RedHanded - Episode 255 - Who Killed the Harrisons?

Episode Date: July 21, 2022

In 2013, paramedics were called to a home in Mississauga, Ontario. There they found the body of 40-year-old Caleb Harrison lying in bed, with red marks around his neck. But this wasn’t the first time that the paramedics had found a dead body at the Harrison family home. In fact, in the space of just five years, three members of the Harrison family had died in separate and bizarre incidents in the same house… Was the house haunted by a murderous ghost, or was the family being preyed upon by a calculated and patient killer? Become a patron: Patreon Order a copy of the book here (US & Canada): Order on Wellesley Books Order on Amazon.com Order a copy of the book here (UK, Ireland, Europe, NZ, Aus): Order on Amazon.co.uk Order on Foyles Follow us on social media: Instagram Twitter Visit our website: Website Sources:  https://projects.thestar.com/harrison-family-murders/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7qECRc0VVk https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/forensic-pathology-nb-1.3704109#:~:text=National%20shortage,to%20attain%20the%20right%20qualifications. https://healthydebate.ca/2020/02/topic/death_investigation_feb2020/ https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2009/02/02/addressing_ontarios_pathologist_shortage.html https://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/forensic-science-in-canada.pdf https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/forensic-pathology-canada https://thepointer.com/article/2020-08-19/part-1-the-harrison-murders-how-did-peel-regional-police-investigators-miss-the-obvious https://thepointer.com/article/2020-08-21/part-2-the-harrison-murders-failing-to-catch-a-killer https://thepointer.com/article/2020-08-22/part-3-the-harrison-murders-peel-police-finally-catch-a-killer-but-expose-their-own-failures https://projects.thestar.com/harrison-family-murders/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti.

And I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed. You caught me by surprise there, Runtas. I wasn't quite ready. Well, ready or not, here we go. Anyway, I'm not going to sing, guys. It's not one of those episodes. You've been doing loads of singing recently.

I don't know what it is. What it is about the singing recently. I think it's all the positive reactions people are having. Stop having positive reactions to me singing, because that's what happens. But no, guys, hello. Welcome to Red red-handed should we have a case then should we talk about a case i mean you're starting it so yeah just checking you i wasn't catching you off guard again let's go yeah actually if i fuck this i'm going home on the 23rd of aug, 2013. The housekeeper at 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent in, oh my God, I know it's even spelt out for me, but let my brain soak this in. Mississauga, Ontario. And then everyone's going to tell me that's not how you pronounce Ontario. They say it's Ontario. Listen.

I know. Listen up. It is a statistical impossibility for us to be right all of the time. We are trying. And I wish people would accept that. I even saw a friend of mine, Anna Darling, hi Anna, the other night. She's Scottish and she was pissing herself laughing at some of the Scottish pronunciations we've done. I was like, listen here, do you know how many place names we have to talk about every single week? We don't know. So today we are going to Pitchbind Crescent in Mississauga, Ontario. And it was here that this housekeeper was working away doing her usual routine, cleaning the house,

when suddenly there was a knock at the door. It was a man claiming to be the co-worker of Caleb Harrison, the homeowner. It seemed that Caleb had failed to show up to work that morning, and when he wasn't picking up the phone, his co-worker wanted to make sure he was OK. Together, the co-worker and the housekeeper made their way up to Caleb's bedroom and found him fast asleep in bed with the sheets pulled up to his chin. But after Caleb didn't respond to them calling his name or even shaking him,

they knew something was very wrong. Paramedics arrived on the scene shortly afterwards, but it was too late. Caleb was already dead. And it also wasn't the first time that a member of the Harrison family had been found dead in their family home. In April 2010, Caleb's 63-year-old mother was found dead lying at the bottom of the stairs.

And that was only a year after her husband, Caleb's father, Bill Harrison, was found dead in the bathroom. Now, with Caleb's untimely passing, an entire family had died in separate incidents in the same house in the space of just five years.

Haunted. Ghosts abound. Well, this is the thing. Murder house. Because either it seemed to people that the family were being stalked by some sort of calculated and very patient serial killer, or perhaps that the house was haunted by some sort of murderous ghost. One or the other. Yep, yep, yep. Haunted doll. I'm putting my money on haunted doll. I see.

For reasons that will become clear. But to get to the bottom of it, to get to the bottom of this particular conundrum of what's murdering this entire family, let's start by introducing you to the Harrison family. Bridget Blackwell was born in London, Ontario in 1946. She was a super outgoing woman and had decided from a young age that she wanted to be an actor. What's that like? Tell me, Hannah. Before Bridget was 16, she had already appeared on a Canadian game show called Act Fast, and she went on to perform in a series of plays at one of Canada's most prominent arts events, the Stratford Festival.

And it was there, in the early 60s, that she had met Bill Harrison backstage. Bill was from Stratford and was working in the costume department at the time. And the two hit it off quickly. And they initially faced a lot of racism. Bill was black, Bridget was white. But despite the hate, they married in 1969. And together they moved to Mississauga, Ontario. Ontario, honestly guys, I don't give a fuck.

Where Bill worked as an executive at a large supermarket chain. And Bridget became a teacher, then a principal, then a superintendent. What's the superintendent called in The Simpsons? Superintendent Chalmers. So she's Superintendent Chalmers in a skirt. And then she went on to work for the education minister. So she'd be climbing some ladders. Don't get in Bridget's way.

And the pair of them were pillars of the community both of them were on the school board and bill coached the local little league baseball team eventually the couple moved into a large house at 36 35 pitch pine crescent the house had six bedrooms high ceilings and cathedral windows what's a cathedral window when it's at home? Stained glass? Have you got the stations of the cross? It's just so beautiful. Oh, Jesus fell for the second time. Would you like a coffee? I'll meet you by Jesus Falls for the second time.

And then we'll go out for lunch. See you there. It's so relaxing having these stations of the cross, like just beautifully allowing horrible light into our lovely bedroom. High-ceilinged bedroom. No, I think cathedral windows are probably just like tall and long and then taper at the top. Oh, like gothic windows? Yeah.

Okay, we'll go for that. And despite the stained glass images of Jesus bleeding everywhere, it was the perfect place for them to start a family. But as fate would have it, Bill and Bridget discovered that they were unable to conceive. So they decided to adopt instead. In 1973, they adopted a six-month-old baby boy who they called Caleb. Caleb grew into a spirited kid with a lot of energy. He also had Tourette's syndrome and struggled academically,

but he always worked as hard as he could. As parents, Bridget was the disciplinarian who regularly butted heads with Caleb. I think it's quite difficult if your mum is a literal superintendent charmers for her not to be the disciplinarian. And Caleb didn't take to that particularly well. Bill, the dad, took a more relaxed approach and was known to be the peacekeeper in the family. But still, the three of them loved each other and they were a strong family unit. The Harrisons also had a huge extended family who they were super tight with. Every holiday season, Bill and Bridget would host

the big family get-togethers and invite all of their neighbours over too. That sounds like my literal worst nightmare. No, you love having people over. Not my family. Oh, well. Not like extended family. Are you joking? But even still, Bill and Bridget were loved by everyone.

The entire community loved them. After Caleb graduated high school, he began working in a shipping and receiving business that sold collector Barbies called My Favourite Doll. All of his co-workers described Caleb as being an incredibly hard worker and one of the most polite and likeable people you could ever meet. And it was at My Favourite Doll in 2000 that Caleb met the love of his life, a woman named Melissa Merritt, who worked behind the front desk.

Caleb was 27 and Melissa was 19, which just falls short of the half your age plus seven, but you know, whatever. I, okay, I think that the half your age plus seven rule should be vetoed if there is a teen anywhere near it. Saying that though, my dad was 26 and my mum was 19 when they got married. So I can't be too up in arms about Caleb and Melissa really. So Melissa Merritt, our 19 year old in this story, was the daughter of a Toronto police officer and she'd just graduated high school and had recently broken off an engagement with her high school boyfriend who suddenly decided that he wasn't quite ready to settle down yet. At 19, shock. Yeah.

But all Melissa wanted, even at 19, more than anything, was a husband and children. Melissa is described as being pretty young, she is, she's 19, but also a bit naive. And maybe it's because of this that she fell in love with Caleb almost immediately. Pretty soon they were inseparable. They drove to work together, they spent all their time at work together, they even ate every meal together. And as time went on, the couple's relationship went from strength to strength. One day, Melissa told Caleb that she had had an ovary removed due to a medical condition and there was a chance she'd need the other one taken out at some point as well.

So she was eager to start a family as soon as humanly possible. So within three and a half years of meeting, Caleb and Melissa were married with two children, a girl and a boy. And together they settled down in Georgetown, about 30 minutes from Caleb's parents' house. Bill and Bridget were thrilled to have their grandkids so close by and showered them with love at every opportunity. Initially, it was all smooth sailing for the new family. But things began to take a turn for the worse pretty quickly. Children are expensive little fuckers and money

was quite tight. The pressure of raising two kids was proving a bit too much for Caleb to handle. By 2005 he developed a bit of a drinking problem which understandably led to a lot of arguments with Melissa and then things escalated even further in June of the same year. After one of their more heated disagreements, Melissa phoned the police and told them that Caleb had placed her in a headlock and punched her in the face repeatedly. Caleb was arrested that night and later convicted for domestic assault and spent three days in jail. This incident was the final straw,

and the couple separated after Melissa refused to reconcile, claiming that this hadn't been the first time that Caleb had hit her. According to Melissa, instead of hitting her out of rage in the midst of an argument, Caleb would often do things like sneak up on her from behind and beat her out of nowhere, even occasionally assaulting her while she was asleep. So with nowhere to go, Caleb moved back in with his parents and began working construction jobs. Melissa stayed in Georgetown, remember it's about 30 minutes away from where Caleb's parents live, and she refused to let Caleb visit their two children.

So, get this, the Ontario Liberals elected Bonnie Crombie as their new leader. Bonnie who? I just sent you her profile. Check out her place in the Hamptons. Huh, fancy. She's a big carbon tax supporter, yeah? Oh, yeah. Check out her record as mayor. Oh, get out of here. She even increased taxes in this economy. Yeah. Higher taxes, carbon taxes. She sounds expensive. Bonnie Crombie and the Ontario Liberals.

They just don't get it. That'll cost you. A message from the Ontario PC Party. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery+. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post

by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance,

but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding, and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. The stress of this failed marriage and not being able to see his kids made Caleb's drinking problem worse. And one day in July 2005, Caleb borrowed Bridget's car to go to a party.

He'd agreed to be the designated driver and picked up three friends on the way. But he ended up getting trashed. In fact, as the designated driver, he got so trashed that his friends actually refused to let him drive them home and decided to walk back instead. But Caleb refused to give up the keys, insisted he was fine and drove home on his own. Only he didn't make it home because just a few blocks away from the party, doing 60 miles an hour, Caleb swerved into the next lane and crashed into an oncoming taxi. Both of the cars were left in flames, and the passengers, including Caleb, had to be pulled out by a passerby.

The taxi driver, Michael Raymer, died instantly, and his four passengers were severely injured. One of them broke an arm and a leg, had a fractured spine. But apart from the fact that he had just killed a man, Caleb got off fairly easy with just a broken leg. He was charged with a DUI resulting in death and serious injury and was granted bail pending trial and placed on house arrest in his parents' home. If he was Venus Williams or Caitlyn Jenner, he would have just bailed himself out.

Quite. Melissa, as I'm sure you can imagine, was utterly furious. The drinking, the domestic abuse, it was enough. you can imagine, was utterly furious. The drinking, the domestic abuse, it was enough. But now he just killed someone. Melissa decided that she didn't want Caleb to have anything to do with their kids at all. But a judge ruled that they had to share custody while he awaited trial, whether she liked it or not. A few weeks later, Melissa called the police and reported a home invasion.

She said that she'd been assaulted in her back garden, and according to her, her ex-husband, Caleb, was the man responsible. But, considering that Caleb still had a cast on his leg, it seemed unlikely that it would have been him. As the months passed, Melissa continued to report mysterious home invasions again and again. But the police never managed to get anywhere with their investigations. The trail always went cold. And then later that year, in 2005, Caleb was granted limited visitation rights for their two children. And it was around this time that Melissa started a new relationship with a 28-year-old man named Chris Vator, who she'd met online.

Vator was a beauty school dropout who worked as a... Beauty school dropout. Go back to high school. He didn't. He was like, fuck that shit. So he's never seen Grease, he doesn't know about it. I don't know what's happening. I'm just going to keep going. Because Vator was a beauty school dropout who worked as a bouncer, a handyman and a kitchen manager.

And he was also a massive guy. I mean, kind of the image of beauty school dropout didn't conjure up that image. But then they're like, he's also a bouncer. And he's this huge, like, tattooed guy. And one of the tattoos on his arm read, only the strong will survive. Give me a fucking break. He was everything that Melissa had been looking for in a partner. He loved Melissa's kids,

treated them like they were his own, and he was extremely protective of them. Christopher Torr even started a Facebook petition lobbying for Caleb to receive the longest sentence allowed under the law for his DUI manslaughter charges and shared it with everyone he knew, trying to get it to 100,000 signatures. I don't like that. I equally dislike unsubscribe. I mean, Caleb, yeah, don't fucking drink and drive. But your new boyfriend creating a Facebook

petition and then sharing it all over the place is a bit grim, especially when you go on to find out that the petition page that Christopher Taw made made to get caleb you know sent away featured a photoshop image of caleb with devil horns and the caption this is caleb harrison the dick who murdered somebody drinking and driving this man has gotten away with too much in his life it can't keep happening do you really think yeah mr beauty school dropout that a facebook page petition is going to make one slightest hair of difference in a court of law if it does i'm worried like if if that works then we've got serious problems you know it's not going to parliament no and it's also like he already did it and he was proven to be drunk he's just waiting to go on trial it's not like he's been let off and then you're having to start a petition

because you think it was unfairly dismissed or whatever. And like, it gets very weird, but it's just like, Chris Vator, sit down, please. Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of Facebook vigilantism. It's my least favourite type of vigilantism. In October 2006, Vittori proposed to Melissa. The only problem

was that she was still married to Caleb. Melissa had wrongly assumed that because she had been separated from Caleb for two years, that that would mean an automatic divorce. Not the most twinkly pixie in the forest, it would appear. So Chris and Melissa decided to have a mock

ceremony and just kind of pretend to be married. Over the next five years they had four children together but again those financial troubles they will come a knocking if you keep popping out those kids and they started to struggle with money. Time went on and Caleb and Melissa finalized their divorce with the judge granting them 50-50 custody, which, needless to say, Melissa was not exactly thrilled about. Over the next couple of years, Melissa contacted the police no less than five times, claiming that Caleb and his parents had been physically abusive towards the children. But, time and again, investigators found literally no evidence to support this.

However, they did begin to suspect that maybe Melissa had coached the kids on what to say to the police. However, just like with the home invasions Melissa had reported, nothing came of the child abuse allegations either. By December 2008, Melissa had started completely ignoring Caleb's visitation rights. A judge did try intervene and warn Melissa that she needed to abide by the custody agreement or else the police would get involved, but Melissa wasn't particularly keen. However, as things went, she didn't need to wait much longer to get the kids away from Caleb. Because just a few months later, almost four years after the crash, Caleb was finally sentenced to 18 months in jail for impaired driving, causing death. And Melissa and Chris attended every day of Caleb's trial.

When I first read that, I thought Melissa had gone to, you know, as much she didn't like Caleb, support her children's father through what was going on. No, no, no. Melissa and Chris went to the trial every day so they could sit at the back of the room taunting Caleb and his parents whenever they could. Because that's what's needed in that situation. Right, yeah. Like, I'm not Caleb's biggest fan, but currently I'm not Melissa's either. No, no, no, no. So while in prison, Caleb's share of the children's custody was given to his parents. The judge decided it was best not to alter the children's routine. Again, this is something Melissa was not happy about in the slightest, but it was out of her hands. So up until now, I feel like it's very obvious that this situation

within the Harrison family is your kind of sad, but not totally unbelievable family drama. Mm-mm. Right? But this is where the story takes a turn, because this is when things are going to go from sad and mundane to fucking weird. Enter haunted doll number one. Precisely.

Precisely. Because on the 16th of April 2009, Bridget, so remember that's Caleb's mum, arrived home late one night after a school board meeting to find all of the lights in her house off. So upset that she couldn't see her stained glass windows of Jesus Bleeding, she thought it was incredibly strange, especially when she considered the dinner was sitting ready for her on the dining table and Bill's drink was sat half drunk beside it. Bridget called out for Bill, but got no answer. After checking every room, she noticed that the downstairs bathroom door was locked,

but she still got no response when she knocked. After checking every room, she noticed that the downstairs bathroom door was locked, but she still got no response when she knocked. Somehow, Bridget managed to crack the door open and discovered her husband Bill slumped on the floor between the toilet and the door. A lot of people die in the toilet. We had training on this when I worked in theatres, that if someone passes out or worse, dies, it's usually in a toilet cubicle,

because if they feel a bit weird, they're going to get up and go to the toilet, try and poo, see if that sorts out. And that's when they die. So it's a very, very common place to die on the floor of a toilet. Well, that's sad. Also, the training we were given is if someone dies in their seat during a show, you just leave them there. Oh, God. You don't stop the show. You just leave them there, give them a newspaper and some sunglasses.

It's a lot of hassle. It's a lot of hassle. It's a lot of hassle. Show stops are expensive, my friend. Well, maybe those Americans that were sat in front of us when we went to go watch Jerusalem and I thought the man had fallen asleep. Maybe he actually died. He just died. I did feel for them.

Oh, you did. So anyway, back to Bridget and Bill. When she discovered her husband on the floor of the toilet, she tried to assess whether he was breathing. He wasn't. So Bridget phoned for the paramedics. But She tried to assess whether he was breathing. He wasn't. So Bridget phoned for the paramedics. But it was too late. Bill was dead. And at the scene, because so many people die in the toilet, police found no sign of forced entry or struggle, which makes it seem like a natural cause if ever there was one. However, Bill's wedding ring and a crucifix necklace that

he wore had both been removed from his body. And then the autopsy revealed that Bill had abrasions on his neck, thin red marks across his throat. He also had a bruise on his head and a fractured sternum. Things are starting to look not so natural at all. Even still, for some strange reason that is completely beyond us or medical science, the pathologist labelled Bill's death as a natural one and said that he died from acute cardiac arrhythmia. And he decided on acute cardiac arrhythmia in complete spite of the fact that the autopsy showed no signs of anything being wrong with Bill's heart at all.

He was only 64, he was extremely fit and active and he had no history whatsoever of heart problems. Bill's death came just a few months after Justice Stephen Gouge, what a name, released a report on the state of paediatric forensic pathology in Ontario. And that was because there was numerous badly conducted child death investigations by a man who was meant to be one of the leading experts in the field, Dr Charles Smith. Smith had fucked up so badly that his work had actually led to wrongful convictions

in the cases of the deaths of children. The Gouge inquiry found that this leading expert actually had little forensic experience or training and he'd only received the role because there was literally nobody else who wanted to do the job. And the reason we're bringing all of this up is because at the time, Canada didn't even have its own forensic pathology training program. And there was a huge shortage of forensic pathologists in Ontario as a result.

Also, Ken and Barbie, that was a huge problem. DNA testing. Yes, yes, yes. They were very, very backlogged with that. So before changes were made following the Gouge inquiry, many forensic autopsies were carried out by non-forensic pathologists. And the man who carried out bills was one of these non-forensic pathologists.

But we do have to say, forensically trained or not, you would think that abrasions on the neck, marks on the throat and a fractured sternum would be enough for anybody to realise that Bill's death was just a little bit suspicious. But the police didn't, and neither did the pathologist. Cracking a sternum takes some doing. My mum's a nurse, well she's retired now, but she was a nurse. And as a nurse, you obviously have to keep up on your CPR training so there's a guy that comes every year to her surgery everyone's done it 700 million times but they have to do it so this guy has four jokes throughout his presentation so you know how long you've got by which joke he's done and my mum's favorite one he's like and what do

we do if we're doing chest compressions and you hear a rib crack what do you do what would you do um crack on oh my god oh my god well cracked ribs no problem keep going i see i see don't don't freak out nope keep going crack on they didn't include that in the uh so if you're in the uk i don't know maybe this was other places as well but i'm pretty sure it was like an nhs advertising campaign it got pulled oh did it because like people actually don't know how to do cpr no it i mean explain what isn't that so basically there was a like a health campaign that was run by the nhs on tv and it was basically saying that if you need to give somebody cpr you need to basically do it to the rhythm of staying alive and it was basically saying that if you need to give somebody CPR, you need to basically do it to the rhythm of staying alive. And it was like lots of actors or lots of people doing it on people's chests.

And it was just like, ah. It was Martin Kemp. That's it. I can't remember. Whatever. That guy doing it. And it was doing it to the sound. But I didn't know it got pulled.

Presumably because it's not very successful outside of a medical setting. No. So it got pulled because when Martin Kmp is doing his like best lock stock gangster impression he's like by fans on top of the medallion and it just turns out a lot of the british public doesn't know what medallion is so obviously saying like where where your necklace would be that's where you need to be doing compressions but also staying alive the rhythm of it is a fairly new introduction to the cpr community because it used to be nearly the elephant because it's the same rhythm nearly the elephant right I'm trying to say goodbye to the circus it's the same oh there

you go there you go I passed my first day training by a hair because I wasn't listening which is great exactly such rigorous standards they've got I still pass man anyway that will be a huge comfort to the person who you failed to do best aid on correctly hey i still passed man don't fucking die god's so rude you wimp crack on anyway so let's get back to bill and bridget the day after bill's mysterious death bridget went to pick up the kids her grandkids that is from school to tell them that their grandfather was now dead but when she got there she was told that their mum had already picked them up. And so Bridget went to Melissa and Chris's house to get the kids. And there she found that the place was locked up and nobody was home. After a few days

of trying to get in touch with Melissa, Bridget reported the kids missing to the police. The next day, a judge granted Bridget sole custody of Caleb's two children and issued an arrest warrant for Melissa. Meanwhile, Caleb was paroled on the 15th of June after having served just three months of his sentence. He went back to his parents' house to find that his father had died and that his children had been abducted. Bridget hired private investigators to help find the kids and police across Canada were on the lookout for Melissa and Chris. But it would take seven months before the police tracked Melissa and Chris down, all the way out in Nova Scotia, because they'd moved there, changed their names,

were living off the grid and had even dyed the children's hair. Which I don't know why, but dyeing little children's hair feels like the most sinister part of that entire thing to me. But they got caught, not because of, I don't know, hair dye receipts or whatever, but because Chris had fucked up when he'd signed a rent check using his real name. Go back to high school, Chris. I know. Well, no. So Melissa was arrested in November 2009 for parental abduction

and returned to Ontario. A condition of her bail was that she would not be allowed to have unsupervised contact with her children. Despite this, though, Melissa and Chris made numerous unannounced visits to Bill and Bridget's home. On the 10th of April 2010, after Caleb and Bridget spotted Melissa outside of their house, she was arrested again and spent three days in jail.

On the 16th of April, so just a few days later, Caleb's family got together to commemorate the first anniversary of Bill's death at their house. Bridget was inconsolable. On top of confronting her loss, she was also facing the pressure of speaking at Melissa's hearing for parental abduction the following week. Bridget had written a letter about how hard it had been to lose her husband and then her grandchildren the following day. She also wrote, interestingly, that she felt the two incidents were connected in some way.

But she never made it to the hearing. On the 21st of April 2010, the day before the hearing was due to take place, Caleb's eight-year-old son came home from school to find Bridget lying dead at the bottom of the stairs. He ran to the neighbours for help and they called an ambulance, but of course, just like it had been for Bill, it was too late. And just like Bill, yet again, Bridget's autopsy was carried out by a pathologist who had not yet completed their training. The autopsy found that Bridget had bruising on her neck, cervical spinal fractures and broken ribs.

So the pathologist, despite not having graduated pathology school, concluded that Bridget was either strangled or fell down the stairs. Those are quite different things. Yeah, yes they are. It's one or the other. What's going on, Canada? Yeah, man. What's going on? Yeah, sort it out. Immediately, for this historical case. Well, I mean, 2010. She falls down the stairs. Yeah, no, true. I just meant historical in a completed sense. And there was something else, apart from all of the broken ribs and the cervical spine

and everything else that was wrong with her. Bridget's body was found in quite a strange position for someone who had died from falling down the stairs, and it looked as if her body has been moved after she died. Bridget's death was determined to be suspicious. But there were no signs of break-in, just like there weren't with Bill, and there was no sign of a fight having taken place. Caleb explained this by telling the police that because they lived in a super safe neighbourhood, his parents would rarely lock their doors, so there wouldn't be any signs of the break-in, they would have just walked in. The police interviewed Melissa,

who told them that she'd been working on her new home daycare business on the day that Bridget died, and Chris said he'd been running errands all day. Melissa suggested to police that Caleb possibly murdered his mother, as they had had a bad relationship, but friends and family said that this was ridiculous. But Bridget pushed on. She said that Caleb also had motive because he was the sole heir to Bridget's estate, which had been reported to be worth millions of dollars.

But if it wasn't Caleb, Melissa also handily suggested that maybe Bridget had died from the heartbreak of Bill's death, as it had been so close to the anniversary of when he died. The police investigated everything for roughly two weeks before labelling Bridget's death undetermined, but concluded that no crime had been committed. The chief forensic pathologist did have doubts, but because Bill's body had been cremated, he couldn't have it exhumed to compare evidence to see if the two of them had

been linked. Caleb continued living in his parents' home and fell into a deep depression, but went on raising his two children. Melissa was granted temporary custody and was allowed to have their kids every second weekend. She continued to push for 50-50 custody, but a judge rejected this because of the abduction case. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about.

Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today, I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom. But I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry.

Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is The Rise and Fall of Diddy. Listen to The Rise and Fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't.

I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained.

Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Melissa and Chris decided to move to a farm in Perth County with their own three kids. And they continue to live off the grid, raising goats and pigs. They made cheese and lotions, which they sold on Etsy, and ran a blog with boring updates about their lives. On March 1, 2012, the couple woke up to smoke coming from downstairs. Somehow a fire had started in their living room that night,

and that fire ended up burning down their entire house And killing their animals Did they have the goats and pigs inside? Are they inside pigs? Inside pigs I think is fine Inside goats, fuck no You can't train a goat But fortunately, Chris, Melissa and their kids

Managed to escape the fire just in time And that meant they were forced to move back to Mississauga near Caleb. And he told them that he didn't want the pair of them to see his kids anymore. By this point, Caleb had turned his life around. He was trying to be a good father. He did make one concession, though. He let Melissa have the kids for one final week at the end of summer. Melissa was meant to return the kids back to Caleb on the 24th of

August 2013, but Caleb would never see his kids again. The day before this childcare deadline, the 23rd of August, Caleb failed to show up for work and he didn't answer his phone. And that takes us all the way back in our story circle to the top of the show. We already know that a co-worker of Caleb's and his housekeeper paid him a visit because him not showing up for work and not answering his phone was particularly out of character. And when they got there, they found Caleb in his bed with the sheets pulled up to his chin as though he was sleeping. But Caleb was not sleeping. And Caleb's death was the third death in the same family, in the same house, in the space of just five years. Caleb's knuckles were swollen.

He had deep scratches on his chest and his neck was covered in bruises and abrasions. The autopsy showed that he'd been strangled. When police noticed the undeniable similarities between Caleb's autopsy results and his mother's, they finally began to take the investigation seriously. But Melissa chimes in again and she told the police that the last time she'd seen Caleb was the night before at their daughter's baseball game. And she said that once again, Chris had been running errands all day. It wasn't lost on the police that Caleb had been found dead the day before Melissa was due to return the kids to him,

so the investigators decided to keep a close watch on Melissa and Chris, and they even managed to obtain a warrant to search their bins. Inside, they found a pair of brand new running shoes that they discovered Chris had bought the night before Caleb's death. A pair of gloves were also found, and they were covered in both Chris and Caleb's DNA. Caleb's DNA was also found under Chris's fingernails. I chat a lot of shit about DNA, but under someone's fingernails is quite damning. Yeah, and I also just think if you're gonna chuck away the gloves you used in this murder, spoilers, maybe just don't put them in your own bin. Yeah, and maybe buy a nail brush.

Always. But the police decided that they were going to bide their time. They weren't going to out themselves too soon to Chris and Melissa because they know these two have got form for running off and living off the grid with, like, pigs and goats and cheese and whatever. So they decided they would collect more evidence before they made any arrests.

Meanwhile, two weeks after Chris's murder, Melissa applied for sole custody and expedited the process by saying that she needed proper documentation to enrol the kids in a new school. She was granted full custody in early September, but instead of enrolling the kids in school, within a month she and Chris pulled the kids from school and moved back to Nova Scotia. But before leaving, Melissa did one other thing. She requested a copy of Caleb's will. Because remember, his family's estate was worth more than a million dollars. Up in Nova Scotia, Melissa, Chris and the kids just went on as they had before, hoping to leave the past in the past.

But the police kept them under surveillance. And the police do some pretty clever policing. They invented a woman called Sue Andrews and they posed as her. They emailed Melissa out of the blue offering to help her and her family out financially. And Melissa loves that money. So she took Sue Andrews up on it and Sue Andrews, being the most thoughtful and kind-hearted made-up member of society that ever was to exist, sent Melissa, a total stranger, money to help her pay her rent. And Melissa didn't see anything

weird about that at all. She double didn't see anything weird when mystery Sue Andrews paid for a trip for the family to go to an amusement park, including train tickets, to get there and back. Of course, that was just a ruse for the police to get the family out of the house so they could install bugs. And once they had, they listened to Melissa and Chris's conversations in the house for two months until they had gathered enough incriminating evidence to arrest them. They also searched through Chris and Melissa's computer and they found some pretty alarming Google searches. How long did it take to die from

choking? Secondly, easy ways to kill someone and get away with it. Oh my god. Shall I Google that now and see what comes up? I mean, obviously it's just a suicide support line.

16 steps to kill someone and not get caught thought catalog oh brilliant come on I'm a fucking millennial give it to me and bullet points yeah oh number one keep in mind that extreme heat speeds up the rate of decomposition number two don't kill anyone you're involved with romantically. Top tip. Top tip. Number three, don't bring your cell phone. Another top tip. Number four, buy all things related to your murder in cash. They're not wrong, but also from different places, not all at once. Yes, yes, yes.

And buy the most obvious of those things. Don't buy like a rare knife. Buy a fucking bait knife from Poundland. Number five, if the process of your from Poundland. Number five, if the process of your murder involves a struggle with the victim, make sure to clean their fingernails afterwards. And yours, Chris.

Number six, dump the body in a separate place than the murder scene. That's bad grammar. Number seven, cut off your victim's head and hands. Oh my god. I mean, they're not wrong. It makes it really difficult to identify the body. Number eight, if you're throwing. It makes it really difficult to identify the body. Number eight, if you're throwing body or parts of the body

into a lake, don't put it in plastic bags. Yes, good tips. And if you do use plastic bags, if you must. If you have to. Use one from a major chain. Ah, good.

Not a specific. There you go. Bait bin bags. Bait bin bags. Bait bin bags is the name of my second album. Ah, number ten. arson is useful for eliminating evidence that's this is true that's your fave number 11 it takes longer to burn up

a car than you would think just drive it into a lake instead do you know what that arson one really just does finish off just kill someone in a barn and then set the whole thing on fire and walk away it just destroys everything yeah fire is your friend if you don't know sruti used to set things on fire and then throw them into the windows of children's hospitals when she was a child that's exactly what i did with all of my time nah i just used to spray deodorant onto tennis balls like the tennis balls on fire and then throw them kick them down drains kick them down drains it was the same as into a storm drain it's full of water oh my god, I'm bored of this list. You get the picture. Maybe they read it. Anyway, the third and final incriminating search was this. It's very specific.

If a grandparent has legal custody and they die, which of the parents get the kids? What? There are so many. I mean, I feel like maybe these are just a choice select. These can't be the only three searches they did. I'm sure there was just like, how long does it take for chicken to go off? Like, I'm sure there were normal searches in there as well. No, no, I meant about the murders as well. Oh, okay, okay. They were just the best ones.

They were the best ones, exactly. So in January 2016, both Melissa and Chris were taken into custody. Melissa didn't tell the police anything, but Chris broke down after a 13-hour interrogation. Chris confessed to murdering Bridget and Caleb, but insisted that Melissa didn't know anything about it until after it was already done.

He insisted, however, that he had nothing to do with Bill's death. Police weren't buying it that Melissa had nothing to do with the murders, so they arranged for Chris and Melissa to be flown back to Ontario. But at the airport they had the couple sit alone in a private room while they were waiting for their flight only yet again the room was bugged. These two need to stop having conversations and just assume that the police are bugging everything that they do. Chris can be heard in this bugging telling Melissa that he took the wrap so that she'd only get accessory after the fact,

and so she'd be able to take care of the kids. Their trial took place in 2017, and the tapes from the recordings were played for the jury, and the tapes made it pretty clear that both of them, both Melissa and Chris, were involved in the murders of Bridget and Caleb. The chief forensic pathologist, who they managed to get somehow, went back and reviewed the notes from Bill's shambolic autopsy and concluded that he had been assaulted before his death. But unlike the deaths of Caleb and Bridget, there was no hard evidence pinning Chris and Melissa to Bill's death.

So they were never found guilty of it. But in January 2018, Chris was found guilty of the first degree murder of Bridget and Caleb. Melissa was found guilty just for the murder of Caleb. They were both sentenced to 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole, which I think in Canada is the absolute tops.

I think it's very similar to here. And we catch a lot of stick for bitching about the police and I would say highlighting poor police work. And maybe sometimes we are unfair, but this time I really don't think we are. I think it's undeniable that the police failed to investigate Bill's death properly. Equally, the failings of the pathologist who carried out the autopsy connected to Bill's death undeniably led to the murders of Bridget and Caleb. And so in the space of five years, Caleb's children lost their father, their grandfather, their grandmother,

and they also watched their mother be sent to prison. And that's the end. Not a happy ending, I'm afraid. There's not much to be said about that one. Yeah, I think it's an interesting case purely because it's like from one angle, one perspective, or at least when you first start reading about it, it just seems like this kind of, like I said, sad, mundane family drama of a dysfunctional family going through a lot of the things that sadly a lot of people do, you know, court battles, custody battles, etc. And then from another angle, you look at it and you're like, wait, three members of a family dying years apart in the same house under very similar circumstances almost like a same mo it's like they're being targeted by a serial

killer and then you look at it together and it's like oh both of those things are true but the serial killer the call is coming from inside the house yeah big time and it's a party line i also think having obviously melissa did not have have a good time she went through some really really awful things at the hands of Caleb and Caleb you know is not a perfect angel I do think that because Melissa was yes abused and then also continued to report these instances of abuse over the years child abuse break-ins etc she probably was less likely to be looked into oh absolutely and i think that this is one of those things that's important to say that two things can be true at the same time like she can be a victim of abuse and she was a victim of domestic abuse by caleb but then when

she starts saying things like he's breaking into the house and attacking me and things like that when he was in a cast those things are immediately inconceivable and then obviously she goes on to be involved in the murder of his two parents and him so i think it's like yeah absolutely i think that her sort of status as a victim at the start of this probably did allow this to go on for as long as it did yeah so this week's hot take from red-handed things can be two things. Precisely. And fucking clean your nails. That's gross. That, like, honestly. I think, obviously,

I spend all day every day with you, wouldn't change it for the world. Two specific things have rubbed off on me from you. I drink a lot more water. It's the best. And it's free. And I'm a lot more germy than I used to be. It's just, it's good.

It's good. Drink lots of water and be super germy. And clean your nails. And drink lots of water and be super germy and clean your nails and drink lots of water. Did you know, I'm actually going to tell you about it on Under the Duvet. Okay.

Something gross happened to me this morning. So I'll tell you about it on Under the Duvet. Fabulous. If you are a patron, there you go, perfect segue,

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Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes.

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Start your free trial today. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death.

The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show, Hollywood and crime, the cotton club murder, follow Hollywood and crime, the cotton club murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. You can binge all episodes of the cotton club murder early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus.