True North True Crime

On the night of August 17th, 2023, three men walked out of The Curry House in downtown Owen Sound, Ontario, without paying their bill. The owner, Sharif Rahman, followed them onto the sidewalk. He was found unconscious minutes later, and he died a week later in hospital. He was 44, and he left behind his wife and their six-year-old daughter.

Sharif had come to Canada from Bangladesh by way of the United Kingdom, and he became one of the most familiar faces in Owen Sound. He cooked for fundraisers, fed health care workers during the pandemic and sat...

Some stories are too bizarre to believe. Others are too unsettling to forget.

This Halloween, we're digging into three of Canada's creepiest unsolved mysteries.

A Quebec farmhouse terrorized by an unseen presence that seemed to have a mind of its own. Eerie lights descending over a Nova Scotia fishing village, leaving witnesses shaken and authorities searching for answers. And something monstrous lurking beneath the waters off British Columbia, with a discovery that defies explanation.

Ghosts, UFOs, and creatures from the deep. Three chilling stories pulled from Canadian history, where the...

M. was thirteen when she was murdered in Burnaby’s Central Park in July 2017. Ibrahim Ali was arrested and charged with first degree murder in September 2018.

This is Part Three, the final episode in our series on her case. After eight months of trial, both sides deliver their closing arguments, and a jury decides Ali’s fate. In the days that follow the verdict, a gun is allegedly brought into the courtroom. Then comes sentencing, and the appeal that followed it, an appeal that is still ongoing.

Content warning: this episode discusses the murd...

M. was thirteen when she was murdered in Burnaby's Central Park in July 2017. Ibrahim Ali was arrested and charged with first degree murder in September 2018.

This is Part Two of our three-part series on her case. In this episode, we take you inside the courtroom for Ali's trial, which began in April 2023. We cover the evidence and testimony presented against Ali, the witnesses called and cross-examined, and a trial filled with repeated delays.

Part Three, the final episode in this series, comes out next week.

Content warning: this episode discusses...

M. was thirteen years old. She loved anime and sewing her own costumes. On the evening of July 18, 2017, she was murdered in Burnaby's Central Park. Her body was found there on July 19, 2017.

This crime shocked British Columbia and Canada. In this episode, we tell you about M. and her family, and the truth about the man arrested for this heinous crime.

What followed her murder was a massive investigation. Three hundred officers worked the case. Police looked at two thousand people as possible suspects. More than a year passed with no answers. It...

In September 1984, eighteen-year-old Shawn Reineke went to a university dance in Saskatoon. At some point that night, a group of strangers pranked him while he was passed out drunk, then left him alone in the building. Hours later, he was found at the bottom of a garbage chute, nine floors below. He died the next day.

A coroner's inquest the following year concluded it was highly unlikely Shawn got into that chute on his own. Even so, nobody was ever charged, and more than forty years later, nobody has ever explained what actually happened that night.<...

In June 2017, twenty-five-year-old Adam Cormack was shot once in the head and left near a gravel pit outside Whitehorse, Yukon. Within days, Yukon RCMP had a suspect in custody: Edward Penner. Two years later, a jury convicted Penner of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for twenty-five years.

That should have been the end of it. It wasn't. In 2025, the Yukon Court of Appeal overturned Penner's conviction, and a new murder trial was ordered from the beginning.

In this episode, we take you through...

In March 2026, four years after Anthony Primozic died in Haines Junction, Yukon, Seth Boss finally stood trial in Yukon Supreme Court on a charge of second-degree murder. Nobody disputed that he caused Anthony's death. The three-week trial came down to one question: could the Crown prove what he actually intended that night, or did his intoxication raise enough doubt to reduce the charge to manslaughter.

In part two of this two-part series, we take you through the evidence, the defence Seth Boss's lawyers built, and the verdict Chief Justice Suzanne Duncan handed down, one that left...

Anthony Primozic was 25 years old, a proud citizen of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations from Haines Junction, Yukon. By every account from the people who loved him, one of the kindest people in his community. In March 2022, he was killed in his own home by someone he barely knew.

In part one of this two-part series, we introduce you to Anthony through the people closest to him, and we follow his family through the year that came after his death, a year spent waiting, with almost no answers, for an arrest. True North True Crime w...

In July 2006, 36-year-old nurse and mother Nadine Robinson, also known in media reports as Nadine Robinson-Creary, was found murdered inside her Edmonton, Alberta home. Twenty years later, her homicide remains unsolved, no one has ever been charged, and her family is still searching for answers.

In this episode of True North True Crime, we speak with Nadine's parents, siblings, and son about her life, the events leading up to her murder, and the lasting impact her loss has had on those who loved her. This is the first time the family has shared their story in...

In March 1993, Debra Kayla Entwistle was murdered in her home in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Her former common-law partner Leonard Neveu confessed, led investigators to her remains, and admitted in an Edmonton courtroom that he killed her. He refused to plead guilty to second degree murder. The Attorney General’s office rejected a plea to manslaughter because the evidence was too strong.

Parts of Debra have never been found.

In Part Two, we follow the case through the preliminary hearing, the trial, the verdict, and the sentence. We ask the question Debra’s family has...

In March 1993, Debra Kayla Entwistle was weeks away from leaving Fort McMurray for good. She had spent years trying to escape a violent man, and she had finally done it. Her father had an apartment waiting for her in Vernon, British Columbia. She never made it.

On the morning of March 24th, her twelve-year-old daughter Stephanie left for school and made her mother's coffee before she went. When she came home at lunch, her mother was gone. What she found instead was a bloody crime scene that would change her life forever.

The...

Karen Tessier was 57 years old when she was last seen on July 9th, 2024, in Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Five days later her vehicle was found burned in a remote area outside of town. She has not been found. No arrest has been made.

In this episode we speak with Karen's mother Elizabeth, an elder of Fort Nelson First Nation, and with Connie, a community member who spent months searching for Karen and her dog Soma. Their accounts form the backbone of this episode.

The RCMP North District Major Crime Unit is treating Karen's...

In August 1982, David William Shearing murdered six members of the Johnson and Bentley families while they were on a camping trip near Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia. George and Edith Bentley, their daughter Jackie Johnson, her husband Bob Johnson, and the couple’s two young daughters Janet, thirteen, and Karen, eleven, were killed in one of the most disturbing crimes in Canadian history. Shearing pleaded guilty in 1984 to six counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for twenty-five years. In 1994 he legally changed his name to David Ennis.

In this episode, we speak with the family of missing 22-year-old Liam Toman — his father Chris, mother Kathleen, and stepmother Lara.

Liam disappeared during a ski trip to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, in the early morning hours of February 2, 2025. He was last seen walking back toward his hotel in the resort village after a night out with friends, but he never made it back. Since then, his family has been searching tirelessly for answers while navigating the unimaginable reality of having a loved one vanish without explanation.

In this conversation, Liam’s family shares who Liam...

Hours after being convicted of assaulting his wife Bailey McCourt, James Plover walked out of a Kelowna courthouse on existing bail. Within three hours, she was dead, killed in a parking lot in broad daylight in front of witnesses. She was 32 years old and a mother of two.

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on the Bailey McCourt case. In this episode we cover the July 4th attack, the questions it raised about how the justice system handles intimate partner violence, and the national push for legislative change that followed. We spoke directly with members...

Bailey McCourt was a 32-year-old mother of two from Kelowna, British Columbia. In June of 2024, her husband, James Plover, assaulted her inside their home, grabbing her by the throat and threatening to kill her. Bailey called 911.

Plover was charged with assault by choking and uttering threats. She cooperated with police, sat through a trial, and waited nearly a year for a verdict. On July 4th, 2025, he was found guilty. Hours later, Bailey was dead.

In this episode, joined by members of Bailey’s family, we tell her story, who she was, the intimate pa...

Sebastian Moore was seventeen years old when he was stabbed and killed in Terrace, British Columbia on the night of November 26th, 2023. A youth was taken into custody but after more than a year of investigation, Crown Counsel declined to approve charges, determining the incident met the legal definition of self-defence.

Sebastian was a member of Kitselas Nation along the Skeena River in northwestern B.C. His family called him Boots. He was training to become an electrician. He was an uncle. He was seventeen.

In this episode, we speak with his brother...

UPDATE: Since the release of this episode, Deeanna Erickson has been located. Calgary Police have stated that the case is non-criminal and have not released further details. Her sister has shared that Deeanna has passed away.

We extend our condolences to Shelby and to all those who knew and loved Deeanna.

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On the night of June 6th, 2025, 31-year-old Deeanna Erickson boarded a Calgary Transit bus and began travelling across the city.

Surveillance footage later captured her visibly distressed during the ride. Just after 11 p.m., the bus stop...

On December 18, 2022, a mass shooting event inside Bellaria Tower II in Vaughan, Ontario left five people dead.

Francesco Villi, a 73-year-old resident of the Bellaria condominium at 9235 Jane Street, carried out the attack after years of escalating legal disputes with the condo board. Within minutes, five residents were killed: Rita Camilleri, Vittorio Panza, Russell Manock, Helen “Lorraine” Manock, and Naveed Dada. Doreen Di Nino survived her injuries.

In this episode, we examine the timeline of the Vaughan condo shooting, Villi’s documented grievances, his final video, the police response, and the Ontario Special Invest...

In this episode, we examine the 1984 murder of 13-year-old Candace Derksen in Winnipeg. Candace vanished on her way home from school in November of that year. Weeks later, her body was discovered in a storage shed, bound and left in the cold.

We trace the investigation, the arrest and trial, and the acquittal that continues to shape how this case is remembered. Along the way, we look at how the murder impacted the Derksen family, the Winnipeg community, and the broader conversation around evidence, justice, and accountability.

Episode Update (January 2026):

In...

In the summer of 2020, 20-year-old Shane Eric James Smith vanished in Calgary. He was last seen on June 6, and within days police believed he had been shot and killed by a friend at a southeast Calgary residence.

In the weeks that followed, the Calgary Police Service charged Ian Charles Abercrombie with homicide, and two others with offences related to the handling of Shane’s body, which has never been recovered.

Abercrombie later pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death and indignity to a human body in connection with Shane’s death — a conviction that l...

In this previously TNTC+ episode, we sit down with Gillian Millam, former Metropolitan Police officer from the U.K. and current Executive Director of British Columbia Crime Stoppers. Gillian began working with Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers in 2015 and went on to coordinate one of the province’s most successful programs before stepping into her current provincial role.

We discuss how the program operates, how it has changed over time, and how it fits into community safety across British Columbia, Canada. Gillian also shares her perspective on crime trends in Canada, the realities of tip management, and th...

In July 1976, a young gas station attendant named Michael Carmen was shot and killed during a late-night robbery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His death seemed destined to become another unsolved case in a city struggling with rising crime and few witnesses willing to speak.

But one Canadian-born detective, Greg MacAleese, refused to let it fade away. What began as his search for answers would lead to the creation of Crime Stoppers, an idea that would change community policing around the world.

In recognition of Crime Stoppers Month, this episode looks back at the mu...

In this previously TNTC+ exclusive episode, we dive into the homicide case of Shabir Niazi out of Ajax Ontario. Shabir Niazi, who was 22 years old at the time, was found shot to death in the garage of a home on Roosevelt Avenue. The case drew significant attention due to a series of legal proceedings, including debates over the admissibility of certain evidence and the handling of Crime Stoppers tips. These procedural complexities, involving informer privilege and the integrity of tips provided to Crime Stoppers, played a pivotal role in the case's development​.

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Music Composed by...

On this Christmas Day episode of True North True Crime, we’re joined by Madelayne Klein and Jordan Bonaparte from The Canadian Gothic for a year-end roundtable.

Together, we reflect on the cases from 2025 that stayed with us, the shifts and trends we’ve seen across the true crime space, and how emerging tools like AI are beginning to influence storytelling and journalism. We also look ahead to what’s coming in 2026 and the stories we’ll be paying close attention to in the year ahead.

Whether you’re finishing a turkey dinner, travelling...

It was a quiet Monday afternoon in Burnaby, British Columbia, when police were called to a residential street near Alpha Secondary School. A passerby had noticed a parked vehicle and looked inside — making a discovery that would devastate two families and spark a complex investigation.

The bodies of 31-year-old Keisha Garie and 30-year-old Umair Kasim of Coquitlam were found inside that vehicle. They had been reported missing only days earlier. Within hours, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team took over, working to retrace their final movements and uncover what led to the tragic events of October 17, 2022.

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On October 3rd, 1984, nine-year-old Christine Jessop disappeared from her home in Queensville, Ontario. Her case became one of the most highly scrutinized investigations in Canadian history, marked by a wrongful conviction, decades of unanswered questions, and a search for justice that stretched across generations.

In this episode, we revisit Christine’s story and speak with Jo Virgo, Executive Producer of The Christine Jessop Story on Crave, about how her team approached retelling this case accurately and ethically.

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This podcast is recorded on the territories of the Coast Salish people.

Mu...

This episode was originally a TNTC+ bonus episode.

In April 2006, a 20-year-old man drove from Nova Scotia to Maine with a chilling plan. Armed with names and addresses from the state’s sex offender registry, he hunted down two men, Joseph Gray and William Elliott, in a series of calculated attacks. What compelled this seemingly ordinary young man to cross borders and commit such violent crimes? In this episode, we explore the events leading up to the murders, the controversy surrounding public registries, and the unsettling questions left in the wake of his actions.

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In this previously TNTC+ bonus episode, we're taking you inside a world few people truly understand — the work of cadaver search dogs and their handlers.

We’re joined by Jason McMillan, Vice President and K9 Handler with Canadian Cadaver Canines — a volunteer-based team that assists in searches for missing persons across Canada. Jason and his cadaver dog, Osiris, bring compassion, skill, and unwavering dedication to every case they work on, from wilderness recoveries to historic investigations.

This is part of our ongoing conversation series exploring the many roles involved in the search for the mi...

On a cold December night in 1962, two men were led through the echoing halls of Toronto’s Don Jail. Beneath their feet, a trapdoor waited. Minutes later, Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin became the last people ever executed in Canadian history.

In this special Halloween episode, we step back into that chilling night — and the crimes that brought both men to the gallows.

Through archival records, press accounts, and historical context, we explore how Lucas and Turpin’s deaths marked not only the end of two lives, but the end of capital punishment in Can...

Seven-year-old Wayne Mallette vanished on the deserted grounds of Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition on September 15, 1956. Within days, police zeroed in on 14-year-old Ron Moffatt, extracting a confession during a parent- and lawyer-free interrogation and securing a juvenile conviction—while the real predator, Peter Woodcock, remained free to kill again. In this episode, we trace the investigation, the tunnel vision that led to a wrongful conviction, and the 1957 courtroom turn that cleared Moffatt. 

We’re joined by journalist and author Nate Hendley, whose book The Boy on the Bicycle documents the case and its legacy in Canadia...

On the night of October 12, 1983, 17-year-old Donna Jean Awcock was babysitting for a neighbour in London, Ontario. When her shift ended, she set out for a short walk — but she never made it home.

The next morning, October 13, Donna’s body was found near the Thames River by the Fanshawe Dam. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. For forty years, her case has remained unsolved.

In this episode, we explore Donna’s life, the night she disappeared, and the investigation that followed. We also place her case within the pattern of unsolved murder...

In January 2024, 52-year-old Mathew McGrath went missing from Carleton Place, Ontario. For four months his family searched desperately, until his body was discovered in the Mississippi River that May. The coroner ruled his cause of death as drowning, but the manner was left undetermined. Police stated no foul play was suspected and considered the case closed.

For Mathew’s sister Melissa, the search for answers has never ended. In this episode, she shares memories of her brother’s life and her ongoing concerns about the contradictions and unresolved questions that surround his disappearance and death.

It was the early hours of August 3rd, 2001, in Edmonton, Alberta, when fire crews responded to a dumpster blaze behind a central apartment building. Once the flames were out, they made a horrifying discovery — the burned remains of a young woman.

For nearly two weeks, investigators worked to find out who she was. They canvassed hundreds of apartments and narrowed their search to a short list of missing women. Dental records would confirm the victim was 18-year-old Patricia Calahasen.

What police uncovered next was a story of trust betrayed, a violent assault, and a...

In October 2008, 21-year-old Dylan Koshman disappeared from south Edmonton after a late-night argument with his cousins. He left the house wearing only jeans and a t-shirt—and without his phone, wallet, or jacket—never to be seen again. Initially treated as a missing-person case, the investigation was later reclassified as a homicide. Dylan’s wallet was recovered from a neighboring yard, but no other trace of him has been found. Years later, the case remains unresolved, classified by police as suspended, with no charges laid.

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This podcast is recorded on the territories of the Co...

👉 Content warning: this episode contains audio of gunfire.

On June 28, 2022, a quiet day at a Bank of Montreal in Saanich, British Columbia, exploded into chaos when two heavily armed men stormed the building, triggering a deadly shootout with police. In the midst of gunfire, six officers put their lives on the line, displaying extraordinary bravery as they fought to protect innocent lives and bring the situation under control. But who were these men, and what drove them to such extreme violence? In this episode, we explore the harrowing details of the Saanich bank heist and the her...

In June 1959, 12-year-old Lynne Harper disappeared from the small community of Clinton, Ontario. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area near a rural concession road. What followed was one of the most infamous wrongful convictions in Canadian history.

Steven Truscott, a 14-year-old classmate, was arrested, charged with Lynne’s murder, and sentenced to death — all within weeks. For decades, Steven fought to clear his name, facing a justice system that refused to admit its mistakes. His case became a landmark example of wrongful conviction, influencing public opinion, legal reform, and how Canada hand...

After Malcolm Madsen vanished in Puerto Vallarta, his daughter Brooke began a relentless effort to uncover the truth. In Part 2 of our coverage, we trace how the case progressed within Mexico’s legal system. With key evidence—including GPS data and surveillance footage—Brooke pushes forward despite systemic obstacles. We are once again joined by journalist and filmmaker Robert Osborne, author and director of Malcom Is Missing, as we examine the investigation, multiple arrests, and the difficult pursuit of justice.

Watch the documentary on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsc8oln3yYM

Get the...

This is part one of a two-part series on the disappearance of Malcom Madsen. Malcom was a 68-year-old Canadian man who went missing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in October 2018. In this episode, we look at who Malcom was, his life in Mexico, and the night he was last seen. We’re joined by journalist and filmmaker Robert Osborne, who has investigated the case for both a book and the 2022 CBC documentary Malcom Is Missing. Malcom’s daughter, Brooke Mullins, has spent years investigating her father’s disappearance and fighting for justice in a system known for corruption and inaction.