Uncover - S38 E1: Everyone’s afraid | The Mile Zero Murders

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

A man passing through Dawson Creek, B.C. for New Years Eve 2023 disappears. Cole Hosack is the 8th person to go missing from the small town in the past two years. This incident starts getting media attention on this unassuming town – what is going on in Dawson Creek? Why have people, like Cole, Darylyn Supernant, and Renee Didier vanished without a trace? Host Timothy Sawa lands in Dawson Creek to find out what residents know, and talks to the relatives of people who have gone missing.

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2020 was a terrible year for Cole Hosak He's laid off for winter But he didn't have enough hours to get EI Morgan Crawford is Cole's fiancé So he was like, I need to do something in the meantime I can't just sit here I can't, you know, we can't just do nothing We were broke, broke, broke, broke.

If the money problems weren't enough, the young couple had just been through every parent's worst nightmare. Their baby, Hendrix, was diagnosed with a rare heart condition when he was still in the womb. He was born on October 25th. He was four pounds, seven ounces, and he was pure, frickin' magic, that boy. He was the smallest thing I'd ever seen in my whole life. So tiny, and he looked just like his dad. A week later, Hendricks died. Just trauma.

Absolute trauma. Cole and I were both in really bad places. We drank a lot. Morgan said their drinking led to fighting. So when 24-year-old Cole heard about a job prospect and medicine hat, an 11-hour drive away from their home in Prince George, it felt like a chance to reset their lives. And luckily, Cole found a ride with a friend who was going in that direction.

But the trip involved a small detour first. The pair set off driving north on Highway 97 in the dying days of December 2023. The plan was to stop about four hours north where Cole's friend had some family, a place called Dawson Creek. It's a small town that marks the southern gateway to the Alaska Highway. The two-lane road starts right in Dawson's downtown core, where a post marks mile zero. Cole and his friend would spend a few days there and ring in the new year before continuing

on their way. As they pulled into town, Cole snapped a photo of the sun rising over the horizon. He sent it to Morgan. The sky was lit up with neon shades of red, blue, and purple. Cole texted, this is going to be good for us. I promise you, baby. He phistimed me on New Year's Eve from the bar that he was at. And he would call me and it would be, he'd be outside smoking or he'd be drinking and he'd be. be like, he was drunk, but he was not wasted. He was happy drunk that whole night. He kept it to a very chill medium.

The phone call ended, I love you. I'll see you tomorrow or the next day. But Morgan didn't see Cole the next day or the day after that. Cole never reached Medicine Hat. I never thought for a minute that he wouldn't make it there. That phone call on New Year's Eve, 2023, was the last time anybody saw or heard from Cole. It turns out the reason may have been the town of Dawson Creek itself.

Then I finally started to learn, like, this place is very creepy, very haunting, very scary. Because you see, 2023 wasn't just a terrible year for Cole Hosak. It was for Dawson Creek, too. It's a small northern community of just 13,000. thousand people. But Cole was the eighth person to go missing or be killed in that year alone. And he wouldn't be the last. I'm Timothy Sawa. From CBC's Uncover and the fifth estate, this is the Mile Zero murders. Episode 1, Everyone's Afraid. I grew up in a small community in Saskatchewan, farm country. And since becoming a journalist, I've covered my fair share of crime.

and tragedy in small places. I've learned what might be a forgettable headline in a larger city can actually consume a small town. That anonymous victim is more likely to be an old friend from school, a co-worker's child, or a neighbor just one street over. Today, I'm a producer in Toronto at CBC's investigative TV show, The Fifth Estate. Back in March of 2024, someone sent our show a story tip.

People are going missing in Dawson Creek. The email came shortly after Cole vanished. That seems to have been the tipping point, where this issue could no longer be ignored. And no wonder, in the entire decade before his disappearance, there were only three murders in Dawson Creek. In 2023 alone, there were nine.

This was much bigger than the story of one missing person. I jumped at the chance to return to my small-town reporting routes and do what I could for a community looking for answers. In the spring of 2024, 5th Estate host Mark Kelly and I headed to Dawson Creek. As we drove closer to town, dense forests and rocky gorges gave way to sprawling grain fields, oil and gas pumping stations too. With so many missing and murdered in such a short time, It was hard to know where to begin.

Thank you. No, thanks for talking to us. You guys have no idea. But I got lucky with one of the very first people I met. I was so happy that people out there actually cared and wanted to come talk to us about what's going on in this town because it's just, yeah, it's like the kind of stuff you only hear about on TV, you know. That's Jordan Cornish.

Her stepsister, Daryland Supernet, was one of the first people to go miss. in 2023. Her boyfriend filed a missing person's report in March of that year. No, when Darylind first went missing, all I could think was no fucking way. That's my worst fear has always been that one of my sisters was going to go missing, and I wouldn't be able to find them. And people were afraid. Of course there are.

Our friends are getting hot-capped and getting shot and going missing, so of course everyone's afraid, right? Jordan moved to Dawson when she was 12 and has lived there on and off for the last 20 years. I met her on my first evening in town, and it's immediately clear she's the right person to talk to as I start my investigation. Not only has her step-sister disappeared, Jordan knows this place, including its darker corners. Within minutes, she's introducing me to people living on the margins, people who know things. We found a quiet spot to talk on the steps of a local church as the setting midnight sun turned everything golden. So tell me about Darylain.

Darylain was a little shape. She would just say the least. She was really smart, really clever, but she was always happy and funny. But she always had a way of getting herself and us into trouble. But the first day we met, I remember thinking I was so excited because she actually liked me and we got matching shirts. Daryland is two weeks younger than Jordan.

Their parents became a couple in 2000 when the girls were seven years old. They became quick sisters and friends. She always took care of me and she always kept me safe and taught me a lot. Daryland was born and raised in Dawson Creek. She went to the local grades. school and high school, and she's Cree. Jordan and her family shared a stack of family photos with me, happy family photos, Christmas mornings, kids laughing at a picnic table.

One of them shows them covered in mud splashing in a river. Jordan is wearing a red bandana and has dirt patches smeared across her cheeks and neck. A nine-year-old Darylind is standing next to her. The only thing not covered in mud are her tiny white eyes and huge small. mile. Kids being happy kids. Later, they even worked together for a while. Jordan's mom owns the local dive bar in town. Of course, there was also the usual amount of sister rivalry. Because it's the same boys, the same friends, same everything. So we fought, we fought so bad sometimes. So we never actually physically fought. I remember she was so mad at me once. She would do this look where she would

shake her head at you. And I remember standing there just like, so scared she was going to hit me. And I was like, oh, God, but she didn't. Even though they fought, growing up, Jordan and Daryland always looked out for each other. Anytime I was in serious need of anything,

I'd always message Darylain or call her, and anytime she was in serious need of anything, she always called me. You were there for each other? Yeah, yeah, we were, and everyone, you know, they would see us arguing lots, but it was, we were fighting with each other just because, you know, we just wanted each other

to do better. We didn't want to see each other, you know, just being losers all our lives. Loser might be a harsh way to put it, but Daryland's life was starting to unravel. She just slowly started losing that sense of adult, adulting, I guess you would say, and then just started to get into the drugs. Shelly Supernet is Darylund's biological mother. When I wear a bunch of shoes and things, I'm up. I've heard today, so... Yeah. When I arrive at Shelly's home, she's busy cooking Banick and moose meat for dinner.

Oh, my, that sounds awesome. Yeah, we're having a real indigenous meal today. I had been in touch with Shelly since I started this investigation in 2024. But I didn't get a chance to meet her until more than a year later. She needed time before she spoke about her missing daughter. She was so cute. She just had these cutest little chubby cheeks. And outgoing, outspoken, she'll say stuff

and out of the blue and just make you laugh because it was silly. Oh, I could hear her laugh. I have a picture of her here. As Daryland got older, Shelly says it was her boyfriend at the time who got her into using drugs. Whatever. And I guess I can totally blame him. I mean, she's got choices too.

But didn't help. And was she also hanging out with people who were part of the sale and trafficking of drugs? Oh, most definitely. Yes, I would say so. It was kind of railroaded her lifestyle, kind of, I don't know how to say it. Just got a little bit more intense, different drugs, heavier drugs. And then I think it was, I believe it was heroin in the end there that she was doing. Shelly said she always had a bedroom for her daughter,

but Daryland wouldn't come around for weeks at a time. And when Darylain did come home, she sometimes was barely present. Like when she would be at the house at times, and I knew she was using stuff, because she would sit there visiting with us, like with us, and she would just slowly just... Hunch over? Yeah.

And she was just, like, looking at her phone or whatever, but she just kind of go over like that. So she was doing that in front of us, and I was like, hey, Darylin, Daryl. You know, oh, what, what, no. She wouldn't say she was high or anything, eh, or anything. But, I mean, when she started to get into that, I was scared to check on her. Stop supper's done.

I would be definitely scared to check on her. Shelly rocks in her chair, sharing memories of her daughter. She never tells me what she's afraid of exactly, but she does tell me about the time that Daryland once had to go to the emergency room. She wasn't very old 1920, 21 maybe, I don't know. I got a phone call from my auntie, I guess, but she was OD on fentanyl? It had been early in the morning,

and Shelly quickly changed out of her pajamas to go find her daughter. And when she found Daryland unconscious, she drove her to the hospital herself. And I said, you know what, I'm not waiting. I'm not waiting for an ambulance to come and get her. Darrylind survived, but the drugs had taken hold. Her addiction went from bad to worse over the next 10 years. Until more recently, when her mom says Darylain appeared to be doing better,

she told her family she wanted to get clean. But then, a few months before Daryland's 30th birthday, Shelly had a reason to be on high alert again. Darylans' dad came knocking, looking for their daughter. Yeah, he came looking for her. And I told him, no, she's not here. There was times I won't see Daryl in for weeks and stuff. And I didn't really always, I didn't worry because she'd always come back around.

So I guess now he's getting me worried. So, of course, I went driving around. I went to the homeless shelter where she had stayed as well, and going to the Miles Zero Hotel and going down there and seeing if she was there. Daryland's boyfriend would stay at the Mile Zero Hotel sometimes. According to locals we spoke to, the shelter and that hotel, are two hotspots for drug use and criminal activity. Shelly was holding out hope for her daughter to turn up at the local shelter.

She hadn't been there in about a week. So then they had her stuff there, they can only keep her stuff for so long. So that's when the worker gave me Daryland's belongings. Shelly was running out of places to look and running out of hope. reality is stranger than fiction. Split screen from CBC podcasts examines the utterly captivating and sometimes unsettling world of entertainment with the ex-reality TV contestants, producers, and culture critics who know it best. From a kids reality TV show gone awry to a fake royal bachelor and the cult of celebrity, split screen

uncovers the complicated truths behind TV's carefully curated facades and Ask what our entertainment reveals about us. Search for split screen everywhere you listen to podcasts. We begin tonight with a plea from the family of a missing Dawson Creek woman. Darylind Supernant has been missing since March 15th, 2023. A missing person's report was filed for Darylyn. Now, according to her father, Brad Supernott, she was involved in a high-risk lifestyle. Dawson Creek police are actively working to find her.

But according to Darylund's family, police weren't very active at all. The RCMP issued a statement, but it didn't look like they were doing much more. And so those closest to Darylain took up the search themselves. And then we got papers done up and stuff and sort of posting them around town. And I'm still driving around.

There's so many times I'll drive around that mile zero hotel up and around downtown, the homeless shelter. So I'm just driving around aimlessly. And I'm thinking all kinds of stuff, I'm looking at cars differently. Like, especially like a van or something, you know. As days turned into weeks, Shelly says it became harder and harder to get information from the police. After a while, the RCMP just kind of just quit in contacting me. And I said, okay, well, we're kind of running low on leads now.

So how often do you want me to contact you? And I'm thinking, like, every day. And he goes, okay, well, no. I was thinking every six months, and I'm just kind of like, really. Daryland's step-sister, Jordan, was quick to join the search. I'd go out every single day by myself and go up and down the creeks. I'd walk the back roads by myself.

One of the first rumors I heard about her was that she was in Grand Prairie at the hospital getting an abortion. Grand Prairie, Alberta is about an hour and a half, drive from Dawson Creek. And I just thought there's no way. There's no way she would be getting rid of a baby. That's what she lived for. All she wanted was a baby.

Some people told me she was working, like a working girl at the time. And she would go to Grand Prairie and she would, you know, scam all these guys and rip them off and stuff. And I thought maybe she ripped off the wrong person. Do you believe that? I don't know. I started going around town and talking to everyone. I went on trips to Grand Prairie. I'd walk around the streets there, you know, showing everyone her picture,

telling everyone her name or story, all that. And Prince George, I went all the way down to Vancouver, and we spent two months there on the streets. Jordan says she walked and hitch rides there and back, looking for her sister. For context, Prince George is a four-hour drive from Dawson, and Vancouver is way further. It takes more than 12 hours to drive there. She also told me about a time when someone left a note on her mother's door,

a rumor about where Daryland's body might be hidden. So my mom just trumpled it up and threw it away because it was just like people trying to set each other up because they're scared or, you know, I don't know, I didn't understand any of it. It was just so cruel for people to do that. It was so, so, so cruel. Eventually, word got back to Jordan.

An ominous warning. You need to be careful. And I had friends coming to me and telling me, you know, there's people like looking for you. They don't want you looking for Daryland. They never tell me who. So I started, I had short hair. My hair was shorter at the time. So I was wearing wigs and changing my outfit and backtracking and just like...

Trying to stay safe. Yeah, exactly. In the months Jordan was searching for her sister. there had been at least four more suspicious deaths in Dawson Creek. Christopher Engman, Dave Domingo, Byron Horn, and Robert Gerbov. All dead in a matter of months. All of them tied to Dawson's drug trade. Robert Gerbov's body was found on the same night Cole Hosak went missing.

With a town on edge and confidence in the RCMP failing, more people pitched in on the search for Darylain, including her cousin, Renee. Renee Didier is Daryland's first cousin. Renee's maiden name is supernat. Among the family photos I was given, one is from Renee's wedding. She and Darylind are standing arm and arm. Renee, dressed in white, the 11-year younger Darylind smiling from ear to ear.

One thing is clear from all of these photos. This is a close-knit family. I end up having nine of my grandkids. You raised them all? That I raised, yeah, and plus some other strays that they brought home. That's what I always tell them. That's the strays you guys bring home. Verna Cardinal is the family matriarch, a feisty woman in her 70s.

Though in the months I've known her, I've seen her health decline. We head around the back of her house to talk, carefully and slowly, while she steadies herself holding onto my arm. I've been having some problems because I've had a lot. hip replacement last year. So the walking was not so great. Verna raised Renee, like she was her

own daughter, and she confirms Renee was organizing those searches for Darylain. A bunch of them met, we're looking. Yeah, like a bunch of friends and not gathered. In fact, we came across a video of Renee searching for her cousin. They're in an empty lot at the Mile Zero trailer park.

Her friend on the video says it's November 13, 2020. six months after Daryland disappeared. The camera is pointed to the ground. There's snow, but a noticeable patch is missing. Could someone have been digging here recently? Burying something or someone? The friend points out this disturbance.

Then flips the camera to show Renee. The look on her face says it all. She's very clearly worried, upset, fearful. They didn't find Daryl in that day. And was Renee, do you know if Renee was asking questions about Darylyn? I have no idea. Verna's not sure, but other family members we've spoken to say Renee was asking a lot of questions about her cousin. Maybe too many and maybe too publicly.

Because that December, once again, the family would be in the news. Dawson Creek, R-CMP, are asking for the public's help in finding a missing woman. Please are looking for Renee Didier, who, who was last seen Saturday. Renee became the next person to go missing in Dawson's string of disappearances and murders, the 7th in 2023, less than a month before Cole Hosak came to town.

So after that, it was just hell for us, not knowing where she was. And once again, more frustration with the local RCMP. I'm not sure, I think that one time that when cop come there, and I think asked a few things. But they didn't really seem to bother with us, but I haven't heard nothing since.

Are they working on it? I don't know. Morgan Crawford, the woman we heard from at the beginning, she was feeling that same frustration. She came to Dawson Creek herself to look for her missing fiancé, Cole Hosak. She started at the Lone Star, a local bar where Cole made that final phone call to her

on New Year's Eve. I scoured the parking lot for any sign of him. Nothing. I walked, there's like a big field to the right-hand side of the Lone Star. I walked that whole field that night with flashlights, just looking for anything, thinking like maybe he had fallen. So maybe he'd, you know, stumbled off, didn't know where he was because he's not from Dawson Creek. Maybe he fell and hit his head. There's like a gully.

It has old trade tracks that runs through. and I'm like maybe he found it said. I searched and searched and searched in dumpsters, garbage cans. The vacuum left by the RCMP left families searching for answers and fending for themselves. As the disappearances began to mount, the sense of fear and disbelief only grew. Families and members of the community reached out to us, asking us to investigate, asking the same question they were asking each other and anyone else who would listen.

What the hell is happening in Dawson Creek? It's a question we spent more than two years trying to answer. We went deep inside Dawson Creek's lucrative and violent drug trade. Far deeper than I ever thought possible, meeting suspected killers, kingpin drug dealers, and the families suffering in their wake. Murder, grief, and betrayal. That's this.

season on the Mile Zero murders. She witnessed a murder. Double murder, yes. That's why she's gone. It's the same side shooting at each other. It's the dumbest shit I've ever fucking seen in my life. How is he walking free on these streets today? He thinks he's a hot shot. Let's see if he shows up and see what he does when he comes. My last call with him was, I love you, my kid.

No matter what happens to me, make sure that it's going to be brought to justice. Don't worry about me. I'm going to be all right. You've been listening to the Miles Zero murders from CBC's on cover and the Fifth Estate. If you want to hear another series by me, you can check out Evil by Design. The show is reported and hosted by me, Timothy Sawa. Our producer is Tiff Lamb. Additional reporting from Mark Kelly, Grant LaFleche, and Lisa Ellenwood at the Fifth Estate. Sound Design by Graham MacDonald.

Emily Connell is our coordinating producer. Our senior producer is Jeff Turner. Additional audio from CTV, CJTC News. Alia Davidson is executive producer of the fifth estate. Emmanuel Marchant is the senior producer. Executive producers for CBC podcasts are Cecil Fernandez and Chris Oak. Tanya Springer is the senior manager, and RF Narani is director of CBC podcasts. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca.

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