In this Halloween special we're travelling up Indian Arm to visit the Wigwam Inn, one of Metro Vancouver's most storied old mansions. Built in 1910 by Alvo von Alvensleben as a hotel for the rich, it's been a brothel, an illegal casino, used to print counterfeit money, and now owned by the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. Is it haunted? Of course. The ghost of Martha lives in room 209. With special guest Greg Mansfield, author of the Ghosts of Vancouver Image: Wigwam Inn, 1912, courtesy Vancouver Archives For photos, show credits, sources and information about my books, blog or podcast, please visit my website evelazarus.com
In 1995, a partial skull was discovered in a slough just outside Mission, BC. Forensic testing revealed that the skull belonged to a Caucasian woman aged between 20 and 40. Missing person files were searched, but nothing matched her description, and the skull was named Jane Doe, placed in an RCMP storage facility and forgotten. Then in 2002 police searched serial killer Robert Pickton’s Coquitlam farm. Among the dozens of truly gruesome discoveries were human bones that matched the DNA of Jane Doe’s skull. Of the remains of 33 women found on the pig farm, Jane Doe is the only one who has yet to be identified. That may soon change. RCMP say they are submitting her DNA for forensic genetic genealogy testing, and hopefully 30 years after her murder, Jane will finally get her name back. Composite image of Jane Doe released by the RCMP in 2011 For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
In 1962, 20-year-old Ann Spiller was hired as a bank teller at the Penticton branch of the Royal Bank. After she’d been on the job for about a year, Ann spotted a flaw in the bank’s accounting system. By 1968, she had stolen nearly half a million dollars, and this former farm girl, was living the life of the rich and famous. Drawing of Ann Spiller by Roy Peterson, Vancouver Sun, November 9, 1968 For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
In 1910, American-born Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was living in London with his wife Belle, when he fell in love with Ethel Le Neve, his 20-something assistant. Crippen poisoned his wife and buried most of her in the cellar of their Hilldrop Crescent home. When Scotland Yard started to investigate Belle’s disappearance, Crippen grabbed his young lover, cut off her long brown hair, dressed her in a boy’s suit and fled to Belgium. The couple booked passage aboard the SS Montrose. As the ship left Antwerp for Canada, Crippen had no idea that they had been identified and that Scotland Yard’s Inspector Dew was racing across the Atlantic to intercept and arrest them. This episode is based on a chapter from Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
Eighteen-year-old Andrea King graduated with honours from New Westminster Secondary in June 1991. She took a job with the Greyhound Bus Company to save money for a trip across Canada. Her plan was to check out universities while she worked her way home to British Columbia. On January 1, 1992, Andrea took an Air Canada flight to Halifax. She phoned her family from the airport and told them she’d call the next day with the address of the Halifax hostel where she was staying. And then Andrea vanished. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
Ramsey Rioux and Kenneth Lutz were two Indigenous boys living in Burnaby, BC . When the 13-year-olds ran away in December 1989, RCMP put little effort into looking for them. It wasn't until a skull was identified in Stanley Park almost a decade later that police discovered that they weren't missing. The boys were murdered. If you have any information about these murders, please contact the Vancouver Police Department at 604-717-2500 or crime stoppers 1-800-222-8477. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
The body of 15-year-old Myfanwy Sanders was found on November 9, 1945 in a field near her home on Vancouver Island. She had been missing for 23 days. Apart from a couple of newspaper articles and a coroner's inquest, this Saanich teen’s case was never really looked into at all. And, while Saanich police have four unsolved murders on their books, Myfanwy, who was known as Dot by her family and friends, is not one of them. This episode is based on a chapter from my book Cold Case BC: The Stories Behind the Province's Most Intriguing Murder and Missing Person Cases. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
In January 1943, fifteen-year-old Molly Justice took the 5:50 pm bus from her job in Victoria, BC and got off at Swan Lake near her Saanich home. Her body was found a few hours later lying face down in the snow. She had been stabbed more than 20 times and hit on the head with a rock. What followed was one of the most seriously botched police investigations of last century. This episode is based on a chapter from my book Cold Case BC: The Stories Behind the Province's Most Intriguing Murder and Missing Person Cases. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada. Photo of Molly Justice (right) with her best friend, Ada Duke and Ada's Dog Mickey in 1943. Courtesy T.W. Paterson
On April 1 1992, 19-year-old Aimee Beaulieu was killed in her home just outside of Nelson, British Columbia. Her twin babies David and Samantha, died in the fire that was lit to cover up her murder. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
On Saturday July 12, 1997, four 20-year-olds were gun downed at a campsite in Kitimat, British Columbia. The shooter was 42-year-old Kevin Vermette. After killing three of the four young men, Vermette returned to his motel room, grabbed his dog and his shotgun - and disappeared into the bush. Vermette is still at large, and as I quickly learned, nothing about this story is as it first seemed. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
Seven-year-old Terri Lynn Scalf disappeared from Aldergrove, BC on July 24, 1983. She was last seen in the company of a 55-year-old convicted child molester and another 10-year-old girl from her townhouse complex. Police initially linked her disappearance with that of Joanne Pedersen, 10, from Chilliwack who had vanished six months earlier. Both girls are still missing. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
Ten-year-old Joanne Pedersen was last seen in a Chilliwack, BC phone booth at 8:20 pm on Saturday February 19, 1983. She had been calling her mother to tell her that she had been locked out of her house and asked if she could pick her up from the Penny Pincher general store. Just as her mother went to talk to Joanne, a young man got on the phone and told her that if she wasn’t there in half-an-hour he would call the police. Her mother was there within 20-minutes, but both Joanne and the man were gone. For more information, please join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada, or visit my website: evelazarus.com
In this last episode of Season 4, I'm delighted to be joined by four local storytellers. We'll hear about the murder of iconic architect Francis Rattenbury, visit a haunted firehall, a spooky house in New Westminster from the 1860s, and a character house in East Vancouver that's home to three ghosts: a man, a little girl and a charcoal grey cat. For more information visit evelazarus.com or join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada.
Michael Smith, 17 is RCMP case #2014003272 and one of 233 missing kids on the Canada’s Missing website. Mike was last seen on December 30, 1967 when he left his North Vancouver home after a fight with his family when he was caught with some weed. If Mike is alive, he’d be 73 years old, and may have no idea that his family has searched for him for over four decades. The second part of the episode is about Lucy Johnson, a 25-year old mother of two. Lucy went missing from her home in 1961. For over 50 years she was listed as “missing, foul play suspected” by the Surrey RCMP. And, then in 2013, Lucy's story got an ending. For more information, please join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada, or visit my website: evelazarus.com
On November 6, 1967, sometime before 6:00 pm, seven-year-old Nancy Johnsen went missing from her Cloverdale BC farmhouse. Nancy, one of ten children ranging in age from six months to 16 years, was found on the property the next morning. She had been strangled. No one reported seeing a stranger around the house that night and Nancy was not known to wander outside alone in the dark. The case went cold. A few years after the Johnsens' moved to nearby Aldergrove, their neighbour, 15-year-old Theresa Hildebrandt disappeared. Her remains would not be found for another four years. This episode is based on original research and interviews from a chapter in my book Cold Case Vancouver: the city's most baffling unsolved murders
Between April 1988 and August 1990, a serial killer murdered six sex trade workers and dumped their bodies in the laneways of Vancouver. Officially, the murders are unsolved and two were added to the Vancouver Police Department’s cold case website just last year. But two retired detectives who worked on a joint RCMP/VPD task force called E-Alley, say they know who killed these women, and he died in 2007. The Alley Murders is a Webby Award finalist For more information, please join us on the Facebook group page Cold Case Canada, or visit my website: evelazarus.com
Casey Rose Bohun, 3 disappeared from her North Delta, BC home on August 5, 1989. Dozens of volunteers searched for Casey but no trace of her was ever found. Police believe that she either wandered off and got lost, was killed by someone close to her, abducted by a stranger, or sold and living somewhere else with no memory of her real family. This episode is based on a story from Cold Case BC: the stories behind the province's most sensational murders and missing persons cases. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com
At the end of 1974, 22-year-old Barbara Larocque’s body was found in Langley, BC. She had been strangled with her own scarf. Two months later, Gail "Sam" Rogers, 26 went missing from her Kitsilano basement suite. Her body was found in a creek near Squamish, her head bashed in with a claw hammer. Both women were go-go dancers at Vancouver nightclubs. Their deaths are believed to be the result of contract killings. This episode is based on a story from Cold Case BC: the stories behind the province's most sensational murders and missing persons cases. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com
On May 7, 1961, 12-year-old Brenda Byman went for her first sleepover at her friend’s house in Wilmer, a tiny community outside of Invermere, BC. The next day she and four teens went for a hike to Lake Enid. Brenda never returned. Over six decades later, Brenda's tragic disappearance continues to divide the town. This episode is based on a story from Cold Case BC: the stories behind the province's most sensational murders and missing persons cases For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com
On June 24, 1992 Jean Ann James, a 53-year-old former Canadian Pacific Airlines flight attendant, went to the Shaughnessy home of her husband’s wealthy younger lover, and slit her throat with a box cutter. It would take police another 19 years to catch her. This episode is based on a story from Cold Case BC: the stories behind the province's most sensational murders and missing persons cases. For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com
Anita Simaganis
as a native woman I believe that comment about captive victims,...I don't think it was just priests & nuns I think they may have been 'sold' to the community too. need a farm hand?
Anita Simaganis
thank you this case NEEDS to be solved