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Misty Murray Pt. Two · The Path Went Chilly

0:29
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Path Went Chile for part two
0:31
Speaker 1: of our series about the disappearance of Misty Murray. So
0:34
Speaker 1: I've been sharing the details about the case with Jewels,
0:37
Speaker 1: and in part one I talked about how Misty went
0:39
Speaker 1: missing in May of nineteen ninety five, and it seemed
0:42
Speaker 1: on the surface that this was one where the victim
0:45
Speaker 1: actually ran away because there were a number of reported
0:48
Speaker 1: sightings of Misty in the months following her disappearance, which
0:50
Speaker 1: seemed fairly credible because she was seen by people who
0:53
Speaker 1: knew her personally. But the police had already decided that
0:57
Speaker 1: Misty was likely murdered by her adoptive, Steve Murray, because
1:01
Speaker 1: he had forgotten to share a story about how he
1:03
Speaker 1: had taken his boat out for a spin on Lake
1:06
Speaker 1: Huron the day after she went missing. So at this
1:09
Speaker 1: particular point, we're in a September of nineteen ninety five,
1:12
Speaker 1: and Misty has been missing for three months and they
1:16
Speaker 1: are still clinging to the narrative that Steve did something
1:18
Speaker 1: to harm her. And the major turning point in the
1:21
Speaker 1: investigation would take place when a couple came forward who
1:24
Speaker 1: claimed that they had seen Steve and a young unidentified
1:28
Speaker 1: female resembling Misty boarding Steve's boat at the Snug Harbor
1:32
Speaker 1: Marina on May the thirty first, the night that misste
1:36
Speaker 1: went missing. And there would also be a third witness
1:38
Speaker 1: who came forward and reported seeing Steve in his boat
1:41
Speaker 1: on Lake Huron that night and will he initially saw
1:44
Speaker 1: Steve and a young woman inside the boat together. When
1:47
Speaker 1: he saw them again a short time later, Steve was alone.
1:50
Speaker 1: So this was enough to convince investigators that Steve had
1:53
Speaker 1: taken Misty out on the lake in his boat that
1:56
Speaker 1: night and then killed her and dumped her somewhere in
1:58
Speaker 1: Lake Huron, and that when the witness saw him again
2:00
Speaker 1: while he was alone, that was after Misty's body was
2:03
Speaker 1: disposed of, and the police pretty much decided that this
2:07
Speaker 1: was the smoking guns. So on September fifteenth, Steve was
2:10
Speaker 1: arrested and formally charged with second degree murder. And this
2:14
Speaker 1: is pretty much the only evidence they had. They did
2:16
Speaker 1: not have Misty's body, they did not have any physical evidence.
2:19
Speaker 1: They even checked Steve's boat, and there was no evidence
2:22
Speaker 1: of foul play here, so pretty much all they had
2:25
Speaker 1: on him was these two eyewitness sightings from people who
2:27
Speaker 1: thought they had seen a young woman in Steve's boat
2:30
Speaker 1: with him, and they were completely disregarding the nearly one
2:33
Speaker 1: hundred sightings of Missty after May the thirty first, after
2:37
Speaker 1: she went missing, which suggested that she was still alive
2:39
Speaker 1: and she ran away.
2:42
Speaker 2: This is one of the most egregious examples of tunnel
2:45
Speaker 2: vision that I think we've ever seen in a case
2:47
Speaker 2: that we've covered. I can't believe all of the very
2:51
Speaker 2: credible sightings like these are people that knew her, they
2:53
Speaker 2: interacted with her, they described what she was wearing, major
2:57
Speaker 2: details here, and both things can't be true. These witnesses
3:01
Speaker 2: can't have seen Missy when they said that they did,
3:03
Speaker 2: and Steve can't have killed her, do you know what
3:05
Speaker 2: I mean? Like she was alive after they said that
3:08
Speaker 2: he went out on Lake Huron and disposed of her
3:10
Speaker 2: body allegedly that just didn't happen. Based on all of
3:13
Speaker 2: these witness sightings, the police really had this early conclusion
3:18
Speaker 2: about Steve based on nothing in his background that would
3:22
Speaker 2: lead us to believe that he's some kind of predator
3:25
Speaker 2: or person that would murder his adopted daughter, And none
3:29
Speaker 2: of it makes sense. And I really just want to
3:32
Speaker 2: know if the police learned that Missy was pregnant, and
3:37
Speaker 2: they looked to Steve thinking that, oh, maybe he's the
3:39
Speaker 2: one that got her pregnant, and then that's why he
3:41
Speaker 2: had to kill her and had some kind of like
3:43
Speaker 2: kaka mami fury without any evidence to back it up.
3:47
Speaker 1: Well, I'm pretty sure they never discovered for certain that
3:49
Speaker 1: Missy was pregnant, because they never did present that at
3:51
Speaker 1: evidence at Steve's trial, So I think that's just nothing
3:54
Speaker 1: more than speculation. But that is pretty much literally the
3:57
Speaker 1: brunt of the entire case against him. These three eyewitnesses
4:00
Speaker 1: sightings from people who were certain that they had seen
4:02
Speaker 1: a woman in Steve's boat before she mysteriously disappeared, and
4:06
Speaker 1: also the fact that Steve forgot to mention that he
4:09
Speaker 1: had gone out on the boat that night when he
4:11
Speaker 1: was initially questioned by police, because he said he had
4:14
Speaker 1: a bad memory, he was under a lot of stress,
4:16
Speaker 1: so he just forgot to mention it. But in their eyes,
4:18
Speaker 1: they were just taking that as evidence that he was
4:20
Speaker 1: lying and covering something up. But it's just so frustrating
4:23
Speaker 1: because three months passed between when Misty went missing and
4:27
Speaker 1: they charged Steve with murder, Yet even though he had
4:29
Speaker 1: these three sightings of her supposedly on the boat. That's
4:32
Speaker 1: the sightings of Misty, like in god Rich, in Clinton,
4:35
Speaker 1: in London, in the weeks and months following your disappearance.
4:39
Speaker 1: There are just so many more of them. And these
4:41
Speaker 1: are sightings from people who knew Misty personally. So why
4:44
Speaker 1: did the police put so much stock on these sightings
4:46
Speaker 1: from the people on the boat who are complete strangers
4:49
Speaker 1: rather than the people who knew Misty personally.
4:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the sightings of Misty by people who knew her,
4:55
Speaker 2: they feel solid, they feel credible, they're tangible. But the
4:59
Speaker 2: sightings of potentially a woman being on the boat with Steve,
5:03
Speaker 2: that feels tenuous at best. We know how problematic that
5:07
Speaker 2: eyewitness identification and sightings can be. And the fact that
5:10
Speaker 2: we have like a hundred with Misty over there being
5:13
Speaker 2: seen after the fact, and just a couple people seeing
5:16
Speaker 2: maybe seeing a girl or a woman on the boat
5:19
Speaker 2: with him, that feels very tenuous. That's not something that
5:23
Speaker 2: you can grab onto. It doesn't feel real. It's like
5:25
Speaker 2: an apparition.
5:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just so crazy, Like this is unlike any
5:30
Speaker 1: trial that I've seen in the modern era, where when
5:32
Speaker 1: Steve went to court, they did not try to point
5:35
Speaker 1: towards an alternate suspect and say that so and so
5:38
Speaker 1: killed Misty. They were trying to say, Misty is not
5:40
Speaker 1: even dead. She could very well still be alive somewhere
5:43
Speaker 1: out there today, and they were just pretty much tried
5:46
Speaker 1: to paint the god rich police is being wealthy, inexperienced
5:49
Speaker 1: with handling missing persons cases, and then accusing the Ontario
5:52
Speaker 1: Provincial Police at developing serious tunnel vision and presenting a
5:56
Speaker 1: narrative that Steve killed her and completely disregarding all other
5:59
Speaker 1: evidence that went to the contrary. So when Steve went
6:03
Speaker 1: on trial in May of nineteen ninety seven, obviously the
6:06
Speaker 1: prosecution was going to have a major uphill battle because
6:09
Speaker 1: they had no body, no murder weapon, no physical evidence.
6:12
Speaker 1: They couldn't even come up with a real motive for
6:14
Speaker 1: Steve to have done this, other than the possibility of
6:17
Speaker 1: him becoming jealous because Misty was spending more time with
6:20
Speaker 1: her bio mother, Darlene Oldfield. And of course the defense
6:24
Speaker 1: would present like around one hundred eyewitness sightings that had
6:27
Speaker 1: taken place of Misty in the weeks and months following
6:30
Speaker 1: her disappearance, and there were eight of them who took
6:33
Speaker 1: the stand to testify, and the defense also presented signed
6:36
Speaker 1: affid davids from eleven additional witnesses. And what's frustrating is
6:40
Speaker 1: that virtually none of these witnesses were interviewed by police
6:43
Speaker 1: during the original investigation, so it was pretty much the
6:46
Speaker 1: defense doing the entire job trying to find out what
6:49
Speaker 1: happened to Misty if she was living on the streets somewhere.
6:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's frustrating. They're like, we came up with our conclusion,
6:56
Speaker 2: therefore we will not investigate further. So all of the
6:58
Speaker 2: burden is on the defense.
7:01
Speaker 1: So the Crown's theory was that Steve had learned Misty
7:04
Speaker 1: onto his boat at the Snug Harbor Marina by ordering
7:07
Speaker 1: her to clean it, and then he took her out
7:09
Speaker 1: onto the water, proceeded to kill Misty, and then traveled
7:11
Speaker 1: to the center of Lake Huron, where he tied her
7:14
Speaker 1: body to an anchor and dumped her into a section
7:16
Speaker 1: of the lake where the temperatures were so cold and
7:19
Speaker 1: the water was so deep that it prevented Misty's body
7:22
Speaker 1: from decomposing and rising to the surface, which would explain
7:25
Speaker 1: why they had never found her. And of course, the
7:28
Speaker 1: prosecution's case hinged on the testimony from the couple who
7:31
Speaker 1: claimed that they saw Steve climbing into his boat with
7:34
Speaker 1: a young woman at around seven pm on May the
7:37
Speaker 1: thirty first. However, there was a big hole in their
7:40
Speaker 1: story because records showed that a six hundred foot salt
7:43
Speaker 1: chip called the Agawa Canyon had been docked at the
7:46
Speaker 1: marina on that particular date, where they spent several hours
7:49
Speaker 1: loading and unloading cargo. And even though this couple claimed
7:53
Speaker 1: that they had been in the marina the entire day,
7:55
Speaker 1: they never even mentioned having seen this boat, the Agawa Canyon,
7:59
Speaker 1: and the defense interview crew members from the Gawa Canyon
8:03
Speaker 1: who claimed that, yes, we had been in the port
8:06
Speaker 1: the every day, we don't recall seeing Steve at all,
8:08
Speaker 1: climbing into this boat or Steve with the young woman.
8:11
Speaker 1: And what was frustrating is that the police didn't do
8:13
Speaker 1: their due diligence. They didn't even find out about the
8:15
Speaker 1: Agawa Canyons existence until three days after Steve was charged
8:19
Speaker 1: with murder. And it's like, gee, you should have looked
8:21
Speaker 1: into this angle like before you decided to arrest him
8:24
Speaker 1: in charge him with murder, because this blows a whole
8:27
Speaker 1: big hole in the two witnesses story. So in retrospect,
8:31
Speaker 1: it seems like this couple was not lying that perhaps
8:34
Speaker 1: they had actually seen Steve and Misty climbing on the
8:37
Speaker 1: boat at the marina on a particular night, but it
8:39
Speaker 1: was on a previous night prior to me the thirty first,
8:42
Speaker 1: because by Steve's own admission, he had taken Misty out
8:45
Speaker 1: on the boat from the marina on many prior occasions.
8:49
Speaker 2: That's the problem with even when you get prompt I
8:51
Speaker 2: witness identifications, like they've done so many studies on this,
8:55
Speaker 2: and they do experiments on this all the time, right
8:57
Speaker 2: where you just missed crucial details. Right there will be
9:00
Speaker 2: a group of people and a bunch of things are
9:02
Speaker 2: going on and someone in a lion costume runs through
9:04
Speaker 2: and people don't even see it. It's just we are
9:07
Speaker 2: fallible when it comes to our memory recall. And it
9:10
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that there's any mal intent with regards to
9:13
Speaker 2: the eyewitnesses. It just means that once time passes, our
9:17
Speaker 2: memory is less reliable for details like that. And to
9:21
Speaker 2: hinge your case on these people at the marina who
9:24
Speaker 2: don't even identify this like huge ship that's there, it
9:27
Speaker 2: seems like, yeah, they might have seen them together, but
9:30
Speaker 2: their timeline or the day could be off. And the
9:34
Speaker 2: fact that you're discrediting or discounting these hundred other witnesses
9:38
Speaker 2: because this fits your narrative, it's it's just on another level,
9:43
Speaker 2: like this is a case where there's literally one hundred eyewitnesses,
9:47
Speaker 2: and what is more likely that what Darlene discovered that
9:52
Speaker 2: her daughter could have been sex trafficked, which I think,
9:56
Speaker 2: like we say, oh, she could have run away of
9:58
Speaker 2: her own accord, I think that there's an answer where
10:00
Speaker 2: she didn't necessarily run away of her own accord, but
10:03
Speaker 2: she was sex traffic manipulated and then put into a
10:07
Speaker 2: situation that was outside of her control. And the girl
10:11
Speaker 2: going by the name Jean Marie that being Misty's birth name,
10:15
Speaker 2: and Darlene discovering that that seems like a very plausible
10:19
Speaker 2: explanation for what happened to Misty. But yet they're clinging
10:23
Speaker 2: to this tenuous eyewitness identification of maybe Steve getting onto
10:28
Speaker 2: the boat with a girl who could be Misty.
10:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, like the gene reething is just so much more
10:34
Speaker 1: credible rather than a random couple who didn't even know
10:36
Speaker 1: the Murray's personally recalling that they saw Steve and Misty
10:39
Speaker 1: on a boat together, And they didn't actually come forward
10:42
Speaker 1: until three months after Misty originally went missing, after they
10:45
Speaker 1: read about her disappearance in the newspaper and saw the
10:47
Speaker 1: photo and it's like, oh, I thought I remembered seeing
10:50
Speaker 1: her at the marina three months earlier. And like you said,
10:54
Speaker 1: memories can be tenuous, that you can just misremember dates
10:58
Speaker 1: if a long period of time has passed. Whereas the
11:01
Speaker 1: people who knew Missy personally, who claimed to have seen
11:03
Speaker 1: her in like a bargain shop or saw at the
11:05
Speaker 1: fair in Clinton, they came forward with their stories almost
11:09
Speaker 1: immediately when it still would have been fresh in their minds.
11:11
Speaker 1: So I don't see why this couple's memory is considered
11:14
Speaker 1: to be a lot more credible than all these other witnesses.
11:17
Speaker 2: And that brings up for me, And I'm not saying
11:20
Speaker 2: this is the case, but it brings up that sometimes
11:23
Speaker 2: people want to insert themselves into investigations or they want
11:26
Speaker 2: to help, and somehow in their mind they might believe
11:29
Speaker 2: that this happened but it didn't actually, or they could
11:32
Speaker 2: just outright fabricate something. Because I have a good memory,
11:35
Speaker 2: I know you have a very good memory, So what
11:38
Speaker 2: do you think the chances are that, say you go
11:40
Speaker 2: to a marina and you're just going about your day,
11:43
Speaker 2: nothing stands out, Like It's not like you're seeing people
11:46
Speaker 2: getting into a fight or something that would be memorable.
11:49
Speaker 2: It's just people living their lives on going out on boats,
11:52
Speaker 2: doing this, doing that. Would you really be able to
11:55
Speaker 2: recall three weeks later that you saw Steve and potentially
12:00
Speaker 2: Missy getting into a boat, Like, I don't think I would.
12:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I do have a great memory, but I
12:05
Speaker 1: always see these cases and I'm amazed that eyewitnesses are
12:08
Speaker 1: so certain that they've seen a missing person. I mean,
12:11
Speaker 1: I used to see that all the time on unsaw mysteries,
12:13
Speaker 1: where someone working at a bar or in a convenience
12:16
Speaker 1: store was served a customer and then later saw a
12:18
Speaker 1: missing persons flyer and said, oh, I think I served
12:21
Speaker 1: this person in my store like a couple weeks ago.
12:24
Speaker 1: And I'm a guy who worked in retail, and I
12:26
Speaker 1: can tell you that I would not be able to
12:28
Speaker 1: remember the names of customers like weeks or months after
12:31
Speaker 1: the fact after seeing a photo, and only if something
12:34
Speaker 1: like really memorable happens. So That's why I'm always skeptical
12:37
Speaker 1: of complete strangers who are so certain that they have
12:39
Speaker 1: seen a missing person. And since you talked about people
12:43
Speaker 1: who sometimes like to insert themselves into investigations, I have
12:46
Speaker 1: a feeling that this might have been the case with
12:48
Speaker 1: the Crown's third witness, who claimed that he had seen
12:51
Speaker 1: Steve and a female on a boat in Lake Huron
12:54
Speaker 1: on the night Misty went missing, and then a short
12:56
Speaker 1: time later when they saw Steve going back to the marina,
12:59
Speaker 1: there was no else in the boat, because this witness
13:02
Speaker 1: had been boating with three other relatives when this sighting
13:05
Speaker 1: took place, and they all contradicted his story, saying that, oh, yeah,
13:08
Speaker 1: we remember seeing Steve in his boat that night, but
13:10
Speaker 1: we only remember seeing him alone. We do not recall
13:13
Speaker 1: seeing a young girl inside the boat with him. So
13:16
Speaker 1: that's pretty telling that you have one witness who is
13:18
Speaker 1: certain that they saw Misty on the boat, whereas his
13:21
Speaker 1: own relatives, three of them are completely contradicting them.
13:24
Speaker 2: Maybe he just wants to believe that he saw Misty
13:27
Speaker 2: on the boat because that gives him some kind of
13:29
Speaker 2: feeling of relevance, Like it's easy to be skeptical that
13:33
Speaker 2: anyone would do this, but we've seen it time and
13:35
Speaker 2: time again, so we can't discount the possibility that this
13:39
Speaker 2: guy just wants to be involved in the investigation somehow.
13:43
Speaker 2: And the fact that the other people as relatives that
13:45
Speaker 2: were on the boat with him contradict what he's saying,
13:48
Speaker 2: I would think that that would cancel out this eyewitness
13:51
Speaker 2: pretty much.
13:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like I think that the Crown was basing
13:54
Speaker 1: a lot on him, thinking that, Ooh, if we can
13:56
Speaker 1: prove that Misty was on the boat when she left
13:58
Speaker 1: but wasn't on the boat when she returned, then that's
14:01
Speaker 1: evidence that Steve killed her and dumped her into the water.
14:03
Speaker 1: But if this guy's testimony is completely debunked, then you
14:07
Speaker 1: really have no case. And by contrasted, defense was able
14:11
Speaker 1: to produce a number of witnesses who verified Steve's whereabouts
14:14
Speaker 1: on that particular night, because he always maintained that he
14:17
Speaker 1: took the boat out for a quick ride on Lake
14:19
Speaker 1: Huron at seven pm and returned twenty minutes later, and
14:23
Speaker 1: three eye witnesses who knew Steve personally said that yes,
14:26
Speaker 1: they saw him return to shore at seven twenty and
14:29
Speaker 1: two other witnesses confirmed that they helped Steve load his
14:31
Speaker 1: boat onto a trailer five minutes later, and none of
14:34
Speaker 1: the witnesses who knew Steve personally reported seeing Misty there
14:38
Speaker 1: at all that night. And Steve also said he took
14:41
Speaker 1: to his boat to a shop to have at Washington
14:43
Speaker 1: waxed at eight oh five, which was corroborated by a
14:46
Speaker 1: number of eye witnesses, and then he spent the rest
14:48
Speaker 1: of the evening at a tavern he owned called the
14:50
Speaker 1: Park House Tavern. So it seems like the only time
14:54
Speaker 1: that night in which Steve did not have alibi witnesses
14:56
Speaker 1: was between seven and seven twenty when he could have
15:00
Speaker 1: i radically been taking Missy out onto the lake and
15:02
Speaker 1: dumping her body in the water. But that seemed to
15:04
Speaker 1: blow a hole in the Crown's theory that Steve took
15:07
Speaker 1: Masty's body into the center of lake here on where
15:10
Speaker 1: it was so cold and so deep that he could
15:12
Speaker 1: dump her body there and it wouldn't decompose and it
15:15
Speaker 1: wouldn't rise to the surface. Well, that particular spot in
15:18
Speaker 1: Lake Huron would have taken about two hours to travel
15:21
Speaker 1: there and back. But here we have a number of
15:23
Speaker 1: credible witnesses who can verify that Steve was only on
15:26
Speaker 1: the water for twenty minutes, so if he dumped Misty's
15:29
Speaker 1: body into the lake, it certainly would have resurfaced at
15:31
Speaker 1: some point because it would have been very close to shore.
15:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, if he only went ten minutes out and dumped
15:38
Speaker 2: her body, that just seems like an incredible risk. You
15:41
Speaker 2: would want to go deep if that was indeed what
15:44
Speaker 2: you were doing, unless you were like weighing down the body,
15:48
Speaker 2: or you had some kind of plan cutting the stomach
15:51
Speaker 2: or something so that the gases can escape, or you're
15:54
Speaker 2: doing something like that. But it seems like so many
15:57
Speaker 2: people were around during this time period. If Steve is
16:00
Speaker 2: somebody who's like a normal person who would be risk averse.
16:04
Speaker 2: If we're to believe the police's theory, he's being seen
16:06
Speaker 2: with Misty, going out on the boat with her, and
16:08
Speaker 2: then what he kills her and just throws her overboard.
16:11
Speaker 2: Even though all of these supposed eyewitnesses have seen them together.
16:15
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem very credible to me. It seems fantastical.
16:19
Speaker 2: And the police believe this early on, and either because
16:22
Speaker 2: they don't want to look stupid and say, oh, like,
16:25
Speaker 2: we got it wrong, or they just truly believe that
16:29
Speaker 2: Steve is the guy, and maybe there's somebody who's really
16:32
Speaker 2: championing that theory, and they just won't listen to anything
16:37
Speaker 2: to the contrary, clearly, because we've got one hundred eyewitnesses
16:40
Speaker 2: that are credible and they're not being listened to.
16:43
Speaker 1: Exactly, we have three witnesses for the prosecution pointing towards
16:47
Speaker 1: Steve like possibly killing Misty, yet one hundred to witnesses
16:50
Speaker 1: who not only seen Misty alive, but other witnesses about
16:53
Speaker 1: five or six more that saw him at the marina,
16:55
Speaker 1: I can verify his whereabouts. So and it seems crazy
16:59
Speaker 1: to me that he kill Misty on the boat and
17:01
Speaker 1: then take it to a shop to wash it and
17:03
Speaker 1: wax it, because if he had like any blood evidence
17:06
Speaker 1: in there, or anything pointing to foul play, I would
17:08
Speaker 1: think that he would take it off into a remote
17:09
Speaker 1: area and clean it himself, and not be so brazen
17:12
Speaker 1: as to take it into an area where it would
17:14
Speaker 1: be seen by other people. So Steve even took the
17:18
Speaker 1: stand to testify in his own defense, and I think
17:20
Speaker 1: he had a great line which summarized the whole situation,
17:23
Speaker 1: in which he stated quote, I did not realize that
17:26
Speaker 1: starting about a week after Misty disappeared. The true nature
17:29
Speaker 1: of the police activity was to microscopically examine my movements
17:32
Speaker 1: and my statements, looking for more innocent inconsistency, and then
17:36
Speaker 1: claiming that was evidence of guilt end quote.
17:39
Speaker 2: I mean, that's pretty crazy. It's obviously not evidence of guilt.
17:44
Speaker 2: This is just this case is a wild ride because
17:47
Speaker 2: I'm feeling so sorry for Steve and so sorry for Anne,
17:51
Speaker 2: because they love Missy and like, this is their daughter
17:54
Speaker 2: and they've gone through hell to get her to a
17:57
Speaker 2: good place. And then when she goes missing, to have
18:00
Speaker 2: all of this evidence that points away from Steve, and
18:04
Speaker 2: yet they are obsessed. They've got tunnel vision, it's got
18:07
Speaker 2: to be Steve. They've got three eyewitnesses. The one I
18:11
Speaker 2: don't think should even count as an eyewitness because there's
18:14
Speaker 2: three people they cancel out what he's saying. So I
18:17
Speaker 2: just don't think that's credible. You shouldn't even be raising
18:20
Speaker 2: that at trial. It's wild to me that they thought
18:23
Speaker 2: that that was credible enough to raise. And then what
18:26
Speaker 2: the defense has is one hundred people that are credible,
18:31
Speaker 2: and they back each other up. The validity of each
18:33
Speaker 2: of those eyewitness statements becomes more valid with each one
18:37
Speaker 2: that backs up the one before. So it's like this
18:41
Speaker 2: chain link that becomes stronger with each piece of chain
18:44
Speaker 2: that's being added. But yet, somehow law enforcement is focused
18:48
Speaker 2: on Steve and they think these ridiculous things are evidence
18:52
Speaker 2: of guilt. I can't with this.
18:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, I've covered a lot of cases and I
18:56
Speaker 1: can't think of another one in which a weaker case
18:58
Speaker 1: has been presented to charge someone with murder and bring
19:01
Speaker 1: them to trial. I mean, I know it's more common
19:03
Speaker 1: these days to charge and convict people of murder without
19:06
Speaker 1: the victim's body, but that was a much more rare
19:08
Speaker 1: thing back in nineteen ninety five, and you don't usually
19:12
Speaker 1: only do that if you had hard evidence that the
19:14
Speaker 1: victim was murdered, like evidence of blood or something like that.
19:17
Speaker 1: But here it was actually possible that the victim might
19:20
Speaker 1: still be alive out there somewhere at the time the
19:22
Speaker 1: trial was happening, which is just wild to me. I
19:25
Speaker 1: was almost waiting for a dramatic moment where Misty herself
19:27
Speaker 1: would burst in through the doors into the courtroom and say,
19:30
Speaker 1: you know what, here I am, I'm still alive. So
19:32
Speaker 1: technically you cannot find my adoptive father guilty of murder.
19:36
Speaker 2: There's something about this case that I don't mean this
19:39
Speaker 2: in any derogatory way. We've just seen so many movies
19:43
Speaker 2: that have come out that are similar to this, especially
19:46
Speaker 2: when you have like the Darlene angle and like searching
19:49
Speaker 2: the streets for your daughter, and not the part where
19:52
Speaker 2: they falsely accuse the adopted father necessarily. But there's so
19:56
Speaker 2: many parts of this case that feel really theatrical and
20:00
Speaker 2: like they're resonating, almost like a movie that I've seen.
20:03
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
20:04
Speaker 1: It does. Yeah, Like there's so many twists and turns
20:07
Speaker 1: that you'd expect that this was a work of fiction,
20:09
Speaker 1: and you can't really believe that this is real. And
20:11
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, if this case happened today, I
20:14
Speaker 1: think it would be like the number one case on
20:16
Speaker 1: everyone's mind. Like because it took place in a small
20:18
Speaker 1: Canadian town in the nineteen nineties, it really didn't get
20:22
Speaker 1: a lot of widespread attention outside of Canada. But I
20:24
Speaker 1: think if like we had missed someone like Misty go
20:27
Speaker 1: missing under the same circumstances today, the case took place
20:30
Speaker 1: in America and it happened in like the True Crime
20:33
Speaker 1: obsessive and social media era, like people would be dissecting
20:37
Speaker 1: this case NonStop from beginning to end, and people would
20:40
Speaker 1: probably be coming forward thinking that they had seen Misty
20:42
Speaker 1: alive somewhere and it would become everyone's biggest obsession. But
20:46
Speaker 1: because it took place in Canada during the nineteen nineties,
20:48
Speaker 1: nobody really knows this case today.
20:51
Speaker 2: I mean, Maura Murray was two thousand and six, so yeah,
20:54
Speaker 2: Like if this had taken place maybe sometime after Morea's case,
20:58
Speaker 2: then I could see there being a real interest in
21:02
Speaker 2: trying to find out what happened here, And especially the
21:06
Speaker 2: attitude towards somebody going voluntarily missing versus somebody being sex
21:11
Speaker 2: trafficked is it's very nuanced, and now there's a lot
21:14
Speaker 2: more conversations around sex trafficking. So I think that would
21:18
Speaker 2: bring in a whole other angle of people looking for her,
21:21
Speaker 2: right like the Amy Lynn Bradley case.
21:24
Speaker 1: Yes, like that's one where she went missing in like
21:26
Speaker 1: the Caribbean, so it's much harder to search for. But
21:29
Speaker 1: if someone like that went under those circumstances in North America,
21:32
Speaker 1: I'm sure like we'd have amateur sleuth searching everywhere trying
21:35
Speaker 1: to find misty and confirm that she was alive. But
21:38
Speaker 1: even though this is one of the worst cases I've
21:40
Speaker 1: ever seen presented at a trial, the good news is
21:42
Speaker 1: that the jury didn't buy it because they only deliberated
21:45
Speaker 1: for forty five minutes before they found Steve not guilty
21:48
Speaker 1: of murder. And following the trial, one of the jurors
21:51
Speaker 1: presented and with a note which read, quote, if they
21:54
Speaker 1: thought forty five minutes was fast, twelve people went to
21:57
Speaker 1: the bathroom and two had a smoke break in that
21:59
Speaker 1: time quotes, So it sounds like they deliberated for maybe
22:02
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty twenty five minutes and realize we've got nothing here.
22:05
Speaker 1: There's no way we're finding him guilty. And then after
22:08
Speaker 1: going to the bathroom and taking a smoke, that's when
22:10
Speaker 1: they reached the came back with their verdict.
22:13
Speaker 2: Well, thank god that we've got some people who have
22:16
Speaker 2: their heads on their shoulders here and that they didn't
22:18
Speaker 2: convict Steve, because I would have lost all faith in
22:21
Speaker 2: the judicial system if that would have happened. It's one
22:24
Speaker 2: thing to charge him in It's one thing for the
22:27
Speaker 2: police to believe that he did it. It's a whole
22:29
Speaker 2: other thing for the district attorney to take this case
22:31
Speaker 2: to trial, and then it would be a whole other
22:34
Speaker 2: thing for him to be convicted. Because back in nineteen
22:37
Speaker 2: ninety five, people had the idea, and I think particularly juries,
22:42
Speaker 2: that if you're bringing somebody to trial on murder charges,
22:45
Speaker 2: there's a strong likelihood that they did it, Otherwise why
22:48
Speaker 2: would you. But now we understand that it's very complex
22:51
Speaker 2: and there's a variety of reasons, racial, cultural, socioeconomic. They
22:56
Speaker 2: can bias investigators and they can lead to people being
23:00
Speaker 2: falsely accused and charged with murder. And luckily the jury
23:04
Speaker 2: saw through the very weak case and Steve wasn't convicted,
23:07
Speaker 2: because my god, that would have been a really horrible,
23:10
Speaker 2: wrongful incarceration exactly.
23:12
Speaker 1: I mean, that is the one silver lining in this case,
23:15
Speaker 1: is that Steve did not actually have to go to prison.
23:17
Speaker 1: But this pretty much redefines the term reasonable doubt, because
23:20
Speaker 1: not only did you not prove that Steve committed the murder,
23:23
Speaker 1: you didn't even prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the
23:25
Speaker 1: victim was even dead. So thankfully the jury had the
23:27
Speaker 1: good sense to deliberate very very quickly before they reached
23:31
Speaker 1: a verdict. But in spite of Steve's acquittal, the trial
23:34
Speaker 1: took a devastating toil on him because he had been
23:37
Speaker 1: forced to sell his tavern at a loss just to
23:39
Speaker 1: finance his legal defense, and following the trial, he still
23:42
Speaker 1: struggled to find work because even though he was acquitted,
23:45
Speaker 1: there were still some people out there who thought he
23:47
Speaker 1: was a murderer, so he had the stigma hanging over
23:50
Speaker 1: him because the police would not change their narrative. They
23:52
Speaker 1: still believed that Steve was guilty. So the Murrays ultimately
23:56
Speaker 1: wound up going bankrupt, and sadly, Steve and Ann eventually
23:59
Speaker 1: got divorce because this took such a big toll on
24:02
Speaker 1: their marriage, though they did decide to remain friends afterwards.
24:05
Speaker 2: Well, it's a lot to go through, and I think
24:08
Speaker 2: losing a child a lot of people get divorced in
24:11
Speaker 2: the aftermath because it's just it's a lot of complex
24:14
Speaker 2: emotions that you've got to go through. And then when
24:17
Speaker 2: you add on Steve being accused of murder, them focusing
24:21
Speaker 2: the tunnel vision and the police not looking for Misty,
24:24
Speaker 2: and then they decide to go to trial, having to
24:26
Speaker 2: sell the tavern, these are huge life changes and stressors
24:30
Speaker 2: that are on the Murrays. I can't imagine what they
24:32
Speaker 2: were going through, and so I'm really happy for them
24:36
Speaker 2: that they managed to stay friends in the aftermath.
24:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's just so sad because they were well
24:41
Speaker 1: liked people in the community. Like I mentioned that, they
24:43
Speaker 1: had two other sons, so they had a tight knit
24:45
Speaker 1: family unit, and they really loved raising Misty, and then
24:49
Speaker 1: she goes missing and they have their entire life destroyed
24:51
Speaker 1: by one of the worst police investigations of all time.
24:55
Speaker 1: And what makes this even worse is that the opp
24:58
Speaker 1: still refuse to change their mind that's Steve was guilty,
25:01
Speaker 1: and they continued to express their belief that he did
25:04
Speaker 1: kill her on the boat and dumped her in the
25:05
Speaker 1: lake Huron. So they started spending time and resources performing
25:09
Speaker 1: searches of the lake using sonar equipment trying to find
25:12
Speaker 1: her body, and of course they found nothing and became
25:16
Speaker 1: absolutely outraged because we have all these sightings which suggest
25:19
Speaker 1: Misty might still be alive, somewhere working the streets, possibly
25:22
Speaker 1: involved in sex trafficking, and we've got no police officers
25:26
Speaker 1: investigating that angle trying to find her. They're still clinging
25:29
Speaker 1: to their narrative and wasting time and energies trying to
25:32
Speaker 1: search the lake even though there's pretty much no chance
25:35
Speaker 1: that her body is there.
25:37
Speaker 2: Hey, now this is just getting weird, because why are
25:39
Speaker 2: you wasting resources? And are you doing so because you
25:44
Speaker 2: truly believe that she's there? Are you trying to prove
25:46
Speaker 2: a point?
25:47
Speaker 3: Like?
25:48
Speaker 2: I don't understand what they're doing here. I get that
25:51
Speaker 2: they wouldn't be able to have any recourse even if
25:54
Speaker 2: Steve had done it, because you only get the one
25:56
Speaker 2: bite at the apple, and he was acquitted, so unless
25:58
Speaker 2: he was charged federally with she obviously wouldn't be There's
26:01
Speaker 2: no compelling case here. So I just don't understand, with
26:07
Speaker 2: all the evidence that they have, why they wouldn't be
26:09
Speaker 2: looking to see if she was sex trafficked. They've got
26:12
Speaker 2: a huge amount of evidence, an overwhelming amount of evidence.
26:16
Speaker 2: The Jean Marie thing is so compelling to me. It
26:20
Speaker 2: feels like that is where they need to look. And
26:23
Speaker 2: if they would have put in half the resources into
26:26
Speaker 2: investigating what could have happened to Missy on the streets
26:29
Speaker 2: and who could have potentially sex trafficked her, that they
26:32
Speaker 2: may have found Missy and they might have been able
26:34
Speaker 2: to reunite her with her family. But they just didn't.
26:38
Speaker 2: They doubled down on their narrative and continued in the
26:41
Speaker 2: aftermath of Steve's acquittal. It just feels weird to me.
26:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, just the obsession here, Like I've seen many other
26:48
Speaker 1: cases where a suspect is acquitted and the police are
26:50
Speaker 1: so certain that they were the right person that they
26:53
Speaker 1: hold the attitude, well, we're certainly did it, but because
26:56
Speaker 1: of double jeopardy, we can't bring them to trial again,
26:58
Speaker 1: so we're just going to close the investigation. But here
27:01
Speaker 1: they are actively wasting time and resources searching lakes like
27:04
Speaker 1: trying to find Misty's body, even though deep down I'm
27:08
Speaker 1: sure they know that they're not going to find anything.
27:10
Speaker 1: So it appears that they're just doing it to save face,
27:12
Speaker 1: to keep up the appearances that were right, and nothing
27:15
Speaker 1: is going to change our minds. So I think it
27:17
Speaker 1: developed into a very weird obsession where it's like, we
27:20
Speaker 1: have to save face here and make it look like
27:22
Speaker 1: we were correct all along, but.
27:24
Speaker 2: In doing so, they just made themselves look worse.
27:27
Speaker 1: They did. Yeah, and it gets even weirder because some
27:30
Speaker 1: of the witnesses who claimed that they had seen Misty
27:32
Speaker 1: alive in London, Ontario, they started facing legal trouble, and
27:37
Speaker 1: it makes me wonder if they were targeted as a
27:39
Speaker 1: witch hunt, because, for example, there was a couple in
27:42
Speaker 1: London named Robert and Robin Manis who were charged with
27:44
Speaker 1: obstruction of justice because they had given sworn affidavits that
27:48
Speaker 1: they had given shelter, food, and a shower to Misty
27:52
Speaker 1: sometime in June and nineteen ninety five, and they actually
27:55
Speaker 1: were taken to trial for obstruction of justice, but they
27:57
Speaker 1: were both found not guilty. So I don't know if
28:00
Speaker 1: they ever found like any like any tangible evidence to
28:03
Speaker 1: show that this couple was lying. But on the surface,
28:06
Speaker 1: it seems like the opp is once again trying to
28:08
Speaker 1: destroy the narrative that Misty was still alive and living
28:11
Speaker 1: on the streets somewhere, but actually going after the witnesses
28:14
Speaker 1: who claimed that they had seen Misty alive after she
28:17
Speaker 1: was supposedly killed.
28:19
Speaker 2: Now they're just looking like they're salty about the fact
28:22
Speaker 2: that they've been proven wrong and now they want to
28:27
Speaker 2: double down on everything and to go after these eyewitnesses.
28:30
Speaker 2: It just it feels malicious and it feels unnecessary if
28:35
Speaker 2: you were going to go after any eyewitness who seems
28:37
Speaker 2: to have got it wrong on purpose. It would be
28:40
Speaker 2: your third eyewitness who was contradicted by his three family members.
28:44
Speaker 2: That would be the guy I would go back. But
28:46
Speaker 2: that doesn't support their narrative.
28:48
Speaker 1: No, definitely not so it just seems petty. At this point, well,
28:52
Speaker 1: Anna pretty much freached her breaking point because she decided
28:55
Speaker 1: to file a complaint against the Ontario Provincial Police with
28:58
Speaker 1: the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services, which is an
29:02
Speaker 1: independent watchdog agency who oversees the police and asks them
29:06
Speaker 1: to perform a review of Misty's case. And in May
29:09
Speaker 1: of two thousand and one, they posted the results of
29:12
Speaker 1: their audit and their conclusion was that the investigation had
29:15
Speaker 1: been greatly mishandled due to insufficient staff who are training
29:19
Speaker 1: in inadequate supervision. And they actually forced the opp to
29:22
Speaker 1: sent a letter of apology to the Murray family.
29:26
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad that they at least had to do that,
29:28
Speaker 2: because the Murray family deserves an apology after the way
29:32
Speaker 2: that they were treated by the OPP. On a side note,
29:35
Speaker 2: I have such a hard time saying opp without hearing
29:38
Speaker 2: like Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.
29:40
Speaker 1: And when I was a kid, I used to believe
29:42
Speaker 1: that song was about the Ontario Provincial Police, but it's not.
29:45
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know why, but I used to think
29:48
Speaker 2: it was about them too. So every time I hear that,
29:50
Speaker 2: it like plays in my head.
29:52
Speaker 1: That's a spoiler. Do a Google search and you'll find
29:54
Speaker 1: out that it's not. It's about something else altogether. So uh,
29:59
Speaker 1: child fine. To the Missing Children's Organization in Canada, they
30:02
Speaker 1: finally started doing their own independent investigation in a Misty's
30:06
Speaker 1: case because the police weren't doing anything and they were
30:08
Speaker 1: pretty much squeezed out of the investigation during the early stages.
30:12
Speaker 1: And in two thousand and one, which is six years
30:14
Speaker 1: after Misty went missing, they started receiving some tips about
30:18
Speaker 1: a young woman who went by the name Mallory Morgan
30:20
Speaker 1: Lane and had reportedly been seen accessing homeless shelters and
30:24
Speaker 1: news services in Vancouver, British Columbia. She apparently bore resemblance
30:29
Speaker 1: to some age enhanced composite sketches which had been released
30:32
Speaker 1: a Misty to show what she might look like in
30:34
Speaker 1: her early twenties, and she also had a gap in
30:36
Speaker 1: her upper front teeth which was very similar to a
30:39
Speaker 1: gap that Misty had, and according to those who interacted
30:42
Speaker 1: with Mallory. Even though she was often vague about specific
30:45
Speaker 1: details of her background, Mallory did share stories about herself
30:49
Speaker 1: which were kind of similar to Misty's, and at one
30:52
Speaker 1: point Mallory was told that she needed to provide a
30:54
Speaker 1: valid identification or she would be cut off from social
30:58
Speaker 1: welfare benefits, but she refused to do so and would
31:01
Speaker 1: not have her picture taken for a new ID, and
31:04
Speaker 1: a worker at a local shelter where Mallory was staying
31:06
Speaker 1: finally decided to confront her and ask are you Misty Murray?
31:10
Speaker 1: And Mallory reportedly became hysterical and fled the scene and
31:14
Speaker 1: was never found. And so they never did find this Mallory.
31:17
Speaker 1: But when Anne was shown a recent photograph of her,
31:20
Speaker 1: she expressed her doubt that Mallory was Misty. She thought
31:23
Speaker 1: there were just too many distinct differences. But it is
31:26
Speaker 1: interesting these stories about how the moment that Misty Murray
31:29
Speaker 1: was mentioned, Mallory suddenly just went hysterical and refused to
31:32
Speaker 1: talk about it and would also refuse to have her
31:35
Speaker 1: picture taken for an ID even though she would get
31:38
Speaker 1: cut off welfare benefits.
31:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is really interesting and who knows it could
31:43
Speaker 2: have just been somebody who is dealing with mental health issues,
31:46
Speaker 2: and that could explain it because of the marked differences.
31:49
Speaker 2: But also it could just be that Misty had been
31:52
Speaker 2: living a different lifestyle and so that could cause a
31:56
Speaker 2: change in her appearance to the degree that she might
31:59
Speaker 2: not be RECOGNI eyable to those who knew her.
32:02
Speaker 1: I mean, I haven't seen any photographs of Mallory, and
32:04
Speaker 1: I do see it's common practice and missing children's cases
32:07
Speaker 1: for their parents to be shown photographs of someone who's
32:11
Speaker 1: been found on the streets who looks like they're missing
32:13
Speaker 1: loved one, and usually they'll hold out hope and say that,
32:15
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's totally my missing child, just to
32:18
Speaker 1: hold on to the illusion that they're still alive somewhere.
32:21
Speaker 1: So it is actually different from the norm that Anne
32:23
Speaker 1: looked at the photo of Mallory and said, I don't
32:25
Speaker 1: believe this is Misty. So I can't really judge for
32:28
Speaker 1: myself unless I had seen the photograph of Mallory. But
32:31
Speaker 1: it is crazy to think that maybe, like after living
32:34
Speaker 1: on the streets for six years, maybe Misty had become
32:36
Speaker 1: so ashamed thinking that my family won't want me anymore.
32:40
Speaker 1: I've done some terrible things that I don't want to
32:41
Speaker 1: talk about. So that's why she was willing to just
32:44
Speaker 1: deny the whole thing and keep living on the streets
32:46
Speaker 1: to avoid going back to her old life. So after this,
32:50
Speaker 1: Anne finally decided that she was going to bring an
32:52
Speaker 1: end to her efforts to search for Misty because even
32:54
Speaker 1: though she's still loved her and wanted to find out
32:56
Speaker 1: what happened, she pretty much said, I still have two
32:59
Speaker 1: sons and I have to devote more time to them,
33:01
Speaker 1: and this has consumed our lives for so many years
33:04
Speaker 1: that I just have to move on. And Steve eventually
33:07
Speaker 1: got a job as a truck driver, and he would
33:09
Speaker 1: actually put a large missing poster from Misty fixed to
33:12
Speaker 1: the side of his rig, hoping to spread awareness about
33:14
Speaker 1: her whenever he traveled across the country. He left Godridge
33:18
Speaker 1: and started living a quiet life in a community just
33:20
Speaker 1: outside North Bay, but he tragically passed away in August
33:23
Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen at the age of sixty eight. But
33:26
Speaker 1: what's so frustrating is that when they published an article
33:29
Speaker 1: about Steve's passing, they interviewed Wally Baker, who was a
33:32
Speaker 1: retired opp detective who had worked on the case, and
33:35
Speaker 1: he said, quote, I definitely wouldn't have charged him if
33:38
Speaker 1: I thought he wasn't guilty. End quote. So even after
33:41
Speaker 1: all these years, he still stick into the narrative that Steve.
33:44
Speaker 2: Is a killer, like, give it a rest already, he
33:47
Speaker 2: didn't do it, Like I just I don't even know
33:50
Speaker 2: what to say. And I don't know if it's a
33:53
Speaker 2: pride thing or if it's they knew something that we
33:56
Speaker 2: didn't know. But either way, if they knew something that
33:59
Speaker 2: we didn't know there was actually credible evidence, they would
34:02
Speaker 2: have raised it a trial, and the fact is they didn't.
34:04
Speaker 2: They didn't have any credible evidence. A jury deliberated basically
34:08
Speaker 2: with what would be a bathroom break, and we're like, no,
34:11
Speaker 2: he didn't do it, and let Steve go. So the
34:14
Speaker 2: fact that he's holding on to that to basically his
34:16
Speaker 2: dying days, that Steve was responsible is kind of sad.
34:20
Speaker 1: It is, Yeah, like he just passed away, He had
34:22
Speaker 1: to live the last two decades of his life having
34:25
Speaker 1: pretty much his family and his career ruined, and you're
34:28
Speaker 1: still trying to smear his name after he passed away,
34:31
Speaker 1: even though he was acquitted and all the evidence points
34:34
Speaker 1: points towards him being innocent. And what's crazy is that
34:36
Speaker 1: if you go to the website for the Ontario Provincial Police,
34:39
Speaker 1: they have a missing person's profile page for Misty which
34:42
Speaker 1: contains this line quote, there have been no credible sidings
34:46
Speaker 1: of Misty since May the thirty first, nineteen ninety five.
34:49
Speaker 1: It is very likely that Misty was the victim of
34:51
Speaker 1: foul play on or about that date. End quote. And
34:54
Speaker 1: it just seems that they're sticking to their narrative, because
34:56
Speaker 1: how can you say there have been no credible sidings
34:58
Speaker 1: of Misty since Made the thirty five, because out of
35:00
Speaker 1: all the missing persons cases I've covered, this has had
35:03
Speaker 1: more credible sightings of the victim being alive than any
35:06
Speaker 1: other that I can remember.
35:08
Speaker 2: Like, are you guys lying about this wilfully or are
35:13
Speaker 2: you just being so willfully ignorant to the eyewitness sightings
35:18
Speaker 2: being credible. I just think it is wild to say
35:21
Speaker 2: that there's been no credible sightings when there's literally been
35:24
Speaker 2: one hundred. We've never seen a case with so many sightings,
35:28
Speaker 2: and yet the police are still like, no, you know what,
35:31
Speaker 2: We've got three eyewitnesses, none of which are great, and
35:35
Speaker 2: one of them is particularly problematic. And those are the
35:38
Speaker 2: ones that we're gonna believe over the hundred people that
35:40
Speaker 2: actually most of them knew her.
35:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's what's so sad about this is that
35:45
Speaker 1: the police have not performed any sort of investigation these
35:48
Speaker 1: past thirty years except for their searches of Lake Huron,
35:51
Speaker 1: whereas the independent agencies like childfind are the ones who
35:54
Speaker 1: are turning up credible tips which showed that Misty still
35:57
Speaker 1: may have been alive in living on the streets in
35:59
Speaker 1: the years after she went missing. And that's incredibly sad because,
36:03
Speaker 1: like I said, it's been over thirty years now, and
36:05
Speaker 1: I don't think the chances of Misty still being alive
36:07
Speaker 1: in her late forties and living on the street are
36:10
Speaker 1: that great because even if she was laving on the
36:12
Speaker 1: streets for a while, I don't think she could survive
36:14
Speaker 1: that long. So there is a good chance that she
36:16
Speaker 1: may be deceased. But in the years following your disappearance,
36:20
Speaker 1: there was a good chance to rescue her and bring
36:22
Speaker 1: her back safely and finally get a resolution in this case.
36:26
Speaker 1: But because of the stubbornness of law enforcement, it seems
36:29
Speaker 1: that they may have missed this opportunity. And it's possible
36:32
Speaker 1: that this will never be solved, in that Misty's loved
36:34
Speaker 1: ones will never get conclusive answers about what happened to her.
36:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really sad here. It feels like law enforcement
36:41
Speaker 2: failed Misty. They failed Steve and Shan and her two
36:46
Speaker 2: adoptive brothers and Darlene. They potentially robbed them of the
36:51
Speaker 2: ability of returning Misty home safely if they would have
36:54
Speaker 2: jumped on this investigation early on and would have looked
36:57
Speaker 2: into this. It seems like she was within in arms reach,
37:01
Speaker 2: like they would have been able to find her based
37:03
Speaker 2: on all of the eyewitness sightings. She was there, she
37:06
Speaker 2: was present, and then all of a sudden, years go
37:09
Speaker 2: by and that isn't the case anymore, and she could
37:13
Speaker 2: be dealing with mental health issues, substance use issues, she
37:16
Speaker 2: could be sex trafficked. There's a lot of horrible conclusions
37:20
Speaker 2: here and a lot of pain that could have potentially
37:24
Speaker 2: been prevented had law enforcement not had tunnel vision and
37:27
Speaker 2: been so focused on Steve from the jump.
37:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what's sad, because I'm sure there are many
37:32
Speaker 1: cases just like this where teens run away, maybe wind
37:35
Speaker 1: up living on the streets for a while. Or wind
37:37
Speaker 1: up in trafficking but then get rescued and returned alive,
37:40
Speaker 1: and we just never learn about these ones in the media.
37:42
Speaker 1: But because this was turned into a murder investigation and
37:45
Speaker 1: everything went horribly wrong, it wound up getting a lot
37:48
Speaker 1: of publicity. And that's what I fear about Misty is
37:50
Speaker 1: that even if she wasn't sex trafficking, if she had
37:53
Speaker 1: a pimp, maybe they thought to themselves, Ooh, there's like
37:56
Speaker 1: a lot of publicity surrounding this, and she's a liability.
37:59
Speaker 1: We keep her around or otherwise we're going to get
38:01
Speaker 1: in trouble. So even if they were planning to keep
38:04
Speaker 1: her alive for a while, they may have decided she's
38:06
Speaker 1: too much of a liability and decided to kill her.
38:09
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think the key to the case has
38:11
Speaker 1: always been Jeremy Clark, because it seems like he was
38:14
Speaker 1: lying about not having seen Misty on May the thirty first,
38:17
Speaker 1: the day she disappeared after she left school, And I
38:20
Speaker 1: don't know if he was directly responsible for what happened
38:22
Speaker 1: to her, but I do think there's a good chance
38:24
Speaker 1: that he may have influenced Misty's decision to not go
38:27
Speaker 1: on her weekend trip. To Halifax with Darlene, because we
38:31
Speaker 1: know that from her interaction with Sarah Crawford, her schoolmate
38:34
Speaker 1: at the bargain shop, she said, I will see you
38:36
Speaker 1: in school again on Monday. So I think it's possible
38:39
Speaker 1: that Missy just felt she was going to skip out,
38:41
Speaker 1: spend the weekend partying or something, and then return to
38:43
Speaker 1: her family and go back to school. But then she
38:46
Speaker 1: fell into the hands of the wrong person, possibly someone
38:49
Speaker 1: involved in sex trafficking, who took her to London and Toronto,
38:52
Speaker 1: and then she just wound up in a very bad
38:54
Speaker 1: place and they were unable to find her.
38:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with everything that you said there. I
38:59
Speaker 2: think Jeremy Clark is the key, and I think that
39:02
Speaker 2: if police would have done more of a thorough investigation
39:04
Speaker 2: into people other than Steve, then potentially we might have
39:08
Speaker 2: found out what happened to Missy. We wouldn't still be
39:11
Speaker 2: talking about it. It's heartbreaking on so many levels when
39:15
Speaker 2: the police get tunnel vision for whatever reason it is,
39:18
Speaker 2: and this case is an opposite example in that usually
39:22
Speaker 2: it's like they don't want to believe that this person
39:25
Speaker 2: was murdered or that something happened to them, and they
39:26
Speaker 2: want to believe they just left to their own accord
39:28
Speaker 2: or the carnival, the allure of the carnival or whatever. Yeah,
39:34
Speaker 2: like you hear these crazy explanations. And here's a case
39:37
Speaker 2: where we actually have credible evidence that Missy either left
39:40
Speaker 2: of her own accord, or she was manipulated or sex traffic,
39:43
Speaker 2: and yet it's not investigated. This is just really heartbreaking.
39:47
Speaker 2: But I do agree with you that this would be
39:50
Speaker 2: a case that I think more people would talk about
39:52
Speaker 2: if it would have happened ten years or fifteen years later.
39:55
Speaker 1: I do agree because I remember when I released my
39:57
Speaker 1: Trail with Cold episode about this five years ago, that
40:01
Speaker 1: most people who listened to my episode had not heard
40:03
Speaker 1: this story and were legitimately shocked. And I remember my
40:05
Speaker 1: friend Charlie from Crime Lines tweeted out the episode and
40:08
Speaker 1: the only thing she wrote was how the hell did
40:10
Speaker 1: this ever go to trial? And I pretty much agreed,
40:13
Speaker 1: just thinking that the idea that someone could be charged
40:15
Speaker 1: with murder when the victim might have still been alive
40:18
Speaker 1: out there somewhere at the time. The fact that this
40:20
Speaker 1: could happen in the nineteen nineties is pretty shocking, and
40:24
Speaker 1: that's why I wanted to cover this on the Path
40:25
Speaker 1: Went Chile. Didn't talk about it because I feel that
40:28
Speaker 1: not enough people are familiar with this story and that
40:30
Speaker 1: it's the ultimate example of what can happen when the
40:33
Speaker 1: justice system goes horribly wrong. So any further thoughts on
40:36
Speaker 1: the disappearance of Misty Murray?
40:38
Speaker 2: No, thank you for sharing this with me. Just a
40:41
Speaker 2: case I'd never heard of, and it being a Canadian case,
40:44
Speaker 2: it was really interesting and really heartbreaking.
40:47
Speaker 1: Definitely. Yeah, And if by chance Misty is still alive
40:51
Speaker 1: out there somewhere, I hope at some point she can
40:53
Speaker 1: be recovered safely and returned to her family. That about
40:57
Speaker 1: brings an end to our series on the Disappearance of
40:59
Speaker 1: Misty Murray. Thank you so much for joining us, and
41:01
Speaker 1: we will return next week to talk about another case.
41:05
Speaker 3: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
41:07
Speaker 3: about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?
41:09
Speaker 1: Yes, the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
41:11
Speaker 1: years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
41:15
Speaker 1: early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
41:18
Speaker 1: and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up
41:21
Speaker 1: with us on Patreon if you join our five dollars
41:24
Speaker 1: tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus episodes in
41:28
Speaker 1: which I talk about cases which are not featured on
41:31
Speaker 1: The Trail Went Cold's original feed, So they're exclusive to
41:34
Speaker 1: Patreon and if you join our highest tier tier free,
41:37
Speaker 1: the ten dollar tier. One of the features we offer
41:40
Speaker 1: is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsaved Mysteries,
41:45
Speaker 1: where you can download an audio file and then boot
41:48
Speaker 1: up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
41:51
Speaker 1: YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
41:55
Speaker 1: the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
41:58
Speaker 1: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
42:01
Speaker 1: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
42:04
Speaker 1: the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
42:07
Speaker 1: download a commentary track in which I make more smart
42:10
Speaker 1: ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
42:13
Speaker 1: Tier three.
42:14
Speaker 3: So I want to let you know a little bit
42:15
Speaker 3: about the Jeweles and Nashty Patreons. So there's early ad
42:18
Speaker 3: free episodes of the Path Went Chili. We've got our
42:21
Speaker 3: Pathwent Chili mini's, which are always over an hour, so
42:24
Speaker 3: they're not very mini, but they're just too short to
42:26
Speaker 3: turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those,
42:29
Speaker 3: so we hope you'll check out those patreons. We'll link
42:32
Speaker 3: them in the show notes.
42:33
Speaker 1: So I want to thank you all for listening, and
42:35
Speaker 1: any chance you have to share us on social media
42:38
Speaker 1: with a friend or to rate and review is greatly appreciated.
42:41
Speaker 1: You can email us at the pathwent Chili at gmail
42:43
Speaker 1: dot com. You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwin.
42:47
Speaker 1: So until next time, be sure to bundle up because
42:49
Speaker 1: cold trails and chili pass call for warm clothing.
42:52
Speaker 2: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy