1970 Ontario Serial Murders Investigation: The Gormley Cold Case | 72 Hours | Real Crime

They say the past is another field, life was different then, in rural Ontario, a man went to work in the morning hoping his wife and son would be safe and sound when he returned home, chaos was something that happened in other people's lives anywhere else except this In early spring, a family's life and the entire community's sense of security will be shattered forever in True Crime. The

investigation

and conviction can take years, but every detective knows that the crucial clue is always there somewhere in the first 72

hours

. Nobody should die that way. I have never seen anything so horrible.

One of the duties of a pathologist is to determine the cause of death. Watch it on mobile devices or on the big screen. All free. No subscription required. Download V now. Make sure you like it. And subscribe. Gormley Ontario

1970

Local police respond to an emergency call retired police chief Don HCK still remembers it even though it was over 30 years ago when I arrived I found a husband at home very distraught very upset and inside the house was uh his wife in a pool of blood was a nightstand that had a pretty sharp corner and the doctor figured maybe she had fallen against it and cracked the back of her head.

Kathleen Philcox's body is taken to hospital for an autopsy to establish the cause of death. Detective h SCS her husband. Lester and asks him to describe what he saw when he came home. It was weird. He says the front door was locked, like most people in the area. He and his wife never locked the door, then he

real

ized the phone was off the hook. kitchen at the end of the hall in the bedroom he did the terrible Detective Discovery hilik is a police officer in a small town where violent

crime

s are extremely rare he has never seen anything like this before and yet he is thinking that this may not have been an accident I had the feeling like it was a fall game that's what I thought the next morning the autopsy confirms detective's suspicions Kathleen Philov had been raped and shot to death the pathologist recovers 7 .22 caliber bullets two from her back five from her head for the detective the fact that seven bullets I don't think anyone under those circumstances reloaded, so it immediately makes me think it was a nine-shot revolver.

HCK hopes his assumption will help them zero in on a nine-shot suspect. Shot 22 is a very unusual weapon that you call later on the same day, Don Hilik returns to Phil Cox's house. Investigators scour the bedroom looking for clues, dusting for fingerprints, collecting blood, fibers and hair, which is why you were saying you came home. Detective HCK needs more information from Lester. cars, he claims that he dropped his wife off at home at 8:00 a.m. m. and he was at school all day teaching her story. verifies that the police need to expand their

investigation

from the beginning we had to verify neighbors, friends, associates, uh, family, it was difficult we had to prove where they were and their alibi the police interrogate everyone in the community and ask the men to the area a blood sample.

Your samples will be compared to the blood type of the attacker in

1970

. DNA testing has not yet been invented. The labs use what is known as a blood typing system, a simple method that cannot positively identify the killer, it simply narrows down potential suspects. Seaman's sample from the victim shows that the attacker has type A blood. Days into the investigation, Hilik and his partner are still canvassing the community, but many residents of the area are so shocked by the murder that they are not making it easy. , they wouldn't come to the door if you were dressed in civilian clothes.

What we did was talk to people through an upstairs window, most of the time in your house. it's overrun and getting shot so many times in a rural area was just hard to believe a lot of people started going out and getting guns, learned how to shoot guns, people were scared 13 days after Kathleen Philco was murdered, police still have no suspects serious then the police get a call from a scared boy he found his mother on the floor she's not breathing and a strange man just ran out of his house a second murder this time the Ontario Provincial Police takes the

case

detective Don mcneel speaks with Ben Rickman, 8 years old, Ben tells the detective what he remembers being in his room playing when his mother opened the door, his mother came into the room and told him that there was a gentleman there who had a sick child.

In the car he had to use the phone later, he heard what he thought were fireworks in the house and went and found his mother lying on the ground. Ben saw blood on the back of his shirt. But he didn't understand what had happened. That's when he heard someone behind him. The man looked him directly in the eyes. Elaine Rickman is pronounced dead at the scene and taken to the morgue. The autopsy reveals that she was killed by three gunshot wounds, two to the head. and one on his back. LAN Rickman had also been raped. Biologists determined from the sailors that the killer was blood type A, and forensic analysis of the three bullets shows they were fired from the same .22-caliber pistol that killed Kathleen Philcox.

A clear link between the two

murders

Detective McNeel has to consider a disturbing hypothesis that some people were thinking right: This is our first

serial

killer in Ontario, if he is a

serial

killer, will the police be able to catch him before he attacks? new? two women have been Brutally raped and murdered Ontario police fear they are dealing with their first serial killer. Detective Mcneel returns to the Rickman house with the police artist. The victim's son, Ben, describes the man he saw, but the vicious attack has had a chilling effect on Ben's father. He looked into the eyes of his mother's killer and his father fears that he is no longer safe at home.

His father sends Ben to stay with relatives, meanwhile, the Ontario Provincial Police created a task force and organized the largest manhunt the province has ever seen. As a result of the uh bulletin that was published and published in the newspapers, a minimum of 5,000 uh tips came in that had to be reviewed as the task force follows up on each tip. Mcneel tries to find a common link between the two. murder victims both victims were nurses if they had worked in the same hospital if they had gone to training together and we could not find any common denominator where both women knew each other both husbands were school teachers and the same again there was no known contact between both families a Despite the uncanny similarities in the lives of the two families, the police are unable to establish any direct connection between them that could aid in their Manhunt.

The weeks stretch into months. The public's leads dry up and the investigation slows after a year of the task force. is dissolved but the

case

remains open 3 years after the unexpected

murders

there is a break in the case mcneel receives an anonymous call telling the police to investigate a man named Scott Wilson apparently Wilson confessed to a friend that he was involved in something terrible Around the time of the murders it came to light a gentleman who had been acting strangely and as a result of acting strangely ended up in a mental institution with Scott Wilson in an institution, the police made a trip to his property right at the end on the street where one of the murders occurred, they don't find anyone around, but the shed door is open.

They find a child's coffin clearly made by hand. They also find a collection of weapons, including a 7.7mm rifle, not the .22 caliber they are looking for. there is only evidence that the man has a taste for unusual weapons detective mcneel visits wilson in the psychiatric hospital he has a mental disorder caused by years of excessive alcohol consumption he is said to have always been an angry and violent drunk t when mcneel interviews Nothing he says makes sense to Wilson, it's frustrating, but Mcneel gets Wilson to give him a saliva sample to determine his blood type. Police also take a hair sample in hopes that it matches a hair found at the

crime

scene.

The results come from saliva. Wilson is blood type A, just like the murderer. The police also discover that he was not at work on the days of any of the murders and during the time he was in the Psychiatric Hospital there have been no other murders in the area. With the evidence they have gathered, the police believe they could obtain a conviction, but there is the problem that Scott Wilson is not fit to stand trial, so although the case is still officially open, the police believe they have found his killer. and stops the investigation, but in

real

ity it will take Mcneel more than 20 years to close this case. 20 years during which forensic technology is revolutionized with the advent of DNA testing 20 years during which Don Mcneel rises through the ranks of the opp in 1995 he was put in charge of

cold

cases at that particular time one of the family members I had written a letter and wanted to know what the status was regarding the investigation and I volunteered because I knew many of the details of the case.

McNeil's prime suspect more than 20 years ago. Scott Wilson died a long time ago from brain cancer. At that time he could not absolutely prove that Wilson was the murderer. Now with DNA testing he believes he can finally close the case. Mcneel sends the hair and saliva samples they took from Wilson to the lab. Here biologists will try to compare Wilson's DNA with DNA obtained from the Seaman killer's sample, one of the problems whenever dealing with old cases like these is how the evidence has been preserved or, indeed, whether it has been preserved. , in this case the items were preserved and preserved properly and that allowed us to come back and do the DNA work on this case two weeks later.

McNeel gets a call from Kim Johnson on Sen Franic Science's phone and bursts our bubble by saying he's not even around. The whole McNeil case goes around in circles, but sometimes Lady Lock is best friends with a detective just when she thinks her case has gone

cold

. McNeil. receives a gift that could open the case 25 years after two unsolved rape murders, Detective Dawn Mcneel has an intriguing new lead to follow a piece of evidence she uncovers in a case. File of a convicted armed robber named Ron West was arrested shortly after West's house was sold when the new owners were renovating, they discovered boxes of jewelry hidden in the ceiling along with a firearm registration for a .22 caliber pistol, but the Records show that West had sold the gun in 1972.

McNeil considered why West would want to keep an expired gun registration, I thought to myself that this could perhaps be considered a trophy because the jewelers were a trophy of the iron thefts that had occurred. committed and pleaded guilty. McNeil needs to know more about Ron West. He is currently serving an 8-year sentence for his violent armed robberies at the time of the two murders in 1970. West was a police officer in Toronto's 53rd division. Mcneel also discovers that Ron West would have been familiar with the area of ​​murders in which he grew up. There McNeil officially reopens the case and assigns a team to investigate this new suspect.

One of the key officers is Detective John Smith. Since Mr. West worked for the Metrot Tonal Police Service in May 1970, we had to go back and interview all the police officers who worked in the 53rd division of the metro tronto police at that time, most of them. The former police officers detected in Smith's interviews have few memories of West, but one of them remembers West well, he was not loud, he was not quiet, he enjoyed a good joke and telling it. It was a good joke and it was precisely one of the guys in the platoon with whom I established a kind of friendship: Ron West and Keith Rogers frequently spent their free days together.

Rogers remembers one particular day in 1970, a few months after the murders were committed. We were at West's Family Farm doing informal target practice. That day stands out in Roger's memory because West was using a nine-shooter. He had never seen this nine-shot .22 revolver. I always thought there was a six year old, so I was surprised to see it. that and I used it quite a bit to shoot these pumpkins and hear, you know, 30 years later, that he now he's a suspect in a double homicide. It was a bit of a surprise because he and West were in the same platoon in 1970.

They worked the same shifts and took the same days off, fortunately Roger still has his notebook from those days. I had a notebook, the second notebook I wrote, and I kept it, and when you went, I worked backwards from that notebook. book on days two of these murders uh my notebook took him out of commission everything is starting to add up for mcneel the nine-shooter the days off West's association with the area and his history of violence but mcneel still needs proof physics to whichHe goes to visit West in prison if West agrees to provide a sample of his DNA, it can be compared to the killer's DNA in the lab.

West has the right to refuse and he does. McNeel decides to confront West with what the police know about the murders, hoping that he will confess. McNeel tells West that they know he went to Kathleen Philcox's house on May 6, 1970, raped her at gunpoint. gun and then shot him seven times in the back. McNeil says they also know West raped and shot the second victim, Elaine Rickman. Days later, West is a former cop and knows that if the police had enough to charge him, they wouldn't be looking for a confession from him. He doesn't say anything after all these years.

McNeil senses that he is within striking distance of the killer, but still falls short and then another stroke. Luck police in Ron West's hometown sent Detective McNeil a letter they received from West's ex-wife. This letter had been mailed to her from jail and she wanted nothing to do with him or the letter and she gave it to him. to the police mcneel hopes it contains some incriminating statements, but west is too smart for that, so mcneel realizes what he can have in his hand when someone licks a stamp or an envelope, usually because it's sticky, they leave their cells and , therefore, the DNA behind us.

We can then extract the DNA and then compare it to any other sample we have in this case, the DNA profile obtained from the seal matched the DNA profile we had from Seaman in both cases and the evidence against him was accumulated only 5 days before his judgment. West pleads guilty to both counts of murder, it has been 30 years since the double homicide investigation finally began police and victims' families can close the door on the horrific events of May 1970 in court Impact on victims statements from the children of West's victims are read to the sentencing judge all the traumatic effects of the murders in the The children are revealed to be plagued by nightmares, destroyed relationships and incapable of trusting anyone.

The two boys have spent their entire lives in fear as Detective Smith transports Ron West back to jail after his guilty plea. He asks a question that has worried him. I asked him why he didn't shoot the son in both homicides his answer to me was who kills children and my answer to him was who kills the mother of an 8 year old child or an 18 month old child and leaves him motherless for the rest of his life. lives to which he had no answer Ron West is sentenced to two life sentences, one for each murder a lonely man prepares for a romantic evening his date is on the way she is also looking forward to tonight they have talked about it and planned it together tonight It's the night they've both been waiting for a chance to fulfill their fantasies.

Hi, what are you doing? But the man is about to learn that his fantasies are worlds apart. In True Crime, investing in instigation and conviction can take years, but all detectives know it. that the crucial clue is always there somewhere in the first 72

hours

Houston 1995 his victim, wipes the Knockout drink intended for xia and passes out cold xal calls the police before the women have a chance to cover their tracks the first time I was called to the case was during a period when we didn't know who these two women were, but we knew Theo, we knew what Dan Rizo, the prosecutor of Harris County in Texas, was doing, a man who believes that he has imprisoned all types of criminals until now, in this case it was a series of robberies that were being committed against uh. men who mistakenly thought they were going on a date with one or two women, six attacks have been reported in recent weeks, all following a similar pattern on the telecommunications dating service, they would look for a category that was more perverted thinking that if they robbed to those people, those people would be less likely to report their crime to the police.

They also seem to go after foreign men, people who were less sophisticated with our culture, and people who would be easy to locate and victimize by EAS. But Xal Namir is the first victim to raise the alarm in time for the police to chase the women. Police reviewed Jal's phone records and discovered that several calls were made to his home from a pay phone at a Houston hotel. They went and spoke with employees of that place and someone from the hotel said yes, they were in this or that room, the women are arrested, they are identified as Rose Turf Ford and Carolyn Stevens and they are accused of aggravated robbery by the use of firearms and threats of violence on bail.

For both it is set at half a million. Do the women obtain bail and are they released? Nancy Smith works for a bail bond company that is responsible for guaranteeing bail, making sure women stay in Houston and attend their trial. She sets strict conditions for To make sure they don't leave town, the conditions we put on them is that the girls had to check in with me every day by phone twice a week. They had to come to the bail bonds office. Sit with me. Verify. It's part of the agreement. The thing is, Rose and Carolyn couldn't have any communication while Smith follows Rose and Carolyn Rizo begins investigating the women's backgrounds.

He needs to build a case to prosecute them for the series of crimes the police allege they have committed. He starts with Rose Turford. she lived in a very nice upper middle class neighborhood and what appeared to be a beautiful house um and um didn't seem to have any criminal history that we might find anywhere Carolyn's life has been lived equally far from the world of crime. Carolyn Stevens also had no criminal record, her father was a minister, a very nice family from what I understand, although Carolyn had a history of mental anguish, Rizo wonders what would make these two seemingly normal women commit such crimes within 72 hours of his arrest.

REO gets a major break in the case, we had conducted a search warrant at a place where they had a storage shed, we found thousands and thousands of pages of letters written by a person named Avery Orlando Avery, every piece of these strange communications are addressed to Carolyn Stevens and are unlike any correspondence Rizo has seen before. They are written in code, a seemingly random pattern of squares and lines, but when connected correctly they form individual letters, we had to put them in some kind of order. Then we had to make copies of each one so we could draw the lines and try to say what was really said in the letter.

The terry staff works on the enormous task of decoding the letters buried among the piles of papers. Rizo makes another one. He discovers a sleeve of legal-sized yellow pages covered with Rose Turf's handwriting, to his amazement, he begins to read what appears to be a diary. Rose begins her story by describing a broken marriage and her move from Canada to Houston, her search for a new life and new friends. I met Carolyn Stevens while she was working at the hospital. She is quiet and reserved and we became fast friends. She told me that she also worked for a private investigator named Mr.

Avery in February or March of '94. Carolyn became a regular at my house. She was great with my daughter Lindsay and quickly became part of the family when she needed a place to live I invited her to move in while Rizo reads the tone of Rose's diary takes a much darker turn in May of '94 Carolyn disappeared for several days He returned with two gunshot wounds, which he said were punishment from Avery for ruining his part of an important investigation. REO wonders what kind of man would do this. Carol would show up at work with things on her arms and legs and, by things, we're talking bruises and and scrapes and cuts and Carolyn initially told Rose Turford and others that she got hurt while gardening and eventually said that a person named Avery Rose was forcing her into some form of servitude. punishments inflicted on Carolyn suddenly Rose herself attracts the attention of the mysterious Mr.

Avery. He sent me a note at the time stating that if I wanted to help Carolyn it was fine as long as she kept him and her identity a secret. He had no intention. to get Carol into more trouble by going to the police I understood that we had to follow Avery's rules Rizo is now looking for a third person linked to the crimes who needs to interrogate Rose and Carolyn to find out more about the obviously dangerous Orlando Avery, but 3 Weeks after the women were freed in Baale, Rose and Carolyn failed to show up for their weekly meetings with Nancy Smith.

I first called Carolyn's house and her parents informed me that they didn't know where she was, so I turned around and called Roses. To my family and they told me the same thing: the women have disappeared. The bond company needs Nancy Smith to find them and fast. Well, I'm working for someone who's going to lose half a million dollars to two people and that's not petty cash. and the police are about to discover that they have a completely different type of investigation on their hands. Rose Turford and Carolyn Stevens are wanted for a series of violent robberies in Houston, Texas.

Now they are gone. The only clue to the women's disappearance is a chilling note found in Rose's Bed I've Came to Get My Daughters Back signed Orlando Avery Nancy Smith tries to track down the women fighting to get her half-million doll Bail Bonds Dan Rizo the prosecutor The case joins the search for the missing women now fugitives from the law. There were sightings of them all over Canada, so we thought they were in Canada, where Rose Turford was. Rose reports in her diary that Avery is an international criminal. He now appears to have taken the women out of the country while Rizo searches the diary.

Clues to a connection in Canada. He uncovers more evidence of Aver's disturbing control over Carolyn. She began returning from meetings with Avery covered in strange tattoos that could be removed with vigorous washing, and Avery instructed the women that the marks had to disappear completely within a certain time. time or he would punish Carolyn again more severely one night Rose finally came face to face with her nightmare. I saw Avery. She was shocked. He just looked at me calmly and then turned around. From then on, Rose knew that Avery was watching them closely. Avery gestured. Passing by the house in his limo frequently, he would not stop or say anything, he would simply roll down the window so I could see it was him as he drove by.

Rizo actually realizes that Avery had the women in his possession long before he kidnapped them and he controlled their every move. It was always Carolyn who communicated with him in person. He would get a letter for Rose and it was always addressed to Rose telling him what to do in case the women tried to escape from her. Carolyn revealed that Avery had forced her to install surveillance devices in Rose's house. Rose's diary details an increasingly disturbing triangle between her and Carolyn Avery. Avery's escalating punishment of Carolyn becomes relentless. I ask Carolyn to look at me and when she does, pain, fear and confusion are the emotions that my eyes see.

Don't leave his while I tell him I'll make everything better. Her tears are my response as she whispers. "I hope so, but Rose can't protect Carolyn or herself from Avery's grasp when she tries to walk away, he demonstrates his power over their lives by snatching Rose's daughter, Lindsay, from the family's backyard, about a An hour later, I went back to Lindsay and she said that she couldn't stop him from taking any of the girls at any time and that she was glad that she was smart enough not to call the police because if she wouldn't see the girls again? girls?

Rose makes it terrifyingly clear that her life has also fallen completely under Avery's demonic control. It is at this point in the diary that Rizo discovers how Avery forced the women to commit crimes. mentally and physically he now wanted money and this meant he had a new task in mind for Rose and Carolyn. He called his new task The Heist Game and sent Rose and Carolyn to a hotel in Las Vegas where they were told to begin. the game robbing a hotel guest, a man who was already quite drunk approached me and let me know that he was interested in having sex with me.

He talked about money but I told him that I was not a prostitute, I was just looking to have a good time. He had the fantasy of being with two women, so we played along, but we really screwed up. Carolyn accidentally hurt herself with the stun gun we brought, thank God, that guy was so drunk she passed out and didn't even realize she was being robbed. Avery said we were pitiful and had a lot to learn. Avery took charge and decided to tune into The Heist game. HeHe instructed Rose to use a telec partner's phone dating service.

She was to focus on men looking for Action in three categories. Exotic adventure, fantasy fulfillment, and The Three Are No Crowd, Rose's job was to set up dates with the right men. Rose Turford was talking to them about whether they had a house, you know, she was talking about her car and basically, in a very subtle way, trying to discern whether they were working or not. um whether or not they had any property um any type of property to work stealing Rizo finds lists in Rose's diary that reveal that the women quickly put together a detailed list of candidates for robbery in a very short time they had lined up 20 potential victims who had uh his height and his weight, um, they had his physical build, all the different things that would help them determine whether this would be the perfect next step or not.

Rizzo realizing that with Avery as the mastermind behind Rose and Carolyn's robberies, he is the most dangerous of the three means that to find the women and end their crime spree, the police must capture Orlando. Avery. We used every law enforcement agency we could. They got help from the FBI tween. In fact, they helped us. descriptions we had approximate ages we had some other identifiers we had potential areas where he could have lived or owned property the quicker we found them the better because we thought at some point we were going to end up with uh potentially someone dead the police have been hot on the trail of rose turford and Carolyn Stevens for almost 6 months the two women are wanted for a series of robberies and are believed to be on the run in Canada with their kidnapper Orlando Avery, but in all the sightings of the women a man is never mentioned with them. of Avery controlling women from a distance just doesn't add up to me, it seems so far-fetched that someone, some international criminal, would be communicating. with them through thousands of pages in this block print uh code to try to tell them to do things that didn't make any sense if Orlando Avery isn't pulling the strings then what's really going on the answer could be close Nancy Smith is starting To get closer to Rose and Carolyn, I went to Canada twice after exhausting everything from here.

We went to Montreal and the girls had already been seen there. The couple is famous. There was a media circus to search for Thelman Louise as they nicknamed her, her faces broadcast on American television, newspapers and magazines on both sides of the border. We resume the story. We were at home, maybe two or three days, if that's a lot, and we got a phone call from a gentleman who said, I think I have someone. We're looking, but we've heard this so many times before that you're like, "Okay, just tell me what you have in Toronto." A sex line operator recognizes Rose as the woman handling SNM calls after 6 months on the run.

The couple was arrested without incident, they laughed about it the whole time, I mean for someone who knew they were getting ready to have to go back to Houston, Texas and face all these charges, they just laughed, give us a kiss girls, Come on, give us some. Kiss Rose and Carolyn are taken back to Texas to stand trial for armed robbery, while in prison both women insist that Avery visit them and continues to threaten them, but Nancy Smith is not convinced if she has ever been to our jail. here to visit someone. I know you have to have identification and they run around to see if they are looking for you somewhere and no one other than that name showed up.

Both Nancy Smith and Dan Rizo now discover the shocking truth about the diabolical Orlando Avery. There was no Orlando Avery there. he didn't exist Rizzo doesn't believe either woman was really in danger, no matter how much Rose's diary claimed he feared for her life. Rizo believes that the entire story was a fantasy created by Rose and Carolyn that had begun as a friendship. between the two women it became something dark, violent and sexual, what I discovered was that they were both in this together, there was no one person who was the strongest and the other was the weakest physically.

Carolyn was the one who abused Rose. However, she was also manipulating Rose into this twisted relationship they had. Rizo now understands that it was Carolyn who wrote the letters, she was the one who made the rules, she and Rose expanded their sexual fantasies to acts of crime, fueling the excitement they enjoyed playing their roles. dominant and submissive roles it's power it's control and it's violence they enjoyed all of that but with something they were really having fun with Carolyn finally abandons Avery's fantasy, admits that she created it, has offered a plea deal and chooses make a deal in exchange for pleading guilty to aggravated robbery Carolyn is sentenced to 10 years in prison after Carolyn pleads guilty I said why were you doing this I mean what I know there was no why were you doing this and she just looked up silently and said it was the game it was the game it's a game that Rose tur Ford can't leave she refuses to let go of Avery's fantasy at her trial she still insists that he is dangerously real she maintains her innocence but is found guilty Rose is sentenced to 30 years in prison for gambling and losing nothing makes you grow up faster than the murder of a loved one St John's Newfinland New Year's Eve 1991 a time to celebrate an opportunity to A new year begins, but this New Year Someone will shock the city with an act of betrayal and brutality destined to change the lives of people here forever.

In True Crime, the actual investigation and conviction may take years, but every detective knows the crucial clue is always there somewhere. . In the first 72 hours, St John police receive a frantic call to 911. I just picked him up in the bathroom. There is blood everywhere. I don't know what happened when the investigators arrive. A middle-aged woman has already been pronounced dead. Her name is Catherine Carrol. The 911 caller is the dead woman's son, Greg Parsons, who I spoke to around New Year's. "I called the house a little after 12, uh and um, like I said, I told the old lady I loved her and I wished her a happy new year," the 19-year-old tells police.

He called again on New Year's Day but got no answer. He was in contact with her almost every day, so I knew something was wrong when Parsons went to her mother's house and discovered that he was dark. It was as if he didn't want to. to look I knew I had to and when I looked I remember seeing blood and I remember screaming his name the police tell Parson to go home and rest so they can begin their investigation under Katherine Carrol's fingernails the police find traces of what could be human tissue apparently tried to fight off her attacker in the washing machine police find a bath towel stained with what could be blood all samples are sent to the lab for analysis in the kitchen police get a lead on the murder weapon a knife is missing.

There is a broken window in the basement. Most likely, the killer weighed in. The police called Parsons to the police station. They want more information about his mother. She had some problems with alcohol and prescription drugs, but she was back in school trying to further her education and get back. to work, so she was a real go-getter, a fighter, the police asked if Parsons and her mother were getting along, we had been having some problems and we made up over Christmas, we made up and, uh, I knew she was lonely when The police ask about his whereabouts on the night of the murder.

Greg is surprised. I instantly knew there was something very wrong with the interrogation and they asked me where I was that night. I didn't even know about Ali. He says she was at his girlfriend's house. his father took him home let my dog ​​out he went to sleep at night no one can confirm the whereabouts of Greg Parson between 3:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Autopsy results suggest that the murder may well have been committed between 3:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and the number 10 cause of death is 53 slash wounds suggesting a crime of passion. I think Catherine Carroll must have known her attacker.

The police want to keep an eye on young Parsons. They attend his mother's wake. The murder of Katherine Carroll has shocked and saddened many in her community. Greg's closest friends gather at a house they all know well, they all met at my house, they all loved being there, they knew they could come and go as they pleased and they knew his mother would be on the couch, it felt alone and loved. having us around and that it was just company for Parson says he loved his mother, but the police begin to hear a different story a neighbor says she often visited Catherine Carol the two women spent hours together sharing secrets at one point Catherine said that her son had threatened to kill her in the next few days 40 more people tell the police the same chilling story then Brian, one of Greg's friends, suggests that investigators listen to the lyrics to one of Greg's rock songs, came in, I took her with the rope, kill your other cop believed the lyrics reveal Parson's true feelings towards his mother, they came to my house with the search warrant and were looking for clothes and, uh, a possible weapon, but they couldn't find the lost knife.

Police discover blood on Parson's shoe. Blood typing analysis shows blood on Parson's shoe. matches his mother's a blood type shared by one in five people because DNA testing is not yet available the bloody towel and the results of human tissue tests are inconclusive convinced Parson killed his mother the police asked to take a polygraph I figured that was all I had to do was put in this machine this machine is going to say I'm telling the truth but the polygraph investigator put me in the red asking me questions to intimidate me. Parson's answers lead investigators to conclude he is lying just 8 days after his mother was found dead Greg Parsons is arrested for her murder there has not been a murder in St John's in 2 years Parson's trial creates a sensation the jury listens to the song "kill your parents" nine times in total paints Parsons as a disturbed, violent teenager who his mother feared on second-degree murder charge jury finds Greg Parsons guilty guilty it was like someone taking a gun and shot me in the head I couldn't believe he was convicted of the murder of his mother Greg Parsons now faces 15 years in prison without parole I remember the sentencing hearing looking at the media saying I'm innocent, it was almost a plea, a plea for someone will help me.

Jerome Kennedy, an advocate for the wrongfully convicted, is willing to try having followed Parson's case closely. Kennedy believes the police investigation. alone provides grounds for an appeal these police officers were going to solve this crime they were going to protect the citizens of St John's but they did not have the credentials nor the training nor the experience to act in that way Kennedy maintains that the song "kills your parents" has been taken too seriously this tape was so silly the tape was a group of kids in a basement making up a stupid song the song about killing your parents was played for mom and uh she was a character and she found it very Amused Kennedy believes the police made another mistake when they decided to take Katherine Carrol's accusations against her son at face value.

Mrs. Carrol screamed for attention; The image emerges of a very lonely woman, a tormented woman who, in an attempt to gain people's sympathy and attention, will say almost anything, my son is a bastard, he is going to kill me, none of which is based on facts and none of which is true Kennedy feels that the police took one look at Greg Parson and had tunnel vision, they excluded any theory other than that Greg Parson is the killer. Just imagine the horror of walking into that room, opening that door, looking in and seeing your mother cutting the floor into pieces, blood everywhere and in 6 hours you're not even the suspect, you're the perpetrator.

Parsons tells Kennedy that the police wanted a confession right away the more he maintained his innocence the worse they treated him they took me to the police station they stripped me down to my underwear I said all night I said gentlemen I am exercising my right to remain silent and the more I said that The angrier they got, it was just hours of mental torture and Mind Games finally took me to the locker, bring me, bring me where you're taking me, he's falling in the snow, they're making fun of him, there was no respect for Greg's constitutional rights.

Parson and no respect for Greg Parsons as a human being because in their minds this man had brutally killed their mother. Besides finding my mother, it was the second worst night of my life. Kennedy convinces a Provincial Court judge to grant Greg Parsons an appeal and in an unprecedented bail decision when Parsons is released pending a new trial, not everyone is happy. He was in thestreet with a big M on my shirt. He was a murderer. He was a monster. Nobody looked at me. It was horrible. Parsons wants a normal life, marrying his long-time girlfriend, but living under house arrest and constant surveillance is anything but normal for the next 3 years, he awaits his day in court.

St John police remain convinced he is guilty. By then, advances in DNA technology mean that test results can now be conclusive eager to prove Parson's guilt. Police are demanding that all evidence from the crime scene be re-examined. The result leaves the police stunned. The blood on Parson's shoe is not his mother's blood. Crime scene evidence contains a mixed sample from the victim and a. unknown man who can't be Greg Parsons 7 years after his mother's murder Parsons is acquitted of all charges thank God for DNA that's all I can say those are my three favorite letters of the alphabet I tell you I thought they were in whole life was going to get better I was trying to support myself support my family but no one hired me people didn't reach out to me people were afraid I would struggle uh we lived on uh $800 welfare a month it was a life terrible desperate for I know who killed his mother.

Parson discovers that he now has to rely on the same police force that wrongly accused him. Detective Bob Johnson has chosen to lead the new investigation. I was not a defender of Greg Parsons. I was a defender of no one, huh, but I was. a defender of the truth my concern was what really happened on January 1, 1991 we interviewed everyone again we got statements from everyone we looked at those people to see if they had strong wings and if they didn't we asked for DNA samples we analyzed more of 150 people for DNA we also interviewed over 2500 people 2 years into his investigation Johnson still has no idea who killed Katherine Caroll for the first time in case the police decide to appeal to the public and we are asking anyone who have information no matter how insignificant it may be to come forward when one of Parson's old friends responds to what he has to say blows the case wide open after making his investigation public.

Detective Johnson receives a tip from one of Greg Parson's old friends and tells Johnson that after Kathern Carroll's murder he and her friends often met up to talk about who might have killed her. He describes how one particular night a friend of his named Brian Doyle told him that Parsons had actually confessed that this guy is saying that Greg killed his mother and he laughs about it, you know? It wasn't a strong lead, eh, but it was something when investigators go looking for Brian Doyle and discover that he left St John's after Parson's conviction and hasn't been seen since Greg Parsons doesn't know the police are investigating one of his oldest friends that he struggles to make. a new life for him and his young family Parsons discovers that he is still a Marked Man and I remember my oldest son came home from kindergarten one day and told me so nonchalantly "dead, I know why you were in jail, you killed to your mother".

It's a devastating day to have to sit down and try to explain that situation to him. Detective Johnson tracks Brian Doyle to a factory in Ontario in the hopes that Doyle will leave a DNA sample. They have put him under surveillance. He compares the DNA from the Doyle cigarette saliva to the DNA evidence collected during the first 72 hours of the investigation matches 9 years after the murder of Katherine Carroll. Investigators are sure they have found her killer, but there is a problem because Brian Doyle's DNA and that of the victims are mixed in both evidence samples. Detective Johnson fears that the case will not go to court to get Doyle to confess.

Johnson prepares a trap. An undercover officer. Cod named Adams begins selling contraband at Doyle's factory. They create a relationship in which he buys many cigarettes, alcohol, and various other things from Adams. Doyle became very comfortable with Adams to the point that Adams may engage in what he believes to be criminal activity. He takes three months. To gain Doyle's trust once Adams has it, he tells Doyle that there is someone his boss needs to get rid of permanently. Would Doyle be willing to help when Doyle agrees? Adam says he'll have to meet the boss first. Doyle wants to be part of this group. he sees that Adams is doing very well he wants to be a part of this and he wants to impress Adams' BS Adams makes the presentation at a local motel he forgets to tell Doyle that the meeting is being recorded the boss wants to know if Doyle ever killed anyone Don't let Doyle say that the boss is pushing if Doyle wants to come in he better speak for the first time Brian Doyle reveals what happened on New Year's Eve 1991 2 1 he was at a party he was drunk he was on drugs for reasons he can't explain I can't explain who left the party and headed to Kathern Carrol's house her name is Catherine forced open the basement window took a knife from the kitchen area went upstairs took off all her clothes when she entered her room I don't know I don't think I really would have figured out what I was going to do.

What were her intentions? Mrs. Carl wakes up and realizes this. Open door she said: I cut her. I said she wouldn't die. I cut her again. She wouldn't die. I said that I. cut her again she wouldn't die slash she didn't die he remembers looking in the mirror and saying and just look in the mirror and there's blood everywhere he showers and puts on his clothes washes his towel Doyle cut his hand during the attack and He left traces of his DNA on the towel the undercover operator said it bothers you you know what you did and he says this he said no the only thing that bothers me is you know it was amazing in 10 and 1 12 years I had not told anyone the undercover operator had done extensive work with organized crime said it's like I sat in a room with evil for 15 minutes now we know the truth we know exactly what happened to Ms.

Carol I was stunned if I could I don't believe it. I met Brian Doyle when he was 9 years old. He was a body of mine. I took him under my wing as he grew up. On many occasions I had to protect him from neighborhood bullies. This is a guy who was watching his friend. go to jail for a crime he didn't commit. This is a guy who was interviewed by the police and pointed them in Greg's direction. It was the ultimate betrayal and, uh, words can't describe it now. A St John firefighter. Greg Parsons has received a formal apology and financial compensation from the New Finland government for his wrongful conviction.

I've watched Greg Parsons grow up. I have seen him deal with situations that would break most human beings, but I have also seen the indomitable spirit that he possesses. It's hard. cry in a normal sense but uh uh I'm at peace with mom and what she went through with the murder of Katherine Carroll Brian Doyle is currently serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 18 years, people always Say, be careful what you say What you want, you might get it, but what if you meet someone who can make your dreams come true? You're on vacation at a ski resort with your new best friend.

They spend time together. We do some business together. Even shopping. gifts are given, but what is not done is discovered before he leaves in True Crime. The investigation and conviction can take years, but every detective knows the crucial clue is always there somewhere in the first 72 hours RCMP officers receive a call. From a local businessman, Corporal John Stein takes the report from the appearance that he was a successful businessman and had a public company that was looking for investors. I believe that throughout his life he had several companies that he had taken public and had benefited from them.

Entrepreneur Martin Gford tells Stein that he was surprised to find $5,000 in unexpected charges on a recent company credit card bill. His friend and major investor Michael Vanhoven just disappeared. Gford fears there may be a connection. Michael Vanhoven came to him through someone else. and he introduced him as a potential investor in his business because he was looking to invest in some companies in Vancouver. The two men met for the first time 5 weeks earlier. Gford needed investors for his latest invention, a groundbreaking advance in ultrasound technology. The more Gford told Vanhoven about the invention, the more enthusiastic Vanhoven became, he said it was the kind of thing that could make a man rich.

Van Hoven insisted on paying for the meal, he was rich and eager to invest. Van Hoven seemed to be the perfect partner. Gford asked Vanhoven to come to his office. as soon as possible to work out the details, they talked about the terms of the contracts and everything else and what he was looking for in an investment and they came to some sort of terms: Van Hovind's initial investment was going to be $5 million which his family bank in Switzerland would transfer. gford the money van Hoven wanted his business dealings kept private asked gford to sign a confidentiality agreement gford agreed to celebrate their new partnership gford gave van Hoven a $28,000 Rolex watch when van hovind left his office that day Gford says he was excited about Van with Hovind's support he was able to start planning for an early retirement two weeks later Van Hovan's wife and son arrived in Vancouver Gford helped the family find an apartment in their building after years of living only gford was happy to have people around him again and felt like he had found not only a business partner but a friend van hovind and his family included gford in everything they did van hoven even bought gford a new pair of skis e He insisted that he would join the family on an upcoming vacation to Whistler and gford rented a van so they could all arrive together, but Van Hovind said there was a problem.

He couldn't reserve a hotel room without a credit card. Michael Vanhoven said he didn't have a credit card because he doesn't normally carry credit cards, so he had one. uh, the use of the businessman's credit card to reserve the hotel. Gford was happy to put Van Hovind's reserve on his card. Van Hovind said he would pay cash once they got there in Whistler. Gord saw Van Hovind, his wife Teresa and his son Jean Mark. Every day they skied together and when Van Hovind and his wife went out, Gford babysat their baby a few days after their vacation, Van Hovind introduced Gford to a local businessman who had connected with a real estate agent in Whistler. and was going to look at properties van hovind was looking to buy a house in Whistler two weeks after the holiday in Whistler van hovind announced that his father, a Swiss banker, wanted to meet the man his son had invested so much money in, so While Vanhoven and his family remained in Whistler, Gford flew to Geneva, but the Geneva meeting did not go as planned.

Van Hovind's father had scheduling problems every day, there was another delay, and he ended up spending about 3 or 4 days in a hotel in Geneva, but the meeting never materialized when Gford returned home. Surprised to find the SUV he had rented in the apartment's garage, Van Hovens wouldn't return from Whistler for another week. Anxious to talk about his trip to Geneva with Vanhoven. Gford knocked on his friend's door but found no one home. A couple called the family several times and left messages, but ultimately no one called back. He slipped the note under Van Hovind's door, but days later there was still no response.

Gford received his $50,000 credit card bill and says he felt at that point he had no choice but to call The police see the vehicle, it appears to be abandoned, they leave a note under the door and can see that it has not been been disturbed, then all the alarms I think start ringing. Corporal John Stein must now find out what has happened. gord's friend and gord's money Vancouver RCMP investigators are investigating the disappearance of venture capitalist Michael van Hoven, his wife and his son. Corporal John Stein first attempts to determine if Vanhoven is still in the country we contacted.

You know our border. see if they could verify whether or not there was a Michael Vanhoven who crossed the border. On top of that, I called Whistler, uh, the Detachment that was there to see if they had anything. Whistler police last spoke with real estate developer Don Winsley. person to do business with vanhoven Welsley remembers the first time he and vanhoven met. I said hello, how are you? What are you looking to achieve? and he said, uh, I want to buy a house, I want to buy a castle, and I said, well, here we are. I'm not really into castles right now and then I realized there was a private door to the castle, uh, the butler's quarters, you know, the garage for the cars and the limousine, and it was a beautiful, beautiful place, with lake views, totally private.

It was $10 million. He had an emotional orgasm when he walked through the front door and simply said this is perfect. This is exactly what we need each day.next uh wrote an offer for $8 million that was accepted vanhoven had a Swiss bank make the arrangements told wedley that a $500,000 deposit would arrive soon wedley tells Whistler police van hovind then presented him with the confidentiality agreement while that wisley found this unusual he thought about the large commission he was going to earn from the sale and the Let It Go police discovered that they van Hov's favorite place in Whistler was Barefoot Beastro owner Andre Sanok remembers the customer very well, He walked from the bar to his table, as you know, almost as if some people had never been to the restaurant.

They might have thought he was the owner, he had a sort of air of feeling that you know this is where he belongs and so on, and he definitely used the Barefoot as his headquarters, the police learn that Vanhoven lingered at the Beastro constantly in Just 5 weeks, spent tens of thousands of dollars. here he actually charged his bill to the hotel where he was staying and I guess he checked the prices of the wiess and the ones that were more expensive he just ordered the M sh 1914 is 10,000 p270 is 3200 Don't bring 59 is 2500, but if you start asking questions, Anything he had this way has two sides and one is very charming.

The other one could be very aggressive and you know he fell in love, yes. this guy is going to kill me we were driving in the car and he said what is that on your arm? and I said it's a tattoo. I am a fighter pilot. He said: Have you ever killed anyone? I told him what kind of question that is. He says you haven't and I stopped the car on the side of the road and said Michael, if you mention it again I'm going to throw you out of the car. Dawn Wedley also saw the dark side of Van Hovind.

Welsley tells the police. That the last she heard was that Michael Vanhoven had left Whistler. Wisley has lost all hope of ever seeing the $500,000 deposit. The story Stein hears from Whistler. The police confirm his suspicions. She pays another visit to Martin Gford, so I think the first part was an attempt to convince the businessman that this seemed like a scammer and that he wasn't coming back. Gford wants to believe it was all just a misunderstanding. He still thought the deal might be done and that was it. part of his concern about bringing in the police because if he had brought in the police and and um michael vanhoven had shown up with a check or several checks, you know, he would have been embarrassed.

Stein is familiar with fraud but has never come across Someone like Michael Van Hoven it's rare in my work to find a real scammer who does this kind of roaming thing, he's probably already moved on, we might not catch him. The only evidence Stein has is the rented SUV he has a registered team. The vehicle of Clues Stein's partner, RCM MP Corporal Cara McMillan, is leading the search. It was all his, his personal belongings were there in the suitcases that were inside the vehicle, but there were no fingerprints within 72 hours of receiving the call from Martin Gord. his first break inside the suitcase Corporal McMillan finds several passports with different names and a checkbook belonging to Christopher Rokur Cara McMillan begins processing the evidence that same afternoon does an Internet search I thought I would try these at the end of the day before returning home, a last-ditch attempt to track down this guy, Michael Van Hoven says nothing, but Christopher Rokur is a different story.

The researchers are surprised by what they discover. Rokur is a French citizen in the United States. He has posed as a French member of the Rockefellers. family and nephew of film producer Dino Deenus, he has let down almost everyone he has ever met, from Hollywood movie stars to fortune seekers in the Hamptons. He is wanted by tween the FBI and several American police departments, but that's not all. We are named after Christopher Roken. Court also in the uh us database that tracks criminals there was a result that said uh Christopher roen Court was considered armed and dangerous rokur once threatened to kill a Los Angeles police officer and his family when was cornered, the willingness to use violence has always shown Steiner McMillan contacts Martin gford, they tell him that Michael Van Hovind's real name is Christopher Ranor and that Ranor is one of the most wanted scammers in the world and then they tell Gford what to do if they are going to catch Rokan Cur.

I told the businessman to act as if everything was normal. um, you know, thinking that the deal was still going to happen and that's what happened, he actually ended up making a couple of calls. Rokur says that he is busy arranging the money transfer in Geneva once he finishes the conversation. Gford enters a special code that allows police to trace the call. Police. He discovers that it was made on Onur's cell phone in South Korea. It means it could have been made from anywhere, our biggest concern was tracking it and how far it would be from us and, you know, we thought maybe it would be out of the country.

Police know Rokan Cur could be armed. dangerous they just don't know where he is dangerous scammer Christopher rokur has stolen money from Vancouver businessman Martin gford his future and his faith in people the object of a global manhunt rokan Cur is now on Run ur phone calls are the only ones Police have the leadership to track those calls. Gford has to keep talking. It was going to take us time to get transcripts from the cell phone company and track down where these calls were being made. Calls are not traced back to Geneva. But in Victoria, British Columbia, just 100 km away, Sergeant Alan Cochran, then head of the Victoria Police Emergency Response Team, now learns that a dangerous fugitive is on the loose in his community.

What we try to do is use the best trained and best equipped people when we're going to deal with high risk violent offenders and that's why they brought in the emergency response team. Roan Cur and his family are staying at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel. Cochran places the hotel under surveillance at 9:00 Cochran decides to move on faster. from the guest, our plan at that time was to call the room and tell him that his car had been broken into and if he could come down to see if anything had been stolen and then when he came down we would make it a high risk. arrest for takedown on him, he had been alluding to the police for quite some time, so he was not only violent but also a flight risk, so I wasn't sure exactly what levels he would go to to, you know, evade arrest.

Cochran and his team headed to the hotel just as we were reaching Beach Drive, Mr. Roken Cor left and we ended up going nose to nose. Cochran decides to defeat Rur immediately. He was really surprised. I think you know it happens very quickly and you are kind. overwhelmed, the first thing you said was, oh, you know they brought in the FBI SWAT team to get me, we chuckled because it was the local team from Victoria, the man that Alan Cochran and his team now have in custody, ha eluded. Police capture for years The arrest of Christopher Rur makes headlines around the world.

Hi, Giord is relieved to hear the news, but he still feels like a fool once you realize you've been fooled. here was a kind of prop used to, you know, rip off a girl with her charm, her acts of generosity and with her displays of wealth, it keeps him away, it prevents him from having time to think about what it really happened. and that's why you know why he was an effective conman and once you know how to fish, once you fish, you have to work the fish, the confidentiality agreements were just a distraction designed to show that Rokur had serious intentions, like any scam.

You have to keep the person in line and you do that by throwing different things at them and in this case buying the houses, you know, 10 million, it prevented the businessman from knowing the truth. Don Winsley is philosophical about the experience we all had basically because of our own greed and when he got arrested I almost felt sorry for it, it's crazy. I should have been ecstatic that they caught this little bastard, but you know, I think he'd almost hire him as a salesman. He is so good unlike Don Wisley Martin. It has taken Gford much longer to reach an agreement, the businessman suffered this, it affected his life, it affected his livelihood, it affected the public company, when you say that no one gets hurt just because you don't have bruises, no. means it doesn't affect you Christopher Rokur hasn't apologized to anyone in his autobiography says the brighter the bait, the more the fish bites after serving a year in Canada Rokur was sent to prison in the United States once he completed his 5 year sentence there he will be deported to France to face more charges.