Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / Monica Jack - Cold Case Solved 40 Years Later

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Monica Jack - Cold Case Solved 40 Years Later · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy eight, a twelve year old girl named
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Monica climbed onto her new bicycle and set off for
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: what should have been an ordinary ride through British Columbia's
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Nicola Valley. However, she never made it home. By nightfall,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: she had vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: handful of witnesses, a desperate family, and questions that would
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: haunt investigators for more than forty years. What followed became
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: one of British Columbia's longest and most extraordinary murder investigations,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: with a relentless search for the truth. Even though investigators
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: believe they knew who did it, all they needed to
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: do was prove it. But that's much easier said than done. Now,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: as the saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and in this case, they're in fact was away. And
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: ultimately it meant that some killers can, in fact, never
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: truly outrun justice. This is the story of Monica Rose Jack.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole and you're listening to Wicked
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcast.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Warning the following material intend more audience listeners. Welcome, Welcome,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and one, one, two three do I sound different. Do
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I sound weird?
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I think we sound a little bit different.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: We're on the road, we are, We're in a hotel
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: room right now, so things are a little different.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: And we're using our backup mics because they're a little
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: bit easier to take with us.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: They're more travel friendly for sure. So we brought some
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: gear made sure we're recording, but it's not our normal
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: gear and certainly not our normal location.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: We might not have full control over the noise around
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: us as well.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: We'll do our best to make sure we edit it
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: out and have post production, but there might be some
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: things that sneak through, Like I don't know if you
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: can hear that right now, but that's me brushing up
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: against the core of my microphone. Yeah, so things might happen.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: We are in sun Peaks right now, which is a
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: cool ski resort mountain bike resort in southern British Columbia,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and we went golfing, been chilling. It's been a good time.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I was shooting a wedding down here, which was
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: pretty fricking awesome, and then we just turned it into
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a holiday as well and stayed
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: a couple extra days.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: We did. Now I decided, okay, well, I'm going to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: like it was your work trip, a little bit of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a holiday for us, and I turned it into a
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: work trip for myself too. So I was like, I
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: got to try and find a cool local story. And
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the one that comes to mind, of course right away
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: is the story of Ryan Stuka, who went missing in
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen from the very village that we're staying in now.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Was contemplating doing that story. However, his mom has since
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: written a book, and I think we should probably read
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: that book before we actually cover his story.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Oh one hundred percent, because if I'm being honest, that
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: case has been on my mind since it happened, Like
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I've kind of been following it. It's quite close to us,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: like it's only about six hours away, and I've always
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: wanted to do the story. But I was like, no,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: like the book needs to be read before we do.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: It, for sure. So I was then on the hunt
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: for another story in the area, and that's how I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: came across the story of Monica Jack and so I
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: spent a lot of my time well, I went pub
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: crawling and I was having drinks and I was researching
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the story. I sat in the hotel room and I
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: was researching writing while you were off shooting away. It's
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: been yeah, a good vacation slash work trip.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: So who's writing this off?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe we'll both write it off.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: The government paid for this trip, right, and is that
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: how it work?
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's exactly how it works.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: It's kind of a Shit's Creek reference.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a write off. The government writes it off.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: The government pays for it, like you don't have to
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: pay for it.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: What would be really cool, though, is that if you
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: could actually find a way to write off signing up
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: for our Patreon just like Tonya, Miss Johnny Boy, Amber Badard,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: alex A Olivia, and Kathy m have done by signing up.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that they found a way to write
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it off. If they have, let us know because we
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: will share that with the public. But they are pretty awesome.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: They signed up. They're getting the exclusive behind the scenes,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the extra episodes and complete ads free listening over on Patreon.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: So if you'd like to join them, feel free to
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: check out the description and you can sign up too.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: But if not, hey, you can just listen here with.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Us as well mm hm no, no, this is this
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: is equally maybe not quite as equally as good, but
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: pretty close.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: We make it as good as we can. Foreshit, just
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: appreciate you being here exactly. But are you ready for
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the story?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: As always? I sure am?
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: You sure are? Okay, Well, let's get into it. On
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the eastern shore of Nicola Lake, British Columbia, Canada, where
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: ranchland meets rolling hills and winding highways, life moved at
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: a very, very much so quieter pace than it did
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: in things like the cities. The small community of coulchena
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: part of the Upper Nicola First Nations near Merritt, was
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a place where children spent their days outdoors, families looked
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: after one another, and the changing seasons shaped everyday life.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: And here, twelve year old Monica Rose Jack was simply
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: another kid growing up in that close knit community. Monica
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: was the eldest daughter of Philip Jack, who worked cattle
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: alongside his brother on local ranches and Madeleine Lenaro, a
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: caring mother whose influence left a lasting impression on all
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: of her children. Together, they raised a large family of eight.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: The Jack household was rarely quiet. Brothers and sisters all
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: came and went throughout the day. Cousins were regular visitors,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and there always seemed to be something happening around the home. Now,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: many First Nations homes are like this. They're very welcoming
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: of extended family and friends. They're all treated as a
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: close knit family, no matter the distance between the relation.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Once you're welcomed into the home, you are, in fact family,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and anyone who knew Monica remembered a girl who seemed
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: comfortable wherever she went. She was outgoing, quick with a smile,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and known for a very distinctive laugh that family members
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: could still recall even decades later. Although only twelve years old,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: she often carried herself with a confidence that made people
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: assume she was much older. Standing around four feet eight
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: inches tall and weighing roughly ninety pounds, she was small
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: in stature, but she had an adventurous streak that often
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: outweighed her size. Like many children who were growing up
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: in nic La Valley, Monica loved being outside. Summers were
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: spent swimming in Nicola Lake, hiking the surrounding hills, and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: playing softball with friends. Horses fascinated her too, and whenever
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: she had the chance, she'd stop by the ranch where
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: her father worked. She wasn't afraid to get her hands
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: dirty either, and she enjoyed helping out whenever she could.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: She also had a creative side. Monica enjoyed drawing and carving,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and she was often happiest when she was making something
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: with her hands. She even had unfinished projects constantly, little
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: things that she'd be excited to show off, and then
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: soon another creative project would envelop her entire intention and
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: she'd enthusiastically be moving on to the next idea. She
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: would sing around the house, sometimes using a hairbrush as
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a pretend microphone, filling the family home with music simply
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: because it just made her happy. And much of the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: free spirit that she was school also mattered to Monica.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Two teachers described her as a good student who got
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: along well with classmates and was always willing to help
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: someone who was struggling at home. That same caring nature
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: showed itself in the way she looked after her young sisters. Liz,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: one of her young sisters in particular, shared a very
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: close bond with Monica, whether they were baking together, riding bicycles, swimming,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: or finding creative ways to earn an extra dollar or two.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: During the summer, the two spent much of their free
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: time together, and one memory remained especially vivid within the family.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: While attending school, Liz was getting bullied by an older boy,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: and before anyone else could step in, Monica stood up
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and confronted him herself, ending the incident and making it
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: very clear that no one was going to be picking
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: on her little sister while she was around.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: That is awesome at twelve years old, exactly, Yeah, taking no.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Shit, yeah, badass for sure. These were the sort of
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: things that Monica would do looking after people. It came
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: naturally to her, and perhaps that's why, even at twelve
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: years old, Monica already had an answer whenever someone asked
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: what she wanted to be when she grew up. See,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: she wanted to become a social worker, just like her mother,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't simply a child's passing dream though either.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Monica genuinely wanted to help people, and many believed she
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: possessed the kindness and empathy to do exactly that.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: The spring of nineteen seventy eight brought plenty for Monica
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to look forward to. Her thirteenth birthday was only just
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: days away, and her father had surprised her with an
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: early birthday present, which was a brand new ten speed bicycle.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: It was something that for Monica meant a new level
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: of independence. On top of it, she'd also been given
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: money to buy herself a new pair of shoes too. Now, characteristically, though,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Monica wasn't planning to spend the day thinking about only herself.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: She also wanted to pick up a belated present for
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: her sister Liz, whose birthday had also recently just happened.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: So Saturday May sixth, nineteen seventy eight began much like
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: any other spring weekend. That morning, Monica helped her mother
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Madeline in the kitchen. They baked for the family's upcoming
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: birthday celebrations, spending part of the day preparing a cake
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: while the rest of the household carried on around them. Later,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Monica changed into brown corduroy pants, a light colored floral shirt,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: and her favorite blue runners. She was about to do
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: something she'd never done before. Her mom, Madeline, agreed to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: let her ride her new bike all the way into Merit.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: For Monica, this wasn't simply just a trip to town.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: It was a huge milestone for her. She was growing older,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: proving she could be trusted. I had an eager individual
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: trying to enjoy freedom and things that came with, you know,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: coming of age. So after lunch, she wheeled her new
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: bicycle outside, said goodbye to her family, and started pedaling
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: towards the highway. The ride from the Upper Nicola area
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to Merit covered roughly twenty kilometers. It followed Highway five
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: through the Nicola Valley. Before reaching town, Monica met up
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: with her fourteen year old cousin, Debbie John, and the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: two rode the remaining distance together, chatting as they made
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: their way into Merit. Now elsewhere in town, her mother, Madeline,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: had also made the trip to Merit with Monica's younger sisters.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: There were other supplies that they needed to buy for
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the upcoming birthday celebrations, along with a few things she
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: needed for heading out on a planned fishing trip later
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: that evening. For much of the afternoon, they all carried
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: on with their plans, but as the day wore on
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and the shadows slowly lengthened across the valley, it was
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: soon time to head home. Monica and Debbie left Merritt together,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: retracing the route that they had taken their bikes on
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: earlier that day. The cousins remained together up until they
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: reached the junction near Nicola, several kilometers outside of town.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: There they stopped for a few minutes to talk before
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: going their separate ways. Debbie turned towards her home and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Monica continue east towards hers. She still had several miles
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: to ride before reaching home, but it was a route
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: she knew well. Traffic along HIGHWAI five was never especially heavy,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: so it was while it was still a hazard, but
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: it wasn't particularly dangerous by any means, and with sunset
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: still some time away, there seemed to be very little
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: reason for any sort of concern.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: At roughly the same time, Monica's mother, Madeline, and younger
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: sisters were also driving back from Merit near home. They
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: spotted Monica peddling steadily along the highway. As they passed,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Madeline slowed down the vehicle and her sister Liz leaned
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: out the window to call out to Monica so she
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: could ask if she wanted to ride the rest of
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: the way home. Monica smiled, and while she declined the ride,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: she told them she was fine. It wasn't too far home. Now,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: and she wanted to finish the ride herself. After all,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: it would mean finishing that milestone in her life without
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: any help.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: This was a big deal for her, it was, so
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: her mom accepted that answer, and she was both confident
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and proud of her daughter in that moment, knowing she
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: was about to accomplish something that actually stood in front
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: of her. And so they waved goodbye and continued on.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: But what none of them knew in those few seconds
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: beside the highway was that this would become their final
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: conversation with Monica while she was still alive now. Not
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: long afterwards, another witness noticed a young girl on a bicycle.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Monica white Cross was her name, and she lived along
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Highway five a south of a gravel pullout overlooking Nicola Lake,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and that evening she was working in her garden after
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: returning from a local hockey game when barking dogs drew
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: her attention towards the road. That's when she looked up
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and saw who she believed was Monica, or at the
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: very least one of the jack girls, riding north towards Kulchena.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: The cyclist stopped briefly near the end of a driveway,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: appearing to pause long enough to catch their breath before
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: climbing back onto the bike and continue up the highway.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Monica white Cross then returned to what she was doing,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: paying little attention after that. Then, around the same time,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: her husband, Graham white Cross, and their young son had
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: walked down towards the family boat house on the shore
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of Nikola Lake. From there, Graham noticed something that struck
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: him as unusual. A pickup truck fitted with an overcab
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: camper was parked in the gravel pullout nearby, and while
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: he watched it from the lake shore, he thought he
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: heard a faint sound of what could have been a
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: girl crying out. He looked towards a sound, but couldn't
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: see anything. Then a short time later, he watched the
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: truck pull out and leave drive south towards the town
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of Merit. From where he stood, he could only make
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: out a single man behind the wheel and elsewhere along
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: the highway. Another local resident, Michael Rose, also noticed the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: same camper. He watched it travel unusually slow before it
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: eventually pulled in to a gravel turnout beside the lake.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Another witness, a motorist named George Schumann, drove past the
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: area around the same time. He later recalled seeing the
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: camper parked on the turnout, and across the road from it,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: he noticed a bicycle lying on its side near the
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: edge of the highway. Now he just assumed a child
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: must have just simply left it where it was while
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: they were exploring, and so he continued on without worrying
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: or stopping. Each witness carried on with the rest of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: their evening, unaware that their individual seemingly ordinary moments that
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: they had just witnessed would later become some of the
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: most closely examined pieces of evidence in one of British
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Columbia's longest running murder investigations. Now, as darkness settled over
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Nicola Valley, Monica still hadn't arrived home back at the
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Jack residence. Her brothers, sisters, and cousins expected her to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: come rolling up the driveway at any moment. Minutes passed,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: then more eventually can decern began replacing patients. Something wasn't right.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Monica's mother, though, Madeleine, while she had already left for
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Stony Lake to spend the evening fishing with relatives, believing
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Monica would be safely at home returning any time, but
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: she had no way of knowing that her daughter would
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: never make it back, and when Madeleine made it back
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: from her fishing trip on the morning of Sunday, May seventh,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, she immediately panicked because Monica's bicycle wasn't
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: even outside the house when she pulled up, and none
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of the children had even seen her Since the previous evening.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Everyone in the house had gone to bed expecting she
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: would simply arrive home soon and they'd see her in
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the morning. But in the morning, Monica never returned. As
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: soon as Madeleine realized this, she wasted no time. She
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: drove into Merit and reported her daughter missing to the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: RCMP detachment directly at approximately four pm. The officer who
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: met her was Constable Martin Nichols, a young member of
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the Merit RCMP who had been on the job for
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: less than a year at this point. Constable Nichols immediately
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: recognized the seriousness of the situation, and he issued a
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: missing persons broadcast over the local radio station while he
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: began gathering what little information was available about Monica's movements
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the previous day. Now, while Madeleine was speaking with police,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Monica's eighteen year old brother, Glenn Jack, began searching the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: highway on foot. He knew the route his sister would
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: have taken home, and he walked along Highway five looking
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: for any sign he could find of her. And it
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: didn't take long for his search to quickly produce the
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: first major piece of evidence in the case. At a
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: gravel pullout overlooking Nikola Lake, Glenn found Monica's new ten
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: speed bicycle. It had been thrown down the embankment and
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: seemed to be discarded several feet below the roadway near
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the edge of the lake.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: Ool that would be a scary site, And it immediately
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: changed like the entire nature of what was going on,
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: Like it was clear at this point that Monica hadn't
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: just simply like failed to come home, like she was
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: off somewhere, because her bike is not only discarded or
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: left behind, but it's also discarded, so something it happened
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: to her.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Uh huh.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: This just breaks my heart also too, like these like
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: the witness the witness statements that you had kind of
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: talked about a little bit earlier, None of that, you know,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: on its own, would have been super red flags, like
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: none of those people did anything wrong by not like,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: no for supporting anything. Right, But then after you hear
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: about this, you're like, oh, gosh.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Well exactly like you can argue, okay, that one guy
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: thought he heard the faint scream, right, yeah.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: How many times have you gone on a road trip
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and you've seen a screaming kid in the side of
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the highway because their parents are having a hell of
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: a time?
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah right, Yeah, scream could even just been like a
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: neighbor kid or something. Or do you he lived on
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: by a lake or a.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Water of sorts, right, Yeah, sounds okay.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Sound carries really well on water, exactly.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: So you can't blame any of those individuals for thinking
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: that the situation that they just witnessed or heard or
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: anything was anything other than ordinary. Now, when Constable Nichols
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: was notified of the bike, he drove directly to the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: scene and he took with him the small detachment's only
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: camera to try and document the area. That's how small
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: this detachment is in Merit, or at least very was
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: much so at the time, still a small place, but
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: then they had one camera.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: That was it.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: He examined the embankment, walked the shoreland of Nicola Lake
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and searched for anything that might explain how the bicycle
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: had ended up there, And at that stage, investigators still
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: had no way of knowing exactly what they were dealing with.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: One possibility was that Monica had fallen or gone into
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the lake, so Constable Nichols well he searched the shoreline
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: looking for signs that she may have ended up in
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the water or even wandered away after an accident or something,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: but there was nothing to support that theory. Now, as
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: officers expanded their search, Constable Nichols spoke with a nearby
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: rancher who described hearing cries for help coming across from
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the lake the previous evening. The man also reported seeing
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: a pickup truck with a camper parked at the gravel
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: pullout around the time Monica would have been riding home. Now,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: this was the first indication that came to light that
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Monica's disappearance might have involved another vehicle of sorts, so
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: police organized ground searches along the highway and through the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: surrounding hills. Boats searched Nicola Lake while drivers examined areas
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: of the water near where the bicycle had been found.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Volunteers from the community. They joined family members too. They
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: were combing nearby fields, wooded areas, and roadside ditches, trying
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to cover a wide area, but despite the number of
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: people involved, no trace of Monica was found, at least
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: outside of her bicycle. As investigators appealed publicly for information,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: several witnesses soon came forward. What they saw would eventually
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: become central to the case. Monica white Cross reported what
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: she saw while she looked up to see the girl
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: she believed to be Monica, riding her bike on the highway.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: She watched her stop briefly near a driveway and can
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: then continue from there. And her husband Graham, while he
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: had walked to the family boat house and shortly after,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: he saw the pickup truck fitted with a camper parked
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: at the pullout by the lake and he heard what
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: he sounded to be a young girl cry out. A
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: short time later, he watched a truck leave the area
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: with what appeared to be a lone mail driver. Another witness,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Michael Rose, recalled following the camper equipped pickup truck that
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: was traveling unusually slow before pulling into the same turnout.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: George Schumann, who drove the area from the opposite direction,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: remembered seeing the truck parked with a bicycle lying on
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: its side across the highway, before continuing on without stopping.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: These testimonies began to establish a timeline placing both Monica
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: and an unfamiliar camper pickup truck at the same location,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: with a relatively short period of time in between, and
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: investigators now focus their attention on trying to identify that
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: vehicle and the driver. Now the descriptions they developed. The
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: vehicle was a nineteen seventy two Chevrolet Longhorn pickup truck
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: equipped with a security camper. The truck was a two
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: tone vehicle, primarily white or light tan, with pale green
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: coloring and featuring decoratives striping along the camper. A ladder
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: was also mounted on the rear and a boat rack
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: extended over the roof. It was honestly a very detailed description,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: which is quite lucky, and it was distinctive enough that
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: officers were confident that someone would be able to recognize it. Now.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: This vehicle description eventually led police to a man named
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Gary Taylor Handlin. Now, Gary already had an extensive history
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: of violent sexual offenses stretching back nearly a decade. At
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: this point, detectives learned that he had been traveling in
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the Merit area around the time Monica disappeared, and he
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: had owned a truck matching the witness's description. On May thirtieth,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, investigators photographed his nineteen seventy two Chevrolet
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Longhorn and the camper that was mounted on it, and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: because of the matching description and his history, they also
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: obtained a search warrant. Now inside the vehicle and among
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Gary's belongings, investigators located items they believed were potentially significant,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: including a road map of the Merit area showing that
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: he would have been potentially traveling along that route when
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Monica went missing. But although the discovery reinforced their suspicions,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: what it didn't do was provide the direct evidence needed
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: to prove that Monica had been inside his truck or
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: that Gary had committed a crime. And not long after
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Monica disappeared, Gary decided, well, he's going to get rid
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: of the truck. He transferred ownership of it and left
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: British Columbia heading for Seattle.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: This Gary guy, you can just I don't know even
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: just hearing his name, I'm like, this guy is not
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: a good guy. Something's up with this guy.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Police continued to interview him for years, even later as
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: he served a prison sentence for other unrelated violent offenses,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: but he consistently denied any involvement in Monica's disappearance. Investigators
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: were not convinced, though. They even asked him to take
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: a polygraph test, but he refused. Now by the end
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy eight, though Gary was in fact their
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: strongest suspect, but there was no evidence to support that
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: he had Monica in his truck or anything. Despite months
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: of searching, interviewing witnesses, and following leads across British Columbia
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: and even into the United States, the investigation reached a
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: point that was very familiar to many major unsolved cases.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: There was a theory, but that was about it.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: How frustrating when you're almost, like probably certain who did it,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: but you just can't get that even the tiniest piece
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: of evidence.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: To prove it right exactly. They can almost say for
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: certain he was in the area, yes, and his vehicle
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: matches the description pretty much exactly, but they can't do
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: anything more.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Than that not enough.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: It's not enough. Well not to mention he also has
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a violent history with other offenses, But I digress. Now.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: As the months following Monica's disappearance turned into years, the
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: frantic pace of the investigation gradually gave way to the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: slower reality of a cold case. For the Jack family,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: life continued because it had to, but it was never
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the same. Every birthday, every holiday, and every family gathering
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: was as it was another reminder that one chair remain empty,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: and that chair would have been where Monica would sit.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: As the years passed, the investigation itself never fully ended.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Detectives periodically reviewed the file. They interviewed witnesses again, and
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: continued to examine Gary whenever opportunity arose. He had become
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the primary suspect in Monica's disappearance, but the suspicion that
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: fell on him alone was still just not enough to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: support any sort of murder charge. Now, As I mentioned,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: shortly after Monica vanished, Gary left BC, but just over
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: three months after Monica disappeared, he committed a different violent attack.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: In August of nineteen seventy eight, while living in Westminster,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: British Columbia, Gary picked up a twenty one year old
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: hitchhiker from Quebec near Hope, b C. During the drive,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: he stopped under the pretense of taking a bathroom break
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: before dragging the woman into the nearby woods. There, he
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: assaulted and raped her before attempting to strangle her. However,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: she managed to survive. She managed to get away from him,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: reached the highway and was picked up by a passing motorist.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: But perhaps most importantly, as this was happening, someone had
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: their wits about them and they recorded Gary's license plate.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Now this attack resulted in a conviction. A judge described
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Gary's criminal record as appalling, while noting that at only
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: thirty two years old, he'd accumulated four sexual offense convictions
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: at this point, and all within the span of nine years.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Jeez, this guy shouldn't even be I was gonna say,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: like alive, Like people like this they just should not.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Like it's just too bad that they're even born. Really, yeah,
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: because their brother they just what are they offering to
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: this world? Absolutely nothing? They're making it a worse place.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: And like the fact that the girl got away is incredible,
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: and it's probably because she was well, she probably fought
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: quite hard. But she's an adult too, right, So but
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: then you think about Monica, a little girl, like she
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: doesn't have that chance to get away from him.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she's a child. Yeah, much harder to fight someone
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: like this. Absolutely, And yet this world perpetual these individuals,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: keeps releasing these individuals, yep, and they end up with
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: four sentences in nine years.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because honestly, I don't think a thirteen year old
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: girl could fight against a thirty two year old man.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: It's just there's no way.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Really, it would be very difficult. Yeah, now on this topic,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: As a result of his conviction, he was sentenced to
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: eighteen years in prison, with the sentence being later reduced
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: to only twelve years when it was appealed, and in
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: the end, he ultimately served less than ten years for
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: his crime before being released.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: That is complete bullshit. Yep, I've lost your chance. There
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: is absolutely no reason you should ever get out again.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a repeated offender, a repeated violent sexual offender. Not
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: only is eighteen years not enough time, he served almost
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: only half of it. Why, Like, I don't know, why why.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Are we, you know, giving this guy grace? He deserves
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: absolutely nothing. I don't know, And I just have to
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: say one more thing. Holy shit, sorry, getting like really
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: angry here is because you said something about like there's
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: always an empty chair at family gatherings or whatever for Monica, right, Yeah, And.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that it's a physical chair that's sitting
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: there empty, but we all like if someone's missing from
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: your family, you know there's that chair that's not put out,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: that's not filled, that it's just not there.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Well, because the thing is there was life before she
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: went missing and life after, right, and so there's like
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: a line in the sand basically, and those things you're
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: just never the same after. It's just you know, life
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: is just different and it's not going to.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Be better exactly now. For investigators working Monica's case, Gary's
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: conviction reinforced something that they already believed. Gary had repeatedly
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: targeted vulnerable young women and girls, often using his vehicle
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: to iceland isolate them before committing violent attacks. His pattern
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: of offending seemed all too consistent with the circumstances surrounding
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Monica's disappearance, and they noticed that now. While Gary was incarcerated,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: investigators continued trying to question him about Bonica, but he
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: consistently denied any involvement, but during those years, forensic science
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: was changing rapidly. Techniques that had been unavailable when Monica
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: initially disappeared were beginning to transform criminal investigations across North
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: America and the world alike. Detectives began to revisit older
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: evidence in hopes that advances in DNA testing might finally
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: provide the breakthrough that they needed. However, unfortunately, Monica's case
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: presented a very unique challenge. She had never been found,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: and investigators possessed very little physical evidence from the original disappearance.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: There seemed to be simply just not enough material available
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: for even emerging technology to try and answer the questions
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: that remained unresolved for so long. And then, seventeen years
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: after Monica had vanished, the investigation changed dramatically. On June second,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, forestry workers were conducting a controlled burn
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: in a remote ravine on Swakham Mountain, southwest of Merit,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: and as they worked through the area, they noticed what
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: appeared to be human remains on the ground, so they
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: immediately reported them to the RCMP. Forensic identification specialist Steve
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Gelson was called to assist with the investigation, despite even
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: being off duty that day, but he drove along Highway
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: five before turning onto a narrow mountain road that climbed
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: several kilometers into the rugged terrain. From there, investigators continued
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: on foot until they reached a small clearing where the
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: remains were discovered. The scene on hand was processed methodically.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Officers established a search grid around the area and carefully
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: exhumed the surrounding soil. Every scene shovelful of earth was
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: sifted through fine screens, while metal detectors were used in
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: hopes of locating jewelry or clothing, fasteners, or any sort
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: of objects that might help identify the victim or explain
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: what had occurred here years earlier. But the search yielded
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: remarkably little beyond the remains found. But even still, investigators
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: were only able to recover a human skull and three
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: additional bone fragments. The bones themselves had been exposed to
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: years of weather animal scavengers, and they were heavily charred
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: from the control burning, and ultimately no clothing, personal belongings,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: or identifiable possessions were found. But even with the limited
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: remains on hand, investigators believed they might have finally found Monica,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and confirmation would ultimately take months, but dental records and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: DNA testing were used to compare with Monica's known records,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: and nearly eight months after the discovery, investigators were finally
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: able to confirm. But the Jack family had feared for
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: nearly seventeen years. At this point, the remains on Swakham
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Mountain belonged to Monica Rose Jack.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, gosh, it's devastating, but it is I guess
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: nice that they got some of her remains back. Yeah,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: it's also quite impressive they were even able to tell
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: after that long. I know, and like in the nineties, right,
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: like they don't have what we the technology we have today.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Now, for the first time since May nineteen seventy eight,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Monica's family knew where she was and they could finally
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: bring what was left of her home. Two days before
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: her burial, more than fifty friends and relatives hiked to
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: the remote mountain side where her remains had been discovered. There,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: an indigenous spiritual leader conducted a ceremony to help release
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Monica's spirit from the area, before the family gathered later
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: that evening to remember her through prayer, traditional drumming, and
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the singing of amazing Grace. And on the morning of
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: her funeral, an unusually heavy frost coated the ground, and
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: before Monica could be laid to rest beside generations of
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: her family, her father lit a fire to thaw the
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: frozen earth where his oldest daughter would finally be laid
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: to rest. At that moment, after seventeen years, Monica had
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: officially come home. At the same time, investigators could now
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: say with certainty that Monica had not simply disappeared that
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: fateful day. Instead, she had been taken and she had
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: been murdered. But they still could not do the one
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: thing they needed to do, and that was prove who
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: had killed her. But despite that, detectives still had Gary
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: as the obvious suspect in mind. His history of violent
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: sexual offenses was well documented, which included a conviction of
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: abducting a seventeen year old girl at knife point before
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: sexually assaulting her. Then two years later he kidnap an
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: eighteen year old woman, again using a knife before sexually
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: assaulting her in a secluded area. Then, of course, after
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Monica disappeared, he had attacked and attempted to kill another
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: young woman near Hope all in all, the similarities between
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: those crimes and circumstances surrounding Monica's disappearance, while they were
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: extremely difficult for investigators to ignore, because Gary reportedly used
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: his vehicle to isolate these victims, then he committed the
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: violent sexual assaults in remote locations, and he even demonstrated
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: a willingness to kill to avoid being identified. His vehicle
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: seemed to be identified, and Monica's remains were found in
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: a way that repeated this pattern. Yet there was still,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: among all of this another investigation that continued to shadow
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: him as well. In September of nineteen seventy five, just
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: three years before Monica disappeared, eleven year old Catherine Mary
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Herbert vanished while walking the fire a few hundred meters
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: to her home near Abbotsford, British Columbia. Her body had
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: been discovered weeks later on the Martskui First Nation burial grounds. Gary,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: as a result, had been questioned extensively in that investigation
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: after police learned that he had been spending time at
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: the Herbert family home while dating a sixteen year old
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: girl who had been taken in by Catherine Mary's mother,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: So detectives considered him a very strong suspect, but like
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Monica's case, there was simply not enough evidence to proceed
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: with charges. Now, the two investigations developed on their own independently,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Yet many investigators saw the parallels and believed they were
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: looking at the very same offender. But despite those suspicions,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: the evidence against Gary it was just circumstantially at best.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Witnesses had described the camper equipped pickup truck that closely
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: matched Gary's nineteen seventy two Chevrolet Longhorn, but beyond that
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: there was nothing, no definitive eyewitness, no fingerprint or biological evidence,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: and no confession. Then, nearly three decades after Monica disappeared,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: investigators launched a new initiative aimed at solving a series
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: of unsolved murders and disappearances involving young women in British
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Columbia see In two thousand and seven, the RCMP created
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Project Epana, initially focusing on women who had disappeared or
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: been murdered along Highway sixteen, a corridor that had become
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: internationally known as the Highway of Tears in northern British Columbia.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: And it starts in our hometown and Prince George in fact,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: and as investigators reviewed these other unsolved cases, Monica's murder
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: was added to that project. Although she had disappeared along
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Highway five A rather than Highway sixteen, her case fit
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: the broader pattern investigators were examining. She was a young
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: female victim who vanished near a rural highway, with evidence
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: suggesting she had been abducted by a passing motorist. But
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: before adding Monica's file, investigators met with Madeline, Monica's mother
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: and asked for her permission to include her, which she
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: immediately agreed, believing that any renewed attention offered the best
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: chance of finally identifying the person responsible for her daughter's murder. Now,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: this move brought both fresh resources and a new investigative team.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Detectives reviewed every single witness statement collected since nineteen seventy eight.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: They re examined physical evidence using modern forensic techniques. They
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: retraced Gary's movements before and after Monica's disappearance, and conducted
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: hundreds of investigative tasks that had not been possible during
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: the original investigation. They also reinterviewed witnesses, reconstructed timelines, compared
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Monica's case to other unsolved investigations and explored every reasonable
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: avenue that might produce new evidence. But despite the enormous
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: amount of work, investigators continued reaching the same conclusion as before.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Everything they had pointed towards Gary Handlin, but nothing proved it.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: By the early twenty tens, after more than thirty years,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: all the conventional investigative methods that had been done were
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: all exhausted, and the passage of time had now worked
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: against them, as the memories were faded, witnesses had passed away,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and much of the physical evidence that might have once
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: existed had disappeared forever. If the case was ever going
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: to be solved, investigators would likely need the one piece
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of evidence they had never been able to obtain. They
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: needed Gary himself to tell them directly what had happened.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: They needed a confession. Realization ultimately led RCMP to authorize
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: one of the most ambitious undercover operations ever undertaken in
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Canadian cold case investigations, and so the RCMP authorized an
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: undercover quote Mister Big operation, which is one of the
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: most resource intensive investigation techniques available to Canadian police. The
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: strategy was first developed in the early nineteen nineties and
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: It was designed for cases where investigators believed a suspect
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: was guilty but lacked sufficient evidence to secure a conviction.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Rather than confronting a suspect directly, undercover officers gradually were
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: going to build a fictional criminal organization around the suspect,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: hoping to gain their trust over months of carefully orchestrated interactions. Then,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: eventually the suspect would be introduced to the organization's supposed leader,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: known simply as mister Big, who would then present them
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: with a problem that could only be resolved by the
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: suspect telling the truth. Okay, this is freaking awesome.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I was sitting here, I'm like, there's just
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: no way that he's just going to ever confess after
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: this long, right, Like, that's just not something that we
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: can expect from him, and rightfully so, because he's a
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: piece of shit. But like they are putting every freaking
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: effort that they can into, you know, trying to get
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: this guy convicted.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Well that's the thing. I'm not saying he's going to
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: give a confession or anything. I mean, maybe I'll say it,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: maybe i won't, but I'm not saying it yet. But
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: the thing is at least the RCMP. They're putting in
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: what they need to to try and bring him down.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because like you said, this would not be
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: an easy task.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: No, and in all honesty, this probably wouldn't have happened
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: if Monica's case wasn't added to the EPANA project, which
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: is okay, massive, Okay, So once getting added to that project,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: that's where you know, they got the whole whole plethora
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: of new investigators, new techniques and stuff having focused on
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: this case, and then they realized, you know what, we
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: need to put more to this case, whether it's funding,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: whether it's efforts, and they kept pushing it further and further.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: So that's the progression of her story. It may be
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: taking years at this point, but it's every single one
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: involved in the investigation. They're not letting it go and
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: they're pushing it to the next step even though they
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: have no evidence. Even though they have no proof, they
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: know they need to keep pushing and trying.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, they got to get this guy off the
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: freaking streets here. And this case does kind of just
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: seem like it's firing me up because, like you said,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: the high wave tiers starts in Prince George, like, we're
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: just so this stuff is just so I don't know,
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: in the forefront of like our community, and it just
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: happening so often where people are going missing and stuff,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: and it's just bullshit. Yeah, it's complete bullshit, unnecessary and
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: this does not need to be happening.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Well, And one thing that many people don't really understand
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: when talking about stories of like Monica, when you're talking
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: about these highways around Merit where she lived, and the
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Highway of Tears, these are very barren highways. You can
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: you can drive one hundred kilometers an hour, so you're
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: driving one hundred klometers and not hit a single town
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: for an hour. Yeah, there's nothing in those areas. There's
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: no cell service, there's no way of communicating.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: Well, like back then, like with Monica, what didn't necessarily
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: matter but matters.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Sorry, Like even today there's like cell service in these places.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: So if you are a single individual, a single woman
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: who say, for example, your vehicle breaks down and you
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: are walking to the nearest town and there is someone
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: who decides that they're going to, oh, offer you a
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: safe fry to the next town, and they have very
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: ill intentions, there's not much you can do.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: It's terrifying.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: And this also brings up the idea of many of
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: the First Nation's communities, the reservations out in these areas,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: they don't have that cell service, and then there's a
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: lot of things on these conversations on travel and commuting,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: and it's just this mixing pot for disaster.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty scary stuff because I mean, you get
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: yourself in a situation or you know, you're in an
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: area that's like comfortable to you, but then these fricking
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: random ass people just have like complete ill intensions of
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know, whatever they think that they're going to
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: do to you.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: It's the perfect place for these sick, fucking predators.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: By the time mister Big Operation was actually targeting Gary,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: he was at this point sixty seven years old and
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: living in a small community of Minden, Ontario, supporting himself
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: through a modest renovation business. But no matter where he
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: went or how he was living, police had him in
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: their sights and undercover operations quietly began. In November of
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, an initial undercover contact was made under seemingly
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: innocent circumstances, and over time, Gary was introduced to individuals
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: who appeared to have connections to a profitable criminal organization.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: The relationships developed gradually from there. There was no pressure
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: in the beginning, no discussion of Monica at all, and
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: no suggestion that he was even under investigation whatsoever. This
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: wasn't about putting the pressure on to try to get
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: him to talk yet. This was about building something slowly,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: and undercover officers focused on making Gary feel valued. He
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: was invited to share in meals, take part in social gatherings,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: and even have business opportunities. Small jobs from there gradually
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: turned into large ones, and each successful task seemed to
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: earn him greater trust within this false criminal organization, and
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: it also offered better financial rewards along with it too.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Gosh, this, I just have to say, this would be
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: so difficult, because you know this guy is scum, yeah,
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: and you're having to like kind of I don't know,
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: smooth him a bit and have dinner with him and
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: stuff like, Oh my gosh, I feel like I'd rather just.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Die, to be honest, Well, I honestly, I picture like
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: him going over to like some criminal organization like hideout,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: and there's like a dozen guys they're playing pool and
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: drinking and like and it's just it's it's just cops.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: That's all it is. It's cops and Gary.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you're still having to hang out.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: With this, I know, I know, but every single person
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: in that room knows, and they're there to fuck him over,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: which I love.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: Which I guess is how you're gonna get through it.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Right now, Over the course of approximately ten months, investigators
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: staged eighty two separate scenarios designed to convince Gary that
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: he was becoming an increasingly important member of a sophisticated
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: criminal enterprise. Now, the jobs themselves varied, but they were
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: deliberately believable. Gary believed he was helping things like recover vehicles,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: or collect debts, or transport contraband or cigarettes whatever, sell
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: counterfeit merchandise, even and assist in other illegal activities. But
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: of course, as we know, none of these crimes are
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: actually real. They felt real to him, and that's the
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: important part, because they all reinforced the illusion that he
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: was working alongside experience criminals. So he is say, for example,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: I'm just I don't know if this is actually a
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: situation they had happened, So I'm just going to kind
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: of make this one up off the cuff, say he
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: goes and sells marijuana. He goes along with three other
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: guys in this quote unquote criminal organization to sell truckload
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: or something of marijuana to another three or four individuals.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: He's literally riding with cops to sell marijuana to cops
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: in a fake drug operation. That's the sort of stuff
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: that's going on.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: But it's quite interesting that this is kind of the
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: means that they're using to get him, knowing that he
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: is a terrible person and that he would be alright
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: with being in something like this to benefit himself financially
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: or whatever, reasoning that he's choosing to do this, but
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: they know.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: He will one hundred percent well, and they're like things
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: that are happening, Like they're putting Gary up in hotels,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: they're taking him out for meals and paying they're driving
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: him to meetings. He's of course paid for his participation,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: like you said, made money. By the time the operation ended,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: investigators had spent nearly twelve thousand dollars directly on paying
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Gary alone. And that's not even including like the resources
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: required to coordinate the dozens of undercover officers, the surveillance teams,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: the vehicles, the equipment, the months of planning, no kidding,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: it likely would have been millions of dollars.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Now, As the months passed, Gary embraced his new role
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: and the plan was working. He spoke freely about his
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: life and often exaggerated his past accomplishments. He claimed to
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: have served with British Special Air Service commonly known as
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: the SAS, and described parachuting behind enemy lines during military operations.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: He boasted that he had supervised major oil sands projects
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: in Alberta, owned successful restaurants on Vancouver Island, and had
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: a daughter who worked as a physician. But investigators dug
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: into his history and they knew none of these stories
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: were true.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: That is, I don't know why, but like unbelievable that
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: he's just making this stuff up like this.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: They're all lies, they're fabrications, but nevertheless they reveal something
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: important about Gary's personality. He wanted these people around him
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: to see him as capable, experienced, even successful. So these
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: undercover officers never challenged any of these false tales, understanding
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: that they needed to build this trust. They're not going
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: to correct his lies. That they needed to build the trust.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: That's the object objective on hand right now. So they're
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: sitting back listening to him spill these lies and they
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: still need to feed into his ego. Now. Eventually, after
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: months of carefully cultivating this relationship, Gary was told that
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: he earned the opportunity to meet the man who controlled
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: the organization. He had earned the opportunity to meet mister Big.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Unlike the friendly associates, Gary had spent months getting to
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: know mister Big projected authority. He made it clear that
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: loyalty and honesty were expected from every single person who
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: worked with him. But during their conversations, he explained that
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: he had become aware of a very serious problem that
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: involved Gary. In this meeting with mister Big, he looked
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: at Gary and he told him that he knew police
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: were preparing to charge him with the murder of Monica Jack.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: This was the first time this name had been brought up.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: The claim appeared convincing because it was built around details
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: investigators actually already knew about Gary too this mister Big
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: told him directly that police possessed DNA evidence linking him
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: to the crime. He also claimed investigators had located witnesses
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: who could place him at the scene. Even now as
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: far as I'm aware they do not have that DNA evidence.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: They never did, and whether any of these other claims
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: were true is besides the point, because the goal here
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: was not to present real evidence. It was to convince
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Gary that the case against him at this point was
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: overwhelming and that denying involvement was no longer a realistic option.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Gary listened quietly, and then came the proposal. Mister Big
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: explained that one of his longtime associates was on his deathbed.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: He was dying, and he said, if Gary told him
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: exactly what had happened to Monica, the dying man could
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: falsely confess to the murder before he died in exchange
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: for financial support for his family. So this means the
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: blame would then be shifted to someone else and Gary
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: would then supposedly be free from prosecution.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: I am just like loving this effort.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: Right, So as far as Gary sees, this is a
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: way out, uh huh with people.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: That he, you know, thinks are like kind of shady
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: in themselves and that would help him, and like he's
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: an asset to them, so like they need him, so
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: they're going to protect him exactly.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: That's what this, mister Big operation is about Okay, this.
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: Is so smart. I can't believe this is happening.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: So if this plan was going to work, however, mister
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: Big said, the confession had to be as accurate as possible.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: He needed to know exactly what had happened, so every
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: detail that this dying man confesses to would then match
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: the evidence that police already had. Now. Gary's initial response
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: suggested that he understood exactly what was being discussed, because
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: he said quote, I'm fucked end quote. But from there
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: he didn't launch into a full confession. Instead, he attempted
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: to distance himself from what was being happening around him.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: He repeatedly told mister Big that had been very long time,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: and he claimed much of it was very difficult for
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: him to remember. At one point, he even suggested that
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: he was in a drunken stupor and insisted his memory
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: was not complete whatsoever. But rather than confronting those the
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: undercover officer or mister Big allowed Gary to continue speaking,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: occasionally asking simple questions that encouraged him to explain the
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: events in his own words, and as the conversation progressed,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Gary's accounts slowly became more and more detailed. Gary admitted
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: that years earlier, he had picked up a young indigenous
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: girl near merrit He estimated that she would have been
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: around eleven or twelve years old, and said he encountered
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: her at a turnout beside the highway. He then went
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: on to explain that the girl entered his camper or
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: he put her in there, and then he drove away
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: from the highway into the surrounding mountains. There, according to
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: his account, he assaulted and raped Monica, and when mister
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Big asked what happened afterwards, Gary said that he simply
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: quote lost it. He didn't offer a detailed explanation for why,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: but he killed her. He didn't attempt to blame Monica
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: for what happened either, Instead, he just described losing control
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: and strangling her to death. But the confession didn't end
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: there because Gary also described what he did after Monica
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: died too. He told mister Big that he removed and
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: burned her clothes before leaving her body behind a log
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: on the mountain side. Over the course of the next
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: two days, Gary continued speaking with undercover officers about Monica's murder.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: He continued to expand on his account and even agreed
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: to return to British Columbia with men he believed were
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: fellow members of this crime organization, and the purpose of
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: this trip, as it was explained to him, was to
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: make sure everyone involved fully understood what happened before the
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: fabricated deathbed confession was carried out. Now, the journey back
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: to Merit became one of the most important parts of
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: this undercover operation. Accompanied by three undercover officers, Gary revisited
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: the Nicola Valley area for the first time in so
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: many years. He directed them to the general area where
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: he said he encountered Monica, and later attempted to retrace
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: the route he claimed he had driven after leaving the highway.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Now more than three decades had passed since the murder,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: though roads had changed, vegetation had reclaimed much of the landscape,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: and many landmarks were no longer looked at in the
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: way that you had seen it in the nineteen seventies.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: Gary was unfortunately unable to identify precise locations with complete accuracy,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: but investigators were not expecting a perfect recollection after thirty
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: six years. Instead, they were interested in whether he demonstrated
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: knowledge that would be difficult for an uninvolved person to possess.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: Throughout the reenactment, if you want to call it that,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Gary consistently guided undercover investigators back to the same area
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: that had been central to the investigation all this time.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: He identified the highway turnout where witnesses had reported seeing
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: his truck and camper, and his description of traveling the
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: mountains corresponded with a reading where Monica's remains had been
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: discovered in nineteen ninety five. Although he occasionally struggled with
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: exact roots and distances, detectives believed the overall account aligned
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: so closely with the evidence that they had developed independently
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: over the course of the investigation, and by the conclusion
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: of the operation, investigators believed they finally had what they needed.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: So on November twenty eighth, twenty fourteen, Gary Taylor Handlin
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: was officially arrested and charged with the first degree murder
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: of Monica rose Jack, and he was also charged with
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: the murder of eleven year old Catherine Mary Herbert, which
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: was another case where investigators long since considered him a
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: primary suspect.
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, right on now.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: The trial eventually began before Justice Austin Cullen in the
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court of British Columbia in October of twenty eighteen.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: A jury of fourteen people was initially selected, allowing for
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: alternate jurors to be dismissed if necessary before deliberations. Over
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: the course of the proceedings, the Crown carefully reconstructed the
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: events surrounding Monica's disappearance, beginning with her bicycle ride home
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: on May sixth, nineteen seventy eight, and ending with the
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: recovery of her remains seventeen years later. Jurors heard from
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: many of the witnesses, whose first hand accounts from the
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: day Monica disappeared had remained central from the investigation for decades.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: Former RCMP members also testified about the original investigation, outlying
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: years of investigative work that followed, including the discovery and
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: identification of Monica's remains on Swakam Mountain. But the centerpiece
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: of the Crown's case, however, remained the Mister Big operation.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: Jurors watched recordings and heard evidence detailing the undercover investigation
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: that had taken nearly a year to complete. They learned
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: how officers gradually built a fictional criminal organization around Gary
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: before introducing him to Mister Big and presenting that appearance
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: to be an opportunity to avoid prosecution through a fabricated
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: deathbed confession. But most importantly, they heard Gary's own words
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: as he admitted picking up Monica near the highway turnout,
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: about how he raped her, strangled her, burned her clothing,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: and left her body on the mountain side. Of course,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: the defense challenged the evidence aggressively. In fact, Gary's lawyers
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: argued that the confession was unreliable and should carry little
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: weight with it. They contended that he had a long
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: history of exaggerating and inventing stories about his life, pointing
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: directly at many of the false claims that he had
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: made during the undercover operation, including fabricated accounts of military service,
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: business success, and personal achievements as proof. According to the defense,
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: Gary simply told mister Big what he believed the supposed
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: crime boss wanted to hear because he feared losing the
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: financial benefits, an acceptance that came with membership in this
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: fictional organization. The defense also argued that investigators had manipulated
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: Gary into believing a conviction was inevitable by falsely claiming
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: police possessed DNA evidence and eyewitnesses capable of proving his guilt.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: In their view, the pressure created by the undercover officers
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: made any following confession inherently unreliable.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: Like honestly, I just barely can like barely can hear that?
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: Like shut the fuck up? No one cares, Like he
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: needs to just be put away?
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: How can you defend that? Honestly?
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: Like what this discumeaverse?
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Now, the Crown acknowledged that the undercover officers had
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: in fact deceived Gary. I mean, it was the very
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: nature of a mister big operation after Yeah, But they
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: argued that the value of the confession lay not in
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: the officer's statements, but in Gary's responses. Prosecutors maintained that
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: he repeatedly demonstrates knowledge of the crime that was consistent
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: with evidence developed independently over decades of investigation. They argued
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: that his admissions were corroborated by witness observations, the location
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: where Monica disappeared, the remote area where her remains were
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: eventually found, and details about the disposal of evidence that
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: had not simply been invented by investigators. And after hearing
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: weeks of testimony, the jury convened for their deliberations. They
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: considered the evidence for approximately two and a half days,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: and on January seventeenth, twenty nineteen, the jury reached their verdict.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Gary Taylor Henlin was found guilty of the first degree
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: murder of Monica Rose Jack. His sentence hearing took place
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: almost two weeks later, on January twenty eighth, twenty nineteen.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: Family members addressed the court through emotional victim impact statements,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: describing the grief that took place over decades, the unanswered questions,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: and the lasting impact Monica's murder had left on every
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: generation of the Jack family. They spoke not only about
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: the little girl who had been taken from them, but
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: about the life she never had the opportunity to live. Then,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: while addressing Gary Justin Austen Cullen imposed the mandatory sentence
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: for first degree murder, which is life imprisonment with no
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: eligibility for parole for twenty.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: Five years, which he honestly already should have had.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: I agree he should have more than that. U. Now,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: this sentence could never undo what had happened in nineteen
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: seventy eight, but it ensured Gary would remain imprisoned for
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: the foreseeable future. Now. Gary later appealed his conviction, arguing
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: that the trial judge had made several legal errors, including
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: allowing the Mister Big confession and certain witness evidence to
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: be presented to the jury. But in September of twenty
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: twenty two, the British Columbia Court of Appeal dismissed those
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: artsuments and upheld both the conviction and the sentence, bringing
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: the criminal proceedings in Monica's case to a close. For
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: the justice system. The case had reached its conclusion, but
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: it did not erase the decades that had come before it.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: More than forty years had passed between the day Monica
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: rode away from home and the day the jury found
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: her killer guilty. During that time, an entire generation of
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: her family had grown up carrying the weight of those
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: unanswered questions. Liz remembered her older sister not as the
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: victim of a notorious crime, but as the girl who
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: baked with her, swam and Nicola Lake, collected golf balls
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: to earn candy money, and never hesitated to stand up
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: for her when she was bullied. Carol spent decades working
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: alongside investigators and remained present throughout Gary Handlin's trial, refusing
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: to let her sister's case fade into history. Debbie John,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: the cousin who had ridden into Merit with Monica that day,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: carried their memory of their final conversation for the rest
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: of her life. For many members of the Jack family,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: healing came through traditional Indigenous practices, art quiet acts of
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: remembrance that honored Monica's life rather than allowing it to
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: be defined solely by the way that she died. Now,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: Monica's case had become one of the few Project Epana
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: investigations to end with a murder conviction, proving that even
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: decades old cases can still be solved through persistence and
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: advances in forensic science. Yet it's important that Monica's legacy
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: extends beyond the investigation itself. Long before she became the
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: subject of police files, court proceedings, or national headlines, Monica
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: was a twelve year old girl who loved swimming in
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: Nicola Lake, playing softball, riding horses, singing around the house,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: and dreaming about becoming a social worker one day to
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: help other people. She was the older sister who protected
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: Liz from bullies, the doc who spent the morning baking
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: with her mother, an excited teenager who just received a
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: new bicycle for her birthday, those other memories her family
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: fought to preserve through more than four decades of uncertainty.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: Justice eventually identified the man responsible for taking Monica's life,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: but it could never restore the future that was stolen
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: from her on the Spring evening in nineteen seventy eight.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: What remains now instead is the story of a little
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: girl whose family refused to let her be forgotten, and
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: whose name continues to stand as both a symbol of
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: unimaginable loss and the perseverance required to seek justice no
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: matter how many years pass. And that's the story of
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: Monica Rose Jack.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, this story breaks my heart.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: Same.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: What a nasty man. Honestly, he shouldn't even be called
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: a man. He's a fucking act.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: He's a douche canoe, a piece of shit. The list
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: goes on. Trust me, I could, I could say a lot.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: I will never understand a grown ass man thinking.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: That child is someone to pray on, Like, I don't.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: Even I'm not even gonna go there.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why I offered those words.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: It's just it's just beyond something I can comprehend.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: Honestly, it's disgusting, it's beyond disgusting. I think any adult
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: who preys on a child should never see the light
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: of day again. Period.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, do you even remember the moment I had
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: in the hotel today? Okay, Like, my brain is just
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: I just can't. So we're walking down the hallway and
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: there was like a little girl with her family in
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: her bathing suit, just walking and I was like, you
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: know what, I don't think that I could ever be
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: a mom because my brain is just like I don't
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: think I would be okay with that because there's so
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: many creeps around that I would just be like worried
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: that someone's looking at her inappropriate. Yeah, but the thing
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: is she should be fine doing she should be but
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: our world is so messed up that people have to
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: think about weird shit like that exactly. And it's just
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: I don't know, and it's exhausting to me. It's exhausting
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: to my brain. I just can't. I don't know. I
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: just wish there was I mean, I love this case
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: because I was going to say, like more we could do,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: but these people, like they did so much right to
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: get this guy behind bars, which is awesome, but it's like, God,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: why do people like this have to exist.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: I know, and the ones that do exist, they should,
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: as I said, never see the light of day. And
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: he went through so many convictions and was getting let out,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: and even still in the end with Monica's story, he
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: gets life with the possibility of parole after twenty five years.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: Imagine if he was caught immediately. Yeah, if he was
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: caught immediately, he would already be out, likely or to
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: be out, because it's it's been it's been like almost
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: forty years right in between the time that it happened
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: and a minimum sentence of our appeal twenty five years,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: So he probably would have already been out by now.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, what are we doing here? What are we protecting?
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: We're protecting the perpetrators, We're protecting the convicts were protect
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: We're protecting child fucking predators.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: Because I yeah, like the Jack family, you know, they
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: can they can only like just I don't know, I
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: don't even it's I'm so mad here, it's hard for
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: me to even to speak. But they can only just
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: like envision you know, what would have become a Monoco.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: She could have been like she already seemed like she
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: was just awesome, and she was like twelve thirteen years old.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: But like the ambition that she had and how much
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: she cared for people, and like how she would have
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: gone about, you know, helping other people who were probably
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: in like terrible situations like this but potentially and changed
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: the world, made it better.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: But instead we're left with people like fucking Gary.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, he's probably even still alive.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: I didn't even look it up because I didn't want
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: to know. I just want him to rot.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: Gosh.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: Anyways, thank you guys for being here. We get we
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: don't cover stories in northern BC, but now that we
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: are in the south of BC for a little bit
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: of a vacation, we thought we'd cover one that's in
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: the south of BC, kind of in around US and
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: still kind of close to home. And yeah, this one
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: definitely hit a spot for us. It was tough to research,
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: tough to record, and hopefully, hopefully people like Gary just
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: get put away period. And I've never had another chance
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: to do something like this because Monica deserved the world
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: and Gary deserves nothing, absolutely nothing. Fuck him. Anyways, I'm
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: just ending it on that, thank you guys for being here.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: We are recording in a little hotel vacation an on
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: location down south in the Okanagan. I'm gonna leave it there,
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: thank you. Are we in the kind of well no,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: not really almost We're in southern BC. I guess.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what is this area?
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: I'm flustered from being pissed off at Gary, so.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, well anyway, thanks for being here and uh
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 2: we'll chat with you soon and of course, until next time,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: stay wicked.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 3: An absolute oh no,