary Ellen Spook – PREUVES DU PARANORMAL

poltergeist | Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained – Credo Reference

spr.ac.uk |

Glossary | spr.ac.uk

Lexscien: Library of Exploratory Science

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices