True Crime Byline
True crime podcasts have been having a moment — and, more often than not, behind those podcasts are doggedly determined reporters: People who hit the street, knock on doors and ask hard questions.
Because of their work, we often know every little detail about the crimes they cover, but what we don't hear enough is what it was actually like to report on those stories, to sit in courtrooms, chase down leads, get to know family members and talk to witnesses.
True Crime Byline — a podcast by Postmedia and Antica Productions — sets out to do this.
1
The Case Lori Culbert Got Wrong
After Amanda Zhao was reported missing in October 2002, Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culburt went to Zhao's apartment to interview Zhao's boyfriend, Ang Li. She'll never forget the conversation she had with the seemingly grief-stricken man.
20 min
2
The Toronto 18: A Story of Radicalization and R...
In 2006, when the RCMP arrested 18 young men who were planning a series of attacks on Canadian soil, it forced Canadians to face the idea of homegrown terrorism.
24 min
3
Humboldt Broncos Bus Crash Changed a Town (and ...
When Kevin Mitchell first heard the Humboldt Broncos bus had crashed on its way to a playoff game, he assumed it was a fender bender. But the Saskatoon StarPhoenix sports editor soon realized an unthinkable tragedy was unfolding.
23 min
4
Out of The Ordinary: The Tragic Story of Brando...
Brandon Truaxe built the hugely profitable cosmetics empire Deciem — and then plunged it into chaos. From a psychiatric hospital in England he reached out to National Post reporter Joseph Brean to share his side of the story.
31 min
5
An Unthinkable Tragedy in the Ottawa Valley
One call, then another, then a third. Ottawa Citizen reporter Aedan Helmer vividly remembers what it was like in the newsroom on Sept. 22, 2015 when the police scanner crackled with the news that three bodies had been found in cottage country.
22 min
6
“They Believed Him”
There had long been stories in Saskatoon’s Indigenous community about police taking Indigenous people out of town and leaving them there in the dead of winter. But it wasn’t until one young man survived the ordeal that it created a public reckoning.
26 min
7
The Exoneration of David Milgaard and the Trial...
Nearly 30 years after David Milgaard was wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of Gail Miller the real killer — Larry Fisher — was charged and tried. Then-Saskatoon StarPhoenix reporter Les Perreaux kept tabs on Fisher before he was arrested and covered his trial in the small community of Yorkton.
25 min
8
Cocaine, Coyotes & The Coquihalla Highway
As the RCMP prepared to seize millions of dollars worth of cocaine and ecstasy moving across the Canada-U.S. border, they made a curious decision: to bring a journalist inside the fold of the operation.
23 min
9
9/11 Changed Everything. Including This Reporter.
Brad Hunter was a reporter with the New York Post when the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. Covering this tragedy defined the rest of his life.
23 min
10
Dellen Millard Almost Got Away with Murder
Tim Bosma disappeared in 2013 after leaving home with two men to test drive a truck he was selling online. Police eventually charged Dellen Millard and Mark Smich with murder. Not long after, they discovered this wasn’t Millard’s first time killing.
31 min
11
Lev Tahor: The Case of a Missing Community
One winter day in 2013, nearly 250 members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group called Lev Tahor vanished from the remote town of Saint Agathe, Quebec. As Montreal Gazette reporter Jason Magder investigated, he heard concerning stories: of child abuse, of children taken away from their parents, and of people being sedated with antipsychotic drugs. In many ways, the story of Lev Tahor is one with more questions than answers.
27 min
12
How Covering the Bernardo Trial Changed Tom Bla...
National Post reporter Tom Blackwell has tried to block out many things about the murder trial of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, but what he doesn’t want to forget is what he learned from the victims’ families.
25 min
13
A Politician Murdered his Ex Wife. We Should Ha...
In 1983, the murder of JoAnn Wilson shocked Canadians. But looking back on it today, what's most surprising is that we were surprised it happened at all.
26 min
14
The Article that Blew Up a Murder Trial
When National Post reporter Joseph Brean settled into covering the murder trial of Kevin Madden in 2005 he did something that wasn't commonplace at the time: he Googled a star witness – and ended up in a place all journalists try to avoid: right in the centre of the story.
32 min
15
This Isn't a Story About Robert Pickton
In 2001, a team of journalists at the Vancouver Sun told the stories of mothers, daughters and sisters who'd gone missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside — and created a sense of urgency to find out what happened to them. With the public demanding action, the police eventually zeroed in on Robert (Willy) Pickton, Canada's most prolific serial killer.
45 min
16
Introducing True Crime Byline
Postmedia's reporters take us behind the scenes to reflect on the cases that made their careers, changed the way they see the world and continue to haunt them.
2 min