Uncover - S5 "Sharmini" E1: The Crime Beat

Episode Date: September 16, 2019

Sharmini, Episode 1 - On June 12, 1999, 15-year-old Sharmini Anandavel left her family’s Toronto apartment around 9 a.m. She never returned. Her remains were found in a wooded ravine four months later. Investigative journalist Michelle Shephard revisits the case that has haunted her for twenty years and hears—for the first time—police theories about the only suspect. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/uncover-season-5-sharmini-transcripts-listen-1.5277530

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I think if we go along here, we'll be where we need to be. If we follow this path north. In my memory, the east side of the park was much more open and there was more grass, which it may open up farther up here. Yeah, when you see actually how vast this park is, it is kind of amazing that her remains were found at all. Matt Crone spent more than 30 years as a police officer, 12 of them with homicide. Now that he's retired, he has time to help us out,

to bring us down into this ravine and find the right spot. I think this is it. I think this is where it was. Because I remember the rocks across the river, and her body was located, the grave site was located beside a fallen log. And not to sound corny, but sort of perversely, it is a beautiful resting place.

It is. It's a very serene spot, very quiet spot, right beside the river here. Toronto police are continuing a desperate search for a missing 15-year-old girl, Sharmini Anandaville. She was last seen at Fairview Mall in North York on Saturday. Please, please release her. Please release her. We will keep her. Whatever we will keep her.

Please release her. We will give her whatever we will give. Please release my daughter. If somebody is abducted or keeping in some other place, please release my daughter. Please, I beg you. We're just praying that she'll come back. Just praying every single day. We just want her to know that we love her and we miss her. Police have now moved to a level three search, the highest level.

On the weekend, police found skeletal remains in a North York park. They matched Charmini. Do you have any doubt whatsoever that he did this? No, I don't. I'm absolutely certain this is the person who did this. I'm Michelle Shepard, and this is Uncover, Sharmini.

Chapter one, the Toronto Star. I was covering crime, and that often meant talking to grieving family and friends. It was never easy. And actually, it never really got any easier. Sharmini and Andavelle's story was no exception. More than 30 officers targeted the Bayview and Finch area. Helicopters and off-road vehicles, combined with officers, trying to find clues into the disappearance

of Sharmini Anandaville. We're not looking at an abduction at this particular time. There were some information and some tips and some leads that we were looking at. Sharmini was a 15-year-old grade nine student when she disappeared. Four months later, her remains were found. And someone got away with her murder. I can't believe it. It's a shocker

because I have children, you know. I'm very sorry for the people, for her parents. For nearly two years, I followed Sharmini's case and the hunt for her killer. I kept in touch with her father, and periodically I checked in with police. But eventually, there wasn't anything new to write. Her case remained open, unsolved. Then came the morning of September 11, 2001. They were deliberate, they were deadly. A series of terror attacks on the United States.

The most devastating in American history. By that evening, I was standing amid the remains of the World Trade Center and began my beat as the Toronto Star's first national security correspondent. In the 18 years since, I've reported around the world, trying to understand the sick cycle of terrorism. It was often frustrating, fascinating, sometimes exciting, but most times utterly devastating. But no matter how far from home I was,

every June 12th, the day Charmmi went missing, I would think about her. Her parents had given me a photo of her wearing a gold sari. There's flowers in her hair, bangles on her wrist. She's looking in the mirror, beaming. That photo is still pinned up at my desk. I'm haunted by what happened to her on that day. No one was ever held responsible. But there was a suspect.

And I met him 20 years ago. His name is Stanley Tippett. He lived in Charmini's building, and I interviewed him a couple weeks after she disappeared. The headline of our Toronto Star story read, Man's life hell since teen vanished. And that story has bothered me ever since. Did we brand an innocent man a murderer?

Or did we let a guilty man defend himself? That's why we're doing this podcast and reinvestigating Sharmini's parents was on June 17, 1999, five days after Sharmini disappeared. They were bereft. I've met a lot of desperate people in this job, and I have to admit, some have faded from my memory. But that apartment and the Anandavale family,

my recollection is still sharp. Her mother, Vasanthamalar, just sat crying. More like wailing. It was awful. She had a long mauve dress on her lap and she was just stroking it over and over. Sharmini was going to wear that dress to her grade nine graduation in a couple weeks. The way her mother touched the dress was light and delicate in contrast to her heavy heaving sobs. was light and delicate in contrast to her heavy, heaving sobs.

Sometimes she would stop crying. She'd look up at me and give me this sad smile. She'd even take my hands, but she didn't say much. I wasn't the only reporter to be invited into their home. Every second that crawls by. I wasn't the only reporter to be invited into their home. Every second that crawls by. The family wanted media attention. They wanted Sharmini's photo to be broadcast everywhere and anywhere until she walked back in that door. So journalists, they were coming and going.

Tripods were being set up, cameras flashing. I can't imagine how disorienting it would be for all of them. Every time there's a knock on the door or the phone rings, the Anandavell's hope may be soon now. Sharmini will come home. The apartment was hot and crowded. 1999 would go on record as the second warmest in decades. Sharmini's little brother, Kathis, who was about 13 but looked younger,

hovered not far from his mom. He seemed more perplexed than scared. There were other kids in the apartment too, and they sat crammed on a couch, all knees and elbows and awkward angles, sipping sprites. It was Sharmini's older brother, Dinesh, and her father, Anandaval, who I remember best. Her father was so gentle, so sweet, and he wanted to make sure the reporters were all comfortable and we had what we needed. So when he wasn't consoling his wife,

he kept asking his son to go back and forth to the kitchen to bring us some pop or water or juice. Their hospitality was actually heartbreaking. And so was their gratitude for us being there. I remember staying for hours. Not so much for the story, but because I felt bad leaving. We are praying the court and please everybody to help me to find my daughter alive. Please, I will thank everybody. Please.

When Sharmini's dad says please, he's looking right at the camera. His eyes are filled with tears. Please, he keeps saying in every interview. Please. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to 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. Hey, it's nice to see you. Yeah, how are you? It's been ages. Yeah, it's been a long time. Detective Matt Crone was one of the lead investigators on Charmini's homicide. It's really probably been 20 years. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And you made your world tour. And you're retired.

Yeah. How are you? I left Toronto Police in 2008, and I worked for the Ministry of the Attorney General for eight years. For eight years, okay. 20 years ago, Matt wouldn't say much about the case, and that's pretty customary in the early days of homicide. Okay, Michelle, why don't you sit here? Sure. Matt has invited us to his home in Curtis, Ontario, a small town about an hour east of Toronto. We're setting up to record in his kitchen,

and I'm with producer Kathleen Goldhar. And you can sit there, Matt. And I'm going to sit here so that I can have the headphones on. Matt's home has a comfortable country feel to it, with lace curtains, antique furniture, and a colorful tablecloth. It's also a little eclectic. There's a stained glass window of a parrot, and an impressive wine fridge. I went to night school and became a Somalian. I went to International Somalia. All I wanted was just a course on wine, because I like wine, but I knew nothing about it. I didn't know a course on wine, because I like wine. But I knew nothing about it.

Like, I didn't know a Cabernet from a Beaujolais. I mean, what's the difference? Matt has pulled out a file folder to show us. This is mostly your stuff. It's got newspaper clippings about Charmini, the poster offering a $50,000 reward. How many rewards has Toronto Police paid since 1957? None. These never work.

No, no. And a picture of her. Her grade 9 class photo. When Sharmini actually went missing, the 33 Division folks reached out to the Homicide Squad. Right away? Yeah. I also had my suspicions that she wasn't alive. Sharmini just didn't fit the profile of a runaway. But really, who knew?

She had told family and friends she was heading to the first day of a new job, and there were a few possible sightings of her the morning she disappeared. But all that was certain was that Charmini left her apartment sometime after 9 a.m. on June 12, 1999. She never came back. These were some of the early stories I wrote. June 17, 1999, Toronto Star. Police confirmed yesterday that they are following one report that a man who identified himself as a police officer

contacted Sharmini and offered her a job answering phones. It was Saturday morning, just after 9 a.m. June 18th. The candles flickered, but at a vigil held for Sharmini Anandaval, missing since Saturday, the hope never wavered. Her grief-stricken father pleaded for his daughter's safe return. June 19th, page 8. When the parents of Charmaine Nandeville said goodbye to their daughter at 9 a.m. last Saturday, they assumed she was going to a job. Just before 10 30 a.m., a friend saw

the 15-year-old on a bench at Fairview Mall. A witness placed the teen alone in the Peanut Plaza, north of the mall and just across the street. She hasn't been seen since. Then in October, news broke that human remains were found in a shallow grave beside a small river. On the front page of the Star, underneath a photo of Sharmini's crying parents, I wrote, Four months to the day after his daughter went missing, Sharmini's father got the news he hoped he would never hear.

I don't understand how this could happen. How could anyone do this to my daughter, he told me. I would have given anything, money, anything for my daughter. When was the first time you met Sharmini's parents? It was shortly after the body was found. I can't remember exactly. It would have been on the 12th or the 13th. You know, it was heartbreaking that, you know, these people, both of them working a couple of jobs,

trying to, you know, trying to push it ahead and get their kids something in there. And the two boys were very personal and bright. It's just heartbreaking. It's strange to see Matt Krohn all these years later realizing that this case, that Sharmini, has stayed with both of us for two decades. The interesting thing is, especially when you're dealing with a young person, is when you talk to the parents, they describe a person for you.

When you talk to the teachers, they describe a person for you. When you talk to the friends, they describe a person for you. And they're three different people. But this was odd. You always got the same person with this. This is just a nice kid, hardworking, lots of fun, bright, funny, enjoyed life. There was really nothing anywhere. And, and just looking at the way she, uh, uh, you know, being in school and how she acted, there was nothing in there. So I was out riding a motorcycle and I got a call that they had found human remains down by the Don River, East Don River Park.

Matt on a motorcycle? It's not hard to picture. He's tall, over six feet, he's got big hands, barrel-chested, he's got white hair that goes to his shoulders and a salt-and-pepper beard. white hair that goes to his shoulders and a salt and pepper beard. And I was right in Toronto, so I just rode over and went down to the scene and got the story of how the body was discovered and just started from there. Sharmini's remains were discovered by a father and son who were out for a walk. There wasn't much to find. Skull, mandible and long bones were left. And the reason they were left is you have basically two types of bone in your body.

You have the kind of a very dense, what they call compactus bone, which is the long bones in your arms and legs and your skull. Then you have a spongier type of bone. It was because it had been a hot summer. It was four months, and she was right near a coyote's den. Was that right? Yeah, it looked like she'd been buried, and then a log had been placed over the burial site.

And we had it excavated by an archaeologist, forensic archaeologist, and dug down. So we got lower, we got hair, we got fingernails. But the coyotes had pulled everything else out. Sharmini was wearing blue nail polish. Yeah, these blue fingernails, you know, they're just heartbreaking to see. Crime scenes. They can make or break a case.

It had been four months, and given the summer heat, the proximity to a coyote's den, some flooding in the ravine, police would not be able to find any DNA of the killer. The detectives needed to determine exactly what happened the day Sharmini went missing. Where was she going? Who was she meeting? Since she was found in a shallow grave, they knew they were dealing with a homicide. But was she killed in the ravine or somewhere else? From the very first night Sharmini went missing, police focused on one of her neighbors, Stanley Tippett.

Sharmini's parents had told me about him too. They said it was Tippett who had offered their daughter a job. told me about him too. They said it was Tippett who had offered their daughter a job. Her parents had banged on his apartment door when she didn't come home that first night, but they didn't get an answer. He had actually moved out two weeks earlier.

I joined up with my Toronto Star colleague, Dale Brazzo, to search for him. We knew Tippett had moved to Oshawa, 45 minutes east of Toronto, and he was living with his wife and their young family. He actually wasn't that hard to find. People tend to notice Tippett, both because he's outgoing, but also because of the way he looks. Tippett has Treacher-Collins syndrome, and it affects his hearing and the bone development in his face. Stanley suffers from the genetic condition Treacher-Collins syndrome, and it affects his hearing and the bone development in his face. Stanley suffers from the genetic condition Treacher-Collins syndrome, which gives him

certain deformities, facial deformities. And when kids would ask him about it, he'd say, that happened when he was in the bomb squad and the bomb blew up and disfigured him. I also heard stories about Tippett pretending to be a police officer. We got all the different stories that he had told people in the building about who he was and what he was and what his background was. And he used to actually have, he had a jacket with police written on it. He had a nightstick he used to carry around as well.

And he would patrol the building he was in from time to time. One day, Brazzo and I were tracking Tippett when he stopped at a hardware store near his home. I followed him inside. But then he started following me. And when I got back to the car, he came right up demanding to know who we were. Once I explained we were journalists, his demeanor quickly softened. And then he talked and talked, always maintaining his innocence. On July 1st, 1999, in a Toronto Star story, we made his name public.

This is how it began. Stanley Tippett's life has been in turmoil since 15-year-old Sharmini Anandaval went missing on her way to a job 18 days ago. Tippett, a former neighbor who used to take the grade nine girl swimming and was helping her find a job, says his life has been hell since police began questioning him about her disappearance. Tippett then went on to tell me he had nothing to hide. That's why he would talk. He wanted to, quote, set the record straight. So this is what he told me. He did not offer Sharmini a job, but he did give her an application for the North York swimming pool.

He often took kids there and knew they were hiring. He gave Sharmini that application the last week in May. And that's the last time he saw her before he moved out. He also acknowledged his path and Sharmini's were almost the same that Saturday morning. But he said it was all just a coincidence. This is what Tippett said he did that day. He drove by his old apartment around 9am, the same time Sharmini left home. But he said he didn't stop his car and he didn't see her. He was on his way to a job

cutting grass and he got to that job around 9.30. But then car troubles plagued him all day and he tried to fix the problem himself. So at about 10.30 he went to Fairview to wash his greasy hands. Now that places him at the mall at the same time a witness said she saw Sharmini there. From there, he went south to Lawrence Avenue and Don Mills Road to a gas station. That's the intersection where Sharmini told her parents she was going for her new job. I hope they find that girl and she's safe, Tibbet told me. Like, I have a two-year-old myself, you know, and I could not imagine what the parents are going through.

Police never disclosed their theory as to what happened to Sharmini. The narrative that was developing was that she left home in the morning to go to a job at North York Rec. Matt is revealing it now, for the first time. That was from her parents, but her friends were saying, no, no, that wasn't the case. She was going to work as an undercover drug operative for Stanley Tippett. Since Tippett has never been charged, none of Matt's theory has been heard or tested in court. Well, I think he was grooming her with the offer of a job. He was grooming her with the offer of a job.

And the interesting thing was that he picked a job which, in reality, would have a certain amount of secrecy attached to it. So, I'm going to give you this job as a police operative, where we are going to take you, give you all the equipment you need, a radio and pad and paper, binoculars, and we're going to put you in a place, and you're going to look for drug dealing. And when you see it, you call me on your radio, and I'll swoop in with my team and arrest the drug dealers. But because it is this secret police investigation, you can't talk to anybody about it, and you can't even tell your parents about it.

So there's a certain crooked genius to that. So she goes back to her parents and says, you know, I got a job, I'm going to be out that day. And I think he picked her up because he was in town that day and then probably drove her over and took her down to the site and had her sit there and wait, and he went and he cut lawns. When I interviewed Tippett 20 years ago, he was very particular about providing details, no matter how small. He strongly denied having anything to do with Sharmini's disappearance.

It made me wonder if police had tunnel vision. He told me exactly where he had been and when on the day Sharmini's disappearance. It made me wonder if police had tunnel vision. He told me exactly where he had been and when on the day Charmini went missing. He offered contacts for his alibis, names and numbers of the residents where he cut grass, a receipt from the gas station where he stopped. Macron says he noted that too. Yeah.

He could tell you details about what time he arrived at a place to cut the grass, how he cut the grass, like east, west, or north, south, when he had a Coke to drink, where he put his Coke while he was still cutting grass, like tremendous detail. But there were a couple of hours on that Saturday where Tippett's story becomes vague. There's this period of time, this substantial period of time, where his vehicle was burning oil. So he sat in a strip mall with the hood open to let his car cool down, which is nonsensical because you'd say, well, why don't you just go to your next lawn cutting and let it sit there and cool?

No explanation. According to Matt's theory, Tippett makes his way back down into the ravine. Charmaine is waiting for him in a heavily treed area, unable to be seen from the public path. He goes down there. He kills her, does whatever else he does and buries her. Comes back, probably has a shovel, puts a shovel in the car, goes about his business. I think he cuts another lawn, goes over to his in-laws place, gets a bucket with bleach and water, cleans his car. I think he has his clothes washed at his in-laws as well. Then he takes the car in, gets it repaired,

and they put a new engine in it, and it was like, it was around $1,000. But then police interrogate Tippett about Charmini, and soon after, he gets rid of the car. He takes the car to a junkers, and they give him a 10-bug sword or something, and they're going to crush it. But they don't. We got the car, but there's nothing in the car. Except we did notice that the liner was gone in the car.

Did you ever find that liner? No. It's true that police were never able to find any physical evidence connecting Tippett to Sharmini's death. Is it possible the coincidences were just that? Coincidences? That, as Tippett said, he had given her a job application, just not for the job she was going to. That Tippett just happened to be in the same area as Sharmini was the day she went missing.

And that he had a history of impersonating police officers, and Sharmini believed she was going to be working undercover. Was it possible? For most of my career, the stories I've told are about miscarriages of justice, the abuse of power. Like many journalists, I have an inherent distrust of authority. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable is one of the reasons I got into journalism. It's easy to see Tippett as an

underdog because of the way he looks. He undoubtedly had a difficult childhood, and it's the reason why we didn't run a picture of him with our story 20 years ago. We had one, but right before the paper went to print, we called our editor. We worried publishing his image would mark him forever. The photo was pulled. And I wonder now if that was the right call. The police did investigate Tippett for years. Around-the-clock surveillance, undercover operations, interrogations. But he was never charged, Sharmini. To me, justice was never served for her.

I think we know who did it, and I'm in no position to point the finger, but I don't have to be a detective to put the dots together. He was very manipulative. He was very deceptive. Don't you have to acknowledge that he's not really the perpetrator, that he is innocent? Michelle, shake your head, please. Come on now. Put yourself in that situation. It could happen to anybody. That's when they found duct tape and tie straps and all sorts of stuff that could be your abduction kit 101. Uncover Sharmini is written and produced by myself, Michelle Shepard, and Kathleen Goldhar. Our associate producer is Alina Ghosh. Our audio producer is Mitchell Stewart.

Our digital producer is Judy Ziyi Gu. Chris Oak is our story editor. Our video producer is Judy Ziyi Gu. Chris Oak is our story editor. Our video producer is Evan Agard. Transcripts by Rasha Shahada, Varad Mehta, and Carol Park. Our senior producer of CBC Podcasts is Tanya Springer. And the executive producer is Arif Noorani. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.