Suspicion - S1 Death in a Small Town | E3 The Case

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

Shortly after Nathaniel is buried, police use a ruse to bring his parents in for interrogation. Rose-Anne and Kent reveal new information and the mystery of what happened to their son deepens. Audio sources: Toronto Star, CTV News London

The Billionaire Murders is brought to you by Havelock Metal, the only roof and siding you'll ever need. The following content contains discussions of child injury and death, including frank discussions and displays of emotion surrounding that loss. Listener discretion is advised. From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan, and this is Death in a Small Town, Episode 3, The Case. I'm the Lord of sea and sky. I have heard my people's cry. Oh, the cloud of dark and sin, my hand will save. Kent and I have been blessed with four beautiful boys.

Gabriel, Lucas, Noah, and Nathaniel. We love and adore each and every one of them. They have changed our lives in such special ways. It's November 6, 2015, at Sacred Heart Church in Park Hill. Roseanne, Nathaniel's mother, stands behind a lectern on the stage. She has a round, expressive face and when she smiles, which she somehow manages to do today, it's like a camera flash going off. It penetrates the room. Her son's small, simple wooden casket is to her left, blanketed by yellow, white, and purple fall flowers. There's a framed photo of Nathaniel. It beams out at family and friends

packed into the large church. Roseanne is composed, her teacher voice strong. It's easy to imagine her addressing a classroom of grade 7s, which is what she was doing when she got the call about Nathaniel being hurt. She rakes her dark hair back

over her shoulders as she begins. Miss Daniel was our baby and since his arrival has brought us so much joy. As I rocked him each and every day, I seemed to find a peace and a calmness that I had not yet known. If you happen to see me, I am sure that I glowed. Our family blossomed. Nathaniel's time with us is not over. He will watch over us and be with us each and every day for the rest of our lives. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us. There were so many prayers. Your support and prayers continue to give us strength, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. God bless everyone,

and I love you, Nathaniel's parents, Roseanne and Kent, had made the decision to remove their son from life support. Nathaniel was brain dead. Yet here was Roseanne, cool, collected. Some were surprised that a mother would have the ability to speak at her son's funeral, and it would be just one of the many behaviors of the McClellans that would go under a microscope. Heather Jennings was not surprised. She's a well-known event photographer who, in mid-career, decided to become a funeral director.

She said she felt a calling to help people in crisis. I had heard in advance that Roseanne was going to be speaking. And knowing I could never do that, I cry easily, so that wasn't something I would be able to do. But Roseanne had such determination that she wanted people to know Nathaniel. Heather said that when the call came in to her funeral home about Nathaniel, it was a shock. She was new to the industry, not much more than a year's experience with grieving families. Heather knew the McClellan family well. She'd grown up knowing Kent, their kids play hockey together,

and Heather often shoots hoops with Roseanne and pick up basketball games. I remember being as prepared as I could document-wise going into the arrangement process. Emotionally, I don't know that you could prepare yourself at all. I remember not wanting to have Kent and Roseanne walk into that funeral home. So I went out to the parking lot to meet them. It just, emotionally, it's still very hard. Heather helped the McClellans with two special requests. As Nathaniel was in the casket, anyone who saw him would have seen that there was actually a braid of Roseanne's hair in his hands.

And he would always play with Roseanne's hair in his hands. And he would always play with Roseanne's hair. So she made sure she actually had a portion of her hair braided and cut so that he could hold that. And having the kids be able to draw pictures for him and things, they were very, very concentrated on helping the kids through the process. Kent sat in the front row, head bowed. He knew he could not speak without breaking down. As Father Tony LaFerrette welcomed the congregation,

Roseanne sat close to Kent, slowly moving her hand over his back, trying her best to comfort him. Nathaniel's brothers, Gabe, Luke, and Noah, they did speak. Roseanne had to pull a stool from under the lectern so the youngest could reach the microphone. The pictures the boys drew, colorful, sunny pictures made with pencil crayons, those were tucked in Nathaniel's casket before burial. They gave me that, but I gave him a hug.

I saw him, he said bye, when he was on the bus. He said hi when dad came home. I liked having a good brother I love to play with him and I love you Nate I love you Nate I miss you Nate Have a safe trip Nate As a funeral coach and procession left for the cemetery, the children from the adjacent elementary school came out

and lined the road to pay their respects, a tradition in the tight-knit community of Park Hill. Heather, the funeral director, she said the sun burst through the clouds at the moment the procession passed the children. A few hours after the funeral, this story broke on the local news. A criminal investigation is underway into the death of an area toddler. Strathroy Police and OPP are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death last Saturday of a 15-month-old. Police say the child was discovered with injuries on October 27th

and died in a London hospital. Both the OPP criminal branch and the forensic identification unit are involved in the investigation. One media outlet's Facebook and Twitter posting went further, saying Nathaniel had previous injuries. The implications seemed clear. Nathaniel had been a victim of abuse. But by whom?

In Park Hill, in the days that followed, the McClellans were shell-shocked, and the house seemed empty, even though five people lived there. Nathaniel had been a force of nature, the center of attention. Roseanne had taken a leave from teaching. Kent, who owned a heating and air conditioning firm,

could not go into the shop, and certainly was not going to go on any calls, even though with winter coming, it was his company's busiest season. Neither parent was sleeping much. When Roseanne cried, all Kent could think to do was hold her. On the Wednesday after the funeral,

the phone rang. Kent looked at Roseanne across the kitchen table. The boys were at school. Breakfast dishes sat untouched. Kent picked up the phone. It was the police. Strathroy Detective Gilles Fillion, the one who interviewed them at the London Hospital.

You'll hear both Roseanne and Kent's voices in this recording. Ten o'clock. Yeah. Kent said, can you come to the house? Because like we're distraught. Like, can you, and no, we cannot come to the house. We have information from, for you. And if you want it, you have to come here, which should have been a clue to us. But anyways, um, he said 11. Yeah. Got to be here for 11. So I called my dad, uh,

and he came down and picked us up and took us to the Strathroy Police Department. And we had to go in Wayne's car. I couldn't drive. We couldn't drive. And I couldn't get in my truck. It took me months before I got back in my truck. Wayne, Kent's dad, picked them up and they headed to the Strathroy Police Station. A few minutes after Wayne's truck turned off

their long gravel driveway and onto the main road, three police cruisers and a forensics van arrived, coming from the other direction. Search warrant in hand this time. In what would be their third search, officers entered the McClellan home. As is the practice in the country, Roseanne and Kent had left their door unlocked so police were able to just walk in. No notice was given. What the McClellans did not know, and would not learn until I got my hands on police notes two years later, was that detectives from both Strathroy and the Ontario Provincial Police had been busy interviewing doctors, nurses, and social workers

at both hospitals that treated Nathaniel. The behavior of the parents, what they said and did not say, Roseanne in particular, was of interest. Here's Grandpa Wayne. What the Strathroy Police Department has put them through, they were determined that Kent and Roseanne were going to be found guilty. The Strathroy Caradoc Police Service is headquartered in a two-story brown brick building in the centre of town. The local YMCA is one street over, and a McDonald's,

Harvey's, and a Popeye's chicken is across the road. Roseanne and Kent, who had last talked to Strathroy Police at the London Hospital, what seemed like a hundred years ago but was less than two weeks, were hopeful that officers could shed some light on what happened to their son. They were met at the front counter by two detectives, Connie Buckmuller and Todd Amlin, not with the Strathroy Police Department, but with the Ontario Provincial Police, the Criminal Investigation Bureau. The OPP, they were told, was now in charge. We'll be right back.

This is Kevin Donovan. I've been around building and renovation projects my entire life, so I can tell you it's important to make your next roof the last one your house, cottage, or building will ever need. Do it once. Do it right. Do it now. Have a lock metal. Request your quote today. We were both together out at the front, and they came out and said, Kent, we're going to talk to you first.

And so I was like, oh, all right. So I left. And Roseanne and my dad, for all I knew, my wife and my father were out front waiting for me. In reality, as soon as Kent disappeared down the narrow hallway, Detective Amlin told Roseanne he would speak to her at the OPP headquarters across town. It was the only meeting room available, Amlin said. Wayne drove Roseanne, then sat outside in his truck and waited, feeling protective, confused.

Back at the Strathroy station, Detective Buckmuller took Kent into a small windowless room that would be familiar to anyone who watched television police dramas. At the time, the McClellans did not, though that would change. Kent settled into one of two chairs in the room, facing Buckmuller across a small table. Buckmuller has long, wavy blonde hair. She's a veteran detective with special training as a polygraph examiner. They said, you know, Kent, you have the right to a lawyer.

I said, do I need a lawyer? They're like, no, you need to be aware that anything you say here, you could be charged with. We are seeking a manslaughter charge. And that's when I was like, like, what are you talking about? And she said, well, Kent, your son had a nine centimeter fracture in the back of his head I never heard about a nine centimeter fracture that was the first time no doctor no nurse so nobody said about a nine centimeter fracture in the back of my son's head that was the first time I heard it because it took me back like it knocked me off my feet that he had such a severe fracture in the back of his head.

Kent has short-cropped dark hair, an easygoing manner. He's trusting. His business is very much a relationship business. He likes to get along with people. Sitting in the interview room, he found himself struggling. Where was all this coming from? Buckmuller shuffled some papers on the table. I sat back in my seat and I didn't know.

And she said, I said, I don't know, like, what do you want? Like, what do we do? How do we start? And she's like, well, tell me about yourself. I should say here that I've been trying since 2017 to get the audio of these interviews. Police refused to release them. So instead, I'm relying on the recollections of the people interviewed and the police notes, which I do have, relating to all interviews they did. And I said, well, I'm in business. I work a lot.

We started talking. And then we came to the morning of and I told her everything that I told you and then she says is there anything else you want to tell me and I said well I want to tell you that the day before, I don't know if this means anything, but the day before, Nate got bumped by the bathroom or by the back room door and fell. She said, tell me about the stairs. And I said, what stairs? And she said, the stairs that are on the opposite side of the door that hit Nathaniel. And I said, well, those are the stairs to like the old basement. At this point, Kent is realizing that the police have been inside his house.

He had heard from his dad and Kathy Webster that the police had been around twice when they were at the hospital. He does not know yet that they were at his house a third time that morning. He'll find that out later in the day. But until now, it had not dawned on him that they were speculating that Nathaniel had been hurt in their house. Remember, Nathaniel collapsed at the babysitter's. Kent assumed that is where Nathaniel was hurt she said is it possible that nate fell down those stairs and i said no it's it's not possible the detective's theory was that nathaniel was bumped by roseanne opening the big steel door and nathaniel tumbled down into the cellar crashing onto the cement floor now i've seen those those stairs in the McClellan house. The house was built in the 1930s. The main floor, it's been renovated over time, but those eight

steps down to a low ceiling basement, just one step up from a crawl space, they are incredibly steep and dangerous. Fall down those steps and I'm pretty sure you would break your neck, and whether you are an adult or child, you would be severely bruised. But Nathaniel had only one bruise on his left temple. At Detective Buckmuller's request, Kent drew a picture of the layout of the area in front of the stairs, doing his best to explain that the two doors face each other across a short landing, and the way they are oriented, it would not be possible for anyone bumped by one door to fall down those stairs. Besides, he said, the basement door is always closed.

And Kent added one more thought, which to him was as immutable as the laws of physics. And she said, well, how do you know he didn't? And I said, because my wife didn't tell me anything about anything to do with that. But it started to get pretty heated and I said my wife would tell me if Nate fell down those stairs because my wife calls me about every little thing that you know to keep me a heads up because I'm on business I can leave work anytime she can't and she gets up and she goes to leave the room. Now she says, she says, well, that might not be the case or something like that. And I said, are you telling me that my wife had told you that Nate fell down the stairs? Kent says that at the exact moment that Buckmuller pulled open the interview door, he heard a scream, a deep, sobbing scream.

It's a cry to him that sounded strikingly familiar, a scream heard two weeks ago at the London Hospital. And I remember when they told us that Nate was not going to live. Rosie had really, really screamed, really loud. And when they opened the door to the outside, I remember that scream. I remember, Roseanne, I heard that scream. In the police station? In the police station, the Strathroy Police Station.

I heard a crying scream. And of course, the first thing that comes to my mind is, what did Roseanne say? Who made that scream, and for what purpose, was another mystery. Was it some sort of police trick designed to make Kent think his wife had made a confession? To this day, the McClellans do not know. In reality, Roseanne was on the other side of town, sitting across a table from Detective Todd Amlin and another OPP detective, Joan Wilson. Roseanne takes up the story.

Because I interviewed Roseanne and Kent together, you'll hear Kent chime in. The interview began with Detective Amlin reading the standard police caution regarding her rights and then asking if she wanted a lawyer. Roseanne said no, she didn't need a lawyer. Then a few simple questions. Roseanne's job, home life, what Roseanne calls warm and fuzzy questions. Detective Amlin let it be known that police had been talking to her friends and colleagues. Oh, he said like, you know, people say that I'm a great mom and, you know, that everybody knows that I run the show, you know, that kind of stuff, like you're super mom.

Roseanne said she wanted to get immediately to the door bump issue. She'd been thinking about it since her only other police interview, the one two weeks ago, a couple of hours after Nathaniel had been transferred to the London hospital. She wanted to make sure the OPP had all the facts. She tells Detective Amlin about something that happened on the Monday night, about 5 p.m., the day before Nathaniel collapsed at the babysitter's. Roseanne's teacher nickname at North Meadows is Mighty Mouse, a reference to an old cartoon with a very powerful but small superhero.

She speaks very quickly, lots of energy, nothing slow. When I first talked to her, I had to put a tea towel under my recorder because she has a tendency to tap the table hard when she makes a point and that disrupted the sound quality. I wanted to tell him about the night before because I hadn't told him yet and I didn't want that, like I didn't want it to be like I was withholding it because I wasn't, I didn't remember and I told him that I didn't remember this. I wish I remembered, and he said, oh, I'm sure you do.

And because we're renovating, the back room is a disaster. Like, we were renovating, and everything's piled everywhere, and I thought, oh, I'm going to clean this back room, because stuff was made, lunches are made. Roseanne explains that the back room is down a step. The door, it's cold out there, so they keep it closed. It's a heavy steel door and there's a small window in it. But Roseanne is not tall enough to see in the little window

when she is on the other side. And so I was cleaning the laundry room back into the back room, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And Nathaniel is toddling beside me back and forth. And I walked out and I don't know if I closed the door, he closed the door, but the door was closed. So when I went to come back in, he bumped behind the door. I told the police I don't do anything slow because I don't. That's how I am. But the back room, as you can see, is only about six feet long. So it's not like I could have a lot of momentum or, you know, be crazy.

So it was just a normal thing. Did he cry when he fell? Yes. He was mad. So when I got to him, he was laying back and his arms were, and he was like, ah. Like he was mad. He was not pleased that he had fallen.

And I scooped him up and I carried him into our living room. And by the time I got to the rocking chair, he was done crying. And then when I was in the rocking chair, Kent came home. And Kent, and he got down, walked to Kent because Kent came in this door. Came in that door. And Nate came running towards me, and I scooped him up. I was talking to Roseanne, and that hat, there was a hat.

Well, before that, though, I had to tell you. Oh, yeah, I said, how was your day? And you said, oh, we had some tears. Detective Amlin asked a question. And Todd asked me, did he stop breathing? Was there a point where he wasn't crying? And I said, no, he was mad. He was crying. When Roseanne finished her explanation,

she tried to hand over a USB stick, a flash drive she had brought with photos on it. One was taken by neighbor Kathy Webster. She's the one who looks after Nathaniel Mondays and Wednesdays. It was taken before the door bump. Nathaniel's in a high chair eating a piece of cake at around 4 p.m. The other photo is one of Nathaniel after the door bump. Nathaniel's in a high chair eating a piece of cake at around 4 p.m. The other photo is one of Nathaniel after the door bump. He's wearing a silly party hat. It was Roseanne's birthday the next day and the family was clowning around with a hat they wanted Roseanne to wear. In the second photo, the one after the door bump and the tears, you can see Nathaniel

grinning and you can see he has a tiny red mark in the center of his forehead. In the photo, you can hardly notice it. What Roseanne was trying to explain with the pictures was that the big bruise doctors had seen on Nathaniel's left temple, the one Kent also noticed that first day in the hospital, that was not there on the Monday night. But Roseanne said the OPP detective, he didn't want the photos. And I have the stick

and I want them to take the stick because the picture to me, it's so clear, right? Like there's this picture of him eating cake and Kathy's here. And an hour later, there's this little red mark that wasn't there an hour before. That's the door. Here you go. Just getting the police to take the photo stick was a battle and it provided the only comic relief in a tense two hour long interview. I drove him nuts because I had this flash drive that was made medic, and I kept clicking it the whole time. He took it away, I think, at one point, but I got it back. He actually took it away from you?

He might have. No, he didn't take it away from me. It was a steel table, and I clicked it once, and it fell, and it stuck to the ceiling. He was like, don't touch it. Eventually, Strathroyd detective Gilles Fillian, who had by this time arrived at the OPP station, he took the photo stick from Roseanne.

As she walked outside, she was left with one terrible thought. Nobody would believe them. In my interview, I said, you know, I opened the door and it ruined my life. And I probably didn't explain it. I said, like, because I opened my door, this door in the door and it ruined my life. And I probably didn't explain. I said, like, because I opened my door, this door in my house, it ruined my life. But I didn't mean like,

like it ruined my life because I hurt my son. I meant, and I said, because people are going to judge. People are going to assume that that's what killed him. And it's not. It's not what killed him. The police told Roseanne they had no more questions, but they would be in touch. Kent had arrived at the OPP station, driven by Detective Fillion, in a beat-up undercover car with a baby seat in the back, which Fillion explained was there to stop people from thinking it was actually a cop car. There was rock music blasting from the radio when Fillion started the engine. Kent recalls thinking that he expected the police to be more professional.

Grandpa Wayne, who had been waiting outside, collected Roseanne and Kent, and they headed for home, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Why the focus on them? Police had asked them if they would agree to take a lie detector test. Both did later, and they both passed. As they left Strathroy behind, small retail strips giving way to checkerboard farms, all three had the same thought. Are the police even talking to Megan, the babysitter? What did she have to say?

Had they asked her to take a polygraph? They had no contact with Megan since Nathaniel went to hospital, and she had not attended the funeral. With hindsight being 20-20, Roseanne said she thinks she was too trusting of the police in those early days. I talked too much, and I honestly believed, if you have all the right information from me, you will be able to figure out what has happened to my child.

And if you have all the right information from Megan, you will be able to. And so that was what I did. Next time, on Death in a Small Town. When I would take Nathaniel, although he would cry when I dropped him off, all my other children cried at the other babysitters too, so that didn't raise any big red flags. But also when I dropped him off, she said to me one day, you know, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my favorite days because, you know, I love babies.

Hello. Hello, is Megan there, please? This is Megan. Megan, my name is Kevin Donovan, and I'm a reporter with the Toronto Star. I've been looking into a case of that sad situation involving Nathaniel, who died about two years ago. Right. But I was wondering if I'd be able to talk to you about it, what happened. I don't know what to say.

I don't know if I should contact my lawyer. I really, I have no idea. I don't know. I don't know what to say, honestly. It's kind of out of the blue that someone would be contacting me because I haven't heard anything about it in months and months and months. Death in a Small Town was researched, written, and narrated by me, Kevin Donovan, and produced by Raju Mudder, J.P. Fozzo, and Sean Pattenden. Additional production was done by Andrea MacDonald, Kelsey Wilson, and Brian Bradley. Photography by Lucas Olenek. Music and sound design for the series created by Sean Pattenden. From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan, and this is Death in a Small Town.