Uncover - S7 "Dead Wrong" E1: Pitbull

Episode Date: June 24, 2020

On November 12, 1995, 28-year-old Brenda Way is found murdered behind an apartment building in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Investigative journalist Tim Bousquet discovers, right in his own neighbourhood, a community of sex workers and a pattern of violence that indicates this is not the first time. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/uncover-season-7-dead-wrong-transcripts-listen-1.5612940

Say I love... This video is a message from a little boy named Salman. He disappeared five years ago in Syria during the war to defeat ISIS. He still hasn't been found. My name is Poonam Taneja. I'm travelling to Syria to find out what happened to Salman and the thousands of children like him, lost in one of the most dangerous places on earth.

From BBC Sounds and CBC Podcasts, Bloodlines. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. the Association of Defense of the Army. Mictovich is now Innocence Canada, but Phil has always been there. March 1st, 2019, is a cold, windy day in Halifax. It's mid-morning, and I'm in a hotel room downtown.

The room is full of people. They're making small talk. Everyone is nervous, expectant. It's Glenn Assoon's room. He's the only one in the room not talking. My name is Tim Busque, and I've been investigating and reporting on the Glenn Assoon story for five years, but this is the first time I've met him. He's a small man, maybe 5'4", 63 years old, thinning hair, thick glasses with wire frames.

He seems deep in thought, like he's somewhere else. I was the only reporter invited here. Also in the room are two of Glenn's children and a preacher. Glenn's lawyers, Sean McDonald and Phil Campbell, arrive. They tell Glenn what is about to happen. It's maybe a little legalistic, but it's very important to us. When you get into court, the Crown is going to ask you to elect to be tried in front of Justice Chipman, which we'll be happy to do.

Justice Chipman is then going to ask that the charge be read to you, charge of second-degree murder, and you're going to be asked, how do you plead? And your answer will be? Guilty. And your answer will be? Guilty. Glenn Assoon has spent 17 years in prison for murder. He spent another four years under restrictive bail conditions. From the moment of his arrest, through his trial,

his years in maximum security prison, and to this very moment, Glenn has adamantly maintained his innocence. At noon today, a judge at the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia will decide Glenn's fate. The plan was to walk the 10 or 11 blocks down the hill to the courthouse together, but it's too cold for Glenn, so someone drives him. I make my way down alone. There are lots of media here, local and national. I go inside the courtroom. The whole thing takes just 40 minutes. Justice Chipman finds that Glenn Assoon had been wrongfully convicted of murder. He speaks directly to Glenn.

You kept the faith. With remarkable dignity, you are to be commended for your courage and your resilience. You are a free man. Alright, Glen, can you tell us how you're feeling right now? Overwhelmed. Overwhelmed big time. I proved my innocence here today after 21 years when all along you said you were an innocent man you wore a hat that said you're innocent you weren't back i wore baseball caps in prison and said wrongly convicted 1998. sometimes the guard used to take them from me and destroyed them but i'd make another one

Sometimes the guards used to take them from me and destroy them, but I'd make another one and start wearing it again. They didn't like it, but it's the truth. I mean, it's a man. Do you ever think that you'll ever know why this happens? Do you want to know? I would like a public inquiry in my case. I would all he'd like is public inquiry. To find out why. Yes, to find out why it happened. Why did they do this to me? Why, it, like, it destroyed my life, you know? I have a lot of anger too, you know,

but today's not a day for anger. Today's a day for anger too, you know, but today's not a day for anger. Today's a day for joyfulness, you know, and happiness and rejoicing in justice, finally. I finally received justice. When I started investigating this story five years ago, I wanted to know how an innocent man could be convicted for a murder he did not commit. What I found was that every level of the police and justice system in Nova Scotia contributed to this miscarriage of justice and took decades of a man's life. It began with a highly problematic police investigation, dubious witnesses and evidence, and a trial that in no way could have been fair. And it didn't stop there.

New evidence came forward that should have freed Glenissoon, but it was kept from him. When it finally came to light, it revealed grievous police conduct. So what are the fallouts from this injustice? Will anyone be held accountable? Will police officers be disciplined or charged? Were other women murdered because they convicted the wrong man? And if Glen Assoon didn't commit the murder, who did? This is Uncover Dead Wrong. Episode 1. Pitbull.

Dartmouth is just across the bridge from Halifax, kind of a twin city. Both Halifax and Dartmouth are viewed as nice, small, safe cities, good places to raise your kids. But they are also Navy and port towns, with a long established history in the sex trade. There's an underbelly of poverty and people who live on the fringes who are subjected to hardship and violence. In 1995, a 28-year-old sex worker named Brenda Way was brutally murdered in North Dartmouth. It was this murder that led to the wrongful conviction of Glenn Assoon. that led to the wrongful conviction of Glen Assoon. I used to work the strolls at that time, so Brenda was a friend of mine. We would run into each other a whole lot.

A stroll is the stretch of road where sex workers meet Johns. Today, Linda Grandy works at Stepping Stone. She provides outreach and court support for those in the sex trade. She's been working there for 13 years. But back in the 90s, she was herself a sex worker on the Dartmouth Stroll. And so, you know, money was good then. There was lots of dates. So I just kind of started hanging in Dartmouth and living in Dartmouth.

I worked as a sex worker for over 25 years. I didn't work the streets until probably the last 10, 15 years. Linda had been an escort, worked in massage parlors, had always managed to stay away from the street. But then, one day, crack cocaine entered her life. You know, everybody say, oh, try this, try this, and I wouldn't try it. And then one day I did, and after the first time,

I was hooked, that was it. You know, the drug, it just took over my whole life. You know, it was just, all I did for years and years and years was commit crimes or make money to get high. You know, you got in the car, you turned the date, you're out and gone. You know what I'm saying? So it was fast money. Halifax and Dartmouth, like pretty much everywhere in North America, had a serious crack problem in the early 90s. Crack houses began to appear in poor neighborhoods, and many sex trade workers struggled with

addiction. The drug problems fueled violence of all sorts, and for anyone working the streets, like Linda Grandy and Brenda Way, there was always the danger of getting into the wrong car, getting picked up by a bad date. into the wrong car, getting picked up by a bad date. And I think that was one of my biggest fears, was always leaving and dying from some violent death. That was always a big fear for me. Halifax at that time had three strolls, one downtown, one near Halifax's North End, and

one particular to gay men on top of Citadel Hill, the historic fort that overlooks the city. The Dartmouth stroll was new. Brenda Way was one of the first to start working there. A tiny, 4'10 woman, weighing in at 95 pounds, Brenda had a big personality. She was known to everyone in the area for being funny and feisty. I didn't know there was a Dartmouth stroll until I saw Brenda. And I asked her, what are you doing on this side of the bridge? And she said, it's just as much business and

it's safer. Ironic, huh? This is Brenda Thompson. She grew up in North End, Dartmouth. She knew the scene and even did outreach work when Brenda Way was working the streets. When I was reporting this story in the Halifax Examiner, the online news site I started in 2014, Thompson contacted me. Thompson contacted me. And I actually met her because I was going to university and I was also doing volunteer work with Women's Alliance in Support of Sex Workers because the Halifax police were really acting up at that time. I used to see her downtown Halifax, and sometimes I'd pick her up.

Brenda Thompson lived on Hester Street, the same street where Brenda's pimp lived. I'd see her, because I knew she was going to Hester Street, so I'd say, do you want a lift? So, yeah, she'd hop in the car and we'd chat. We used to listen to Prince when I'd pick her up sometimes, and I always had my cassette deck going, and we used to rock out to Little Red Corvette. But the Dartmouth stroll, that was Brenda, because I always said Brenda Way invented it. Brenda was well-known on the stroll. She had jet black hair, which she typically kept at shoulder length, and often dyed with a red henna.

She had two tattoos, a flower above her left breast and a butterfly on her back. She also had a nickname. Brenda was known as Pitbull. I've heard two theories as to how Brenda got this name. One was the version that Brenda Thompson describes. I think she was proud of it. Don't mess with me. I'm known as Pitbull. That kind of thing.

I didn't see that side of her personality if it was because she was an angry person or not. I just knew her as Brenda. And I found her to be, you know, fun and energetic and kind. Well, yeah, kind and always had good things to say. The other theory is that Brenda had the nickname because she had a pug nose. The other theory is that Brenda had the nickname because she had a pug nose. She did have kind of a pug nose, but, you know, pug would have been so much cuter than pit bull. It makes sense that Brenda Way wanted people to think her nickname was due to being tough.

Sex workers had a lot to worry about. Brenda Way's pimp was a man named Bobby Renner. Renner was a biker who lived in the old family home, right in the middle of the Dartmouth Stroll. Brenda Thompson knew Renner. Ugh, Bobby. Brenda's relationship with Bobby Renner was not good. Renner dictated what Brenda would wear, and she was often seen in freezing weather wearing incredibly skimpy clothing. Yeah, she usually had these little tiny skirts on,

and it would be cold out, and I said, the men want sex, no matter what you're dressed like, so, you know, you can put something on a little warmer. They'll still be around. You know, Bobby wants me to wear the little skirts and all that stuff. So I'd ask her how it was tonight. You know, was it rough?

Was it okay? You know, how's Bobby treating you? The conversation that sticks out with me the most was about the shoes. Because she was so pregnant. And she was on the Dartmouth stroll. And she was wearing high heels. And I stopped and said, Brenda, for God's sake, I said, you're going to kill your back. Put some sneakers on. She said, Bobby won't let me. And I said, tell Bobby to go fuck himself. And the next time I saw her, she was on the Dartmouth stroll and she was, I beeped and I

honked and waved and she turned around and waved back and then pointed down to her feet, which had sneakers on it. So he yelled at her a lot, was abusive to her, but mind you, she yelled back at him too. She wasn't, you know, she wasn't just taking it laying down. I had been working on this story for a few months at this point and was still trying to get a sense of the street world. So I friended Bobby Renner on Facebook, dropped him a message, asked if we could speak. He got right back.

Sure, give me a call. Hi, is this Bob? You got him. Hey, Bob. I'm watching Hannibal and Cannibal series. You got a couple minutes? I got all the time in the world until the day I die. I still didn't know much about Brenda.

What could Renner tell me? How Bobby Renner talks about Brenda is very disturbing. Listeners may want to take care. She was just all around a great chick, you know? She was talented in her way. She knew how to hustle men. She was a hooker, right? She was a great personality. She was fantastic.

Smart as a whip, you know? Head character like you wouldn't believe. Real joker. Fun time girl, you know? In 1991, Halifax Police charged Renner with living off the avails of a prostitute Brenda and controlling Brenda's movements in such a way as to show he was abetting her prostitution A few months later Renner was also charged with dealing hash Renner was convicted on both charges and spent four years in prison

I never ever mistreated anyone, like, you know, didn't beat them with a coat hanger when they didn't make any money. I'm just saying, if you know about me, you know I had a stable of, I don't know, you know, give or take, I probably had 30 or 40 different women. That wasn't the way Brenda Thompson remembered it. Bobby Renner did not have a stable of 30, 40 women. Bobby Renner had Brenda. That was it. He's so full of shit. Because that's what Bobby did.

He bullshits all the time. Bullshits and out-and-out lies. So, you know, very affable, very friendly, but he's lying to you. Watch your wallet. I used to pound the fuck out of her, like, you know, sexual, you know what I mean? Like, I'm an over-sex fucking guy. I used to fucking pound those fucking women.

They all loved me, right? When it came to sex, most of them were nymphs anyways. I thanked Bobby for his time and hung up. I'd had enough of this phone call, and I now knew I was entering a very dark place. The Dartmouth stroll was different than the ones in Halifax because it bordered on a residential area, and the neighbors weren't happy about it. Linda Grandy remembers. Well, I'd leave the house, and you know, you're walking down the street, you dress for work,

you get your high heels and your mini dress on, and there would be one or two people standing on the corner, one or two people over here, you never thought about it. And one night I was on my way home and I was walking up Windmill Road and it was like 3 o'clock in the morning, I seen a car coming. Then all of a sudden there was like 10, 15 people and they surrounded me and they were saying stuff to me like, if we catch you in this neighborhood again, things like that. And I remember somebody walking towards me and I said, if you come any closer, I'm macing you. You know, like I was really afraid. I was

more afraid of the residents in the area than I was of the bad dates I mean you'd walk up the street and people would throw rocks at you throw chains at you eggs that you you know come out the house and tell you if you don't get off my corner we're going to hurt you and things like this so the police never did anything to stop that. You know, the cops treated us really bad, so people felt it was okay to treat us really bad. The police should have been a force for safety and security for the women, but Linda Grandy did not see it that way. You know, if we had bad dates or something, we shared it amongst ourselves.

But actually, Dartmouth, the streets there were very dark. You know, we didn't really have anyone else to look out for us. We just kind of watched over each other. So if we were nervous about going... Women who worked the streets and those who supported them knew that sex workers were going missing or being found murdered. I think personally around me, there was probably four or five women. A lot of women went missing, but their bodies were not found four years later.

At the drop-in center where Linda Grandy now works, there is a dedication wall to sex workers who were murdered. There are 22 photos of women. These deaths were only reported in short articles in local newspapers, the Chronicle Herald and the Daily News. Hooker killed, read the headlines, or a brief 30-second piece on the TV news. The killing of a sex worker simply wasn't a big deal, and yet it happened all the time. It was an epidemic no one in Halifax or Dartmouth was talking about. And one cold November morning in 1995, Brenda Way, the most well-known sex worker on the Dartmouth side,

was found murdered, another sex worker killed, and this time in a very brutal and horrifying manner. 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. Working the streets can be a deadly business. Experts who work with prostitutes say a woman has about an eight-year life expectancy out here. This weekend, Brenda Ann Way ran out of time. The body of the 28-year-old mother was discovered behind this Dartmouth apartment building. Her clothes had been torn off. She was slashed with a knife. Brenda started working the streets when she was 14 or 15, obviously, until her death. We just crossed Victoria Road on Albert Lake, and the first apartment building on our left is 109,

and that is where Brenda was killed behind in the parking lot. So I'm going to park and have a walk behind the building to see the murder site. I'm now behind 109 Albert Lake Road in a gravel parking lot. There's three giant puddles that are frozen with a little ice on top, probably exactly as they would have been back in 1995 because the weather was almost exactly like this. It's surrounded on the perimeter by some trees and brush. There's garbage strewn. There's a condom. There's paper bags.

It's a terrible place to die. It's kind of strange because I seen her the night before she was murdered. It just happened that I had called my drug dealer to buy some crack, and he asked me to meet him down on Portland Street, you know, so I had this friend of mine drive me down. We parked on a side street and when I got out the car, started walking down the street, Brenda got out of, it was a big black truck. She had got out of, so we walked down the street together around the corner, bought our drugs at the same time. We walked up the street, she got in the truck and I just kept going in the car.

So I did see her that night. We don't know now and we'll probably never know everything that happened the night Brenda was killed. We know that Linda Grandy was not the last person to see her alive.

Her friend Shakey said that Brenda came by his place around 2 a.m. and left at 4 a.m. A taxi driver saw Brenda hitchhiking at 4.05 a.m. by the Four Star Motel, which is about 2.5 kilometers from 109 Albert Lake Road. Brenda's body was found just after 7 a.m. the morning of November 12, 1995, by a woman passing by.

I'm going to talk about some of the details of the murder and the state of Brenda's body. I remind people that this was an awful murder. It may be difficult to hear. Brenda was found wearing a tank top. Her black leotards were removed from her right leg and had been pulled down onto her lower left leg. A single white sock was on her left foot. A black shoe was found near her body, but its mate was never discovered. Despite the condition of her clothes, there was no indication Brenda had been sexually assaulted. The pathologist who investigated Brenda's murder died some years ago, and the medical examiner declined to speak with us.

So I talked to Michelle Patrickan, who teaches in the forensic science program at St. Mary's University in Halifax. I gave her the crime scene photos, a videotape of the autopsy, the autopsy report, and a transcript of the court testimony from the pathologist. Patrickan spent a week with everything I gave her, and then I went to her office to talk about it. can spend a week with everything I gave her. And then I went to her office to talk about it. The first thing I see is that you assume her shirt is red, and we now know it was white, and it's soaked in blood, and she's soaked in blood. In looking at the sort of the trauma that she incurred, I just noticed that it was very much focused around the neck region, and that's a pretty important spot to hit if you're trying to, you know, do the most amount of damage. It looks like a brutal attack. In the final conclusions, the medical examiner wrote,

it was my opinion that Brenda Leanne Way, a 28-year-old white female, died of blood loss exsanguination from a severed jugular vein. Besides the trauma to the neck, Brenda had other stab wounds, was beaten, and had suffered an extreme blow that ruptured her liver. that ruptured her liver. The force of the liver blow, even the medical examiner said he hadn't seen it in domestic. It was more something he had seen in automobile accidents and things. I asked Patrickin how long it took Brenda to die. I can't speak to the amount of time, but no, it would not have been quick. And I asked her what other thoughts she has.

Where's the shoe? It's November. I have a tank top on. Outside. I think the pictures look like this is the end spot, but I'd like to know more about the beginning spot. When they moved the sheet, I could see the direction that she was going. So if I was trying to get somewhere, I'd be facing the direction I was trying to go. And the closest thing I saw was that building. And I don't know if Salvation was at that building or if that was home or what it was,

but I'm definitely headed that direction. or what it was, but I'm definitely headed that direction. Police arrived at the scene at about 7.30 a.m. Well, the uniforms would probably be the first units on scene. Tom Martin is now a licensed private investigator. He had a 30-year career with the Halifax Regional Police, 15 of it in homicide. He retired in January 2008. I asked Tom Martin how police would process a site like this. They would close down the scene, secure the scene. They would check for signs of life. If there were not any signs of life, then they would secure everything. They would check for signs of life. If there were not any signs of life, then

they would secure everything. They would lock everything down. That's when you start seeing the tape and the ribbons going up and major crime would be called in. Ident would be called in. The police knew the women who worked the stroll in Dartmouth. They would have known Brenda and who the players in her life were. Some officers would take it upon themselves to start doing a canvas. Some patrol members were very organized and very good at doing canvases and starting things off right away. Sometimes they'd wait for a major crime to come and start directing. Police officers and police dogs searched the area, looking for weapons, evidence, clues.

Nothing was found. Police blanketed the neighborhood, talking to anyone who had any connection to Brenda. So the next morning, I was at home. I was living at 21 Jackson Road at that time, and the police came knocking at my door. So that's when I found out about Brenda. Jackson Road is the street parallel with Albor Lake Road. Linda's apartment was about 100 meters from the murder scene. Well, I think there was a lot of shock.

And I mean, you know, over the years, you know, there was many people that I had come in contact with or spent time around, things like that, women who left their home and just never came home. When Brenda died, she was the 11th sex worker murdered in Halifax and Dartmouth in 10 years. The page 3 headline read,

Prostitute Murdered. Body found behind North End Dartmouth apartment building. My first thought when I left the house was kind of like, am I going to make it home tonight? That's just how bad the streets were back then. And it's just the assaults and, you know, the rapes and the killings that happened at that time. Not only were a lot of women being killed or going missing, but those murders were not being solved.

Most of those women were in the sex trade, and most were killed in the 1990s. There were a lot of murders before Brenda's, and there were a lot more that came after. And there were a lot more that came after. The last time I looked was back in 2012, 2013. And Halifax was, if not the highest, one of the highest for unsolves. We had way, way too many, and we still have way too many unsolves. And for me, it's very frustrating because I believe in my heart that there is next to nothing being done in those cases. Well, let me send this one right back to you.

Is a city or a municipality or whatever the hell we are in a province with roughly a million people in it with over 100 unsolved cases. Does that sound like a lot to you? Because it sure does to me. It sure does to me. I knew Glenn, but Glenn was not somebody that I really liked or trusted, you know, so I didn't really spend a lot of time around him.

Linda Grandy knew Glenn as soon. In fact, Glenn was almost as well-known in North Dartmouth as Brenda Way. And this is how Glenn fits into all this. Glenn was Brenda's ex-boyfriend, and they had broken up only a few months before Brenda was killed. Glenn and Brenda had been together for about three years and had lived in a number of different places. Early on, they moved to Alberta for a few months to escape prostitution-related charges Brenda was facing. But Brenda was missing her family, so decided to return to Dartmouth and clear them up.

She was sentenced to a year in jail, but served just three months. In 1994, the couple moved to Cape Breton to be near Glenn's family. While there, Brenda broke her addiction to crack, but she again got lonely for her own family. So in early 1995, Glenn and Brenda moved back to Dartmouth and moved into a room on the second floor of the Four Star Motel. Glenn would later write in a statement to police. That was when all this shit started. And then when she came back, you could tell she'd been clean for quite a while. She was healthy, and she looked amazing. And then she started coming to my apartment.

At that time, I did live on Albuquerque Road, and, of course, she was there to get high, and then I think there was a lot of nervousness around Glenn finding out that she was there, and then all of a sudden she started... By all accounts, Glenn hated Brenda's drug use and would go out cruising the streets of North Dartmouth looking for her. I don't think he treated Brenda very well. And Brenda, she was sweet. You know, she just kind of did her own thing and she was always like just nice and sweet. And, you know, anytime that you

see a man not treating a woman well, then it's just, you know, it doesn't set well with me. It just, you know, doesn't set well with me. In July 1995, Brenda left Glenn. A woman working at the Four Star helped Brenda take her stuff out of her room. They carried it about 50 meters across a parking lot to a three-story apartment building. Brenda was moving in with a guy named Shakey. Shakey had seen Brenda out on the street, but the two didn't really know each other.

The place was a mess, but Brenda cleaned up the apartment, put curtains up, and even taught Shakey how to use a vacuum cleaner. Brenda was still seeing Glenn, but it wasn't working out. On October 7th, 1995, Brenda called police and told them that Glenn had beaten her. In a written statement, Brenda called Glenn her fiancé. She said that just before suppertime, Glenn arrived drunk at the room at the Four Star

and started punching her in the face and threw her onto the bed. He asked me if I wanted to know what death felt like, she wrote. Brenda said Glenn only hit her when he was drunk. When he is sober, he is a nice person. I am only a little woman, she wrote. I am tired of the threats. The next day, police charged Glenn with assault. In November, Brenda asked her father if she could store some things in his apartment on Victoria Road, and he agreed.

She'd come by her father's place from time to time, maybe take a nap or spend the odd night. But mostly she was semi-nomadic, wandering the streets, turning tricks and getting high. And Glenn was hovering around, looking for her. Yeah? We tried to get in touch with David Way, Brenda's father, and we weren't having any luck. Then we found a phone number, and through reverse lookup, we found where he was living. It was a senior's apartment building.

My producer, Janice Evans, found him in the lunchroom, and David agreed to talk with us. When I arrived at his door, his motorized chair was parked outside. Hello? Mr. Way? Hi. Can we have a bit of your time? Yeah, come on in. Thank you. David Way Sr. is in his late 70s. He is wearing suspenders and a plaid shirt. We sit at his kitchen table, his tobacco and rolling papers between us. A big cat wanders on the counter behind him. Mr. Way has a labored voice and is sometimes hard to understand. Mr. Way, hello. Thank you for your time. Before we start, I just want to say there's nothing, I know that I can't know, but there's nothing worse than the loss of a child.

And I know that it's been all these years and this is what we're talking about. So I just want to let you know I appreciate the gravity of that. I want to learn more about Brenda. Can you tell me about her? I don't know. She was a good kid. She always was. So you knew that she was getting into prostitution.

Did you talk to her about that? Oh, I mentioned things to her. She's just my life. I said, well, yes, your life, but it's not the way to go. Did Brenda talk to you about Glenn hitting her? Oh, yeah.

Matter of fact, they got in a big argument. I know, that's their position in Spry Field. And I said to him, I said, that's no way to treat a woman. And he says, well, this is none of your business, but we're arguing over it. I said, okay. I asked David Way about the morning of the murder. Yeah, I was in bed,

and my caretaker of the building, she come down and knocked on my door, and she said, you you alright? I said yeah she said what's going on outside all the cop cars? I said I don't know so I got out of bed put my bathrobe on and walked out down the hallway and looked at the back window

and it was all cop cars and a bunch of people over by the other building I went out and this cop was there a bunch of people over by the other building. One hoop. And this cop was there. He seen me and he said, you're Brenda's father?

I said, yeah, why? Is that her? He said, well, I'm not saying she is or not. I said, she got a tattoo up in here, just over the top of her breast. He said, yeah. He said, you want to go over and

do no hair? I said, I wouldn't. The camera stopped by. I said, where's Rayna? A cop asked David if he was Brenda's father. He said he was. David asked if the victim had a tattoo above her breast.

He went over, and police lifted the canvas off her. Oh, geez. That must, that's, you know. Then I went back and left. Oh, geez. That must have been horrible for you. Yeah, it was. I had to go to the doctor that afternoon and get some pills to call my nurse. To call my nurse. In the days before she was killed, Brenda was staying in two different places.

At Shakey's apartment across town, and with her father in his apartment at 252 Victoria Road. The back door of her father's building was about 50 meters from where Brenda's body was found in the parking lot behind 109 Alvare Lake Road. If you're walking along the street, the two buildings are around the corner from each other. But behind the buildings, there's a shortcut that connects them. A footpath through a small stand of trees. a footpath through a small stand of trees. Michelle Patrican, the forensics prof, knew nothing about the case when I asked her to review the crime scene.

She said that when Brenda's body was found, Brenda seemed to be reaching towards salvation or home. Brenda's hand was pointing at that footpath, the one that led directly to her father's building. Later that morning, Glenn showed up at David Way's apartment building, looking for Brenda. He came to the house and he knocked my apartment number. And I went down to the door and he asked me where Brenda was. I said, you know where she is. He said, what do you mean? I said, you did it. We found her out in the back of the building this morning. And he said, well I didn't do anything. I didn't do it.

So he got on his motorcycle and left. I wouldn't have him come upstairs. You thought when he knocked on the door, you were certain that he had killed Brenda? When I seen him, yes. I think a lot of people assume that he did it, maybe because he was the boyfriend. So I think that was probably an assumption, you know, that, oh, it was Glenn that did it.

When a woman is killed, the boyfriend or husband is often the first suspect, especially when there's a history of domestic abuse. In October 1995, a couple months after Brenda left him, Glenn moved out of the Four Star and in with a woman named Ann Morse, a friend of Glenn's ex-wife. Ann told police that on the night of the murder, Glenn was at her place. Ann lived on Lahey Road, about three blocks from the murder scene,

but Glenn had slept through the night, said Ann. Ann had two roommates, a couple, Jackie, a nurse, and Mustafa, a taxi driver, and they confirmed to police that Glenn had been at the apartment that night. It appears that police initially accepted Glenn's alibi. At least, there's no record that police searched Ann's apartment, or Glenn's car, to look for bloody clothes, or weapons, or anything else that might connect him to Brenda's murder.

weapons or anything else that might connect him to Brenda's murder. The police had no physical evidence related to Brenda Way's murder. There was nothing at the crime scene. No fingerprints, no hair samples, no DNA, no murder weapon. And there were no witnesses. Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned no witnesses. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and it was beginning to look like Brenda Way's case would become another in the long list of unsolved murders in Nova Scotia. That is until a chain of events unfolds that will take the story in a stunning new direction. There are psychic visions,

the miraculous appearance of a potential murder weapon, and a new lead investigator parachuted in from the Halifax side of the harbor who desperately wants to solve the case. Coming up on Dead Wrong. Well, for sure we knew my father didn't do it. And, I mean, when that happened, me and Dad went out kicking down doors. He then pulled a picture of Thunderway's dead body, threw it in my face with her throat slashed. And we asked her, is this a vision you had or is this fact?

She turned around and told us, this is fact. Wasn't there something about a broken tip on that knife? The sister had gone to a psychic. Oh, goody. Dead Wrong is written and produced by Janice Evans, Nancy Hunter, and me, Tim Bousquet. Sound design by Evan Kelly. Shamham Buyan provided transcripts. Our digital producer is Emily Connell.

Production support from Tina Pitaway. Chris Oak is our story editor. The senior producer of CBC Podcasts is Tanya Springer. And our executive producer is Arif Noorani. For discussion, posts, pictures from the case, and more, find us on Facebook and Twitter at UncoverCBC. We're also on Instagram at CBC Podcasts.