Emma Fillipoff /// Part 1 /// 52 | Forensic Files

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[Music] crime [Music] [Music] em in the days before she went missing Shelly got a number of calls from her
distraught daughter asking her to come out and help her move back to Ontario but within hours Emma would call back
telling Shelly not to come but mother's intuition told her she needed to without
telling her daughter Shelly boarded a plane when she got to Victoria the shelter said Emma was gone she'd left
just hours earlier Emma was last seen by two police officers walking near the harbor just meters away from where the
dive team concentrated its search today I thought that it would just be a matter
of time I'd go around a corner and I would see her now she says she knows it won't be that simple Emma's belongings
were discovered in her van she hasn't access to her bank account her mother believes Emma is suffering from a
serious mental health issue and may have gone into hiding police also believe she's still alive you know we've had a
little bit of a cooling off period maybe that she's not feeling that there's so much pressure and we're kind of hoping
that we'll find her now maybe that peace will come in or maybe she'll contact somebody in the family and uh we'll be
able to make sure she's safe but the efforts of Vic PD investigators and teams of volunteers have turned up
nothing Emma was scheduled to return to work at redf fish Bluefish Restaurant last Friday her mom hoped she'd just
show up ready to rejoin Society she did not haven't lost hope that that would be
absolutely not the case um it's just going to take longer than I thought I guess
[Music] [Music] [Music] this week we have the mysterious disappearance of Emma philipov this was
a big case and Canada I am a little behind on this one I must admit I just pretty much recently learned about this
case Emma's case was and still is well covered in Canada news and media and in November of 2014 the CBC aired The Fifth
Estate documentary about Emma called finding Emma Emma went missing in Victoria British Columbia but was
originally from Perth Ontario which is about a 45-minute drive if you obey Canadian and us traffic laws and hold a
passport so to put this in perspective for everyone Perth is pretty much just north of New York State and Victoria is
all the way over by Vancouver basically just north of Seattle Emma as said was from Perth she was born January 6th
1986 Emma from listening to others talk about her and describe her she was a creative artistic person from all
accounts a pretty private person as well she played the ukulele and always wore long pants she had long hair and she
looked different to me in some of the pictures that I saw almost like I was even looking at a different person you
know I saw several pictures that were used for missing posters and of her in recent years before she went missing and
she her appearance changes a little bit she she tends to look slightly different
from time to time to me yeah which I think makes this very difficult when you have a person go missing
um in past cases that we've done a lot of the people that go missing they some of the problems that they have is that
they have a normal look Emma uh very beautiful girl she doesn't have a normal look it's more artistic but it's
constantly evolving it's constantly changing like you said it's like one picture to the next you go well is that
her sister is that her yeah and I don't know if it was just the pictures themselves but some of them look to me
like her hair is a little lighter and other pictures it looks more like it's brown you know even maybe a dark brown
or a light brown well some women get bored with their hair color and hair styles so they constantly change them
but it sounds like and it appears to me that she is a very free-spirited person uh I almost got a little bit of a hippie
vibe to be honest with you yeah I think a lot of her style would be that but it's it's very eclectic because she' do
uh things stylistically with her outfits where she would have more of a hippie type pant but then more elegant top so
is very artistic I would say but she did not arrive in Victoria until the fall of
2011 so we have this whole other life before way back in Perth Ontario and she grew up in a pretty regular family right
she had she was born uh January 6 1986 uh her father uh James and her mother Shelly she had two brothers and a
sister the Philipa family seemed pretty normal and like we were talking before I
believe James was involved in the Arts somehow and shell was a French teacher at some point at some point the marriage
is not going so great and uh James starts seeing a younger lady this uh causes a lot of fracture in the family
this also causes a lot of depression in Shelly at some point there is a confrontation uh shell just loses it she
goes off on James uh uh I think maybe tried to physically attack him I'm not really for sure of the exact details but
I believe that Emma actually had to call the police on her mother so this was obviously something that was traumatic
and anybody that has gone through the whole split of a family understands that especially as
the child it seems like your whole world is rocked and you feel like what is up and what is down it just
kind of gets flipped around and you really start trying to you you don't feel like there's a sense of a core
family so you start coming up with these new rules on your own and how do you want to live your life and what is right
for you and I think this is what Emma started doing at this point she stops uh regular
school uh she moves out of the family's home she's not going to be living with James or Shelly at this point uh rumored
to have a boyfriend that was 10 years older so she's 16 at this time the boyfriend's 26 she eventually is tired
of all that and ask her Father James if she could move back in now it seems like
by all accounts that James is not a confrontational person either is Emma so she had sides of both parents Shelly and
James but leaning on that artistic side of James MH yeah and from what I read the other children were more involved in
uh competition and and things like sports and she was was always involved in like dance class um and at some point
where once you quit learning the Dan well you never quit learning the art but at some point you are you a dancer I
I've never Nick never quit learning the art of danc during the trailer I was chair dancing and collar popping uh but
at what I'm saying is you never quit studying you never quit learning right but at some point it graduated into
dance competitions and her parents Shelly says you know that's when Emma seemed to lose interest in in the dance
class because she was so not into competition she was non-confrontational and it just didn't
spark her interest anymore yeah I used to teach uh guitar students and some kids you could motivate by you know
competition maybe their dad played so you wanted to try to get them better than their dad was but some kids just
did not understand competition didn't get it it was like it was like this foreign idea that made zero sense she
seems like one of those Souls um so when she moves back into the house you know instead of going back to regular high
school she ends up going to alternative school she gets high marks she seems like a very you know not only artsy but
very intelligent individual and then she ends up getting some scholarships and going off to school I believe for
culinary arts M and I think all the nomatic lifestyle and the whole idea of finding out what the world has to offer
kind of stem from the separate separation of the family and that just my viewpoint on it so after the kinary
school I think like you were mentioned that she um taught English in China for a while yeah I think that was pretty
brief it was just a matter of a few months yeah and then she comes back and then she's kind of him hauling around
and I think and she did live with her sister at some point in Nova Scotia so we're already seeing this in and out of
the home um and she's already not only in and out of the home but adventuring off into
these these foreign places into these different areas of life and lifestyle yeah and she seemed like she had a lot
of friends but she also was a closed off individual she didn't share everything uh which I think is
um a pretty interesting quality to have you know she journaled a lot and from all accounts of her journals it seemed
like it was very poetic so it was like you could read something but you're you're going is this uh what
does this mean does it mean a does it mean be you know yeah this will come back later and we'll talk more about
this but uh even her emails would be kind of poetic so uh but very uh positive I would say spiritual you know
uh somebody that um was really trying to be a positive light force in in other people's lives yeah and it's somebody
that was really taking it all in as well and and you know those poetic readings can be hard to read you know as you said
what what are you referencing in those actual topics are you are you expressing your inner feelings are you expressing
something that you're seeing experiencing it's tough to say yeah and she she actually went and studied uh
photo photojournalism for a while wasn't really too much into the journalism part
yeah that's a kind of a Cutthroat uh industry the journalism part yeah maybe some of that not being confrontational
one not being competitive maybe that's just something that turned her off of it but she was still really interested in
photography which is interesting about this whole stuff because when you Google images of Emma you'll find a lot where
she's taking selfies but not you not the Selfies we know of now where you take it
on your phone she's taking actual like old school selfies where she's taking a picture in the mirror with and you can
see the old school camera that she's using so now she's in Perth and she's going to make a pretty dramatic shift in
her life she's going to travel pretty far across across the country like we said she's in Perth which is a little
bit above like New York City like if you're looking at the map of the United States and she's going to go all the way
to Victoria which the west coast is the west coast and this is around the Seattle area like above Seattle yeah
very near Vancouver just above of just north of Seattle um why would she be making this move it's kind of tough to
say I don't even know that her parents know 100% why she moved out there it appears to me that she may have always
wanted to venture off somewhere that she was probably intent on moving somewhere
changing her life setting up her adult life and and living a certain kind of Lifestyle I don't know if she just
picked a random place or if there was something that Drew her to that area well and she might also just had a
bucket list of all these different lives that she wanted to live and maybe one of
those was on the west coast of um in the west coast of the country and she was an
outdoorsy person I would say that you know we we talk about long walks and things yeah spiritual a little hippie
and kind of a little bit of a tree hugger and I think that Victoria was a bit of a a place that people like that
tended to end up well kind of like Seattle you know Seattle is a great place for or you know you know keep
Seattle weird so if you're a little little different you know you want to be around uh the different Vibes I think
that's what she might have been searching for but before she moves out there there is this relationship or
friendship that she gets involved in and some have referred to it as a relationship a maybe a romantic one some
people call it acquaintance and some people just simply call it a friendship yeah and I I here I'm just going to
throw it out there I think it was a friendship or you know I think it was a little more than just an
acquaintance and who was this person his name is Julian and how they meet is they're at a music festival yeah they're
at a music festival and Julian says that he saw Emma she was in a like a booth you know they have they had booths there
for different artists and you could you could view their art you could purchase their art and uh this was a photographer
and he he kind of pretends like he's really interested in the photographer and in their booth and the art but it
sounds more like he was just going to that area because he noticed her from afar and thought you know well here's an
attractive girl that I'd like to talk to well let me break this down for all the
women listeners right this is how it works in men's head I think they know how it works but go ahead well well
first of all all men are dumb let's start with that idea but normally the way it works is that men are so visual
that the whole idea of uh love at first sight that's a man thing right because we just so I believe Julian uh saw Emma
from across the way and just was like I got to get to know her and I uh a little
sappy but you know I I think this guy was maybe a little bit of a loner maybe didn't get a lot of attention his way
from the ladies um I'm just speculating at this point but he sees this girl that
he just is fascinated with and he wants to get to talk to her and she happens to
be at a photography Booth so guess who's going to go act like they're interested
in photography exactly well it is a multiple day uh Festival so you know who knows some people try to hook up at
these things we don't know his intent but we do know that he says that he goes to the photographers Booth with with the
idea that hopefully he will talk to this girl or she might talk to him MH and so
he's in there and he's pretending he's somewhat interested in the art but uh that's a typical male though I really
hope she talks to me yeah like just get just make the move so he's telling the photographer that he would like to set
up a time where he could go to her gallery and maybe view some of her art maybe purchase some of it get to know
yeah and at this point they're in a conversation together so it's kind of like she's had he's having a
conversation with the photographer but Emma's kind of involved in the conversation yeah it's kind of a good
easy way to meet the girl that you spotted from across the way and at some point she asked him if he's going to go
in to see the band that's going to play inside and of course the answer is yes right when the girl you're hoping to
talk to asks you if you're going to go somewhere the answer is always yes uh so it was at this Festival that they spark
up this friendship and he told her that he intended to go and take a bike ride to see the photographer and talk more
about her art and view more of it and uh she says Emma says well this sounds like
a great idea I you know I could go with you how about we go tomorrow yeah and it's pretty interesting cuz this uh this
guy's a little bit of a interesting bird uh I I like parts of his jib I can say cuz uh he doesn't drive a car he's just
not driving a car he's into bike riding his bike which is cool um and so they start hanging out they build up some
kind of friendship ship um and they don't actually go see the photographer the next day like Emma had wished
because obviously the photographer is going to stay on for the remainder of the music festival which is going to
last again until the next day um so but what he says ends up happening is instead they go um canoeing and that
they had a pretty good weekend and he said that it wasn't until maybe a week later that they saw each other again uh
he describes their relationship as pretty much a friend ship that they enjoy doing things together uh they seem
to have some things in common and some similar interests yeah and he's a french guy so some of his when you there's a
really cool interview with him that that the listeners should check out uh that you'll go in we'll go into more detail
uh that interview goes into more detail than we will MH but he some of his French gets lost like as his the
translation is a little off so you know he says well I don't know if it was a crush it's definitely an infatuation
right he's infatuated with this girl he he believes that she's a very pretty individual she's given him a little
attention and all by the way she's a little bit of a horse of a different color so that's fascinating and he says
that she pretty much only like she wants to go on walks like that's and she wants
some company on these walks and that's what they primarily did on the times that he met up with her and through the
course of their friendship and he did say that it according to him it did become romantic one evening um and then
and we don't know exactly what that means maybe it was just a A Kiss maybe we we're not for sure no we don't we're
not going to give the play byplay CU we don't know but he says it did get romantic one evening and he said that
seemed to dramatically change the Friendship afterwards that uh she had expressed to him that she was going to
be leaving uh town that she was moving to live elsewhere and that because of this she
didn't want to get into any type of relationship with him right and I think some of this possibly could stem from
the relationship uh going south with her mother and father she might have some issues there uh also possibly Emma comes
off as a as a person that doesn't want to make any plans and I wonder if that stems from the a that you have this
family structure and then it gets fractured and that changed everybody's life course and I wonder if she's just
afraid to make plans because then those plans get get could get ruined I also wondered if it was one of two or if not
both things was she so dead set on leaving town that she didn't want to have anything to keep her there or did
she was she leaving town to to live a different life and didn't want anything from her past life tagging along to this
into this new world that she's venturing off in yeah we have this relationship and it took off it somewhere and after a
romantic advance or romantic encounter at some point we have Emma saying no we got to call this off because I'm moving
and we're not going to have a relationship she uh you know this doesn't sit well with Julian he he is he
likes her and he's probably wondering oh what happened to this friendship now and
possibly he could just be going okay yeah we made a mistake we shouldn't be like a romantic couple but he still
wanted her in her and his life and it sounds like to me that this relationship took place over the course of a few
weeks and that they had only seen each other maybe 10 or a dozen times uh so it where it may have meant something for
him it may have meant something totally different to her we know she's planning on leaving and but he wants more answers
you know he's that's not good enough you know and sometimes you do need to be told hey you know he wants closure on
some level so he calls and he he wants he wants further explanation why there's no friendship anymore and she basically
tells him the same thing but also what's interesting is James actually picks up the phone well not on this not on this
call there there's a first call where she tells him not to call anymore I I wish you would not call anymore and and
then you're right he does call again and at this point James picks up the phone and he says you know Julian he already
she already said not to call her anymore and he explains to the Father the same thing that he said to Emma on the first
call and then she does hop on the phone and she is a little more polite about it
this time where it's you know kind of lets him down easy I guess and he says he felt better and he was felt like he
was going to be able to move on at this point yeah I mean I think sometimes you have these breakups even if it's just a
friendship where you know somebody's a positive positive light in the other person's life and the other person
doesn't really need the other person around MH so what becomes interesting here is so he feels like okay yeah well
that's more closure I get it okay she was a really cool girl but now she's just not going to be in my life and then
the next day Emma shows up at his house mhm and and I and I respect this because
it's this idea of yeah well I should have talked to you face to face I shouldn't talked to you on the phone uh
you deserve better than that they had a little bit longer and more depth talk about this they hugged it out and said
wish you luck and that's it mhm becomes a little more interesting when she shows
up the next day yeah and it's hey you want to go for a walk it's another one of Emma's walks and now we should uh I
don't think we' mentioned this yet but she doesn't like to walk and shoot okay she likes to walk Barefoot so much
so that she would be rubbing the bottoms of her Souls so bad that they would be almost like blood on her feet mhm so uh
he explains that he goes on this walk with her and she's playing her ukulele she only knows about one cord and she's
plunking away and basically he makes some silly remark because she wears the same she has these
like famous pants that she wears these like hippie style pants and he makes this remark about it that she gets a
little upset she wants to finish the walk yeah something to the fact of you know why why don't you ever wear dresses
or you you know you seem to wear the same thing all the time some a remark along those lines so she finishes the
walk by herself and now we're kind of back to where we started because or you know there were friends then they kind
of broke up and then they're going to not be friends anymore but everybody's okay with with it and now we're on a
walk again we're friends but now she gets upset and so kind of a whirlwind for a guy that has such a a fascination
with Emma MH well but the the Simplicity of it is it sounds to me like she has plans he doesn't have any plans no he
has plans I mean he's going to school mhm so at this point Emma is going to the Friendship is severed it didn't get
the clean closure like Julian wanted and now is going to head off to Victoria and
at this point Julian is going to stay and finish school and now it's time for this show is sponsored by better help do
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visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that beer break Emma philipov arrives in Victoria from Perth in the
fall of 2011 she had several jobs in the year Le leading up to her disappearance but she
did work as a chef while she was in Victoria she worked at the redf fish blue fish one fish two fish thank you Dr
Seuss where I guess she was like a seasonal employee but it sounds also like this was just a seasonal restaurant
um she left the job October 31st 2012 she did say that she she technically didn't leave the job but the
job stopped for the season they closed and she did say that she intended to return When the restaurant would open
again after the winter months Emma had been staying at the Sandy maramman house this is a women's shelter and it's a off
andon situation for her since about February of 2012 and when I say off and on I believe they had a month in and a
month out policy but you could return after your month out and you could stay again for another month yeah there was a
lot of speculation that she was there most of the time but it seems like she was a Wanderer in Victoria she would
stay at a friend's house boats possibly even stay in underneath a tree there's mention of even a Emma Tree House well
and there was some couch surfing I'm sure that was involved you know staying with friends or maybe co-workers but she
would end up from time to time you know month here month there at this women's shelter and you know this is a place
where you know they take in people that need a place to stay and sometimes you know when you have a wom shelter it's
because some people are seeking Refuge from a domestic violence situation or they've been thrown out of their homes
for whatever reason but you know these are these are people in a need of a place to stay uh some of them just
homeless some of them are taking advantage of a of a free situation I guess mhm and there was some interesting
things happening at this point um we're going to talk a little bit later about these surveillance tapes that you'll see
Emma on the day that she goes missing but there's some accounts there's some stuff going on with her mentally but
when she writes home to family memb she's always talking in poetry so everything's really kind of cryptic you
know but it's always light Airy very positive upbeat kind of uh tone to it um so at this shelter she actually
took all the electronics the TV the radio clock stuff like that and they she puts it out in the yard and then they
said to her this stuff can't go out in the yard yeah and these are not her things right these are the shelter's uh
property and she takes them out they said you can't do that and so instead of returning to them I believe she either
put them in a bush or she just put them around like she she didn't put them back
where they belonged and and just a couple weird things like that that would happen and after her disappearance they
would the staff at the shelter would say that she was exhibiting um obvious signs
of maybe paranoia or some kind of mental health issue going on with Emma yeah it
didn't seem like there was a lot of drugs involved like I mean I couldn't find anything that like would state that
she um liked certain types of drugs or anything so this to me seems like some kind of psychosis going on just days
before her disappearance on November 28th Emma had called her mother Shelly asking if she could come home and of
course her mother would was ready to help now I should point out that we already talked about that her parents
were split up so she's just reaching out to one parent and saying that she would
like to come home her mother Shelly is saying you know I I'll buy you a plane ticket and then Emma's calling back or
or saying you know I'm not ready to come home yet there's too many things for me
to take care of there's a lot of back and forth between her and her mother about her coming home her not coming
home well what's interesting is with her having this artistic spirit and her dad
being involved in in in the Arts in some fashion it seemed like maybe she was closer personal personality wise to her
Father James but you know it's your mother so when you to to me and and this is different for every family but most
of the time if the son is having trouble and he needs help he calls his father if
the daughter is having trouble she calls the mother so the first call comes in she says hey I I need some help and then
calls right back no I'll take care of it and and at this point shell is talking to the family memb saying hey I talked
to Emma and they said hey well if she said she'll take care of it you don't need to go so she said okay I'm not
going to worry about it until it happens again yeah because at one point she stops this I'm I need to come home you
know and she's saying she's got to tie up Loose Ends beforehand but now she's asking if Shelly would come out there
and help her with with with tying these things up and Gathering her things to help her return home so there's these
conversations of I'm coming home or kid you come out and help me well and Emma's
not being forthcoming with exactly what she's doing all the time so it's like she's off on these adventures and she's
riding home like I said cry cryptically so Shelly at this point really kind of has no idea how much
trouble she's in or if she is in trouble just my daughter's calling saying I'd like to come home yeah she doesn't know
that she's in trouble and actually the family doesn't know that she had been staying off and on at this women's
shelter right so Shell's now in a situation where she's booking plane tickets to get her daughter home she's
booking plane tickets to get herself out to Victoria to to bring her daughter home and this is like we said it's not a
short trip this is a this is a big flight you know and Shelly would have to make arrangements to go out there she
has family and responsibilities back in per Earth that she needs to take care of
she's gone across the whole country yeah and I think she even had a pet you know
that needed to be watched and and a a a child that was still living at home um and so this would be this would take
some arranging to go out there and get her daughter we're seeing this situation Captain is this anything like the on and
off again thing that we saw with Julian back in Perth before she left I mean we see this uh within a handful of days
she's asking her mother to make arrangements whether it be for her to go home or for Shelly to come out there and
then she's ultimately just cancelling uh sometimes at the last minute uh over and
over again it's this back and forth back and forth between you know should I stay
or should I go kind of situation where well I think she kind of is just lost really and and so if you're calling your
your family members for help there's there's possibility where she's calling and feeling better like okay my mom's
going to come help me but then maybe getting some anxiety or like I said if there's some psychosis going on that she
I mean who knows at this point ultimately Emma's mother Shelly she decides that she would just go ahead and
head out to Victoria unbeknownst to Emma uh she was going out there and we can only assume that she was going out there
to check on the well-being of her daughter and to see if for herself if Emma needed to come home or needed any
help while she was out there let's break down the movements and what we know about Emma and what she was doing on the
day that she disappeared this is November 28th 2012 Emma talks to the hotel staff at
the Chateau Victoria this is a hotel uh just after 7 a.m. she had her van it was
a 1993 Mazda MPV read and color and it is believed that she was primarily using this van for storage uh now this does
make sense because sometimes at these shelters or homeless shelters there are there's thievery that would take place
and having a vehicle or a place to store your things would be great you know to keep those items whether they have
monetary value or just simply value to yourself mhm I couldn't find anywhere like any record that whether or not this
van worked that was what I was most curious about because that would be you know an obvious form of transportation
that she would have at her disposal at any time and you know she parked it there that's what I wondered does it
work because it they say she often parked it there which makes it sound like this van may have moved around from
time to time maybe it worked but it just didn't work that well like not enough where she'd want to take it on a on a
long road trip to drive 45 hours to get back to Perth yeah maybe it was it was running but in much need of repair she
talks to the host the hotel staff because she parked in a neighboring parking lot and she had the vehicle had
been towed it had been towed away and we should note that the hotel is very close
to the Sandy marman House women shelter where she had stayed often yeah it seems
like this community is pretty you can get by by just walking yeah and after talking to this hotel staff finding out
that her vehicle has been towed um she uses her bank card at 8:23 a.m. this is at a
7eleven uh and this is about a block away from the hotel she is seen on camera and she is seen purchasing a
prepaid credit card she's seen looking out the window here uh for what is described as a longer than usual amount
of time almost like she's looking for someone or waiting for someone mhm yeah it's a little it's was like she's
checking to see if her rid's there mhm you know and then that's where a lot of people go well was she looking for
somebody was she fearful of somebody was the person actually real or was it just
uh some some sort of psychosis where she's just imagining somebody from here we can't say for certain but it is
believed that Emma may have visited the library around noon uh and everyone will
tell you that Emma often visited the library and actually one of the things that they found in her vehicle that had
been towed was some library books that she had checked out before her disappearance at 5:54 p.m. Emma returns
to the very same 7-Eleven and she again uses her bank card a second time this time she is buying a prepaid cell phone
and this time too she again is looking out the window and she's pacing between the window in the door and looking out
and I believe on the first video the first time she visited 7-Eleven that or and it might even be on the second video
there's some kind of speculation that she possibly is on a cell phone which is very strange because why would you be
purchasing a cell phone if you already had a cell phone MH maybe you just wanted a a backup if you're thinking
about traveling maybe that's something you would do if you're going on some kind of Adventure by yourself um there's
just speculation about it I've watched it it doesn't look like that to me but I mean uh something to think about as
you're watching the video well and Emma was not known to have a cell phone right
yeah there was no recollection from her father her mother about this that would go more with the spiritual type hippie
lifestyle but again we talked about the uh the bank card she did have a bank account MH uh which you know um maybe
she had to direct deposit or or something like that um which but I'm just saying saying I just bring up that
point because that is a little bit um unusual I think for the nomadic lifestyle to have a bank account yeah I
I would say it's just a little little different like maybe where you'd want to carry more cash maybe you'd have the
bank account but you would want to be carrying cash more because this is this is somebody that obviously doesn't like
to make plans and her mother says that she didn't believe Emma to have a cell phone because when Emma did call her
when she did call her she she would get random numbers and um as a matter of fact one of the times at least one of
the times when she called the name of the women's shelter had come up on the on Shell's caller ID and because it was
Sandy maramman was the name of the of what came up on her caller ID her mother kind of assumed that that was maybe her
roommate's name right or like a friend that she was staying with exactly she had no clue that it was the the name of
a shelter house mhm Emma is leaving the 7-Eleven store she leaves there around 6:00 p.m. she then
stops at the Sandy marman house the staff reports having seen her there and seeing her leave the Sandy marman house
just after 6:00 p.m. after Emma gets afterward Emma gets into a taxi she uses her debit card to pay for a ride uh this
is what turns out to be a very short ride early in 2013 the police were not releasing information regarding the cab
ride other than to say that it was a short ride and it was only within the downtown area later we would learn that
she had asked the driver to drive her to the airport she also asked the driver how much the fair will be the driver
says it's going to be about $60 and Emma says that she cannot afford the ride and
then asked to be dropped off at the hotel which is downtown M uh Victoria and again not more than a few blocks
from the women's shelter and even a shorter distance from the 7-Eleven that she had visited twice that day Emma
asked the driver when they arrived to their spot if she could stay in the vehicle with with him for a a little
while you know and he agrees but then the do she want to like warm up or something I imagine so because it was
pretty cold that day and um he agrees that she can stay in the vehicle but you know it's just until he receives a call
that he's got to go on that's going to actually pay him some money you know right and this is all strange anyways
because once she goes missing and like we talked about the bank account she had money in the bank account she could have
actually afforded this ride exactly she had I believe under $33,000 in her account so it would have been plenty of
money to get her to 60 bucks the weird thing is that she's calling the mom right mhm uh I need help
come get me then she's like NOP I don't need help okay come get me I need help nope don't come get me and then the day
that she's going missing that this is you know a very important day to break down she asked for a ride to the airport
was some of the thought that well I'm just going to go you know what I mean she just going to go home yeah why why
would you be going to the airport well I yeah the the other thought is too the mother says that she's heading out there
and Emma does not know about her flying out there mhm what's going on with her asking about going to the airport on the
same day that her mother's coming in is you know the same thought is you maybe was she going to leave and fly somewhere
on her own or was she going to greet her mother at the airport that she knew was
coming in yeah but she didn't know the mom according to the mother Emma did not know we don't have Emma to ask if she
knew if her mother was arriving or not right right right yeah yeah it could be this idea of well I meet my mom in the
airport and if I keep her at the airport then I don't have to show her the women's shelter I don't have to show her
my van I don't have to show her how I've been living yeah and I mean it's a strange thing I'm guessing that she
wanted to a ride to the Victoria Airport International Airport which was about a
30 minute drive so sounds like a roughly $60 Affair to me um so I'm guessing that
that's the airport in question uh but the thing here too is she ask if she can stay in the taxi and she stays for a
brief period of time driver says you know yeah until I get my next call and then some calls start coming over on his
dispatch radio and he says that she seems to react to these calls and she kind of panics or freaks out and she she
hastefully exits the vehicle well that kind of goes back back to that little story I was telling you
about moving the and the and the clocks and stuff is she would complain that they're too loud
just I think I think she did the same thing in the cab ride was she was saying it's too loud the radio is too loud and
then at some point like maybe underneath her breath said it's talking to me to me
that is a definite sign of some kind of you know schizophrenia psychosis some paranoia there's all kinds of things
going on that could be happening again no drug use talk from the cab driver either no no he doesn't seem to
think that she had been drinking or have been under the influence of anything now
shortly after she's exits the vehicle mhm now she is seen standing on the street and she's Barefoot we had already
said that it was very cold that day I mean this is this is come on it's obvious that it's cold it's late
November in Canada we're assuming it would be cold and I think the reports were that it was just above uh 0 de that
day you know uh I don't know what the temperature was at this exact time but this was somebody that that knew Emma
this was an acquaintance of hers this was a uh a gentleman that had bumped into her and met her at the library she
was um she was reading up on Japan or CH China or something like that and and he
was reading up on the same stuff this Sparks the conversation so they didn't know each other well yeah okay so
there's this other thing so now we're you're going to bring in this other point this is what you know makes these
cases so fascinating there's the there's all this little tiny details that add up
so she's looking up uh Japan probably China she's going to go on a trip with her father and she's saving up for this
so that that goes back to the other point about the cab driver maybe she could afford the 60 bucks but she's
saving up for this trip that she's supposed to take with her father so yeah she can afford the 60 bucks but she's
choosing not to to save that money for that trip mhm and I'm assuming that even a flight from Victoria to uh Perth or
near Perth however close you can get via airport is probably not super cheap either it might not cost thousands of
dollars but it's probably several hundreds of dollars and for somebody that doesn't like to plan maybe that was
one of her ideas for calling her mother well if I have my mother come out here and get me then she will play she'll pay
for the plane ride home and I can still store my money for this trip that I want
to take so this person that knows her this guy that knew her just from that one encounter at the library and he says
acquaintance yeah yeah he doesn't say we have any kind of relationship or anything like that it was a onetime
thing that they had I I it might be more than that because he said he recognized
her and well he he knew her yeah but he just wasn't like we didn't I I just think he's met her more than a couple
times whether that doesn't really matter what it comes down to is you run into this person that you you know their
actions you know their demeanor he knew her by name and recognized her standing on the street in very cold temperatures
Barefoot clutching her she's kind of holding her shoes to her chest yeah and he goes and talks to her yeah and
actually he calls her by name he comes up to her and he says hey Emma is everything all right you know because
I'm sure she probably looks out of place you know she probably looks distraught at this point we know
that she was scared or seemed to be scared by the the chatter coming over the dispatch radio well I mean if you
saw anybody just walking around holding their shoes wouldn't you think something's up yeah and he says that she
doesn't seem to recognize him that she doesn't seem to know who he ish now at some point she she opens up a little bit
and she she maybe maybe she recognized him after some talk um but he said that he talked with her and spent almost an
hour with her uh but because of her actions and because of the some some of the things that she is saying he's very
worried about her he does not have a cell phone I guess Victoria is the kind of place where there's just nobody with
a cell phone so if they're if you're in Victoria I guess nobody's hearing this on their
smartphone no I don't think that I don't think that's how I don't know maybe I'm
joking right but well he doesn't have one so that's this guy doesn't have one and and and apparently didn't have one
as well so that's two out of what well it's like it's like Seattle you know it's like keep Seattle weird keep
Victoria weird so he goes to a nearby place and he calls 911 he calls the police they arrive which I commend him
for because I mean most people how many times have you run into somebody from high school and you just went this this
dude is off his rocker yeah and then you never thought twice about it you just walk right past him like oh good good
thing I'm not friends with that guy anymore how manytimes the answer is every single time no but no you're right
he he sees that she seems to be distressed and he he wants to get her some kind of help and so he's reporting
this and um he probably needs to go on his merry way at some point as well well like you said he talked to her for about
an hour um and then the cops show up well and the other thing too is like okay if I'm that guy in that situation I
don't I'm not somebody that that I can recognize some illness I don't understand it and I'm also not trained
in how to to treat it or deal with it or to get this person the proper help and I
think his heart was in the right place I'm going to get put her potentially in touch with somebody that could help her
right and you don't you know whether some sometimes you run into somebody that has an addiction problem
and then you run into somebody that has a mental issue and sometimes they look very similar it's hard to distinguish
between the two yeah so sometimes just just going is is this person uh on something mhm you know or is there just
something not right in their head currently and so the police arrive and they spend what they say is about 45
minutes talking with Emma um they ask her you know several questions you know I would I would have liked to have been
a fly on a street sign that day uh to hear their conversation wish you were fly on the street sign
too uh but they I'd hit you with the newspaper they say that they ask her you know some general questions you know
have you have you been eating do you have a place to stay do have you ever listen to this flies
podcast um no no no but it's good there there there's a kind of Common Core type
uh questions that they're supposed to ask to see and and the thing is is because they can't arrest you just
because you might be off medicine or need medicine but they can arrest you if they think you're going to try to cause
har harm to yourself or somebody else yeah and she does tell them that she has a place to stay she tells them that
everything is fine she says she's been eating you know oh just like how you said she said everything was fine uh her
mother Shelly has asked the police quite a bit about this conversation that they
had with her daughter uh she's concerned that maybe they didn't uh handle things
uh in Emma's best interest uh and that look that's hard to say as a mother I get where she's coming from but think
about the law enforcement they spent 40 minutes to an hour with her and they felt comfortable
to let her go well there's a couple things here okay so us we Shelly everybody now we know the end result of
of Emma that day you know we know that we we're looking for her we can't find her and she doesn't seem to be around
right we know the end result the officers there speaking with her at the time and I believe there was two of them
they don't know the end result when they're talking to this person so at some point if she seems sane and if she
seems to have her you know wherewithal about her that that that they have to go they have a job to do and they have
other people to look after as well um well and also if you're an a manic or a psychotic State sometimes you can be
very persuasive so does that make any sense at all oh yeah well and you're exactly right so
you're having this uh manic you know attack basically and you're in this manic State and you have this mission
that you're putting your mind on and the the cops are asking you and and you just
you just turn it on and and maybe that's something that she was able to do the the my issue with it is that we have a
girl went missing and they have some kind of transcripts and I don't think it's like a full transcript of what
happened I think there's some notes cuz they didn't record it um I don't know what's in it but they but on that point
she was saying go ahead well what I just want to touch on something real quick you're talking about yeah the
transcripts of what of their conversation with her and I think you you hit the nail on the head right there
it's not they didn't they didn't write things down as they were talking with her they may have made a couple of notes
but I'm assuming that this is the same situation that we saw with like the West Memphis 3 case where we had the the the
incident at Bojangles and the the police did go there but there didn't seem to be
anything of interest to them so they make a couple notes there's not an actual report that's put together or or
or an official report of that encounter until after we hear the result and the result is later that day Emma is
reported missing and now oh we spoke to that person we need to come up we we need to file a report and we're going to
do most of that off memory yeah and the case is still open and and the explanation that they give to Shell is
well if there are criminal charges that we need to press then this is evidence that we could use in court it won't be
admissible in court if we give uh shell the records and I just think that's kind
of weird I think the I I believe and we've seen this a lot with the mara Murray case uh with Fred Murray wanting
information that I believe that there should be some kind of thing where I understand that she's an adult but she's
missing and the mom's trying to look for her and maybe open up the that line of communication a little bit bigger here
was the thing that disappointed me about the police officers now I know that in this area and I'm assuming that this
holds true in most areas that the police are well aware of where homeless people
or people seeking shelter can go and they have a general idea of the rules of those places and you know all these
shelters they have a curfew you know you can stay here tonight Captain if you if
you're here by our curfew by 10 a by 10: p.m. by 9 p.m. well right but it's my garage I'll stay here if I want to you
you're damn right you're damn right but what I'm getting at is so my first thought right was that I was
disappointed in the police because I thought okay here here is a woman that that appears distraught enough for
somebody that knew her to call the police yeah so I and and they say that a lot of her answers were just yes and no
it wasn't a whole lot of conversation right so my thought was we asked her do you have a place to stay yes I have a
place to stay you know they followed that up with where are you staying M and it could be my bad but my first thought
was she she was staying at the women's shelter well these police would know roughly what the curfew is for that
evening and I was a little disappointed that they did not drive her there seeing
that this is a place that does offer help to people and she seems to be somebody that is in need of help but you
did touch on something there where you said maybe she could turn it on and we don't know that she provided them with
truthful answers she could have said I have a roommate she could have said I'm staying with friends I'm staying on a
boat house living on a boat house and so we don't know exactly what she told her
I hope and or what she told them told them yeah and and I hope that had she told them that she was staying at the
shelter that they would have offered her some assistance getting there and I know
it was just a few blocks but but still it was very cold night time is setting in and again someone that knew her was
worried enough about her her mental state or her wellbeing that he called thece police no that all makes sense but
I was trying to dive into this angle that if a cop picks up another uh individual and it's not on a charge that
if something happens they're not covered so there so then there's a liability issue there and I was look I was looking
into it as much as I could I couldn't find anything conrete but uh it's just like when somebody says you know like if
you ask for a taxi ride or something the cop can't give you a ride because there's liabilities there right I see
what you're saying it's not a it's not a service that they need to provide to everybody Emma's mother Shelly she
arrives in Victoria the same day as we had said uh that Shel went missing and this is she lands about 3 hours
afterwards yeah so as soon as she gets to Victoria she goes to the women's shelter expecting to see her daughter
Emma the staff then tells Shelly that Emma did not come to the shelter that night to stay the night uh so as we had
said these shelters have a curfew and with some of the places they may have different curfews that could vary from
time to time depending on which day of the week it is um but she didn't make it there in time for curfew to stay the
night so they don't know officially that she's missing at this point they just know that she's not there and not
welcome to stay the night right and they can't give Shelly that much information
but it is through talks between shell and the staff at the Sandy marman house that they determined that they're
starting to put things together here and they now have to report Emma as missing
so November 28th 2012 at age 26 Emma Philip off is Officially Missing we have so much more to discuss about
this but we are running short on time so this is going to have to be a part two which will come out tomorrow we do have
some recommended reading for you though captain this week we are recommending The Devil
in the White City by Eric lson this was a big time award-winning book I do believe that there is a movie coming out
regarding this case uh starring uh the one and only me you no I don't think I'm in it no it's the uh DiCaprio guy he's
going to be in it w he looks similar well there have been talks about them making this and I think they've been
making the movie for quite some time so give up on the movie and go get the book
The Devil in the White City this is about HH Holmes who many regard as America's first serial he I saw this at
the bookstore too yeah this is a very popular True Crime book and you can pick it up by going to truecrime garage.com
go to the recommended page we have our recommended books there and just click on the Amazon Banner purchase your book
through there it helps our show you can buy other things through through Amazon using that banner and that helps the
show as well and I have a recommended listening you want to check out the nighttime podcast yes the night Time
Podcast uh Jordan our buddy over there he did an interview with Shelly he did I think two parts um with Shelly uh and
then he talked to the marar guys about the Emma Philip off case our friends as well yeah and then he uh did an
interview with Julian AKA quote unquote the stock stalker and I'll tell you what
if you if you don't want to go listen to all three parts of the nighttime podcast
I recommend all three parts they were very good but if you only think you have time for one the must listen to is the
Julian interview I I think that's a must listen to right I I was just intrigued I
was hanging on his every word yeah and if you have any tips or thoughts on this case they have a a finding Emma Facebook
group and I I suggest that you check that out if you have any tips I mean maybe you there's a sighting if you
think that maybe you've seen her a couple years ago those tips that can't help them now but uh that's the main
reason why we're covering a case like this uh you know obviously it's for Education value and it's for
entertainment but uh Emma was a a person that touched a lot of people's lives and
seemed like that she was a very positive energy source for a lot of people and um
she also was Somebody's Daughter um and it's important that we talk about these cases and bring them up and even though
it is you know part of our entertainment there is somebody missing and if there's
anything that we could do to help um that's why we wanted to do the story it's it's it's been a popular case in
Canada but it hasn't been that popular in the United States um and we'll we'll dive more into that in in part two and
at the very least go to the Facebook page so you can see what she looks like and like I said she looks different from
time to time in different pictures see what she looks like you could see her walking down the street tomorrow morning
yeah and we'll be we'll be posting pictures on our Instagram and and Social Media stuff as well and we will see you
guys tomorrow for part two of the Emma Philip off case that's right be good be kind and don't
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Emma Fillipoff /// Part 1 /// 52

26 year old Emma Fillipoff has been missing for almost 4 years now. There have been plenty of strange leads in this case. Emma is spotted and photographed in a nearby city sipping coffee at a coffee shop - or so they thought. A strange unidentified man gets upset when he sees Emma's missing persons poster. He rips the poster off of the wall and tells a store clerk that the picture is of his girlfriend. Then there's the stalker. Was Emma stalked or was it as he puts it "we were just friends." Emma's mother Shelley Fillipoff spends 2 months in a city far from her home searching for her missing daughter. After criminal charges are filed against her on an unrelated event, the public eye has now become very suspicous of the mother who arrived in a city far from her home the very same day her daughter was last seen there. Grab a beer because there is plenty to talk about tonight in the garage.

Beer of the Week - Dirt Wolf by Victory Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 1/4 out of 5 bottle caps

Cheers, Nic & The Captain

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Brief Summary

Emma Philipoff vanished in Victoria, Canada, in 2012, after displaying concerning behavior and mental health issues.

Key points

Listener Request Case. This week’s case is a listener request from Canada, focusing on the mysterious disappearance of Emma Philipov.
The Disappearance of Emma Philipov. Emma Philipov went missing in Victoria, British Columbia, under mysterious circumstances. Her mother believes she may be suffering from a serious mental health issue.
Emma's Artistic Nature. Emma was described as a creative and artistic person, often changing her appearance and style.
Infatuation or Friendship?. Julian grapples with his feelings for Emma, describing it as infatuation.
Emma's Reluctance to Commit. Emma expresses her desire to avoid relationships as she prepares to leave town.
Closure and Confusion. After a romantic encounter, Emma tells Julian she doesn't want a relationship.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Emma's belongings were discovered in her van; she hasn't access to her bank account.

6:11WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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