The Decibel - Introducing ‘In Her Defence: 50th Street’

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Amber Tuccaro was 20 years old when she disappeared in Edmonton in August 2010. She was never seen alive again. But she left an important clue: a chilling recording of what appears to be the final moments of her life, and the voice of the man who may be her killer.Hosted by The Globe and Mail’s Jana Pruden, ‘In Her Defence: 50th Street’ retraces the final days of Amber’s life, explore her home, the Indigenous community of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta and asks serious questions of the police investigation of her unsolved murder.More episodes of ‘In Her Defence: 50th Street’ can be found here and other platforms where podcasts are available.Support for families impacted by Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is available through the Indian Residential School Survivors Society at irsss.caIndividuals impacted by the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls can contact the MMIWG Crisis Line toll-free at 1-844-413-6649.The Indian Residential School Survivors Society also offers 24-hour support through the Lamathut crisis line toll-free at 1-800-721-0066.

Hi, it's Mainika. Today, we're sharing the new season of the Globe and Mail's True Crime podcast. It's called In Her Defense, 50th Street. This season focuses on Amber Tuckeroe, who disappeared in 2010. But before she went missing, Amber left a vital clue, a recording of what appears to be the final moments of her life and the voice of the man who may be her killer. In her defense, 50th Street is about Amber, her death,

and the flawed police investigation of her unsolved murder. It digs into the case and how it may be connected to other victims of a suspected serial killer. This podcast is hosted by Jana Pruden, a Globe reporter and feature writer who you've also heard on The Decibel before. Jana's award-winning reporting over the last two decades has focused on crime and the criminal justice system. I can tell you that I've listened to In Her Defense, 50th Street, and it's a really gripping listen and also an important story to hear. So today, here's the first episode, and you can find the rest of the series wherever you

listen to podcasts. Jana, where are we? We're at the 2024 Fort Chippewa Winter Carnival. A jigging competition. This is a true crime podcast. It's about the murder of a young Indigenous woman named Amber Tuckero. She grew up with her family here in Fort Chippewan. And when she was 20 years old, she went south to Edmonton with her baby and a friend. And she disappeared.

But not without a trace. Amber left us a message. A final recording of her voice. You better not be taking me anywhere I don't want to go. I want to go into the city. her voice. And the voice of the man who may have killed her. That voice haunts a lot of people, including me. That's why I wanted to make this podcast. I thought that if enough people heard that man's voice, someone would recognize it, and her murder would be solved. Like, how is it that police had this tape, but still haven't found her killer?

And how will Amber and her family ever get justice now? Amber's story spans many seasons. Generations. And it's not over yet. So where to begin? Amber belonged to the Miksu Cree Nation. In the Cree tradition, stories are told in the winter. And so we start Amber's story on a frigid winter night, way up north across a snow-covered lake, in Fort Chippewan, the place that was Amber's home. I know a party is a weird place to start a story about a murder. But every time I thought about where to start, I came back to this evening.

I wanted to bring you here because to understand Amber's story, you need to understand what this night means and where the Tukaros come from. The Winter Carnival is a big deal in Fort Chipp. It's a celebration of Indigenous cultures and traditions that the Government of Canada once tried its hardest to erase. Against this history, the festival is a celebration of survival, of resilience, of never giving up. And I wanted you to know from the start

that the Tuckeros will never give up either. That they will keep telling Amber's story, keep holding the police to account, and keep fighting for justice. It was a beautiful night. Dancers circled the floor in big fur mitts and hats, beaded and embroidered mucklucks and moccasins, and everyone was laughing and clapping and cheering.

The smell of bannock wafted from the kitchen. Amber's family was there, and it's the place Amber should have been to if someone hadn't taken her away. I'm Janna Pruden. From The Globe and Mail, this is In Her Defense, 50th Street. Episode 1.

In Cree, Egi won the heat. In English, missing. Can today be you ask me questions instead of me just talking? Yeah. I'm just tired. I'm just like... Yeah. I jumped out of me just talking. Yeah. I'm just tired. I'm just like.

Yeah. I jumped out Amber last night, too. A good dream, though. What did you dream? It was about we were all together, and Amber was cooking a big feast. So it was a good dream. Jacob was there. Well, well actually all my family was there probably talking about her yesterday

made me dream about her do you dream about her a lot? not really it's usually that freaking nightmare that I have about her right and to have a good dream about her was awesome yeah so one thing that I have a boulder, right? And to have a good dream boulder was awesome.

Yeah. So one thing, this is a really easy question to start with and something I neglected to do yesterday for audio is actually just to have you introduce yourself and say your name, say who you are. Vivienne Tuckrell, mother of Amber Tuckrell. Now, I've been calling you Tootsie because that's what everyone calls you. Yeah. But do you prefer to be Vivian?

No. Okay. Tootsie. Okay. Please, yeah. Okay. And maybe you could also tell us just where we are in the world right now. I'm in Fortchip, Alberta.

Fortchip, Alberta. We were in Tootsie's living room, sitting together on her big soft couch. Her place is cheery with lots of plants and little lime green accents, and it was so warm and cozy compared to the freezing cold day outside. Amber's son Jacob is a teenager, and he was hanging out in his bedroom with their dog, Bob. You'll hear that Tootsie sounds really tired. She's sick. We'll talk more about that later. It had been almost 14 years since Amber disappeared. She was 20 years old then. Jacob was a baby. Honestly, Amber was

struggling a bit, like a lot of young people do. You know, she's just, what can you say about her? She's just a typical young woman there just trying to live her life. That's one of Amber's brothers, Paul Tuckerell. You can't even say live her life because she didn't get a chance to live her life. She was just young. She was, you know, she wanted to hang out with her friends. She was just getting to that stage where she's's learning about life, I guess. And kind of over, I was kind of, I didn't want anybody to be mean to her, I guess, because I think that's why I stayed with her, so I was kind of strict with her,

tried to make her stay home, and then if she wanted to visit, always made sure. She came home, and if she didn't come home, I would go pick her up, because I know, you know, all the young guys, and, you know, like to take advantage of girls, so I didn't want that to happen to my sister. Amber had been living in Fort McMurray, the closest big community to Fort Chip. She'd been staying with her mom and also at a women's shelter called Unity House.

Tootsie says Amber was staying there because she thought they'd help her get her own place. At the shelter, Amber met a woman named Evangeline McLean. The two became fast friends. Evangeline posted a message on Amber's Facebook on Sunday, August 15th in 2010. Call me girl soon, she wrote. Amber responded, can't wait to see you. She added a smiley, winky face. A couple days later, Amber told her mom she was going to Edmonton with Evangeline. She was sitting at my desk and she just yelled out all of a sudden. She was like, Amber, your plane ticket's paid for. I was like, holy shit, you live in a unity house and you're

able to pay for her ticket? She's like, well, I sell purses as well, she said. So more reason for me not to want Amber to go and not to take up what Amber's going to do, what Amber's going to do. Anyway, she was stubborn like that. She said it was only for a couple nights. It sounds like you didn't like this Evangeline, or you didn't trust her. Not that I didn't like her, because I didn't know her, right? But I just, you know, you know when something's not right, even, right? Gut instinct, I guess.

Tootsie told me Evangeline said she had a back problem, and she wanted Amber to come with her to the doctor. At Tootsie's apartment, Evangeline and Amber bleached blonde streaks into Amber's long, dark hair. It was Tuesday, August 17, 2010. So they left. And of course I went down when the cab came

and after the fact I remember when Amber was hugging me there before she left it was a different hug like a different but I didn't think of it at that time

it was after I don't know if it at that time. It was after. I don't know if it was the last hug, maybe. Or maybe I should just kept on hugging her. I don't know. I don't know. Like, there's a lot of little things that I think about now that I don't know if there were signs or something but when you think about it after it's like damn

you know I should have or I shouldn't have you know. Shit this still hurts like Amber just went missing. You want to take another little break? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I was working at a newspaper in Regina in those days, and I'd been covering a lot of stories about missing and murdered Indigenous women. Amber Redman, Melanie Geddes, five-year-old

Tamara Keepness. Similar stories were happening around the prairies, around the country, and the crisis was starting to get noticed. The most recent statistics say the homicide rate of Indigenous women is six times higher than that of non-Indigenous women. There are so many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls that there's a shorthand for it, MMIW or MMIWG. That wasn't used back in 2010, but there was clearly something going on in the country. And there was something going on, specifically, in Edmonton. There just seemed to be a disproportionate number of cases in that city, and some of them seemed to have high-level commonalities. This is my colleague Matt McClern. Matt was part of a Globe and Mail investigation into missing and murdered Indigenous women that started in 2014. What did you learn about why there were so many cases happening around Edmonton?

Well, it's a great mystery because most of these cases were never solved, even though the RCMP formed a group called Project CARE to look specifically into these cases. But most of these cases remain unsolved to this day. And so it's hard to be definitive about any of this, about why it was happening. I remember interviewing an academic out there who said Edmonton is just a really violent city. And to this day, so many of these cases, we don't know whether it really was serial predation. I think a lot of people assume it was. But without having somebody convicted for them, it's very hard to say that. But there just seemed to be so many cases that had some of these loose commonalities that we could see with the information we had that it really did seem that there was something going on here. But the information we have too, I think, indicates that

if it was serial predation, there were probably multiple offenders. You know, it wasn't just a single individual who was responsible for all of this. I want to underline that because it's really important. There were so many women being murdered in Edmonton then that it seemed like it wasn't just one serial killer, but multiple men preying on women in the city. And many of the women were indigenous. I don't know if Amber knew what was going on in Edmonton or if it worried her, but her family understood the risks that young women face, and they tried really hard to keep her safe. This is Paul's wife, Judy Ann Cardinal. Amber lived with them when she was a teenager.

But after a while, she wanted to start going out with her friends. I don't know, growing up in Chipper, we wanted what's best for her. We wanted her to finish school I don't know, growing up in CHIP we're kind of like, we wanted what's best for her. We wanted her to finish school and, you know, maybe go back to school and do something, but it's like any young person. You want to go out and experience things and Paul was pretty strict. Go find her, make sure she came home. She was even hiding in the bush once when he went to look for her. He was like, Amber, you gotta come home. And I used to tell her that, you know, when you go places like Fort Chipps, Fort

Chipps, but you go out of town, like you can't go all over the place and because there's bad people out there. I think of that a lot. I used to tell her, you know, there's people that you could get killed and look what happened. I think about that all the time. I used to tell her that. I think that's why we hold our children so close now, because they're Indigenous.

Especially our daughter, we only have one daughter. I think trauma from that just went on to our children. But Amber didn't, I don't know, she went to school and then she didn't want to and then she got sent to her dad and then that's when she just, she was all over her dad and high level, McMurray, high level, McMurray. Then she wanted her own place. She wanted a new house.

That's where she met Evangeline. Do you know how old she would have been more or less when she kind of moved away? I would say 15, 16. And was it she's moving away or she's just here and there and not coming back as much? She came back. She always came back home. It was like where she went she never felt wanted. She said sad to say but she just felt lost, I guess. Because I know I love that girl just like she is my own.

Just like anybody else, everybody wants what's best for their children. When did you first realize, or do you remember when you first realized something was wrong? When she wasn't answering her phone. And then Evangeline telling me that she was sleeping at 9 o'clock, 9.30 at night. I knew something was up when she stopped answering her phone. Because not like Amber, to not answer her phone. Tootsie and Amber didn't always get along. You know how mothers and daughters are. But they

were still close, and they texted and talked a lot. Even when she took Jacob for a walk to the park, or she went to the store, I'd text her all the time. She's like, you text me too much, or you call too much. And I was like, but that's what moms do. Yeah, we were close. Because throughout the day when she went missing, like we had been on the phone texting and talking, and all of a sudden there was nothing. But I kept calling her phone.

I text her. Nothing. And when Evangeline told me that they were sleeping, Jacob and Amber, I was like, holy shit, something is wrong here. Something is not right. And then Evangeline called me. She's like, is this Jacob's grandma I was like holy shit something's not right so I said yeah and she's like I have Jacob with me and Amber took off last night she said I was like what do you

mean she said yeah she took off in the middle of the night. She went to pick up pizza and never came back. I was like, when? You said she was sleeping. Like, when did she get up? She's like, well, she said she needed to go buy pampers. And her story kept changing right there. I was like, well, what's the truth here? Evangeline told Tootsie to come get Jacob right away.

But while the family was figuring that out, Evangeline checked out of the motel, gave Amber's suitcase to the front desk, dropped Jacob off with the authorities, and left the city. Can you tell me about the time when she went missing, when you knew that she was missing? Well, Tootsie told us.

She was worried because she said never heard from Amber. She'd been trying to call her. I know it was just, when things happen like that, it's like you don't remember because you're in you're in panic mode we didn't know anything until my mom well she was living with mary we're living over here you know we're all living our lives then then my mom was like i got a call and i said yeah your sister's left and whatever and then she never no answer or you know we didn't what are you going to think because you don't know then she got on on the phone and said, yeah, you know, she's with this white woman,

and, you know, Jacob, Amber never come back, and she's going to phone child welfare, and we need to try to go, to go get Jacob. Amber had been out of touch with her family for short periods before, but this time was different. Tootsie called the police. So I called and I said I wanted to report my daughter missing. And they asked when was the last time I seen her. And I said two days ago I think because I seen her in McMurray, right? I said, I want to report her missing.

And he said to me, well, she's probably out partying. She should be back. She'll come back, he said. I was like, no. No, he said, we're not going to put her on the missing persons list. I said, no, you have to put her on the missing persons. And we talked for a while, like back and forth. Then he said, okay, I will. So then I called back again.

The more I know the status now. She wasn't even on the missing persons. He didn't put her on there. I was like, son of a bitch. I think it took like three, four days before they actually put her in a CPAC or something, whatever it's called. That's CPAC, the Canadian Police Information Centre, a national police database. The police don't call you. You have to call.

And I would call throughout the day, in the evening, late at night. And the police said to me, don't call back, we'll call you. I was like, you won't call me. I just kept calling and calling. And on September 1st, I called in and wanted to know the status of Amber's case. And, oh, she's been taken off the missing persons, he said. And I was like, why? Well, because she was seen at a gas bar. I said, did you guys see her? He's like, no.

But you guys always told me she has to be seen and identified like 100, 110%. But yet, at the same time, they took her off without the police identifying her. It took me one freaking month to get her back on the missing persons after that. I don't know. They don't give a shit, those guys. Oh, and this one officer said to me, I said, you guys don't give a shit. I said, what if it was your daughter or your sister

or whatever? Don't try to play that card with me. He said, I was like, oh yeah, play poker, let's play. They don't care how they talk to you, you know, they'll just look at you right in your eyes and just say what they got to say. Tootsie was getting the runaround, but as you'll come to learn, Tootsie's a fighter, so... So I kept calling, fill up their voicemail. Because that's my baby, right? And I wasn't going to give up. Didn't matter what or who I had to deal with. Those early weeks must have been really terrible. My goodness, you have no idea.

Well, we always do, we always got a shitty deal being First Nation people. But then it's funny that, you know, a few years before, whatever, I used to think, nobody's going to go missing from CHIP, you know, we're so small, so isolated. Then what do you know, my sister goes missing. And, you know, we had no faith in RCMP. If we didn't do what we did as a family and with the resources and the people that helped us, we probably wouldn't be anywhere where we are today. I we did as a family and with the resources and the people that helped us, we probably wouldn't be anywhere where we are today.

I know that for a fact. Your mom really knew right away, it sounds like, that something was wrong, that it wasn't. Did you feel the same way that you knew right away that something was the matter? Yeah. Why would Amber be going somewhere to Edmonton with a woman she just met? The day Tootsie reported Amber missing, an RCMP officer phoned Evangeline. According to the officer's notes from the time,

Evangeline said Amber was going out to get something to eat and never came back. The officer thought Evangeline was mostly upset that Amber had taken her sweater and some money and left the baby. A few days later, Evangeline posted another message on Amber's Facebook page. It said, hey, please call me. I'm worried sick. Amber's family didn't trust the police investigation right from the start, and they began doing everything they could to find Amber themselves, even when the police didn't seem to want them to. We even asked the start, and they began doing everything they could to find Amber themselves,

even when the police didn't seem to want them to. We even asked to search. They wouldn't let us in that area that, you know, in the Lidu. It was like excuse after excuse. Oh, the farmers won't let you on their land. And that's why you ask people to say, could I search your land? Or looking for someone.

But it was so, like, so stressful because people were seeing her, but it wasn't her. Especially in the Edmonton area. And not knowing if the police were really following through with checking to see if it was really her. It was hard. It was so... I thought I was going to go crazy then, just... And plus I had Jacob too, right?

So I couldn't just get up and go at any time. It was really hard. So people contacting you would be just sometimes, you know, just strangers and people in the public? Yeah, strangers and also people from back home that were living in Edmonton. So my hopes would go up and back down again with every message or with every call. Sometimes Amber seemed so close,

but she was always just out of reach. When Tootsie heard Amber was in a room at a shady motel in Fort McMurray, she went there and started banging on the door. She told the manager, Well, if you don't open that door and check if Amber's in there, I'm going to call the police.

No, no, no, he said. So I call the police, I call the police. So they come there and they raided the hotel. But she wasn't there. It was a different Amber. It seems like the right Amber had stayed there. Her friend Teresa Antoine remembers that. I remember I talked to her just before she went to Edmonton.

I remember she was staying at the Plain Plain Hotel. I remember she told me she was there. And she said that she was, I don't know, doing whatever. And I told her we were just talking on the phone. We were just joking and laughing. And then she said, she said, okay, because I have to go. She's like, I love you. I love you.

And then she said, okay, I'll call you. I'll call you in a couple days. I said, okay. I was like, I'll come to your mom's. I'll come visit you. I told her. She said, okay. And then that was the last time.

The last time I talked to her. Teresa also went to look for Amber at the Twin Pines. My Lord, it was like ghetto. It was just ghetto. It gets to the old, like, fat ghetto. Did you know anything about this woman, Evangeline, that she was supposedly hanging out with? Nope.

Were you worried about Amber at that time? Honestly, I didn't know what she was... Me and her would talk about our kids and stuff, about Jacob. We would just talk about life. We wouldn't talk about anything else. She wouldn't tell me what she was doing and stuff. Because at the time, I wasn't really into that kind of stuff. But I think she kind of withheld that kind of thing that she was doing.

I don't think she wanted me to know. But if she was doing stuff like that think she wanted me to know but if she was doing stuff like that i still i don't remember her like that well and i think we don't we don't really know you know that's kind of a a story that's like been out there in the media of that she was i know her as a good mom always home she's always taking care of her son from as long as like it was always her. She always was her boy. It was her whole world. A year after Amber disappeared, her family held a March press conference and vigil in Edmonton

to bring more attention to her case. Her disappearance had received virtually no coverage before that. But a police officer now told the media the circumstances of Amber's disappearance were suspicious. He said, to have someone literally disappear off the face of the earth, we know someone knows. or call me, because I didn't know any, like, had I had a lot of money, maybe I could have hired an investigator, private investigator or whatever. When did the police tell you that they had that recording? I believe in January 2012. A year and a half after Amber disappeared,

the police now knew what her family had long feared. Amber was dead. And investigators had uncovered a stunning piece of evidence. A recording of what seemed to be the final, terrifying moments of her life, and the voice of the man who may be her killer. Y'all, we're not going in the city, are we?

No, we're not. Then where the fuck are these roads going to? 50th Street. Coming this season on In Her Defense, 50th Street. And it was at that point determined that we were likely looking at a serial offender or offenders. Who is the Leduc County killer?

I think to our family, like, she was our special baby. She was a mother, and she was funny, and she had this laugh that you laugh at, and she'll laugh with you. We've got hardcore evidence here, and what do we do with it? How do we do this? Well, it's not that easy, though. Because a lot of these murders remain unsolved. Oh, many, many, many. Yeah, most more are unsolved than not. Like, they know who done it. And so do I.

It's so hard to understand on top of everything else that our family feels and has to go through, you know? Bring our sisters home! Bring our sisters home! Bring our sisters home! On behalf of the RCMP, I am truly sorry. In Her Defense, 50th Street is made by Kasia Mihailovic and me, Jana Pruden.

Our sound design and mix is by David Crosby. Field recording by Amber Bracken. Our managing editor is Matt Frainer. Thanks also to Mark Ipe, James Keller, and Angela Pachenza. All our episode titles were translated into Plains Cree by Dorothy Thunder. Hi, my name is Dorothy Thunder. I greet all of you. I am from Little Pine First Nations in Saskatchewan.

So for me, Nehiyawin is very nurturing for me because it's my first language, and it's very rich and complex, right? So I'm really fortunate to have been taught my first language and it's very rich and complex, right? So I'm really fortunate to have been taught my first language and Cree being my first language and English being my borrowed language, right? So for me, it's really a very beautiful feeling to have it and to hear it and to carry it and to pass it on to the next generation. At the end of every episode, you'll hear Dorothy explaining the Cree word and her translation. Our episode today was called Missing. Like this, Ewanahit.

Ewanahit. Yeah, she has been lost. Nobody has heard from her. She's missing. Ewanahit. She was, yeah, in the past tense. Right. Ewanahit. Ewanahit. She was, yeah, in the past tense. Right. A he went a he.

A he went a he. Our cover art is a painting of Amber by Lauren Crazybull. Our theme song is No Surrender by Ms. Panic. Art direction by Ming Wong. Additional Cree language consultation and translation by Barbara Scott. Thank you to Elder Joanne Saddleback, Carrie Benjo, Danielle Parody, and Amber Bracken for cultural guidance and feedback on our drafts. We'd love to hear what you think too. You can reach me by email at jpruden at globeandmail.com that's j-p-r-u-d-E-N at globeandmail.com. Or by leaving us a review

on Apple Podcasts. If you rate and review us, it helps other people find the show. And you can share it other ways too, on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, or just send it right to your friends. In Her Defense, 50th Street is recorded at Gabby Road Studio on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton, also known as Amiskwitchi Wiskagin or Beaver Hills House. Support is available for residential school survivors and their families through the National Crisis Line at 1-800-721-0066. Kinenaskim Tnawau. Thank you for listening.