Cold Case Canada Podcast by Eve Lazarus
Transcript for The Alley Murder episode trailer
I just want to know what happened. I want the whole story. I want people to know that she was more than a prostitute, she was more than a dancer, she was our little sister and we loved her with our whole heart.
In this last episode of season 4, Cold Case Canada, I’ve asked four BC-based storytellers to tell us their favourite murder and haunted building stories.
Francis Rattenbury (1867-1935)
Will Woods, founder of Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours tells us the story of Francis Rattenbury’s murder, an architect responsible for buildings that include the Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria and the Law Courts in Vancouver.
Michael Smith, 17 missing since December 30, 1967. Last seen at his North Vancouver home. Canada’s Missing website (National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains) RCMP case #2014003272
Canada’s Missing:
I came across this listing and a grainy photo of North Vancouver’s 17-year-old Michael Smith when I was researching missing person cases on Canada’s Missing website for Cold Case BC.
On November 6, 1967 sometime before 6:00 pm, seven-year-old Nancy Johnsen went missing from her Cloverdale, BC farmhouse. Nancy, one of 10 children ranging in age from six months to 16 years, was found on the property the next morning. She had been strangled. No one reported seeing a stranger around the house that night and Nancy was not known to wander outside alone.
Exciting News! The Alley Murders episode is a Webby Award nominee in the Crime and Justice category.
Between April 1988 and August 1990, a serial killer murdered six sex trade workers and dumped their bodies in the laneways of Vancouver. Officially, the murders are unsolved and two were added to the Vancouver Police Department’s cold case website just last year.
On August 4, 1989, Barbara Bohun and her two daughters, Casey 3, and 14-month old Stacy were at a family barbecue in Maple Ridge. Barbara’s sister Beverly drove them home to Delta, tucked Casey into bed, and Barbara’s partner, Jonathan Poile showed her the way home via the Alex Fraser Bridge.
Gail Sandra Rogers, 26 known as Sam to her friends, was last seen on February 17, 1975, after working a shift as a go-go dancer at the Penthouse Night Club on Seymour Street. Gail’s sister Karen reported her missing and when police went to check her Kitsilano basement suite, they found a carpet and a claw hammer stained with blood.
In 2019, I was asked to put a post up about Brenda Byman, a 12-year-old girl who went missing from outside Invermere, BC on May 7, 1961. Despite one of the biggest searches in the province’s history, no trace of her has ever been found. I read a few newspaper articles, talked to Brenda’s sisters, and wrote up a short post on the anniversary of her disappearance with a photo provided by her family.
