Uncover - S10 "The Village 2" E2: 'Not a high priority'

Episode Date: July 4, 2021

When Alloura disappears her friends and family organize to find her, only to be brushed off by police. A stranger reaches out and provides some unsettling answers, but many questions remain. Note: If you're in crisis or just looking for someone to talk to, try the Trans Lifeline’s Hotline — a peer support phone service run by trans people for trans and questioning folks: CAN [phone] or US [phone] For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/the-villiage-season-2-transcripts-listen-1.6076988

I'm David Ridgen, host of the award-winning podcast Someone Knows Something. Each season I investigate a different unsolved case, from a mysterious bomb hidden in a flashlight to two teenagers killed by the KKK. The New York Times calls SKS a consistently rigorous intelligent gem, and Esquire named the series one of the best true crime podcasts of 2021. Find Someone Knows Something wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. I was like, where's Elora?

And, you know, she was on her Facebook every day. In July 2017, when Elora didn't get on that bus to Montreal to see Leila, her friend Monica Forrester noticed her Facebook also went quiet. She was always talking about her relationship or doing these messages to her boyfriend and stuff like that. It had been like a few months that he hadn't reached out to me and like not checking his Facebook or anything. that he hadn't reached out to me, and not checking his Facebook or anything. Just a reminder that sometimes her sister Michelle slips into using male pronouns for Elora.

I just knew something wasn't right, because that's the only way that we would communicate, because he would lose his phone all the time. I basically messaged every single person on his Facebook, just asking what's going on. You know, a lot of these women that are street-based workers, sometimes most often they go to jail. And in Elora's case, she was in and out of jail due to being homeless and stealing to survive. So, but like for makeup or food or whatever that was.

Her friends assumed that, once again, the justice system had caught up with Elora. So I said, okay, let me phone the venue. So trans women are now allowed to go to women's jails. Not saying it's the best place to be. For years, trans women sentenced to a crime had no choice but to be sent to men's prisons, and trans men went to women's prisons, and it was absolutely brutal. If the outside world was hostile to trans people, prisons were a particularly nasty place. The fact that Allura was incarcerated in a women's prison is a small victory that she owed to a trans woman named Cynthia Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 15 years. Even though the judge in her case recommended Kavanaugh serve in a women's

facility, the Canadian government expressly forbade that. She would tell the Toronto Star a couple years later, if I'd have known I'd be spending 15 years in a prison for men, I would have asked the judge to sentence me to death. Kavanaugh spent years fighting the policy. In 2001, a human rights tribunal agreed with her. It would take years more fighting, but today, trans people can be incarcerated based on their gender identity. So when Laura Wells was arrested, always for minor things like shoplifting or prostitution, she wound up at Vanier, a women's prison just outside Toronto. So we phoned Vanier, and I, you know, I used Elora Wells. They said, oh yeah, she's there.

So I said, okay, so that's good, we know where she is. She's in jail, she'll be out probably very soon. They couldn't tell us the release date or anything and she said that oh don't worry he's in jail i'm like oh okay so i call the jail and i say the name of laura wells and they say yeah she's here i'm like okay that summer michelle monica everybody thinks thinks Allura is sitting in a jail cell, criminalized, again, for being a sex worker, or for being homeless, or poor, or really for being trans.

But months go by, and by the fall, Allura doesn't come through the front door of Maggie's. There's no updates to her Facebook profile. And then, Michelle sees a post that makes her heart stop. This guy writes rest in peace on her profile. I'm like, what? Like, how do you know anything? Why are you saying rest in peace? And he's like, oh, I just heard she was missing.

And just beating around the bush, beating around the bush, and then he finally deleted it. That Facebook post, it's unsettling to say the least. It makes Michelle nervous. Around that time, Monica starts getting worried too. I was like, this is strange. She wouldn't be in jail this long. You know what I mean?

I know she's dead like months at a time, but like three, four months for something, right? So we found the jail and they said, oh no, she was never in jail. So then that's when alarm bells started going off, right? So everyone was talking about it, but no one, you know, no one knew where she was. My heart sunk.

I knew something wasn't right. I'm Justin Ling, and this is The Village. By late fall, Allura's friends knew she was missing, and they knew that Augustina's, her boyfriend, was still around. So Michelle reaches out to him. I'm like, Elora's not dead, right? There's a rumor, and people are posting rest in peace on her profile. This is you writing.

This was 2017, September 16th. I'm like, hello, aren't you her boyfriend? Please say something. Sorry, I haven't seen her for a month or so. I was in jail for a bit, but I heard that as well. Frustrated and without answers, Michelle and Monica start posting on her Facebook wall. Where the fuck are you? Michelle writes in early November.

Both women start checking shelters and support services. Michelle has left Toronto, and Monica isn't family. So they reach out to Elora's dad and ask him to file a police report. On November 4th, her dad, Michael Wells, walks into a police station not far from where Elura was last seen. Then the police says, oh, we know Allura. You know, here's a number. She's probably not missing because she was homeless.

She's probably anywhere. So he was really disturbed that they wouldn't take a police report immediately but give him a number to call. According to Michael, the sergeant behind the desk took no notes and seemed disinterested in Elora's disappearance. He would later say that he felt the cops saw his daughter as a nobody. I know they gave him a hard time. Like, my dad's a little rough around the edges, you know. That could have been the reason why. The Toronto police say they did some rudimentary database checks on Elora,

but we know for sure that police did not open a missing persons file on Elora on November 4th. We're like, screw this shit. You know, I'm tired of people treating trans people like this. Regardless if we're homeless, we're addicts, whatever we are, we deserve the same rights as everyone else. Two days later, Michael tries another police detachment, 51 Division, which covers the village. Things go a bit better the second time around.

The officers actually take the missing persons report seriously. But Monica, she's mad as hell. At that time, I was like, screw you, I'm going to media. Like, this is not acceptable. Especially, this is someone's daughter. This is like, she has a mother, she has a father, she has friends, she has community that loves her. And just to dismiss her as a human being was just terrible.

They light a candle for Elora Wells, hoping she's safe. She was last seen at this drop-in centre for sex workers and their supporters on July 21st. Wells used to come here every Wednesday. For her not to be around for four months just seemed so odd that she would just disappear. So not being on Facebook since July was really alarming. Police insist they are taking this case seriously. A spokesperson told CBC if the first response to the family indicated lack of urgency, that is not the response of this organization.

November 9th, the Toronto Police Service puts out a news release. It would be the first time they say anything publicly about Elora. November 9th, the Toronto Police Service puts out a news release. It would be the first time they say anything publicly about Elora. Police are concerned for her safety, it reads. There's a phone number at the bottom, encouraging people with information to call Maggie's if they don't want to reach out to the police. Within hours, Monica's phone pings. Someone has already reached out. The subject line of the email reads,

Transgender dead body found in Toronto. Monica doesn't recognize the name. Hello. There's no easy way to say this, but on August 5th, I found a decomposing dead body in the Rosedale Valley Road Ravine. I had just been in contact with detectives handling the case. The person I found was transgendered, and they don't know the identity of the person.

I wanted to reach out to you to see if you know of any transgender missing people. I really hope I hear back from you, as I really don't want this person to slip through the cracks. Much appreciated. as I really don't want this person to slip through the cracks. Much appreciated. That email was actually forwarded to Monica.

The original email had been sent on August 17th, almost three months earlier. The sender, a hiker who had been exploring the Rosedale Ravine, had originally sent it to the 519 community center. She had searched for queer organizations which she believed would be able to fight for this woman, a woman who she had never met. When she didn't hear anything, she relentlessly followed up with both the police and the 519. She took this on as her mission. But honestly, nobody seemed to care. When police went down into the ravine, there were few clues about the woman's identity.

But it was clear she was transgender. An autopsy determined she was between 21 and 28 years old. There were no obvious signs of foul play, and at first, police suspected a drug overdose. But with any suspicious death, they are supposed to alert the homicide squad right away. They didn't. They did consult some missing persons databases, and they planned to do a facial reconstruction to help identify the woman. But it never happened. They did virtually no outreach to the public or to the community to alert them to the fact that a trans woman's body had been found.

Why couldn't they say on our TV or all over media, say, I found a trans body in the ravine. This is what she was wearing. You know what I mean? There was no PR, nothing to really allow community to be notified about this person. They didn't know the circumstance of her death. It's terrible. It's just disgusting that we still live in a society where trans people are not important.

Allura's dad did a DNA test to confirm whether the body was, in fact, Allura. As they waited for the results to come back, Allura's friends had to keep looking, just in case it wasn't her or in case someone out there had information about what happened to her. They went to the media hoping somebody would come forward. Police are asking for the public's help in finding a missing woman who hasn't been seen since July. 27-year-old Allura Wells was last seen in the downtown area. She has a slim build with shoulder-length hair, which may be dyed blonde or pink. I'm joined right now by Monica and Jennifer, who are friends with Allura. You guys right now really want some answers.

I know there was a body found on the 5th that her father is worried that that possibly could be her. What's the biggest concern right now, and what do you think about the police saying now that they're apologizing for the way this was handled? Well, you know, this is concerning to not only the participants that we serve at Maggie's, but to the community, that the community was not notified about this body.

We still have a killer on the loose that killed Cassandra Doe. Cassandra Doe, the woman who was killed in the apartment right above where Allora and Layla lived all those years ago. I understand there's a lot of work to finding out who this person is, but there was no consultation within the community, and we had to do our own work, and thanks to the woman that came forward when they seen the Laura's picture on the news to tell us there was a body found.

The days ticked by as they waited for the DNA results to come back, but they kept at it. Monica helped organize a search in the Rosedale Ravine. Police, the Facebook event said, haven't stepped up. But Allura is a high priority to us. Sex workers are a high priority to us. Trans women are a high priority to us. Dress warm, they added.

Wear a coat and a good pair of boots. That was a pivoting moment for me too because as much as I've did so much activism in the last 20 years, did I really think that community believed in me? And, you know, to launch the search for someone in my community was really scary, right? I was like, is anyone going to show up? You know what I mean?

So there was tons of media there. Scouring the woods and putting up posters of her face, asking the question, have you seen Elora? She was not just a community member. She was a friend. And she needs, you know, validation for for her life and she's just as important as anyone else in our society. She was trans, she was homeless, she was a sex worker and those are just not priorities for the police to search for and it took the family, it took advocates

to pressure the police to actually take her search seriously. Tons of people showed up and at that moment I felt that people really listened to me and you know they really believed in trans people's lives, you know what I mean? And we had people from all over the community, queer people, trans people, straight people. We're going to be navigating again rougher terrain and we're going to go right up the Rosedale Valley. We actually met people in encampments down there. They took us to places where Allura lived. They were mourning too. Allura was a well-known resident down there, you know what I mean? It's a very knit community. There's a lot of trans women that live down there too. And the queer folks kind of have their own kind of encampment or area. It's very territorial down there too.

So you have to be very mindful of where you go. We didn't want to bombard on people's spaces, right? That's their homes, right? So we were offering food and money for information. Did the police talk to them that you know of? I mean, do they have any insight? Well, no, the police were really quiet about the investigation because the police go down there and raid down there all the time

and take apart their encampments and all that stuff. So I know there's not a good relationship with the people in the ravine and the police anyway. So I think there wouldn't be that communication, just the fear of being criminalized or something. You know, living on the streets and living in encampments, you're putting your life at risk. Police were invited to join the search. They didn't. When some of the searchers discovered some conspicuous holes not far from where Alora normally stayed, clearly dug by a shovel.

They called the police to ask them to take a look. They didn't show up. We stood there for hours because we found the place where she was living. And we thought this would be great. You know, this could be some information they can use to solve the case. It could be a crime scene. Yeah, right? They didn't show up.

They didn't give a shit. Police would later claim that they already searched that area. We wanted to get everyone together to remember this person, if it's a Laura, even if it's not a Laura. Monica and some other activists organized a vigil. Whether it was a Laura who had been found or whether another trans woman had died, they felt the need to demand action. We don't know who it is, but yes, Elora has been missing since late July, and it's really disturbing for the community at large because she was very much a part of the community. This is the fall of 2017. Andrew Kinsman, the eighth man to vanish from the village in seven years,

had been missing for just a few weeks longer than Elora. The whole queer community was on a knife's edge. Nikki Ward, a longtime trans activist, was there. This is by no means the first death in our community. It is close-knit, so we keep an eye out for each other. When somebody goes missing, we take it seriously. But Toronto Police Services did not. Justice for Laura!

And we want it now! And we want it now! We want accountability for Laura Wells. Justice for Laura! Justice for Laura! The next day is November 20th. It's a sad irony. It's the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The blue, pink, and white trans pride flag is raised at police headquarters for the very first time. There's an event at the 519 Community Center. It's the same place that was told that a transgender woman's body had been found and which did not share that information with the community. And it really bothered me. It really bothered me that you can capitalize on the lives of trans people and say that you care, but you can't advocate to find out who this person is

or stay on the toes of the police to make sure that they're working hard to find out who this person is. And I was like, I was out for blood. I was just like, I was done. I was like, you know, no, this is not going to happen. You know, I could see this happening 20, 25 years ago, but not today when there is so much work that has been done to bring visibility to trans people.

It was a pivoting moment where we can make them accountable. It was a pivoting moment where we can say, you know what, now that we got you, we can make sure that we get the answers we need and that you're accountable for your actions. In Montreal, Leila, the woman who'd known Elora since they were just teenagers living on the streets, sees the news. She rushes to Toronto. I knew she was dead. I knew she was gone.

Where else would she be? She lived in the streets. She was there, you know. Where was she eating? She didn't pick up her checks. She didn't show up for Meal Trans. She didn't show up for Meal Trans. She didn't show up to Covenant House. That was her livelihood.

She didn't have a Daddy Warbucks taking care of her and sending her e-transfers. McDonald's wasn't handing out free burgers. Where was she? Where would she have been? Her mother was dead. Her sister was taking care of two children. Who else did she have? Where would she have been?

Layla is worried sick, waiting to hear if the body in the morgue is Elora's. I called my mom and the news started going on and my mom had been calling me and she told me, like, you sound very stressed. She supports me, but she wishes I

didn't engage in what I do. Of course, she was better for her daughter, but she wishes I didn't engage in what I do. Of course, she was better for her daughter, but she was terrified, you know? She was like, I've been telling you your whole life. This is what I've been scared of my whole life for you. So it just became reality, you know? And I was like, very sorry to my mom that I put her through that. So that's what it is yeah. You know I got a piece of my own medicine my mom said this is what you've been doing to me and I was praying with my mom it was her.

It was her. It was her. tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Toronto Police confirming tonight a body found in the Rosedale Valley Road area is that of Alora Wells. On November 30th, 2017, police finally confirmed the news they've been waiting to hear. The 27-year-old hadn't been seen since July. Wells, a transgender woman, worked in the sex trade and was homeless. Her father says when he reported her disappearance to police, he was told the case wasn't a high priority.

A body was found in August, but it took genetic testing to determine the identity. Police are still investigating the cause of death. Oh, my God. It was really emotional. Like, they wouldn't let me out of the house for, like, a month. Like, my brother begged me, like, please don't go. I told him, like, you know, it's not like that anymore, the extent of what it was.

But, like, you know, they're always terrified that, you know, I'll lose the condo or I'll lose myself in it and, like, I'll end up in the streets and missing and dead. I try to reassure them all the time that's not gonna happen, but I gotta appreciate it too that, you know, at least if it was me, it wouldn't take that long. Like it was all over the news, everybody saw it. So this is traumatizing, you know,

to even hear that about somebody you knew. If the girl who found her body didn't, like, try to reach out to us, we probably would have never found her. Allura's sister Michelle needs to know what happened, so she starts playing detective. She takes to Facebook, messaging anyone who knew Allura, just asking for information. But she only gets rumors. Somebody told me that he was chilling on the bridge near that room, you know, where he was found. And he fell off the bridge. The tent encampment where Allura usually lived is under a six-lane bridge that crosses the ravine

and then they took him to the tent and put him face down who would they have been i don't know it's like i wish i knew nobody like nobody will say anything like nothing everyone's so tight-lipped, and I know his friends know stuff. Rumors weren't good enough for Michelle. She wants to know exactly what happened. With Michelle's help, we request a copy of the death investigation report. When it arrives, I call my producer Jennifer to go through it.

This 27-year-old transgender woman was discovered in an isolated area When it arrives, I call my producer Jennifer to go through it. So Allura's body was actually found about a kilometer and a half away from where she normally stayed. Nowhere near the bridge Michelle was thinking of or where Monica did her search. At the scene, there was a pitch tent with several empty cans of drinks and alcohol in the area. The deceased was laying face down, dressed in women's clothing, with a wig beside the head and was severely decomposed. There was a purse nearby without identification, and several diabetic needles were found in the immediate area. The person was not identified visually. There were no obvious signs of foul play.

Healing fractures are identified on the sternum and the manbrium, so that's the chest. And a healed fracture, callus, is identified on the sternal left eighth rib. So she'd taken a real blow to the chest at some point, but like repeatedly it looks like it's callus. Like a history of injuries, basically. The autopsy found she had suffered incredibly traumatic injuries in the months before she died.

Injuries so severe she had a fractured rib and sternum. A broken chest like that, it's common in car accidents. It can also come from a direct blow to the chest. She would have been in really severe pain. She would have had difficulty breathing. The coroner said that she might have sought medical attention, but I'm not so sure that she did. We know that trans people are less likely to get medical help, even for serious injuries. Research consistently shows that trans people report inadequate access to health care in their communities. They rate the quality of care lower than other people, and they are about four times more likely to not receive the health care they need.

So there are fractures of the right transverse process of L1 and L2. But that's pretty bad. Like two fractured vertebrae. That's pretty severe. The autopsy also found that when she died, two of her vertebrae were fractured. If it happened before she died, she would have been immobilized by the pain. Could this injury have been caused by an accident? It's possible.

This kind of injury could also come from blunt force to the lower back. It could have been inflicted by someone. If these fractures have occurred during life, they indicate blunt force trauma injury to the lower back. The cause and significance of this hypothetical blunt force injury is unknown. That kind of force could also cause internal injuries, and that could have led to her death. Unfortunately, because of the state of Elora's body, it's impossible to know. Because the body had been out in the elements for so long, it's also impossible to say what was in her system when she died.

say what was in her system when she died. For her to have received such a level of injury and to make it back kind of lying in that state, like, this doesn't make, she wouldn't, someone else was around. Like, I don't buy that this happened to her all by herself. Preliminary autopsy indicates no anatomic cause of death. Police were fully involved in the case. And it continues, cause of death was undetermined. So here's what we know. Allura was found face down beside a tent. So, here's what we know. Allura was found face down beside a tent. There were some empty cans and bottles and some needles.

But this location where she was found, it's not where Allura normally stayed in the ravine. And then there's these injuries, this trauma she had been through in the months before she died. She had a broken back when she died. When her friends add all this up, they can't help but feel, at the very least, someone out there knows what happened. I had called the police. I've called the stations and told them, you found her around a tent full of drug paraphernalia. Do you think that she did set up a tent herself like that? Obviously, there was a party there.

She would never go down there alone. Somebody saw her die. Even if it was an overdose, somebody knows something. It could have been an accident, but she didn't do it alone. The serious injuries that Allura had, it has Monica thinking about Allura's boyfriend, Augustina's ballast dent. It's based on something that Allura had told Monica the last time she saw her, just weeks before she died. She had just gotten beaten up.

Her boyfriend had beat her with a brick. I know that he was abusive to her and I wouldn't doubt, you know, that she may succumb from that. I should say, we don't have any way of confirming this or that Ballastent was responsible for any of Elora's injuries. But Monica believed her.

And while we gave Ballastent an opportunity to respond, we still haven't heard from him. But I also know that she did drugs, and she did all sorts of drugs. So we don't know if she might have OD'd on fentanyl, you know what I mean, maybe as a release for all the pain that she was in. We don't know what led up to that moment of her death. But I know she died not happy. I know she died in pain because I've seen her

and I know from the autopsy report, if you have a crushed chest and broken bones, you ain't in a good place. Good morning. As indicated, I'd like to update you on the investigation into the death of Elora Wells. This is Detective Dan Sabatics. He spoke to media in December 2017, just weeks after Elora had been identified. So what exactly did police do after her body was found? did police do after her body was found? August 5th of this year, a body was discovered in a ravine by citizens in the Rosedale Valley Road area. According to the coroner's office, the time of death would have been around July 15th, maybe three weeks before finding the deceased.

The thing is, that time of death doesn't make sense to me. Allura was still posting on Facebook on July 26th, only 10 days before she was found. So the actual window when she died is likely much narrower. Didn't the police check her social media? On November 22nd, the case managers were receiving information from members of the transgender community about Allura's associations,

including her boyfriend, Augustinus Ballestant, who may have been the last person that saw Elora alive. As he is transient and still believed to be in the city, we are appealing for him to contact police at 53 Division. This is an inactive investigation. at 53 Division. This is an inactive investigation. We still need to speak with anyone who may have seen Elora last, anyone with information about the events leading up to the death of Elora Wells or the whereabouts of Mr. Ballastent's descent. Police say they have yet to interview Ballastent about Elora's

death. An independent review of the case would later say the same thing. Not in the summer of 2017 when a trans woman was found dead. Not when Olora was identified that November. Not when the trans community demanded answers. And not even up to today. I know that she loved him. I don't know how he felt. Do you know where he is?

Toronto. But I mean... No, I could message him and ask him. First off, Ballast Dent is not that hard to find. Michelle interrogated him over Facebook Messenger Her last conversation with him was in March of 2020 He says, the truth is, I don't know what happened I wasn't with her I've heard stories as well

What do you think? I've been doing all this time I've been looking for answers But all I get are stories and accusations It's driving me insane and I'm not going to stop until I get answers. That's what he says? At one point, Michelle messages him. You're going to be in a lot of trouble if you don't start answering questions, she tells him. And he responds with an alibi. Go fuck yourself, he writes. I was in jail from August 6th to September 7th. I wasn't with

her. I would never leave her. I wanted to check Ballestent's alibi myself. Was he in jail when Allura died? In his court records, there's one charge that jumps out. In early March 2017, a warrant was issued for Augustina's Ballastent. He violated a restraining order. Ballastent had tried to contact the same person who he had allegedly assaulted a year earlier, the person who he had threatened to kill. And on August 7th, 2017, he appears in court via video link from jail. He would have been arrested a day earlier. But we know that Allura likely died sometime between July 26th, the day of her last Facebook post, and August 5th, the day her body was found.

There is no record we can find to suggest he was in jail over those weeks. But there's something else. Ballastent's criminal record doesn't end in 2017. Ballastent was arrested in July of 2019 and again in June of 2020. Both were fairly minor charges, but I can see he appeared in court dozens of times in the last three years. So if police were looking to question him, why the hell haven't they interviewed him yet? He's been in police custody.

This story is full of holes. Not just Ballast Ends, but the police's accounting as well. If I'm able to figure out just how much his story doesn't add up, shouldn't police be doing the same? How is it that police have utterly failed to interview Allura's ex-boyfriend, the man her friends say violently beat her, four years after her death? Just what kind of investigation was this? Coming up on The Village.

The law is not helping whatsoever. It's perpetuating harm, it's perpetuating violence. It does nobody no good. There's such a long history of this, and not just the big horrific moments when someone like Elora Wells dies. We won't have to work in fear and under the gun and on the run. And my colleagues won't show up

dead. I conclude that many of the investigations I examined were seriously flawed. Yeah, there's a lot of red flags there. A lot. That's really, really messed up. The Village is written and produced by me,

Justin Ling, and Jennifer Fowler. Sound design was by Julia Whitman, with help from Evan Kelly. Our associate producer is Eunice Kim, and our digital producer is Fabiola Melendez-Carletti. Alex V. Green, Faith Fungdahl, and Chris Oak are our story editors. Additional audio from CP24. Our senior producer is Cecil Fernandez, and the executive producer of CBC Podcasts is Arif

Noorani. If you're looking for another podcast to listen to, check out The Next Call from CBC Podcasts. The first case looks at the disappearance of 15-year-old Melanie Effier. She vanished without a trace and police and everybody else suspect foul play. You can find the next call on the CBC Listen app, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.