Every Place Has a Story

When Cops Were Robbers Part 1

the_title()

They called themselves the terrible three. Three dirty Vancouver cops who met during training in the notorious “Class of 1956.”

This story is from Cold Case BC: The stories behind the province’s most sensational murder and missing person cases

Constable Leonard Hogue was one of three rogue cops who supplemented their police paychecks through an escalating series of robberies.

…read more

Tanya Busch: The Prison Guard’s Daughter

the_title()

Tanya Busch disappeared on the way to her Vancouver school on June 2, 1972. She was the second 7-year-old abducted in just over two years. Was there a connection?

Klaus Busch, 33 and his wife Ingrid, 29 moved to Vancouver from Germany in 1966. They lived with their two children Tanya, 7 and Ralphie, 5, in a duplex at the corner of Clark Drive and East 14th Avenue, several blocks from the Charles Dickens Elementary School in East Vancouver and just over 4 kilometres from the Azarcon’s home.

…read more

Meet Olivia McCarter

the_title()

In February, we learned that the Babes in the Woods, the two little boys who were murdered in Stanley Park 75 years ago—were Derek D’Alton aged seven and his brother David, six. Genetic genealogy—the latest crime fighting tool was able to do what seven decades of police work could not—identify the little boys through familial DNA.

…read more

The Babes in the Woods have their names back

the_title()

Since I write about history and cold cases, it’s not often I’ve get to break an actual news story. But thanks to a young woman named Ally who went searching for her Great Uncles—I can now tell you the names of the Babes in the Woods—the little boys whose skeletons were found in Stanley Park in 1953.

…read more

Remembering Olga Hawryluk (1922-1945)

the_title()

Thursday November 25 is International Day. Remembering Olga Hawryluk, 23, murdered May 3, 1945. 

From Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance and the Blood, Sweat and Fear podcast.

Granville Street:

On May 2, 1945, Olga finished her shift at the Empire Café on West Hastings at 2:30 am and was walking to her home in the West End.

…read more

Halloween Special 2021

the_title()

Halloween is my favourite unofficial holiday of the year, so it was especially rewarding to end Season 2 of Cold Case Canada with a Halloween Special. I reached out to five fabulous story tellers to tell me their favourite ghost stories—stories that take place in some of Metro Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods.

…read more

Murder by Milkshake Part 2

the_title()

In 1965, Rene Castellani, a 40-year-old radio personality decided to murder his wife Esther with arsenic-laced milkshakes so could marry Lolly, CKNW’s 25-year-old receptionist. The couple had an 11-year-old daughter called Jeannine, who became the collateral damage in one of the most sensational murder cases of the 20th century.

This podcast episode is based on my book Murder by Milkshake: an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic and a charismatic killer

Rene Castellani:

Rene Castellani was known for his outrageous stunts.

…read more