Dark Poutine

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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Episode 064 – In April of 1992 Ian and Nancy Blackburn did not show for a family get together near their recreational property in Caledon, Ontario. The couple were found murdered and stuffed into the trunk of Nancy’s car outside their home in Toronto. The number one suspect, had allegedly been breaking into properties in the Caledon area throughout the winter and his aberrant behaviour had been escalating toward the dangerous and bizarre.

Although identified as, David Alexander Snow, 37, an eccentric antiques dealer in Orangeville near Caledon, he eluded police. In Vancouver, BC, where he’d fled, Snow went on a two week crime spree of kidnapping, rape, robbery and violence, before being apprehended by North Vancouver RCMP on July 12, 1992.

To get 10% off your CrimeCon 2019 ticket purchase use POUTINE19.

Research Assistance: Rebecca McNall

Sources:

Crime Seen by Kate Lines – book
Cold North Killers by Lee Mellor – book
A Friend of the Family by Alison Shaw – book
Canadian Monsters by Robert Keller – book
David Alexander Snow – murderpedia
David Alexander Snow | Crime Documentaries
MacLeans Magazine 1992 – A Twisted Case
R. v. Snow, 2000 BCCA 113 (CanLII) , http://canlii.ca/t/5363
R. v. Snow, 1996 CanLII 8398 (BC CA), http://canlii.ca/t/1wntx
R. v. Snow, 2004 CanLII 34547 (ON CA), http://canlii.ca/t/1j0sb

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Episode 063 – In the wee hours of September 5, 1970, after a binge of alcohol and possibly LSD, Dale Merle Nelson, 33, a logger and father of three snapped. In just over an hour he’d murdered 7 residents, including 4 children, of tiny Creston B.C. He had then absconded with another child into the local wilderness. That child, 8-year-old Cathy St. Amand, would also be found butchered where Nelson stated he’d left her, prior to his capture just a day after the massacre; one of the worst in Canadian history.

Sources:
Dale Merle Nelson at murderpedia
Dale Merle Nelson at Wikipedia
The Limits of Sanity by Larry Still – Book
Various articles at newspapers.com
Dale Merle Nelson manhunt photos by John Denniston

Update for episode 60: Thank you to physicist Dr.Camilla Moir for her hypothesis on what Granger Taylor may have been attempting the night he died. Link 1 & Link 2

Join Mike and Scott at CrimeCon on June 7-9, 2019. Get tickets and use POUTINE19 for 10% off.

Dog & Cat neck wear  by Sharon Brausch of Stitches and Sass.

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Episode 062 – On the morning of February 28, 1997, two heavily armed men entered the Bank of America Branch on Laurel Canyon Blvd in the North Hollywood area of Los Angeles. Over 44 minutes in a futile attempt at escape, the two men held off police and terrified a neighbourhood with automatic gunfire, all caught live on TV.

Sources:
northhollywoodshootout.com Archived
North Hollywood Shootout Wikipedia entry
Criminal Minds Wiki
Scanner Audio Part 1 YouTube
Scanner Audio Part 2 YouTube
Scanner Audio Part 3 YouTube
Scanner Audio Part 4 YouTube
LAPD 1998 Medal of Valor Recipients
Telemundo Coverage YouTube
Live TV News helicopter coverage YouTube

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Episode 061 – In the spring of 1985, 17-year-old Elizabeth Gail Tucker went missing when hitchhiking from Dartmouth to Southwestern, Nova Scotia. Tucker was the first of many murder victims, from a very diverse pool, of one of Canada’s coldest and most outspoken serial killers, Michael Wayne McGray. McGray was convicted of 7 murders, one of which happened after years in custody. McGray remorselessly admits to as many as 10 more murders and claims, given the chance, he would do it again and again.

Podcasts Promoted:
Murderish
The Fear of Science

Research Assistance:
Rebecca McNall

Sources:
Michael Wayne McGray WikipediaSerial Killer Michael Wayne McGray Crime Documentary – YouTube
Michael Wayne McGray Case | The Canadian Encyclopedia
Michael Wayne McGray | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
Global News audio clips
Newspapers.com
BC Cornoner’s Verdict on in custody death of Jeremy Michael Phillips (PDF)
Serial killer describes killing cellmate | CBC News

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