Latest Episodes

Episode 408: In August 2015, 22-year-old Dalhousie University physics student Taylor Samson walked into an apartment on Henry Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying 20 pounds of marijuana. He never…

Episode 381: In December 1987, 12-year-old Trina Campbell, a Métis girl from Brampton, Ontario, was abducted and murdered by Douglas Robert Worth, a violent ex-convict known as the “Pictou Sadist.”…

Episode 379: In the annals of Canadian folklore and unsolved mysteries, few stories have endured as hauntingly and stubbornly as that of Jerome, the silent, legless man who appeared from out of…

Episode 371: In early May 2007, Nova Scotia was shaken by a series of brutal murders that would eventually be linked to a single man: Glen Douglas Race. Over the course of just…

Episode 365: On a humid August morning in 1873, the quiet, tight-knit community of Baker’s Settlement outside of Bridgewater in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, was shattered by a crime so…

At 5:18 a.m. on May 9, 1992, in Plymouth, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, in the Westray Mine, a methane gas explosion, followed by a coal dust blast, ripped through the underground tunnels, claiming the lives of 26 miners working the night shift. The tragedy unfolded against a backdrop of known safety violations and ignored warnings. In the aftermath, a gripping rescue attempt captivated the nation as teams of drägermen braved hazardous conditions in a desperate search for survivors. The bodies of 15 miners were recovered during the initial rescue and recovery efforts. However, the remains of 11 miners were never recovered and remain entombed deep within the mine to this day. Despite criminal charges being filed against the mine owners and its management, no convictions were secured due to the complexity of establishing legal responsibility. More than ten years later, the federal government introduced amendments to the Criminal Code in response to this tragedy.

In this episode, we look at a tragic case of domestic violence that shook the small community of New Germany, Nova Scotia. On June 30, 2010, the quiet parking lot of a local grocery store became the scene of a horrific crime that would forever change the lives of the Eisnor family. Wayne Paul Eisnor, driven by jealousy and an unwillingness to let go, confronted his estranged wife, Tina Mae Illingworth-Eisnor, as she sat in her van. In a shocking act of violence that unfolded in broad daylight, Wayne shot Tina twice in the head, ending her life and then turned the gun on himself. Wayne, although he suffered brain damage, survived his wound. Here, we explore the events leading up to this devastating moment, the aftermath of the shooting, and the complex legal proceedings that followed, including Wayne’s claims of amnesia, shedding light on a case that left a community in disbelief and a family deeply torn.

Nova Scotia's rugged coastline and treacherous waters have made it a graveyard for ships throughout history. The SS Atlantic, a White Star Line steamship, sank off Nova Scotia on April 1, 1873, in one of the worst maritime disasters before the Titanic. On its 19th voyage from Liverpool to New York with around 975 people on board, the ship ran short of coal and diverted to Halifax. Navigational errors caused it to strike rocks near Prospect, Nova Scotia. Rough seas hindered lifeboat launches, trapping many passengers below deck. Local fishermen and others aided in rescue efforts, but 562 people perished, marking it the greatest civilian loss in the North Atlantic at that time.

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.

On the morning of February 20, 1989, stay-at-home mother of two Janice Faye Johnson was found unconscious, gravely injured and barely clinging to life at the foot of a flight of basement stairs in the Shelburne, Nova Scotia home she shared with her family, Clayton Norman Johnson and daughters Darla and Dawn. Even though she was still alive when she was found by a neighbour, who called for an ambulance immediately, Janice died in the hospital just after noon that day.