Full Transcript for Toronto's Most Notable Cold Cases: Shadows of the Past That Still Haunt the City

Sherman, who is seventy She was a total 72 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:39.520 fixture in the city's philanthropic networks. She directed massive sums 73 00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:42.840 to various causes all over the place. So they inhabited 74 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.280 a world of extreme privilege. They lived at fifty Old 75 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:49.919 Collie Road, which is this affluent enclave where the architecture 76 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:53.680 itself is designed to project security. It's supposed to insulate 77 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:55.360 you from the chaotic elements of the city. 78 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:57.199 Yeah, geats and cameras everywhere. 79 00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:00.680 But on December fifteen, twenty seventeen, that insulateation proved to 80 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:02.879 be entirely illusory. 81 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.240 Because the physical reality of that crime scene is something 82 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:07.120 that defies any conventional logic. 83 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:08.599 It's bizarre, it is. 84 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:12.000 So imagine this. It's a Friday. A real estate agent 85 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:16.079 is actually touring the sprawling mansion right, showing the property, 86 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:18.600 walking through these luxurious quiet. 87 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:20.040 Rooms, just a normal work day for them. 88 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:23.120 Exactly, And they make their way down to the basement 89 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:26.160 to the indoor pool area, and that is where they 90 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:27.639 find the Shermans. 91 00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:29.319 And they have been dead for roughly two days at 92 00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:30.000 that part, right. 93 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:33.639 Two days. But it's not just a chaotic scene of violence. 94 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:36.680 It is staged, highly staged. They are in a semi 95 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:39.480 seated position on the deck of the pool, and they 96 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.279 have men's leather belts looped around their necks. Yeah, and 97 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:45.680 the other ends of those belts are fastened to a 98 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:49.720 low metal railing that runs alongside the water. They're fully clothed. 99 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:53.560 But here is the detail that just keeps me awake 100 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:53.920 at night. 101 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:54.439 You coat. 102 00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:58.560 Yes, their arms weren't bound with zip ties or rope. 103 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:01.480 Their arms were pinned to their sides by their own coats, 104 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:04.959 which have been deliberately forcefully pulled down over their shoulders 105 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:06.240 to restrict their movement. 106 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:09.639 Right, And the biomechanics and the psychology of that specific 107 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:11.800 staging are critical to analyze here. 108 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:13.560 I mean, it's so

specific it is. 109 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:17.600 Pulling a heavy winter coat down over the shoulders effectively 110 00:05:17.639 --> 00:05:18.920 acts as a straight jacket. 111 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:19.879 Oh wow. 112 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:24.600 Yeah, it neutralizes the victim's ability to defend themselves, you know, 113 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:27.120 to reach for the ligature around their neck, or to 114 00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:28.720 struggle effectively at all. 115 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:29.720 It's terrifying. 116 00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:33.680 What's fascinating here is how beyond the sheer physical mechanics 117 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:36.360 of the restraint, you really have to look at the 118 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:38.720 psychological message of the posing. 119 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:39.959 Because they didn't have to leave them. 120 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:44.480 Like that, exactly to position two billionaires, two people who 121 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:48.519 commanded immense authority in their daily lives on the floor 122 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:51.399 of a basement pool tethered to a railing like that. 123 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:54.160 I mean, it is a profound degradation. 124 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:56.360 It is. It's deeply humiliating. 125 00:05:56.439 --> 00:05:59.160 It strips them of their dignity and their power, and 126 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:03.079 it suggests in a defender or maybe offenders, who possessed 127 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:08.319 not only the physical capability to overpower to adults simultaneously. 128 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:09.000 Which is hard enough on its own. 129 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:13.600 Right, but also the cold, methodical patients to arrange them 130 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:17.160 in a highly specific theatrical tableau before vanishing and. 131 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:19.560 Vanishing completely right, there were no signs of forced entry. 132 00:06:19.639 --> 00:06:22.639 The windows weren't smashed, the doors weren't pried open. And 133 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:25.639 this is where the initial police response really baffles me. 134 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:27.120 The murder suicide theory. 135 00:06:27.319 --> 00:06:31.000 Yeah, the first responders walk into this basement, they see 136 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:34.800 two fully clothed people tied to a railing in this 137 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:38.839 incredibly bizarre restrictive pose, with no signs of a break in, 138 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:42.560 and their initial working theory was murder suicide. 139 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:44.040 Hard to reconcile, I know. 140 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:47.199 I mean, how does a team of highly trained homicide 141 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:51.839 detectives look at that highly theatrical restraint and immediately jump 142 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:54.079 to murder suicide? To me, it just feels like a 143 00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:57.600 very dark human bias. What you mean, It feels like 144 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:00.000 even the police are desperate to believe that the whole 145 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:02.959 or was contained within the family unit, because think about it, 146 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:05.879 If it's a murder suicide, the threat is neutralized, the 147 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:08.720 bad guy is dead, right, the case is closed exactly. 148 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:11.439 But if it's a double homicide by some phantom who 149 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.720 can bypass BILLIONA or security, well, then the monster's still 150 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:15.240 out there. 151 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:18.879 That's a very stute observation. The cognitive pull toward a 152 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:23.519 contained narrative is a known phenomenon in early stage investigations. 153 00:07:22.839 --> 00:07:24.920 Really even for professionals. 154 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:29.519 Oh absolutely, particularly in environments that appear hermetically sealed. When 155 00:07:29.560 --> 00:07:33.279 investigators arrive at a high security perimeter and find no 156 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:38.040 physical breach, no broken glass, no triped alarms, the brain 157 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:39.560 attempts to resolve. 158 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:41.360 That dissonance because it doesn't make sense. 159 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:44.439 Right, and the easiest path to resolution is assuming the 160 00:07:44.519 --> 00:07:46.959 violence originated from within the closed system. 161 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:48.000 Wow. 162 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:52.600 Because the alternative that an external actor possesses the sophistication 163 00:07:52.759 --> 00:07:56.920 to breach a billionaire's estate execute a highly complex physical 164 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:00.399 double murder, pose the bodies and exit without leaving a 165 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:04.399 single scuff mark or triggering a digital footprint is terrifying. 166 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:05.800 It means nobody is safe. 167 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:09.800 Precisely, it implies a level of professional capability that fundamentally 168 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:13.600 threatens the entire concept of residential security. So the initial 169 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:17.360 murder suicide theory, while disastrous for the timeline of the investigation, 170 00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:20.759 was really a symptom of investigators struggling to process an 171 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:22.199 impossibly clean crime scene. 172 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:24.279 Okay, but once they finally admitted it was a targeted 173 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:28.079 double homicide, you would think the Sherman family's billions would 174 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:30.920 crack the case wide open, right, you'd assume. So you 175 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:37.120 imagine armies of private investigators, massive rewards, global media coverage, 176 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:38.240 all of which happened. 177 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:40.879 By the way, Yes there were huge rewards offered. 178 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:45.840

There are documentaries like The Billionaire Murders. But the wealth 179 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:48.240 didn't act like a skeleton key in this case. It 180 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:49.879 acted like a concrete wall. 181 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:53.159 It is a great paradox of investigating the ultra wealthy. 182 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:58.159 Unlimited resources do not simplify a suspect pool. They expanded 183 00:08:58.240 --> 00:08:59.720 into infinity. 184 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.159 Right because they touch so many different industries exactly. 185 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:06.080 Just consider the daily operational footprint of an average citizen 186 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.960 compared to a billionaire CEO of a global pharmaceutical company. 187 00:09:10.039 --> 00:09:10.799 It's night and day. 188 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:15.639 An average person has a relatively localized network, you know, coworkers, family, 189 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:19.080 maybe a few local grievances or neighbor disputes. Sure, Barry 190 00:09:19.080 --> 00:09:23.840 Sherman's network involved international supply chains, hostile corporate takeovers, high 191 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:28.399 stakes litigation involving hundreds of millions of dollars, and competitors across. 192 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:31.000 Multiple continents, So the motive could be literally anything. 193 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:33.679 When detect is trying to look for a motive, they 194 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:36.399 weren't looking at a neighborhood squabble. They were looking at 195 00:09:36.440 --> 00:09:40.519 a global web of corporate empire building and fierce rivalries. 196 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.720 And furthermore, the very architecture of a billionaire's life is 197 00:09:44.759 --> 00:09:46.879 designed to repel scrutiny. 198 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:49.879 Right because their entire existence is wrapped in non disclosure 199 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:52.480 agreements and offshore shell companies. 200 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:56.840 Precisely, their communications are heavily encrypted, their assets are filtered 201 00:09:56.840 --> 00:10:00.720 through labyrinthine holding companies, and their personal interaction are shielded 202 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:03.159 by layers of legal counsel and private security. 203 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:06.600 So just getting basic information is a nightmare. 204 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:09.639 For homicide detective trying to establish a simple timeline of 205 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:12.159 who Barry Sherman spoke to in the weeks leading up 206 00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:15.200 to his death, they first have to pierce through corporate 207 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:18.960 firewalls that were specifically designed by top tier lawyers to 208 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:20.080 be impenetrable. 209 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:23.799 Wow. So the wealth essentially insulated the killer, Yes. 210 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:27.000 By creating too much noise, too many potential motives, and 211 00:10:27.080 --> 00:10:30.080 just too many locked doors for the investigators to pry open. 212 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:33.840 Which leaves us with honestly the only tangible piece of 213 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:37.639 evidence the public has ever seen from this case, the video. Yeah. 214 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:41.480 Almost a decade later, the TPS releases a grainy piece 215 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:45.039 of surveillance footage showing an individual walking near the Sherman 216 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:46.440 home on the night of the murders. 217 00:10:46.679 --> 00:10:48.320 And even that is so ambiguous. 218 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:51.840 It is the person has what they call a distinctive gait, right, 219 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:54.679 like a slight limp or irregularity in how they lift 220 00:10:54.679 --> 00:10:57.000 their foot right, And that's it. That is the sum 221 00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:00.799 total of what billions of dollars in resources yielded. It's 222 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:04.000 chilling a shadow with a limp on a snow covered street. 223 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:07.840 It proves that extreme wealth might buy you a sprawling mansion, 224 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:11.320 but it absolutely cannot buy you immunity from the shadows. 225 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:14.240 It really stands as a monument to the complexities of 226 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:18.519 modern high stakes investigations. Yeah, the Sherman case suffered because 227 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:21.519 there was simply too much data, too many possibilities, and 228 00:11:21.639 --> 00:11:24.919 too vast a suspect pool. But it provides a really 229 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:28.159 fascinating counterpoint to cases where the failure stems from the 230 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:29.639 exact opposite. 231 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:31.279 Problem when they focus too much on one thing. 232 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:34.639 Yes, when investigators have too little data and they choose 233 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:37.480 to lock onto a single flawed narrative. 234 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:40.600 And that transition brings us to a tragedy from nineteen 235 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:44.159 eighty four, because if the Sherman investigation was blinded by 236 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:47.519 the glare of too many possibilities, the investigation into the 237 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:51.279 murder of nine year old Christine Jessup was destroyed by 238 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:53.679 the sheer crushing weight of tunnel vision. 239 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:56.600 The Christian Jessef case is a foundational trauma for the 240 00:11:56.639 --> 00:11:57.679 Canadian legal system. 241 00:11:57.840 --> 00:11:59.039 It really is on. 242 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:01.960 October third, nineteen teen eighty four, this nine year old 243 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:05.039 girl vanished after leaving her home in Queensville, which is 244 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:07.759 a rural community just north of Toronto. Yeah, and when 245 00:12:07.759 -->

00:12:11.480 a child disappears, the atmospheric pressure on a police force 246 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:14.679 changes instantly. The community panic. 247 00:12:14.360 --> 00:12:16.559 Is visceral, everyone is terrified. 248 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:17.960 The media scrutiny is relentless. 249 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.320 And a few weeks later, when her body is discovered 250 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:22.960 in a field and she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed, 251 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:26.320 that pressure morphs from a demand for a rescue into 252 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:28.879 a demand for vengeance. It does the public wants a 253 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:31.519 monster in handcuffs, and they want it immediately. 254 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:35.440 And under that specific crucible of public and institutional pressure, 255 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.360 the investigative team zeroed in on a young man who 256 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:40.360 lived next door to the Jessup family. 257 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:40.639 Guy Palm. 258 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:44.279 Yes, his name was Guy Paul Morin. He was somewhat 259 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:47.840 socially awkward, He fit the vague psychological profile the police 260 00:12:47.879 --> 00:12:50.879 were building, and he became the singular focal point of 261 00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:52.120 the entire investigation. 262 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:55.759 Let's break down exactly how this happens. Because tunnel vision 263 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:57.960 is a term we threw around a lot in true crime, 264 00:12:58.279 --> 00:13:01.759 but it is a highly specific cognitive failure. 265 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:02.879 It's very specific. 266 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:05.639 It's not just a detective sitting in a room deciding 267 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:10.480 to frame someone maliciously. It's a mechanical breakdown of objective reasoning. 268 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:14.200 Tunnel vision in a forensic and investigative context is a 269 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:17.799 severe manifestation of confirmation bias. Okay, walk me through that well. 270 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:21.559 The human brain, particularly when operating under extreme stress or fatigue, 271 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:26.519 seeks efficiency. Once investigators formed a hypothesis in this case, 272 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:29.799 guy Paul Moran is the killer, their brains began to 273 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:34.720 unconsciously filter all incoming data through that specific lens. It 274 00:13:34.840 --> 00:13:36.759 alters how you process information. 275 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:39.399 Entirely, so they only see what they want to see exactly. 276 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:41.840 If a piece of evidence suggests more and is guilty, 277 00:13:42.200 --> 00:13:45.960 the brain elevates its importance, categorizing it as crucial corroboration. 278 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:51.240 But if a piece of evidence contradicts that hypothesis. See 279 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:53.919 if an alibi doesn't quite fit the timeline, or if 280 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:57.840 a witness statement points away from him, the brain minimizes it. 281 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:01.759 It dismisses it as unreliable, or actively contorts it to 282 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:03.240 fit the established narrative. 283 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:04.960 That's terrifying it is. 284 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:08.240 The investigation ceases to be a search for the truth. 285 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:12.000 It becomes a mechanical process of building a case against 286 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.200 a predetermined target. 287 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:15.879 And the tools they used to build that case against 288 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:17.919 Morin in the mid nineteen eighties. 289 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:20.399 Were deeply flawed, oh fundamentally flogged. 290 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:23.559 They relied heavily on jail house informants, people who are 291 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:27.200 highly motivated to lie in exchange for reduced sentences, and 292 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:29.919 they relied on microscopic hair and fiber analysis. 293 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:31.240 Yes, the hair comparison. 294 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:34.159 We really need to expose how dangerous that specific science 295 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:36.559 was because in nineteen eighty four they would take a 296 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:38.840 hair found on the victim, put it under a microscope, 297 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:41.240 put a hair from Guy palmoor In under a microscope, 298 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:43.320 and a human being would just look at them and say, yeah, 299 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:45.600 the color and the medulla looks similar, it's a match. 300 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:50.679 It was entirely subjective, just eyeballing it. Basically, Yes, microscopic 301 00:14:50.759 --> 00:14:55.399 hair comparison relies on visual pattern recognition by a technician. 302 00:14:56.039 --> 00:14:57.600 It is not quantifiable. 303 00:14:57.720 --> 00:14:59.559 It's not like a fingerprint or DNA. 304 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:03.759 There's no statistical probability you can assign to it. Unlike 305 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:06.879 modern genetics. You cannot say there was a one in 306 00:15:06.919 --> 00:15:09.840 a billion chance this hair belongs to someone else. You 307 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:12.679 can only say they share microscopic characteristics. 308 00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:13.559 It could mean anything. 309 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:17.679 Yet in courtrooms throughout that era, this subjective visual comparison 310 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:21.879 was frequently presented to juries as hard infallible. 311 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:23.200 Science, and a jury just believes it. 312 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:27.399 Of course, the jury, lacking the scientific literacy to challenge 313 00:15:27.399 --> 00:15:30.559 the expert, just accepts it as fact. This reaises an 314 00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:33.399 important question about the collateral damage

the justice system when 315 00:15:33.399 --> 00:15:35.200 public pressure demands a quick arrest. 316 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:38.960 Right, so Guy Palmern is convicted, he is labeled a 317 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:42.120 child murderer. He loses over a decade of his life 318 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.039 behind bars for something he didn't do. 319 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:46.159 It's a staggering miscarriage of justice. 320 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:48.639 And it wasn't until nineteen ninety five that the land 321 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:53.000 skitch of forensic science fundamentally shifted. DNA analysis finally entered 322 00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:56.679 the courtroom as a viable, tested tool. So they took 323 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:00.519 the biological samples preserved from the nineteen eighty four I'm Seen, 324 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.799 They mapped the genetic markers, and they compared them to 325 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:08.519 more in and DNA is not subjective, No, it is binary. 326 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:12.279 It definitively proved Guy Paul Moran was not the source 327 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:16.080 of that biological material. He was completely exonerated. 328 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.799 And the exoneration of Guy Paal Moran triggered a systemic 329 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:23.000 earthquake in Canadian law, culminating in the Kaufman inquiry, which 330 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:26.919 was huge. It was monumental. This public inquiry tore the 331 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:31.000 investigation apart down to the studs. It mechanically analyzed how 332 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:35.159 the tunnel vision developed, how the unreliable informant testimony was handled, 333 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:38.360 and how the flawed forensic science was presented to the jury. 334 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:39.600 It changed everything. 335 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:43.000 It completely rewrote the protocols for how police forces across 336 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:45.720 the country are allowed to utilize informants and how they 337 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:48.639 must vet scientific evidence before it ever reaches a judge. 338 00:16:48.679 --> 00:16:51.559 But the tragedy of the Jessup case is twofold, isn't it? 339 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.080 Because the DNA in nineteen ninety five could say who 340 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:56.960 didn't do it, but the databases just didn't exist yet 341 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.919 to say who did. So Guy Palm Moran goes free, 342 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:04.039 but the Jessup family has to absorb the horrifying reality 343 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:07.559 that the real killer has been walking around for eleven years, 344 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:09.400 and the case just goes cold. 345 00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:11.599 Again, and it stays cold for a very long time. 346 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:13.640 For another twenty five years. But here's where it gets 347 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:17.079 really interesting. It took until the year twenty twenty for 348 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:21.200 that exact same science DNA to evolve into a tool 349 00:17:21.559 --> 00:17:26.160 powerful enough to actually hunt, and that tool is genetic genealogy. 350 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:29.519 The evolution of DNA from a tool of exoneration in 351 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:32.559 nineteen ninety five to a tool of active pursuit in 352 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:36.759 twenty twenty represents the most significant leap in investigative capability 353 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:38.240 since the invention of fingerprinting. 354 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.359 It's basically magic, it feels like it. 355 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:44.160 By twenty twenty, investigators had the killer's DNA profile but 356 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:47.440 didn't match anyone in the national criminal databases. So they 357 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:50.599 utilize commercial genetic genealogy databases right like. 358 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:52.400 The ones you use to find out where your ancestors 359 00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:52.759 are from. 360 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:56.279 Exactly. These are platforms where average citizens upload their DNA 361 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:57.839 to explore their ancestry. 362 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:00.279 It's incredible. It's like trying to find an anonymous author, 363 00:18:00.279 --> 00:18:03.039 but you only have a few shredded pages of their book. 364 00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:03.880 The Great Analogy. 365 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:07.920 Instead of looking for the author directly, genetic genealogy goes 366 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:12.200 to the massive public library, finds every single book written 367 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:15.240 in a similar style, figures out who the publisher is 368 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:18.759 maps out the entire genre and works backward until they 369 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:21.160 find the exact desk where the author sits. 370 00:18:21.319 --> 00:18:24.880 That is an excellent way to conceptualize the mechanics because 371 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:30.079 genealogists measure shared DNA in units called centim organs centi morgans. Okay, 372 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:33.119 if they upload the killer's profile and find a user 373 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:35.839 in the database who shares a certain number of senate morgans, 374 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:38.640 they know they have found, say a third cousin. 375 00:18:38.920 --> 00:18:39.160 Right. 376 00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:43.759 They then build massive, complex family trees backward from that 377 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:46.240 third cousin, identifying great great. 378 00:18:46.039 --> 00:18:48.799 Grandparents, doing all the historical research exactly. 379 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.400 And once they find the common ancestral link, they build 380 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:54.559 the tree forward again, tracing every descendant until they triangulate 381 00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:59.000 a specific individual whose age, geographical, location, and gender fit 382 00:18:59.039 -->

00:19:00.920 the profile of the side and. 383 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:03.279 The individual they triangulated. In twenty twenty was a man 384 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:05.759 named Calvin Hoover. He was twenty eight years old in 385 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:09.359 nineteen eighty four, and he wasn't some drifter passing through town. 386 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:12.519 He was a neighbor. He was a known associate of 387 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:13.480 the Jessop family. 388 00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:14.799 He was right there, He was. 389 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:17.240 Sitting right there on the periphery of the investigation the 390 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:20.000 entire time, but the police couldn't see him because their 391 00:19:20.039 --> 00:19:22.359 eyes were completely locked onto Guy palm Mooran. 392 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:26.920 The revelation of Calvin Hoover's identity is chilling because it 393 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:30.559 underscores how close the killer often is to the epicenter 394 00:19:30.599 --> 00:19:33.559 of the crime. Yeah, but the resolution of the Jessup 395 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:38.440 case in twenty twenty carries a profound bitter caveat he 396 00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:41.319 was dead. Yes, by the time the science matured enough 397 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:43.720 to unmask him, Calvin Hoover had already been dead for 398 00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:47.480 five years. He died by suicide in twenty fifteen, so 399 00:19:47.559 --> 00:19:49.880 he entirely circumvented. 400 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:51.559 The justice system, which is just so unfair. 401 00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:55.440 It is the Jessep family received informational closure, you know, 402 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:58.319 they finally knew the truth, but they were denied the 403 00:19:58.359 --> 00:20:02.039 fundamental societal right to see the perpetrator held legally accountable 404 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:02.720 in a courtroom. 405 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:05.799 And that exact dynamic science catching a monster just a 406 00:20:05.799 --> 00:20:08.200 few years too late is happening right now in Toronto. 407 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:09.279 It's becoming a pattern. 408 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:12.559 The breakthrough in the Jesup case wasn't an isolated miracle. 409 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:16.519 We are currently watching genetic genealogy rewrite the city's dark 410 00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:19.880 history in real time. So let's look at a bombshell 411 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:22.960 revelation from just a few months ago in December twenty 412 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:23.880 twenty five. 413 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:27.440 The identification of Kenneth Smith. Yeah, this case represents the 414 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:33.160 terrifying reality of a highly organized, highly patience serial predator 415 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:38.480 operating over an extended timeline, completely undetected by the investigative 416 00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:40.119 methods of the twentieth century. 417 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:41.480 Because they just didn't have the tools right. 418 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:44.880 In December twenty twenty five, a joint task force announced 419 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:47.759 that they had definitively linked Smith to the murders of 420 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:49.799 three women spanning fifteen years. 421 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:52.359 Okay, let's lay out the timeline for this, because if 422 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:54.839 you are a detective looking at this in the nineteen eighties, 423 00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:56.880 you have absolutely no way to connect these docks got 424 00:20:56.960 --> 00:20:59.440 it all? We start in nineteen eighty two. A twenty 425 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:02.039 five year old old Welsh nanny named Christine Prince is 426 00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:04.759 enjoying a night out on Saint Clair Avenue. 427 00:21:04.359 --> 00:21:06.240 West, which is a very busy area. 428 00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:09.240 Exactly, It's a busy, well lit urban corridor. But she 429 00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:12.240 vanishes and her body is eventually found drowned in the 430 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:15.519 Rouge River far out on the eastern edge of the city. 431 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:19.440 And that geographical displacement is a critical behavioral marker. 432 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:20.960 What does that mean exactly? 433 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:23.759 Well, taking a victim from a high density urban environment 434 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:29.119 and transporting them to a remote rural location requires transportation, confidence, 435 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:31.319 and a significant degree of organization. 436 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:34.960 He wasn't panicking, No, this was calculated. So one year later, 437 00:21:35.880 --> 00:21:41.000 nineteen eighty three, Claire Samson twenty three years old. She 438 00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:44.359 is last seen getting into a vehicle with an older 439 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:46.960 white male near Jarvis and Gerard, again right in the 440 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:50.720 downtown core, right, and just like Christine Prince, she is 441 00:21:50.759 --> 00:21:53.440 transported out of the city and her body is found 442 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:55.279 in a remote area north of Toronto. 443 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:58.839 At this point in nineteen eighty three, you have two 444 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:04.079 young women subducted from busy urban streets, both transported significant distances, 445 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:06.359 and both murdered within a year of each other. 446 00:22:06.440 --> 00:22:08.160 Sounds like an obvious connection to. 447 00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:11.680 Us now, yes, but without DNA, connecting them definitively is 448 00:22:11.720 --> 00:22:14.720 incredibly difficult. And then the timeline fractures. 449 00:22:14.839 --> 00:22:17.680 It stops for fourteen years, there is nothing on the 450 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:22.599 radar until nineteen ninety seven. Graceland Greenidge, a forty one 451 00:22:22.640

--> 00:22:25.559 year old nursing assistant, doesn't show up for her shift. 452 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:29.640 She has found murdered, but this time she hasn't been transported. 453 00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:32.160 She is found dead inside her own apartment. 454 00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:35.319 So you have a shifting modus operandi. You have a 455 00:22:35.400 --> 00:22:37.839 massive chronological gap of over a decade. 456 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:39.359 Yeah, fourteen years is a long time. 457 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:42.640 You have victims of different ages and different circumstances. A 458 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:45.680 detective staring at a whiteboard in nineteen ninety seven would 459 00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:49.119 have zero logical reason to link the Greenidge murder to 460 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:51.480 two cold cases from the early nineteen eighties. 461 00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:52.519 It makes no sense. 462 00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:56.880 The killer was effectively a ghost slipping between jurisdictions and decades. 463 00:22:57.079 --> 00:23:01.160 But the ghost left biological material behind, and the timeline 464 00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:04.680 of how science slowly reeled this guy in is just fascinating. 465 00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:05.519 That's a slow burn. 466 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:08.440 It didn't happen all at once. In twenty sixteen, routine 467 00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:11.400 cold case protocols led police to test the preserved evidence 468 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:13.079 from nineteen eighty two and nineteen. 469 00:23:12.759 --> 00:23:14.440 Eighty three, and the DNA matched. 470 00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:17.599 Suddenly, thirty three years later, the police realized they have 471 00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:20.519 a serial killer on their hands, and then a year later, 472 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:23.319 in twenty seventeen, they run the DNA from the nineteen 473 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:26.359 ninety seven Greenage murder. It's the exact same profile. 474 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:30.160 So they established the genetic fingerprint of the predator, but 475 00:23:30.279 --> 00:23:33.119 the profile was not in the National Offender database. They 476 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:35.000 knew what he was, but they did not know who 477 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:39.240 he was. Yeah, the ghost remained faceless until late twenty 478 00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:43.359 twenty five when they applied the exact same genetic genealogy 479 00:23:43.400 --> 00:23:45.079 techniques used in the Jessup. 480 00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:46.200 Case, the family trees. Again. 481 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:51.359 Yes, they triangulated the familial DNA, built the generational trees 482 00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:55.400 and identified Kenneth Smith, a man who lived and worked 483 00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:58.400 in Toronto and who had a documented history of sexual 484 00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:01.839 violence that had somehow ever, resulted in his DNA being 485 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:02.839 universally banked. 486

00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:06.640 But just like Kelvin Hoover, the biological clock beat the 487 00:24:06.759 --> 00:24:07.599 judicial clock. 488 00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:08.119 It did. 489 00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:10.920 Kennet Smith died in twenty nineteen at the age of 490 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:14.799 seventy two. He lived a full life. He died presumably 491 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:17.960 comfortably in a bed somewhere escape justice. And it makes 492 00:24:17.960 --> 00:24:21.039 you realize that when people talk about the perfect crime, 493 00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:25.000 they are operating on outdated logic. How So, I don't 494 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:27.359 believe the perfect crime exists anymore. I really don't. I 495 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:30.640 think with the advent of genetic genealogy. There are only 496 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:33.400 crimes that haven't been scientifically processed yet. 497 00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:34.960 That's an interesting way to frame it. 498 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:38.240 Think about it. If you commit a violent act today, 499 00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:41.799 and you leave behind a single skin cell, a single 500 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:46.000 drop of sweat, a single hyerfollicle, you are infected with 501 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:47.319 a biological time bomb. 502 00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:48.839 Yes, the clock starts picking. 503 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:51.240 It might take ten years, it might take forty years, 504 00:24:51.240 --> 00:24:54.359 but eventually some distant cousin is going to upload their 505 00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:57.240 saliva to a website to find out where their ancestors 506 00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:00.000 came from, and your own bloodline is going to betray you. 507 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:01.240 It's inevitable that the. 508 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:04.039 Perfect crime is dead. It's just waiting for the algorithm 509 00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:04.599 to catch up. 510 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:08.960 The landscape of criminality has indeed undergone a seismic paradigm shift. 511 00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:12.079 Biological material is no longer just a static piece of 512 00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:14.720 evidence to be viewed under a microscope. It is a 513 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:19.200 complex data set waiting to be decrypted. However, that reliance 514 00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:23.240 on genetic material presents a profound vulnerability when we look 515 00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:24.519 at historical cold. 516 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:26.039 Cases, because what if there is no DNA? 517 00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:29.799 Exactly what happens when we analyze cases that occurred decades 518 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:34.519 before DNA profiling was even conceptualized cases where biological evidence 519 00:25:34.599 --> 00:25:38.440 was either not collected, improperly stored, or just destroyed over 520 00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:40.079 the passage of half a century. 521 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:42.839 And that is the terrifying reality we face when we 522 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:45.799 turn the clock back to the nineteen sixties. We are 523 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:48.319 going to look at an era where detective work wasn't 524 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:50.200 about algorithms or sent to Morgans. 525 00:25:50.440 --> 00:25:52.160 No, it was entirely analoged. 526 00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:55.680 It was entirely reliant on the most volatile, unpredictable variable 527 00:25:55.839 --> 00:26:00.559 on Earth, human beings, sicknesses. Right, if there is DNA, 528 00:26:00.759 --> 00:26:04.519 you have to rely on witnesses. And in mid century Toronto, 529 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:06.759 getting people to tell the truth to the police was 530 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:10.559 incredibly complicated. So let's look at the heartburking murder of 531 00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:13.240 Julia Wolanski in nineteen sixty two. 532 00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:17.400 The Lanski case is a devastating portrait of mid century vulnerability. 533 00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:18.119 It really is. 534 00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:21.240 In August nineteen sixty two, Toronto was a city in 535 00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:24.839 rapid transition, expanding outward, but it still possessed a degree 536 00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:27.039 of innocence regarding extreme violent crime. 537 00:26:27.079 --> 00:26:28.880 People left their doors unlocked. 538 00:26:28.599 --> 00:26:32.200 Exactly, and Julia Wilanski was only sixteen years old, a 539 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:37.400 high school student widely described as gentle and completely unproblematic. 540 00:26:36.799 --> 00:26:37.720 Just a normal kid. 541 00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:40.319 But her body was discovered in a drainage ditch near 542 00:26:40.359 --> 00:26:41.720 the Humber River, and. 543 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:44.880 The violence inflicted on this child is just staggering. She's 544 00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:48.880 found wearing only silk stockings. She has been brutally beaten, 545 00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:51.960 sexually assaulted, and then shot directly in the heart at 546 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:54.680 close range with a point three to two caliber pistol. 547 00:26:54.920 --> 00:26:59.200 The sheer savagery of the execution horrified the public, but 548 00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:01.440 the police investigation quickly hit. 549 00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:04.720 A wall, and that wall was built entirely of silent Yes. 550 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:09.279 The official reports continually cite witness reluctance as the primary 551 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:10.720 factor that doomed the case. 552 00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:11.799 People wouldn't talk. 553 00:27:12.039 --> 00:27:15.519 No, and in an era where forensic science was largely 554 00:27:15.559 --> 00:27:19.559 limited to rudimentary blood typing and basic ballistics, you know, 555 00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:22.200 matching the striations on a point three to two caliber 556 00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:25.720 bullet to a specific gun barrel, assuming you can even find. 557 00:27:25.480

--> 00:27:28.279 The gun, which is a big if the huge if so. 558 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:30.759 Detectives absolutely required someone to point. 559 00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:32.640 A finger, but nobody pointed why, I mean, why does 560 00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:34.960 a community stay silent when a sixteen year old girl 561 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:36.559 is executed and dumped in a ditch? 562 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:37.319 It's baffling. 563 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:39.440 It's not because they didn't care. It's about the mechanics 564 00:27:39.440 --> 00:27:41.799 of fear and the sociology of the era, isn't it. 565 00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:46.359 It is a very complex sociological matrix. In nineteen sixty two, 566 00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:50.440 many working class or newly established immigrant neighborhoods viewed the 567 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:54.920 police not as protectors but as an occupying adversarial force. 568 00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:58.759 Oh interesting, there's a deep seated cultural distrust of state authority. 569 00:27:58.759 --> 00:28:01.240 They didn't want to bring the cops to their door exactly. 570 00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:04.519 And furthermore, there is the raw, primal mechanic of fear. 571 00:28:04.920 --> 00:28:06.599 If a witness saw a man with a point three 572 00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:09.599 to two caliber pistol the knight Julie was murdered, they 573 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:13.759 know two things. This man is capable of extreme remorseless violence, 574 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:16.720 and the police cannot protect a witness twenty four hours 575 00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:17.039 a day. 576 00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:18.640 Right, If you talk, you're next. 577 00:28:18.799 --> 00:28:22.599 The calculus of survival often dictates silence. To speak up 578 00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:24.720 is to invite the scrutiny of the police into your 579 00:28:24.720 --> 00:28:27.279 own life and to potentially invite the wrath of a 580 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:28.440 killer to your front door. 581 00:28:28.839 --> 00:28:31.680 That generalized fear is powerful, But there is another case 582 00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:34.160 from that exact same decade where the silence wasn't just 583 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:38.000 a byproduct of fear, it was an enforced, deeply structural law, 584 00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:41.559 a code. Yeah, we are moving to nineteen sixty seven 585 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:45.160 and the assassination of Salvatore Sammy Trianmbari. 586 00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:47.480 The Dry and Bari case shifts us into the realm 587 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:48.680 of organized crime. 588 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:50.440 A totally different world completely. 589 00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:55.000 Salvatortrimbari was thirty four years old. He managed a bottling 590 00:28:55.039 --> 00:28:58.720 company on paper, but his actual profession was extortion right. 591 00:28:58.880 --> 00:29:01.799 He was a prominent figure then the Saderno Group, which 592 00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:06.079 was a

powerful cell of the Collabrian Drangetta operating in 593 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:07.000 Toronto at the time. 594 00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:11.720 So on January sixth, nineteen sixty seven, Sammy Tranbari pulls 595 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:14.039 his car into the driveway of his home in North 596 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:17.599 Toronto and before he can even react, he is ambushed. 597 00:29:17.720 --> 00:29:18.599 It was very fast. 598 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:22.440 Multiple shooters open fire, gunning him down in his own driveway, 599 00:29:22.680 --> 00:29:25.200 and then they just disappear through the backyards of the neighborhood. 600 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:26.119 Highly organized. 601 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:29.519 It is a precise, tactical, organized. 602 00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:33.240 Hit and the investigative theory was robust. Actually, the police 603 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:36.799 believed Trambari was murdered in retaliation for his involvement in 604 00:29:36.839 --> 00:29:40.799 a previous attack that had physically disfigured a rival mobster 605 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:45.240 named Filippo Vandemeni, a revenge hit. Yes, the violence was cyclical. 606 00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:48.519 Vandemeni himself would be assassinated two years later in nineteen 607 00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:51.839 sixty nine. So the detectives likely knew exactly who ordered 608 00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:54.559 the hit, and perhaps even who pulled the triggers. But 609 00:29:54.839 --> 00:29:57.519 knowing the truth and proving it in a court of 610 00:29:57.599 --> 00:29:59.680 law are two entirely different. 611 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:02.839 Universes, because in this universe, the detectives ran into a 612 00:30:02.839 --> 00:30:06.200 different kind of silence. They ran into Omerta precisely. 613 00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:09.599 Omerta is not simply a decision to stay quiet because 614 00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:14.200 you're scared. It is a rigid, multi generational cultural mandate 615 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:15.920 originating in southern Italy. 616 00:30:16.119 --> 00:30:16.759 It's the law. 617 00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:19.519 It is a code of honor that strictly prohibits any 618 00:30:19.559 --> 00:30:23.839 cooperation with state authorities, regardless of the circumstances, period period. 619 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:26.680 Even if you are the victim of an attempted murder, 620 00:30:26.839 --> 00:30:28.960 even if your family member is gunned down in front 621 00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:30.519 of you, you do not speak to. 622 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:32.759 The police, because what happens if you do. 623 00:30:33.079 --> 00:30:37.000 To violate Omerta is to commit treason against your own community, 624 00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:40.000 an offence universally punishable by death. 625 00:30:39.799 --> 00:30:42.160 So there's zero incentive to talk none. 626 00:30:42.559 --> 00:30:45.319 The detectives working in the Triumbari case weren't just fighting 627 00:30:45.400 --> 00:30:48.839 a killer, They were fighting a deeply entrenched cultural law 628 00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:52.359 designed specifically to render law enforcement impotent. 629 00:30:52.680 --> 00:30:55.440 So you have these two totally disparate victims from the 630 00:30:55.519 --> 00:30:58.920 nineteen sixties. You have a sixteen year old innocent girl 631 00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:02.799 and a thirty four years mafia extortionist, two different worlds, 632 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:07.799 but the result is identical. No arrests, cold files. So 633 00:31:08.119 --> 00:31:10.559 what does this all mean? Think about the mechanics of 634 00:31:10.599 --> 00:31:12.960 trying to solve a murder in nineteen sixty seven. 635 00:31:13.079 --> 00:31:15.279 It's frustrating just thinking about it. 636 00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.519 It is like trying to build a complex engine from scratch, 637 00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:21.720 but you don't have the DNA, and the only people 638 00:31:21.720 --> 00:31:23.920 who know where the pieces go refuse to speak to you. 639 00:31:24.279 --> 00:31:25.440 That's a great way to put it. 640 00:31:25.480 --> 00:31:28.319 Without the schematic and without the instructions from the witnesses, 641 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:30.920 the truth just ceases to exist. It forces you to 642 00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:35.519 wonder about cases like Julie Lanski's. The witnesses are likely 643 00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:39.039 in their eighties or nineties now, or they have passed away, 644 00:31:39.240 --> 00:31:41.640 most likely passed away, and the biological evidence, if it 645 00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:44.240 was even collected back then, is likely degraded beyond the 646 00:31:44.279 --> 00:31:48.279 reach of genetic genealogy. So are these nineteen sixties cases 647 00:31:48.359 --> 00:31:50.000 just permanently close books. 648 00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:53.200 It is a grim reality of forensic archaeology. Yeah. When 649 00:31:53.240 --> 00:31:57.160 the biological material is absent, the avenues for resolution narrow 650 00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:01.079 to almost nothing. You are entirely relying on anomalies at 651 00:32:01.079 --> 00:32:04.799 that point, like what like a deathbed confession, the discovery 652 00:32:04.839 --> 00:32:07.799 of a hidden diary, or perhaps a murder weapon tucked 653 00:32:07.799 --> 00:32:10.119 away in the floorboards of an old house that is 654 00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:11.680 undergoing renovation. 655 00:32:11.480 --> 00:32:12.279 Just pure luck. 656 00:32:12.359 --> 00:32:16.079 Basically, Yes, the statistical probability of solving a case from 657 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:19.599 nineteen sixty two plummets with every passing year. The physical 658 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:22.319 landscape of the crime scene has been paved over, and 659 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:24.319 the human memory banks are expiring. 660 00:32:24.519 --> 00:32:25.319 It's suppressing. 661 00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:30.079 It perfectly illustrates how justice requires a fragile

alliance between 662 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:35.640 scientific capability and human cooperation. When both fail, the shadows win, And. 663 00:32:35.640 --> 00:32:38.319 As we move forward through the dossier, the shadows take 664 00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:41.160 on a different shape entirely. We transition from the silence 665 00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:44.480 of witnesses to the terror of the inexplicable. 666 00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:45.000 The unpredictable violence. 667 00:32:45.079 --> 00:32:47.000 Right, we are going to look at what happens when 668 00:32:47.119 --> 00:32:50.519 violence invades the very spaces where the social contract dictates 669 00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:53.000 you're supposed to be safe. We are looking at public 670 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:55.119 transit and we are looking at your own bed. 671 00:32:55.480 --> 00:32:59.559 The violation of public safety is a profound psychological shock 672 00:32:59.599 --> 00:32:59.920 to assy. 673 00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:01.200 It really is. 674 00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:04.960 Consider the case of Marian Peters. It is November seventh, 675 00:33:05.079 --> 00:33:09.880 nineteen seventy five. Mariam is sixteen years old. She is 676 00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:13.119 on a perfectly mundane errand taking the subway to Mount 677 00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:15.519 Sinai Hospital to visit her grandfather. 678 00:33:15.160 --> 00:33:17.440 Middle of the day, doing a nice thing exactly. 679 00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:21.400 She's inside the Saint Patrick TTC station, which is a 680 00:33:21.440 --> 00:33:24.039 major hub right in the downtown core of Toronto. 681 00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:26.799 So it's not three am in a deserted alleyway. It 682 00:33:26.920 --> 00:33:30.119 is a public transit station, lots people around, lots of people, 683 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:34.079 and yet inside that station, this sixteen year old girl 684 00:33:34.440 --> 00:33:38.759 is viciously attacked. She is stabbed sixteen times. 685 00:33:38.599 --> 00:33:39.160 This terrific. 686 00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:41.119 Two nurses who just happen to be commuting through the 687 00:33:41.160 --> 00:33:44.640 station find her unconscious on an escalator. They rush her 688 00:33:44.680 --> 00:33:47.640 to the hospital, but the damage is catastrophic. She dies 689 00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:48.440 four days later. 690 00:33:48.680 --> 00:33:51.319 The sociological fallout of the Mary and Peter's murder was 691 00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:52.319 immense For Toronto. 692 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:55.079 I can imagine everyone takes the TTC exactly. 693 00:33:55.319 --> 00:33:58.279 Urban living relies heavily on the concept of safety in numbers. 694 00:33:58.640 --> 00:34:01.720 When you were surrounded by hundreds of commuters in a 695 00:34:01.759 --> 00:34:06.240 brightly lit, subterranean public space, there is a collective assumption 696 00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:08.639 that a predator cannot operate. 697 00:34:08.880 --> 00:34:10.440 You feel protected by the crowd. 698 00:34:10.920 --> 00:34:13.840 But a frenzied, multi stab wound attack in the middle 699 00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:17.199 of the subway station shatters that illusion completely. 700 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:18.280 It changes everything. 701 00:34:18.360 --> 00:34:22.800 It forces every single commuter to reevaluate their environment. The 702 00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:25.239 person standing next to you waiting for the train is 703 00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:28.440 no longer just a fellow citizen. They are a potential 704 00:34:28.639 --> 00:34:29.360 lethal threat. 705 00:34:29.719 --> 00:34:32.000 And the police had a person of interest in this case, 706 00:34:32.039 --> 00:34:35.000 didn't they They did, They had someone they believed was responsible, 707 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:38.199 but they could never assemble the concrete evidence required to 708 00:34:38.280 --> 00:34:39.400 lay a formal charge. 709 00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:40.320 The burden of proof. 710 00:34:40.519 --> 00:34:44.239 Yeah, so the individual who break that fundamental social contract 711 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:47.000 of public safety was simply allowed to meld back into 712 00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:51.079 the crowd, which is terrifying. That visible public terror is horrifying, 713 00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:54.599 but it contrasts so sharply with the silent, creeping dread 714 00:34:54.599 --> 00:34:57.360 of our next two cases. These are the missing persons cases, 715 00:34:57.559 --> 00:34:59.519 the ones who simply vanished into thin air. 716 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:03.679 In persons cases introduce a highly specific, enduring form of 717 00:35:03.719 --> 00:35:05.199 psychological trauma. 718 00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:06.400 Because there's no ending exactly. 719 00:35:06.599 --> 00:35:09.559 Yeah, let us examine the disappearance of Mabel crumbback in 720 00:35:09.639 --> 00:35:10.440 nineteen fifty. 721 00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:11.679 This one is wild. 722 00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:16.320 Mabel was nineteen, deeply integrated into her church community, holding 723 00:35:16.360 --> 00:35:18.639 down a steady job at the Eastern Steel. 724 00:35:18.440 --> 00:35:19.960 Company, normal life. 725 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:21.960 On the night of May twenty eighth, she is at 726 00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:25.599 her family home. Her boyfriend visits and he departs around 727 00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:29.280 twelve thirty am. The house is secure, the situation is 728 00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:31.280 entirely normalized. 729 00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:33.599 But the mechanics of what happens next read exactly like 730 00:35:33.639 --> 00:35:34.400 a ghost story. 731 00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:35.079 They do. 732 00:35:35.239 --> 00:35:37.559 At two am, her younger brother, who is asleep in 733 00:35:37.599 --> 00:35:41.039 another room, wakes up. He hears noises, he hears voices 734 00:35:41.079 --> 00:35:42.199 echoing in the house. 735 00:35:42.039 --> 00:35:44.119 And by the time the morning arrives, the

reality the 736 00:35:44.159 --> 00:35:47.840 scene is utterly baffling. Mabel is gone, but the physical 737 00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:51.000 environment suggests an abrupt, unnatural interruption. 738 00:35:51.320 --> 00:35:52.480 Walk me through it well. 739 00:35:52.559 --> 00:35:55.440 The doors are found unlocked, the interior lights remade on 740 00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:58.280 her bed clearly shows signs of having been slept in. 741 00:35:58.519 --> 00:35:58.840 Okay. 742 00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:02.880 Most critically, her which contains her money and identification, is 743 00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:04.239 sitting perfectly untouched. 744 00:36:04.519 --> 00:36:08.840 The only physical item missing from the entire house besides Mabel, 745 00:36:09.239 --> 00:36:11.079 is the pajama top she was wearing to bed. 746 00:36:11.280 --> 00:36:14.960 The forensic deductions from that scene are clear she did 747 00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:15.599 not leave. 748 00:36:15.559 --> 00:36:18.440 Voluntarily because she didn't take anything right. 749 00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:25.519 An individual initiating of voluntary disappearance takes resources, money, identification, clothing. 750 00:36:26.199 --> 00:36:29.559 The missing pajama top and the untouched purse indicates she 751 00:36:29.639 --> 00:36:31.880 was extracted directly from her state of rest. 752 00:36:32.199 --> 00:36:33.199 Oh, that's chilling. 753 00:36:33.519 --> 00:36:37.679 The prevailing theories suggest an abduction, possibly involving multiple individuals 754 00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:40.519 who bundled her into a vehicle under the cover. 755 00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:42.320 Of darkness and nobody saw anything. 756 00:36:42.519 --> 00:36:46.400 No, but seventy six years later, not a single trace 757 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:48.239 of Mabel Crumback has ever been located. 758 00:36:48.480 --> 00:36:51.280 Just think about the psychological reality of that younger brother. 759 00:36:51.880 --> 00:36:53.840 He is lying in bed at two am. 760 00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:56.280 He hears the voices, just listening in the dark. 761 00:36:56.440 --> 00:36:59.199 Maybe his brain rationalizes it as a radio left on 762 00:36:59.400 --> 00:37:01.440 or a conversation on the street, so he goes back 763 00:37:01.480 --> 00:37:03.599 to sleep, and then he wakes up to a world 764 00:37:03.639 --> 00:37:05.280 where his sister no longer exists. 765 00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:06.800 The guilt must be overwhelming. 766 00:37:07.079 --> 00:37:10.639 How does a human brain process that guilt? How do 767 00:37:10.679 --> 00:37:13.880 you not spend every remaining day of your life replaying 768 00:37:13.960 --> 00:37:17.760 the audio of those voices in your head agonizing over 769 00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:19.920 whether getting out of bed would have saved her life. 770 00:37:20.039 --> 00:37:24.159 The clinical term for what that family endured is ambiguous loss. 771 00:37:24.679 --> 00:37:26.079 Ambiguous loss. 772 00:37:26.159 --> 00:37:29.239 Yes, it is considered one of the most agonizing psychological 773 00:37:29.239 --> 00:37:32.599 states a human can experience. I believe it because in 774 00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:36.159 a conventional death, the brain is provided with a narrative conclusion, 775 00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:41.280 a body, a funeral, a defined moment where the relationship 776 00:37:41.320 --> 00:37:43.920 transitions from physical presence to memory. 777 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:44.719 You get closure. 778 00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:47.639 The grieving process can begin. But when a loved one 779 00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:51.159 vanishes without a trace, the brain is denied that conclusion. 780 00:37:51.239 --> 00:37:54.320 The pattern is incomplete. The family is suspended in a 781 00:37:54.320 --> 00:37:59.519 perpetual state of anticipation, constantly oscillating between fading hope and paralyzing. 782 00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:01.719 Dread, which is exis exactly why the phrase hope figs 783 00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:05.159 but never dies is so profoundly tragic. It's a curse, really, 784 00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:08.519 And that same agonizing limbo applies to a much more 785 00:38:08.599 --> 00:38:12.719 recent case from nineteen ninety nine, Nancy lou She is 786 00:38:12.760 --> 00:38:15.360 fifteen years old, living in an apartment in Regent Park. 787 00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:16.280 Teenager. 788 00:38:16.599 --> 00:38:19.760 Yeah. On January twenty seventh, she puts on a white 789 00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:22.559 jacket and blue jeans. She tells someone she is going 790 00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:24.719 out to meet a friend. She walks out the door 791 00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:28.000 into the Toronto winter, and she is never seen again. 792 00:38:28.199 --> 00:38:31.360 And the mechanics of her disappearance hinge entirely on that 793 00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:32.119 intended meeting. 794 00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:32.800 Who is she meeting? 795 00:38:32.800 --> 00:38:36.519 Who she meeting where? Nineteen ninety nine is recent enough 796 00:38:36.519 --> 00:38:39.199 that the individuals involved in that narrative are almost certainly 797 00:38:39.199 --> 00:38:39.800 still alive. 798 00:38:40.039 --> 00:38:41.760 Somebody knows someone. 799 00:38:41.480 --> 00:38:45.840 Possesses the specific data required to resolve that void. Yet 800 00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:50.719 despite extensive ongoing appeals by the TPS, Nancy Lewi's fate 801 00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:51.960 remains an open wound. 802 00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:53.280 Yeah. 803 00:38:53.320 --> 00:38:55.920 If we connect this to the bigger picture, cases of 804 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:59.840 ambiguous loss explain exactly why law enforcement continues to push 805 00:38:59.840 --> 00:39:03.599 the files into the public consciousness on anniversaries. For the public, 806 00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:07.000 it is a historical footnote, But for the families, time 807 00:39:07.119 --> 00:39:10.639 does not function linearly. An anniversary does

not signify healing, 808 00:39:10.840 --> 00:39:13.639 It signifies a renewed spike of the exact same pain 809 00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:14.760 they felt on day one. 810 00:39:14.840 --> 00:39:17.840 We have covered so much ground today. We've dissected the 811 00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:21.599 logistics of infiltrating a billionaire's mansion in twenty seventeen, the 812 00:39:21.639 --> 00:39:24.280 cognitive breakdown of tunnel vision in nineteen eighty. 813 00:39:24.039 --> 00:39:27.639 Four, the sheer mechanical patients of a serial killer from 814 00:39:27.760 --> 00:39:30.280 nineteen eighty two to nineteen ninety seven. 815 00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:32.800 The cultural laws of silence in the nineteen sixties, and 816 00:39:32.840 --> 00:39:36.400 the psychological torture of ambiguous loss. But we need to 817 00:39:36.440 --> 00:39:38.400 pull back and look at the macro view. When you 818 00:39:38.440 --> 00:39:41.760 take these individual tragedies and you multiply them by eight hundred, 819 00:39:42.119 --> 00:39:44.519 what does that do to the sociology of Toronto. 820 00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:48.400 It creates a subtle but very pervasive erosion of civic trust. 821 00:39:48.599 --> 00:39:48.880 Right. 822 00:39:49.280 --> 00:39:53.519 Toronto's defining characteristic is its diverse, interlocking communities. 823 00:39:53.559 --> 00:39:54.719 It's what makes the city great. 824 00:39:55.039 --> 00:39:59.880 But these unsolved cases represent fractures across that entire mosaic. 825 00:40:00.159 --> 00:40:03.159 When immigrant families sees a case go cold, they may 826 00:40:03.199 --> 00:40:07.320 internalize it as systemic apathy toward their demographic I feel ignored. 827 00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:10.480 When a suburban neighborhood realizes a predator was never caught. 828 00:40:10.840 --> 00:40:13.800 The baseline, anxiety of that community is permanently elevated. 829 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:15.760 You never feel safe walking at night again. 830 00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:18.599 Every single one of those eight hundred boxes represents a 831 00:40:18.639 --> 00:40:21.840 localized failure of the social contract. It sends a message 832 00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:24.599 that the system is not infallible and that justice is 833 00:40:24.639 --> 00:40:25.400 not guaranteed. 834 00:40:25.719 --> 00:40:28.679 But the dossier doesn't leave us completely in the dark. Thankfully, 835 00:40:29.320 --> 00:40:32.000 there is a critical mechanism of evolution at play here. 836 00:40:32.639 --> 00:40:35.559 These eight hundred failures didn't just happen in a vacuum. 837 00:40:35.960 --> 00:40:39.360 They actively force the policing apparatus to adapt and improve. 838 00:40:39.960 --> 00:40:43.639 That's true. The resilience of the investigative system is directly 839 00:40:43.679 --> 00:40:45.960 forged by its most spectacular. 840 00:40:45.400 --> 00:40:46.920 Failures, like the more In case. 841 00:40:47.199 --> 00:40:50.679 Exactly, the devastation caused by the

tunnel vision in the 842 00:40:50.719 --> 00:40:54.440 Guy Paul more In case directly birthed the Kaufman Inquiry, 843 00:40:54.800 --> 00:40:58.639 which radically restructured how forensic evidence is audited and how 844 00:40:58.679 --> 00:41:01.639 informant testimony is. Very today, so they learned from it. 845 00:41:01.800 --> 00:41:04.960 They had to the realization that killers like Kenneth Smith 846 00:41:05.159 --> 00:41:08.480 use geography to obscure their patterns force the creation of 847 00:41:08.599 --> 00:41:15.239 robust interagency databases that allow jurisdictions to share biological data instantaneously. 848 00:41:14.440 --> 00:41:16.960 So you can't just cross a county line and disappear anymore. 849 00:41:17.039 --> 00:41:20.760 No, and perhaps most importantly, the understanding of ambiguous loss 850 00:41:21.039 --> 00:41:25.039 has revolutionized victim services, so ensuring the families are provided 851 00:41:25.079 --> 00:41:28.760 with long term psychological infrastructure, rather than just being left 852 00:41:28.760 --> 00:41:30.400 to wait by the phone for decades. 853 00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:33.519 The TPS Cold Case Unit is operating in twenty twenty 854 00:41:33.559 --> 00:41:37.239 six with tools that detectives in nineteen sixty two couldn't 855 00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:41.320 even fathom. They are running genetic genealogy, they are retesting 856 00:41:41.360 --> 00:41:44.000 degraded samples, they are building new algorithms. 857 00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:45.159 The tech is amazing. 858 00:41:45.360 --> 00:41:49.199 The progress might feel agonizingly slow. I mean, it might 859 00:41:49.199 --> 00:41:52.000 take twenty five years to catch at Calvin Hoover, but 860 00:41:52.079 --> 00:41:55.559 the machinery of justice is relentlessly moving forward. And that 861 00:41:55.599 --> 00:41:57.960 brings us to the most vital point of this entire 862 00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:00.360 deep dive. If you are listening to this, you are 863 00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:01.320 part of that machinery. 864 00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:05.079 That is a crucial reality. The resolution of historical cases 865 00:42:05.119 --> 00:42:08.480 often relies on the shifting dynamics of time. A secret 866 00:42:08.559 --> 00:42:11.199 that was guarded by fear in nineteen sixty seven might 867 00:42:11.239 --> 00:42:13.760 be freely spoken by a descendant in twenty twenty. 868 00:42:13.639 --> 00:42:16.039 Six because the person they were afraid of is dead. 869 00:42:16.360 --> 00:42:19.559 Exactly. A detail about a white jacket and Regent Park 870 00:42:19.559 --> 00:42:22.239 in nineteen ninety nine might suddenly click into place for 871 00:42:22.280 --> 00:42:23.559 someone listening today. 872 00:42:23.599 --> 00:42:24.760 Just a memory popping up. 873 00:42:24.800 --> 00:42:27.679 The Toronto Police Service and crime Stoppers maintain their tip 874 00:42:27.719 --> 00:42:30.840 lines because they understand that while science provides the framework,

875 00:42:31.199 --> 00:42:34.559 the community holds the granular data required to finish the puzzle. 876 00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:37.880 Justice can be delayed, and we've seen it delayed for decades, 877 00:42:38.360 --> 00:42:41.840 but it doesn't have to be denied indefinitely. The truth 878 00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:45.400 is out there, locked in a genealogy database or locked 879 00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:46.039 in a memory. 880 00:42:46.400 --> 00:42:50.039 We have journeyed from the complex, encryptid mysteries of modern 881 00:42:50.119 --> 00:42:53.960 wealth to the raw, visceral fears of mid century Toronto. 882 00:42:54.119 --> 00:42:55.119 It's been quite a ride. 883 00:42:55.159 --> 00:42:58.320 It is a comprehensive portrait of a city constantly wrestling 884 00:42:58.360 --> 00:43:02.400 with its own shadows, every available evolution in science and 885 00:43:02.440 --> 00:43:04.880 psychology to pull the truth into the light. 886 00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:07.440 But before we conclude, I want to leave you with 887 00:43:07.519 --> 00:43:11.199 one final, deeply unsettling thought to carry with you. We 888 00:43:11.280 --> 00:43:14.480 have spent a lot of time today celebrating the miraculous 889 00:43:14.519 --> 00:43:16.239 mechanics of genetic genealogy. 890 00:43:16.320 --> 00:43:16.599 We have. 891 00:43:16.920 --> 00:43:19.239 We marvel at how a single drop of DNA can 892 00:43:19.280 --> 00:43:21.360 reach back through the decades and point a finger at 893 00:43:21.400 --> 00:43:23.880 a killer, But as we push deeper into the twenty 894 00:43:23.880 --> 00:43:28.159 first century, we are facing an absolute, unbreakable biological limit. 895 00:43:28.239 --> 00:43:30.239 The witnesses, yes, the human. 896 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:33.039 Beings who possess the memories of those mid twentieth century crimes, 897 00:43:33.199 --> 00:43:35.679 the brother who heard the voices in nineteen fifty, the 898 00:43:35.719 --> 00:43:37.800 neighbors who saw the man with the pistol in nineteen 899 00:43:37.840 --> 00:43:40.800 sixty two, They are reaching the end of their. 900 00:43:40.639 --> 00:43:42.719 Life spans its sad reality. 901 00:43:43.039 --> 00:43:46.559 Human memory is operating on a strict biological clock, and 902 00:43:46.599 --> 00:43:49.719 that clock is running out. When that final generation passes 903 00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:52.960 away and their memories are gone forever, will science alone 904 00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:55.639 be enough to speak for the dead? Or are we 905 00:43:55.840 --> 00:43:59.199 rapidly approaching a horizon line where, if the physical DNA 906 00:43:59.239 --> 00:44:03.320 has degraded, the shadows of Toronto will permanently swallow those secrets. 907 00:44:03.559 --> 00:44:05.440 Thank you for joining us for this deep dive. If 908 00:44:05.440 --> 00:44:07.840 you have any information, please reach out to the TPS 909 00:44:07.840 --> 00:44:10.239 at four one six eight o eight seven four hundred 910 00:44:10.519 --> 00:44:13.360 or call crime stoppers. Keep asking questions, look out for 911 00:44:13.400 --> 00:44:15.920 one another, and never underestimate the power of the truth,