Emma Fillipoff /// Part 1 /// 52 /// True Crime Garage | Forensic Files

Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
for listening. I'm your host, Nick. And with me, a man that likes his pleasure spiked with pain. He is the captain of
our musical aeroplane. Say hello, captain. It's good to be seen. It's good to see you. And thanks for all the
support. And make sure you tell a [Music] friend. This week we are drinking Dirt
Wolf. It's a double IPA by Victory Brewing Company, garage. I give it four and a quarter bottle caps out of five.
And who is this beer sponsored by this week? It's sponsored by our good friends that helped us fill up the fridge this
week. We have Yul in Sunrise, Florida. Like your gym in Three Bridges, New Jersey. Like your gym. Robert in Fort
McMurray, Alberta. Really nice gym. And Linda in King Lake, Victoria, Australia.
Oh, Aussie Jib. And if you would like to help us fill up the fridge for next week, go to true crimegar.com and click
on the donate button. And for everything True Crime Garage, go to trimerimegrage.com. Make sure you sign
up on that mailing list. Follow us on Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, true crimegar. We try to reply to
everybody that we get. So, just be patient cuz uh the the social media stuff has really taken off for us.
That's right. That's right. We are the garage has gone global. We are worldwide now, baby. Well, we've been worldwide.
We're just a little more popular. We're becoming the popular kids in class. and you got no class. But speaking of
replying to emails and speaking of going global, we've had a lot of Canadian wonderful Canadian listeners request
cases. And this this week we are doing a listener request and it's from beautiful
Canada. I believe it's our first international case, right? Yeah. Because you keep picking cases from Ohio. That's
right. That's right. Uh nobody's ever going to want to visit Ohio ever again. Oh, Canada. We love beautiful Canada.
Didn't they invent hockey or something? Beautiful people in Canada. Yeah. And Canada has given us a lot of great
things. They gave us Wayne's World, right? Mike Myers is from Canada and one of our favorites, Michael J. Fox. Selene
Dion. Oh, yeah. Forgot. I was trying to forget about Selene Dion. That's my favorite. I think they also gave us uh
Rachel McAdams. Oh, one thing I want to touch on real quick. So, if anybody knows Rachel McAdams, just let let her
know that Captain said hi. Okay. But one thing I want to touch on real quick here, Captain, talking about the emails.
You know what the number one question we get emailed to us every week? I know what the number one case is. Okay, so
here's the number one question we get and I'm just going to answer it for everybody right now. The the email that
we constantly get is, "I'm a new listener. I love the show and I've just binge listened to everything I could
find True Crime Garage and I've noticed that a bunch of your early episodes are missing. How can I find these and how
can I listen to them?" Well, you can go to the iTunes store. You can purchase them there. You can go to our website.
You can go to the store page and purchase them there. They are available for purchase. We hope you dig them. All
right, that's enough of the business. That's right. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer, and let's talk some
true crime. [Music] [Music] Hello. [Music] In the days before she went missing, Shelley 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 Shelley not to come. But mother's intuition told her she needed to without telling her daughter. Shelley
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 accessed 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 like there's so much pressure and we're kind
of hoping that we'll find her now. Maybe that piece 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 Red 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 Filipof. This was
a big case in 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 45minute 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. Mhm. 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. In 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 freespirited 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'd do uh
things stylistically with her outfits where she would have more of a hippie type pants 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 6th, 1986. Uh her father uh James and her mother Shelley. She had two brothers and
a sister. The Philipp family seemed pretty normal. And like we were talking before, I believe James was involved in
the arts somehow and Shelley 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 Shelley just loses it. She goes off on
James. 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 uh
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 home. She's not going to be living with James or Shel 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 can 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, Shelley and James, but
leaning on that artistic side of James. Mhm. Yeah. And from what I read, the other children were more involved in
competition and and things like sports. And she was Emma was always involved in like dance class. Um, and at some point
where once you quit learning the dance, well, you never quit learning the art, but at some point you are you a dancer?
I I don't I've never Nick never quit learning the art of dance. 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, Shel 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. And I think all the nomadic lifestyle and the whole idea
of finding out what the world has to offer kind of stem from the separation of the family and that's just my
viewpoint on it. So after the culinary 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 himmhauling 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, I 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 does it mean a does it
mean b you know? Yeah. And 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 taken actual like old school selfies where she's taking a picture in the mirror 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 uh 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 have 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 like that. Oh 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 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 it was a little more than just an acquaintance. And who is this person? His name is
Jillian. 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. The 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's booth with with the idea
that hopefully he will talk to this girl or she might talk to him. Mhm. 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 h 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. Mhm. 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 ask you if you're going to go somewhere, the
answer is always yes. Uh so it was at this festival that they sparked 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 is 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. 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 friendship
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. Mhm. But he some of his French gets lost like as far 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 oh, 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 playbyplay cuz 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 idea 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 g 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? Mhm. 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 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 Jillian. 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 and 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 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 uh breakups, even if it's just a friendship where, you know, somebody is a positive positive light in
the other person's life and the other person doesn't really need the other person around.
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 have 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. Yeah. Now, we should uh I don't think we've mentioned this yet, but she doesn't like to walk in shoes.
Okay. She likes to walk barefoot. So much so that she would be rubbing the bottoms of her soles so bad that there
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 chord
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, they were
friends, then they kind of broke up and then they're going to not be friends anymore, but everybody's okay 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. Well, but the simp 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 Emma 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 a beer break. Emma Filipof
arrives in Victoria from Perth in the fall of 2011. She had several jobs in the year leading up to her
disappearance, but she did work as a chef while she was in Victoria. She worked at the Red Fish, Bluefish, 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 Marman House. This is a women's shelter and it's a off and on 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. And 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
uh friends houseboats, possibly even staying underneath a tree. There's mention of even a Emma treehouse. 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 women's 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 members, 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, clocks, 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
shelters uh property, and she takes them out. They said, "You can't do that." And
so instead of returning 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. Mhm. 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 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,
Shel, is saying, you know, I'll 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 person personalitywise 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, Shel is talking
to the family members saying, "Hey, I talked to Emma and they said, "Hey, well, 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 Shelley would come out there and help her 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 could 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, Shel 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 Shel'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 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 Shelley would have to make arrangements to go
out there. She has family and responsibilities back in Perth that she needs to take care of. And she's going
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 Shelley 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 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 red in 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. Uh maybe it was it was running but in much need of repair.
She talks to the hotel 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's
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 7-Eleven. 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
almost like she's checking to see if her ride'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 and the door and looking out. And
I believe on the first video, the first time she visits 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? Mhm. 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. And 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 uh
which, you know, u maybe she had to direct deposit or or something like that. Um, which but I'm just 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 Shel'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 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 she want to like warm up or
something. I imagine so because it was pretty cold that day. Mhm. 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 $3,000 in her account. So, it would have been plenty of money to get her to Yeah. 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,
"Nope, 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 fair to me. Um, so I'm guessing that that's the
airport in question. Uh, but the thing here too is she asked 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
hastfully exits the vehicle. Well, that kind of goes back to that little story I
was telling you about moving the electronics 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's 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 zero degrees 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 chi 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 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 one-time thing that they had 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. Well, 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 sho. 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 is. Mhm.
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 there 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. I'm
joking. Right. But well, he doesn't have one. So that's this guy doesn't have one. And and and Emma 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. Right. 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 he just
went this this dude is off his rocker? Yeah. And then he never thought twice about it. He just walked right past him
like, "Well, good good thing I'm not friends with that guy anymore." How many times? 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. the 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 mental 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 you're 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. You were a fly on the street sign, too. Uh but they I'd hit you with a 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? Have you ever listened 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 harm 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, Shelley, 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. Um that and that look, that's hard to say. As a mother, I get where she's coming from, but think
about the law enforcement. Did 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
know have her you know wherewithal about her 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 in 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 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 or 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 Shelly
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 emissible in court if we give uh Shelly the records. And I just think that's kind of weird. I think that 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 pm, by 900 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? Mhm. 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. I'm 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.
Nighttime is setting in. And again, someone that knew her was worried enough about her her mental state or her
well-being that he called the 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 concrete. 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, Shel, she
arrives in Victoria the same day, as we had said, uh that Shel went missing. And
this is as 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 Shelley 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 Shel that much information. But it is through talks between Shelly and the staff at the Sandy Marman house that
they determine 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 Filipof 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 Larson. 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. Oh, we look 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. Hey, 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 true crimegar.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 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 nighttime 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 Marm Murray guys about the
Emma Phillip 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 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 litter. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat.

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

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.