Story Hunter Podcasts

Chasing a Ghost: The Hunt for the 22-Calibre Killer

In the spring of 1970, the rural communities of Gormley and Palgrave, Ontario were shaken by two violent crimes in just thirteen days. Two mothers at home with their children were raped and murdered by a stranger. The unknown assailant was quickly dubbed “The 22-calibre killer” by the media for his weapon of choice. But despite one of the largest manhunts in Ontario history, the police were never able to find the killer and the double homicide went cold.

Twenty-five years later, a man renovating his newly purchased home would find a hidden piece of paper that would turn out to be the key to unlocking a decades old cold case that left two families shattered. But who would the 22-calibre killer turn out to be and how many other victims did he have?

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A Mother’s Love - The Murder of Olga Duncan

1959 was going to be an exciting year for Olga Kupczyk. The thirty-year-old Canadian nurse has recently re located to Santa Barbara, California where she had met a handsome, successful lawyer. After a whirlwind romance the two were now married and expecting their first child. But just five months into their marriage there was a big problem. Olga’s new husband had another woman in his life. This woman wasn’t a secret lover – she was Olga Duncan’s new mother-in-law and she planned to stop at nothing to get Olga out of the picture and keep her precious son all to herself…even if it meant murder!

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Ep. 1: Innocence Lost - The Murder of Emanuel Jaques

What began as a hot and sunny day in late July, 1977 soon turned into a nightmare that would be forever seared into the minds and hearts of Torontonians. Twelve-year-old shoeshine boy Emanuel Jaques was shining shoes at Yonge and Dundas when he was abducted and murdered above a body rub parlor on the Yonge St strip. For years people had been calling for the city’s sin strip to be cleaned up, but politicians and police turned a blind eye to the seedy sex industry. Now a young immigrant child from Portugal had been lured to his death and four men were in custody. Canada’s largest metropolis had lost its innocence and the citizens of Toronto were demanding change.

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Ep. 2: Enemy Within - The Murder Of Glen Davis

In 1969, Mary Davis Nelles was kidnapped and betrayed by someone she once loved. For the wealthy Davis family, the betrayal was unforgivable, and it made the multi-millionaires even more reclusive. But sadly it would not be the last time a crime of greed would land the Davis family on the front pages of the country’s newspapers.

When Mary’s first cousin Glen takes over the Davis fortune, alliances are formed, and jealousies split the family. Glen has a different vision for company and its legacy. His passion is the environment, and he plans to donate millions to preserve it. But his generosity has created an enemy within the family, someone who wants his share of the family fortune even if he has to commit murder to get it.

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Ep. 1: Enemy Within - The Kidnapping Of Mary Davis Nelles

They were one of Canada’s wealthiest families, but their millions couldn’t buy the privacy they desired. The Davis family shunned any notoriety or publicity but that didn’t stop those in their inner circle from violent acts of greed. In 1969 26-year-old newlywed Mary Davis Nelles is kidnapped in front of her husband. Her abductors demand $850,000.00 and threaten to kill her if their demands are not met. Her wealthy father and uncle have the means to pay the ransom but how do the kidnappers know that? The masked men who took Mary are not strangers to the Davis family dynasty. But who are they and how much is Mary’s life worth to them?

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Ep. 2: Motherisk

Child welfare agencies across Canada spent millions of dollars on hair tests conducted by the Motherisk Lab based at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

In 2014, the Lab’s results were put under the spotlight during the criminal trial of April Broomfield, a single mother accused of feeding her son cocaine. Expert testimony at her trial cast doubt on Motherisk results, and the qualifications of the lab staff.

Toronto Star reporter Rachel Mendleson wrote dozens of follow-up stories following Broomfield’s acquittal as more families came forward with their stories of being victimized by erroneous results.

That put pressure on the government of Ontario to launch two investigations into the Motherisk Lab, and its processes and standards. What they found was shocking.

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Ep. 1: Motherisk

The Motherisk Lab based out of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, claimed to be able to determine through a simple hair test if a parent was abusing drugs or alcohol.

Test results were used in thousands of child protection cases, often leading to families being ripped apart, and children put up for adoption. But the tests were flawed, and the people who ran the lab had no training in forensic evidence.

Toronto Star reporter Rachel Mendleson was at the forefront in the reporting on the failures of the Motherisk Lab, and details the history of how this lab came to wield so much power, and how it would all come crashing down with the help of determined lawyers, and parents.

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Ep. 3: Think Dirty - The Disgrace of Dr. Charles Smith

Brenda Waudby was a young single mother living in Peterborough when her 22-month old daughter Jenna was murdered in her home in 1997. 

Jenna suffered horrendous injuries involving burns, blows, and sexual assault. But rather than pursuing evidence that pointed towards the pre-teen boy who was babysitting Jenna at the time of her murder, Charles Smith instead insisted that the toddler’s injuries could have occurred much earlier in the day.

Armed with that opinion and timeline, police spent months investigating Brenda, and building a case that resulted in prosecutors charging the grieving mother with murdering her daughter.

But months later, the case against Brenda would fall apart as experts poured cold water on Charles Smith’s theories.

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Ep. 2: Think Dirty - The Disgrace of Dr. Charles Smith

In the summer of 1997 Lianne Gagnon was emerging from the haze of grief that had descended upon her and her family in the aftermath of her baby boy Nicholas’s sudden death. She was planning her wedding to her fiance Pete Thibeault when the investigation into Nicholas’s death was reopened, and she found herself accused of the horrifying crime of murdering her son.

A second autopsy was ordered by Dr. Charles Smith, the province’s leading juvenile forensic pathologist, and a man convinced of Lianne’s guilt. Outraged that his daughter’s freedom was being threatened, Lianne’s father Maurice Gagnon started looking into the qualifications and history of Charles Smith and others in the Chief Coroner’s Office of Ontario. Months into the renewed investigation, Lianne and her new husband would find themselves fighting for custody of their newborn baby girl Nicole.

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Ep. 1: Think Dirty - The Disgrace of Dr. Charles Smith.

Charles Smith worked for decades as a forensic pathologist in Ontario. World-renowned, his testimony in hundreds of cases involving the sudden deaths of children put supposed killers behind bars. But one case against a young mother accused of murdering her eleven-month old son set in motion the unravelling of Charles Smith’s career, and helped expose his staggering incompetence.

Lianne Thibeault and her family fought for years to clear her name in the death of her beloved boy Nicholas who died 1995 after hitting his head at the family home in Sudbury.

Smith’s career would end in disgrace, and parents would eventually be exonerated.In this episode, Lianne Thibeault relives her darkest days when she was accused of killing her own son.

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