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William Fyfe - The Handyman Killer · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: In the fall of nineteen ninety nine, a series of
0:10
Speaker 1: seemingly unrelated murders began unfolding across the suburbs and small
0:14
Speaker 1: communities surrounding Montreal, Canada, leaving investigators searching for answers as
0:20
Speaker 1: each new victim was found inside the safety of their
0:24
Speaker 1: own home. Initially, they all appeared to be isolated homicides,
0:30
Speaker 1: but gradually they evolved into one of the largest serial
0:33
Speaker 1: murder cases in Canadian history. This is the story of
0:39
Speaker 1: a serial killer who left investigators with an uneasy feeling
0:43
Speaker 1: in the pit of their stomach as they asked themselves
0:45
Speaker 1: the question, even though he officially had nine victims to
0:50
Speaker 1: his name, how many victims does this killer truly have?
0:57
Speaker 1: This is the story of William Fife, a k a.
1:02
Speaker 1: The Handyman Killer.
1:04
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole and you're listening to Wicked
1:08
Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcast. The following.
1:15
Speaker 1: Material for audience listener discretion.
1:39
Speaker 2: The sun is setting behind you right now, like in
1:43
Speaker 2: the window behind our house, and it almost like gives
1:46
Speaker 2: you this angel appearance.
1:49
Speaker 1: An angelic glow.
1:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is furtherest from the truth.
1:53
Speaker 1: WHOA, that's aggressive.
1:56
Speaker 2: I was just kidding, but No, it's quite lovely.
1:58
Speaker 1: Actually, me or the sunset. Okay, well, thank you, how
2:02
Speaker 1: nice of you. It's quite lovely. Actually, you want what's
2:06
Speaker 1: really lovely? Patreon and the people who sign up over
2:08
Speaker 1: on Patreon, That is true. They're pretty lovely, like Alexandra
2:12
Speaker 1: Moose and Scarlet Ross right on. They signed up this
2:15
Speaker 1: week they get the exclusive behind the scenes, and I
2:18
Speaker 1: think they're pretty angelic and pretty awesome and pretty lovely.
2:20
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, well, I was just gonna say they got
2:24
Speaker 2: a hint today. They did of our Halloween costume, and
2:27
Speaker 2: that is the only hint that's going out there. And
2:30
Speaker 2: we're not saying anything about it.
2:32
Speaker 1: I mean, technically we're not even supposed to be having
2:34
Speaker 1: this conversation because in the Patreon post we said we're
2:37
Speaker 1: not going to be talking about it again. Oh it's fine.
2:40
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's all I'm saying. My lips are sealed now.
2:43
Speaker 2: But what nothing?
2:45
Speaker 1: Okay, good. I thought it might have you for a
2:49
Speaker 1: minute though.
2:50
Speaker 2: H you're testing me.
2:51
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm always isn't that what marriage is? Test each other?
2:55
Speaker 2: Well, honestly, if this was the morning, I probably wouldn't
2:58
Speaker 2: have gotten it.
3:00
Speaker 1: Two. Shit, you're a bit slower in the morning.
3:01
Speaker 2: I am. I'm not a morning person at all. I
3:04
Speaker 2: almost feel like I'm going back to being a teenager
3:07
Speaker 2: in the sense of just liking to sleep in and
3:10
Speaker 2: needing sleep. And yeah, it's.
3:12
Speaker 1: Kind of odd, actually tell me about it. In this
3:14
Speaker 1: tiny home, I have to like be so quiet in
3:16
Speaker 1: the morning because Nichole's always sleeping in constantly, and I'm
3:19
Speaker 1: just like sitting there in the couch trying to be
3:22
Speaker 1: as quiet as I can.
3:23
Speaker 2: I tell you, you can do what you need to do.
3:26
Speaker 2: I'm more than fine with that, are you sure. Yeah? Well,
3:29
Speaker 2: I mean, don't like blend your coffee in the blender,
3:33
Speaker 2: but if you got to make coffee, that's fine.
3:35
Speaker 1: Don't we grinding up coffee beans or anything. Okay, fair,
3:38
Speaker 1: but I can make coffee totally, all right, Duley noted.
3:41
Speaker 2: I've told you this many times.
3:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I still feel bad.
3:47
Speaker 2: It's fine.
3:48
Speaker 1: It's fine.
3:49
Speaker 2: Then you know it's not actually.
3:50
Speaker 1: Right fine exactly. That means it's not actually fine. We
3:55
Speaker 1: got a Canadian story for you guys today, Yeah, a
3:58
Speaker 1: serial killer story with the name to go along with it,
4:02
Speaker 1: the Handyman Killer.
4:04
Speaker 2: Yeah. I winced at that. That's pretty daunting.
4:06
Speaker 1: You did WinCE at that? Why'd you WinCE at it?
4:08
Speaker 1: What about it made you read?
4:10
Speaker 2: I guess what I was thinking is that this is
4:13
Speaker 2: a handyman that gets in your house to do handyman
4:17
Speaker 2: things and then he kills you. And if that's the case,
4:21
Speaker 2: that is booked and terrifying, Yes, and a fear.
4:27
Speaker 1: You kind of spot on. I'll tell you.
4:28
Speaker 2: That, Like I don't know, when things are relatable, it's very,
4:32
Speaker 2: very difficult to hear because how many people have you know,
4:35
Speaker 2: people come in their house to help them fix things
4:39
Speaker 2: or do something that they're not capable of doing.
4:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, and then you can have childcare, house cleaner,
4:47
Speaker 1: handyman or plumber or carpenter or anything, right, mm hmm,
4:51
Speaker 1: who knows any one of them could be a killer?
4:55
Speaker 2: Done done done, done done well.
4:57
Speaker 1: I think with that note, we should get into the story,
4:59
Speaker 1: shall we.
5:00
Speaker 2: Ah, Yeah, let's do it, okay.
5:03
Speaker 1: By the middle of October, the brilliant colors of early
5:06
Speaker 1: fall have already begun to give way to very deep
5:09
Speaker 1: red and burnt orange colors with even fading yellows. Across
5:13
Speaker 1: Montreal's West Island. In Canada, mature maple and oak trees
5:18
Speaker 1: line quiet residential streets, and with every passing day, another
5:22
Speaker 1: layer of leaves drifts onto the sidewalks, even in gardens
5:26
Speaker 1: and front lawns. The mornings arrive cool enough for light jackets,
5:30
Speaker 1: while the afternoons often warm up beneath clear blue skies
5:33
Speaker 1: before giving way to crisp evenings that hint winter is
5:37
Speaker 1: only a few weeks away. The West Island itself feels
5:41
Speaker 1: different from downtown Montreal. Instead of crowded sidewalks and constant traffic,
5:46
Speaker 1: the communities are quieter. Spread out along the western edge
5:50
Speaker 1: of the island, beside the Saint Lawrence River and Lake
5:52
Speaker 1: Saint Louis. Small municipalities such as Ceneville, Bais des Ufe
5:58
Speaker 1: and Point Claire are filled with winding residential roads, established
6:03
Speaker 1: neighborhoods and homes tucked behind mature trees. They're carefully maintained hedges,
6:08
Speaker 1: and all those sort of things line their property nicely.
6:13
Speaker 1: Many of these properties sit well back from the street,
6:16
Speaker 1: separated by long driveways, stone walls or rows of towering
6:20
Speaker 1: evergreens that offer privacy from any sort of passing traffic.
6:24
Speaker 1: Life moves at a very comfortable pace here. Neighbors wave
6:28
Speaker 1: while walking their dogs. Cyclists make their way along quiet
6:31
Speaker 1: streets and homeowners where they spend the last warm weekends
6:36
Speaker 1: putting away things in the yard, things like patio furniture
6:39
Speaker 1: or trimming hedges and preparing the gardens for the approaching winter.
6:43
Speaker 1: Landscapers and trades people travel from house to house finishing
6:47
Speaker 1: outdoor projects before the first snowfall comes. It's quite common
6:51
Speaker 1: to see painters or carpenters, or even handymen knocking on
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Speaker 1: doors offering seasonal work while the weather still allows it,
7:00
Speaker 1: and even others advertising for the upcoming snow removal season.
7:05
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety nine, life here is still remarkably ordinary.
7:09
Speaker 1: Mobile phones are becoming more common, but if not yet
7:12
Speaker 1: really become part of everyday necessity for most people. Bank
7:16
Speaker 1: cards and automated teller machines have largely replaced carrying amount
7:20
Speaker 1: large amounts of cash in your pocket, and all home
7:23
Speaker 1: computers and the Internet are slowly finding their way into
7:25
Speaker 1: the households all of the block. News still travels primarily
7:30
Speaker 1: through evening television broadcasts and morning newspaper, or even just
7:34
Speaker 1: conversation shared between neighbors over backyard fences. It is the
7:39
Speaker 1: kind of place where people recognize the mail carrier or
7:42
Speaker 1: know the local shop owner, and seldom think twice about
7:45
Speaker 1: answering the front door during the middle of the day.
7:48
Speaker 1: For people living across Montreal's western suburbs in the autumn
7:52
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety nine, life was continuing on much as
7:55
Speaker 1: it always had in the Canadian autumn, with it just
7:58
Speaker 1: quietly giving way to win her However, within a matter
8:02
Speaker 1: of days that sense of normalcy would begin to change.
8:07
Speaker 1: It was on October fifteenth, nineteen ninety nine, when fifty
8:10
Speaker 1: nine year old Anna Stagg Yarnold began her day with
8:14
Speaker 1: a routine errand see her Jack Russell terrier dog. Trooper
8:18
Speaker 1: had developed a lump, and she had scheduled an appointment
8:22
Speaker 1: with the veterinarian to have a look at him.
8:25
Speaker 2: Now.
8:25
Speaker 1: The visit confirmed that surgery would likely be necessary, and
8:29
Speaker 1: the news that she had received deeply upset Anna. Friends
8:33
Speaker 1: and family knew how devoted she was to her dog,
8:35
Speaker 1: and she spent much of that day discussing with the
8:37
Speaker 1: vet recommendations on what to do, and then going home
8:42
Speaker 1: and discussing with friends what was happening. Anna lived alone
8:46
Speaker 1: in Ceneville, which is a quiet village in Montreal's West Island.
8:50
Speaker 1: She had once worked as a registered nurse and had
8:53
Speaker 1: also assisted her ex husband, Robert Yarnold with his business,
8:57
Speaker 1: and although the couple had separated several years earlier, they
9:00
Speaker 1: remained on pretty good terms and continued to share a
9:03
Speaker 1: very close relationship with their daughter Sarah. Now their family
9:07
Speaker 1: had actually experienced a profound tragedy years earlier too. Their
9:11
Speaker 1: son James had been killed by a drunk driver at
9:13
Speaker 1: the age of eighteen, and the loss devastated the family
9:17
Speaker 1: and permanently altered the course of their lives. Around the
9:21
Speaker 1: same period, Anna was also diagnosed with Crohn's disease and
9:24
Speaker 1: underwent multiple surgeries. The combination of grief and ongoing health
9:28
Speaker 1: problems placed enormous strange on the marriage and eventually led
9:32
Speaker 1: the couple to separate. But despite that, Robert remained an
9:37
Speaker 1: important part in Anna's life and the two spoke regularly now.
9:41
Speaker 1: That evening, after returning home from the veterinary appointment, Anna
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Speaker 1: spoke with Robert and Sarah over the phone. The conversation
9:50
Speaker 1: centered largely on Trooper and the difficult decision that she
9:53
Speaker 1: was facing regarding his treatment, and those would ultimately be
9:56
Speaker 1: the final conversations that either of them would have with
9:59
Speaker 1: her the following day, on October sixteenth, Robert tried to
10:03
Speaker 1: contact Anna several times in fact, and when she failed
10:06
Speaker 1: to answer the phone, he initially assumed that she maybe
10:09
Speaker 1: had stepped out of the house or was busy with
10:11
Speaker 1: something else, but as more time passed without any response,
10:16
Speaker 1: his concern began to grow. It was unlike Anna to
10:19
Speaker 1: go so long without returning a call, particularly after a
10:22
Speaker 1: conversation that they were having just yesterday about the dog
10:25
Speaker 1: and how upset she was, and so later that day,
10:29
Speaker 1: Robert decided to drive over to Anna's home to check
10:31
Speaker 1: in on her. When he arrived, her vehicle was still there,
10:35
Speaker 1: parked in the driveway. The property was quiet, and there
10:37
Speaker 1: was nothing immediately visible to suggest that anything was wrong,
10:42
Speaker 1: so using a key, he entered the house and called
10:45
Speaker 1: Anne's name, but there was no response. As he searched
10:49
Speaker 1: the residence, something caught his attention. The dog Trooper, who
10:54
Speaker 1: normally greeted visitors rather enthusiastically, wasn't there. Dead. Trooper had
11:01
Speaker 1: been shut inside an upstairs bedroom with the door closed.
11:04
Speaker 1: Robert let Trooper out and continued to search the home.
11:08
Speaker 1: He then noticed Anna's purse had been emptied and its
11:11
Speaker 1: contents were all scattered, plus several credit cards were even missing.
11:16
Speaker 1: Robert was worried and continued to look for her, but
11:19
Speaker 1: there was no sign of her inside, so he checked
11:21
Speaker 1: the backyard and that's when he discovered her laying face
11:24
Speaker 1: down in one of her garden beds. He immediately contacted
11:28
Speaker 1: emergency services. Police and paramedics quickly arrived at the scene,
11:33
Speaker 1: but unfortunately there was nothing they could do for Anna.
11:38
Speaker 1: She was pronounced dead on the scene.
11:40
Speaker 2: That's just brutal that family has, Like, that's too much
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Speaker 2: for any family to have to bear. Yeah, it's a
11:48
Speaker 2: lot considering like the sun I mean right, also died
11:51
Speaker 2: by a drunk driver.
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Speaker 1: Free exactly No Officers secured the property and forensic identification
11:57
Speaker 1: specialists began documenting the residents and surrounding yard. Now, the
12:01
Speaker 1: initial examination of the scene established that the attack had
12:04
Speaker 1: not occurred entirely outside of the home. Evidence inside indicated
12:09
Speaker 1: that a struggle had begun indoors before continuing into the backyard.
12:14
Speaker 1: Anna's eyeglasses were found damaged in the bathroom sink, and
12:18
Speaker 1: strands and clumps of her hair were documented inside as well,
12:22
Speaker 1: including around the bathroom and kitchen areas. Now, those details
12:26
Speaker 1: led investigators to believe that the confrontation had begun in
12:30
Speaker 1: the bathroom, where Anna had first been grabbed and struggled
12:35
Speaker 1: with the attacker. She then appears to have broken free
12:39
Speaker 1: somehow through struggling and fighting back, and moved through the
12:42
Speaker 1: house before making it outside. Now, the evidence in the
12:46
Speaker 1: yard suggested that Anna had nearly escaped, but ultimately she
12:51
Speaker 1: was found face down in a triangular flower bed just
12:55
Speaker 1: beyond the screen porch, which was an area surrounded by
12:57
Speaker 1: gardens that she carefully maintained.
13:00
Speaker 2: The poor thing. She put up a fight, she did.
13:04
Speaker 1: And the autopsy later identified that blunt force injuries or
13:07
Speaker 1: trauma to her head and face and fractured ribs and
13:11
Speaker 1: evidence of exphyxiation ultimately claimed her life. The investigators believed
13:19
Speaker 1: her face had been forced into the soil during the
13:21
Speaker 1: final stages of the attack, and a heavy concrete flower
13:25
Speaker 1: pot was found nearby with blood on it, and it
13:28
Speaker 1: was identified as one of the objects used against her.
13:33
Speaker 2: Pool what a monster, yeah, Now.
13:36
Speaker 1: As the crime scene examination continued, detectives noted that Anna's
13:40
Speaker 1: missing credit cards were not the only unusual feature of
13:43
Speaker 1: this case. See, despite the obvious violence inside the home,
13:48
Speaker 1: there was no indication that anyone had forced entry into
13:51
Speaker 1: the residence. Doors and windows showed no sign of damage,
13:55
Speaker 1: suggesting that whoever had entered the house had either been
13:59
Speaker 1: led in voluntarily or had found their way inside without
14:02
Speaker 1: leaving any sort of visible evidence. Now, at that stage,
14:06
Speaker 1: detectives could not determine whether robbery had been the primary
14:09
Speaker 1: motive or whether the credit cards had simply been taken
14:13
Speaker 1: after the attack as a byproduct. The answer would ultimately
14:16
Speaker 1: depend on what investigators discovered in the days following. Now,
14:21
Speaker 1: as his standard practice in homicide investigations, detectives began to
14:25
Speaker 1: examine the victim's closest relationships. Robert Anna, his ex husband,
14:30
Speaker 1: had discovered her and had been among the last people
14:33
Speaker 1: known to speak with her, so investigators carefully documented his movements,
14:38
Speaker 1: interviewed him in detail, and began reconstructing Anna's final twenty
14:42
Speaker 1: four hours. Detectives also interviewed her daughter, Sarah and other
14:46
Speaker 1: family members too, along with friends and neighbors, looking for
14:49
Speaker 1: anything that might explain who could have been visiting Anna's
14:53
Speaker 1: home and why someone would target her. Plus, they're looking
14:57
Speaker 1: for anyone who might have seen activity around the home
14:59
Speaker 1: on Octo were fifteenth or October sixteenth. Now, as forensic
15:04
Speaker 1: specialists continued processing Anna's home, detectives carefully documented each and
15:09
Speaker 1: every room they were, collecting fingerprints, potential biological samples, and
15:13
Speaker 1: any trace evidence that they could while attempting to determine
15:17
Speaker 1: exactly how the attack had unfolded, and soon the missing
15:21
Speaker 1: credit cards provided detectives with their first significant lead. It
15:26
Speaker 1: was within a short period of her death when investigators
15:29
Speaker 1: learned that Anna's bank cards had been used to withdraw
15:32
Speaker 1: cash from an automated teller machine. Bank records allowed detectives
15:37
Speaker 1: to establish the times and locations of the transactions, and
15:40
Speaker 1: surveillance footage from the machines were pulled and they showed
15:43
Speaker 1: a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt, now with all the
15:47
Speaker 1: hood concealed much of his face. The footage confirmed that
15:50
Speaker 1: someone had successfully used Anna's cards after she died. Even
15:55
Speaker 1: with the financial records and surveillance footage, though the investigation
15:58
Speaker 1: stalled out. The images were not clear enough to identify
16:01
Speaker 1: the man, and no witnesses could provide a useful description.
16:06
Speaker 1: As detectives continued examining the evidence, Robert was gradually eliminated
16:11
Speaker 1: as the primary focus of the investigation, his movements could
16:14
Speaker 1: be accounted for, and the available evidence increasingly pointed away
16:18
Speaker 1: from someone within Anna's immediate family, and despite weeks of
16:22
Speaker 1: investigative work, police had no identifying suspect. Then less than
16:30
Speaker 1: two weeks later, another homicide was reported. On the morning
16:35
Speaker 1: of October twenty ninth, concern began to grow at the
16:38
Speaker 1: hospital where forty six year old Monique Gudreau worked as
16:43
Speaker 1: a nurse. Monique was known as dependable and very punctual,
16:47
Speaker 1: making her unexplained absence very unusual. Coworkers attempted to contact
16:52
Speaker 1: her by phone throughout the day, but every call went unanswered.
16:57
Speaker 1: As the hours passed, their concern began to increase enough
17:00
Speaker 1: that they contacted her sister, who had accessed to the apartment,
17:04
Speaker 1: and when the sister went to go to her home
17:06
Speaker 1: and check in, she immediately realized that something was horribly wrong.
17:12
Speaker 1: Police were soon called and they arrived a short time later.
17:15
Speaker 1: They secured the apartment while forensic identification officers began documenting
17:20
Speaker 1: the scene. It quickly became apparent that Monique had fought
17:23
Speaker 1: desperately for her life. Blood stains were documented throughout the apartment,
17:27
Speaker 1: allowing investigators to trace the movements of both Monique and
17:31
Speaker 1: her attacker as the struggle inside unfolded. Furniture had been disturbed,
17:36
Speaker 1: and the distribution of blood suggested the assault had not
17:39
Speaker 1: remained confined to a single location. But I continued as
17:44
Speaker 1: Monique attempted to resist, but ultimately Monique was stabbed over
17:49
Speaker 1: forty times and succumbed to her wounds. Now, near the
17:54
Speaker 1: entrance of her home, investigators recovered a bloody shoeprint that
17:58
Speaker 1: had been left behind as the at hacker moved through
18:00
Speaker 1: the apartment. They also documented a trail of small blood
18:04
Speaker 1: droplets leading away from the residents too. Now, because the
18:08
Speaker 1: pattern did not appear consistent with Monique's injuries alone, investigators
18:13
Speaker 1: believe the attacker had likely been cut during the struggle
18:17
Speaker 1: that ensued inside, and it ultimately left behind their own
18:21
Speaker 1: blood as they fled the scene.
18:24
Speaker 2: That's good, so.
18:25
Speaker 1: Those samples were collected and preserved.
18:28
Speaker 2: But yeah, well, I was just going to say, this
18:30
Speaker 2: person is like savage or persistent or something. The fact
18:34
Speaker 2: that he stabs his victim forty times, yeah, in the
18:39
Speaker 2: pursuit is just o.
18:41
Speaker 1: Gosh, seems a little excessive. I think, yeah, but I
18:46
Speaker 1: mean that's clearly the road he's going. So whether it's
18:50
Speaker 1: aggression or he likes it, who knows, he's going full on?
18:56
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
18:58
Speaker 1: Crime scene technicians continue working throughout the apartment, photographing everything
19:02
Speaker 1: in the room before collecting fingerprints, blood samples, hair, and
19:06
Speaker 1: whatever trace evidence that might identify the person who was responsible,
19:10
Speaker 1: And as they reconstructed the sequence of events, another familiar
19:13
Speaker 1: detail emerged. Like Anna's home only two weeks earlier, there
19:18
Speaker 1: was no obvious indication that anyone had forced their way
19:21
Speaker 1: into the apartment. The doors and windows showed no sign
19:25
Speaker 1: of damage, which suggested Monique had willingly answered the door
19:29
Speaker 1: before the attack began. Now, although similarities between the two
19:34
Speaker 1: cases were becoming apparent, detectives remained very cautious about connecting
19:39
Speaker 1: the two. The murder weapons were different, the victims who
19:43
Speaker 1: had known or the victim story had no known connection
19:47
Speaker 1: to one another, and there was not yet enough forensic
19:50
Speaker 1: evidence to confidently conclude that both women had been attacked
19:53
Speaker 1: by the same person. So investigators exchanged information between the
19:58
Speaker 1: two cases. They haired crime scene reports and everything, but
20:02
Speaker 1: publicly the murders continued to be treated as separate investigations. Then,
20:08
Speaker 1: only three weeks later, another call brought investigators to yet
20:13
Speaker 1: another home. Fifty five year old Teresa Lisnick Shanahan had
20:19
Speaker 1: not been seen for several days. Friends and coworkers had
20:22
Speaker 1: been unable to reach her, prompting their concern for her welfare.
20:27
Speaker 1: When officers arrived at Teresa's apartment building on Lavel One,
20:30
Speaker 1: detail immediately caught their attention. There were several newspapers that
20:34
Speaker 1: were sitting outside the door untouched, which suggested they'd been
20:39
Speaker 1: sitting there for several days. Combined with an unusual amount
20:43
Speaker 1: of unanswered phone calls, investigators believed that there was reason
20:47
Speaker 1: to enter her home, so building staff assisted officers in
20:51
Speaker 1: gaining access to her apartment, and inside, they found Teresa
20:56
Speaker 1: in a pool of her own blood. She was dead.
20:59
Speaker 1: Apartment was immediately secured as a homicide scene while forensic
21:03
Speaker 1: investigators began documenting every room. Teresa had suffered multiple stab wounds,
21:09
Speaker 1: and investigators determined that she had also been sexually assaulted
21:13
Speaker 1: during the attacks. As with the earlier investigations, there was
21:17
Speaker 1: no obvious sign or evidence that someone had forced their
21:20
Speaker 1: way into the apartment. The doors and windows appeared undamaged, again,
21:26
Speaker 1: raising the possibility that the victim had willingly answered the
21:29
Speaker 1: door before the assault began.
21:32
Speaker 2: Okay. And with the other two victims, they hadn't been
21:36
Speaker 2: sexually assaulted, had they, or not that anyone had reported or.
21:40
Speaker 1: No, not that was reported.
21:41
Speaker 2: No, okay, And.
21:43
Speaker 1: It gets a little bit fuzzy because of as far
21:45
Speaker 1: as DNA goes in this time as well, I mean,
21:48
Speaker 1: it's not the most prominent feature. It was just kind
21:51
Speaker 1: of really becoming a big thing as far as that
21:53
Speaker 1: sort of stuff goes. So I tried to look up
21:56
Speaker 1: exactly on which victims were sexually assaulted and what was
22:01
Speaker 1: the distinction between sexual assault and or rape, and I
22:06
Speaker 1: couldn't really find any. What I found was there was
22:09
Speaker 1: no mention of the other ones being sexually assaulted. This
22:13
Speaker 1: one was sexually assaulted, and ultimately the serial killer in
22:18
Speaker 1: the end, I do know, had a habit of sexual assault.
22:24
Speaker 2: H gosh, that just like amplifies it as just being like,
22:28
Speaker 2: I mean, of course killing someone is worse, but also
22:31
Speaker 2: doing that on top of it, it's like, oh my goodness.
22:33
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, being assaulted like that and then being
22:36
Speaker 1: killed like that's of course for sure, it's brutal. Now,
22:40
Speaker 1: as detectives continued processing the scene, they discovered that several
22:44
Speaker 1: personal belongings were missing, including Teresa's jewelry and bank cards.
22:49
Speaker 1: Investigators quickly notified her financial institutions and learned that her
22:52
Speaker 1: debit card had already been used to withdraw cash from
22:55
Speaker 1: ATM machines. Now, this was shortly before and after midnight,
23:02
Speaker 1: and security cameras once again captured a man wearing a
23:05
Speaker 1: hooded sweatshirt while making them withdraws. Now, although the images
23:09
Speaker 1: did not clearly show his face, investigators believed the same
23:13
Speaker 1: individual who had just successfully used Teresa's personal identification number
23:17
Speaker 1: was the same person who withdrew from Anna's bank after
23:20
Speaker 1: her murder. By the beginning of December nineteen ninety nine,
23:24
Speaker 1: investigators had spent nearly two months working three separate homicide investigations,
23:29
Speaker 1: and publicly, police released very little information about the investigations.
23:33
Speaker 1: They were hoping to preserve details that only the person
23:36
Speaker 1: responsible would actually know, which is.
23:39
Speaker 2: Fair because at this point, do they know that they're
23:43
Speaker 2: They're not entirely certain that they're connected yet.
23:45
Speaker 1: No, they don't know what they're connected yet, there's no proof,
23:48
Speaker 1: there's no nothing. The only thing is they're seeing some similarities. Okay,
23:53
Speaker 1: so they see the potential. They're not blind to the
23:56
Speaker 1: fact that they could be connected.
23:58
Speaker 2: So but it does kind is suck that they're not warning,
24:02
Speaker 2: you know, individuals potentially of Like I guess they don't
24:06
Speaker 2: know though, that it's someone getting access into these people's house. Yeah,
24:11
Speaker 2: they don't necessarily or how.
24:13
Speaker 1: They don't know how. What they do know is that
24:15
Speaker 1: there's a string of breaking entries, right, yeah, and there's
24:19
Speaker 1: a string of murders. I'm sure the public is being
24:22
Speaker 1: warned of that, So don't let anyone into your home,
24:25
Speaker 1: you know.
24:25
Speaker 2: There's a still somewhat alerted.
24:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can guarantee you they're being alerted. But what
24:30
Speaker 1: they're not being alerted to is likely the fact that
24:32
Speaker 1: the police are watching to see if they're connected. Because
24:36
Speaker 1: there's no proof that there is. They don't know at
24:38
Speaker 1: this point, like we do that this is the handyman killer, right,
24:42
Speaker 1: so we have the gift of insight in this case
24:45
Speaker 1: that we know how he's getting in. Police didn't at
24:48
Speaker 1: the time, public didn't know at the time. Now then
24:51
Speaker 1: by December fifteenth, the investigation took another devastating turn. On
24:56
Speaker 1: that afternoon, a man approach to home in the quiet
24:59
Speaker 1: West Island community of Beau d'ouf. I really hope I'm
25:03
Speaker 1: saying that right. It's quite the French town name. And
25:06
Speaker 1: he offered to do some garden work. The homeowner declined
25:11
Speaker 1: the offer, and the man calmly walked away. And there
25:13
Speaker 1: was nothing about the interaction that seemed unusual. I mean,
25:17
Speaker 1: as I already mentioned at the beginning of this podcast,
25:19
Speaker 1: door to door offers for seasonal work were not exactly uncommon.
25:24
Speaker 1: Then a short time later, the same man crossed the
25:26
Speaker 1: street to a home of a fifty year old lady
25:29
Speaker 1: named Mary Elizabeth Glenn. Now Mary lived alone and was
25:34
Speaker 1: well known by friends and neighbors as a kind, independent woman,
25:38
Speaker 1: someone who enjoyed gardening and took pride in her home,
25:41
Speaker 1: and at some point, after answering the door, she allowed
25:44
Speaker 1: this man or this visitor inside. Now what happened next
25:48
Speaker 1: is reconstructed from the physical evidence investigators documented through the residence.
25:53
Speaker 1: The attack was quick, and it moved through multiple rooms
25:57
Speaker 1: of the house. Bloodstains were located in the kitchen and
26:00
Speaker 1: hallway and other areas that showed that Mary had struggled
26:04
Speaker 1: as she attempted to escape the attacker, but ultimately, as
26:08
Speaker 1: she fought for her life well, she was found dead, beaten,
26:12
Speaker 1: and stabbed to death. Investigators documented signs that the offender
26:17
Speaker 1: had searched throughout her belongings and went upstairs looking through
26:22
Speaker 1: the contents, and eventually found her purse and went through
26:25
Speaker 1: it too. Now this suggested someone had been looking for
26:28
Speaker 1: valuables or you know, financial cards, credit cards, things like that.
26:32
Speaker 1: But one detail in particular caught the attention of the
26:34
Speaker 1: crime scene investigators, and that was the kitchen sink. It
26:38
Speaker 1: contained evidence that someone had washed their hands before leaving
26:41
Speaker 1: the residence. I guess it seems that rather than fleeing
26:44
Speaker 1: immediately after the attack, this person remained inside the home
26:48
Speaker 1: long enough to search for valuables and clean up at
26:51
Speaker 1: least somewhat before leaving. But as with the previous investigations,
26:57
Speaker 1: detectives found no obvious sign of forced entry. The doors
27:00
Speaker 1: and windows showed no damage, supporting the growing belief that
27:03
Speaker 1: Mary had willingly opened the door to the person who
27:06
Speaker 1: attacked her. Then, of course, police ultimately learned through contacting
27:11
Speaker 1: neighbors and taking statements that there was an individual such
27:14
Speaker 1: as a handyman, going door to door so.
27:17
Speaker 2: Really he made a mistake here by going just next door.
27:23
Speaker 1: I mean sure, but who's to say he didn't do
27:26
Speaker 1: that in the other cases, in the other murders and
27:28
Speaker 1: stuff too.
27:29
Speaker 2: Es Yeah, I mean nowadays too, if anyone ever came
27:32
Speaker 2: to your door and offered any type of handyman service,
27:35
Speaker 2: I think ninety eight percent of people would be like,
27:39
Speaker 2: hell to the no.
27:40
Speaker 1: Probably. And I know, like it's a little cliche to say,
27:44
Speaker 1: but we live in a very much so still a
27:46
Speaker 1: Facebook town for social media. If something like that happens
27:51
Speaker 1: and anyone gets the slightest, you know, feeling of something's off,
27:55
Speaker 1: it's on Facebook right away in several community posts and
27:58
Speaker 1: everything photos of the person in the tay and they're posting,
28:01
Speaker 1: who's this person going door to door? Watch out for them?
28:04
Speaker 1: So definitely different in the day and age we live
28:07
Speaker 1: in now. Forensic investigators began an exhaustive examination of the house.
28:13
Speaker 1: Every room was photographed and measured before evidence collection began.
28:17
Speaker 1: Blood samples, fingerprints, footwear impressions, and trace evidence were all
28:21
Speaker 1: carefully documented. The work continued well beyond the first day,
28:25
Speaker 1: as investigators searched for anything capable of identifying the person
28:29
Speaker 1: who is responsible. Among the evidence recovered were several bloody
28:33
Speaker 1: footwear impressions from shoes. They were photographed and preserved for comparison.
28:39
Speaker 1: Although potentially important, they did not immediately identify as suspect.
28:42
Speaker 1: Though detectives still needed something much more specific, and that
28:47
Speaker 1: breakthrough came during a continued process of the scene. Now
28:52
Speaker 1: investigators recovered a partial fingerprint throughout the search who was
28:57
Speaker 1: left in blood on the interior doorframe near the front entrance.
29:02
Speaker 1: Although it was incomplete, it was only a partial there
29:05
Speaker 1: were enough ridge details that remained for a comparison. The
29:09
Speaker 1: print was then submitted through an automated fingerprint identification system
29:13
Speaker 1: better known as APHIS, which compared unidentified fingerprints against existing
29:18
Speaker 1: criminal records, and when they submitted it, they got back of.
29:22
Speaker 2: That wheow okay, here we go.
29:25
Speaker 1: The fingerprint belonged to a forty four year old man
29:28
Speaker 1: named William Patrick Feife. Detectives immediately began confirming the identification
29:35
Speaker 1: and gathered information about the man whose fingerprint had just
29:38
Speaker 1: been recovered inside Mary Glenn's home after a murder. Police
29:42
Speaker 1: records show that he had previously had criminal convictions, giving
29:46
Speaker 1: investigators an existing set of fingerprints for that comparison, which
29:50
Speaker 1: is hence why he's in that system. And now with
29:53
Speaker 1: a confirmed identification in hand, the investigation changed almost overnight.
30:00
Speaker 1: Investigators worked quickly to determine where William had been living,
30:04
Speaker 1: whether he was still in Quebec or whether he might
30:06
Speaker 1: have already left the province. Officers also began assembling a
30:09
Speaker 1: complete picture of his recent movements while preparing the legal
30:13
Speaker 1: documents needed to continue the investigation. As information was gathered,
30:18
Speaker 1: detectives learned that William was believed to have moved to Ontario,
30:22
Speaker 1: so the Montreal Investigation Team contacted the Ontario Provincial Police
30:26
Speaker 1: and shared the information that they had developed. Detectives worked
30:30
Speaker 1: through the information and began assisting with surveillance after learning
30:34
Speaker 1: William was believed to be in the area of the
30:36
Speaker 1: city of Barry, and on December twenty second, nineteen ninety nine,
30:41
Speaker 1: officers located him at a Husky truck stop near Berry, Ontario.
30:47
Speaker 1: Surveillance teams watched as he returned to his pickup truck
30:50
Speaker 1: after stopping for a meal, and when investigators were satisfied
30:54
Speaker 1: they had the right opportunity, officers moved in and arrested
30:58
Speaker 1: him without incident. The month's long search for the unknown
31:03
Speaker 1: man responsible for these recent murders seemed to have come
31:07
Speaker 1: to an end. The arrest, however, marked the beginning of
31:10
Speaker 1: another phase of the investigation, because with William and custody,
31:14
Speaker 1: detectives immediately began executing search warrants connected to him. His
31:18
Speaker 1: pickup truck, clothing, and personal belongings were carefully documented before
31:22
Speaker 1: being sent for forensic examination. Every item that might contain
31:27
Speaker 1: biological material, fibers, fingerprints, or other trace evidence was preserved
31:32
Speaker 1: and examined. Investigators understood that the strength of the case
31:36
Speaker 1: would in fact depend on far more than a single
31:40
Speaker 1: fingerprint recovered from one crime scene, and they wanted to
31:43
Speaker 1: gather as much as possible. Among the items received particular
31:48
Speaker 1: attention were several pairs of running shoes. Forensic specialists compared
31:53
Speaker 1: the soles against footwear impressions documented during the homicide investigations,
31:58
Speaker 1: while also examining shoes for blood and other trace evidence.
32:02
Speaker 1: Clothing recovered during the searches underwent similar analysis, with scientists
32:07
Speaker 1: testing for biological material that might connect William to the
32:10
Speaker 1: victims or other crime scenes. Detectives also obtained biological samples
32:16
Speaker 1: from William following his arrest. Those samples were submitted to
32:19
Speaker 1: forensic laboratories for DNA analysis and comparison against evidence collected
32:24
Speaker 1: during the homicide investigations. As laboratory were continued, investigators returned
32:29
Speaker 1: to the evidence collected from the earlier murders. Io Bank records,
32:34
Speaker 1: surveillance photos, recovered jewelry, and witness statements were laid out
32:38
Speaker 1: alongside the growing collection of forensic evidence and reports. Detectives
32:43
Speaker 1: reconstructed the timeline of each investigation, comparing dates, locations, and
32:48
Speaker 1: physical evidence as they were working to determine how strongly
32:51
Speaker 1: the evidence connected William to each of the individual murder cases.
32:56
Speaker 1: Financial investigators also continued reviewing the transactions made with the
33:00
Speaker 1: victim's stolen bank cards. The withdrawal times, ATM, locations, and
33:05
Speaker 1: surveillance images were all assembled in detailed timelines and compared
33:09
Speaker 1: against William's known movements, and Although surveillance footage never proved
33:14
Speaker 1: to have a clear view of the offender's face, it
33:17
Speaker 1: helped establish the sequence of events following each homicide and
33:21
Speaker 1: demonstrated that the stolen cards had been used shortly after
33:25
Speaker 1: each victim was attacked. Now Throughout this period, detectives attempted
33:30
Speaker 1: to interview William about the investigation, and according to investigators
33:35
Speaker 1: involved in the case, he chose not to cooperate without
33:39
Speaker 1: admissions or explanations from the suspect. Police continued to rely
33:42
Speaker 1: almost entirely on physical evidence, forensic testing, and documented records
33:46
Speaker 1: to strengthen their case. They also began learning more about
33:51
Speaker 1: the man they had just arrested. Records show that William
33:54
Speaker 1: Patrick Fife had been born in Toronto in nineteen fifty
33:58
Speaker 1: five before moving to Montreal as a young child, where
34:01
Speaker 1: he was raised by his aunt. As an adult, he
34:04
Speaker 1: worked as a handyman, performing painting, carpentry, and general repair
34:08
Speaker 1: work for homeowners throughout the Montreal Regent. Detectives also learned
34:12
Speaker 1: that he had struggled with drug addiction during earlier periods
34:15
Speaker 1: of his life and had accumulated criminal convictions dating back
34:18
Speaker 1: to the nineteen seventies. After entering a rehabilitation program, he
34:23
Speaker 1: reportedly became involved in counselings with other dealings and addictions,
34:27
Speaker 1: and presented himself as someone who had rebuilt his life now.
34:31
Speaker 1: Because William worked as a handyman, his occupation routinely brought
34:35
Speaker 1: him to the doors of private homes, speaking with homeowners
34:39
Speaker 1: offering repair work and entering residences where all ordinary parts
34:44
Speaker 1: of his job were just exactly that ordinary.
34:48
Speaker 2: That's terrifying, and no one is any of any wiser
34:52
Speaker 2: to what his past is exactly.
34:55
Speaker 1: And as detectives compared that information with the circumstances surrounding
34:59
Speaker 1: the recent murder that they had, they recognized that his
35:02
Speaker 1: employment provided a plausible explanation for why several victims appeared
35:06
Speaker 1: to have had their doors opened willingly to an familiar man,
35:10
Speaker 1: giving him access to their home without any sort of
35:12
Speaker 1: force needed. But then the investigation took another unexpected turn.
35:18
Speaker 2: See.
35:18
Speaker 1: After seeing media coverage identifying William Patrick Feiffe as the
35:22
Speaker 1: man arrested in connection with the recent murders, the son
35:26
Speaker 1: of a woman who had been killed nearly twenty years
35:29
Speaker 1: earlier called police, and the telephone call from Hazel Scadalone's
35:35
Speaker 1: son changed the direction of the entire investigation once again.
35:42
Speaker 1: See After seeing a news report identifying William as the
35:45
Speaker 1: man who was charged with the recent string of murders,
35:49
Speaker 1: he contacted Montreal police to explain that he recognized the
35:53
Speaker 1: man immediately. See. Years earlier, he and William had played
35:58
Speaker 1: hockey together. William had also worked inside his family home
36:03
Speaker 1: as a painter and his mother, Hazel had been killed.
36:10
Speaker 1: Detectives looked into the case, and on March twenty first,
36:13
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, inside her home in the town of
36:16
Speaker 1: Mount Royal, Hazel was in fact murdered. She was fifty
36:20
Speaker 1: two years old at the time of the original investigation.
36:25
Speaker 1: Detectives had gathered extensive evidence, They had interviewed witnesses, they
36:29
Speaker 1: processed the crime scene, but despite all those efforts, no
36:32
Speaker 1: suspect had ever been identified. Her case had gone cold.
36:38
Speaker 1: Now the investigation eventually stalled out being cold like that,
36:42
Speaker 1: and it joined just a growing number of unsolved homicides.
36:46
Speaker 1: Investigators hoped advances and forensic science may one day help
36:49
Speaker 1: resolve it. But there was one piece of evidence from
36:52
Speaker 1: the original investigation that had been carefully preserved with that
36:56
Speaker 1: hope in mind. See during Hazel's autopsy, forensic pathologists determined
37:02
Speaker 1: that she had been sexually assaulted and raped before she
37:05
Speaker 1: was killed. So as part of the post mortem examination,
37:08
Speaker 1: they recovered seamen that was left behind by the attacker,
37:13
Speaker 1: and for nearly nineteen years that evidence remained securely stored
37:17
Speaker 1: while Hazel's murder remained unsolved.
37:20
Speaker 2: Okay, that's disgusting though that he was basically the acquaintances
37:27
Speaker 2: with the son. Yes, and did that to his frickin' mother. Yes,
37:32
Speaker 2: oh man, oh man, Okay, I don't know. That's that's
37:36
Speaker 2: really bad.
37:38
Speaker 1: By the time the investigators reopened the case in the
37:40
Speaker 1: year two thousand, forensic science had advanced dramatically. DNA profiling
37:46
Speaker 1: was becoming one of the more powerful investigative tools available
37:49
Speaker 1: to police. I mean, it's still in its infancy, but
37:51
Speaker 1: it was exploding at the time. And after William's arrest,
37:55
Speaker 1: detectives obtained a DNA sample from him and compared it
37:58
Speaker 1: to the DNA that was collected nineteen years ago, and
38:01
Speaker 1: the comparison was a match. For investigators, this was one
38:06
Speaker 1: of the most significant forensic breakthroughs in the entire case,
38:10
Speaker 1: because up until that point, the known investigation had centered
38:15
Speaker 1: on the murders committed during the autumn of nineteen ninety nine.
38:18
Speaker 1: The DNA evidence demonstrated that the timeline stretched back much
38:22
Speaker 1: farther than anyone had initially believed.
38:26
Speaker 2: No shit, and how many victims.
38:27
Speaker 1: Are there now exactly? And in June of two thousand,
38:31
Speaker 1: prosecutors officially charged William with the first degree murder of
38:35
Speaker 1: Hazel Scatlan. The additional charge on top of the other
38:40
Speaker 1: ones he was already being charged with immediately raised difficult
38:43
Speaker 1: questions inside the investigation team. Though if the same man
38:47
Speaker 1: had committed murders in both nineteen eighty one and nineteen
38:50
Speaker 1: ninety nine, they needed to determine what had happened during
38:54
Speaker 1: the years in between. The detectives from Montreal Police soon
38:58
Speaker 1: began working alongside investigators from other agencies, and they started
39:02
Speaker 1: examining unsolved homicide files involving women who had been attacked
39:06
Speaker 1: inside their homes. Reports, photos, forensic exhibits, and witness statements
39:12
Speaker 1: that had remained in storage for years were now brought
39:15
Speaker 1: back out for review. Rather than assuming the cases were connected, though,
39:20
Speaker 1: investigators approached each one individually, looking for evidence that could
39:24
Speaker 1: either establish or eliminate a link. Among the first files
39:29
Speaker 1: reviewed was the nineteen seventy nine murder of Suzanne Marie Bernier. Now.
39:37
Speaker 1: Suzanne had been killed in Montreal's Curtierville neighborhood on October seventeenth,
39:43
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed
39:48
Speaker 1: inside her home. At the time, investigators had been unable
39:51
Speaker 1: to identify the person responsible, and the case remained unsolved
39:54
Speaker 1: for more than two decades. Detectives also revisited the murder
39:58
Speaker 1: of Nicole Raymond. Nicole was twenty six years old when
40:02
Speaker 1: she was found dead in her Point Claire apartment in
40:05
Speaker 1: November of nineteen seventy nine, and like Suzanne, she had
40:08
Speaker 1: been sexually assaulted and stabbed. Investigators also reopened the final
40:14
Speaker 1: of Lois Poupart LeBlanc, who was murdered in Saint Adele
40:20
Speaker 1: in September of nineteen eighty seven, followed by the investigation
40:23
Speaker 1: into Pauline Laplant, who was killed in nearby Piedmont in
40:28
Speaker 1: June of nineteen eighty nine. Both women had been attacked
40:32
Speaker 1: inside their homes, and both investigations had remained unresolved despite
40:36
Speaker 1: extensive police work. As more files were examined, detectives began
40:40
Speaker 1: recognizing reoccurring characteristics. Several victims had been living alone, there
40:46
Speaker 1: was often little or no evidence of forced entry, suggesting
40:50
Speaker 1: the offender had gained access without breaking into the home,
40:53
Speaker 1: and many of the attacks involved stabbing and Investigators also
40:56
Speaker 1: noted similarities in theft of personal property. Even so, they
41:01
Speaker 1: remained careful not to treat the similarities as proof. Every
41:05
Speaker 1: potential connection required supporting evidence before it could be accepted.
41:11
Speaker 1: The review eventually expanded to approximately eighty five unsolved homicides
41:16
Speaker 1: from Quebec and neighboring jurisdictions. Some were quickly excluded as
41:21
Speaker 1: investigators compared everything, but others remained open because available evidence
41:26
Speaker 1: was limited or had deteriorated over time. As the investigation
41:31
Speaker 1: continued into two thousand and one, prosecutors assembled what had
41:34
Speaker 1: become one of the largest serial murder cases in Quebec's history.
41:39
Speaker 1: Over the previous twenty one months, detectives had collected evidence
41:43
Speaker 1: from five separate homicide investigations, each supported by its own
41:48
Speaker 1: forensic findings, witness statements, and investigative timeline, and by the
41:52
Speaker 1: time the case was ready to proceed through the courts,
41:55
Speaker 1: the Crown believed it had built an exceptionally strong case.
42:00
Speaker 1: Binary hearing was scheduled to begin on November sixth in
42:03
Speaker 1: the year two thousand and Rather than presenting every single
42:06
Speaker 1: piece of evidence immediately in this hearing, well, it was
42:10
Speaker 1: instead intended to determine whether sufficient evidence existed to commit
42:15
Speaker 1: the accused to stand trial end well. It did. However,
42:20
Speaker 1: before the case could reach trial, the proceedings took an
42:23
Speaker 1: unexpected turn. In September of two thousand and one, William
42:27
Speaker 1: Patrick Fife entered guilty please to five counts of first
42:32
Speaker 1: degree murder. He admitted responsibility for the deaths of Anna Yarnold,
42:39
Speaker 1: Monique Gudreau, Teresa lizak Shanahan, Mary Elizabeth Glenn and Hazel Scatalone.
42:48
Speaker 1: On September twenty first, two thousand and one, William Fife
42:52
Speaker 1: appeared before Justice J. Fraser Martin of the Quebec Superior
42:56
Speaker 1: Court for sentencing. During his remarks, just Smartin reflected on
43:01
Speaker 1: the evidence that had been placed before the court, referring
43:04
Speaker 1: to the autopsy reports, crime scene photos and summaries presented
43:08
Speaker 1: by the Crown. He stated that in eighteen years as
43:12
Speaker 1: a judge, he had rarely encountered anything quite like this.
43:16
Speaker 1: He also noted that prosecutors had deliberately chosen not to
43:19
Speaker 1: present some of the most disturbing material collected during the
43:23
Speaker 1: investigation as well, though it would have been presented if
43:27
Speaker 1: it had gone to trial, which is likely why I
43:29
Speaker 1: do not know about many of the details on things
43:32
Speaker 1: like the DNA rape, sexual assault, and a few other
43:36
Speaker 1: evidence pieces that are linking things together.
43:39
Speaker 2: So he knew that he was just gone, so exactly, Yeah,
43:43
Speaker 2: they were going to find him guilty for sure.
43:45
Speaker 1: And so because of that, many of the much of
43:47
Speaker 1: the information in many of the files has actually been
43:49
Speaker 1: sealed away, so we don't know all of the evidence
43:52
Speaker 1: that has been put together to support the prosecution side
43:56
Speaker 1: of the story. He just simply, yeah, they're gonna get me.
44:00
Speaker 1: I'll plea.
44:01
Speaker 2: I know. I actually I've been watching like so many
44:03
Speaker 2: true crime shows lately, and that seems like it's sort
44:07
Speaker 2: of a piss off to families in a sense. Hey,
44:10
Speaker 2: like it's it's nice, I guess they don't have to
44:12
Speaker 2: go through like all the court system and stuff. But
44:15
Speaker 2: then it's also kind of like you don't get to
44:18
Speaker 2: maybe learn like the motive and maybe reasonings behind it.
44:21
Speaker 2: Yeah right, so yeah, for sure.
44:23
Speaker 1: I mean not that any motive or reasoning is going
44:26
Speaker 1: to make you feel any better. It's probably honestly going
44:28
Speaker 1: to anger you even more. But yeah, you don't you
44:31
Speaker 1: don't get to know. You don't have that closure of
44:34
Speaker 1: understanding at least you know what your family member, your friend,
44:39
Speaker 1: your daughter, your husband, whoever was murdered, whoever was the victim.
44:42
Speaker 1: You don't have that understanding what their final moments may
44:45
Speaker 1: have fully been like well.
44:47
Speaker 2: Because I'm assuming in this case the motive was probably
44:51
Speaker 2: financial at least to an extent. Yeah, I think you're right,
44:56
Speaker 2: sick piece of shit, but yeah, it was probably mostly financial.
45:00
Speaker 1: I think it was financial. There was probably a sexual
45:03
Speaker 1: motive there as well, because he did sexually assault a
45:06
Speaker 1: few of his victims at the very least, But I
45:10
Speaker 1: do think I agree with you. It's likely the main
45:12
Speaker 1: thing was financial, and he's going to enjoy himself along
45:16
Speaker 1: the way, whether it is sexual or whether it is
45:19
Speaker 1: also in the act of killing in itself too gosh. Now,
45:24
Speaker 1: Justice Martin, the judge, described the crimes in front of
45:27
Speaker 1: him that were displayed as a level of brutality and
45:30
Speaker 1: savagery that he had quote hardly known any parallel end.
45:36
Speaker 1: Quote Now, under Canadian law, the sentence for first degree
45:41
Speaker 1: murder has a mandatory There's no question what William was
45:45
Speaker 1: about to receive. For each of the five murders. Justice
45:50
Speaker 1: Martin imposed life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for
45:55
Speaker 1: twenty five years, calculated from the date of William's arrest
45:59
Speaker 1: on December twenty second, nineteen ninety nine. The parole dates, however,
46:05
Speaker 1: would be served concurrently, and that means that William was
46:09
Speaker 1: officially eligible for parole on December twenty second, two thy
46:14
Speaker 1: twenty four, at the age of sixty nine years old.
46:18
Speaker 1: I was unable to find any information into regards of
46:21
Speaker 1: a parole hearing even occurring, or any updates surrounding it. Now,
46:26
Speaker 1: just because it couldn't find anything does not mean a
46:28
Speaker 1: parole hearing has not occurred yet. It is possible it has,
46:34
Speaker 1: but I could not find any information, and it's likely
46:38
Speaker 1: he's still behind bars at this very moment.
46:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like that would mean that he's probably
46:43
Speaker 2: still in there, Thank goodness.
46:44
Speaker 1: Yep. Now with the sentence imposed, the criminal prosecution had
46:48
Speaker 1: effectively come to an end. Five murder convictions had been secured,
46:52
Speaker 1: and one of Quebec's most extensive homicide investigations appeared to
46:58
Speaker 1: have reached its conclusion. Yet investigators still knew there were
47:03
Speaker 1: unanswered questions. All the evidence on hand established what had
47:09
Speaker 1: happened with the murders in nineteen eighty one and again
47:12
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety nine, but those dates left nearly two
47:16
Speaker 1: decades that could not fully be explained. Although investigators had
47:20
Speaker 1: reopened older homicide finals and laid an additional charge in
47:24
Speaker 1: Hazel's Scatolean's murder. They weren't really sure that they had
47:29
Speaker 1: uncovered the full extent of William's crimes. In fact, they
47:32
Speaker 1: were almost certain they hadn't. Now after his conviction, discussions
47:38
Speaker 1: took place regarding William's transfer from a correctional institute in
47:42
Speaker 1: Quebec to a federal facility in the Canadian Prairies. During
47:47
Speaker 1: those discussions, investigators and prosecutors were presented with an opportunity
47:53
Speaker 1: to obtain answers that might otherwise never be available, and
47:58
Speaker 1: part of that process essentially saying we'll transfer you if
48:01
Speaker 1: you give us information sort of thing, William admitted responsibility
48:06
Speaker 1: for four additional murders. According to investigators, the admissions related
48:12
Speaker 1: to the death of Suzanne Marie Bernier, Nicole Raymond, Louis,
48:18
Speaker 1: Paulpard LeBlanc, and Pauline LaPlante were obtained. All four women
48:24
Speaker 1: had been killed years before the nineteen ninety nine murders,
48:28
Speaker 1: the ones that had first brought William into the attention
48:31
Speaker 1: of police. Their investigations had remained open for decades, leaving
48:35
Speaker 1: families without answers. Despite extensive police work that took place,
48:40
Speaker 1: But ultimately, though even with this confession, no additional murder
48:45
Speaker 1: charges were pursued against him. For these murders, William was
48:49
Speaker 1: already serving the maximum sentence available under Canadian law, and
48:53
Speaker 1: prosecutors knew that another trial would not increase his punishment.
48:59
Speaker 1: But that's still left investigators with a question that they
49:01
Speaker 1: could never answer completely. Had William Feife killed only nine
49:07
Speaker 1: women connected to him, had he only killed these nine
49:11
Speaker 1: that he had admitted to, or were there others that
49:16
Speaker 1: had not been solved. No evidence has established a definitive
49:20
Speaker 1: answer if there's more victims or not. Some investigators believe
49:24
Speaker 1: additional victims are very possible, but speculation could never replace
49:29
Speaker 1: anything like proof. For the families of the victims, though,
49:33
Speaker 1: the significance of the investigation reached far beyond just the proof,
49:36
Speaker 1: the speculation, or the courtroom proceedings. Anna Yarnold, Monique Gudreau,
49:43
Speaker 1: Teresa lizak Shanahan, Mary Elizabeth Glenn, Hazel Scottaloon, Suzanne, Marie Bernier,
49:53
Speaker 1: Nicole Raymond, Louise Beauparte LeBlanc, and Pauline LaPlante. Each one
50:01
Speaker 1: left behind relatives, friends, and communities that continue living with
50:05
Speaker 1: the consequences of their deaths long after all of the
50:08
Speaker 1: headlines have faded. And here we are today, more than
50:12
Speaker 1: two decades later, and the William Patrick Fife investigation remains
50:17
Speaker 1: one of Canada's most significant serial homicide cases. It's remembered
50:21
Speaker 1: not because of the number of victims or the length
50:24
Speaker 1: of time over which the crimes had occurred, but because
50:29
Speaker 1: patient investigative work, cooperation between police agencies, and advances in
50:35
Speaker 1: forensic science ultimately solved cases that once appeared destined to
50:39
Speaker 1: remain unsolved. And thanks to the work of law enforcement
50:44
Speaker 1: and those involved, the names at the center of this
50:47
Speaker 1: investigation get to be remembered for far more than the
50:49
Speaker 1: circumstances of their death. They were mothers, daughters, friends, neighbors, colleagues,
50:59
Speaker 1: and members of their unities whose lives ended far too soon.
51:03
Speaker 1: While the investigation eventually identified the man responsible, it's lasting
51:07
Speaker 1: importance lies in the determination to seek answers for those
51:11
Speaker 1: who spent years waiting to finally have the truth come
51:15
Speaker 1: to the surface. And that's the story of William Fife,
51:20
Speaker 1: aka the Handyman Killer. I'm pissed right now, I can
51:27
Speaker 1: tell because something is just really not sitting right with me,
51:30
Speaker 1: and what's that?
51:31
Speaker 2: Okay? It is absolute bullshit that he admits to more murders,
51:38
Speaker 2: but that just doesn't matter because he already has the
51:41
Speaker 2: maximum time. That is just if you like step back
51:44
Speaker 2: and think about that for a minute, that is just
51:46
Speaker 2: not okay. I know what the absolute shit is that
51:50
Speaker 2: I agree.
51:50
Speaker 1: Okay, So I have two opinions on this. My first
51:54
Speaker 1: opinion is I understand them not going through the courts.
51:57
Speaker 1: I understand them not seeking a conviction for those ones
52:02
Speaker 1: because nothing's gonna happen. He already has the maximum available, right,
52:07
Speaker 1: so there's no point putting him through the system. It's
52:09
Speaker 1: gonna waste people's time, it's gonna drag families through the
52:11
Speaker 1: mud and have to relive all this stuff. It's gonna
52:13
Speaker 1: waste taxpayers money, it's gonna clog up the courts. Don't
52:17
Speaker 1: do it. However, the law is so fucked up to
52:22
Speaker 1: the point that I'm arguing the fact that someone should
52:25
Speaker 1: not be going through the courts to get prosecuted for
52:27
Speaker 1: four additional fucking murders. That says that the law is
52:31
Speaker 1: so fucked up.
52:34
Speaker 2: That is just messed up that he was convicted for
52:37
Speaker 2: or pleaded guilty for five exactly. Yeah, I found out
52:40
Speaker 2: that he also murdered four more. Yep, and it just
52:44
Speaker 2: doesn't matter, like it doesn't matter for her sentencing whatsoever.
52:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it should You're right wholeheartedly. That is just
52:52
Speaker 1: see what I think, is he he pled guilty to
52:55
Speaker 1: five right, Yes, cable, he should go to court and
52:58
Speaker 1: be charged with the other ones and not have an
53:01
Speaker 1: opportunity to plead guilty in this one. He can plead guilty,
53:04
Speaker 1: but he's still going to get convicted according to be
53:07
Speaker 1: found guilty. I believe you should not be able to
53:10
Speaker 1: plead guilty a second time in a row. When it
53:12
Speaker 1: comes to murder, you should automatically have to go to court,
53:15
Speaker 1: and no matter if you plead guilty or not, you
53:18
Speaker 1: still go through trial. People still see everything comes to light,
53:23
Speaker 1: and they still get to convict you at the fullest,
53:25
Speaker 1: even if you are found guilty instead of pleading guilty,
53:29
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, because it's the hammer should
53:31
Speaker 1: rain down.
53:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's almost like they get to hide some of
53:33
Speaker 2: their their what would be the worst shame? Yeah exactly.
53:40
Speaker 2: But also, okay, this just doesn't make sense because Okay,
53:43
Speaker 2: I think what it is is it just they can't
53:45
Speaker 2: be they shouldn't be able to be served at the
53:47
Speaker 2: same time because someone murders one person and then they'll
53:51
Speaker 2: get like twenty five years. Yeah, but someone murders nine
53:55
Speaker 2: and they still just get twenty five years. So that
53:57
Speaker 2: just doesn't make apps. That makes no sense.
53:59
Speaker 1: I know. I agree. Concurrently, I think is absolutely ridiculous.
54:04
Speaker 2: I don't think that should be a thing. Why the
54:05
Speaker 2: fuck is that a thing?
54:07
Speaker 1: I agree now if you're sitting.
54:08
Speaker 3: Me, because really, sorry, but who are we protecting there?
54:11
Speaker 3: We're protecting the perpetrator, the murderer. Now, if you want
54:16
Speaker 3: to argue the fact that it's inhumane to have someone
54:18
Speaker 3: not be eligible for parole for in his case, if
54:21
Speaker 3: you just go with the original five, that would be
54:23
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty years. He's not eligible for parole,
54:26
Speaker 3: right or no, that's my mouth as one hundred and
54:29
Speaker 3: twenty five. Wow, I went twenty five times ten, all right,
54:33
Speaker 3: times five? So yeah, it's he's not gonna live that long,
54:37
Speaker 3: so that's inhumane.
54:38
Speaker 2: Right, I don't care. I don't agree with that exactly.
54:41
Speaker 1: But even if you want to argue that fact, okay,
54:44
Speaker 1: let's just play Devil's advocate let's say it is inhumane,
54:50
Speaker 1: there should still be additional on top. Maybe the first
54:53
Speaker 1: two are twenty five and after that it's five, So
54:59
Speaker 1: maybe he would get like sixty five years before parole eligibility,
55:04
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
55:05
Speaker 2: I don't know. Just also like watch there should.
55:07
Speaker 1: Be something more, is what I'm saying.
55:09
Speaker 2: Sorry for you, But like also watching all these these
55:12
Speaker 2: crime shows, it's kind of like going to prison is
55:15
Speaker 2: almost like a freaking vacation.
55:18
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, and you just get a slap on the
55:20
Speaker 1: wrist for murdering someone multiple times in a row, confessing
55:24
Speaker 1: to it, they find out you've murdered more, and then
55:26
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, well that's okay.
55:28
Speaker 2: Because so I think we've probably talked about this. We
55:31
Speaker 2: have to drive by a prison to get into town,
55:34
Speaker 2: and if I see any of them out and about,
55:38
Speaker 2: like there's one section it's like a basketball court and
55:41
Speaker 2: they're like playing basketball, or there's like a seating area
55:44
Speaker 2: there and that's for women, and then the other part
55:46
Speaker 2: is like for men in their gardening. I get pissed off, yeah,
55:50
Speaker 2: because I'm like I'm going to work or something and
55:53
Speaker 2: I'm like, fuck you, Like I would like to just
55:55
Speaker 2: be sitting there doing fuck.
55:56
Speaker 1: All right now, But they're out there. They're they're gardening
56:00
Speaker 1: in the sunshine or playing basketball, and I get it.
56:03
Speaker 1: It's like only a little bit of time they're behind
56:05
Speaker 1: bars more of it and stuff, and prison can be
56:07
Speaker 1: uncomfortable too, but they're getting so many amenities that are
56:10
Speaker 1: so nice, and they are treated they're treated so so
56:17
Speaker 1: good in comparison to the people that they turned into victims.
56:22
Speaker 1: Many of them are underground. The ones that are surviving
56:26
Speaker 1: are scarred for life, like you know what I mean, Yeah,
56:29
Speaker 1: it's not fair.
56:30
Speaker 2: Well, and like the victims' families, right exactly, they every
56:33
Speaker 2: day is like it's probably just a bit daunting to
56:37
Speaker 2: get out of bed sometimes because you're missing your loved
56:40
Speaker 2: one exactly.
56:41
Speaker 1: The justice system is so fucked You're right, I agree.
56:45
Speaker 1: He admitted to four more and it's like, okay, thanks
56:48
Speaker 1: for letting us know. That's all that happened. Now we'll
56:51
Speaker 1: transfer you to the prison that you wanted to go to.
56:55
Speaker 2: I don't we're like really going off here, and we're
56:58
Speaker 2: probably going to get in trouble for this, but I
57:01
Speaker 2: don't care.
57:01
Speaker 1: He killed at least at least nine people.
57:06
Speaker 2: He doesn't deserve anything no, so.
57:09
Speaker 1: He's eligible for parole right now. If he may have
57:12
Speaker 1: been granted it, we don't actually know, I know.
57:15
Speaker 2: And that's scary. And because if he didn't re commit crimes,
57:20
Speaker 2: he would have gotten away with this.
57:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, there would have been more and someone didn't find him.
57:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like the thing is, I don't know. And look
57:27
Speaker 2: at how the time span that between that, right, like
57:29
Speaker 2: that shows that he could easily just do it again
57:34
Speaker 2: if he gets let out exactly, So, I don't know.
57:38
Speaker 2: That's scary shit in my opinion.
57:39
Speaker 1: Yeap.
57:42
Speaker 2: Anyways, anyways, now we have to try to go to bed. Yeah,
57:46
Speaker 2: no kidding, like freaking, I just feel livid, honestly, I.
57:49
Speaker 1: Feel like I'm ready to fight someone, Like I want
57:52
Speaker 1: to punch this William guy square in the balls. Oh
57:56
Speaker 1: but thank you guys for being here hopefully. Yeah you
58:00
Speaker 1: enjoyed our rant at the end as well. We appreciate you.
58:04
Speaker 1: We are an independent podcast where two people with our
58:06
Speaker 1: own opinions on these cases, just like you having your
58:08
Speaker 1: own opinion. If you want to share your opinion, feel
58:11
Speaker 1: free to reach out. Check the description of this podcast.
58:13
Speaker 1: You can find our socials, find our email, find our website.
58:16
Speaker 1: You can give us a review. All these sort of
58:18
Speaker 1: things go a long way. Like I said, we're independent.
58:21
Speaker 1: Your support means the world to us. We get to
58:23
Speaker 1: keep doing this because of you, so thank you.
58:26
Speaker 2: You're awesome and until next time, stay wicked thing a
59:08
Speaker 2: b oh oh