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Merry Christmas from Oakland Nursery. True

1:11

Crime Brewery contains disturbing content

1:13

related to real-life crimes. Medical

1:16

information is opinion based on facts of

1:18

a crime and should not be interpreted

1:21

as medical advice or treatment. Listener

1:23

discretion is advised. Welcome

1:31

to True Crime Brewery. I'm Jill. And

1:34

I'm Dick. In June of 1959,

1:37

just two months before her 13th birthday,

1:40

Lynn Harper was found dead in

1:42

a wooded grove near a Clinton,

1:44

Ontario Air Force Base. Lynn

1:47

was small for her age, the middle

1:49

child between two brothers. She

1:51

was described as bossy and a real

1:53

live wire, and she had

1:55

her whole life ahead of her. Join us

1:57

at the Quiet End for two innocents. The

2:00

last person seen with Lynn on the

2:02

day she disappeared was

2:04

14-year-old classmate Steven Trescott.

2:07

Despite a lack of any physical

2:09

evidence and witness accounts which actually

2:11

gave Steven a clear alibi, he

2:13

was arrested for Lynn's murder just

2:15

days after her body was found.

2:18

So this is the story of

2:20

Lynn's murder, of Steven's unjust conviction,

2:22

the people who worked to free

2:24

him and exonerate him of his

2:26

murder conviction and the

2:28

continuing mystery of who

2:30

was really responsible for this

2:32

horrible murder. So the beer

2:35

for today is a nice Canadian beer,

2:37

probably one of my favorite beers ever

2:39

of all time. It's Peche Mortel, which

2:41

is French for mortal sin, and it's

2:44

brewed by Bressery du DeSille and

2:46

it's brewed in Montreal, Quebec. So

2:49

this is again one of my

2:51

favorites, truly sublime. Dark

2:53

black, fairly thick mocha head that

2:55

persists nicely. Long pleasant

2:58

aroma of coffee, it has an espresso

3:00

taste, little burnt malt and some sweet

3:02

chocolate, a well-balanced smooth beer, creamy even.

3:05

I could drink this all night long.

3:07

But then would you still be conscious?

3:09

No, I'd be sleepy. What's

3:12

the alcohol content? You usually say that,

3:14

do you not know? No, I

3:16

know. Oh, you're hiding it from me? No.

3:19

What is it? I don't remember. Oh,

3:21

okay. Well, usually you share that with us

3:23

is the only reason I ask. I was just

3:25

assuming that kind of a beer was high alcohol.

3:27

I think it's around 10%. Yeah, I

3:30

think it probably is in that direction. Okay,

3:32

well, why don't we open it up and

3:34

have some? Good idea. Okay.

3:49

So I feel like this is a

3:51

great beer for the holidays. It's cold

3:53

outside, we've got the roaring fire, and

3:56

it smells like chocolate coffee. Yum. It's

3:58

a wonderful beer. really is. So, why

4:01

don't we each have a glass and walk

4:03

on down to the quiet end. Yeah,

4:06

let's see if Santa's here. There he is.

4:08

I'm giving a little wave. Yeah. Alright.

4:10

I think Santa would be thrilled if

4:12

you would buy him one of these.

4:15

I was thinking I would offer him some. I

4:17

think you should, you know, in the holiday spirit. Yeah,

4:19

he's working hard. Yeah, so after we

4:21

record this, I think we might hang out with him

4:24

a bit and, you know, not

4:26

get drunk, but get relaxed a little with

4:28

this beer. We'll do that. Alright. So,

4:30

why don't you start us out on this

4:32

story. It's an older crime, but

4:35

really fascinating to me. This is an older

4:37

crime. One of the oldest, huh, that we've done in

4:39

a while. We seem to be doing a few of these lately.

4:41

I find them fascinating. Well, it's

4:43

just interesting to me in the

4:46

era today of DNA testing and

4:48

all the forensic abilities that we

4:50

have, how people used to solve

4:52

crimes. Well, what really stands out to

4:55

me is no cell phones, because

4:57

with the most recent cases, I'm amazed

4:59

at what the police can find out

5:01

from people's cell phones. As

5:03

far as location, who you're talking

5:06

to, even how fast you're walking

5:08

or driving. It's amazing. It truly

5:10

is. So, this is more like

5:12

old-fashioned police work and, unfortunately, in this

5:15

case, it doesn't work out too well.

5:17

No, but it wasn't well-evaluated.

5:22

Not at all. It was one of these kind

5:24

of tunnel vision type of deals. Yeah,

5:26

they settled on a suspect pretty quickly.

5:28

They did. And there wasn't going to

5:31

be anything that took them away

5:33

from that course. No, not at all.

5:35

Noop. And it kind of reminds me

5:37

of the Stephanie Crow case, where her brother was

5:40

railroaded with his two friends for

5:42

her murder. So, it is kind of

5:44

similar, but it's 30 or 40 years

5:46

before that one. Yes, this stems from

5:48

1959. Yep.

5:51

So, on Friday, June 5th,

5:53

in 1959, 12-year-old Lynn

5:55

Harper attended a party at her classmate

5:57

Lorraine Wood's house. Lynn had been

5:59

excited. when she was invited and

6:02

she had a lot of fun when she

6:04

was there. Most of that was because Lorian's

6:06

parents were much more liberal than most of

6:08

the other parents and they played modern romantic

6:10

dance songs for the kids to dance to.

6:13

Steven Trescutt was one of the cute boys

6:15

at the party. They were

6:17

dancing to the popular songs of the

6:19

era. Connie Francis is singing Lipstick on

6:21

Your Collar, Paul Anker doing Lonely Boy,

6:24

brings back memories. Of

6:26

course you weren't around then. No, it's before my time

6:29

but certainly we all know these songs I think.

6:31

At least those of us born before the

6:33

year 2000 know a little bit about

6:35

these songs. Oh, those are classic. Yeah,

6:37

absolutely. So it's just five foot

6:39

three inches tall and 100 pounds.

6:42

Lynn had her 13th birthday coming

6:44

up in just two months. She was

6:46

in a combined grade seven and eight classroom

6:49

which meant that many of her classmates were

6:51

13 or even 14 year olds.

6:53

Lynn was intelligent and very outgoing but

6:56

maybe a bit awkward and this isn't

6:58

unusual for a 12 year old at

7:00

all. Oh no. The chaplain at the

7:03

military base just saw Lynn as this

7:05

sweet kid who attended Sunday school and

7:07

youth Bible class. Her girl

7:09

guide leaders saw her as an

7:11

energetic girl with leadership skills but

7:14

her friends saw another side of Lynn

7:16

and some believed Lynn was lonely. She

7:18

was very self-conscious about a scar that

7:20

she had on her lip from a

7:22

childhood accident and as kids often do

7:24

she saw it as a bigger deal

7:27

than it actually was. So

7:29

Lynn tried hard to fit in with the

7:31

older teens on the night of that June

7:33

5th party. She didn't have a boyfriend and

7:35

she kept asking boys to dance and

7:38

Lynn was disappointed because her friend and

7:40

sometime crush George Archibald wasn't paying much

7:42

attention to her that night. He didn't

7:45

even dance with her so Lynn had

7:47

her eye on one of George's buddies,

7:50

a lanky athlete who was popular with most

7:52

of the girls. 14 year

7:55

old Steven Truscott. Steven was

7:57

definitely one of the in crowd. He

7:59

had light brown hair, hazel eyes, and

8:01

a really cute smile. He was

8:03

5'8 and a half inches tall and towered

8:06

over the other kids. It

8:08

also happened that he was a skilled athlete.

8:10

When the school's football team took the championship

8:12

in late November 1958, the local paper

8:16

ran a picture of the players and

8:18

Steven Truscott was identified as the star

8:20

of the team. When all

8:22

the girls on the vase that were his age

8:25

saw Steven as a friendly boy, someone you

8:27

felt safe to be around. So

8:29

on that last Friday night of her life,

8:31

Lynn walked up to Steven and she asked

8:34

him to dance. He agreed out

8:36

of politeness but only danced for a

8:38

couple of minutes. He then danced with

8:40

Lorraine and maybe he did this as

8:42

a convenient escape from the younger girl.

8:45

Not that Lynn was ugly or anything but she's a

8:47

12 year old and that's a big deal when you're

8:50

14. That's a big age difference just those two

8:52

years. I'm not going out

8:54

with a baby. Right? Right

8:56

and not that they ever really went out anyway. If

8:59

someone was your boyfriend, you saw them at school, you

9:01

might have talked on the phone. Oh yeah,

9:03

particularly in this area. Yeah. So

9:06

Clinton is located in the farmlands

9:08

of southern Ontario, about a 3

9:10

hour drive from Toronto. Most of

9:12

the streets in the small community

9:15

were named for Canada's provincial capitals.

9:18

So riding on his bike, Steven could

9:20

cover the entire neighbourhood from

9:22

Halifax Road to Winnipeg Road

9:24

to Victoria Boulevard and Quebec

9:26

Road in less than 5

9:28

minutes. So that's pretty small. And

9:31

the streets were never too busy with

9:33

car traffic so there were often tricycles,

9:35

scooters, bikes and kids on metal

9:38

roller skates out and about. But

9:40

the clutter of childhood was the

9:42

only disorder that was really tolerated

9:44

in Clinton. Residents had to keep

9:46

their lawns trimmed and neat according

9:48

to military regulations or the

9:51

station warrant officer would enforce it

9:53

through the National Defence Act. Where

9:55

you lived in Clinton really depended on what

9:58

insignia your father wore on his year uniform.

10:00

Officers and their families lived in a

10:03

separate neighborhood, segregated from the families of

10:05

the lower ranks. The children didn't

10:07

seem to separate friends according to

10:09

this system, but the officers' children

10:11

were definitely better off. They always

10:13

had better clothes and they had

10:15

more money to spend. So Lynn's

10:17

family was one of these more

10:19

privileged families. Their status confirmed

10:22

by their proximity to the home

10:24

of the base commanding officer. Tall

10:26

trees in front and back of the two-story

10:29

house gave Lynn's family their own

10:31

space and shade in the hot

10:33

summer months. Lynn's dad, Leslie,

10:35

42 at the time, was

10:38

a successful flying officer. He

10:40

had been a teacher before joining the

10:42

Air Force in January of 1940. He

10:45

and his wife Shirley had three

10:47

children before they moved to Clinton

10:49

in July of 1957. Twelve-year-old

10:51

Lynn, her 16-year-old brother Barry,

10:54

and then little five-year-old Jeffrey.

10:57

Lynn spent a great deal of time

11:00

helping her mother, who had arthritis, made

11:02

her housework difficult. But Lynn sometimes

11:04

just wanted to break free. Her home

11:06

was orderly and quiet. She loved to

11:08

hang out at her neighbor Yvonne's house,

11:11

where their large family was busy, less

11:13

organized, and left to offer.

11:15

At the other end of the permanent

11:17

military housing, past the spacious homes and

11:20

tall trees on Victoria Boulevard, along

11:22

Quebec Road's simpler houses lived the

11:24

Truscott family. Located near the local

11:27

convenience store, their plain clapboard house

11:29

had a small wooden porch, which

11:32

was decorated with the kids' bikes and

11:34

sports equipment. The aluminum screen door

11:36

was always banging as the Truscott boys

11:38

ran in and ran out. Yes,

11:40

Yvonne lived with his parents and

11:42

three siblings. His mom Doris was

11:44

petite and very high energy. She

11:47

cooked clean and did laundry for her

11:49

very active family. Stephen's father

11:51

Dan was a warrant officer, which was

11:53

not a prominent rank. He

11:55

was a fun, slightly chunky guy, and he

11:57

was always willing to help organize family of

12:00

and play with the local children. He was

12:02

actually elected Man of the Year for doing

12:04

the most for the welfare of young people

12:06

on the base. So Dan

12:09

Trescott was very well-liked and very

12:11

active in this small community. The

12:13

local convenience store was a popular

12:15

hangout for the kids where they could

12:17

buy soda pop and candy. When

12:19

not at the store, Steven could often be

12:21

found right across the street from the

12:23

school at the 150 acre

12:26

farm that was owned by Bob Lawson.

12:28

Lawson, age 22, was only a few years older

12:31

than Steven and some of the other teens,

12:34

but his height of over six feet

12:36

and his hardworking, no-nonsense personality made

12:39

him seem much older to the

12:41

children. They called him Farmer Lawson,

12:44

and the children often stopped by to play

12:46

with the animals or watch him do his chores.

12:49

He seemed to enjoy their company for the most

12:51

part. Steven was a more

12:53

frequent visitor to the farm than most

12:55

of the children, partly because of his

12:57

curiosity and partly because Bob Lawson just

12:59

liked him. Steven loved to help with

13:01

the chores and he was also a

13:03

whiz at mechanics. He always seemed happy

13:05

to help out. He also seemed a

13:07

little more mature than the other kids.

13:10

So Steven was the only child

13:12

Lawson ever let ride on his

13:14

new Ferguson tractor. The two

13:16

even put together some discarded transmissions

13:18

and other auto parts with what

13:20

was left of an old army truck and

13:22

they ended up making a pretty decent front-end

13:25

loader. Steven also enjoyed

13:27

spending hours working with Lawson

13:29

on his classic 1929 Model

13:31

A Ford. So this

13:33

almost seems to me like

13:35

a big brother, little brother relationship.

13:38

Yeah, but it also shows you that

13:40

Steven was well liked and responsible and

13:43

not a troublemaker at all. No,

13:45

he was a pretty good kid. Yeah, he seemed like

13:47

it. Some children would play

13:49

in a heavily wooded area at the

13:51

northern edge of the farm occasionally, but

13:53

the rough undergrowth and the

13:56

mosquitoes made the woods inhospitable

13:58

for any extended period of time. of time,

14:01

especially in the hot summer months. The woods could

14:03

be fun to explore, but it

14:05

was not this lover's land that it was later made

14:07

out to be. No, and it will be

14:09

made out that way. So Farmer

14:12

Lawson had forty head of cattle that

14:14

year, and finding a

14:16

helpless young calf was always a treat

14:18

for the local kids. Cows

14:20

about to give birth often looked

14:23

for an isolated corner for privacy

14:25

and protection. In late

14:27

May, Stephen and his friend Leslie

14:29

Spillsbury, that's a boy, found

14:32

a young calf at the far end of Lawson's

14:34

land, about a quarter of a mile from the

14:36

road. The boys ran to show the farmer. Stephen

14:39

and Leslie also once took their bikes to the

14:41

edge of the bush and built a treehouse in

14:43

the woods. So on

14:45

the weekend of June 6 and 7, Stephen

14:48

finished his farm chores and then had the

14:50

rest of the time to fool around and

14:52

go to a Saturday matinee. Every

14:55

week the children crowded into the theater on

14:57

the base, where a triple feature

14:59

cost ten cents. In

15:02

the nice summer weather, however, most of

15:04

their weekend fun was had outside. The

15:06

school had play areas on all

15:08

sides of the building, with a

15:10

playground, swing sets, a football field,

15:13

and a baseball diamond. So the

15:15

school was the natural meeting point. An

15:18

adventure out to the farm or to

15:20

the river usually began and ended at

15:23

the school. On

15:25

the main Lawson's farm and the school,

15:27

there's a two-lane paved rural route known

15:29

as the County Road. This

15:31

road was the main artery linking the school

15:34

play areas with the swimming hole in the

15:36

Bayfield River. It was about

15:38

a mile north. So on any

15:40

given summer afternoon in 1959, the

15:43

county road would be crowded with

15:45

bicycles, cars, pedestrians. Children

15:48

were constantly walking or cycling up and down

15:50

the road. Well from the school,

15:52

it was a mostly downhill ride to the

15:54

river and a bike could pick up

15:56

a lot of speed coasting down the road. About

15:59

a half a mile in... on the right hand

16:01

side of the road there was a small

16:03

tractor trail where you could turn off and

16:05

head into Farmer Lawson's bush. If

16:08

you continued past the laneway you soon

16:10

crossed the railway tracks and then the

16:12

small concrete bridge over the

16:14

Bayfield River. From the bridge it

16:17

was only a few hundred yards to busy

16:19

highway eight and this was a major roadway.

16:22

The bridge was a small cement structure

16:24

with a short 40 inch wall on

16:26

either side. Bikes, baseball mitts,

16:28

and fishing gear would often be

16:30

scattered around near the roundling. About

16:33

600 feet east of the bridge the

16:35

river curved slightly where it formed a

16:37

swimming hole where the children would play

16:39

for hours at a time. Some of

16:41

the more adventurous children traveled past the

16:43

river down to the intersection and

16:46

up the busy highway where there

16:48

was a small white house where

16:50

an old recluse named Edgar Hodges kept

16:52

a few ponies. The kids

16:54

couldn't ride the ponies but they liked to

16:56

pet them or feed them apples. So

16:59

this really was a carefree time when

17:01

children thought nothing of wandering miles from

17:03

their home and talking to strangers. Lynn

17:06

and her friends occasionally would make the

17:08

two-mile walk to downtown Clinton. One

17:11

friend, Catherine, would recall hitchhiking into town

17:13

with Lynn to go shopping and according

17:15

to Catherine it wasn't unusual for the

17:18

kids to hitchhike back then. So that's

17:20

important to remember as we go into

17:22

the case because a lot of people,

17:25

especially the police, would say, oh she

17:27

would never have hitchhiked. But that

17:29

doesn't seem to be true because Catherine's not

17:31

the only kid that said, sure we hitchhiked.

17:33

Yeah. On Monday, June 8th,

17:35

which was the evening before she disappeared,

17:38

Lynn went to one of her favorite

17:40

activities, the girl guides. This

17:42

was three days after the dance party at

17:44

Lorraine Wood's house and Lynn

17:46

got into an argument with her friends about

17:48

her having a crush on Steve and Truska.

17:51

One of her friends, Andrea, had told another

17:53

girl that Lynn had told her that she

17:55

liked Steve. Lynn confronted that girl but she

17:58

denied it. Now if the girl got meeting

18:00

that evening, Lynn was assigned to hand

18:02

out some prizes. Andrea wanted

18:04

a red hair band, but Lynn kept

18:06

it and gave Andrea a notebook instead.

18:09

When Lynn woke up the next morning, she must

18:11

have put the red band in her hair before

18:14

heading off for school. So

18:16

on Tuesday, June 9th, the kids attended school

18:18

on the Clinton Air Base. Maitland

18:20

Edgar, the teacher for the combined

18:23

6th and 7th grade class, could

18:25

barely keep his kids' minds on

18:27

their work with the warm weather

18:29

outside and less than 3 weeks

18:31

before summer break. Edgar had actually

18:33

been Vice Principal since 1951, but

18:36

in this small 12-room country school,

18:38

he also had to teach. He

18:40

taught history, geography, English, and phys

18:42

ed. So close to his desk

18:44

in the first seat of the

18:46

middle row was Lynn Harper's seat,

18:49

and the teacher had put the 12-year-old there

18:51

for a reason. Lynn was a

18:53

real chatterbox. She was where

18:55

Edgar could keep her under control. Her

18:58

fellow students saw Lynn as a bit mouthy. She

19:00

wasn't a bad kid. She was just one of

19:02

those kids that always had their hand in the

19:05

air to give the answers. In

19:07

the last seat at the back of the classroom,

19:09

at the end row next to the windows, is

19:12

where Steven Trustcutt sat. Edgar

19:14

found Steven to be an

19:16

easygoing and responsible kid. Steven

19:18

was average academically because sports

19:20

were his real passion, not

19:22

studies. And sitting near

19:24

Steven was a more troublesome student, his

19:27

friend Arnold Butch George. A

19:30

strong and stocky boy, Butch had a

19:32

reputation as a sometimes fighter and a

19:34

frequent fibber. Butch pushed to be

19:36

the center of attention, and there

19:38

were two obstacles that made him an

19:40

outsider at the school. He was a

19:42

native boy, and his father was an

19:45

army man in an Air Force community.

19:47

Then three seats away from Steven

19:49

sat another outsider, desperate to be

19:52

part of the crowd, tall and thin,

19:54

with a face pockmarked with acne and hair

19:56

kept in dark ringlets. Jocelyn Gladet was teased

19:58

by the young men. the older girls

20:01

and unfortunately Jocelyn's personality didn't

20:03

help her. She was

20:06

this kind of irritating loud kid and

20:08

could be kind of forward pushing herself on

20:11

people. She liked to let on that she

20:13

knew things too in order to get

20:15

attention. So Vice Principal

20:17

Edgar had some serious difficulties with

20:19

both Jocelyn and Butch. Both

20:22

of them had a general problem with telling the

20:24

truth. There weren't any specific

20:26

instances that really stood out but

20:29

they were considered untrustworthy. A few

20:31

lies or exaggerations in school were

20:33

in annoyance but in a murder

20:35

investigation they could prove deadly. So

20:38

when the school bell rang that Tuesday

20:40

afternoon, Lynn and Stephen both ran off

20:42

to play separate games of baseball. Neither

20:45

knew that they would meet up later

20:47

back at the school and neither of

20:49

them could know that one's life would

20:51

end violently while the other's life would

20:53

never be the same again. As a

20:55

substitute player on the baseball team, Lynn

20:57

played only one inning that day when

20:59

her team played against the nearby town

21:01

of Godrich. Still, she was

21:03

thrilled when her team won. Helen

21:05

Blair, a fourth grade teacher and

21:08

the coach, drove Lynn home afterwards.

21:11

And during the drive, Lynn talked excitedly

21:13

with the teacher about her favorite sport,

21:15

which was swimming. When Lynn came through

21:17

her front door it was 5.30pm and the rest of

21:21

her family was almost finished with supper. Lynn's

21:24

mom Shirley was just getting dessert when Lynn

21:26

came in and sat down at the table.

21:29

Shirley served her turkey skin and a 4

21:31

inch slice of meat. Then she

21:33

put just a bit of warm dressing on her

21:35

plate because Lynn didn't really like it. Then

21:37

she added some peas and potatoes. If

21:40

Lynn wanted something else there was also bologna

21:42

and ham in the fridge. And

21:45

for dessert, Shirley had pineapple upside down

21:47

cake and two other kinds of cake,

21:50

chocolate with coconut icing and

21:52

orange chiffon. That's impressive to

21:54

me. Yeah, three desserts. We never

21:56

had dessert and to think there were three cakes

21:58

available, it would have to be a good one. to be like a

22:00

holiday. No kidding. So her parents

22:02

didn't stay at the table to watch Lynn eat,

22:05

instead they took their tea and coffee into the

22:07

living room. Lynn ate her meal in under

22:09

15 minutes, pretty much scarfing it

22:11

down. It was 5.45 pm

22:14

and she really wanted to go swimming, but not

22:16

at the swimming hole, but at the pool on

22:18

the base. The neighbor was

22:20

taking her younger brother Jeffrey to the pool,

22:23

but her mother had refused to ask the neighbor

22:25

to take Lynn along. Shirley told

22:27

her daughter I couldn't ask him to take

22:29

my whole family. Shirley then suggested

22:31

that Lynn get a pass to swim alone at

22:33

the pool on the base. So

22:36

Lynn left on her bike to try and get

22:38

the required permission from a base official, but

22:40

she returned home within 10 minutes without

22:43

it, so she was a bit annoyed

22:45

because she couldn't go swimming, but she really didn't

22:47

act out. Her father would recall that she seemed

22:49

resigned not to be able to go to the

22:51

pool that day. So Lynn

22:54

began washing the separate dishes. It

22:56

took her about 20 minutes. Once done

22:58

with that chore, Lynn walked to the back

23:00

door without saying goodbye to her father, who

23:03

was still sitting in the living room. Her

23:05

mother was chatting with her neighbor Betty

23:07

McDougall in the backyard. Lynn

23:09

stopped for a moment to see Mrs.

23:11

McDougall's newborn baby and then she strolled

23:13

off. Her mother didn't ask Lynn where

23:15

she was going and Lynn didn't say

23:17

where she was going. It was 6.15

23:19

pm at that point. So

23:22

Lynn walked down the road wearing

23:24

turquoise shorts, a sleeveless white blouse,

23:26

and brown shoes. She

23:28

wore a locket that she received from her aunt

23:30

three weeks earlier. It had

23:32

a Royal Canadian Air Force crest inside of

23:35

a heart made of plexiglass on a gold

23:37

chain. Well like Lynn, Stephen

23:39

had also spent the afternoon playing

23:41

baseball. He got home about 5.15

23:44

and played in his front yard. At about

23:46

5.50, his mother asked him to

23:48

go buy coffee. Stephen returned

23:50

with the coffee and he had a rip in the

23:52

seat of his jeans near the top of his right

23:55

leg. His mother wasn't happy

23:57

about this, but Stephen explained that

23:59

he'd ripped them on his brother's bicycle

24:01

and then he scratched himself up as

24:03

well. Oh, I think you'll live,

24:05

his mother told him. Your pants will do. Now go

24:07

on out and play for a few minutes until supper's

24:10

ready. So Stephen ate his meal quickly

24:12

and left the house as soon as he could

24:14

after. He knew he had to be home by

24:16

8.30 at the latest. He

24:19

and his older brother Ken rotated the

24:21

babysitting duties. His parents

24:23

were going out and it was Stephen's turn to take

24:25

care of his younger sister and brother so

24:28

his free time was cut short that evening. At

24:31

about the same time Lynn was leaving her

24:33

home Stephen was riding around the

24:35

base on his bike. A

24:37

bright green racer with foot long streamers

24:40

attached to the handlebars. This

24:42

bike was Stephen's prized possession. Gordon

24:44

Logan, a good friend of his, saw Stephen

24:46

near the school and he asked Stephen if

24:48

he was going to go swimming. Stephen

24:51

said no but said he might be down later. The

24:54

county road was busy with the usual

24:56

after dinner influx of cars, bikes and

24:58

strollers. Several people

25:00

saw Stephen around 6.30 biking

25:03

up and down the road between the school and

25:05

the bridge. Beatrice

25:07

Geiger had borrowed her son's bike and with

25:09

her young daughter on a crossbar bicycled down

25:11

to the river. She was

25:14

riding slowly and saw Stephen Shuskite

25:16

pass her on his bicycle. Stephen

25:18

went onto the bridge and then turned around and

25:20

came back. Beatrice's son Ken was

25:23

walking down to the river when

25:25

his friend Rob picked him up on his bike and

25:27

they both went down to the river. Near

25:30

Luson's bush they noticed Stephen just

25:32

sitting on his bike on the road. Paul

25:35

Desjardins age 14 was going near the

25:37

river to fish. He remembered seeing Stephen

25:39

just circling on his bicycle on the

25:41

county road near the bush. At

25:44

the time nobody thought anything of this. Stephen's

25:47

actions seemed to be the aimless wanderings of

25:49

a teenage boy on a summer evening but

25:52

later in the eyes of the police Stephen's

25:55

trips to the bridge and down near the

25:57

bush would become evidence of a murderer plotting

25:59

his crime. crime. It would.

26:01

So this really was just an ordinary

26:03

summer evening. Butch George was

26:06

mowing Mrs. McDougal's lawn. Jocelyn

26:08

Gaudette was washing the supper dishes.

26:11

Down by the river, Richard Gilatley was

26:13

thinking of biking home to change into

26:15

his swimming trunks. Gord Logan was

26:17

getting ready to fish and

26:19

Dougie Oates was looking for turtles with

26:22

Karen Dom. A ten-year-old

26:24

named Philip Burns took his last dive in

26:26

the river and was about to start his

26:28

hike home. Few of the children

26:30

wore watches. None of them had

26:32

any reason to remember specific events or

26:34

times. Nothing remarkable was going

26:37

on. People were swimming and riding up

26:39

and down the road as they did most

26:41

summer evenings. At 6.15 p.m.

26:43

Lynn had begun making her way to the

26:46

playground near the school. Lynn didn't

26:48

arrive at the playground for 20 minutes, even

26:51

though it was just a five-minute walk from her

26:53

house. The police never seemed curious to

26:55

fill in these 15 minutes of

26:57

time in Lynn's afternoon, which

27:00

could have been significant and that's a

27:02

mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

27:05

Jocelyn Gaudette, one of Lynn's friends

27:07

and classmates, left her house at

27:10

around the same time. But we

27:12

don't know if Lynn saw her that evening when

27:14

Lynn arrived at the school around 6.35 and Nickerson,

27:19

32, was preparing a scavenger hunt for a

27:21

group of brownies. Lynn left

27:23

at the chance to help her out. Nickerson

27:26

accepted her offer and Lynn helped her

27:28

organize the girls five to a team.

27:31

As the scavengers headed out, Nickerson and

27:33

Lynn talked under a tree for about

27:36

20 minutes. The two

27:38

chatted and Lynn told her that she didn't

27:40

want to go home because her mother was

27:42

cross with her, but at the same time

27:44

Lynn seemed to be joking. It

27:46

wasn't too much longer until Steven Trescott

27:49

arrived nearby on his bike. Steven

27:51

was wearing scruffy brown shoes, red jeans,

27:53

and a white shirt. Almost

27:55

immediately, Lynn went over to him and

27:57

sat on the front wheel of his bike. But

28:00

by all accounts it was Lynn who approached

28:02

Stephen, and she did most of the talking.

28:04

Two of the brownie mothers couldn't hear what they

28:07

said, and they had paid little attention to them.

28:10

It had just been four days since Lynn had danced

28:12

with Stephen at the house party, and now Lynn had

28:14

a chance to speak to him. What

28:16

are you doing, Steve? Lynn began. This

28:18

is according to Steve's memory of their conversation.

28:22

Well, I was going down to the river to see if

28:24

any of the kids were there, he told her. Can

28:26

I have a ride down to the highway? She asked. I'm

28:29

going that way, anyhow, he said. It

28:31

was a short moment between two young people

28:33

in a noisy school playground filled with other

28:35

children. But Lynn and Stephen

28:38

set off for what was to become the

28:40

most famous bike ride in Canadian legal history.

28:43

Yeah. So the time they left together would

28:45

be in dispute in the months and the

28:47

years to come. The

28:49

two adults supervising the brownies said

28:52

they last saw Lynn and Stephen sometime

28:54

between seven and seven-ten. Only

28:57

one of the women had a watch and she hadn't looked

28:59

at it for a while. Once

29:01

they left the brownie pack, Lynn and Stephen still

29:03

had to walk around the school to get onto

29:05

the county road. And at the

29:07

far end of the building, the kindergarten classroom

29:10

extended out from the rest of the school.

29:13

Stephen looked through the big windows and saw the clock

29:15

on the wall. It was around 7.25 p.m.,

29:17

he would later recall. As

29:21

Lynn and Stephen circled the school, they

29:23

passed several boys who were playing baseball.

29:26

Lynn was pushing his bicycle and Lynn

29:28

was walking up alongside him, according to

29:30

Warren Heatherall who thought it was around

29:32

seven o'clock when he saw them, but

29:34

he couldn't be sure. One

29:36

of the other ball players, Stuart Westy, thought

29:38

it was closer to 7.30, but he also

29:42

admitted he wasn't sure. Two

29:44

younger boys who were playing in the same

29:47

area gave later time estimates. One

29:49

thought it was between 7.15 and

29:51

7.30, and the other boy thought it was

29:53

about 7.25 p.m. But

29:56

once they were on the county road, Lynn hopped

29:58

on the crossbar of Stephen's Green bike. It

30:01

was a steady downhill ride to the

30:03

river. Lynn was laughing

30:05

and smiling, turning her head frequently to

30:07

talk to Stephen. And Stephen

30:09

would later tell police that Lynn told him

30:11

she was upset with her parents because they

30:14

wouldn't let her go swimming. Then

30:17

she asked him if he knew the person in the

30:19

little white house not far from the

30:21

highway, and she said she might go down there

30:23

to see the ponies. Yeah,

30:25

this is a place where the grumpy old guy lived. Yes,

30:27

I don't know if he was grumpy, but he was a

30:30

recluse. You do get that image in your

30:32

head of maybe he was a little grumpy. Yeah. So

30:34

on their right they passed the fields of

30:37

Lawson's farm. They had only biked

30:39

a few hundred feet when they passed

30:41

classmate Richard Gelatly, who was heading

30:43

south back towards the base. He

30:45

put the time at about 725. Now it would

30:48

have taken Richard only a couple of

30:50

minutes to get to his house after

30:52

seeing Stephen, and his father later confirmed

30:54

to police that his son was back

30:56

home at about that time. So

30:59

that could be pretty close to accurate. Yeah,

31:01

you have agreement, people's testimonies. Yeah.

31:03

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32:51

Steven and Lynn met Richard somewhere between

32:53

the O'Brien farm and Lawson's Bush, who

32:55

ran for about 900 feet

32:57

along the highway. At the end of the

32:59

bush, Steven and Lynn came to

33:01

the small tractor trail. No more than three or

33:03

four minutes had passed since they left the school,

33:06

and they had biked around 3,300

33:08

feet, maybe three-fifths of a mile.

33:11

So what happened next, or didn't happen, is

33:13

that the center of the entire case, the

33:16

events of the next few seconds, would

33:18

consume the opinions of citizens, journalists, judges,

33:21

and prime ministers for at least the

33:23

next four decades. In

33:25

the minds of the police investigators,

33:27

the prosecution, and eventually a jury,

33:30

Steven made a sharp right turn at

33:32

this point off the county road and

33:35

took Lynn, either willingly or unwillingly, into

33:37

the bush. While there,

33:39

he raped and strangled her, but according to

33:41

Steven and his supporters, he never turned off

33:43

the county road at all. He

33:46

continued to ride with Lynn past the bush

33:48

and down towards the bridge and the river.

33:51

So the evidence either way was not clear.

33:54

According to Steven, he continued to bike with

33:57

Lynn past Lawson's bush, picking up speed as

33:59

the road went up. went down toward the

34:01

river. After about 1500 feet they crossed the

34:03

tracks and 500 feet later

34:06

they approached a small concrete bridge over

34:08

the Bayfield River. Now the strongest

34:10

support for Stevens account would

34:12

come from an 11 year old boy standing on

34:14

that bridge. His name is Dougie Oates.

34:17

Dougie had only one thing on his mind

34:19

that evening and that was turtles. He was

34:22

very interested in nature. He liked to go

34:24

out, catch turtles and bring him home as

34:26

pets. His memories were very precise and

34:29

they were fixed in his mind because police questioned

34:31

him within two days of the events. Dougie

34:33

had left home around six but

34:36

he had taken his time getting to the

34:38

river. He stopped for a few minutes along

34:40

the road to watch two female cardinals. Once

34:42

at the river he saw a small turtle and

34:45

went down under the bridge to grab it. Then

34:47

he traded his small turtle for a larger one.

34:50

He continued to hunt from the bridge when he

34:52

saw two people on a bike. Yeah,

34:54

he saw both Stephen and Lynn riding double

34:56

across the bridge within feet of him. He

34:59

couldn't see one of them without the other. A

35:01

boy and a girl riding double on a bike made

35:04

him take notice. Dougie said hi

35:06

and waved at the teenagers. Lynn

35:08

smiled at him and Stephen kept pedaling

35:10

toward the highway. There is absolutely no

35:12

doubt in my mind I saw both

35:14

of them, Dougie has said repeatedly. It's

35:17

etched in my memory. And Dougie

35:19

wasn't the only person who was certain he

35:21

saw Stephen and Lynn cross the bridge at

35:23

that moment. The river was filled with

35:25

children, most of them too busy playing to

35:28

pay much attention to the traffic on the

35:30

bridge. But one boy in

35:32

the water did notice, Gord Logan, the

35:34

boy who had asked Stephen earlier at the school

35:36

about his swimming plans, was at the

35:38

swimming hole about 600 feet from

35:41

the bridge. I was standing

35:43

by the river, Gord later told police. I

35:45

think it must have been nearly 730 when

35:48

I saw Lynn and Stephen. I'm sure

35:50

it was her. She was wearing shorts,

35:52

I think. A third boy

35:54

Butch George originally told the

35:56

police that as he swam in the river,

35:59

he also saw that Steve and

36:01

Lynn were biking north, but

36:03

he would later recant that statement. And

36:05

remember Butch is the one who has trouble with

36:08

the truth. Right. So,

36:10

Stephen would later tell the police that down

36:12

at the bridge he saw his friend Butch in the

36:14

river. He waved to me and I waved

36:16

back, Stephen told them. Once past

36:18

the bridge, Stephen said he took Lynn along the final

36:20

1,300 feet to the highway and

36:23

dropped her off at the intersection where cars

36:25

were whizzing by. They

36:28

were quickly by, they separated. Lynn didn't say

36:30

anything more about where she was going. Stephen

36:33

turned and headed south along the county

36:35

road toward the river. Board confirmed he

36:37

saw Stephen return to the bridge. This

36:40

time alone, about 5 minutes

36:42

after he'd seen Stephen cross the bridge with

36:44

Lynn. So, if that's the case,

36:46

it would have been impossible for Stephen to have

36:49

turned off the trail with her or

36:51

done anything to her. Right. So,

36:54

I have the suspect Stephen saying this is what

36:56

I did and it's

36:58

pretty much confirmed by witnesses.

37:01

It is, but things really get twisted around.

37:03

So, as Stephen approached the bridge on the

37:05

return track, he was on the west side

37:08

of the county road. He said that

37:10

he stopped and looked back to see if it was

37:12

safe to cross the road to watch his friends in

37:14

the swimming hole. As he glanced back,

37:16

he said he saw what looked like a gray

37:18

1959 Chevrolet car traveling eastbound on

37:22

the highway. The car turned in

37:24

slightly onto the county road, then crossed

37:26

the road and stopped on the corner

37:28

where Lynn was standing. The

37:31

car was then parked on the county

37:33

road slightly at an angle with its

37:35

rear bumper facing Stephen. Stephen

37:37

was pretty sure that the car was a 1959 Chevy

37:40

because he had a teenage boy's

37:42

fascination with cars. That

37:44

was the first year Chevy changed the style

37:47

of their car and they had large fins

37:49

going out like wings. And

37:51

the tail lights looked like cat size. And

37:54

there was no other car around like that. In

37:57

fact, several models such as the Ford 58 The

38:01

56 Victoria and the 57

38:03

T-Bird all had prominent rear

38:05

fins, but still the 59 Chevy

38:08

was rather distinctive. Stephen

38:11

also said he'd cut a glimpse of something

38:13

yellow or orange on the back bumper. The

38:17

sun was shining on the fender and it may

38:19

have only been a glare. He couldn't

38:21

tell if it was a license plate or a

38:23

sticker or whatever, Stephen said, and that

38:25

was a detail that would soon get confused

38:28

in the police records. As

38:30

he made his way over to the railing

38:32

on the eastern side of the bridge, Stephen

38:34

thought nothing more about the car or Lynn.

38:37

He saw several of his friends playing in the

38:39

water, but he didn't talk to anyone. Alan

38:42

Oates, Dougie's 16-year-old brother,

38:45

claimed he saw Stephen standing alone on

38:47

the bridge around 745. Alan

38:50

had been home watching his favorite TV

38:52

news program, Panorama, until 7. He

38:55

then wandered around the base until he was near

38:57

the railway tracks, about 800 feet

38:59

away from the bridge. He remembered

39:02

seeing Stephen. Stephen said

39:04

he lingered at the river for 5-10 minutes

39:06

before heading back to the Air Force base

39:09

because he was supposed to be babysitting. So

39:11

two boys, Dougie Oates and Gord

39:13

Logan, saw Lynn and Stephen cross

39:16

the bridge. Two boys,

39:18

Gord and Dougie's brother Alan, saw

39:20

Stephen alone on the bridge just

39:22

a few minutes later. Over

39:25

the following weeks and months in

39:27

various police interrogations, courtroom testimonies

39:29

and cross-examinations, the boys would never

39:32

change any of the details of

39:34

what they had seen that day,

39:36

but they still would be called

39:39

liars, co-conspirators, or foolish kids with

39:41

bad memories. If Gord

39:43

Logan and Dougie and Alan Oates were sure

39:45

they'd seen Stephen and Lynn, or Stephen alone

39:48

down by the bridge around 7.30, two

39:51

other children, Butch and Jocelyn, would insist

39:53

that they had no luck finding Stephen

39:55

or Lynn that evening, despite

39:57

their efforts to track them down. But

40:00

unlike the consistent accounts by the Oates

40:02

brothers and by Gord Logan, the

40:05

stories by Butch George and

40:07

Jocelyn Godet were conflicted, confusing,

40:10

and they were repeatedly changing.

40:13

And I would just remind people that both

40:15

these kids had a reputation

40:17

for bending the truth. They did. And

40:20

they changed their stories. If they

40:22

had a reputation for bending the truth but

40:24

then they were consistent and believable, that would

40:26

be different. Yeah. But there

40:28

are a lot of things very shaky about the stories

40:30

of these two. So after he'd finished

40:33

mowing the neighbor's lawn around 6.30, Butch

40:35

George said he rode his bike to Stephen's house.

40:37

He called out from the front yard as Steve

40:40

home. And Steve's mother answered, he

40:42

isn't home. But Butch rode

40:44

his bike down the county road toward the river.

40:46

And by the time he reached Lawson's Bush, he

40:49

saw a boy named Philip Burns walking up toward

40:51

the Air Force base. He got off

40:53

his bike as he came up to me and asked me

40:55

if I saw Steve or Lynn. Philip

40:57

recalled later. I said I never saw them.

41:00

Well Philip, who was 10, did tell

41:02

Butch that he'd just met Jocelyn Godet near

41:04

the laneway into the bush. She

41:07

had also asked him, Philip later told the

41:09

police, if he'd seen Stephen or

41:11

Lynn, but he hadn't. Butch soon

41:14

caught up with Jocelyn just as she was coming

41:16

out of the laneway. And Jocelyn

41:18

claimed she had walked about 200 feet

41:20

down the tractor trail, very

41:22

close to where Lynn's body would

41:24

eventually be found, looking for Stephen.

41:27

So Jocelyn said she had a date with him

41:29

to go looking for calves in the bush. And

41:32

that's what she would later tell the police. I

41:34

didn't tell anyone about this plan to meet

41:37

Stephen because he told me not to tell

41:39

anyone, she claimed. Jocelyn

41:41

and Butch agreed that they met near the

41:43

laneway, but they really agreed on very little

41:45

else. In Butch's version,

41:47

their exchange went like this. Have

41:50

you seen Stephen? He asked her. No,

41:52

Jocelyn said. Have you seen Lynn? No,

41:55

Butch replied. If I see Lynn, I'll tell you.

41:58

Okay, said Jocelyn. According

42:00

to Jocelyn, she was the one who asked

42:02

Butch if he had seen Stephen, not Lynn,

42:04

but Butch said no. By Jocelyn's

42:06

account, her meeting with Butch took place shortly

42:08

after 6.30, but by Butch's account

42:12

it was well after 7 p.m. and

42:14

both of them said that they then went separately

42:17

down to the river. Butch said

42:19

when he was by a rock pile at

42:21

the river he saw Jocelyn near the bridge

42:23

and that she asked him again if he had seen

42:25

Lynn and he said no. But Jocelyn

42:27

said that she saw Butch at the river but

42:30

didn't talk with him. She only

42:32

asked another boy about the fishing. Jocelyn

42:34

said she was only at the bridge for

42:36

about 10 minutes before heading back towards the

42:38

base. No one besides Butch

42:40

would ever corroborate her claim to be

42:43

at the bridge at all that night.

42:45

Jocelyn, Butch, and Phillip all told

42:47

different and at times contradictory stories

42:50

about not seeing Stephen or Lynn

42:52

that evening, but their testimonies

42:54

would later be at the center

42:57

of the prosecution's eyewitness case against

42:59

Stephen Truscott. So three children

43:01

did not see Stephen. The

43:03

argument went because when Jocelyn, Butch,

43:06

and Phillip were near the bush, Stephen

43:08

was already in the woods less than

43:10

300 feet away strangling Lynn

43:12

to death. According to

43:15

the police, when the coast was clear, Stephen

43:17

came out from the bush where he had left

43:20

Lynn's lifeless body. Then he walked

43:22

along the laneway and biked up the road

43:24

until he reached the school by Stephen's account.

43:27

After dropping off Lynn at the highway, he

43:29

left the bridge and headed home. Either way,

43:32

nobody disputes the fact that Stephen was

43:34

at the school grounds around 8 o'clock.

43:37

There would be disputes over the exact time

43:39

of his return, but there would be no

43:42

disagreement over the fact that more than a

43:44

dozen children saw him immediately upon his return

43:46

to school and everyone said he looked normal

43:48

and as calm as he always was. What

43:51

did you do with Harper? Feed her to the fish? He

43:54

used one of the boys on the baseball field? No,

43:56

I just left her off at the highway

43:58

like she asked, Stephen replied. Stephen

44:00

then made his way around the corner of the school

44:03

near the basketball courts and

44:05

headed to the swings where an older group

44:07

of teenagers were hanging out. Yes, Lorraine

44:09

Wood would recall. A bunch of the girls and

44:12

I had just gone up there and we

44:14

were sitting swinging. Now Lorraine had

44:16

danced with Stephen four days before at her

44:18

party. Several boys, including Stephen's

44:20

older brother Ken, joined the girls there.

44:23

Lorraine and two of her friends estimated Stephen

44:25

showed up near them about 8-10 to 8-15.

44:29

And one of the boys there said

44:31

it was closer to 8-pm. But none

44:33

of the teenagers noticed any scratches, sweat,

44:35

or blood on Stephen's face or arms.

44:38

Ken reminded his younger brother he had to

44:41

go home soon to babysit, and Stephen took off

44:43

across the school grounds and headed home. I

44:46

made it, Mom, he called out as he ran into

44:48

the house. You're lucky, said his

44:50

mother Doris. She then

44:52

gave Stephen instructions for babysitting his

44:54

siblings. Bill had some

44:56

homework to do, and Barbara had to

44:58

be put to bed no later than 9-pm. Around

45:02

8-45pm, Doris and Dan Truscott joined

45:04

their neighbors for food and conversation

45:06

out at the Sergeant's Mess Hall.

45:09

Back at the house, Stephen grabbed some snacks

45:11

from the kitchen and he prepared for a

45:13

boring night in of babysitting. While Stephen

45:15

was babysitting, several of his friends were still

45:18

hanging out by the river. Around

45:20

8-20pm, three boys biked back to

45:22

the base together. Butch

45:24

George, Richard Gilatley, and Kenny Geiger.

45:27

As they made their way up

45:29

the hill, past the railway tracks,

45:31

and Farmer Lawson's bush, Richard

45:33

told them that he had met Stephen and Lynn

45:35

on his bike. Then Butch said

45:37

that Stephen and Lynn were in the bush, but

45:39

he didn't know what they were doing there. So

45:42

this was the first time anyone had mentioned

45:44

Stephen and Lynn together in the bush. Harmless

45:47

words at the time, but this would

45:49

soon become very ominous. By

45:52

all accounts, Butch George was not the most popular kid

45:54

at the base. He

45:56

was known as mean and a bit of a

45:58

smartass. hostility came

46:00

from prejudice he suffered because he

46:03

was an outgoing native boy in

46:05

a conservative white military community. His

46:08

father was a butcher in the supply

46:10

and services department and Butch lived

46:12

in a somewhat rundown house with an

46:14

older sister, two younger twin

46:16

brothers and a teenage uncle

46:18

or cousin. People had seen his

46:21

parents outside of their house and

46:23

they'd seen his father yelling at his mother. But

46:26

what seemed to bother the other

46:28

children most about Butch was his

46:30

untrustworthiness. He changed his stories

46:32

every day and he tended to exaggerate

46:34

a lot. He seemed so used

46:37

to making stuff up that

46:39

it may have been just a reflex for him.

46:42

So Butch started getting people's attention

46:44

on Tuesday evening by telling

46:46

anyone who would listen that Stephen had taken

46:48

Lynn into the bush. It

46:50

is possible Butch got the idea to start

46:52

this tale just by putting two and two

46:55

together. Around 715 at the entrance to the

46:58

tractor trail leading to the bush he'd

47:01

met Jocelyn who he said told him

47:03

she was looking for Lynn. Then about

47:05

15 minutes later according to Butch's original

47:08

story to the police when

47:10

he was down at the river he saw

47:12

Stephen and Lynn go across the bridge on

47:14

Stephen's bike and less than an hour later

47:17

Richard Gilatly told Butch he had also seen

47:19

Stephen and Lynn on the bike together. So

47:22

Butch's story seems like a bit of a

47:24

work in progress. He started

47:26

telling people Stephen was going to take

47:28

Lynn there which implied some

47:30

prior knowledge to Stephen's plan or

47:33

that he heard that Stephen was in

47:36

the bush presumably from some unnamed third

47:38

party or that he saw Stephen go

47:40

into the bush with his own eyes. So

47:42

he never explained where he was or what

47:44

time he had seen this. This

47:47

is testimony that everyone believed. Not

47:50

everyone know. Well it was yours.

47:52

Yes but then it had been you know played

47:54

with quite a bit. Sure has. Yeah

47:56

and he'd been talking to detectives and it

47:59

had been near arrow down, I imagine. Yeah,

48:01

on Tuesday night, soon after saying goodbye

48:04

to Kenny and Richard when they got

48:06

up to the base, Butch ran into

48:08

Allen, another 14-year-old. Allen was

48:10

playing with his bow and arrow set, using

48:12

a cardboard box up against a post as

48:15

a target. Druska is in the bush

48:17

with Harper, Butch called out. Oh,

48:19

is that right, Allen replied? Allen didn't think much

48:21

of it at the time. A

48:23

few minutes later, Butch had reached Stephen's house.

48:26

It was around 845. His

48:28

parents had already left for the evening. Butch

48:31

first told the police the two friends never talked

48:34

about Lynn that night. But then he

48:36

changed his mind and said Stephen told him

48:38

that he and Lynn were looking for a

48:40

cow and a calf. Stephen, however, denied that

48:43

this conversation ever happened. And

48:45

there's no witnesses to the conversation, so it's

48:47

he said, she said, or he said, he

48:49

said. Yeah, it's Stephen's word

48:51

versus Butch's word. But what

48:53

everyone did agree on was that no one

48:55

took Butch's tale seriously, at least at first.

48:57

They just thought it was funny. The boys

49:00

really couldn't imagine Stephen, the school jock and

49:02

kind of a hunk in the eyes of

49:04

many of the older girls would

49:06

be trying to make a pass at a young

49:08

girl who they saw as awkward and a bit

49:10

of an outsider. Butch, the

49:12

boy no one trusted, couldn't get

49:14

his story straight. Earlier that

49:17

evening, Butch was near the bush supposedly

49:19

looking for Stephen when he met Jocelyn.

49:22

But he told her he hadn't seen Lynn or

49:24

Stephen. In two hours, Butch

49:26

was telling seven different boys that he

49:28

had seen Stephen go into the bush

49:30

with Lynn. And over the next

49:32

six days, he would change his story at

49:34

least three times. But it

49:36

didn't matter all that much whether Butch's tale was

49:39

true or not. It soon

49:41

took on a life of its own. In

49:43

the next two days, other children would hear

49:45

his story about Stephen taking Lynn into the

49:48

bush. And they'd tease Stephen about

49:50

it. And Stephen reacted

49:52

with frustration and eventually anger.

49:55

Then the police would look at that reaction

49:57

as another sign of Stephen's guilt. So

50:00

the sun set that Tuesday evening at 9.08pm.

50:03

At the Harper house, Lynn still hadn't shown

50:05

up. Most of the other children on

50:08

the base were safe at home by then. Lynn's

50:10

coming in time was 9pm and her bedtime

50:12

was 9.30. She didn't

50:15

come home and her parents were pretty worried by

50:17

9.15. Shirley

50:19

asked Lynn's older brother Barry to go look

50:21

for her and Lynn's father joined in the

50:23

search while Shirley stayed at home, anxiously

50:26

walking around the house and waiting for Lynn

50:28

on the back step. Then

50:30

around 10.30pm, George Archibald, a

50:33

sometime boyfriend of Lynn showed

50:35

up in the Harper's front yard. He

50:38

had just come from the custard cup, which is kind

50:40

of like a Dairy Queen I guess, and heard

50:43

Butch's story about Stephen going into the

50:45

bush with Lynn. Lynn had

50:47

also promised to lend George her sleeping

50:49

bag. Then meanwhile over at the Sargent's

50:51

mess hall, Doris and Dan Truscott and

50:53

their friends were winding down their evening.

50:56

Stephen's parents returned home by 11 to

50:59

find him and the other children all

51:01

asleep. Doris woke up Stephen's

51:03

younger brother Bill to take him to the

51:05

bathroom and then she and Dan went to

51:07

bed as well. The first

51:09

officially recorded concern about Lynn

51:11

Harper's whereabouts came at 11.20

51:13

when her father Leslie

51:15

Harper went to see Flight Sergeant Frank

51:18

Johnson, a neighbor who also happened to

51:20

be in charge of the Air Force

51:22

police. According to the

51:24

military logs, Johnson notified the police with

51:26

a message, Lynn Harper, aged

51:28

12 years, 5 foot 3 inches

51:30

tall, 100 pounds, white

51:32

print blouse blue shorts, that

51:35

she hadn't been home since about 1900 hours

51:37

and that it was possible she

51:39

was hitchhiking to her grandmother's in

51:41

Port Stanley, Ontario. Corporal William

51:43

A. Webb was on duty at the guard

51:45

house when he got a phone call from

51:48

Lynn's father at 11.25pm. Flying

51:51

Officer Harper sounded very distressed he

51:53

reported. When further questions as to

51:55

any possible place the girl might

51:58

have gone to, Flying Minister

52:00

Harper stated that she might have

52:02

headed for Port Stanley, Ontario, where

52:04

her grandmother was living. In

52:06

about 15 minutes, three separate reports

52:08

indicated that Lynn was probably a

52:11

hitchhiking runaway, information that only could

52:13

have come from Lynn's parents. Their

52:16

first impulse was that their missing daughter had

52:18

tried to go to her grandmother's, which was

52:20

about 80 miles away. But

52:22

then months later, Lynn's mother would tell

52:25

the police that Lynn would never hitchhike

52:27

anywhere. On Wednesday, June 10, the

52:29

temperature would go up to 90 degrees in

52:31

Clinton. In homes across the

52:33

military living quarters, children were excited that

52:36

they only had to sit through half

52:38

a day of classes. School

52:40

was ending at noon for a local fair. But

52:43

Shirley and Leslie Harper had a growing sense

52:45

of dread. There was no sign of

52:47

their little girl. At 7.30

52:49

in the morning, Leslie went to see the

52:51

father of Gary Hoyer, one of Lynn's friends.

52:54

But Shirley and Leslie Harper had a growing

52:56

sense of dread. There was no sign of

52:58

their little girl. At 7.30 that morning, Leslie

53:00

went to see the father of Gary Hoyer,

53:03

one of Lynn's friends. Harper learned that it

53:05

was possible one of the Truscott boys had

53:08

seen his daughter, so he went to their house. And

53:10

on the way, he ran into Stephen's father and asked

53:12

if he could ask the Truscott boys if they had

53:15

seen Lynn. Yes, on the

53:17

second floor of their small house, the Truscott

53:19

children were getting ready for school. Doris

53:21

had put out fresh clothes for her two

53:23

youngest, Barbara and Bill. Lynn

53:26

gave her the dirty red jeans he had worn

53:28

the day before and put on a clean pair.

53:30

But before Stephen could sit down to eat, Lynn's

53:33

father knocked on their door. When

53:35

the door opened, Stephen was in the kitchen

53:37

looking down into the stairwell. When

53:40

asked, he said that he had taken Lynn to the

53:42

corner on his bike and that she had hitched a

53:44

ride on the number eight highway. Oh

53:46

my God, Lynn's father said. The information

53:49

seemed to confirm his fear that his

53:51

daughter had taken off to her grandmother's

53:53

house. For the moment, it

53:55

was the only explanation the Harpers had

53:57

for Lynn's disappearance. Her older brother,

54:00

Brother Barry told a friend that morning that

54:02

his sister had taken off. She

54:04

was angry, he said, and might have tried

54:06

to hitchhike to visit her grandparents. An

54:09

official Air Force log for that day

54:11

read that a search was not deemed

54:13

necessary at that particular time. So, see,

54:15

in the beginning, the brother and the

54:17

parents are thinking Lynn would have hitchhiked

54:19

trying to go to her grandmother's. But

54:22

then later on, as Stephen becomes a

54:24

suspect, they start to think, no,

54:26

our daughter would never hitchhike. Well, did

54:29

she have her kind of relationship with her

54:31

grandparents that if there was strife at home,

54:33

she'd turn to them? Perhaps. It

54:36

seems like that. Yeah, why else would they think that? Because

54:38

she didn't told anyone that, but they were kind of

54:40

thinking maybe that's what she was doing. So...

54:43

Yeah, I don't know why they would say she

54:45

must have gone to her grandparents. Because

54:47

where else would she go, I guess? Where else are they

54:49

going to think she would possibly go? That's the

54:52

only place they could think of. I don't know

54:54

why it was the grandmother. I'm just thinking that's

54:56

the only place they could possibly think of. My

54:58

bigger concern is the hitchhiking. Why

55:00

did they think she would hitchhike? And then later

55:02

on thought, no way would she hitchhike. And

55:04

they've lost their daughter, so I'm not going to point fingers

55:06

at them or blame them for that. But

55:09

it was really a change in attitude that

55:11

I think may have been influenced by the

55:13

investigators. Okay. They get them to

55:15

focus on, you know, Stephen being

55:17

the person that had taken her. At

55:20

first, the school day began the way it always did.

55:22

But at 9.15, the routine was

55:24

disrupted by the appearance of a police

55:27

cruiser. On their way to the school,

55:29

Constable Hobbs and the

55:31

RCAF police had picked up

55:33

Stephen's father at his office on the base. Then

55:36

Dan Truscott went inside to get his son. Then

55:38

Stephen come out and he sat in the front

55:40

seat of the cruiser. According

55:42

to Constable Hobbs, Stephen said

55:44

that he had given a ride on his bike to

55:47

Lynn. He had picked her up outside the school between

55:49

7.25 and 7.30. According

55:52

to Stephen, Lynn says she knew the people in

55:54

the little lighthouse along the highway and she might

55:56

go down to see the ponies. She

55:59

also said she had a car. had to be home by 8 or 8.30. According

56:02

to Constable, Stephen said that he took

56:04

her to the highway and dropped her

56:06

off, and then he returned to

56:08

the bridge over the river. He said he saw her

56:10

again when he looked back and saw her get into

56:13

a late model Chevy. He mentioned a lot

56:15

of chrome and it could have been

56:17

a Bel Air version. He said the car appeared

56:19

to have a yellow license. He said,

56:21

there was no one in the rear, I am

56:24

not sure how many were in the front. And

56:26

that was the end of the conversation. Now

56:28

this was the morning right after Lynn's

56:30

disappearance and presumably Stephen's memory of the

56:32

events on the previous evening was the

56:34

freshest it would ever be. So

56:37

by recess that day, everyone at school

56:39

was talking about Lynn's disappearance. Stephen's

56:41

friends were curious about his talk with

56:44

the police. They knew he

56:46

was the last one to see Lynn Harper,

56:48

so they were asking him all about it.

56:50

And when Stephen went home for lunch, he

56:52

had his second police interview in three hours.

56:54

This time there was a new investigator, Constable

56:57

Donald Trumbly, an officer who would do a

56:59

lot of the work on the case. Again,

57:02

sitting in the front seat of a

57:04

cruiser, Stephen repeated his story. Now

57:06

according to Trumbly's notes, Stephen insisted that the

57:09

car he saw at the corner was a

57:11

59 Chevy. This

57:14

time Stephen gave more details. He

57:16

said it had white wall tires and a lot

57:18

of chrome with yellow markers.

57:21

Trumbly asked Stephen how he could tell what make

57:23

of car it was and Stephen

57:25

described how the car pulled onto the

57:27

county road from the highway, onto the

57:29

shoulder and then crossed the road and

57:31

parked on the right side with its

57:34

rear fender facing the bridge. The

57:36

officer recorded that Stephen referred to seeing

57:38

something yellow at the rear of the car.

57:41

At this point, as far as the

57:43

police were concerned, Lynn Harper was still

57:45

a runaway. So Constable Hobbs took a

57:47

photo of Lynn to the nearest TV

57:49

station and later sent a

57:51

photo to a larger TV station in

57:53

London. Then at 4pm Constable

57:55

Trumbly drove to the bridge over the Bayfield

57:58

River where Stephen was in the car. had

58:00

told him he had seen Lynn and the

58:02

car. Trumbly observed

58:04

traffic proceeding up and down number

58:06

eight highway and couldn't

58:08

distinguish any license numbers he later

58:10

said. The police would later

58:12

say that this was when they

58:15

began to have their first doubts about

58:17

Steven's story, but Steven

58:19

had said nothing about reading any specific

58:21

license numbers on a car. He

58:24

had just told the police he saw something yellow on

58:26

the back of the car, possibly a

58:28

license plate. Steven had also

58:30

said he was looking at a car parked on the

58:32

edge of the county road, not

58:34

at vehicles that were speeding along the highway,

58:37

which is what Trumbly had been looking at

58:39

that day. So Trumbly

58:41

had gone back to Steven's house, but

58:43

Steven wasn't home and that afternoon Steven

58:45

and his friends had gone to another

58:47

swimming hole, the gravel pits

58:49

between Clinton and Godrich. In

58:52

short-serve bathing suits the boys played around and jumped

58:54

in and out of the water out in the

58:56

hot sun and no

58:58

one noticed any scratches, scars or

59:00

anything else unusual about Steven. By

59:03

5 p.m. when Constable Trumbly returned to the

59:05

truscan home he found Steven there with his

59:07

mother and convinced them both to go with

59:10

him down to the bridge. He asked Steven

59:12

where he was standing when he observed the

59:14

car picking up Lynn Harper and he walked

59:16

over to a point 10 feet south of

59:19

the north end of the bridge Trumbly wrote.

59:21

Again he observed traffic on a number

59:23

eight highway. He still couldn't

59:25

identify any license numbers and

59:28

this was again a strange comment because Steven

59:30

had not talked about seeing any digits. Just

59:33

that there seemed to be something yellow

59:35

on the back bumper. Yeah he

59:37

said maybe a license plate. So as

59:39

he walked back to the car with

59:41

Steven and another officer Trumbly repeated the

59:44

same comment about license numbers. Doris

59:46

Truscott who had stayed in the police cruiser

59:48

said, well maybe it wasn't a yellow

59:50

license marker Steven had seen at all. Maybe

59:52

it was a sticker like the one we

59:54

have in our car. The Truscotts like many

59:57

families had a tourist sticker from a local

59:59

attraction on the road. their rear fender and

1:00:01

according to the police,

1:00:04

they were not having it all at that point.

1:00:06

But his mom was beginning to worry about the

1:00:08

police's interest in Steven. By the time

1:00:10

the son was beginning to go

1:00:12

down, children were gossiping about Steven's

1:00:14

role in Lynn's disappearance. And

1:00:17

some families were already getting suspicious.

1:00:20

They knew that she'd less than seen at

1:00:22

the school the evening before riding off with

1:00:24

Steven and that he had said she got

1:00:26

into a car at the highway. At

1:00:29

supper time that Wednesday, Butch George claimed

1:00:31

he dropped by his friend Steven's house.

1:00:33

Steven denies this and the

1:00:35

supposed conversation with Butch never

1:00:37

happened. But Butch was very precise

1:00:40

about the details. He just kept

1:00:42

changing the time. He

1:00:44

would later say that the conversation had happened

1:00:46

at around five o'clock. But

1:00:48

five o'clock wouldn't make sense because the police

1:00:50

had been with Steven around the same time.

1:00:53

Regardless, Butch described this conversation as

1:00:55

being very damning for Steven. He

1:00:58

described Steven and him deciding that Butch

1:01:00

should lie about Steven's whereabouts with Lynn

1:01:03

on the evening she disappeared. And

1:01:05

he would later change the time of this

1:01:07

conversation as happening at 6pm, which

1:01:09

would clear up any discrepancies in the time line. So

1:01:13

on June 11, two days after

1:01:15

Lynn disappeared, searchers were out

1:01:17

looking for her. At 1.50pm

1:01:19

when the son was high overhead, Corporal

1:01:22

George Edens and his fellow airmen pushed

1:01:24

through the branches and bushes hoping that

1:01:26

they wouldn't find the little girl's body.

1:01:30

Edens was in the group assigned to search

1:01:32

the wooded area known as Lawson's Bush on

1:01:34

a farm next to the base. The

1:01:37

men walked in a straight line 20 feet

1:01:39

apart. For 30 minutes, they

1:01:41

slowly made their way through the bush. Then,

1:01:44

moving some branches and undergrowth out of

1:01:46

the way, Edens spotted Lynn's brown shoes.

1:01:50

Moments later, you saw a neat pile of

1:01:52

clothes lying in a little depression of Earth.

1:01:55

Then he turned and saw her body.

1:01:57

Now they knew that Lynn was dead.

1:02:05

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where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions. Eden's

1:03:43

was too stunned to even call out,

1:03:45

and another searcher came up behind him and

1:03:48

yelled out, shaking Eden's out of his shock.

1:03:51

Now everyone knew that Lynn

1:03:53

was not at her grandmother's house. She'd

1:03:55

been murdered, and she appeared to have

1:03:57

been sexually assaulted. Her body was in a

1:03:59

small... small hollow about six feet long

1:04:02

and fifteen inches deep behind a

1:04:04

cluster of five trees. Three

1:04:06

branches lay across her body. Six

1:04:08

to eight feet away, searchers saw

1:04:11

three freshly broken limbs from

1:04:13

other small ash trees. Her

1:04:15

body was about eighty feet from a

1:04:17

tractor trail and two hundred and eighty

1:04:19

feet from the busy county road. She

1:04:22

was on her back with her right leg

1:04:24

slightly turned and bent at the knee.

1:04:26

Her left leg was straight. Her left arm

1:04:29

lay across her chest and her right

1:04:31

arm was bent at the elbow, palm up

1:04:33

next to her head. The only clothing

1:04:35

covering her was her blood smeared undershirt which

1:04:37

was pulled up on her chest. The

1:04:40

sleeveless white blouse she had been wearing had

1:04:42

been ripped and yanked off. Her right

1:04:44

arm was still caught in the arm hole. The

1:04:47

ends of the blouse were rolled up and

1:04:49

tied tightly around her neck with a knot

1:04:51

under the left side of her jaw. There

1:04:54

was a small pool of blood about enough

1:04:56

to fill a tablespoon that had coagulated beneath

1:04:58

her left shoulder. So the

1:05:00

discovery of a twelve year old's nearly naked

1:05:02

body was way too gruesome for even some

1:05:05

of the experienced men to stomach. Her

1:05:07

face and body were swollen and

1:05:09

maggots and insects oozed out of her nose,

1:05:12

mouth and genitals. In shock

1:05:14

and horror, the researchers covered up her

1:05:16

body with their shirts and jackets. The

1:05:18

well-meaning men wanted to protect the young

1:05:20

girl's dignity, but in doing this, they

1:05:23

had compromised the crime scene and may

1:05:25

have even destroyed potential evidence. From

1:05:28

the start, the investigation into the murder of

1:05:30

Lynn Harper was mishandled. The

1:05:32

Ontario Provincial Police arrived just after

1:05:34

two. Donald Trumbly was joined by

1:05:37

Corporal Seo. Even for the

1:05:39

police, this murder of a young girl

1:05:41

is shocking. Still, the officers worked carefully

1:05:43

and were committed to find the killer

1:05:45

as soon as possible. The

1:05:47

Clinton coroner, Dr. Fred Thompson, was

1:05:50

there at 235, but he

1:05:52

was told not to do anything until the

1:05:54

regional pathologist arrived from Stratford. A

1:05:57

second doctor on the scene, Dr. David Hall

1:05:59

Brooks. formerly identified Lynn's

1:06:01

body. Brooks was a senior

1:06:03

medical officer at the base and lived across the

1:06:05

street from the Harpers. Lynn was

1:06:07

his daughter's Girl Guide patrol leader. So

1:06:10

of course the authorities had to notify

1:06:12

Lynn's parents. For almost two

1:06:14

days they've been hoping that their little girl

1:06:16

was just acting out and running away. According

1:06:20

to newspaper stories, her parents were

1:06:22

so distressed when they were notified

1:06:24

that doctors gave both parents sedatives.

1:06:27

While the Harpers grieved, the police examined

1:06:30

the crime scene. They took

1:06:32

photos of the body, the clothes, and

1:06:34

the surrounding area. They measured

1:06:36

where everything was and they took notes. Lynn's

1:06:39

turquoise shorts were right next to her

1:06:41

elbow and her shoes were about a

1:06:43

foot away. 15 inches

1:06:46

above her head they found her two

1:06:48

white socks and the red hairband. Her

1:06:51

underpants were much farther away, 38 feet and eight

1:06:54

inches. Police also found

1:06:57

a black comb 78 feet

1:06:59

away and in the field nearby

1:07:01

three pieces of Kleenex and two

1:07:03

Coke bottles. One empty and

1:07:05

one full, also part of an uneaten

1:07:07

hot dog from what appeared to be

1:07:09

where someone had had a picnic. What

1:07:12

was most surprising was the neat appearance

1:07:14

of the scene. The leaves and earth

1:07:17

around Lynn's body were undisturbed. No

1:07:19

scraped dirt or broken branches from a

1:07:21

violent struggle were there. Her underwear

1:07:24

had no rips or tears. Her shorts

1:07:26

were zipped up with no tears or

1:07:28

cuts. There were no apparent wounds

1:07:30

to her body except for a gash in

1:07:32

her left shoulder and she

1:07:34

had strangulation marks on her neck but

1:07:36

her killer had not broken her neck or

1:07:38

bludgeoned her head and the police

1:07:40

saw no weapons there. Two

1:07:42

of the branches that lay across her

1:07:45

body were crisscrossed over her chest and

1:07:47

extended up alongside her cheeks, framing

1:07:50

her face in a sort of V.

1:07:52

At trial, the prosecution would portray the

1:07:54

branches as a primitive attempt by a

1:07:56

frightened boy to cover up his crime.

1:07:58

But given that, That neat scene,

1:08:01

the branches, could also be interpreted as

1:08:03

some kind of twisted staging. The police

1:08:05

found no fingerprints on her body, her

1:08:07

clothes, or the tree branches, but

1:08:10

they didn't really have the technology to find

1:08:12

those prints at the time. Today

1:08:14

there are lasers that can identify prints

1:08:16

on skin and clothes, but in 1959

1:08:18

the only hope the

1:08:20

police had were Lynn's shoes, because

1:08:22

some types of leather could reveal prints.

1:08:25

But they had no luck with that either. Yeah,

1:08:27

and they didn't find any footprints in the

1:08:30

area. At 4.48

1:08:32

pm, Orpel Erskine took photos of marks

1:08:34

just below Lynn Harper's feet. One

1:08:37

was 10 inches long, the other 11 inches, both

1:08:39

of them about 1.8 to 1.25 inch deep. He

1:08:43

later described them as scuff marks that he could

1:08:45

not get a proper measurement on. Now,

1:08:48

none of the police reports on file mentioned

1:08:50

footprints found near the body. Strangely

1:08:52

though, three months later at the

1:08:54

trial, flying officer Glen Sage, supervising

1:08:57

the Air Force men at the site, said that

1:08:59

he had spotted a print about 2 or 3

1:09:01

inches from Lynn's left heel. You

1:09:04

could see the heel of wavy lines, as if

1:09:06

from a scraped saw, he would recall. Sage

1:09:08

would claim he even stopped a policeman

1:09:10

from inadvertently stepping on this evidence. He

1:09:13

said he was waiting for the police to

1:09:15

take a plaster cast of it, except they

1:09:17

never did that. Now, as Corporal

1:09:20

Erskine was taking pictures, Dr.

1:09:22

John Llewell in Peniston, the

1:09:24

district pathologist from Stratford, arrived.

1:09:28

Peniston was a graduate from the University of

1:09:30

London in England with a degree in medicine

1:09:32

and surgery. When Lynn's

1:09:34

body was moved, Peniston did not examine her

1:09:37

for any foreign hairs or fibers. The

1:09:40

pathologist collected his evidence, and

1:09:42

he completed his work in less than an hour.

1:09:45

Along the dirt tractor trail that ran along

1:09:47

the bush, the police and Air

1:09:50

Force officers found two different kinds

1:09:52

of tracks, a set

1:09:54

of fresh tire skid marks and

1:09:56

some old bicycle tracks. How

1:09:59

the police handled the this evidence really says

1:10:01

a lot about the tunnel vision that

1:10:03

quickly took over their investigation. Bicycle

1:10:06

tire marks that by all accounts were

1:10:08

at least a week old would become

1:10:10

in the eyes of the police and

1:10:12

the prosecution incriminating evidence

1:10:14

against Steven Trescott. On

1:10:17

the other hand they ignored and actually

1:10:19

kept hidden from the defense testimony

1:10:21

about fresh skid marks that possibly

1:10:24

pointed to an adult killer in

1:10:26

a vehicle. George Eden, the

1:10:28

airman who had found Lynn's body, walked

1:10:30

out of the bush along the tractor

1:10:32

trail and he saw a much fresher

1:10:35

set of car tracks where the dirt

1:10:37

trail met the pavement of the county

1:10:39

road. Two other airmen saw the same

1:10:41

thing. Now no police cars

1:10:43

had entered the laneway and the ambulance

1:10:45

hadn't arrived yet so it wasn't from

1:10:47

them. This really sounded like a promising

1:10:49

lead and even the newspapers thought so.

1:10:52

In the newspaper it was written, George

1:10:55

Eden said the murderer then backed his

1:10:57

car out of a field and his

1:10:59

skidding tires dug holes into the laneway

1:11:01

in a hasty flight upgrade to the

1:11:04

road. But that was the last public

1:11:06

mention of these tire tracks except for

1:11:08

a brief reference to them by

1:11:10

Eden's himself at the trial and

1:11:12

the police never pursued that lead.

1:11:14

The tire tracks spotted by Eden's

1:11:16

and his fellow airmen were quickly

1:11:18

dismissed as the police began their

1:11:20

narrow pursuit of their only suspect

1:11:22

and that of course was Steven

1:11:24

Truscott. So those tire tracks were never

1:11:27

checked to see if they were from a 59 Chevy

1:11:29

or anything. No and it sounds like

1:11:31

what Eden's was talking about, backing the

1:11:33

car out of the field and making

1:11:36

some skid marks. It sounds like it

1:11:38

should be investigated. Sounds like

1:11:40

a definite lead, yes. It sounds like a

1:11:42

strong lead. So Steven endured

1:11:44

five police interviews in just 24 hours. Police

1:11:48

came to the school to question him

1:11:50

and other students. The officers set up

1:11:52

an area in a teacher's room at

1:11:54

the school and the principal dutifully brought

1:11:56

them one student at a time, one

1:11:58

after another. The principal

1:12:00

did stay in the room as the

1:12:02

police questioned the kids. The most intriguing

1:12:04

information came from Gord Logan, a

1:12:07

12-year-old who had been fishing at the

1:12:09

swimming hole. He told Constable Hobbs he

1:12:11

saw both Lynn and Stephen on a

1:12:13

bicycle going toward the highway and that

1:12:15

Stephen returned and lingered at the bridge.

1:12:17

If true, this was a significant eyewitness

1:12:19

account. If Stephen crossed the river with

1:12:22

Lynn, then he couldn't have been in

1:12:24

the bush murdering her. This

1:12:26

eyewitness account which corroborated Stephen's story

1:12:29

was significant not only because of

1:12:31

what he said but when he said it,

1:12:33

was still only Thursday morning. This

1:12:35

was before the body was found and

1:12:37

there would be no point in him making up a

1:12:40

story or lying. And later when Gord's

1:12:42

statement became the central part of Stephen's defense,

1:12:45

a prosecution would try to suggest he

1:12:47

made up the story to protect Stephen,

1:12:49

conveniently forgetting that Gord first made his

1:12:51

statement before any cover-up would be necessary.

1:12:54

The two other students also said they had

1:12:56

seen Stephen and Lynn that evening. Richard

1:12:58

Gilatley told the police he passed them on his

1:13:01

bike near the school about 7.30 the

1:13:04

same time he would stick to in all of

1:13:06

his statements but a time which

1:13:08

the police and later the prosecution would

1:13:10

find inconvenient for their case against Stephen.

1:13:13

Even more inconvenient was what Butch

1:13:15

George told Hobbs that Thursday morning.

1:13:18

Butch said that when he was down at

1:13:20

the river, he saw Lynn and Stephen on

1:13:22

the bicycle going toward the highway, which his

1:13:25

statement to the police was one he was going

1:13:27

to have to retract once he became

1:13:29

a star witness for the prosecution. And he

1:13:31

was. So at the end of

1:13:33

school that Thursday, the searchers had already found

1:13:35

the body of Lynn Harper. She had been

1:13:37

sexually assaulted and strangled. Stephen Tresca

1:13:40

was quickly arrested. Investigators

1:13:43

called in Criminal Investigations Branch Inspector

1:13:45

Harold Graham to run the case.

1:13:48

He had been praised as an

1:13:50

outstanding investigator who had already solved

1:13:52

dozens of murder cases. The

1:13:55

community's reaction to Stephen's arrest was

1:13:57

mostly relief. Many were relieved.

1:14:00

that he was a local kid and

1:14:02

not a serviceman and the military

1:14:04

were spared this embarrassment. But the

1:14:06

police really didn't have much of

1:14:08

a case, just circumstantial evidence and

1:14:10

contradictory testimony. Yeah, for a

1:14:12

motive, the police used a story from

1:14:14

Jocelyn Gaudette about having a secret

1:14:17

date planned with Stephen in the bush. So

1:14:20

if Jocelyn couldn't make it, Stephen must

1:14:22

have taken Lynn in order to satisfy

1:14:24

his need for sex. But

1:14:26

no one could collaborate Jocelyn's story. Still,

1:14:28

this became important evidence at the trial.

1:14:31

Jocelyn would testify that she had stopped

1:14:33

by Farmer Bob Lawson's farm for about

1:14:35

an hour and a half. But Lawson

1:14:37

told police that she had just stopped

1:14:39

by for a few minutes and

1:14:41

that she had later come to him and tried

1:14:43

to get him to change his times to match

1:14:46

what she had told the police. And

1:14:48

he told her he couldn't do that.

1:14:50

Later police notes would show that Jocelyn

1:14:52

had changed her story many times. Soon

1:14:55

after Stephen was jailed, his father, Dan,

1:14:57

got news that would make defending Stephen

1:15:00

even more difficult. The family

1:15:02

was asked to move off the base. It

1:15:04

wasn't a direct order, but it was presented

1:15:06

as something that would be best for everybody.

1:15:09

The Air Force transferred Dan to a base

1:15:11

near Ottawa, about 350 miles

1:15:14

away. That's really just

1:15:16

cruel. Isn't that horrible? Hard for Doris

1:15:18

not to think that her family was a

1:15:20

victim of injustice by the higher-ups. And this

1:15:22

was because Stephen was not the son of

1:15:25

an officer. Well, absolutely.

1:15:27

His 14-year-old son is in

1:15:29

jail there and they're going

1:15:31

to make him move 350 miles away.

1:15:33

It just seems like they're

1:15:35

really railroading that kid. Yes. The Air

1:15:37

Force seemed more eager even than the

1:15:39

police to prove that Stephen was guilty,

1:15:42

but the trust guts weren't going to

1:15:44

abandon their son. Doris and

1:15:46

the kids moved into a trailer in

1:15:48

a park not far from the Godrich

1:15:50

jail where Stephen was being held. Ken,

1:15:52

Stephen's older brother, took a job at

1:15:55

a local Pepsi bottling plant. To

1:15:57

catch a glimpse of his brother, Ken scaled a

1:16:00

near the prison wall and he was just

1:16:02

high enough to see Stephen through the window

1:16:04

of his cell block but someone saw him

1:16:06

and reported it and Stephen was soon moved

1:16:08

to a window list zone. Seems

1:16:11

really cruel to this family. You

1:16:13

have to wonder if the father was an

1:16:15

officer maybe this would have gone differently. If

1:16:17

it was the opposite and Lynn was just

1:16:20

a working man's daughter and

1:16:22

Stephen was an officer's son. Well

1:16:24

you know how that would end up. How would that end up?

1:16:26

It wouldn't be charged. Okay.

1:16:29

Well unless he was guilty but I just don't

1:16:31

see anything here telling us that he did it.

1:16:34

No. Inspector Graham arrives in Clinton

1:16:36

on Thursday, June 11th at 7.45 in the

1:16:39

evening. He

1:16:41

met with the investigators who had been handling

1:16:43

the case so far to get familiar with

1:16:45

it. Stephen Truscott was not

1:16:47

as strong a suspect originally because of

1:16:49

the conflicting stories we had obtained in

1:16:52

our early attempts to find Lynn Harper, Graham

1:16:54

said later. A heinous crime was

1:16:57

uncovered in the bush that day near

1:16:59

Clinton, Ontario. It was not the type

1:17:01

of crime an investigator would automatically attribute

1:17:04

to a 14-year-old boy but

1:17:06

whether the person is 14 or 49 the

1:17:08

investigator has the right and in fact

1:17:11

a responsibility to talk to

1:17:13

anyone who he feels may be able to

1:17:15

assist him in determining the truth. Well

1:17:17

they didn't follow that guide. No. No

1:17:19

they didn't. Sure you have to follow that

1:17:22

but you can't pick and choose. The

1:17:24

police's statement gave the description of the car a

1:17:26

1959 Chevy and

1:17:29

not specifically a Bel Air, the model

1:17:31

that the police would later say Stephen

1:17:33

had identified. The color was

1:17:36

also vague gray or white. Only

1:17:38

the yellow plates were per se. Already

1:17:40

Stephen's report of some sort of yellow or

1:17:43

orange marker on the rear of the car

1:17:45

had been fixed in the police lines as

1:17:47

license plates and the time of

1:17:49

Lynn's death would become one of their biggest

1:17:51

issues. It's a vital clue

1:17:54

in the early stages of a murder investigation

1:17:56

because it helps police narrow the

1:17:58

potential suspects. was initially

1:18:00

sure that Lynn's murder was believed to

1:18:03

have taken place around 9pm on Tuesday,

1:18:05

June 10th. Well, first of all, Graham

1:18:07

must have gotten his dates confused because

1:18:09

Tuesday was the 9th of June, not

1:18:11

the 10th, but then selecting 9pm as

1:18:13

the time of death was really going

1:18:16

to create a problem for his investigation,

1:18:19

because we know that Stephen had been safe

1:18:21

at home babysitting by that time. But,

1:18:23

any reference to the 9pm time

1:18:25

of death soon disappeared from the

1:18:28

police case history once they had

1:18:30

Stephen arrested, and at trial the

1:18:32

prosecutor made sure the defense and

1:18:34

the jurors never saw Graham's initial

1:18:37

report. So, that's not kosher.

1:18:40

No, he's not supposed to do that. Not

1:18:42

at all. The medical examiner's analysis

1:18:44

of the contents of Lynn's stomach

1:18:46

was the focal point for the

1:18:48

exact determination of her time of death.

1:18:51

His determination about that time of

1:18:53

death was crucial in convicting Stephen

1:18:55

Trescott. But, oddly, for all

1:18:57

its importance, the medical examiner gave

1:18:59

little focus to the stomach in

1:19:01

his autopsy report, writing

1:19:03

content of approximately one pint

1:19:05

of poorly masticated, only slightly

1:19:08

digested food, including

1:19:10

peas, onion, corn. Even

1:19:12

more disturbing is how the medical examiner

1:19:14

determined this list of contents. According

1:19:17

to his assistant, the two of them poured the

1:19:19

contents into a jar and then studied it by

1:19:21

holding the jar up to the light to see

1:19:23

what we could see. That

1:19:26

doesn't seem very scientific. Well, it's because

1:19:28

it isn't. No. So, this

1:19:30

opinion, the ME wrote, would place

1:19:32

the time of death between 715 and 745 on 9th June 1959. Very

1:19:39

specific. Yeah. Crazy specific,

1:19:41

I would say. Well, and

1:19:43

we know now, and they probably knew that,

1:19:46

that looking at the stomach contents and examining

1:19:48

them is not a good way to determine

1:19:50

the time of death. Well, they

1:19:52

should have known, especially to such

1:19:54

a specific timeframe. Yeah. But

1:19:57

at trial, the prosecution would claim that if there was

1:19:59

a term... point in the

1:20:01

police investigation into accident

1:20:36

but time of death really isn't Variables,

1:21:05

M.E. Dr. John Peniston, managed

1:21:07

to pinpoint a time of

1:21:09

death with absolute precision.

1:21:12

It's difficult to believe that a doctor

1:21:14

holding a jar of stomach contents up

1:21:16

to a light bulb would determine almost

1:21:19

to the minute the only possible time

1:21:21

Steven Trusca would have to kill Lynn.

1:21:23

And evidence would later indicate that Dr.

1:21:25

Peniston, in coming to such exact conclusions

1:21:28

about the time of death, may

1:21:30

have been eager to help the prosecution to

1:21:32

get a conviction. with

1:22:00

and keep the military out of it.

1:22:02

Maybe they knew more than we know

1:22:04

they knew. So Stephen has

1:22:06

tried as an adult and he is eligible

1:22:08

for the death penalty which is legal in

1:22:11

Canada at the time and would be carried

1:22:13

out by hanging. Stephen's trial

1:22:15

began in September of 1959. Much

1:22:18

of the testimony came from children. Many

1:22:20

of them gave conflicting accounts. The

1:22:23

star witnesses for the prosecution were

1:22:25

Bush George and Jocelyn Godette. We

1:22:28

both changed their stories multiple times.

1:22:31

Well you know even back in the late 50s

1:22:33

there were experts on interviewing children but none

1:22:35

of them were sought out or used at

1:22:37

all. Remember some of

1:22:39

these kids were 9 or 10 years old

1:22:41

so easily manipulated. Oh sure.

1:22:44

So the other leading issue brought forth

1:22:46

by the prosecution was the science which

1:22:48

has now been debunked. Determining Lynn's time

1:22:51

of death down to 30 minutes is

1:22:53

impossible but at the time of the

1:22:55

trial it was apparently enough. The

1:22:58

trial took 15 days. The prosecution

1:23:00

asserted that Lynn was a cautious

1:23:02

girl who did not hitchhike. It

1:23:05

alleged that Stephen sexually assaulted her, strangled

1:23:07

her with her blouse and then laid

1:23:09

a few tree branches on her to

1:23:12

cover her remains. They highlighted

1:23:14

a series of apparently inconsistent statements

1:23:16

that Stephen had made in his

1:23:19

statements to police as

1:23:21

well as the existence of two

1:23:23

mysterious abrasions on his penis. So

1:23:26

while first in custody a family physician

1:23:28

had been brought in to examine Stephen

1:23:31

who had no scratches or injuries to his body

1:23:33

at all but the doctor

1:23:35

had noticed two small abrasions on

1:23:38

Stephen's penis. For whatever

1:23:40

reason the doctor had indicated that

1:23:42

these abrasions could have been made

1:23:44

by sexually penetrating the victim in

1:23:46

a rape. Stephen

1:23:48

had claimed that he had had these abrasions for

1:23:50

a couple of weeks and didn't know their origin.

1:23:53

It's believed that these abrasions were

1:23:55

actually exaggerated and used to humiliate

1:23:58

Stephen. When the doctor at the jail

1:24:00

examined Steven just days after that

1:24:02

other doctor had. He noted no

1:24:04

abrasions on Steven's penis at all

1:24:07

but this record would never come

1:24:09

out at the trial. Steven's defense

1:24:11

lawyer Frank Donnelly maintained that Lynn

1:24:13

had dismounted from Steven's handlebars hundreds

1:24:16

of meters past the entrance to

1:24:18

the tractor trail where her body had

1:24:20

been found making it very unlikely that

1:24:22

Steven had taken her all the way

1:24:24

back to the tractor trail site in

1:24:26

order to kill her. Both the

1:24:28

prosecution and defense used the children's accounts

1:24:31

of that evening to bolster their own

1:24:33

determinations about the timing of the event.

1:24:36

Although the children who backed up the

1:24:38

prosecution's case had serious

1:24:40

credibility issues, they were

1:24:43

given more credit by the jury than

1:24:45

the children who had seen Steven and

1:24:47

Lynn cross the bridge past the tractor

1:24:49

trail and had seen Steven

1:24:51

alone right after dropping Lynn off near

1:24:53

the highway. So it did not

1:24:55

go well for the defense to put

1:24:57

it mildly. Yes, Steven was found

1:25:00

guilty on September 30th. His

1:25:02

conviction and death sentence shocked many of

1:25:04

the public. One year later,

1:25:06

the federal government commuted his sentence

1:25:08

to life with a 10- year

1:25:10

parole eligibility period. His

1:25:13

1960 appeal to the Supreme Court

1:25:15

of Canada was rejected. In

1:25:17

May 1967, new forensic evidence was

1:25:20

presented and Steven testified before the

1:25:22

Supreme Court of Canada. He and

1:25:24

25 other witnesses testified.

1:25:27

After a two-week hearing, the court ruled 8

1:25:29

to 1 against Steven getting a new trial.

1:25:32

The judges stated that they simply didn't

1:25:34

believe Steven's testimony. In

1:25:36

1969, there were 10 years

1:25:38

out. Yeah. Steven was released

1:25:41

on parole and he

1:25:43

lived in Kingston with his parole officer. He

1:25:45

then lived in Vancouver for a short time

1:25:47

before he settled in Gulf under a new

1:25:49

name. In 1974, he was released

1:25:53

from the terms and conditions of his

1:25:55

parole. He married and he and his

1:25:57

wife raised three children together. and

1:26:00

Clinton closed in 1971, but

1:26:03

before it closed, the senior Air Force

1:26:05

officer made a discovery that would

1:26:07

really raise serious questions about the

1:26:09

integrity of the investigation. A

1:26:12

misplaced psychiatric file from

1:26:14

1959 reported on a man

1:26:16

who was a sexual predator and

1:26:18

sounded like a killer. The file

1:26:20

would disappear again, but it was

1:26:22

retrieved in the Ottawa National Archives

1:26:25

years later, and it was part

1:26:27

of a 900-page dossier on

1:26:29

a Sergeant Alexander Kalichuk. At

1:26:31

35 years old, Kalichuk was a Sergeant in

1:26:34

the Air Force. He was

1:26:36

stationed in Almer after seven years at

1:26:38

the Clinton base. This troubled

1:26:40

man had a long history of

1:26:42

sexual and alcohol problems. Back

1:26:46

in 1950, Kalichuk was charged

1:26:48

with an unspecified, indecent act

1:26:50

in Trenton. He paid a $10 fine

1:26:52

and $39 in cost. He

1:26:56

had a conviction for drunkenness in

1:26:58

1952, but military records

1:27:00

indicate his sexual misbehavior

1:27:02

continued. One report

1:27:05

refers to a similar incident of

1:27:07

exposure in Seaforth. The

1:27:09

documents also mention a case in family

1:27:11

court that was dismissed, but

1:27:13

not before the authorities recommended

1:27:16

treatment, quote, before the airman

1:27:18

finds himself in severe difficulties.

1:27:21

So Kalichuk finished grade nine and

1:27:23

he worked briefly as a farm

1:27:25

laborer and a bulldozer operator. Then

1:27:27

he was in the Air Force from 1941 to 1946. Then

1:27:31

again from 1950 to 1955. He

1:27:35

briefly left the military to take a civil

1:27:37

service examination, but he failed and he reenlisted

1:27:39

in the Air Force by the end of

1:27:42

1955. Then

1:27:44

from 1950 until August of 1957, Kalichuk worked at Clinton. His

1:27:51

last summer there, he may have crossed

1:27:53

paths with Lynn Harper's father, Leslie, who

1:27:55

ran the supply department. Even

1:27:57

when he was transferred to Almer about an hour later, he was in the Air Force.

1:28:00

away, Kellychuk never went too far

1:28:02

from Clinton. He lived on

1:28:04

a farm about 12 miles off the base,

1:28:06

and neighbors remembered his wife as a

1:28:09

great cook, a wonderful woman, and a

1:28:11

hard worker. But her husband

1:28:13

had a reputation as a silent

1:28:15

drinker. Kellychuk's wife had two older

1:28:17

children from a previous marriage who

1:28:20

both hated their stepfather. A stepdaughter

1:28:23

who was 19 in 1959

1:28:26

said that he was sleazy and he gave her the

1:28:28

creeps, and it didn't surprise her

1:28:30

that he had tried to lure girls into

1:28:32

his car. Now, if Inspector

1:28:34

Graham had investigated Lynn's case more

1:28:36

thoroughly, it's likely he would have

1:28:39

uncovered the case of Kellychuk, who tried to

1:28:41

pick up little girls less than three weeks

1:28:43

before Lynn went missing. On

1:28:45

May 21, 1959, 10-year-old

1:28:48

Nancy Davidson was walking back from school with

1:28:50

two of her friends on a quiet country

1:28:52

road about an hour's drive from Clinton. The

1:28:54

girls noticed a car pull up and stop

1:28:56

when the first girl went off to her

1:28:59

house. Then, after the second girl

1:29:01

had left, Nancy was alone. As she got

1:29:03

close to her home, a strange man in

1:29:05

the car pulled up beside her and asked

1:29:07

her if there was a creek nearby that

1:29:10

was good fishing. But then he asked her

1:29:12

if she would get into his car. He

1:29:14

wanted her to pick out the prettiest present he

1:29:16

said, showing her panties that he had in the

1:29:18

car. Is that something that would lure

1:29:20

someone into the car? Not to make

1:29:23

fun of it because it's horrible, but isn't it

1:29:25

usually candy or a puppy? Panties?

1:29:28

That's just very bizarre. He had to work

1:29:30

with, I guess. He must have been drunk.

1:29:32

Fortunately, Nancy's father approached in his car and

1:29:34

Nancy was able to run to safety. Nancy

1:29:36

told her father what the man had done

1:29:38

and said to her. Her parents called the

1:29:40

police who located the man not far away

1:29:42

and brought him back to the Davidsons. He

1:29:44

denied it and Nancy called him a liar.

1:29:46

Good for her. The police found

1:29:49

alcohol and a bag full of panties

1:29:51

under his front seat. They arrested him

1:29:53

on charges of contributing to the delinquency

1:29:55

of a minor. Now, you

1:29:57

think they could do better charges than that, like a... Yeah.

1:30:02

So the magistrate dismissed the charges for

1:30:04

lack of conclusive evidence. Bullshit.

1:30:06

But warned the Air Force of his suspicions.

1:30:09

Right. Kalachuk paid a

1:30:11

fine for illegal possession of liquor.

1:30:13

Nancy's father remembered one of the

1:30:15

officers telling him, he might have got

1:30:17

away with it here, but he'll be looked after by

1:30:19

the Air Force. Sure. And

1:30:21

just 11 days later, Lynn Harper disappeared. So

1:30:25

he seems like a better suspect than Steven

1:30:27

Truscott. Well, at the very least,

1:30:29

it seems like you need to investigate. Exactly.

1:30:32

At least look into his whereabouts and everything

1:30:34

and rule him out. Yeah.

1:30:36

But Steven Truscott and his family maintained

1:30:38

a low profile until the year 2000,

1:30:42

when an interview on CBC television

1:30:44

show, The Fifth Estate, covered his

1:30:46

case and brought some more public

1:30:48

attention to it. In

1:30:50

November of 2001, the Association in

1:30:52

Defense of the Wrongly Convicted filed

1:30:55

an appeal to have Steven's case

1:30:57

reopened. A review began

1:30:59

in January of 2002. Then

1:31:02

it took until 2006 when

1:31:04

Lynn's body was exhumed in order to test

1:31:06

for DNA. But no

1:31:08

usable DNA was recovered. So

1:31:11

Steven's conviction went before the Court of Appeals

1:31:13

for Ontario in June of 2006. The

1:31:17

five judge panel heard three weeks

1:31:19

of testimony and new evidence. Then

1:31:22

in 2007, the Court of Appeal

1:31:24

asked retired officer Hank Seu, who

1:31:27

had assisted Inspector Graham, why

1:31:29

the police had never considered a

1:31:31

sexual psychopath could be responsible for

1:31:34

Lynn's murder, before narrowing their focus

1:31:36

on Steven. And Seu said

1:31:38

he couldn't recall. So it

1:31:40

was in August, August 28, 2007, when

1:31:44

the Court of Appeal finally acquitted

1:31:46

Steven Truscott of the murder charge.

1:31:49

Although they issued an acquittal, they said

1:31:51

that they were not able to declare

1:31:53

Steven factually innocent of the crime. The

1:31:56

Attorney General of Ontario apologized to Steven for

1:31:58

the miscarriage of the crime. of justice.

1:32:01

The identity of Lynn's real killer will

1:32:03

likely never be known. The court of

1:32:06

appeals speculated that the crime scene pointed

1:32:08

to someone else besides Stephen though. Lynn's

1:32:11

bare feet and lay glass aerations didn't

1:32:13

make sense if Stephen had

1:32:15

lured her into the bush voluntarily. The

1:32:18

fact that there was no struggle, the

1:32:20

use of her blouse as a garat, and

1:32:23

sex while she was dead or dying seems

1:32:25

out of place with a 14-year-old schoolboy

1:32:28

whose sexual advances were rebuffed by a

1:32:30

12-year-old classmate. It looks a lot more

1:32:32

like the work of a sexual deviant.

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life. Understandably,

1:34:19

Lynn's family remained convinced of Steven's

1:34:21

guilt. Barry Harper, Lynn's older

1:34:23

brother, said in 2002 that

1:34:26

he did not believe Lynn had ever hitchhiked,

1:34:29

despite testimony to the contrary from

1:34:31

Lynn's close friends and the

1:34:33

statements his parents gave to the police on the

1:34:35

night Lynn disappeared. After the Attorney

1:34:38

General made his apology, Steven Cheskett said, I

1:34:40

don't really feel that the apology was sincere.

1:34:42

For the past four years they've had the

1:34:44

same evidence as what the judges have had,

1:34:47

and they chose to fight us every step

1:34:49

of the way. If the Crown chooses not

1:34:51

to think about justice, it would almost appear

1:34:53

that they are more interested in convictions. I

1:34:56

think that's pretty mild for him to

1:34:58

say. That's reasonable, for

1:35:00

sure. Very powerful words. Yes,

1:35:03

Steven's acquittal would likely have never come without

1:35:06

his wife Marlene's determination and hard work. From

1:35:08

the time she learned about his case back

1:35:10

in 1966, she believed he was innocent.

1:35:15

When she married Steven, she vowed that she would make

1:35:17

sure he had a family and would

1:35:19

live a normal life. She had also promised

1:35:21

herself that she would do everything possible to

1:35:23

correct the mistake which occurred in 1959. Yes,

1:35:27

so Steven's case did help to abolish

1:35:29

the death penalty and changed Canada's justice

1:35:32

system. He and his wife are really

1:35:34

remarkable, though, in their determination and their

1:35:36

strength through all this. All

1:35:38

Steven ever wanted was his good name

1:35:41

back. He was able to regain his

1:35:43

physical freedom, but freedom from the stigma

1:35:45

and shame that came with being a

1:35:47

convicted murderer never was given

1:35:49

to him. He lived with that. He

1:35:51

was awarded $6.5 million in compensation

1:35:54

by the Ontario government in 2008, and

1:35:56

part of that he used to start

1:35:58

the Trust Get initiative in justice

1:36:01

studies at the University of Gulf

1:36:03

funding two scholarships for students in

1:36:05

the field. But the sad part

1:36:08

here is we're never going to know who did it. No.

1:36:10

And once you're convicted, it always hangs over

1:36:12

you. That's the thing. Yeah, unless

1:36:15

you have absolutely uncontested evidence

1:36:17

to the contrary. Right,

1:36:19

like DNA and someone else that's arrested

1:36:21

and convicted. Right. But that's not going

1:36:23

to happen. No. No, unless

1:36:26

somebody on their deathbed confesses.

1:36:28

Yes, but it was 1959. So we're kind

1:36:30

of running out of time for that to

1:36:32

happen. We are. Yeah. Anyone who was an

1:36:35

adult in 1959, a lot

1:36:37

of them aren't around anymore. No, they aren't.

1:36:39

Nope. Because that is

1:36:42

60 some years ago, right? Right. Yeah. 64 years,

1:36:45

right? Good.

1:36:47

Good at math. Right.

1:36:50

So, yeah, if you were in

1:36:52

your 20s, you'd be late 80s. Right.

1:36:54

Yeah. So, yeah, it's not going to happen. No,

1:36:56

it's not going to happen. It's just a really

1:36:59

sad thing. But at least he didn't

1:37:01

get killed. I mean, he was set up to

1:37:03

be hung. So thank God that didn't

1:37:05

happen. He was fortunate there. Yes. And

1:37:07

he must have been an okay prisoner because

1:37:09

he was paroled after 10 years. Yeah.

1:37:12

Well, a lot of people did believe him

1:37:14

and support him, you know? There were people

1:37:16

who wrote poems, wrote plays, there were movies.

1:37:19

And of course, there was his wife Marlene

1:37:21

who came along and was a huge supporter.

1:37:23

She was tireless. Yes. Yeah. Those

1:37:26

two really in love. It's

1:37:35

time for listener feedback. All

1:37:50

right, Dickey, let's do a little feedback. Okay.

1:37:52

I got you just some

1:37:55

voicemails today. One voicemail. A couple

1:37:57

voicemails. One of them is going to give

1:37:59

you three... suggestions. Very

1:38:01

generous. Okay and who's that

1:38:04

from? That's from Matt from Australia.

1:38:06

He has three cases that he thought

1:38:08

we might be interested in. Alright let's

1:38:10

hear Matt's voicemail. Morning

1:38:13

guys this is Matt from New

1:38:15

South Wales Australia. Just want

1:38:17

to thank you for the sniffer

1:38:19

and the little handwritten note from

1:38:21

your Jill. Another little

1:38:23

biddies and pieces that are on my fridge.

1:38:26

Anyway got a couple of case suggestions for

1:38:29

you. First one is a brand new one in Gimpy

1:38:32

Queensland. A woman by the name of

1:38:34

Sharon Graham 63 has been found guilty

1:38:37

of having her lover

1:38:39

Bruce James fed into a wood

1:38:41

chipper to gain $750,000 in life

1:38:45

insurance. It's pretty interesting

1:38:48

because the two guys that she had put

1:38:50

him in the wood chipper she was also

1:38:52

romantically involved with. And then there's

1:38:54

another one for you Dick. Well you just love

1:38:56

this anyway. The butcher

1:38:58

of Bundaberg, Jayant

1:39:01

Patel J-A-Y-A-N-T-P-A-T-E-L is

1:39:04

a surgeon working at Bundaberg based

1:39:06

hospital. He was convicted of

1:39:09

three counts of manslaughter. He got seven years

1:39:11

and then all his convictions

1:39:13

were quashed. Caused major outrage in

1:39:16

the community. Well sort of around Australia

1:39:18

really. And then I've got another one

1:39:20

one that was known as the Granny

1:39:22

Killers. John Wayne Glover

1:39:24

between 1989 and

1:39:27

1990. Six women aged

1:39:29

60 to 93. He was

1:39:31

found guilty of murdering. He got

1:39:34

consecutive life terms but he hung

1:39:36

himself in prison in 2005. Gutless

1:39:38

way out.

1:39:41

But anyway I finally listened

1:39:43

to everything and caught up with it. Every

1:39:46

podcast that you've done.

1:39:48

Been on the road for hours and hours and hours.

1:39:51

Yeah it keeps me awake. It keeps me alive. And

1:39:54

all I can do is shake my head at some

1:39:56

of the stories. It's just unbelievable. Anyway guys

1:39:58

keep up the good work and a

1:40:00

lineup. Okay,

1:40:03

thank you Matt. Sounds like Matt was

1:40:05

at work or something. Something was going on

1:40:07

there but that's okay. I love to

1:40:10

get a voicemail. So the first case

1:40:12

was Sharon Graham, a

1:40:14

woman accused and convicted in the

1:40:16

murder of her lover-slash-fiance Bruce Saunders

1:40:18

with the help of her two

1:40:20

boyfriends. Saunders was beaten

1:40:22

with a crowbar then fed

1:40:24

into an industrial size wood chipper. So

1:40:26

we've got kind of shades of Fargo

1:40:29

here. Yes we do it. Although