Lynne Harper /// Part 1 /// 142 | Forensic Files

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[Music] [Music] life is full of tiny little moments in the long run some of them matter and
some of them don't in the end most of those tiny little moments are forgotten because
most of the time it's just another ordinary day Tuesday July 9th 1959 should have been just another
ordinary day full of tiny forgettable moments but it wasn't because a little girl went
missing and 2 days later her body is found she had been brutally murdered there are so many questions
about that now Infamous day so many tiny moments that if some of them maybe just one were different then
that little girl might still be [Music] alive what if a teenage boy didn't ride his bike to the schoolyard that
evening what if that little girl didn't have an argument with her parents at the
dinner table what if she didn't ask that boy for a ride what if he had turned her down and
just went off by himself to play with his friends would she still be [Music] [Applause]
[Music] alive Lyn Harper was born to lesie and Shirley Harper on August 31st 1946 in New Brunswick Canada her real
name is Cheryl but she goes by Lynn she is the middle child with an older brother Barry and an older brother
Jeffrey her father lesie joined the military and the family relocated to the rcaf base in Clinton in
1957 Lynn is a socially active child spending much of her time in the Girl Guides uh that's like the girl scouts or
what do they call that the brownie Scouts MH uh and she attended Sunday school as well now the rcaf base is an
Air Force Base uh which is actually just a little south of Clinton which is in Ontario now in 1959 Lynn is in the
seventh grade at the air Vice Marshall Hugh Campbell school I wonder what kind of sport teams that school had back then
can't you just picture air Vice Marshall Hugh Campbell school on a on a little kid's team jersey anyway she is in the
seventh grade but this is one of those split classes so this is a 7th sl8 grade shared class one of Lynn's classmates is
14-year-old eighth grader Steven Truscott now Steven is a popular athletic kid uh he spends a lot of time
playing at the river which is nearby this is a popular spot for all of the kids in the area you know they would go
swimming fishing there's there's plenty of things to do down at the river it's very similar when you think about it if
you watch the first it Stephen King's It you know the time period that this case
is based in and the time period that when they're children it's based in and how those children would go down to the
river and play and you know create a dam and all that stuff on Tuesday June 9th 1959 Lenn Harper came home from school
and she got into an argument with her parents she then went to her Girl Guides brownies meeting MH um at around 700
p.m. she sees Steven Truscott in the schoolyard now Lynn asked Stephen what is he doing well he says he's going to
go down to the river to see if there are any other kids there Lynn asked if he would take her to the highway uh Steven
has a bike with him and she wants a ride he says of course I'm going down that way anyway so yeah I will take you she
asked even Truscott for a ride to the highway so she could visit a farm to see some ponies uh this is what Lynn called
or referred to as the White House Down on Highway 8 uh this is a farm with animals but more importantly to Lynn
with with these ponies that she wants to see mhm so Steven Truscott gave her a ride on the handlebars of his bike down
the gravel road well what's going to be very important in this case is to be able to visualize U this scene so just
think of it as a straight line and at the bottom of that straight line we're going to have the school mhm you go up a
little bit further you're going to have the area that we're going to call the bush that bush is going to be on the the
right side and when we talk about Bush it's a it's a little dirt road that leads off into the brush right yeah like
a wooded area so you have the school you have have the bush right go a little bit
further on that straight line and you will have a bridge that passes over the water that's the water that stepen is
talking about mm go a little bit further on that straight line and that runs to a
stop sign and that is going to be highway or State Route 8 yes so we have now we have uh Lynn on the handlebars
riding on Steven's bike he's pedaling along this is when Lynn tells Steven about the argu that she got into with
her parents that took place at dinner time um they pass a wooded area that the captain mentioned which is known to the
kids in the area as farmer Lawson's Bush farmer Lawson owned a big farm in this area and that's what they called this
little wooded area that's off this dirt road well what's this argument about uh I'm unclear about what this argument is
about and it I mean she's in seventh grade it it could be something silly she came home late from school or you know a
carryover from some some former disagreement that they've had yeah um it doesn't sound like this I think if this
argument was more of a big deal we would know more about it yeah or if it was more significant to the actual case MH
well they pass that area known as farmer Lawson's Bush and then they go over the
bridge so Lynn rode on his bike on Steven's bike for about 1 2 km so it's like 3/4 of a mile roughly okay all
right so she rode on the handlebars on a gravel road probably not too comfy you know what I mean yeah but this is back
you know again in the ' 50s they had the big swooping handlebar so it's really easy to kind of sit somebody in the
middle of those handlebars mhm and then then you'd pedal along but but this also
makes you know obviously their presence to be a lot bigger cuz you now have two individuals on the bike yeah and trying
to to visualize this like the captain said it's very important so by this point they've left the schoolyard they
go past the wooded area known as Lawson's Bush and they've gone over the bridge now they're making their way
toward that intersection with the Highway 8 mhm um this is where uh Lynn asked Steven to let her off of the bike
um he says that she said she would hitchhike the rest of the way um the farm is less than half of a kilometer
away from this drop off point so Steven lets her off of the bike and he turns his old bike around and he heads back
into uh Town quote unquote Town well in worst case scenario she'll just walk the
rest of the way mhm so Stephen he did however stop his bike he stopped his bike on the bridge when he was returning
and he sees some kids playing in the river there MH uh while he's standing on the bridge he turns and he looks back at
the highway and he sees Lynn getting into a car yeah he's going to see Lynn get into a Chevy and what's kind of odd
about this is uh you know back in the day especially in the ' 50s that you'd have very uh unique um bumpers and and
headlights and tail lights and all that stuff so he sees kind of a unique tail light kind of looks like big eyes but
the other thing that's kind of interesting here is that Steven sees some kind of orange object that's on the
car like maybe a bumper sticker or something like that yeah it's often reported that this would have been a
yellow or orange license plate or possibly an orange or yellow bumper sticker at 1120 p.m. that night Lynn's
father lesie reported his daughter as missing now at some point he must have heard through the grape vine that the
the two kids were spotted together by other neighborhood kids at some point that evening because there are reports
that he went to Steven truscott's house and asked him about you know where he had last seen his daughter has he heard
from her you know he's he's out looking the neighborhood for his daughter right um it's it's not reported what they
actually spoke about what what Stephen he's only 14 spoke with Lyn's father about that evening um I would imagine
that that he's probably hearing a similar story to what we just heard uh that he' last seen her getting into a
car at Highway 8 um one thing that we should kind of underline here before we go much further is that he says he saw
Lynn getting into a car he doesn't say that he saw her being pulled into a car um and I think that's going to be
something that is key now the next morning on June 10th at around 9:30 a.m. uh 14-year-old Steven trusa is pulled
from his class and he's asked to sit in a police cruiser where he will be interviewed uh this is Con conable Hobs
yeah yeah after last week we have another officer Hobs right yeah um anyway very popular yeah anyway he when
asked about their trip to go see the pony Steven tells the officer that he gave her the ride he let her off of his
bike at the intersection just like we had said on his way back he sees her getting into a car and Stephen just like
the captain said gets a good description of this vehicle and um there there are a
couple versions of this description anyway they're not too far off from one another so I'll let you be the judge of
how good of the description is but one report says Steven said that he saw a gray 1959 Chevrolet possibly a belir
with either that yellow or orange license plat or yellow or orange bumper sticker another says that he saw a late
model Chevrolet possibly a belir with a lot of Chrome on it mhm um I'm I'm guessing the reason for more than one
report is as we're going to see here Steven is going to be asked what happened to Lynn many times by several
different officers and several different people uh so I think we should be clear
here this is not a situation of what I believe where step is changing his story um I I think this is those are both
those are both descriptions that sound very like one another well and like we were saying and kind of what we LED on
to in the trailer was you know you're not expecting her to go missing mhm so you you know how much
details are you paying attention to you see a car you kind of remember this you remember that you know especially in
banking you know we had to take tests all the time on you know watching robberies and then they'd ask us
questions about the robbery afterwards so we could kind of train oursel for when if or if we ever got robbed uh what
we could remember mhm and it always changes and again that's when you're being you know you'd mess up the little
tiny things and that's when you know that there's a test so so you got to assume that there's going to be some
things messed up CU obviously Stephen didn't know there was going to be a test well the other thing too Captain is your
answer could change depending on whom you're speaking with because I mean think about it this way if if I'm 14
years old and somebody asked me about the vehicle I saw okay I saw her getting into a 59 Chevrolet probably a belir mhm
well are you sure it was a 59 you do you really want to do we want to say that it
was a 59 or do we want to say that it was a newer car right Chevrolet oh yeah yeah it was a newer one um so I think
that's where we have these little discrepancies here um now the this should be a really good possible lead
here right um the the other thing is that at some point step gives them a plate number uh he he got a plate number
off of the car the the problem with this is the plate number doesn't really go anywhere um they're able to check the
number that he reports to them they're not able to you know this could be one of several different things okay one
either that plate number didn't actually exist you know when they punched it into
the system right or two if it did exist it didn't have a matching car uh that that went along Ong with that that plate
as far as his description goes the other thing too is it's very likely that if a
plate of that number existed it could have been somebody from you know far away or out of the area my suspicion on
this is that that plate number was completely fabricated by Steven or right fabricated or or wrong you know
misremembered yeah but I think at the end of the day too it's like you know State Route 8 you have State Route 8 and
then you have the bridge and if you're sitting at that bridge and you're looking towards State Route 8 that's a
pretty far distance mhm and so uh you know the the police actually speculated that maybe he couldn't even make out
what kind of car it would be so then you're going to tell me if you if you could barely make out the car you're
going to be able to make out a license plate I think this was a lot of questioning by authority figures to a
14-year-old scared boy uh and they're leading him and then he was like oh I'll just make up a number and we'll see what
happens well and you're exactly right here Captain because if if the if the kid can't even tell you if it's a if it's a
license plate or a bumper sticker that he's seeing how is he seeing any numbers on that plate so as law enforcement is
retracing Lynn's steps you know talking with step they go back to the the fight with the parents that night and then
they start suspecting that maybe she ran away right yeah they they think they're
probably looking for a runaway situation here but on Thursday the military organized a search party and on that day
they end up finding Lynn they found Lynn dead um so they find her in that Lawson's bush area that wooded area we
we spoke of she is laying there almost nude she has been brutally raped and strangled uh with her blouse somebody
used her blouse to strangle her they find blood on her and around her there is a cut on her leg um she had one arm
kind of of up and out and the other one resting on her chest so she's only wearing her bloodied undershirt and of
course the the blouse is tied around her neck but there's some peculiar things here because her her
shoes and other clothing they are neatly laid next to her so the shoes are neatly
placed next to her her socks are together like paired and rolled up um the zipper on her shorts was even zipped
up mhm the she had a necklace there was a necklace that she was wearing that they found hanging on a fence uh nearby
her body MH and her killer has placed three small branches on top of her body there are also some interesting go
ahead hold on so what is the suspicion here is it that she was raped and murdered in the bush
or was she raped and murdered somewhere else uh at a different location and then
place there cuz to me it seems like if you're if you're going to place the body and then beside it you're placing the
the clothes nice and neatly folded that's pretty strange it's very strange first of all um but the theory
here the thought is and I can only go off of what the inspectors were saying at the time MH um they said that they
believe she was raped and killed killed in the same location that she was found um again do they give a reason why
they believe that though well I'm guessing here Captain but the statement of them finding blood on her and around
her I'm guessing is what would lead one to cause that she believe that she got that injury that caused her to bleed at
that location um and there was probably some other indications that she would have
been attacked and killed there yeah and I think those are all probably good reasons to believe the only reason why I
question it and then maybe also start questioning the time of death and we'll get to the that a little bit later but
that this is a secluded area but it's not super secluded it's just right off the road and we also have plenty of
eyewitnesses that we'll get to later that were on that road that day and during this time period that the law law
enforcement is going to claim that she was murdered or that the this attack took place right so it's kind of
suspicious there so if if in fact she is killed at this location um then the this
means that the killer took the time to straighten up her clothing basically you know um kind of laying it out neatly
I've almost I've heard one person say that it was like almost folded you know like like somebody would when you lay
out clothes um I I don't know this to be true that's just one report that I heard
but hearing that the socks were rolled up like paired and rolled up together and then that's how I fold my socks and
then the thought is that the zipper on the shorts possibly was that the killer zipped the shorts back up before folding
them up and laying them neatly next to her well my hunch would that would be that the rape took place somewhere else
mhm maybe the murder took place in this area but we're talking about you know if
the motivation which based on the evidence the motivation for this murder would have been for the sexual assault
for the rape M then you would assume that this individual wouldn't want to hurry that process so I I'm just my
hunch is that it took place somewhere else and then um um moved her there but maybe murdered her there which doesn't
have to be a building or anything it could be or any type of structure it could be the vehicle that she was seen
getting into now and I want to kind of stress something else here too you know I I purposely said that the killer
placed three small small branches on top of her body because when I first heard this report I thought well that that
almost sounds to me like somebody trying to hide the body trying to cover something up I've seen pictures of these
branches and that was definitely not the the purpose of placing these on top of her okay um they were considerably
smaller than her from what I've seen and it it just it to me it it means it means
something but it but it it might mean the same weirdness that the clothing meant if that makes sense um you know
not trying could have been done in a state of panic or something where there the person's now not thinking clearly
and then they're like oh well this will this will cover up and it's like no that's those are small branches there
are some interesting tracks in the area of the body um and I and I want to stress that as well in the area of that
the body was found um it's not clear to me with certain tracks with the exception of these Footprints of how
close these tracks were located to where they actually found her body like the captain said you know you could access
this wooded area you could drive up on a car or a bike to this area but at some point you're not going to be able to
drive into this wooded bush area um and and so you wouldn't expect to find these
tracks right next to her body uh but they did find a bike tire track leading the words are leading to the body um
there are footprints like I said now the the bike tire tracks are not right next
to the body but these Footprints are and um these marks measure about 10 to 11 in
they also find some uh vehicle tire tracks in the area as well I don't think this would be uncommon to find bicycle
or vehicle tire tracks in this area you know even if there wasn't a body there um now yeah well because especially once
you start getting to the eyewitness accounts you know going into the bush or hanging out in the bush is something
that kids did mhm so you know they would ride their bikes back there and that the
actual like dirt road that you went on or this Gravel Road that you went on I think it was like Loosely graveled like
mainly a dirt road but well we put a little gravel down on there um but I think this was a a road that was used by
cars too so again like you were saying very common that these tracks would be there so now the the property owner this
is Lawson farmer Lawson and his neighbor um they both come forward with the story
that they saw a vehicle with that they dubbed a strange vehicle on the property um sometime that night that's that's the
best they could narrow it down was sometime that night um possibly after dark and the description they have of
this vehicle is that it's a 50 2 possibly a 52 dark convertible possibly a Ford so not a very great description
there but again like the captain said and in kind of what we were leading to in the trailer
there this is supposed to be an ordinary day you might not notice you know you might not take note of a of a proper
vehicle description just by seeing a vehicle there somebody could use that that could be a place where people
frequently turn around in you know they figure out they're going the wrong way um under the cover of Darkness though I
tell you what Captain that to me does not look like a place that I would pick to turn around in um it doesn't seem but
it's the only place on that that road but it doesn't seem to stand out enough for me is what I'm saying if I were
traveling in the dark um I think that I we also have fields on on both sides so I think anytime you're on a country road
and you see a split in the field that's your chance to turn around there's so much to get into let's get into that
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2023 all right we're back cheers mates and uh and a big happy birthday to the the colonel oh thank you C it's the
Colonel's birthday uh wait find him on untapped follow him follow his drinking Journey you can harass me on untapped
and and then tell him happy birthday he's he's uh 47 if I'm not on on there for a while for a couple days 49 he's 49
all right all right never mind enough of this all right Captain so 56 we have Harold Graham is a gentleman that is
brought in to head the investigation he is like a big shot you know they bring him in from out of the area to lead the
investigation he tells the officers um that they should be looking for a guy with obvious signs of injury mainly
looking for persons that may have scratches to the face hands and or arms um the thing here is that's what he
tells the officers to be looking for however that's not who they arrest and I'm going to jump ahead here a day um
because we we'll go back into some of these eyewitness accounts but I think we got to set this up properly and to do
that we got to explain that on June 12th uh shortly after 7 p.m. Steven Truscott
the 14-year-old that had given the ride to Young Lyn Harper he's taken into C into custody and at about 2:30 a.m. on
June 13th he was charged with first-degree murder yeah so he's questioned for how many hours um it's
about 7 hours yeah that's resp responsible let's question a 14-year-old that is probably scared out
of his mind with no parent present no lawyer present we're going to question this individual for seven hours and this
is also back in this is in in the 50s this is back when you were allowed to have leading questions now if you're
talking to a minor you can't lead the question does that make sense right there's laws against that you can't you
have to have them uh create this scenario not you create this so again they're probably creating this scenario
over and over well Stephen even though he's interviewed for or interrogated however you want to call it for seven
hours on that Friday night he he never confesses um but he does get close I will say that he becomes confused
towards the end of the questioning and at some point um he tells the police about five that he saw five boys
uh that he saw playing in the river um this is trying to solidify his story of you know I dropped her off I rode my
bike back to the bridge I stopped because I saw some kids I knew playing turned and saw her get into a car um
apparently he gets two of the boys wrong um but I think here still three out of five is pretty decent uh I I don't know
the distance that he saw these kids or if he just mistook two of them for other kids that he he went to a pretty small
school so he should know everybody's name but I mean how many times did you like run into somebody and you're like
well I I Know Jack and I know Timmy right M but these other two guys I'm not really for sure what their names are now
there's a note here regarding this this uh interrogation that says that at some point you know I said he became confused
but at some point Stephen tells a doctor um so apparently there were doctors present and we'll get into that more
here in a minute but at some point he tells a doct doctor present but no lawyer present that he may have molested
the girl that he may have molested Lynn Harper but he couldn't remember um yeah I don't know what to
make of this because I wasn't in that room he's 14 years old and he's been he's been interviewed and interrogated
for hours by this point well you have to question if he even said that or did they put that on a piece of paper and he
signed his name to it and he you know so picture this we have him being asked all
these questions tell us your story tell us your story again tell us your story again and then an officer leaves and
another one comes in ask him the same questions tell us your story tell us your story
again you know I I I'm I'm standing up for the kid and saying that I can see how a 14-year-old would become confused
now regarding the doctor um yeah but for 7 hours though he stayed strong on his conviction that I I'm not responsible
for her disappearance I'm not responsible for her murder right you know I dropped her off at at State Route
8 and that's it mhm we didn't go in the bush right never happened and so yeah that's why this whole willy-nilly oh
well maybe maybe I molested her like no I I think that's all fabricated BS now after he's arrested he's like checked
for injury right they check his body for these injuries they're looking for somebody that may have had scrap matches
on them you know ass they got DNA you know and they have skin and claw marks they know that she put up a fight mhm so
and but now you're going to arrest and charge this individual that has no signs of that right and he doesn't have any
signs of that but he does have a strange um let's say injury um they two of the doctors report that he has two quarter
sized lesions on his penis um um the this okay well the strange thing here Captain is that well somebody he
just ruined somebody's lunch well they said that these injuries were you know a sign that he brutally raped the girl
that these were the were injuries caused by friction now the thing here is he's he's then uh checked out by a doctor the
following day yeah the from from the prison yeah and this doctor says he has no signs of injury on his entire body at
all and actually doesn't make any reference to these lesions on the on his penis um and I imagine this is something
that was supposed to be checked um regarding this um you know we would eventually get an answer for this Steven
triscott uh was said to have been suffering from some kind of skin uh disorder and he would get these
different lesions dermatitis or something like that that he was being treated by his family doctor for on a
number of occasions now the argument here is that uh you know I don't know if this uh you
know illness or whatever you want to call it affects the the gental right um that I don't know I I don't know that
Captain all I can state is that we have two doctors saying he has this thing uh has these injuries to to the penis and
one saying he doesn't I don't know he might have been a chronic pocket pool player you know I'm going to I'm going
to be honest here with everybody I don't know how to make heads or Tales of this
portion of the story I well look okay so maybe there was something there that they're blowing out of
proportion the third doctor didn't see it it's possible or this is just fictitious [ __ ] that they that they
made up and then the Third Doctor that is not on team let's pin somebody for this murder I'm just a doctor doing my
job in the prison I didn't see anything you know it's unlikely that these big lesions would get uh healed
within 24 hours mhm so again I think some of this stuff is just fictitious like him saying possibly that oh I
possibly molested her I look that could have just been made up too you know we're they're creating a narrative here
and that that is uh Dangerous Waters well they're working under a theory now they they've pieced together a theory
and the theory is this that that Steven triscott never made it to the bridge with with Lynn on his bike that before
they got to the bridge they veered off and they went into Harper's Bush and at some point he attacked raped and killed
the girl and left her body there that's the the very general basic theory that they're working under now we have
several eyewitnesses and there's going to be some problems with these eyewitnesses
because we have well first of all they're all children um and we know how this can work we've seen this in several
different situations are you calling children stupid yes they're all very stupid no I'm joking don't please don't
write to the show it's my birthday uh somebody's going to write in I can't believe the colonel called all children
stupid just most of them so we have and if you'd like to write into us that's a truecrimegarage gmail.com put it on the
blog so everybody can see how bad of a person I am the so here's the eyewitnesses right Captain let's go
through these first of all the one that looks pretty tough if you're in the if you're in the defense seat here is this
Joselyn gadet okay she is somebody that that goes to school with Steven Truscott
I believe she's 12 or 13 at this time okay um so she says that the day before the day before the um before ly Harper
went missing that Steven triscott tried to make up some kind of date with her you know let's let's book a date okay um
and this date ladies man was to go to Lawson's Bush uh maybe for you know a little make out session right uh this
was supposed to this was supposed to take place just before 6:00 p.m. the evening of of Lyn going missing mhm now
it's also reported that Steven triscott stopped by joselyn's house that night to
remind her of the date like hey don't forget yeah so the thought is that he doesn't end up having this date with
Joselyn he goes to the schoolyard that's where then Lynn ask him for the ride and
he's like oh Plan B I'll take Lynn Harper to the bush with me right I talker into this
um we got to kind of go through this in a in a in a strange way Captain because there's a lot of information that's
collected in the original investigation that will not come out until later and it'll be obvious for why
but I I while we're on each eyewitness I want to kind of go through them one at a
time and discuss everything that we know about their accounts so we have a full story cuz it'll get too confusing if we
discuss it lat later so there's some question as to the credibility of this Jing gadet story for several reasons
okay first of all the saying that Steven Tris got stopped by her house to remind
her of the date right um there's a big question if that even happened because stepen Truscott says that I didn't ask
her on a date I don't know what you're talking about right she wishes there she wishes I ask her out on a date yeah
there's some there's some things in the police notes that they would discover later that would would kind of state
that it's very unlikely that that situation happened that Sten triscott stopped by to remind her of the date
right um whether there was a date scheduled or not that isn't so much called into question other than Steven
saying that we didn't we didn't have a date scheduled now um she would later testify that she went to Lawson's Bush
to look for Steven and she also says that she went to look for Steven Trisa at Lawson's Farm mhm um again there's
some differ differing times on on on these things here yeah cuz when she goes to the farm it's not like she just
wanders around the farm she actually runs into the farmer yeah she talks to the farmer ask him if he's seen Steven
triscott um and then later after Steven triscott is arrested she goes back to the farmer because there's some
discrepancy in the time that what time was she there asking and looking for Steven triscott right and she asked the
farmer to you know what time did was I here oh well that's not the time I told them could you could you make it the
same time that I told them and he says no I can't do that I'm not going to do that so basically you
know this hussy can I call her h no you can't whatever she's she's making up stories
that some guy asked her out on a date right so we don't know if there was a date that's questionable mhm uh Stephen
says no she says yes there's actually some letter too that kind of goes back and forth on that one well the police
notes somewhere it's noted by one of the investigators that that that that didn't
happen right then the other thing is that he stopped by her house there's you know we're questioning that now now and
then she says well I went to the bush and this is what time I told the law enforcement M now if she was in that
bush and uh this attack was taking place wouldn't she see this individual right depending on what time
it was depending on what time and her time could be wrong she could have been looking for Steven at 6:00 remember
they're supposed to have this date at 6:00 I do believe that she's looking for Steven at some point that doesn't seem
to be a question because she the farmer backs up up that part of the story the problem is that what hour was she
actually out looking for Steven yeah and uh and this timing is going to come into
question and do you want to get into that now about the timing the the time of death yeah um yeah I guess we should
because it it might get confusing if we don't so it's pretty simple um based on what she ate mhm is how they figured out
the time frame now they figured out this time frame afterwards um basically once they
started trying to pin this onto Stephen they had to make sure that the murder took place within a certain time frame
right because Steven actually went somewhere that night yes and so he the murder would had to take place before he
actually went there so it's like before 7:45 I believe something like that yeah so well let's go through this real quick
so we have Lynn Harper who she left her home at 6:15 p.m. that night mhm and then she met Steven Truscott around 700
p.m. um you know this is a casual meeting bumped into him um and now that's at 700 p.m. Steven triscott was
seen back at the base around 8:00 p.m. and then back at home afterwards and was babysitting so the time of death here is
extremely crucial and very important because the time of death would you basically have an hour if Steven Trot is
your guy then then ly Harper needed to to have died between about 7:15 and 745 uh if she didn't die during that
time then Steven triscott could not have murdered her right and so what time do they claim that she died right so here's
here's where we go with this so time of death huge the reports were prepared by a Dr John peniston now peniston he his
opinion was based on his examination of Lynn's stomach contents during the autops y uh and the last the the time of
her last meal was reported at 5:45 p.m. on June 9th 1959 he told he would later tell the
jury that the stomach normally empties within 2 hours of eating and Lynn's stomach appeared to contain a full meal
meaning that she would have had to have died by 7:45 relying on these factors that
peniston provided to jurors with with his view that Lynn had died between 7:00 p.m. and 7:45 on June 9th uh this was a
time when Truscott he was admittedly in her company right you know so if Lynn was
dead by 745 then it's basically a matter of logic that Steven triscott killed her
yeah and so a couple problems with this though is like when like we said when Steven returns to the base does he act
strange no he doesn't act strange does he have attack marks on him no did the the doctors find attack marks on him no
uh so those are some issues there the other issue here is then when experts come out and say okay how much is this
you know what kind of scientific evidence is this I've seen several evidence or SE several experts now this
is kind of talked about a lot like in the John Ben Ramsey case right uh I actually thought there was more of a
science to this now to see these experts coming out and say well actually the only thing studying the stomach does is
really kind of tells you the last meal or what's in the stomach but it doesn't give you much of a timeline so for
example if you took this evidence now we're talking in the 50s this test was done doing this test now would give you
a window of about 12 hours so so techn technology is way more advanced now science way more advanced
now and you're going to give a time frame of about 12 hours well let's let's let's play along for now okay let's
pretend that that you're able to come up with that precise time of death a time of death that precise within a what I
say half an hour 45 minutes so that what that means then Captain is that if she died during that time Steven triscott
did it especially if we can prove that nobody saw the two of them together on the bridge or at Highway 8 because then
that means our theory is right that Steven triscott left with Lynn on his hand handlebars veered off into the the
bush area never made it to the bridge never made it to Highway 8 he attacks rapes and kills her there and then
returns back to the base on his bicycle right so now we have to get some people to say that uh you know he he wasn't
where he said he was he didn't drop her off like he he said he did so this is where we we enter a a character named
Butch George um he told another boy that he saw Steven triscott with Lynn in the
bush um he was not called at the trial though um because there seems to be some question as to his accountability his
credibility um because his story changes often now remember Joselyn gadet that we
just spoke about she says she bumped into Butch George on the road the night of the murder the night that she
disappeared and asked Butch if she had seen Steven triscott Butch says no uh Butch's story like I said would change
many times yeah part of that is just being a scared kid mhm at some point he does
tell law enforcement that he saw Steven Trisa on the bridge uh and then later was he also LED that well he he he says
he only said that because Steven triscott asked him to say that okay now we have Philip Burns this is this kid is
only 10 years old he's walking on the road this is the road where you know he should have seen Steven triscott and and
ly Harper traveling together he he's walking on this road just after 700 p.m. he says he never saw ly Harper never saw
Steven Trisa on the road at that time so police now believe believe that if they
were not on the road because of what Philip Burns says 10-year-old Philip Burns if they're not on the road at this
time it's because the boy didn't see them because they were in the bush at this time okay well now we have some
arguments against all of that at the river down at the river playing at the river remember the boys in the river we
have douge oats he says he saw the two of them on the bike mhm he sees ly Harper Steven
triscott on the bike like they cross the bridge they're heading toward Highway 8
is this the is douge close to the bridge or he's is he far away from the bridge um from my notes Here is that he's at
the river playing alongside the uh the bank there okay um I don't know how close he is to the river there's two
eyewitnesses two major eyewitnesses from the river right the one that's on the bank than the one that's further down in
the river fishing yes the one that the boy that's fishing in the river his name is Gordon Logan okay well let's stay on
douge douge oats that's a good rap name so douge oats says he saw the two of them on the bike cross the bridge head
toward Highway 8 MH so that backs up Steven triscott story we have Gordon Logan who says the same exact thing he
says he saw stepen triscott traveling uh going over the bridge and then later sees Steven triscott on his bike by
himself so this whole story matches up with Steven triscott the police don't like this story okay so you have Gordon
Logan who's further away from the bridge and they basically discredit Gordon Logan story because they say you know
what from that distance he wouldn't have been able to tell who's on the bike he wouldn't be able to you know discern if
it's uh Timmy or John or George or or buck you know he wouldn't be able to tell who was on that
bike regarding douge oats though their their state whether he's telling the truth is complete is a lot more strange
to me where they say you know what these boys are buddies with Stephen Truscott they're just kind of banning together
and they're going to have his back they're probably making up a story that they saw him with ly Harper past the
bridge right we can't believe this story of these kids saying that but let's go back to Philip burns the 10-year-old
who's walking alone on the road who says he doesn't see uh Steven triscott he doesn't see Lyn Harper we can believe
the 10-year-old but we're not going to believe these two boys that were in the river were playing by the river they're
believing whatever whatever individual tells them the story that they need to pin this on Steven that's that's what
they believe 10-year-old kid no watch look when I was 16 I couldn't tell you what time it was if I didn't have a
watch right or even close what time is it I now it's the okay so but here Captain I want to throw this out there
too though with this Philip Burns 10 years old walking by himself doesn't see them however we have other Witnesses
other children that say that they saw Philip Burns walking that they pass Philip Burns walking on the street that
they rode their bike past Philip Burns and he doesn't report having seen those children either so it's not that he
didn't see them so it didn't happen it's he didn't notice them they they could have very well no a bunch of people
though is what you're saying right he could these it's it's likely that these kids could have traveled past him on a
bike and he may not have seen them for whatever reason this kid was in his own world or past 20 people I didn't see any
I didn't see anything or Philip Burns is just confused about the whole situation
mhm or yeah again too the the difficult thing here for me is this happened on a Wednesday she went missing on a Tuesday
night okay so Tuesday but still you got the day before you have school the day before then you have the school the day
after because they don't find her body right away right so that you know we talk about this a lot with the Adon SED
case the qu you know there's so many conflicting stories because they question so much later but we're talking
about kids that are a lot younger a 10-year-old 12-year-old they're they're not going to remember what H if it
happened on a Monday a Tuesday or a Wednesday mhm you know what I mean so I think the cops just went hey well this
story fits our narrative so let's go with that and then I think they started doing this thing where they started
burying all the stuff that contradicted it mhm and and stop trying to do work and yes this horrible thing happened to
a very young individual a 12-year-old girl but you got to do your job you got to do your due diligence you or you are
um you are paid it's your duty to find Justice not just find anybody that you can pin it on
mhm the problem here though is there are issues with Steven triscott story 100% there's issues there and what I'm going
to do here Captain to kind of clean this up a bit because this thing's a mess I let's just start with the idea that he's
a 14-year-old boy there's going to be some again does he know the time look all he's trying to do is tell you what
he can remember mhm well to clean this up a bit I say we throw out all of these eyewitness accounts that's what I would
do I mean the good and the Bad and the Ugly all of them you got I think you got you have to throw them out I can't I
can't sit here and believe that he wasn't seen at a certain time and then have other people tell me that he was
seen it you can't pick one or the other you know it what only one of those versions work only one of them happened
I I don't to me I can't pick between the two so I think you throw them both out Well yeah if you look at his story it's
pretty simple I pick her up at the school we drive past the bush we drive past the bridge we stop at the stop sign
State Route 8 drop her off I drive I ride my bike back to the bridge by the time I'm back at the bridge looking at
people playing I look back I see her get into a car later on I go back to the base then I go to babysit that's his
story right right what are the obvious problems you see with that story though as an investigator I'm looking at this
thing and I have obvious problems with this young man's story I I don't have any problems with
that story but okay so my first issue is why does why does she all of a sudden went off the bike if the whole plan was
and this I call this into question a little bit too if you're almost to the destination why not just continue to to
receive the ride to the the destination point you know you're not very maybe she
felt bad for for you know asking for a ride you know to the complete thing when she knows that he's just going to good
play at the bridge mhm but that that's a big question we're talking about 12y old and 14y olds you
know what I mean no I know that I know that but not a lot of rhyme and reason here but I have to make heads or Tales
of this thing right so so first of all I have a problem with it seems like she we're going to this this predetermined
destination and then all of a sudden I need off the bike yeah but it's not clear what she asked for you're right
there you know because she could have just said hey can you take me to the stop sign yeah I'm going that way
anyways right and it's not that much further from the bridge right you know that's a lot different than can you take
me and you're going to ride your bike on a state route I mean I I don't know the
area that well but it seems like the the the road that they're on was less traveled than the State Route 8 so maybe
it was one of those things where it's like yeah well I can take you the stop sign but you know I really shouldn't be
riding my bike on this road yeah who knows but that's not clear so you can't sit there and say well I have a problem
with this because it's not clear but it's not clear from the beginning so it's not you know that there's nothing
nefarious going on with Steph's story there it's not clear what you're right but but that's I can have a problem with
it being unclear I perfectly can and I tell you but that that doesn't point to innocence or guilt well there is some
question as to if she wanted a ride to that specific location or if she just wanted to ride to the highway I'll give
you that much right but then we have the other strange statement of okay if she only wanted to ride to the highway then
then when I get you to that point why would you say I'll hitchhike the rest of the way it it just doesn't it doesn't
ring true to me it seems very odd for several reasons one is she going to hitchhike there and how's she going to
get back she's going to hitchhike on the way back yeah but I never heard that come from Stephen that you know that
those statements that I heard about the hitchhiking came from the law enforcement and I'd argue that you have
7 hours of interrogation you also have S hours of leading the witness you have seven hours of leading a 14-year-old kid
into a story that you want to hear so what did they write down what notes did they make what were corre what what
things were correct and what was not correct I mean you got two doctors saying that there's Legions on this
kid's penis and one doctor not even making references to it right you think this would be a big deal and there's
constantly things like so again so what what did the detectives write down of importance and and and then in their
notes what they wrote down was that actual statements from Steven were just [ __ ] that they're writing down on a
piece of paper mhm and the the other thing is what actually comes out in court you know because the pro a big
problem with this case is going to be that when they try Steven triscott back then the the prosecutors didn't have to
provide everything they didn't have to be fully disclose all of the information that they had collected throughout the
investigation to the defense team MH so what they're able to do is they're able to conduct their investigation collect
as much evidence as they can as much information as they can and they're able to sift through it and then say okay
you're preparing for your defense here's a portion of what we've collected and what we found along the way and you can
build your defense against that well you're right and so here's the story that we came up with this fits our
narrative the problem is is if you give the rest of the notes that the police officers had that
contradicts The Narrative period mhm so the cops should have said look look we we don't have a clear story because
every time that we start getting somewhere some leadway guess what happens somebody else comes along and
contradicts it right now if it just happens once okay maybe it's just the the eyewitnesses you know mess up right
but it happens over and over and over you you have to take a step back you're the adult here and you got to take a
step back and go well maybe this this isn't our kid mhm right this isn't this isn't the person that we're looking for
all right Captain I think that we have to kind of put a bow on this for now because we're running out of time but
there's a lot more to discuss here so to kind of clear this up we have on September 16th Steven truscott's trial
began um all the evidence presented in court was basically circumstantial uh it it centered on placing Lynn Harper's
time of death uh within that very narrow time frame which implicated Ste and triscott um like we said there were
there were only certain sides of the argument that were presented at this trial now a big problem here for the
public and for the citizens was that they decided to charge Steven trisca as an adult which means that he's going to
be sentenced to death if he's convicted yeah death by hanging this was a very controversial thing at the time um you
know we don't often see miners being charged and sentenced to death death he was ultimately convicted of this and he
was sentenced to death um there are a lot of things that didn't come out in that trial that we need to get to and
we'll cover those as well as is he guilty not guilty in our eyes and are there other potential suspects out there
that could have done this all right again happy birthday to the colonel we'll be back tomorrow in
the garage make sure you go to the store Page we have the douch canoe shirts what
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until then be good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause] litter [Music] you can start your day off right when
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Lynne Harper /// Part 1 /// 142

Part 1 of 2

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Lynne Harper was a 12 year old girl who disappeared on June 9th, 1959. She was last seen in the area of the RCAF Station in Clinton, Ontario. Lynne's father reported her missing. Two days later Lynne's body was recovered on a farm. It was discovered that Lynne had been raped and strangled with her blouse. A classmate of Lynne's was questioned and later arrested and charged. The real question, is he guilty? If he is not were other very good leads and suspects ignored in this case? Tonight we discuss the murder of Lynne Harper and the highly controversial conviction of Steven Truscott.Beer of the week - Apocalypse Cow by Three Floyds brewing companyGarage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses Lyn Harper's 1959 murder and Steven Truscott's controversial conviction for the crime.

Key points

The Tragic Disappearance. On July 9, 1959, a little girl went missing, leading to a tragic discovery.
Witness Statements and Confusion. Witness accounts of the last moments before Lynn's disappearance are inconsistent and troubling.
The Search for Lynn Harper. Lynn Harper's body was found in a wooded area, raising many questions about her fate.
The Investigation Begins. Harold Graham is brought in to lead the investigation, focusing on signs of injury.
Steven Truscott's Arrest. 14-year-old Steven Truscott is taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder.
Confusion During Interrogation. Truscott becomes confused during a lengthy interrogation, raising questions about his statements.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She had been brutally murdered.

The shocking revelation of the girl's fate.

5:18WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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