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

On the day that 14-year-old Lindsey Nicholls disappeared, she was last seen walking down Royston Road, outside of Comox on Vancouver Island. It was August 2, 1993 - the Monday of the BC Day long weekend, and Lindsey was meeting friends at the annual Comox Nautical Days Festival. 

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

Gloria Levina Moody, who everybody knew as Lee, had been stripped, beaten, sexually assaulted, and left to bleed to death on a cattle trail about a kilometre off the Chilcotin Highway near Williams Lake, BC. She was the 26-year-old mother of two from Bella Coola on a weekend away with her family. Lee’s 1969 murder is the oldest of 18 cases of missing and murdered women and girls along Highways 5, 16 and 97, currently with the RCMP’s E-PANA unit. Episode includes interviews with Lee’s daughter Vanessa, Steve Pranzl, formerly with E-PANA, and Geraldine Trimble, social development director with the Native Women’s Association of Canada.

This episode is based on a story from Cold Case BC: the stories behind the province's most sensational murders and missing persons cases.

Preorder my new book Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck through Arsenal Pulp Press or our favourite bookstore - coming April 2025For more information, please visit my website: evelazarus.com

I’m Eve Lazarus, and I’m the host and producer of Cold Case Canada. This is from a Facebook live event that I did on March 10 to talk about the process behind writing my bestselling book Cold Case BC, some of the challenges that I met along the way, and what you can expect from Season Four of my podcast which launches Friday March 17.

For more information on my books and podcast, please visit evelazarus.com