Dark Poutine

Episode 074 – In April of 1990, 14-year-old Julie Ann Stanton disappeared near her Pickering, Ontario home. Right away investigators suspected, Peter John Stark, a neighbour and father of Julie’s best, in Julie’s disappearance. After 4 years, the police and Crown finally had enough to go arrest Stark, who turned out to be a serial predator with a very dark past.

NOTE: This week’s guest host, Johanna Hemenway, went to the same high school and was in the same grade as Julie Stanton. She and some of her friends provided more insight around their experience with the crime and memories of the victim for the episode.

Sources:
R. v. Stark, 2000 CanLII 3503 (ON CA)
CBC The Detectives – Project Hitchhiker
York Police Cold Cases – Marie Woods
CP24 – Killer dies in prison

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Episode 073 – In rural Prince Edward Island, on October 7, 1994 a car was found abandoned, away from the main road and in a field. The licence plates were missing and there appeared to be blood spatter on the windshield and throughout the vehicle’s interior. The car was found to belong to a 32-year-old mother of five named Shirley Anne Duguay. RCMP investigated and were told by Shirley’s family that she had not been seen in days. She’d disappeared, but thanks to evidence found by searchers, police believed that Shirley had been murdered.

Shirley’s body was found months later in a shallow grave. Douglas Leo Beamish, Shirley’s ex common-law spouse and father of three of her children, was arrested and charged with Shirley’s murder. Some of the evidence used against Beamish had never been utilized at trial before. This case from Canada’s tiny province would be precedent setting.

Sources:
R. v. Beamish, 1999 CanLII 4537 (PE SCAD)
Douglas Leo Beamish at Murderpedia
Forensic Files – Season 7, Ep 7: Purr-fect Match
The New Detectives – Season 8, Ep 3: Material Witness
Wikpedia – The Murder of Shirley Duguay
The Guardian – Parole Denied
Tears of the Cheetah by Dr. Stephen J. O’Brien

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Episode 072 – On a freezing December morning the Castor Volunteer Fire Department braved the icy Alberta roads to attend a structure fire at a farm a few kilometers outside town. When the firefighters arrived there were red flags evident immediately.

The family dog lay dead in the driveway from an apparent gunshot wound, two 9mm casings were nearby as was a partially full gas can which lay only meters away from the front door of the home, now almost burned to the ground. Three people, Sandra and Gordon Klaus, and their adult daughter Monica, had been at home at the time of the unsurvivable inferno. The only member of the immediate family left alive was the couple’s eldest son and Monica’s brother, Jason, who lived in a trailer nearby.

Who could have committed horrific acts and why? As the investigation unfolded a bizarre coverup story emerged consisting of communication with the spirits of the deceased.

Sources:
R v Klaus, 2018 ABQB 6 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hpmwh
R v Klaus, 2018 ABQB 97 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hqf49 
R v Klaus, 2017 ABQB 537 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/h5sbp
R v Klaus, 2017 ABQB 689 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hnb4z 
R v Klaus, 2017 ABQB 720 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hnz2j 
R v Klaus, 2017 ABQB 721 (CanLII), http://canlii.ca/t/hnzzk 
After the Fire: Murder, Lies and a Missing Deer Head
Klaus Family Obituary
Jason Klaus Police Interview
Joshua Frank Confession

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Episode 071 – It’s been a long time coming, but this is our first episode taking place entirely in Newfoundland. On the night of February 6, 2000 nearly the entire population of the tiny town of Fleur de Lys was out looking for 13-year-old Samantha Walsh. She’d gone missing on a three minute walk between her grandmother’s house and her own home in weather that was -25 °C. As the weeks wore on with no verified signs of Samantha suspicions fell on a local 16-year-old boy dividing the small community. Many did not believe that one of their own could hurt a child.

Guest co-host: Carol Browne

Sources:
Into the Night: The Story of Samantha Walsh by Gordon Walsh
Saltwater Joys as sung by 10-year-old Samantha Walsh
Article about Fleur De Lys
newfoundlandandlabrardor.com – Iceberg Viewing
The Story of Samantha Walsh – Telegram Article
Globe and Mail Article – Murder charge devastates remote hamlet

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Episode 070 – In the quiet city of Armstrong B.C. on Halloween night 2011, Taylor Van Diest, 18, left her house dressed as a zombie. She was excited to meet up with her pals to go trick or treating one last time before they were ‘too old’. Taylor stopped responding to text messages just over ten minutes into her short walk to her friend’s home. She was found badly beaten and clinging to life two hours later by friends and family frantically searching. The fun loving girl with no known enemies died in hospital the next morning. It would take good old fashioned police work coupled with forensic DNA evidence to bring her killer to justice.

Sources:
Taylor Van Diest Facebook
Taylor Van Diest Press Conference (Nov.4/11)
Van Diest Suspect DNA (video)
RCMP Taylor Van Diest murder suspect (video)
R. v. Foerster, 2017 BCCA 105 (CanLII), <http://canlii.ca/t/h0b5z>
Killer’s Videotaped Confession
Foerster Pleads Guilty to Earlier Attacks
Foerster Sr. gets three years for enabling murderer’s escape

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Episode 069 – On August 14, 1989 an emaciated woman favouring the stump of a recently severed arm emerged from the woods near the tiny town of Burnt River, Ontario. She was known to police as a member of the Ant Hill Gang, a religious cult, run by the charismatic and enigmatic Roch Theriault, who’d changed his name to Moses. As the woman’s story came out, so did other tales of violence, sexual abuse, torture and murder at the hands of Roch and others in the group who were doing his bidding.

Note: There are extremely graphic depictions of violence in this episode that may be disturbing to some listeners.

Disclaimer by: Tyler Allen of The Minds of Madness Podcast

Sources:
Savage Messiah by Paul Kaihla and Ross Laver
Roch Theriault wikipedia
Macleans Magazine – The Ant Hill Kids (1993)
cvltnation.com
Cults That Kill by Wendy Joan Biddlecombe Agasr
InfoSect – Examples of Problematic Group Functioning
Cult Leader Roch Thériault aka The Deadly Messiah (Crime Documentary)
New York Daily News
Global News: Notorious Cult Leader Found Dead in Prison

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Episode 068 – Troubled 14-year-old Reena Virk had been missing for a week when her battered, semi-nude body was plucked from the water in the Gorge under the Craigflower bridge in Victoria, B.C., on November 22, 1997. Reena had initially been lured to a spot by friends, then swarmed and savagely beaten by a group of 8 youths, that consisted mostly of girls between 14 and 16. After staggering away Reena was followed by a male and female who further beat and then murdered her to ‘keep her quiet”. A story of ‘bad girls’, bullying, racism and murder emerged shocking the nation. The quest for justice for Reena was not a straight nor easy path.

Research: Rebecca McNall

Disclaimer read by: Tyler Allen of The Minds of Madness Podcast

Sources:
Reena: A Father’s Story by Manjit Virk
Under the Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey
VICE article on Reena Virk
Court Documents about the Reena Virk murder
GLOBAL NEWS: Timeline: Reena Virk murder and the trials of Kelly Ellard
GLOBAL NEWS: Mother of murdered B.C. teen Reena Virk dies in ‘tragic accident’
GLOBAL NEWS: Reena Virk’s killer Kelly Ellard gets new extension on day parole
Wikipedia Article on Reena Virk

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Episode 067 – In May of 1967 an RCMP constable on patrol near Falcon Lake, Manitoba was flagged down by a wild eyed man with a fantastic story to tell. The man, Stefan Michalak, a 51-year-old amateur geologist had been prospecting deep in the brush when he claimed he had a close encounter with two UFOs. After this initial report the events near Falcon Lake became one of the most investigated UFO events in Canadian history.

Sources:
Library and Archive Canada – Canada’s UFOs: The Search for the Unknown
CBC Archives: The Falcon Lake Incident (1983)
When They Appeared: Falcon Lake 1967: The inside story of a close encounter
Creepy Canada – UFO 1967, Falcon Lake, Manitoba incident
Falcon Lake incident is Canada’s ‘best-documented UFO case,’ even 50 years later
More than 2,000 UFO sightings reported in Manitoba over 200 years
Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack – Season 5, Episode 8 – Full Episode
UFO Sightings in Canada – Wikipedia
Pentagon reveals secret UFO program

Promos:
For 10% off your CrimeCon tickets, please use the code POUTINE19 at checkout.

Contest:
First 12 Dark Poutine listeners to email author Alan R. Warren with the subject line ‘Moors Murders’ between April 1 and 7, 2019 will win either a paperback or kindle copy of Alan’s book on the subject.

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Episode 66 – This week we go back in time to 1878 in Amherst Nova Scotia. We learn about one of Canada’s most documented and as yet unexplained paranormal events. Esther Cox, an ordinary 18-year-old in the town was at the center of these horrific psychic attacks, some people believe to have been poltergeists. It began with the feeling of something under the bed, odd noises and Esther suffering a weird illness. The events went on for months, eventually led to items flying around the home and mysterious fires being set seemingly out of nowhere.

In the second half of the show we speak to paranormal investigator, author, teacher and media personality, Morgan Knudsen of entityseeker.ca. She gives us some insight into the case of Esther Cox as well as some others including those included in Blue Ant Media’s Paranormal 911 which can be seen here in Canada on Sunday nights at 8:00 pm Eastern.

Sources:
The Great Amherst Mystery – Wikipedia
A Critical Study of “The Great Amherst Mystery Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research
Walter Hubbell’s – The Great Amherst Mystery aka The Haunted House
Personal Experiences in Spiritualism

Promos:
For 10% off your CrimeCon tickets, please use the code POUTINE19 at checkout

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Episode 65: On a cold night in January in 1983, after hearing strange noises coming from the property nearby a neighbour found a woman’s brutally bludgeoned body on the bloody floor of her open garage. She had also been shot once behind the ear.  The body was that of Joann Wilson, ex-wife of Colin Thatcher, Saskatchewan M.L.A. and former Energy Minister and son of the Province’s 9th premiere. The two had divorced bitterly only years before and suspicion fell on Colin right away. The ensuing investigation revealed the shocking facts of the case and led to Thatcher’s downfall.

Research & Writing:
Katherine Buchanan

Books:
A Canadian Tragedy by Maggie Siggins
Deny, Deny, Deny: The Rise and Fall of Colin Thatcher by Garrett Wilson.
Not Above The Law by Heather Bird

Other Sources:
newspapers.com
CBC Timeline
Supreme Court Judgment
Colin Thatcher on Revolvy
CourtTV Crime Library – Archived

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