MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Pitch Pine Crescent (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

In early spring of 2010, a 9-year-old boy living in Canada walked out of his school expecting to see someone from his family waiting outside in a car to drive him home. However, there was no one there. After waiting for several more minutes, and still no one showing up, the boy decided his family must have just forgotten about him, and so he decided he would just walk home. A little while later, this boy arrived home and saw cars in the driveway, which to him seemed to confirm that, yes, his family had just forgotten about him. And so he hustled up the steps thinking as soon as he got inside when his family saw him, he would get a hearty apology. But when the boy actually stepped inside of his house and saw his family, they didn't even look at him. They didn't talk to him, they didn't speak to him, they didn't interact with him at all. And at first, the boy was just confused – staring – but then he realized what was going on. Horrified, he turned and ran.For 100s more stories like this one, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @MrBallenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. In early spring of 2010, a nine-year-old boy living in Canada walked out of his school expecting to see someone from his family waiting outside in a car to drive him home.

However, there was no one there. And after waiting for several more minutes and still no one showing up, the boy decided his family must have just forgotten about him, and so he decided he would just walk home. A little while later, this boy arrived home and saw cars in the driveway, which to him seemed to confirm that yes, his family had just forgotten about him, and so he hustled up the steps thinking as soon as he got inside, when his family saw him, he would get a hearty apology. But when the boy actually stepped inside of his house and saw his family, they didn't even look at him.

They didn't talk to him. They didn't speak to him. They didn't interact with him at all. And at first, the boy was just confused, staring, but then he realized what was going on. Horrified, he turned and ran. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So, if that's of interest to you, one hour before the Amazon Music Follow button is set to fly to Tokyo, secretly sand off all of the magnetic strips on their credit cards.

Okay, let's get into today's story. I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No? Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? Okay, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all. But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making, with a secret he feels would ruin him if

the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wanderie Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round the world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail, almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history.

To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. On a beautiful summer day in mid-June 2009, 37-year-old Caleb Harrison walked out the door of Maplehurst Prison in Ontario, Canada. He was a free man once again. Behind him, the correctional facility where he had just spent the last three months stretched out over a total of 106 acres, one of the first so-called super jails in Canada's most heavily populated province. Still feeling like a prison guard might stop him at any moment, Caleb forced himself not to hurry as he walked towards the visitor's parking lot. Just a few more minutes, he thought, as he looked down at his watch, and his mother would be pulling into

the parking area right in front of him. And when she did, Caleb would climb into the comfortable passenger seat of the family car, and in 20 minutes, the two of them, mother and son, would be turning onto Pitch Pine Crescent, a leafy and quiet street in an affluent neighborhood of Ontario's third largest city, Mississauga. They would pull into the driveway of the airy and modern six-bedroom house where Caleb's parents, Bridget and Bill, had lived for 40 years and where Caleb, adopted at the age of six months, had grown up. Coming to a stop now, a few feet away from the curb, and willing his body to finally relax, Caleb tried to remind himself of how lucky he was. Not many of the inmates he'd met had a family that was as supportive

and financially secure as his was. Not all of them would ever stand outside like he was, knowing that they had a ride and a place to go. But despite knowing all of that, Caleb did not feel like a lucky person. He had only been an inmate at Maplehurst for 12 weeks, but during that time, his old life had taken so many twists and turns that it seemed like it had become a total thing of the past, something that felt as unfamiliar to him now as the cheap prison-issue clothes he was wearing and the sight of the open sky overhead when it wasn't circled by barbed wire and prison guards. And as Caleb stood there, holding onto his small bag of personal belongings and scanning the cars coming down the drive into the

parking lot, he thought about that decision he'd made four years ago that had landed him in Maplehurst in the first place and caused tragedy for so many people. At the time, of course, Caleb had had no way of knowing he was making the worst decision of his life. The year had been 2005 and Caleb had been 33 years old. It had been a cool and clear Friday night, the first day of July, and three of Caleb's friends in Mississauga were going to a party. Caleb had offered to go as their designated driver, the one person in the group who would not drink and who would make sure he got the rest of them home safely. and who would make sure he got the rest of them home safely. Thinking back now to that night, Caleb remembered how completely sure he had been that he wouldn't even be tempted by the alcohol,

because just a few weeks before that party, he'd been shocked to find himself locked up in jail for a few days after his wife had accused him of hitting her. Caleb, who had been drinking at the time, had told police that he acted in self-defense after his wife had come after him. He'd been released from jail, but one of the conditions of his parole was that he would not touch alcohol. After that accusation of domestic violence, both Caleb and his wife Melissa had known that their five-year-long relationship was basically over. And when the end came, it wasn't exactly a surprise.

Ever since getting married in 2002, their life together had been rocky. Caleb drank too much, neither one of them was good at managing money, and Melissa had a habit of exaggerating any drama in her life, like the time she was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst, but told Caleb she'd been diagnosed with cancer. But the one really good thing to come out of their marriage had been their two children, and Caleb had been terrified that if he violated the conditions of his parole, Melissa might not let him see their three-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. But it was just the thought of all those problems and failures that had put Caleb in such a bad mood that night all those years ago

that he decided to have just a bad mood that night all those years ago that he decided to have just one drink at that party, just to make himself feel a little bit better. And since it was only going to be one drink, he'd passed on a beer and went straight for the hard liquor. By the time the party had been over, Caleb had had nearly three times the legal limit of alcohol in his bloodstream, and he was totally deaf to his friends telling him he had no business getting behind the wheel of his mother's Mercedes car, and that there was no way they'd get in the car with him. Leaving his friends to walk home, Caleb had stumbled into the driver's seat of the powerful vehicle, turned on the engine, and made his way out onto the main road that led back to his parents' house on Pitch

Pine Crescent. Thinking back now on what happened next, Caleb gave an involuntary shiver, and despite the sun on his back, he suddenly felt ice cold. All he remembered was the dark empty road in front of him suddenly filling with the headlights of the oncoming taxi that was carrying a driver and four passengers. Traveling at 60 miles an hour, Caleb had drifted into the oncoming lane, and in a shriek of tearing metal, he had hit the other car head-on. The collision had killed the 44-year-old taxi driver. Two of his passengers made it out of the wreck with minor injuries, but the third man in the taxi had had his scalp sheared completely off of his skull, while the fourth man suffered a broken arm and a broken back. Caleb had been lucky. A passerby had dragged him out of his car just before it burst into

flames, and the worst injury Caleb suffered was a broken leg. Caleb also knew he'd gotten a sweet deal from the Canadian legal system, which was known for moving very slowly. After the drunk driving accident, Caleb had been charged with manslaughter, which is unintentional murder, but it had taken the court a solid three years to try his case. And during that time, he'd been allowed to live with his parents at 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent. And despite Melissa's objections, Caleb had also been allowed to share custody of their children, Mason and Michaela. And even though Caleb was ultimately found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the judge sentenced him to only 18 months in

prison instead of the two years that the prosecution had asked for, or the five years demanded in an online petition that was circulated on Facebook in the five years demanded in an online petition that was circulated on Facebook in the years before Caleb's trial actually took place. But the shorter sentence had come with a price tag. There had been an opinion piece that ran in the local newspaper read by nearly half a million Mississauga residents that called the 18 months nothing more than a quote slap on the wrist. And those same concerned citizens, along with the families of the deceased taxi driver and the passengers who had been injured in the drunk driving accident, were outraged all over again when Caleb had only served three months

before being released because of good behavior while behind bars. And no one had been more upset than Melissa. Caleb's decision to drink and drive proved to her that he was an unfit father. And once Caleb had been sentenced to 18 months in prison, the courts transferred his custodial rights over to his parents. By then, his parents, Bridget and Bill, were so involved in the lives of their grandchildren that Melissa felt like she was sharing custody and organizing her kids' lives around the lives of their grandchildren that Melissa felt like she was sharing custody and organizing her kids' lives around the schedules of three people and not just her ex-husband. So it was no wonder that by the time Caleb actually walked into his concrete prison cell at Maplehurst on

March 9th, 2009, there was no sign left of the young couple who had fallen in love nine years earlier. That was when Caleb and Melissa had first met while working in a store in Mississauga called My Favorite Doll. 19-year-old Melissa worked at the front counter, and Caleb, eight years older than Melissa, had worked in the huge shipping and receiving department out back. Their romance had unfolded under the smiles of hundreds of tall, slender Barbie dolls in every style and color stacked floor to ceiling all standing on long legs inside their clear plastic capsules and Melissa with her girl next door good looks and her longing to get married and start a family had

seemed as perfect to Caleb as one of those dolls except that once they had exchanged their wedding vows moved out of their parents homes and into their own place 30 minutes away, and almost immediately had their first baby, the reality that had set in for Caleb and Melissa was anything but perfect. Probably the best thing that had happened for either of them since they broke up was that Caleb had met a wonderful new woman online and they had begun a serious relationship, and Melissa had also met someone new. Caleb's girlfriend, Corinda McEwen, had two children from an earlier relationship who got along great with Caleb. Melissa and her new boyfriend, Christopher Fattore, who went by the nickname Chris,

had quickly become engaged and started a family of their own. But aside from meeting those other romantic partners, it seemed to Caleb that his life was cursed. Because exactly five weeks after he had started serving his prison sentence, he had gotten absolutely devastating news. On the cold, clear evening of Thursday, April 16th, 2009, Caleb's mother had returned home from work to find her husband Bill, Caleb's father, slumped against the wall of the downstairs bathroom, dead. According to the Peel County Medical Examiner,

the cause of death was acute cardiac arrhythmia, a rare interruption in the heart's natural rhythm that can cause sudden and unexpected death even in a person as active and healthy as 64-year-old Bill Harrison had been. Meanwhile, Caleb's ex-wife, Melissa, seeing her children's lives unraveling in tragedy, their father in prison, their grandfather now dead, had abruptly decided to take the issue of custody into her own hands. Packing up her and Chris's belongings, along with Caleb and Melissa's two children, Mason and Michaela, and the new baby that Melissa and Chris had had together, they had all simply left Mississauga behind, disappearing without a trace and telling no one where they were going. Still reeling from the recent death of her husband, when Bridget realized her grandchildren and their mother were now just gone and she couldn't get in

touch with them, she immediately filed an abduction report with Peel Regional Police. At the same time that she filed the report, she also petitioned the court for full custody of Mason and Michaela once the children were located. And then Bridget had to tell her son that not only was his father dead, but also that his children had been abducted by his ex-wife and nobody knew where they went. Still looking out over the visitor's parking area, Caleb had not even realized he was holding his breath until he saw his mother's car drive through the open security gates leading into the parking lot. Stiffening involuntarily, Caleb made another conscious effort to relax, forcing himself to take

a few deep breaths. Then he stepped off the curb and started walking towards the space where his mother had just angled the car and come to a stop. As 62-year-old Bridget Harrison turned off the car engine, opened the driver's side door, and stepped out onto the pavement

to give her only child a long, tight hug, her green eyes filled with tears. She'd still had no word from police about where her grandchildren were, and like Caleb, she was wondering just how much worse her life could get. Two months had gone by since Bill's death, but instead of time making her feel any better, each day seemed to bring a new wave of grief. Even now, holding the son she loved, Bridget doubted that she'd ever recover from Bill's death.

And it wasn't just because they had been married for more than 40 years. It was the fact that from the first time Bridget and Bill had met, working together at the Theatre Festival in Stratford, Ontario back in the early 1960s, they had formed a deep bond of both love and friendship. Bridget had been an accomplished young actress who went on to have a high-profile career in the field of education. Bill had worked backstage and had gone on to have a successful career in management, eventually becoming a top executive of Sobeys, a large Mississauga-based company that owned a chain of grocery stores. Looking down into his mother's sad and tired face, Caleb also felt the terrible absence of his father. He and his mother loved one another, but it was his dad who had been the steadying presence in both of their lives,

smoothing over arguments and bringing out the best in all three of them. As Caleb settled himself into the front passenger seat of his mother's car, he took one last look at Maplehurst Prison. Just a minute earlier, when he had helped his mom back into the car and closed the door once she was in the driver's seat, he had tried to imagine what it was going to be like to walk into the house at Pitch Pine Crescent and pass that downstairs room just inside the entrance where his father had died. Caleb would not miss prison, that was for sure. But as his mom backed the car up, turned, and drove out of the parking lot, it occurred to Caleb that, at least here at Maplehurst, when he woke up every morning, he knew exactly what to

expect out of each and every day. And in a weird way, that was very comforting. Five months later, on November 27th, 2009, Caleb and Bridget got the good news they had been praying for. The Peel Regional Police had located and then arrested Caleb's ex-wife, Melissa, on charges of parental abduction of their two children. For seven months, Melissa and her new partner, Chris, and the children had been living under false identities in the tiny township of Londonderry, located in Nova Scotia, the easternmost province of Canada, more than a thousand miles away from Mississauga. During that time, Melissa had given birth to her and Chris's second child. It wasn't until Chris accidentally signed a rent check,

using his real name, that local police contacted Peel Regional Police in Mississauga to say that they might have located Caleb's missing children. For Caleb and his mother Bridget, having Mason and Michaela safely back home at 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent felt like the start of a new life for all four of them. Melissa would have to stand trial on parental abduction charges, and eventually she and Caleb would work out a shared custody arrangement again. But for now, at least while she was out of jail on parole awaiting that trial, Melissa had to stay away from Caleb and their two kids,

giving Caleb the time and space he had dreamed of having so he could once again bond with his kids. But if Caleb and Bridget thought that just by having Mason and Michaela back home that the hole in their lives caused by Bill's death nearly eight months earlier would disappear, they were both wrong. Instead, without Bill's calming presence and laid-back attitude towards life, the relationship between Caleb and Bridget grew very tense under the stress of working and also now caring for nine-year-old Mason and his seven-year-old sister, Michaela.

Still, despite the friction, by early spring of 2010, Caleb, Bridget, and the kids had all settled into their routines of work and school, and mother and son both hoped that once they passed the anniversary of Bill's death, they would be able to put at least some of their grief and pain behind them. On Wednesday, April 21st, one year and five days after Bill Harrison had died, nine-year-old Mason Harrison left school at about 3 p.m. and walked home to Pitch Pine Crescent. This was unusual for Mason. Since leaving Nova Scotia and living with his grandmother and father, Mason really couldn't remember a time like today when neither of them had been there

after school to get him and Michaela. But since Mason was now old enough to go home on his own, he figured he'd find his grandmother at the house and just remind her that she needed to go out and get his younger sister. And Mason didn't mind. It was a cloudy but mild afternoon, and having this responsibility to walk home made him feel grown up. It was about 3.30 p.m. when Mason finally arrived home. As he walked up the driveway to the front door, he saw his grandmother's car in its usual spot, so he wasn't surprised when he didn't need to use his own key to open the door. Instead, he just walked inside, already slipping the straps of his backpack off his shoulders. But before he could even call out his grandmother's name, Mason suddenly stopped, like he was frozen in place. Because there,

at the bottom of the carpeted stairs right in front of him, was his grandmother. She was sprawled out on the ground, not moving. I'm Peter Frankopan. And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time, somebody who's had a huge impact on me,

who I think objectively stands apart for the level of all time, somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone.

If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news. We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years. and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome. In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

Fully dressed, Bridget was lying on her back with her head and shoulders on the first and second step and her feet and legs on the floor. On her feet were the lightweight slip-on shoes called Crocs that she liked to wear, and scattered around her were her purse and glasses. Her arms lay out to her sides, and her green eyes were wide open. It was the sight of his grandmother's open eyes staring up without blinking that broke through Mason's sense of total shock. Dropping his backpack, he raced out the door to their neighbor's house across the street, calling out desperately for help. Within 30 minutes, Pitch Pine Crescent was lined with the emergency and police vehicles that had responded to the neighbor's 911 call. And as bright yellow crime scene tape went up around the Harrison's property and word got around

that something had happened to Bridget, it wasn't long before Caleb had called a ride and then rushed to the house from work. And once Caleb was there, it wasn't long before he was joined by the same family members who had rushed to this same house just over a year ago when it was Bill who had been found dead just a few feet from where his wife now lay. It also didn't take police long to arrive at some preliminary conclusions about Bridget's death that would ultimately echo the conclusions they'd reached when they'd investigated Bill's death. The coroner who arrived at the scene to examine Bridget's body noticed enough injuries, like some bruising on Bridget's neck and chin, that he did not immediately rule out the possibility

of foul play. Instead, he described it as a suspicious death and sent Bridget's body downtown for a full forensic autopsy. But there wasn't much else about the scene that pointed to anything other than a tragic and deadly fall down the stairs. There was no forced entry, no sign of a struggle, and when the autopsy report came back two days later on Friday, April 23rd, it said that Bridget's broken neck and all her other injuries were consistent with just such a fall. But even though the Peel County Homicide Bureau was not called in to investigate, the fact that two family members had died in the same house within a 13-month period of time raised a lot of red flags for

the public, members of the Harrison family, and law enforcement. So, over the next several weeks, local investigators did some digging around on their own, and the first name at the very top of their list of people of interest was Bridget's son Caleb. Investigators had already learned from interviews with neighbors and family, and Bridget's work associates that the relationship between Caleb and his mother had been difficult, especially since Bill's death the year before. And even though Melissa was already in the process of being granted supervised access to Mason and Michaela, the custody battle that had started nearly five years ago had taken its toll on Bridget as well

as Caleb. Not only did Bridget have to drive the children to and from school and to after school and social activities, she also had to drive around her adult son Caleb because his license had been suspended following his conviction for drunk and reckless driving. But investigators quickly hit a series of dead ends. Caleb had a rock solid alibi for the time of his mother's death. He had been at work that entire day. And when police then turned their attention to Melissa, it didn't take long for her and her husband Chris to also produce alibis for the day of Bridget's murder. By September 2nd, 2010, five months and 11 days after Bridget's death, police concluded that there was no evidence

of any criminal action and the investigation was closed. But for Caleb, there was no evidence of any criminal action, and the investigation was closed. But for Caleb, there was no escaping the aftershocks of his mother's death. Although Melissa had the children for supervised visits, Caleb was still the sole custodial parent, and even without his mother's help, he had full responsibility for Mason and Michaela. And now the three of them lived inside a house where both Caleb's parents had died and where Mason had been the one to discover Bridget's body. And while police might have cleared Caleb as a possible suspect in the death of his mother, he could still feel the cloud of suspicion that seemed to float over his head. And he also knew

people were talking. Could it really be a coincidence that both of Caleb's parents had died in accidental but unusual circumstances? And given the public outrage over Caleb's driving drunk that caused the death of one person and the brutal injuries of two others, could it be that someone was out to punish Caleb and the whole Harrison family? As Caleb sank into a depression, he started to drink again, and it wasn't long before his girlfriend, Corinda, broke off their relationship. Melissa, meanwhile, had left Mississauga altogether. She and Chris had taken their growing family and moved to a farm in Perth County, almost two hours to the west. Even though Caleb had sole custody of his children, which was very contentious,

the 50- mile distance between him and Melissa had eased a lot of tension between the parents and Caleb was allowing Melissa more unsupervised time with their two kids. But all that changed on March 1st, 2013 when a freak fire destroyed Melissa and Chris's small brick bungalow out in Perth. Melissa and Chris were able to save themselves and the children, but the fire killed the family's pets. Heartbroken and unable to come up with the money to rebuild their little dream home, Melissa and Chris packed up and came back to Mississauga. But for Caleb, the sudden proximity to Melissa,

which should have made sharing custody even easier, resulted in friction, not harmony. During the two years that Melissa had lived in Perth, Caleb had worked hard to get his act together and be a good father. He and Corinda were back together again, and he had a steady job at CMC Electronics. He still couldn't drive himself, but he'd arranged for a neighbor to take the children to and from school. Caleb still had periods of himself, but he'd arranged for a neighbor to take the children to and from school. Caleb still had periods of depression, but he no longer thought about killing himself the way he had after his mother had died. The children were 12 and 10 years old now, and most days Caleb just took them to the park. He'd even started following his own father's footsteps by volunteering as the kid's baseball coach.

With Melissa now living practically right around the corner and always looking to find fault in Caleb's parenting, Caleb had decided that when this summer was over, he'd go back to allowing Melissa only supervised access to their kids. He knew Melissa would go to court and ask for shared custody, but for Caleb, these supervised visits gave him the control he needed over his life and schedule with the kids. But even though Caleb's life was improving, it didn't take much to throw him off his stride. And that's exactly what happened on Thursday, August 22nd, 2013. Caleb had been looking forward to spending that evening and night with Corinda.

The two of them had planned to take Caleb's kids to the kids' baseball games, and then after watching the kids play, they would drop the children off with Melissa, and then Caleb and Corinda would spend the night together at Pitch Pine Crescent. So Caleb had been more than disappointed when Corinda had told him earlier that day that because of a school commitment, she would not be able to join him after all. And when Caleb called Corinda from his house at 11 p.m. that night, sounding drunk, the two of them had gotten into a fight. Upset, Caleb had ended the call and turned off the ringer on his phone, and then decided to go to bed and watch a movie until he fell asleep. The next morning, Friday, August 23rd, the Harrison family

house cleaner pulled up in her car in front of 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent. Carrying her supplies, she let herself into the house with the key Caleb had given her and wasted no time getting to work. Caleb had a standing request to the house cleaner that she not enter or clean his own bedroom upstairs, but even so, 3635 was a big house, and the cleaner had just started on the other five bedrooms when she was interrupted around noon by a sudden loud knock on the front door. It was one of Caleb's colleagues from CMC Electronics, and as he explained to the housekeeper, he was there to check on Caleb, who had not shown up for work that morning. A few minutes later, the housekeeper and Caleb's co-worker had opened the door of the master bedroom where Caleb slept. Looking into the room, they both let out a

sigh of relief. Caleb must have just overslept. That's why he had not gone to work, because there he was, lying in bed, the blanket pulled up to his chin, the edges tucked in around him. It wasn't until Caleb did not respond to being shaken awake that his coworker checked for a pulse and then realized that the 40-year-old father of two and the third member of the Harrison family was dead. Within minutes, Pitch Pine Crescent was once again awash in flashing lights and emergency vehicles and it wasn't long before the same family members who had come to this house when Bill and Bridget died were once again ducking under a fluttering perimeter of crime scene tape

to talk with law enforcement. And it wasn't just family that was experiencing a sense of deja vu. Looking up at the high windows and sloped roof of 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent, the first paramedic on the scene turned to his partner. What he said would be repeated by other responding officials. You know what? I've been here before. Only this time, there was one huge difference, because this time, the Peel Regional Police Force knew right away that there was nothing accidental or natural about Caleb's death. Looking down at Caleb's body, the injuries were obvious, swollen knuckles like he fought hard to defend himself, along with deep scratches on his chest, and the bruising and abrasions on his

neck would later provide evidence of the actual cause of death, strangulation. And suddenly, four years after the fact, a new team of investigators would begin to see the deaths of Caleb's parents, Bill and Bridget Harrison, five years ago in a whole new light. Going back to the earlier reports on those deaths, the parallels to Caleb's death were startling and obvious. In 2005, the medical examiner had reported finding faint abrasions around Bill's neck too, along with a broken sternum, the long flat bone that protects the heart and forms the center of the chest. Police at the time had concluded that the neck abrasions were caused by a necklace that

might have been tightened around Bill's neck when he collapsed in the bathroom. They also concluded that the broken sternum could have been caused by the same fall, triggering the heart arrhythmia that the doctor had listed as Bill's cause of death. Now, it looked like a blow to the chest and manual strangulation could have caused those injuries. Likewise, the examination of Bridget's body one year later in 2006 had also revealed neck abrasions and evidence of neck compressions that could be consistent with strangulation, and the other injuries to her body could have been caused not by a fall down the stairs, but by a brutal fight with an attacker. It didn't take long for Harrison family relatives, along with the Canadian press,

to draw their own conclusions. This was no coincidence. The Peel Regional Police Force had failed to do a thorough job investigating those earlier deaths, and now an entire family had just been wiped out. This time, the investigation into Caleb's death was handled not by local police, but by the Peel Regional Homicide Bureau. Since police had never ordered an autopsy on Bill's body, which was cremated two days after his death, and because the investigation into Bridget's death was now seen as very superficial, the new team of investigators basically had to start all over again from scratch, only now they believed they were looking not at a single murder, but at a double or even triple homicide. By the afternoon of August 23rd, detectives were combing the

Harrison's neighborhood, going door to door to interview neighbors, searching for potential witnesses and video footage that might provide any clue to the murderer's identity. By that evening, they were interviewing Caleb's girlfriends, his ex-wife, his friends, co-workers, and family members. And once investigators took a giant step back and reviewed and then pieced together all the information and records and witness statements related to the Harrison family deaths going all the way back to Bill's sudden supposed collapse five years earlier a very new and shocking theory about what happened to the residents at 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent began to emerge and this time homicide

detectives had a critical piece of physical evidence that might help them prove their suspicions. During the autopsy on Caleb's body, the medical examiner had found human tissue under Caleb's fingernails that investigators believed must belong to Caleb's murderer. And by the end of August, just over a week after Caleb's death, investigators had found the DNA match they were looking for. It would take investigators another five months to put together their case. Based on all the evidence they collected through interviews, search warrants, secretly recorded conversations, and wiretaps,

here is a reconstruction of what police believe really happened to Bill, Bridget, and Caleb Harrison. least believe really happened to Bill, Bridget, and Caleb Harrison. Ever since July 1st, 2005, when Caleb had climbed behind the wheel of his mother's fancy Mercedes-Benz car and decided to drive home from a party, even though he knew he was intoxicated, Caleb's killer had decided that Caleb was just another dangerous and drunken rich kid who should be locked up in jail for a long, long time. The killer had even done their best to make that happen by circulating a petition on Facebook calling for Caleb to get the maximum possible sentence for the drunk driving accident that had killed one person and badly injured two others. Instead, Caleb was out of

prison after only three months and back to living his life of privilege in his family's great big house on Pitch Pine Crescent. As far as the killer was concerned, no matter how big a mess Caleb made of other people's lives, all he had to do was run to mom and dad and they would make sure that Caleb got what Caleb wanted. It had been incredibly easy to kill Caleb's mother, Bridget. All the killer had had to do was wait until she was alone, walk right up to the front door, ring the bell, and then when Bridget answered her purse in hand, the killer offered her a package supposedly for her grandchildren. As Bridget reached out to take it, the killer had stepped inside, closing the door behind them, and

forcing Bridget backwards into the short hallway towards the bottom of the staircase. Bridget had barely had time to react before the first blows landed on her face, head, and chest. Then the killer wrapped their hands around Bridget's throat and squeezed harder and harder, fracturing the cartilage around her voice box and breaking her neck in several places. Within minutes, Bridget had stopped breathing, her lifeless body draped over the last two bottom steps of the stairway. Moments later, the killer had slipped back outside, and after walking casually to where they had parked some distance from the Harrison's house, the killer had hopped behind the wheel of

their car and driven slowly out of the quiet and sheltered neighborhood. But now, it was four years later and the killer was back. It wasn't enough that both Bill and Bridget Harrison were now dead. The real problem all along had been Caleb. As the clock ticked over from Thursday night of August 22nd into the early morning hours of Friday, August 23rd, the killer arrived at Pitch Pine Crescent. Dressed in new sneakers and latex gloves and carrying a baseball bat, the killer quietly stepped to the front entryway just off the driveway. Unlocking the door, the killer slipped inside. Careful not to make any noise, the killer passed by the small bathroom on the right where Bill had died just over four years

ago. Then, walking over the exact spot where the killer had beaten and strangled Bridget three years earlier, the killer climbed the steps to the second floor. Turning left at the top of the stairs, the killer followed the low hum of the bedroom fan to the end of the hallway right to the door of the master bedroom. Soundlessly, the killer opened that door and stepped inside. Taking a deep breath, the killer allowed their eyes to adjust to the darkness before moving over to the bed where Caleb lay asleep, his eyes covered by a sleep mask. The killer noticed with distaste the layer of dust and dog hair that covered the bedroom floor carpet. And then, raising the baseball bat

high over his head, the killer delivered a crushing blow to Caleb's chest. But instead of killing or immobilizing their victim, the sudden attack caused Caleb to literally spring up from the bed, ripping the face mask from his eyes and confronting his murderer. The struggle that followed did not last long. Caleb's attacker was huge, standing 6 foot four inches tall and weighing nearly 400 pounds. The killer literally threw Caleb into the shelving unit next to Caleb's bed. Then, ignoring Caleb's pleas for mercy and Caleb's offer of money, the killer stepped into the narrow space between the wall and the bed where Caleb sat in a crouch. Still not saying a word, Caleb's murderer wrapped his giant hands around Caleb's

neck and strangled him to death. Then, Christopher Fattori, Melissa's new husband and the stepfather of Caleb and Melissa's two children, picked up Caleb's dead body and arranged it on top of Caleb's bed, pulling the blanket up to Caleb's chin and tucking the edges of the blanket around the side of Caleb's body. Retracing his steps, Chris made his way back downstairs to the front door. Before letting himself out, he patted his pants pocket to make sure he still had the key to 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent that he had stolen from Caleb's 12-year-old son Mason. With Melissa's ex-husband dead, Melissa would no longer have to beg and fight for custody of their two children, and Chris would no longer have to worry about Caleb

endangering the lives of the stepchildren that he, Chris, was also helping to raise. What Chris didn't know was that during Caleb's doomed attempt to defend himself against Chris, Caleb had managed to scratch Chris deeply enough that the medical examiner would later scrape Chris's DNA from under Caleb's fingernails. And when police went back through the files in the earlier investigation into Bridget's death three years ago, they found critical holes and inconsistencies in the alibis that Melissa and Chris had provided police. Meanwhile, information police had discovered from the day of Caleb's murder also left Melissa and Chris without solid alibis for

Caleb's murder. Those discoveries immediately pushed Chris and Melissa to the top of the suspect list. But what detectives needed now were DNA samples they could compare to the tissues found under Caleb's fingernails. So, starting in late August, police began a surveillance operation so they could collect additional evidence. Within a week of Caleb's death, detectives hit paydirt. They were able to get a sample of Chris's DNA from a cup he had drunk from and then thrown away in a public trash bin. The DNA from the saliva sample on the cup matched the tissue samples from under Caleb's fingernails. Police posing as garbage collectors were also able

to find the shoes and gloves that Chris had worn the night of the murder. The dog hair and dirt on the bottom of those shoes matched the hair and dirt on the carpet in Caleb's bedroom, and the gloves contained DNA from both Chris and Caleb. It would turn out that each of the three Harrison family murders coincided with some critical turning point in Melissa and Caleb's bitter and long-running custody battle over their two kids. Police believe that Bill Harrison may have been alerted back on April 16, 2005, by a neighbor that Melissa and Chris were packing up their house, and it looked like maybe they planned to take the kids and leave town for good. Investigators speculated that Bill must have confronted Chris and Melissa and made it clear that he would call the police if they fled, and then Chris had

followed Bill back to his home at Pitch Pine Crescent, and before Bill could take any action to stop the abduction of his grandchildren, Chris had strangled him, breaking Bill's sternum in the process. On the same day that Bridget discovered Bill's body, Chris and Melissa had taken the children off to Nova Scotia, where they would successfully hide for the next seven months. Bridget Harrison had been killed a year later, one day before she was scheduled to testify at Melissa's parental abduction trial. Caleb Harrison had been murdered three years later, just before the custody arrangement he had with Melissa was about to change from Melissa getting unsupervised access to the kids back to Melissa getting only supervised visitation.

Melissa Merritt and Christopher Fittori were both arrested on January 28, 2014, in a small community in Nova Scotia named Italy Cross. Two weeks after Caleb's murder, as soon as Melissa was granted sole custody of Mason and Michaela, Melissa and Chris had packed up a few possessions and all six of their kids, and once again left Mississauga to head back to Canada's easternmost province. While they were in Nova Scotia, police found additional evidence on the laptop that the couple had left behind in Mississauga and on wiretapped conversations between Chris and Melissa to implicate Chris

in the possible murder of Bill Harrison and to charge Melissa as a co-conspirator in the deaths of Bridget and Caleb Harrison. After their arrest, Chris confessed to the murders of Bridget and Caleb, insisting that he had done it for the sake of Melissa and the kids, and that Melissa had no knowledge or involvement. On January 13th, 2018, eight years after Caleb's death, Chris and Melissa were both found guilty of Caleb's murder. Chris alone was found guilty of Bridget's murder and not guilty in the death of Bill Harrison due to lack of evidence, like an actual body or autopsy report. Chris and Melissa were both sentenced to life in prison with a chance of

parole after 25 years. The Harrison children were sent to live with Melissa's family. Later in 2018, Melissa married a fellow prison inmate named Sheena McIntosh. In 2020, Chris Vittori started an online dating profile in which he described himself as very fit, fun, caring, easygoing, generous, and down-to-earth. Also in 2020, the Peel Regional Police Force was the subject of an internal review that found serious errors in how they handled and investigated the deaths of Bill and Bridget Harrison. On January 5th, 2023, Melissa's murder conviction was overturned after the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that there had been two serious errors in the instruction given to the jury regarding key evidence. Melissa remains in prison while awaiting her new trial.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already, one hour before the Amazon Music Follow button is set to fly to Tokyo, secretly sand off all of the magnetic strips on their credit cards. This podcast airs every Monday and Thursday morning, but in the meantime, you can always watch one of the hundreds of stories we have posted on our main YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. Consider donating to our charity. It's called the Mr. Ballin Foundation, and it provides support to victims of violent crime, as well as their families. Monthly donors to the Mr. Ballin

Foundation Honor Them Society will receive free gifts and exclusive invites to special live events. Go to mrballin.foundation and click get involved to join the Honor Them Society today. If you want to get in touch with me, please follow me on any major social media platform and then send me a direct message. My username is just at Mr. Ballin and I really do read the majority of my DMs. Lastly, we have some really cool merchandise, so head on over to shopmrballin.com to have a look. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, Prime members. You can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early

and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and he seemed really unwell. So she wound up taking him to the hospital right away so he could get treatment. While Dorothy's friend waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be

seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and so many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try and discover what really happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.