The 519 Podcast

On July 16th, 1988, 22-year-old Lisa Maas went to a house party in the Owen Sound area. She was separated from her husband of two years and had recently broken up with a boyfriend.  The next morning, she and a male companion went to retrieve her car. It was the last time she was ever seen.  Despite extensive searches, her remains have never been found.  On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we look at her case through the eyes of Matthew Nopper, co-founder of the group Please Bring Me Home, which works to find missing people. 

In this episode of the 519 Podcast, we tell the story of Joseph Spracklin, an anti-alcohol crusader in Windsor during the time of Prohibition, who got away with killing a bar owner. This episode is written and produced by Patrick Magermans and hosted by Scott Kitching. 

Sonya Cywink was last seen alive on August 26, 1994, in Old East London. Four days later, her body was found at Southwold Earthworks National Historic Site of Canada in Elgin County. In the 30 years since her murder, no one has been arrested.  On this episode of The 519 Podcast, we look into Sonya’s murder and follow the work of her sister, Meggie Cywink, and original investigator Chris Gheysen in their pursuit of solving the case.  Hosted by Scott Kitching Written and Produced by Patrick Magermans

Neil McDougall had been married for less than six months when he went missing in October of 1985. 38 years later, his wife Mary Ellen is still looking for answers - even as police have offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. This episode of the 519 Podcast examines his disappearance from Ayton and who may know something about what happened to Neil.

Where were you that day? Were you driving when the lights went out? Trapped inside an elevator? Camping and completely unaware? At 4:11 pm on August 14, 2003, approximately 55 million North Americans found themselves without power. The widespread outage stretched across parts of Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we look back at “The Great Northeast Blackout - 20 years later” 

The town of Amherstburg has been around for over 200 years. And as we’ve learned in previous episodes, many places with a long and deep history are also entrenched in paranormal activities. Amherstburg is not immune.  We’ve explored the ghost stories of Texas Road and the Park House Museum located on Dalhousie Street. But just a few houses down from the Park House Museum is another haunted house.  On this episode of The3 519 Podcast, we learn more about the spooky happenings within the Gordon House - home to tourism Amherstburg and potentially a few residential ghosts.  This episode is hosted by Hayley Cheng. 

It’s always fascinating learning about your family’s history. Did your Grandpa fight in a war? Or did your great-aunt Jess invent the shoe umbrella? The good part is you can easily just ask them, or ask your parents who have heard the stories at every family dinner growing up.  But that’s not the case for many people. Around 1,700 children are adopted each year in Canada. Although many still grow up in a loving home with their adoptive parents, they may still question who their birth parents are, why were they given up for adoption, and what their lives would’ve looked like if they had not been adopted.  In this episode of the 519 Podcast, we speak with Colleen O’Grady Johnson, an adoption search angel originally from Woodstock who reconnected 825 families over the last 18 years. 

More than a million Canadian men and women contributed to the war effort during the 1940s. Most of them were given full recognition for their efforts. But some stories, like the Farmerettes, fell by the wayside. This was also the case for the thousands of men and women who worked on radar technology, which changed the course of the war. What these men and women researched, built, and worked on was classified. They were sworn to secrecy until the early 90s, when their life stories and hard work were slowly and finally brought to light.  In this episode of the 519 Podcast, we talk about the development of radar technology in Southwestern Ontario and the impact it had on the Second World War.  This is The Secrets of Radar and the Second World War. 

In 1879, Dr. Thomas Niell Cream was suspected in the suspicious death of Catharine Gardener in London, Ontario. What officials didn’t know was that Dr. Cream was known as the Lambeth Poisoner, responsible for 10 more deaths across the globe. On this episode of the ‘519 Podcast’, we look at the Victorian serial killer Thomas Niell Cream and discuss his life in Ontario. 

It’s not as rare as it once was to take a look inside the mind of a serial killer. But, the media seems to only cover a select few, like the Dahmers and Bundys of the world. But, what about the lesser known killers? What about the ones born in our backyards? On this episode of the ‘519 Podcast’, we listen to the jarring confession tapes of serial killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer, who killed 8 seniors during her time working in nursing homes.     

If you visit a place that people tell you is haunted, you mightbuild the experience up in your mind. But, usually, when you arrive it’s a big letdown. That’s because paranormal happenings are rarely predictable, and the same things never seem to happen twice. You might feel a chill that raises the hair on the back of your neck, or hear the creaking of old floorboards and the grumbling of old pipes. But only now and then, does someone claim to have seen a ghost, and rarely is that ghost ever caught on camera. Ghost sounds being captured are few and far in between, and objects moving on their own are not often seen either.  However, these things all happen in the oldest building in Essex County. At the Park House Museum, you can count on it, in fact.  On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we look at the Haunting of the Park House Museum

There are few things we take for granted more than our drinking water.  When we want water, we turn on the tap, and there it is. And, by and large, we trust that the water coming out of our tap is clean and safe for us to use. We’re completely dependent on that water as we use it for everything in our lives, from brushing our teeth, to bathing, to cooking with it, and obviously to drink it. But, what happens when something goes wrong? What happens when that water becomes tainted? On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we take a look at how an entire town’s water supply became so dangerous that it led to severe illness and death. 

It’s not often that, in a small town, someone disappears out of thin air. So, when Lois Hanna vanished after a dance in the small Bruce County town of Lucknow, it left an impact. So much so that people are still looking for her to this day. On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we look at the disappearance of Lois Hanna, and talk about theories as to what could have happened on the night she was last seen. If you know anything about Lois's disappearance,  please contact: PleaseBringMeHome.com To listen to more details about Lois's story: Sheddinglight.buzzsprout.com

It seems as if every small town in Ontario has seen its fair share of missing posters, or posters declaring a reward for information on murder cases. Many of these cases have gone years unsolved, with posters that have faded over time.  This week on the 519 Podcast, we look into one of these cases: the unsolved murder of Karen Caughlin, which has been haunting Sarnia for nearly 50 years. 

When you think of the Klu Klux Klan, would you consider them to be strictly American? A racist enterprise restricted to the southern United States with little to no influence in another country, especially not Canada, right?  Sadly, this was not the case in the early 1900’s, when the Klan's twisted ideas bled across the border into Southwestern Ontario. It was during this time that there were parades of thousands of Klansmena nd crosses were burned at their meetings.  It’s not exactly a bright spot in Ontario’s history, needless to say. It’s not an overly well known history either. On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we look at the KKK's history in our region. 

It was an unusually sunny and warm March day in London - that also happened to be a Saturday, which also happened to be on St. Patrick's Day. These events led to the a massive riot near Fanshawe College. On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we examine the St. Patrick's Day Riot of 2012. How it happened, the fallout, and what was done to ensure it would never happen again.  

There were several people who played significant roles in trailblazing the Black press in Canadian history.  As we heard on the last episode of the 519 Podcast, those included Henry and Mary Bibb. But the subject of this episode was very unique in what she brought to the table.  In a time when breaking through the barriers of racism was already near impossible, Mary Ann Shadd Cary had to deal with a historically terrible era of sexism. Despite it all, she became the first Black woman to open, own, and run a newspaper. This was a significant achievement. But the amazing part is, this was just one of the things she was able to accomplish in her lifetime. It was essentially a single line in a resume that grew for decades, with recognitions and contributions to the abolition movement, to educating settlers in Canada, to getting a law degree, to helping the Union in the American Civil War.  She was recognized as a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada in 1994.  On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we tell her story.   

There is a rich Black history in Canada, particularly in southwestern Ontario, where thousands of escaped slaves ended up after crossing the border in pursuit of freedom. We have a treasure trove of incredibly inspiring local black history, and in this episode of the 519 Podcast we dig a little deeper into the story of Henry and Mary Bibb. Henry and Mary Bibb settled in Old Sandwich Towne in Windsor, Ontario in August of 1850. Five months later they opened ‘The Voice of the Fugitive’, the first ever black owned newspaper in Canada. It was a massive step forward for the anti-slavery movement, as well as a significant milestone in Black Canadian History.  As difficult a task as it would have been to start ‘The voice of the Fugitive’, the road leading to that moment was much more difficult Henry Bibb was born a slave, seeing nothing but the horrors of human ownership through his entire adolescence. And while Mary was born a free woman, being a black woman in America during that era was no cake walk either. They had a lot to overcome to get to where they were. In this episode of the 519 Podcast, we tell their story.  This is 'Printing for Freedom’.

Among the most troubling statistics to come out of Ontario in 2022 was the number of people who died in fires.  In fact, the number was the highest we have seen in two decades. And it had been growing for years, leading up to 2022.  From 2010 to 2019,  Ontario saw around 75 to 100 fire-related deaths each year. Then, when COVID-19 hit, people started spending a lot more time at home.  And we started seeing more people lose their lives in fires. In 2020, the number was 115. In 2021, it was 125.  And in 2022, the number climbed to 133.  So, are fires getting more dangerous or are we becoming more complacent? The answer, oddly, is both.  This is 133 Dead: Ontario's Tragic Record Breaking Year.

It’s a murder that people still talk about over 100 years later - one that some blamed on one of the most infamous serial killers we’ve ever known. The gruesome crime happened in the small town of Listowel in 1894 - and has become a part of local legend. On this episode of ‘The 519 Podcast’ we look at the Murder of Jessie Keith and the time Jack the Ripper was thought to be in Ontario.