Who is Chris Sheriffe? Elite soccer player. Aspiring carpenter. Good family. We hear from the people who knew him best, mother, sister, coach. We also learn about his experience growing up as a young Black teen in Toronto – the frequent police stops and his complaint about the most egregious one. He’s in his Catholic school uniform, heading home from class at the end of the day and cops are tailing him for no reason at all. And that new prosecutor, she puts the first degree murder case back on track. 

The forensics. How three bullets killed a man. The gun shot residue. Where it landed and where it didn’t land gives homicide detectives some help, but not much. It turns out the case against Chris Sheriffe and Awet Asfaha is weak. Plus, the police screwed up the evidence collection. Things come to a head at the preliminary hearing, where a judge must decide if the charge of first degree murder – a planned killing – is the correct one. Plus, since Chris was just driving the car, did he really know what was about to happen? A judge said no and the case fell apart. Enter a new prosecutor. It was time for a full court press.

Audio sources: The science of gunshot residue analysis, The Royal Institution

Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders and Death in a Small Town, is back with Murder on Mount Olive, an investigation of a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.

Subscribers can listen to episodes early each week, plus get exclusive access to bonus episodes. 

Twelve years into his life sentence for murder, Chris Sheriffe is a model prisoner. He’s doing all the courses available behind bars, plus weekly meetings of the prison public speaking club. He does conflict resolution, helping guards and prisoners get along. Which is intriguing, given that Toronto Police labelled him a hard knuckled killer. Also, he calls his Mom several times a day. In an interview at the notorious “Gladiator School” prison, Chris tells his side of the story. How his choice to stay out all night with a young woman, then drive a man home got him labelled a gangster.

Suspicion

Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders, is back with Murder on Mount Olive, an investigation of a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.

Subscribers can listen to episodes early each week, plus get exclusive access to bonus episodes. 

Watch or listen to this bonus video footage, where Kevin Donovan sits down with Chris Sheriffe in prison at Collins Bay. Listen to episode 3 of Murder on Mount Olive, Gladiator School, for more from this interview. 

Homicide detectives get lucky. The best witness possible, and he’s talking, and he’s got a partial licence plate from a car that left the scene right after Kim Golaub was shot dead. But homicide cops are struggling for a motive. Did someone have a grudge against the victim? Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time? Just a few hours after the murder homicide detectives have two young men in separate interview rooms. Their tactics? Lying to get a confession.

Audio sources: Global, Toronto Police, CTV

Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders and Death in a Small Town, is back with Murder on Mount Olive, an investigation of a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.

Subscribers can listen to episodes early each week, plus get exclusive access to bonus episodes. 

On a hot, sunny day in August a man is shot three times. It happens outside a barbecue. Witnesses give different descriptions of the shooter; police flood the area looking for clues. What happens that day will end up putting a young soccer player turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.

Audio: CTV, Global, Doomstown movie trailer

Suspicion

Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders, is back with Murder on Mount Olive, an investigation of a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.

Subscribers can listen to episodes early each week, plus get exclusive access to bonus episodes. 

Coming Friday, March 7, episodes 1, 2 and 3 (for subscribers) will be available for Suspicion Season 4, Murder on Mount Olive.

Toronto Star Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders, investigates a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.

Subscribers can listen to episodes early each week, plus get exclusive access to bonus episodes. And be sure to check out the first three seasons of Suspicion.

Season 3, "40 Years Cold" Looks at a case that began four decades ago, when two women were killed in their Toronto homes. Wendy Gillis and Betsy Powell take you through the nights of the murders, the tragic circumstances of a murderer, and the stunning conclusion of a 40 years long cold case.

Season 2, “The Billionaire Murders: The hunt for the killers of Honey and Barry Sherman” Probes the case of the famous Toronto couple who were found strangled in their home in 2017. Kevin Donovan covered the Sherman case and fought court battles to access documents on the police investigation.

Season 1, “Death in a Small Town” What began as just another day for the McLellan family would end with their youngest son clinging to life in hospital and a cloud of suspicion hanging over his mother and father.

Toronto Star Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders, is back with Murder on Mount Olive, an investigation of a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.

Subscribers can listen to episodes early each week, plus get exclusive access to bonus episodes. And be sure to check out the first three seasons of Suspicion.

Season 3, "40 Years Cold" Looks at a case that began four decades ago, when two women were killed in their Toronto homes. Wendy Gillis and Betsy Powell take you through the nights of the murders, the tragic circumstances of a murderer, and the stunning conclusion of a 40 years long cold case.

Season 2, “The Billionaire Murders: The hunt for the killers of Honey and Barry Sherman” Probes the case of the famous Toronto couple who were found strangled in their home in 2017. Kevin Donovan covered the Sherman case and fought court battles to access documents on the police investigation.

Season 1, “Death in a Small Town” What began as just another day for the McLellan family would end with their youngest son clinging to life in hospital and a cloud of suspicion hanging over his mother and father.

In episode eleven of “The Billionaire Murders: The hunt for the killers of Honey and Barry Sherman” Kevin Donovan uses what he knows about the killings to develop his theory of what the killers were after. Nothing was taken, not money, jewelry, and none of Barry’s electronic devices. The plan was to kill both Honey and Barry and stage their bodies.

The Billionaire Murders podcast is probing the strange case of the famous Toronto couple found strangled in their north Toronto home in 2017. For seven years, The Star’s Kevin Donovan has covered the case for the Star, fought court battles to access documents on the police investigation and the Sherman estate, written a best selling book on it and produced a Crave documentary.

Listen for episode 12 this coming Friday, December 20.