Latest Episodes

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.

Episode 217: In the early hours of March 27, 2010, Holly Bartlett, 31, was found unconscious and badly injured under the A. Murray MacKay bridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 350 metres away from her home. She died the next day in a Halifax Hospital. Holly, a grad student at Dalhousie University, was fiercely independent despite her disability. She had been completely blind since she was thirteen years old. Holly’s autopsy indicated she’d imbibed alcohol and that she had sustained “blunt force injury to the head (…) attributable to a fall” and that the manner of death was accidental. Police did a brief investigation determining that after cabbing home from a night out with a friend, Holly became disoriented and lost due to the combination of her alcohol consumption and her blindness. Somehow, Holly had wandered down two steeply graded streets away from her home and toward the harbour, had made her way through a hole in a chain link fence, down a steep embankment, and fell 7 metres off a concrete abutment under the bridge across Halifax harbour. They called Holly’s death accidental. Holly’s family and friends in the Justice for Holly group were not satisfied and pressed for further investigation into her death. Sources:What Happened to Holly Bartlett? | CNIBDocumentary What Happened to Holly Bartlett Seasons | Accessible Media Inc.Podcast What Happened to Holly Bartlett Podcast | Accessible Media Inc.Sights Unseen — YouTubeHolly Elizabeth Bartlett 1978-2010 - Macleans.caHolly Bartlett witness changes key details in death investigation | CBC NewsReview to be held into blind woman’s death: Halifax police | Globalnews.caExternal review confirms 2010 death of Holly Bartlett was accidental - Halifax | Globalnews.caPolice handling of Holly Bartlett’s death criticized in review | CBC NewsReview of Investigation Into The Death of Holly Bartlett | PDF | Polygraph | VictimologyHolly Bartlett’s unlikely journey | City | Halifax, Nova Scotia | THE COASTPolice announce independent review into Holly Bartlett’s death | News | Halifax, Nova Scotia | THE COASTTelling Holly’s Bartlett’s story, again | Arts + Culture | Halifax, Nova Scotia | THE COASTHolly Bartlett’s family is angry with Halifax policeWhat happened to Holly Bartlett? : UnresolvedMysteriesHolly Bartlett: Autopsy & Clothing - Album on ImgurImgur: Map, based on police reportHome | CNIBNEADS - Financial Aid DirectoryJAWS® – Freedom ScientificSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 215: Mary Celeste, formerly Amazon, was an American registered, Nova Scotia built brigantine that was found abandoned on December 4, 1872, some 740 km off the Azores, Portugal. The fate of the 10 people aboard remains a mystery almost 150 years later.Sources:Fisherman’s Memorial | Lunenburg NSSable Island | Maritime Museum of the AtlanticThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner (text of 1834) by… | Poetry FoundationThe Mystery of the Mary Celeste. Part One: The Facts - Daily NauticaThe Mystery of the Mary Celeste. Part Two: Theories - Daily NauticaThe Mystery of the Mary Celeste. Part Three: the Rediscovery of the Cursed Ship - Daily NauticaSolved: The Mystery of the Mary Celeste | UCL News - UCL – University College LondonMary Celeste - The Arthur Conan Doyle EncyclopediaMary Celeste Monument – Diligent River, Nova Scotia - Atlas ObscuraMary Celeste | The Canadian EncyclopediaMary Celeste - Wikipedia6 Famous Unsolved Mysteries That Have Totally Been Solved | Cracked.comWeetabix Mary Celeste — YouTubeThe story of the “Mary Celeste” : Fay, Charles Edey : Internet ArchiveGhost ship : the mysterious true story of the Mary Celeste and her missing crew : Hicks, Brian, 1966 : Internet ArchivePhantom Ship , The : Henry Passmore : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveThe Galley of Count Arnaldos, by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowColossal Squid ~ MarineBio Conservation Society Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 211: On January 27, 1896, in the tiny community of Bear River, Nova Scotia, popular fourteen-year-old Annie Kempton was brutally murdered in her home while her parents were out of town. The crime, papers said, was the worst ever seen in the province up to that point and there was an outcry for swift justice on the heels of the slaying. Two days after the crime, Peter David Wheeler, 26, an immigrant, was arrested and charged with the murder. In July of that year, Wheeler was found guilty of the crime and after his trial, made a confession that some have come to see as coerced. He was hanged less than 8 months after the murder in the middle of the night as a crowd was allegedly on their way from Bear River to lynch him.Sources:Nova Scotia Archives - Admiral Digby MuseumPlace-names of the Province of Nova Scotia : Brown, Thomas J : Internet ArchiveIn search of justice for Peter and Annie | The Chronicle HeraldBear River Historical Society | Nova Scotia, CanadaPeter Wheeler, Murder of Annie… - Admiral Digby Museum | FacebookJustice Denied - Atlantic BooksStories of our Local CharactersThe Lynching of Peter Wheeler by Debra Komar - Ebook | ScribdMaritime Murder: Deadly Crimes from the Buried Past eBook : Vernon, Steve: Amazon.ca: Kindle StoreGraveyard Tour | Fall For Bear RiverAnnie Kempton (1881-1896) - Find a Grave MemorialFolksongs from Southern New Brunswick : Creighton, Helen, 1899- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveBear River tragedy retold in ‘Annie Kempton’ | SaltWireSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 203: On May 7, 1992, after the McDonald’s restaurant on Kings Road near Keltic Drive in Sydney River, Nova Scotia, closed for the night and the overnight crew was coming in and the evening crew was leaving. Three young men, armed with a shovel handle, knives and a .22 calibre pistol robbed the establishment. They beat, stabbed and shot 4 of the restaurant workers, killing three, Jimmy Fagan, 27, Donna Warren, 22, and Neil Burroughs Jr., 29, and critically wounding 20-year-old, Arlene MacNeil, who was permanently disabled both physically and mentally, requiring round the clock care until her death in 2018. The crime’s brutality brought unwelcome international media attention to the small town, especially when the truth came out. To almost everyone’s surprise, days after the murders, it quickly became evident that the brutal crime had been committed by three, fairly well-liked young men from the area. They’d robbed the place for its cash, making off with a tiny fraction of what they had assumed would be in the restaurant’s safe.Sources:Sydney River McDonald’s murders - WikipediaR. v. Muise, 1992 CanLII 4046 (NS SC), R. v. MacNeil, 1993 CanLII 4442 (NS SC), R. v. MacNeil, 1993 CanLII 4449 (NS SC), R. v. Wood, 1993 CanLII 4535 (NS SC), R. v. Muise (No. 1), 1993 CanLII 4555 (NS SC), R. v. Muise, 1994 NSCA 198 (CanLII), R. v. Wood, 1994 NSCA 239 (CanLII), R. v. MacNeil, 1995 NSCA 10 (CanLII), Twenty years of heartache | The Chronicle HeraldN.S. McDonald’s killer granted full parole | CBC NewsMcDonald’s killer Darren Muise ‘financially secure’ and ‘living a good life’ on parole: documents - Halifax | Globalnews.caMcDonald’s murderer ‘financially secure’ and ‘living a good life’: parole documents | CTV NewsDerek Wood, convicted in McDonald’s murders, denied day parole | CBC NewsWood v Warden (Atlantic Institution), 2017 CanLII 67340 (NB CA), Derek Anthony Wood and the Sydney River McDonald’s Murders - Christopher di Armani.comSydney River McDonald’s killer loses appeal | SaltWireOne of three men convicted in McDonald’s murders awarded unescorted absences   - Halifax | Globalnews.ca24 Sep 2000, 28 - The Winnipeg Sun at Newspapers.comMurder at McDonald’s: The Killers Next Door eBook : Jessome, Phonse: Amazon.ca: Kindle StoreSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 199: In all the recent photos I could find of Melissa Ann Shepard, she looks like an ordinary, little old lady. But Melissa, Millie to some, has a criminal record a mile long, including convictions for fraud, impersonation and forgery. But, she is best known for, luring men via the internet, drugging them and taking control of all aspects of their lives. Melissa also caused the death of one of her husbands in Nova Scotia, was suspected in another’s death and at least two more men came close to dying.Sources:Melissa Ann Shepard - WikipediaCBC News Indepth: Melissa Ann FriedrichMelissa Friedrich | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderersHRP News — High Risk Offender Notification | Halifax.caInternet Black Widow Melissa Ann Shepard arrested in Halifax | CBC NewsThe internet black widow: Is this Canada’s most dangerous woman? - BBC NewsHow a smitten man came face to face with the ‘Internet Black Widow’ - The Globe and MailThis 80-year-old ‘Black Widow,’ who lured lonesome old men to horrible fates, is out of prison again - The Washington PostNational Film Board of Canada — Why Women Kill‘Internet Black Widow’ Melissa Ann Weeks charged with attempted murder in N.S. | Globalnews.ca‘Black Widow’s’ ex-boyfriend warns men as she gets out of prison: ‘Watch out’ | Globalnews.caP.E.I.’s infamous ‘Black Widow’ facing attempted murder charges | SaltWireVictims of ‘Internet Black Widow’ concerned over her release in N.S. | CTV NewsPrison for Women’s Invisible Minority | Journal of Prisoners on PrisonsUnknown Gender History: Melissa Friedrich (Weeks), “The Internet Black Widow” of Nova Scotia - 2012Unknown Gender History: Black Widow Serial KillersAlex Strategos: ‘Millie Weeks’, AKA Melissa Friedrich, The Internet Black Widow - InquisitrMelissa Ann Shepard : Internet Black Widow (2012) - the fifth estate — YouTubeMelissa-Ann-Shepard | National PostRead Webs of Black Widows Online by Pete Katz | BooksRead Lady Killers Online by Tori Telfer | BooksRead The Craigslist Killer Online by Crystal Majkowski | BooksTrue Crime: Canadian Monsters: 25 Horrific Canadian Serial Killers eBook : Keller, Robert: Amazon.ca: Kindle StoreRaw Video: ‘Internet Black Widow’ appears in court — YouTubeOnline Dating and Dating App Safety Tips | RAINNSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 171 - Rosemary Podgis, 56, and her husband Alfred, 58, were found in a Pennsylvania Ravine. They had been fatally shot in their Loch Arbour, New Jersey home over the Fourth of July weekend in 1982. The apparent perpetrators arrested by police 5 days later were two 18-year-olds: Scott Robert Franz, Rosemary’s son from a previous marriage, and Scott’s Canadian friend Bruce Anthony Curtis, who had been Scott’s classmate at King’s Edgehill private school in Nova Scotia where the pair had just graduated. The events leading up to the deaths of Rosemary and Alfred Podgis would be extremely important in establishing what led two teens, both with promising futures ahead of them, to kill Scott Franz’s mother and stepfather. Was it cold-blooded murder or, as Bruce would later claim, a tragic accident caused by a faulty firearm? Sources: [Blood Knot: The Trial and Conviction of Bruce Curtis by David Hayes] [State v. Curtis :: 1984 :: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division :: Justia] [Two 18-year-olds, one from Nova Scotia, were held today… - UPI Archives] [A disputed killing in New Jersey | Maclean’s | APRIL 16, 1984] [Curtis’s long trip home | Maclean’s | MARCH 7, 1988] [National Film Board of Canada - Journey Into Darkness: The Bruce Curtis Story] [Dalhousie - The Gazette - Volume 117, Number 22 - February 21, 1985] [Canadians Mount Campaign To Obtain Man in New Jersey Prison] [YouTube - Deadly Betrayal: The Bruce Curtis Story - 1992 NBC Sunday Night Movie] [Crime-Sep-24-1989-947717 | NewspaperArchive] [Scott Franz’s Home - GoogleMaps] [Bruce Curtis and Scott Franz case - MemoryNS] [Shootings of Alfred and Rosemary Podgis - Wikipedia] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 168 - On the evening of July 28, 2010, Nadine Anne Taylor, a 29-year-old woman in Halifax, Nova Scotia, left the Convoy Avenue apartment in Fairview she shared with her boyfriend, Gene. Nadine, who did not have a telephone, told Gene she needed to make a call, left her home and walked a nearby payphone to make a call. She was never seen alive again.  Sources and Further Reading: [CANADA - Canada - Nadine Taylor, 29, Halifax NS, 28 July 2010] [Police locate human remains | Halifax] R. v. Laffin, 2013 NSSC 135 (CanLII), R. v. Laffin, 2013 NSSC 136 (CanLII), [Global News SEARCH: Steven Elliot Laffin] [Steven Laffin | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers] [Obituary of Nadine Anne Taylor | J Albert Funeral Home] [Fears grow for missing Halifax woman | CBC News] [Fact Sheet - Prostitution Criminal Law Reform: Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act] [Stepping Stone Nova Scotia | Sex Worker Support] [51 Weyburn Road - Dartmouth, NS - Google Maps] [Luminol - Wikipedia] [R.I.P Nadine Taylor - Facebook Group] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 157 - From the late 1920s until after the Second World War, Lila and William Young ran the Ideal Maternity Home and Sanitarium for Unwed Mothers at East Chester, Nova Scotia. The pair have been referred to as ‘baby farmers’ who sold healthy newborns to wealthy couples with the means to pay and left the less viable to die of starvation. Estimates are that more than 100 and as many as 400 to 600 babies may have died in their care. Many of these deceased infants were quietly buried in wooden butter boxes at various sites around the area, while it is believed that others may have been disposed of in the nearby Atlantic Ocean. Co-host: Carol Browne Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_Maternity_Home https://canadiancrc.com/Butterbox-Babies_Killers-Child-Trafficking-Canada/Butterbox_Survivors.aspx https://canadiancrc.com/Butterbox-Babies_Killers-Child-Trafficking-Canada/Butterbox-Babies-Baby-killers-child-trafficking-selling-babies-Canada-adoption-story.aspx https://murderpedia.org/female.Y/y/young-gladys-lila.htm http://archive.macleans.ca/article/1995/1/9/maternal-damnation https://www.amazon.ca/Butterbox-Survivors-Robert-Hartlen/dp/1551092905 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184030298/eva-margaret-nieforth https://www.scribd.com/read/238627429/Deadly-Duos https://www.scribd.com/read/350837071/True-Crime-Confidential-Volume-4-True-Crime-Confidential-4#b_search-menu_662236 https://www.scribd.com/read/230097379/Cold-North-Killers-Canadian-Serial-Murder https://web.archive.org/web/20010606012612/http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/bhartlen http://bastards.org/nova-scotiahttps://commons.allard.ubc.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=emeritus_pubs Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 150: Beginning at 7:19 pm Atlantic Daylight Time, on the evening of October 4, 1967, an airline pilot reported seeing an unidentified flying object heading east over Southern Quebec. About 30 minutes later, calls began coming into local authorities reporting strange lights in the sky over the Atlantic Ocean along Nova Scotia’s South Shore. The multiple sightings continued until 11:20 pm that evening when something large crashed into the water just off Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. The mysterious and odd events of that evening are one of Canada’s most enduring and well-documented UFO sightings. Sources: https://shagharbourincident.com/ https://shagharbourufoexpo.com/ http://www.roswellproof.com/Shag_Harbour/Shag_Harbour1_summary.html   http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread485206/pg1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shag_Harbour,_Nova_Scotia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shag_Harbour_UFO_incident http://www.ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=179 https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/unusual/ufo/Pages/default.aspxhttps://globalnews.ca/news/3761270/canadas-best-documented-ufo-sighting-still-intrigues-50-years-on/ https://globalnews.ca/news/4319302/cousteau-family-members-shag-harbour/ https://www.ufocasebook.com/Shagharbor.html https://ns1763.ca/war-monuments/roycan63anchor/ Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine