Canadian True Crime - 34 The Murder of Erin Chorney

Episode Date: November 1, 2018

Brandon, Manitoba. An independent 18 year old tells her mom she’ll be back in an hour, gets into a car, and is never seen again. Was she just out partying for several days, or was there something more sinister at play? Where was Erin Chorney?See more information on gender-based violence and where to get helpSupport my sponsors! Here's where the discount codes are:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/sponsorsPodcast recommendations:UNCOVER: Escaping NXIVM by CBCThunder Bay by CANADALAND MediaThe Secret Life of WeddingsJoin my patreon to get early episodes - without any of the ads! - and more: www.patreon.com/canadiantruecrime  Credits:Research and writing: Haley GrayVoice of Erin Chorney (in her diaries): Lisa Mark Hines from The Secret Life of WeddingsAudio production: Erik KrosbyWriting, narration and music arrangement: Kristi LeeDisclaimer voiced by the host of Beyond Bizarre True CrimeAll credits and information sources will be found on the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca.Support the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast contains coarse language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised. Erin Kristen Shawnee was born on September 30th, 1983, to parents Darcy and Debbie and Brandon Manitoba. Brandon is the second largest city in the province of Manitoba, with just short of 50,000 people. Darcy worked at Perse Cleaners and Debbie worked as a dietary aid. Erin was the oldest of three kids. Her youngest siblings were brother Ryan and sister Leslie. At around 14 years old, Erin started struggling with an eating disorder, mood swings, depression, and suicidal thoughts. She was described as very stubborn. Her parents were very careful not to

upset her, and they let her get away with a lot of things because they were afraid of her sudden mood swings. The mood swings were just symptoms of an internal struggle. At the same age, 14, Erin took around 30 Tylenol pain relief tablets in an attempt to end her life, but she told her mom who rushed her straight to the hospital. The crisis was averted, and Erin was kept in hospital for a few days so they could monitor her mental health situation. She admitted that she needed help and asked her parents to put her in a treatment center. So, she voluntarily entered the adolescent treatment center in Brandon, but she only lasted for three weeks before she got bored and escaped the center by jumping a fence.

One of Erin's friends described her as rash and unconcerned about consequences. In his book To the Grave Inside a Spectacular RCMP Sting, author Mike McIntyre described Erin's behavior as predictably unpredictable. She would often go on party binges and wouldn't tell her parents where she was for a few days, but she would always call them. Erin's friends reported that she had many positive qualities. She was described as friendly, imaginative, motivated, and supportive. They all said that she was a good listener and a good friend. Erin had a wide range of hobbies from reading and writing to sports and the outdoors. She wanted to be a writer, a counselor, a defense attorney. She wanted to stand out and began spelling her

name E-R-R-I-N with two Rs to be different. For about nine months when Erin was 15 and 16 years old, she lived with her aunt Cindy, her father's sister, in Winnipeg. Her aunt Cindy enrolled her in school for the fall semester and got her a job at a call center. But Erin eventually grew bored and started hanging with the wrong crowd, skipping school to be with them. She then dropped out all together. In 2001, at age 18, Erin attended drug treatment for her issues with alcohol and drugs, mostly marijuana. That same year, she met a 21-year-old man named Michael Bridges. They were both at the bar. Michael was there because he was dating one of Erin's friends, Liz. Michael and Liz began to have a verbal disagreement and Michael stormed off.

Erin ran after him to see what was wrong and they started talking. They connected. Before long, Michael and Liz had broken up and he was officially dating Erin. It was now heading towards the end of 2002. According to Erin's parents, their first impression of Michael was that he seemed polite and respectful. Erin was close to both of her parents. They had actually split up soon after Erin and Michael got together. But while Erin was described as a daddy's girl, she was also close with her mother, so split her time between both houses. One time, when Erin was having a personal chat with her dad,

she confessed to him about how her relationship with Michael really was. She described him as controlling, jealous and violent. He hadn't been violent towards her as yet, but would break things she owned, yell at her and embarrass her. He didn't want her to see her friends or go anywhere without him. He told her that she was the only girl to ever truly love him. It was March the 10th, 2002 and Erin and Michael had been together for around four months. At around 3 or 4 am, Erin and her friend Lindsay went over to Michael's house where he lived with his mother. While Lindsay fell asleep, Michael and Erin went into his bedroom and drank alcohol. By around 6.30 am, Michael was really intoxicated and started an argument with Erin.

The argument escalated and he grabbed her neck with both hands, got on top of her and started squeezing. Then he slammed her head against the wall several times. Erin grabbed his lip and pulled while also trying to kick him off her, but she wasn't strong enough. At this point, Erin's friend Lindsay heard the commotion from outside the bedroom and barged into the room. She punched Michael in the head and as he reeled in shock, she was able to get Erin out from under him. In retaliation, he punched Lindsay in the stomach four or five times. At this point, Michael's mum woke up, entered the bedroom and started yelling until the fight completely stopped. Michael told her that the two girls had attacked him. The girls said that no,

they were just defending themselves. Michael's mother then drove Erin and Lindsay back to Erin's father's house. Erin told her dad what happened and said she wanted to file charges so they went down to the station. Both Erin and Lindsay filed statements corroborating what each other said. Lindsay added that she noticed that while Michael was choking Erin, he said to her that he wanted to kill her. That same day, Michael Bridges was arrested and charged with assault causing bodily harm and choking someone to overcome resistance. He refused to give a statement and called a lawyer. He was released on bail two days later on the condition that he would not contact Erin or Lindsay. But despite Erin's resolve to end the relationship, she continued to see Michael for a few weeks but

things continued to escalate. One night, she was at his house and when she decided she wanted to go home, Michael got mad, shoved her outside into the freezing cold and locked the door. She was wearing only a shirt and underwear in the middle of winter. Luckily, his mum eventually let her back inside the house. Another time, Erin was at a bar with Michael and some friends when he got really angry and began dragging her out of the bar. The bouncer had to intervene and Michael got kicked out. Yet another time, Erin and her dad were eating out and Michael showed up. Erin went to leave with her dad and Michael got between them saying she couldn't leave. Erin's dad asserted that she would be leaving with him and together they were able to leave safely.

But other friends told stories of Michael calling Erin's house constantly. He would ring her for an hour straight. Finally, Erin decided she'd had enough and told him she was ending it for good. But he didn't accept that and he wouldn't leave her alone. Michael Bradley Bridges was born around 1980 to two parents who weren't married and would later separate as a couple. His father's name was Brad, a man who came from a very religious household. Michael was born out of wedlock, something that his grandparents frowned upon and caused them to keep their distance from the boy. Michael lived primarily with his mother, George Ann, but felt like he wasn't close to any of his family. He felt like the black sheep.

He did have a best friend growing up, a boy who was also his neighbour. But tragedy struck when at 13 his friend passed away from cancer. According to another friend, this death really affected Michael and for the most part he didn't like to talk about it. When it did come up in conversation, he would say he had one friend and that person ended up dying. Michael's academic prowess wasn't significant. He was kicked out of Nealon High School in Brandon for attendance issues and never got his high school diploma. According to one friend, Michael Bridges had no life goals besides to win the lottery. He didn't keep a job for long. He had worked as a meat packer, a produce grocer and a roofer among many other jobs. He loved baseball, partying, drinking,

listening to music and watching TV. When Michael was about 18 years old, he decided to live with his dad for a few months but they buttered heads and he moved back in with his mum after only a few months. Michael just couldn't seem to find his niche in life. But according to friends, he still thought very highly of himself. He thought he was attractive and a total ladies man. He liked to brag about how well endowed he thought he was. Michael's friend said he didn't ever speak about women in a respectful manner, nor did he seem to care for them. But one friend said that Michael seemed to be really smitten with Erin. She was different. At the time that he was dating Erin, Michael was living with his mother,

Jordan and much younger brother. Jordan appeared to let her older son run the house because as with Erin, he was verbally abusive towards her as well. Erin Chourney's depression seemed to be lifting a little bit after she'd made the final break with Michael. She was earning a little money working part-time at Perth's cleaners with her dad and trying to enjoy her life. She went on a bit of a partying binge with friends as she was known to do from time to time. One particularly wild time, she ended up on a First Nations reserve where she stayed for two nights. Her family was starting to become used to her taking off and not returning right away. On April the 18th, 2002, Erin spent two days partying with her friends.

As she was leaving her house with a friend, she saw Michael's car with him inside before he quickly sped off. Two days later, on April 20th, Erin was done with two days of partying and called her mom to come and bring her home. The next day, 18-year-old Erin spent a quiet family day watching movies with her mother Debbie and nine-year-old sister Leslie. The last movie they watched was Erin's favorite, The Karate Kid 3. As the family was about to eat dinner, Erin received a phone call. The call didn't last for long and then she hung up. The phone rang a second time and the same thing happened. The third phone call went a bit differently. After Erin put the phone down, she told her mom that friends were coming to pick her up to go out for a coffee

and that she would be back in an hour. Erin ran downstairs to meet her friends. Her little sister Leslie followed her and saw Erin get in the back seat of a four-door car. There were two people in the front but she did not get a good look at them. At around 2am, Erin's 16-year-old brother, Ryan, received a phone call from Erin. To Ryan, she sounded drunk and he could hear loud music in the background. Erin asked her brother if he could meet her somewhere to pick her up. Ryan said that this wasn't unusual. Erin would often call Ryan when she was intoxicated and ask him to get her, and he usually did. But this time, Ryan said no. He was busy talking to a girl he was interested in on the other line and he had school in the morning. Straight after he told her

this, Ryan heard a male voice on the other end of the phone and then the call ended. And that was the last he ever heard from his sister. When Erin didn't return that evening, her mother wasn't overly worried. Erin had done this before. She liked to party and would often stay at friends' houses. But when she hadn't called by morning to say where she was, Erin's mother started getting a little bit worried. She started calling Erin's friends to see if they knew where she was. No one knew. She talked it over with Erin's father and together they decided to hold off on going to the police. Erin had disappeared for short periods of time before, only to resurface later. Plus, she was legally an adult. What made this time different though was that she didn't

tell anyone where she was. No friends or family. They only knew that she'd gone for coffee with friends. No idea who or where. But even so, her parents felt that it was likely too early to get the police involved and in any event they were afraid that they would not take their concerns seriously. On April 27th, six days after Erin was last seen leaving for coffee, her parents went to the Brandon police to report her missing. They told police constable Mike Mallinson that Erin took antidepressants and they were worried about her not having access to medication. Her parents said that Erin had no money, no credit cards and no personal belongings with her. They also let the police know that they suspected Erin was last with her ex, Michael

Bridges, and that assault charges had been filed against him by Erin just the previous month. Police issued a press release about Erin being missing. After his meeting with Erin's parents, constable Mike Mallinson looked over the police statements that Lindsay and Erin had submitted and something jumped out at him. He discovered that Michael Bridges had entered a plea deal. He pled guilty to two of the simple assault charges that arose from his fight with Erin and was given two years of probation. He was also ordered to have no contact with Erin or her friend Lindsay and agreed to attend anger management classes and addiction counseling as well as serve 75 hours of community service.

But what made this discovery even more interesting was that Michael Bridges had only entered the plea deal just the day before, that's six days after Erin was last seen. Police and family searched for Erin. The police began their investigation by talking with Erin's friends, who all told stories about her enjoyment of partying drugs and alcohol. This fueled concerns that Erin was on a long drinking or drug binge, but so much time had passed that police had to abandon that theory. Erin's friends also told police about her ex-boyfriend Michael, about his abusive behaviour and how she'd recently tried to officially cut him out of her life.

They also told the police about how he wouldn't leave her alone. By this time, the police had enough information to bring Michael in for an interview. During his first interview, Michael confirmed that Erin had been at his house the night she disappeared. He was the one that picked her up at her mum's house after the three phone calls. They went back to his house, which would be empty because his mum and brother were out of town. According to Michael, everything was fine. Erin gave him a haircut and a massage, and then she said she had to leave as she was working in the morning. She walked out of his house at around 11.30pm and started walking down the street,

without saying where she was walking to. Michael said this was the last time he saw her. When asked about why he pleaded guilty to the assault charges, just the day before Erin was reported missing by her parents, Michael said that he just wanted to move past what he did and work on being friends with Erin. He suggested that Erin was still doing cocaine with the shady people he'd seen her with on April 18th, three days before she was last seen. Michael also told police that Erin liked attention, and that could be a reason why she was doing this. He suggested that Erin had disappeared to show her parents how mad she was, although he couldn't say why exactly she was mad at them. It was a mystery to her parents too.

They said Erin was fine with their separation, and she was still seeing them both quite often. There was no reason for her to be mad with them. In the interview, Michael seemed to have all of his answers carefully prepared, and showed no emotion as he was being questioned. The police also noticed that he spoke about her in the past tense. Body language experts later watched the tape of the interview and interpreted many of his reactions and responses as being those of someone who was lying. He was asked if he would be willing to take a polygraph test if needed. He said yes, but no polygraph test was ordered at the time. The police now had enough circumstantial evidence to be highly suspicious of Michael Bridges, but they had no real evidence or any kind of confession

linking him to the crime, so they had no choice but to release him. Straight away, he lawyer it up. Do you have a passion project that you're ready to take to the next level? Square Space makes it easy for anyone to create an engaging web presence, grow a brand and sell anything from your products to the content you create and even your time. When I launched this passion project six years ago, I needed some kind of online hub to manage all the non-podcasting tasks that come with podcasting. I chose Square Space because it's an all-in-one platform that seamlessly helps me achieve multiple goals. It's important to have a website that looks good, and I was inspired by Square Space's wide selection of clean and modern templates. They can be easily

customized with pre-built layouts and flexible design tools to fit your needs, and you can even browse the category of your business to see examples of what others have done. I used the built-in blogging tools to create a new page for each episode, and there are so many intuitive options from embedding an audio player so listeners can stream episodes to scheduling posts to be published on a certain date, an easily moderated comment section and automatically displaying recent episodes on the home page. Every Square Space website and online store includes SEO tools to help you maximize your visibility in search engines, and I love the powerful insights I can get from the analytics tools, helping me better understand who's visiting the site, where they

came from and how they're interacting with it. Do you have a passion project or business idea or something to sell? Go to squarespace.com slash ctc for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, use offer code CTC to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash ctc with offer code CTC and get your passion project off the ground today. Police continued to speak with various other people in the lives of Aaron Chourney and Michael Bridges. Aaron's brother Ryan told police that his sister told him in February, two months before she disappeared, that she was pregnant with Michael's baby. She then told her brother that she'd terminated the pregnancy, but had never told Michael. Police also spoke to a friend of Michael

Bridges called Michael Bountavy, who will call Bountavy since they both have the same first name. Bountavy said that on the day of Aaron's disappearance, Michael had asked him to call Aaron. Remember, Michael was not allowed to contact Aaron himself as a condition of his bail after pleading guilty to the assault charges. Once Bountavy had made the call and Aaron answered, Michael grabbed the phone off him, he and Aaron argued, and then the call ended abruptly. Michael asked his friend to call her two more times. As we know, the second call ended the same way. On the third call, Michael told his friend they were going to pick up Aaron at her mum's. Michael and Bountavy borrowed Michael's mum's 1991 blue Ford Taurus. Michael was driving,

even though he'd lost his license because of a DUI and other traffic infractions. After picking Aaron up from her mum's house, Michael dropped his friend Bountavy off and drove off with Aaron. His friend later took a lie detector test and passed it. Police believed he was telling the truth. And when they spoke with more of Michael Bridges' friends, they discovered that he'd asked many of them to call Aaron for him as well, and they also discovered the reason why he was so desperate to make contact. Michael wanted to propose a deal he'd come up with to Aaron, where he would pay her cash to drop the assault charges so that he wouldn't go to jail. Armed with this new information, the police interviewed Michael again.

When asked if he had anything to do with Aaron's disappearance, he gave a nonchalant, no. No matter how hard the police went at Michael, he did not budge. He told them that if he was a real suspect, they'd be searching his house right now, and they weren't. The police asked Michael if he would still be willing to take a polygraph test, and he now replied no, saying his father and lawyer had advised him against it. From this point forward, Michael Bridges was completely uncooperative with police. But the police had no choice but to keep an open mind. They wanted to fully investigate every lead, but every lead brought them back to Michael Bridges, and because they had no evidence, body, or confession, they had no choice but to keep looking. On May the 10th, 2002, about three

weeks after Aaron went missing, they searched her bedroom. They found a handwritten note. They found two journals where Aaron wrote about how Michael had an evil side. Hours after his attack on her that she eventually had him charged for, she wrote in her diary. She also wrote about how she felt bad for charging Michael with assault, but she wasn't going to let him treat her that way. She also often wrote about how much she loved and missed him. Bed soon, Lindsay's here. I'm sad because I miss Mike. The bad thing is I just charged him for trying to kill me. I still have mixed feelings. He choked me and I'm still in a lot of pain. It was so horrible. I thought he was going to kill me. Lindsay saved me completely.

Love you, Lindsay. I feel bad for charging Mike. No matter what, he will always be my best friend. I am sick. I hurt so bad inside. I keep thinking if I just waited to see him, none of this would have happened, and maybe it wouldn't have happened when I was alone and he could have killed me. Later, she wrote a letter addressed directly to him in her journal. I can't stop thinking about you. I want you to know I didn't want to charge you, but I didn't have a choice. It was also the right thing to do. I wanted you to realize how serious it was, what you did to me. When I think about how perfect we were for each other and how much I wish I could still be with you, it makes me so mad. Why did you have to ruin it?

Erin tells him that she should hate him, but instead she misses him, but reiterates that she will never let anyone treat her the way that he did. On May 23, 2002, just over a month after Erin was last seen, her parents held a press conference, pleading with her to come home if she was still out there. A week later, the police canine unit searched the area behind Michael's house but found nothing. This whole time, police were also fielding tips from people reporting sightings of Erin. By the end of May 2002, they had fielded over 160 tips. Police took every tip seriously and investigated every single one, but frustratingly, not a single one led anywhere. Throughout the search, Erin's family were keeping in constant contact with police.

Ryan, her 16-year-old brother, was not dealing well with her disappearance. He had so much guilt over being the last person to speak with his older sister and refusing to go and pick her up when she asked him to. He entered the same treatment center that Erin had been to in the past. On June 4, 2002, about six weeks after Erin went missing, police began 24-hour surveillance of Michael Bridges. But it seemed that perhaps he knew he was being watched and he just stopped leaving the house. Almost a week later, police obtained a warrant to search Michael's mum's car, the one he borrowed to get around. They believed that the crime happened in the car or he'd used it to transport Erin's body. But because Michael was under secret surveillance,

the police needed to search his mum's car without any of them finding out. So they devised a plan. They would use a pre-cut key to gain access to the car. They would take the car away from the Bridges driveway, search it quickly and then return it. If someone realized the car was missing, the police would tell the Bridges family that it had been stolen. Then the police would find the car and return it no more than 96 hours later. Luckily, no one noticed. Police tested the car for blood and cleaning chemicals. They did find blood, but it was not Erin's and they found no trace of cleaning chemicals. They now believed that Erin was not killed or transported in the vehicle. Police also did a ground search, but were more overt about this one. They didn't actually expect

to find anything. They were more focused on seeing who would show up and to provoke a later reaction that they might be able to capture on surveillance. Even though there were right there in Michael's backyard, he never came outside to see what was going on. He just waited inside, silently. On July the 10th 2002, police bugged Michael's phone, but then he didn't speak on the phone for the next week. Did he know? Seven days after the phone was bugged, police finally got a warrant to search inside the house where Michael lived with his mother. They were looking for blood and cleaning chemicals, samples of hair and fingerprints, but again they found no physical evidence. The only thing they did find was a note Michael had written containing a detailed list of

everything he told police about the night of Erin's disappearance. It wasn't physical evidence, but it might be something. Almost a month later, police searched Michael's father Brad's property with canines, but they found nothing. The police told Brad about how Michael told them he'd been advised by his father not to take a polygraph test. Brad denied this, saying that he'd never told his son that. Police had conducted a number of searches and found almost nothing, and tips weren't exactly coming in anymore. And now they needed to dedicate their resources to other cases. Then in early 2003, someone sent a letter to Erin's parents. The letter talked about how Erin was buried in a grave and how the author of the letter had tried to dick her up,

but was unsuccessful. The author also said they were sorry for what he did. Police tested the letter in envelope for DNA and fingerprints, but again found nothing. A second letter was found in a public washroom. This letter also talked about Erin being buried in a grave and was written in the first person. Police decided to put an ad in the newspaper, hoping that the author would come forward and write another letter. The ad worked and resulted in a third letter. The author stated that they'd gone by the burial site and knew that Erin was still buried there. Even though police weren't able to confirm who had written the letters, it was enough to bring their focus back to Erin's case. They were going to look at the case with fresh eyes.

At this time, Michael Bridges had moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, to get away from Brandon Manitoba. He'd been seeing a new woman named Brenda, but that wasn't going so well. He was abusive toward her as well. He cheated on her multiple times, including with her teenage sister. Back in Brandon, the police began discussing the Erin Chourney case with the RCMP. Everyone agreed that the case was solvable. They decided that it was an appropriate time to use the Mr Big Sting operation. The Mr Big Sting is an RCMP procedure that was invented in the 1990s. It relies on a large number of undercover agents and an elaborate operation that takes months to set up and execute. One key agent first spends months gaining the

suspect's trust. As the months pass, they make it subtly apparent that they are part of a large criminal organization. Before long, the suspect is brought into it and told they need to confess to any crimes so that they can move up in the organization. Often, a suspect's eagerness to move up the ranks in the organization and earn the money that comes with that will motivate them to confess to their crimes. The Mr Big Sting operation has resulted in as many as 400 arrests. It has a 75 to 95 percent success rate, but sometimes the suspect isn't guilty. And although that helps police weed them out of the suspect possibilities, the Sting operation is expensive. It costs around $150,000 per case, not including the number of existing police resources that are used.

And it's also a controversial procedure. Many countries have outlawed similar operations because they believe it's the equivalent to entrapment. Several suspects have given confessions which have been deemed to be unreliable in court. For example, when the judge believes the confession may have been coerced. For this reason, a Mr Big Sting is risky business and must be executed carefully. Not only is a goal to get a confession, but to get it under the right circumstances so that it holds up in court. For Michael Bridges, Mr Big Sting operation, the RCMP had to think outside the box. Michael was back in Brandon now, but he wasn't leaving the house, so the Sting would need to go to him or entice him out of the house. Agents knew that Michael was a huge sports fan

and had a fondness for attractive women. On September the 23rd, 2003, an attractive undercover female officer was sent to his house. She said she was doing a radio survey, and if he participated, he would be entered into a draw to win an all-expenses-paid trip to see the Calgary Flames play a home game. Michael eagerly participated. A month later, on October the 21st, 2003, this is 18 months after Erin went missing, Michael was contacted by the radio station and told that he had won the contest. While on his contest trip, Michael met other winners who were all of course undercover agents. Michael bonded with one of the winners, we'll call him Agent X, and they started hanging out a lot after the trip.

They would go to bars and strip clubs together. Michael always wanted to go to strip clubs and constantly talked about women in very vulgar and degrading terms. Agent X made sure to always have lots of cash on hand for frequent visits to the strip club, and eventually began alluding to being part of a profitable criminal organization. In early December of 2003, Michael's girlfriend Brenda found out that she was six weeks pregnant with his baby. Police were worried about his violent tendencies, so they kept a close watch on their relationship to make sure that Brenda and her baby were not hurt. Meanwhile, the Mr Big surveillance was making progress. Michael expressed interest in joining

the organization, so Agent X gave him small jobs to perform like going on ride-alongs, picking up packages and moving boxes. His first official job was on December the 3rd, 2003. Michael never questioned any of the jobs he was given, he just did what he was told, so he could stay on the organization's good side. The RCMP's plan was coming along nicely. Well, school is well and truly back, and now I have two school age kids. It's honestly overwhelming how much work it all is. They each have these little zippy bags with library books and general notices, there's forms to fill out, special colored clothes to buy, money to pay and donations to make. There's homework and two lunches to make every day. Honestly, I'm not sure how I would

manage if I didn't have Hello Fresh to rely on for most of my meals each week. Each week, I open my front door to an insulated box with the ingredients I need to cook three or four complete meals. All ingredients are pre-portioned and there's step-by-step recipe cards with pictures. Hello Fresh has been a lifesaver for my house. It's reduced the number of things I have to make decisions about, and I really enjoy cooking the meals and trying something new. Whether you have a busy household like me or just want to try some new meals, Hello Fresh has a flexible plan for you. Choose from the pronto plan, the family plan or the veggie plan for two or four people, and I have a special promo code that gets you 50% off the cost of your first box.

Just visit HelloFresh.ca and enter the code when you subscribe, crime50. That's HelloFresh.ca and crime50. Thanks to Hello Fresh and you, my listeners, for supporting the show. Sometimes during Mr Big operations, drastic things need to be done to make a scenario believable. At one point, Agent X staged the brutal beating of a female undercover cop while Michael watched to demonstrate what happened to people who lied to Mr Big. The type of attack served another purpose as well. It opened the doors for Michael to talk about violence against women. When Agent X was finished beating up the woman,

he asked Michael if the beating had shocked him. He replied that no, he would have done the same. Michael had previously mentioned his assault charges that were from an ex-girlfriend. Agent X kept trying to get him to give more details about the charges and what happened. Michael talked about how crazy his ex was, but he refused to say her name or talk about how she was now a missing person. Michael said that she had moved to Winnipeg. Agent X tried to get her name, but Michael was really good at evading questions and wouldn't say it. At one point, he even claimed that he'd never hit a woman. The charges against him were all a lie. He admitted that he thought about hitting women, but he never did because he was too pretty for jail.

After three months, Agent X convinced Michael that he had a real chance at moving up in the organization. All he had to do now was have a meeting with Mr Big and be completely honest about any criminal acts he may have committed. Agent X convinced Michael that Mr Big did not care about the things he'd done in the past. He only cared about honesty and loyalty now, and he also made it seem like Mr Big had the power to make any of Michael's criminal issues go away. In late January of 2004, Agent X told Michael that the big meeting was approaching. Mr Big wanted to meet with him to talk about Michael moving up in the organization, but first he would need to know about Michael's past crimes so he could look into them and see

what he could do to make the crimes disappear. Michael said that he'd been charged with carrying a concealed weapon that was a beer bottle, plus his DUI and the two assault charges. He didn't mention Aaron. Agent X told Michael that Mr Big would look into it. As the days passed, Agent X kept subtly showing and telling Michael that honesty is the most important factor. The corporation had seen it all already. They don't care about your past. As long as you're honest, it's okay. Agent X also made sure Michael understood that Mr Big can make crimes disappear. With the excitement of a possible promotion within the organization in the air, about a week later, Michael finally opened up to Agent X.

He said he'd once killed a girl, but it was an accident. He got into an argument with her, and she became pushy, so he shoved her. She fell, hit her head on a table, and died. Michael then took her clothes off, threw them in the trash, and because he didn't have any rope, he wrapped her hands and feet with plastic wrap and then wrapped her in a sheet. He went and dug up a fresh grave in the cemetery where his father Brad worked. Then he transported her body in his mum's car and buried her about two feet down. He did not say who the girl was, though. In an effort to get more details, Agent X asked Michael to take him to the graveyard. They went, but Michael was unable to find the exact grave. He couldn't remember the location,

or the woman's last name. He could only remember a similar sounding name. He thought the woman's last name was Brotsik, adding that he'd never told anyone this information and intended to take the secret to the grave. More details were needed on this lead, so Agent X set up another meeting with Michael for the next day, adding that the more information Mr Big had on this, the easier it would be for him to make it all go away. The next day, Michael decided to speak up a bit more about what happened. He said that he and Erin had gotten into an argument over the assault charges at around 2am. Michael grabbed her by the neck and choked her unconscious. Then he dragged her into the bathroom

and pushed her head into the bathtub. He then stripped her naked and placed her entire body in the tub. Michael said he'd cleaned her body and fingernails to remove DNA. He then wrapped her in a white sheet and went to bed. The next day, he went to the graveyard his dad worked at and picked a fresh grave to bury Erin in. He found one, dug about 2 feet down, and placed her body inside the grave of the freshly buried woman, and then replaced the dirt. He said he'd taken off all of Erin's clothes, cut them into pieces, and gradually put the pieces in the trash over time. They were all gone before the police searched his house. He buried her shoes and purse under a Christmas chimney at his house, but said police didn't find it during their search.

He said he buried or burned any remaining personal items of hers that he was left with. The police wanted to go for first degree murder charges, so they needed Agent X to iron out just a few more details to make sure they had what they needed, and they needed to get that confession on full video, not just an audio recording. So, Agent X set up a final meeting. This time, Michael was told that it would be this week that he would meet Mr Big, in person. Agent X told him to clear his schedule for the week so that he would always be free as soon as Mr Big called the meeting. Behind the scenes, police needed a few days to prepare everything. They decided to try and excavate Erin's body. If they found her body, then they would have

Michael meet with Mr Big ASAP, and if they didn't find her body, then they would need to reevaluate their plan. On the evening of February 11th, police began setting up. They used burial records to search for people who'd recently died and were buried in the cemetery around six months before Erin's disappearance. Then, they narrowed those results down to someone with a similar last name to the woman whose grave Michael thought Erin may have been buried in. Just after midnight, they jackhammed three holes around 19 inches deep. They were careful not to disrupt any possible evidence. In the third hole, they found a white sheet about two feet down. It was Mr Big time. The next morning, Agent X and Michael arrived at the Fairmont Inn in Winnipeg for their meeting

with Mr Big. Once inside a hotel room, Agent X got a call saying that Mr Big was running a few hours late. Agent X suggested that Michael go over his story one more time while they waited. Agent X had Mr Big on the phone, who first asked Michael to tell him what this girl's name was. Finally, he said it. Erin Chourney During this confession, Michael said exactly what he'd said in the last confession. He showed absolutely no emotion while telling the story, and he also added in a few more details. He said he invited Erin over to his house to just hang out. He said he never intended on killing her. He truly just wanted to hang out with her. They started drinking and arguing about

the assault charges, and things got physical. She started swinging at him, so he grabbed her neck and started choking her. He said he thought he choked her for around two minutes, but he isn't sure. He added that the adrenaline was just rushing through him. After accidentally choking Erin, Michael said that she still had some breath in her. She was wheezing. After he realized what he'd done, he said he knew he had to finish her off, because he was fucked. Even if she was only brain dead, he'd still go to jail. So he took around three to four minutes and devised a plan. He got his mum's hair dryer, cut the cord, then tied the cord around her neck for around a minute, but that wasn't working,

so he took her to the bathtub. By this time, Erin had no fight left in her, and Michael didn't even have to hold her head under the water. He said she stayed there for around 20 minutes. He said he then went to sleep, and woke up the next day looking for places to bury her. He was at the cemetery visiting his dad at work, and as he left, he saw a fresh grave. He went back that night at around midnight. The ground was hard, so he only dug two feet down. It took him around an hour to dig that grave, because he had to keep getting the measurements right. He used a piece of cardboard to level the ground so it didn't look disturbed. He said he often visited the grave to make sure nothing looked suspicious.

He would just walk by and glance at it. He then told Agent X that the reason he pleaded guilty to the assault charges, just days after Erin went missing, was so that the police would be thrown off his trail. Michael finished telling Agent X everything as a final run through for Mr Big. Police had been watching the confession on video, and knew they had everything they needed. There was no need for the appearance of Mr Big himself. As for Michael, after getting the weight of that confession off his shoulders, as he waited for Mr Big to arrive, he proceeded to provide Agent X with graphic examples of his pattern of appalling treatment of women. Officers entered the hotel room and arrested Michael Bridges for second-degree murder. He was completely shocked. He kept asking

if Agent X was a cop. Meanwhile, police treated Erin's burial site like it was an archaeological dig. They used a sifter, brushes, spoons, and more. The ground was so hard that they had to bring in boiling water to pour on the ground before they could even start removing layers of dirt. At 12.29 p.m., on February 12, 2004, police found Erin. Her remains were in pretty good shape considering the length of time she'd been buried there, primarily because her feet, hands, and head were wrapped in plastic wrap. This detail was new to police, and so was the fact that her body was wrapped up in garbage bags. The exact cause of Erin's death was all but impossible to determine. But the medical examiner was able to see that there was some discoloration

around Erin's thyroid cartilage. This could have come from choking by hands or a ligature. But it was not enough to kill her or cause serious damage. There was no damage to her organs, chest, or abdomen, and she had no blood on her brain or skull fractures. The medical examiner thought drowning made the most sense as a cause of death, but the evidence for that was inconclusive too. Overall, the medical examiner believed that if Michael's statement that Erin was still breathing after the choking was true, then Erin quite possibly could have been resuscitated. Michael was originally charged with second-degree murder, but it didn't take long for the crown to upgrade the charges to first-degree murder after all the evidence was reviewed. They got

first-degree murder because Michael did not stop after he choked Erin the first time. He could have stopped then when she was wheezing, but by his own admission he took three to four minutes to come up with a better plan to finish her off. Michael tried to make a deal with the prosecutors. He would plead guilty to second-degree murder and serve 15 years. They rejected his offer. The trial for the murder of Erin Chourney began on June 14, 2005, just over three years after her murder. The crown's theory was that Michael Bridges killed Erin because she refused to drop the assault charges against him, and also because she was adamant about ending their relationship.

The crown stated that Michael knew details of the crime that only the killer would know, for example how she died and where she was buried. In his closing statement, the crown prosecutor said, he is not too pretty to be convicted of this offense. The defense asserted that the murder was not premeditated, it was an argument gone wrong. They also stated that the police coerced Michael into telling an exaggerated story. He did not know he was being tricked. This is often one of the arguments that make the Mr Big Sting procedure controversial. But because Michael had led police directly to Erin's body, his defense knew the chances of winning were extremely low, so their goal was to get his charges reduced to second-degree murder

or manslaughter. Key undercover agent, Agent X, spent many days testifying, making it very clear that the Sting operation's only mission was to get the truth from Michael. They never wanted a coerced confession. If the truth was that Michael was innocent, then they could mark him off their list of suspects. It took the jury less than seven hours to deliberate, finding Michael Bridges guilty of first-degree murder. When the verdict was read, Michael slumped but showed no emotion. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. As for the three letters that were written seemingly from the killer about Erin's death, the police were never able to prove that it was Michael Bridges who wrote them.

He went on to appeal his conviction, arguing that he was an innocent man who was the victim of police entrapment, but his conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeals. While incarcerated, Michael has completed family violence and anger management programs while also working on his education. Although he maintains now that he is innocent, he has also indicated that he would like to take part in the future restorative justice process with Erin's family, meaning they all get together and collectively decide how to deal with the aftermath of the crime and how it impacts the future. Erin's family wants nothing to do with him. A week after Erin Chourney's remains were excavated, the 18-year-old was finally laid to

rest at a ceremony to celebrate her life. Her obituary described her as being easy going, someone who loved to laugh and enjoy music. She was someone who made friends wherever she went and had a wonderful imagination and sense of humor. While both men and women experience violence, statistics indicate that women do experience it at higher rates. 80% of intimate partner violence victims in Canada are women, with young female adults being the most at risk. And Indigenous women are killed at six times the rate of non-Indigenous women. Approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. The data shows that women are at a heightened risk of spousal homicide

after a relationship breakdown or separation, just like Erin was. If you think someone you know is being abused, please see the show notes for a link for recommended course of action. Thanks for listening. Quite a few of you have been requesting this case the last couple of months, so I decided I should probably do it. Huge thanks to Hailey Gray from the Murder Road Trip podcast for her expert research assistance again. Thanks also to Lisa Mark Hines from the Secret Life of Weddings podcast for lending her voice to this episode as Erin Chawney. I'll play you a promo for her podcast in just a minute.

In case you missed it, the brand new podcast about what's going on in Thunder Bay, Ontario is making huge waves. Episodes 1 and 2 have been described as a wild ride and harrowing, and I also had people asking me if the story was true. It is every single word. Take a listen. There's a small city in northern Ontario with the highest murder rate in the country, where the mayor is facing a trial for extortion, where nine Indigenous teenagers came from out of town to go to high school and ended up dead. I need you to know there is an activity down by the river that involves throwing Indigenous people into the river when they're too drunk to defend themselves.

Doesn't that sound like bloodshed? Don't send your kids here no more because Thunder Bay is a fucking murder city. Thunder Bay is a podcast from Canada Land Media. Subscribe now in iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. And I also wanted to recommend The Secret Life of Weddings, a hilarious podcast where two Canadian wedding photographers go over the worst wedding stories. I love these girls, and you'll recognize Lisa, who voiced Erin in this episode. A wedding guest that decided it was a good idea to dunk his entire head into a chocolate fountain, the best man who impregnated the bride, and more. Do you love dramatic dumpster fires as much as we

do? Be sure to subscribe to The Secret Life of Weddings podcast. And at the next wedding you attend, keep your eyes open for us. As you know, I'm on Twitter, Instagram, and I have a Facebook page and a discussion group. You can find them all just by searching for Canadian true crime. A huge thank you to my group moderators, the Carons and Kim, for looking after the group so well. If you wanted to send me case suggestions, the best way is to go to CanadianTrueCrime.ca forward slash submit. If you don't like the ads, you can receive early ad-free versions of my episode via Patreon for just $2 a month. Visit patreon.com slash CanadianTrueCrime to sign up. A huge thanks to these patrons for your support. Della G, Robin Water from the Trail Went Cold

podcast, Jordan P, Dan N, Ashley B, Rohit S, Cynthia C, Alex C, and the Generation Y podcast. This episode of Canadian True Crime was researched by Hailey Gray, written by me, and audio production was by Eric Crosby. Thanks to Lisa Mark Hines for her guest appearance. The host of the Beyond Bazaar True Crime podcast, Voice the Disclaimer, and the Canadian True Crime theme song was written by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back soon with another Canadian True Crime story. See you then.