Lynne Harper /// Part 2 /// 143 | Forensic Files

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[Music] Lynn Harper was a 12 year old girl who disappeared on June 9th 1959 from the
rcaf station in Clinton Ontario now two days after her disappearance Lynn's body
was recovered on a farm it was discovered that Lynn had been raped and strangled with her blouse
now on June 12th we have 14 year old Stephen triscott he's taken into custody because he's last reported to have seen
Lynn Harper he tells the police that he sees her getting into a car they don't believe him and then on June 13th he is
charged with her murder now I kind of want to underline all of that just think about how fast things are happening here
right so less than 48 hours after her body is found we have a 14 year old who was arrested and charged with
first-degree murder so a very fast investigation maybe uh another statement or maybe no
investigating at all is it would be the question there on September 16th of that
same year Stephen Truscott his trial began and then on September 30th the jury returned a verdict of guilty let's
go through Steven's account ounce of the vents one more time he picked up Lynn on
his bike at the school they went at her request right she asked for a ride he said sure I'm going that way anyways
they ride down the road they pass the bush that's what we call it then they pass the bridge then he drops her off at
the stop sign at State Route 8 and then he heads back to the bridge turns around
sees her getting into a vehicle uh maybe a Chevrolet right yeah a Chevy late model or 1959 Chevy possibly a Bel Air
gray in color a lot of chrome right and something orange on the back we don't know if it was a license plate or not
and then he heads back to the base and then he ends up babysitting that night within within an hour right he is out of
that area so that's his story yeah and he's sticking with it even though he is now charged he is now in prison he's now
waiting to the death penalty but he's going to be hung that's that that's all that's the worst death
penalty I think or your head being chopped off I well let's not get into that debate I think that's a whole
nother show in itself um but the thing here is Captain not only do we have a very small very short
and fast investigation we have what I would say is a very fast trial as well he he's brought to trial on the 16th of
September and he's gets a guilty verdict on the 30th of September this was supposed to be a controversial trial
this was supposed to be a big deal because we have a 14 year old a minor who is charged with first degree murder
and oh yeah that's a death penalty case this was supposed to be a big deal I'm surprised that the that the trial was so
fast now when the jury did return with the verdict of guilty they did have a recommendation for Mercy
um to the judge the judge how I ever sentenced true Scott to death to hang as you had said I don't I don't think we
need to look into this in in judge what kind of Judge this is and whether he did
the right thing or the wrong thing I think here we have a situation where we have a certain type of crime was
committed and there is a certain penalty for that type of crime and so I think even though that there was a
recommendation of Mercy um that just being he's a 14 year old boy and that's hard to sentence that
person to death I think we have a judge just putting into place what is supposed
to happen in these type of Trials it would eventually be overturned and this would be commuted to a life sentence
instead of the verdict to hang well because he was actually supposed to die pretty quickly yeah it wasn't like you
know here or and also this is again the 50s so it was like you know within months they
were gonna you know uh take out his sentence but uh that was quickly overturned yeah we thought Texas
executed people quickly this was supposed to be very a very fast execution uh thank God it was it was
commuted to a life sentence um there there would be another trial okay um and a big part of this was there was
an a uh author that wrote a good book called The Trial of Stephen Truscott and in this in this book the author
basically takes his side and says that he's wrongfully convicted so this is going to lead to
um people looking at his case again and we're going to learn some things that we
weren't told in the first trial and I think you're going to be able to see how we have a jury that comes out and and
comes back with a guilty verdict because there were certain things they didn't hear uh the the first and I think which
is the most important is the time of death and we discussed that regarding the stomach contents of Lynn Harper it
was discussed that she had her last meal around 5 45 PM she goes missing and the
jury is told that her stomach should have emptied within two hours of that last meal well it couldn't empty within
two hours because she was killed before that time had elapsed yeah put in the time period between 7 15 and 7 45 which
makes Stephen Truscott look very guilty because he's admittedly with her during that approximate time so he he's most
likely our guy if you go off of that now one thing that we end up learning here is that that same doctor had submitted
several reports regarding this and regarding the time of death and those earlier reports that he was submitting
had a much bigger window of time you know he's stating she died sometime between 7 7 45 7 15 7 45 that's a very
precise amount of time the earlier Reports say that she died sometime between seven
and about 7 A.M the following morning so a 12-hour window yeah well because what
happened with the trials once they put such a you know exact time period you know 7 15 to 7 45
the scientists Community comes out and says hey that that's not how this uh tests do you know and you can't have a
you can't pinpoint it that accurate so he actually went back and did the test again still put in the time of death
between 7 15 and 7 45 but also and and uh parentheses stating or possibly within 12 hours of that right so again
this is now you're you have a big gap and and remember though we have eyewitness reports stating uh odd
vehicle in the bush later that night yes way past eight o'clock yeah so the theory is that Stephen attacked her
killed her and left her in the bush but then was able to return and be back with
other people by 8 PM no visible signs of injury on him and we when we have these
other reports when we start to look into this we have some some reports that would come out many years later
regarding the insects and the things that take place on a body as it's decaying there is there is a scientist
stating that she firmly believes she says she gives it a 95 percent 95 percent chance of accuracy that Lynn
Harper was killed after Sundown and killed some time before Sun up uh based on what she sees with these insects and
their activity on the body there is somebody else that states that she would have been killed before Sundown so I
don't know that that gets us anywhere but we have several different reports pointing towards the possibility that
she was killed at a later time Okay and like the captain said the big problem with that is well there was a
vehicle spotted on the Lawson property and this is a a dark colored uh 52 uh Ford convertible
they found tire tracks in that area as well this wasn't investigated this vehicle
was not investigated and I'll tell you why it wasn't reported to the police until after they had already zeroed in
on Steven triscott by this point they had already interrogated him for hours probably had already charged him by the
time they hear about this vehicle we don't need that information because guess what we've already got our guy our
guy has no access to a vehicle right so that that doesn't mean anything to our investigation well a big problem with
this investigation it happened so quickly you know the charge happened so quickly then you have whatever evidence
now we have one you know we have evidence coming in of we saw this vehicle well we're not going to
investigate that because that has nothing to do with our guy or our Theory so that's one piece of evidence but I'm
guessing normally in murder cases there's hundreds of leads so how many leads came in after the arrest and and
pushed aside you know pushed aside because we already got our guy we're we're building a trial here now we're
not working on an investigation anymore we got our guy and I think what we have here captain
I think that we have an investigation where I think it quickly circled in on this 14 year old and if he is your Prime
Suspect I think these investigators thought you know what it's only a matter of time before we get that confession we
I believe they thought he was guilty and I think they thought it's only a matter
of time because he's a kid he'll eventually confess and then boom we got our trial we're all done with this thing
what other stuff was not not worked on as far as part of this investigation one thing that I found very strange was many
years after the fact their teacher came out and now keep in mind this was a split level class this teacher taught
both of them even the day of her disappearance it's very rare I think that you have a situation where somebody
knows a victim and knows the person that's supposed to have committed the crime and this teacher says he was never
interviewed the police asked him no questions at all that seems seems a little hurried and a little strange to
me yeah but this is a typical case of an investigation having blinders on creating a theory and then trying to
make that theory stick you know this is uh you know this is error 101 right this
is the number one error that these investigators make the first thing to do is yeah if you do have a theory then
let's prove that theory wrong right and I think if they would have done that they would have found that their theory
was proven wrong pretty quickly yep you you speculate as to what you think happened then you have to go find the
evidence to back up that speculation and lead you to the correct person to the correct suspect he here they circled in
on the suspect first well and the time frame is really difficult because if this crime happened today it'd be pretty
simple less run DNA test and we'll know the answer within days right and I kind of want to back up what we were talking
about earlier regarding the stomach contents and the reason why I believe that the earlier reports of what the
doctor was saying is probably more accurate than the later report where he really zeros in on that that short 45
minutes saying this is your time of death is that you can see that the doctor was
kind of tailoring his report his later report to what the investigators had learned during their short investigation
because in the early reports he states that the stomach contents may have contained meat he doesn't say they did
contain me or they didn't contain meat he says may have in the later report he says that the stomach contents
contained turkey well where did he get this information this came from questioning her parents
what did she eat for her last meal oh around 5 45 that night she finished dinner we had turkey for dinner and
again boom all of a sudden turkey's in the report right yeah this is this is ridiculous and not to mention that every
eyewitness that goes along with your theory there's one that contradicts it or several that contradict it so my big
thing here is they have evidence that she put up a fight right right and there's no marks on Stephen so therefore
he didn't do it to me that's all you need that's all you need that's you know all
this other stuff doesn't matter to me like you know because you know unless you're going to tell me
that your theory is that Stephen and somebody else attacked her then where's the marks on his body right
it doesn't make any sense well ultimately Steven triscott he would end up getting out of prison he would end up
serving a 10-year sentence and then he would be placed on parole uh there's a bit of a weird situation here where I
guess the warden uh at the prison at some point became a parole officer and Stephen triscott went to live with the
former Warden uh his current parole officer lived with him and his family um which I think shows you something
about Steven's character yeah um you know we have somebody that watched over him in prison feeling like it's safe
enough to bring him around his his family yeah and Stephen actually you know uh 14 I think to 18 was and one
prison and then he actually was moved it was transferred a couple times that's correct there's a lot of concern that
you know we have a I mean he he went into prison at 14. yeah like you know this could be bad for him yeah some
people get in the system and they never can get out well so let's let's keep that in mind
because they're not saying that he's innocent but he's he's not serving the sentence that he was supposed to serve
if he was guilty of first degree murder right can we agree on that he serves 10 years and then he's paroled that that
seems like a big jump from a death sentence or a life sentence so you had mentioned you know what other leads or
possible suspects would have been uh ignored let's say and this is something that I found interesting because you
know this was from the Ontario Court of Appeals many years later these were arguments that were made before the
Ontario Court of Appeals um so the defense maintained that once the Ontario police officers locked in
their sights on triscott back in June of 1959 that the investigation like you and
I had said stopped and different indifference took over and seemingly obvious leads were ignored including
previously undisclosed information pointing to other suspects now unfortunately in this report that we
have here these suspects are not named in the court documents because they have not been charged with anything but these
individuals include a convicted pedophile stationed at the rcaf base at Clinton at the time of Lynn Harper's
death the opp learned about him in 1997 after being contacted by a retired London Ontario police detective who felt
that this man was capable of murdering a child the man had pled guilty to sexual
offenses and possession of child pornography in the late 1980s when the police searched his house in connection
with those offenses they found an eight-volume transcript of truscott's hearing before The Supreme Court of
Canada from 1966 to 1967. and interesting also mentioned in this is an Airman who had been stationed at Clinton
Prior to 1959. he was stationed at Alzheimer at the time of the murder but had a home in Seaforth which is close to
the base which he visited free close to see fifth yeah between C third and C5 you're correct he
was identified later by the CBC uh This Is The Fifth Estate show uh identified him as sergeant Alexander smelly pants
no sorry uh Sergeant Alexander kalichuk and I say I was close yes very close we'll get to kalichuk here in a minute
because we have more information on him also mentioned in this report we have a former salesman who drove a 1957 Chevy
and apparently called at the Clinton base frequently the man came to the police attention after he tried to break
into a home of a retired OPP detective this is Barry rule who shot him with the pellet gun and then began his own
investigation in a report to the opp rule concluded that the man could be a potential suspect in several murders
including Lynn Harper's this case the cases that he mentions have common characteristics all the victims well a
lot of them are listed as hitchhiking victims and their bodies or clothes were dumped in what what were considered
lovers Lanes yeah well I wonder where the the clothes folded that's a good question we'll get we'll get back to
that too because we have some information on the salesman as well also mentioned we have a convicted
rapist who lived in Seaforth at the time of the murder and worked on the Clinton
base as an electrician at least one day a week the man who was convicted in 1948
he had spent three and a half years in prison and had been to the Harper home this is very strange
okay so we have he's convicted he's convicted rapist who had been to the Harper home before the murder to
prepare well he was there to repair a clothes dryer he was an electrician yeah well there there's a connection
I I believe a lot of times these people know that you know know their attacker I
I'm with you there and again if she's getting into a vehicle not pulled in a vehicle remember there was no report of
a struggle but did she know that individual was it somebody she had seen before somebody she knew and trusted she
like you said seemed to have willingly got into the vehicle yeah and if this sick piece of [ __ ] was in her house uh
fixing the dryer you know he probably would remember her name Caesar walking past Drives By hey hey you need a ride
somewhere in do you need a ride yeah want me to take you back to your house yeah pretty easy
um also mentioned in here we have a minister uh who is an accused sexual offender we got we have to say accused
um he lived in a village just north of the Clinton base uh he had been accused of sexual assault by his grown daughters
uh years later well he's real sicko but one claims that when he was when she was
six years old she hid in her father's car and remained there when he took it out for a drive at some point on this
drive he stopped on a gravel road and opened up the trunk moments later she claims that she saw him carrying the
limp body of a girl towards a grassy treed area where he spent about a half an hour before returning to the car
alone right now but some of these leads and and stuff are coming out way after investigation yeah so I mean to be fair
to the investigators you're exactly right and and you know what uh you know those are all very strange situations
but I've just come across a maybe even a more strange one because I have in my notes here
um read through the suspect descriptions and then ask the captain which ones jump
off the page um they all maybe they could jump off the page and ride into prison well look
I mean you have to you have to like the suspect that actually worked at the school and worked at the family's house
that's a big worked at the base because those are obvious connections that that's you know that the attacker
would have known the victim and but all these scenarios to me sound a lot better than Steven
yeah they do but the problem that I keep coming back to with this whole case is that it's very strange to me let's
say that Steven is completely innocent let's say that his story is correct that he dropped her off at the county line or
at the County Road Highway eight and she was picked up by a vehicle it doesn't it seem weird to you captain
that that whoever picked her up and then ultimately ended up doing this to her that she ends up back very close to
where she's I mean extremely close to where she's picked up from within a mile within a half a mile maybe
even a quarter of a mile from where she was picked up from right so are you saying that that's strange and that
points to Stephen I'm saying that it's strange in the sense that it it would it would Point me away from her getting
into a car I'll say that um it doesn't to me well the only reason was all the eyewitnesses all the
eyewitnesses that saw them right or didn't see them or Stephen it comes back you can't Overlook the the big biggest
piece of evidence to me is that they know that she put up a fight and I don't know exactly what that
evidence is but I'm guessing blood on our hands uh you know think maybe broken fingernails from clawing at somebody I'm
not really for sure but they know for a fact that her attacker would have marks on them and Stephen did not so again
it's it's too small of a window um he was doing a nice thing for somebody you know you need a ride I'll take in
chances are that Lynn you know being the younger girl maybe she had a little bit
of a crush on Stephen and that's why she asked Stephen for a ride and not to walk
with somebody else and and this this older boy gives her a ride on the bike and drops her off and several people see
it but again no marks on this boy right I'm not saying Stephen I'm by posing this question I'm not saying Stephen
what I'm saying though it seems very strange to me that she would have gotten to a car abducted by the driver of that
car raped and killed and placed in a location that's almost the exact same location that she's picked up from well
I believe within a very short amount of time I I'm thinking I you know going off the top of my head here all
the cases we've covered all the cases we've read about that we see on the internet
how many can you think of where a child is abducted and then the body's found almost in the same
location as the abduction it just it's got to be close to zero right I mean I I can't
think can you think of any no just not not off the top of my head but look you pick up an individual you know the
motivation here is sexual right and I believe this happened like I said somewhere else and then in the process
of looking for a place to dump the body you know this person might not have known the area super well and just drove
around to find a spot and oh well oh here we go I can pull off here you know and then they dump the body but
to me I'm like I'm saying I'm just saying it's a percentage thing I'm not saying it's impossible right but they
I'm not saying that it didn't happen but what I am saying is out of all the cases
that that we've reviewed in all the cases I've looked at over the years I it's hard for me to think of that same
situation taking place right but what I'm also what I'm saying though is that the person the murderer
right did not might not have known that they're dropping the body off so close to where they picked the person up at is
what I'm saying they would have they would have no clue that they're returning to damn near the same place to
drop off something they picked up I'm saying there's a possibility they might not have known it okay I'll give you
what I'm saying I'll give you that but you know off the top of my head there's the only a couple situations that I can
think of where where this was even a possibility and you know one would be the Delphi
case that we covered but there's a big question if those girls were even removed from that wooded area and then
returned yeah but look I I don't think that matters I I just think I find it strange oh and here maybe here's another
situation I think the Oakland County child killer I think one of those victims was returned to roughly the same
area but they were held for days um I I'm just pointing out here that it's it's strange to me to to believe
that she got into a vehicle drove away somewhere for hours and then was returned to the same location I I'm
not saying it's impossible I get what you're saying but I think we can agree that it does seem it's an oddity
um yeah I guess anyways there's a lot more to get to right after this quick beer break
[Music] [Music] all right Cheers Cheers mates cheers all right so we have a suspect here in Lynn
Harper's murder who stands out and this is that Alexander kalachic and the reason why he stands out and the reason
why we bring him up is he is somebody that a lot of people involved in this investigation are close to this
investigation back in 1959 believed that he should have been somebody on their radar he should have been somebody he
should have been a concern for them and a piece of this investigation and it doesn't appear that he was so let's go
over who kalichek is he was born in 1923 he was part of the Royal Canadian Air Force he was a sergeant who lived and
worked in the area at the time of the murder now Sergeant kalichek was known to be a heavy drinker
um and from the stories I told or have been told a heavy drinker might be an understatement he's heavier than than us
he's times four uh yeah well he's basically if you take what I drink and what you drink
and times that by four there that's what I meant yeah so he's a heavy drinker with previous convictions for sexual
offenses some involving young girls now like we said he served in the air force during World War II
um but he returned to civilian life in 1945. in 1950 he re-enrolled at the in the rcaf and was originally posted at
the station in Trenton but soon afterwards he was transferred to the station in Clinton
now we know this from our case you know this is close to our case here he served as a supply technician until
1955 but in 1957 he was transferred to another station now this is located about an hour away from Clinton however
kalichek made frequent trips back to Clinton where Lynn's Harper where Lynn Harper's father was the senior Supply
officer well there's your you know connection there yeah good possible connection but we also have this
situation that takes place about three week three weeks before Lynn Harper's murder kalichek was arrested and charged
by the Ontario Police for attempting to lure three young girls into his car outside of Saint Thomas Ontario the
charge was dismissed shortly afterward but the judge gave kalichek a warning regarding his behavior basically the way
this thing went down is he sees three girls walking on the side of the street he pulls up to them opens up the car
door he's trying to lure one if not two or three of them into his car there's different reports on what he was
using to as a ruse one is saying you know possibly new clothes or new underwear yeah when they sent the new
underwear I thought yeah that seems like a strange thing to offer somebody to get
a car you want some new underwear yeah like anytime you hear that run for your life well I guess there's hey
come in the garage you want some new underwear nah I guess there's lack of sufficient evidence because like we said
the charges eventually dismissed but the judge gives him a Stern warning the warning uh goes something like this hey
I know what you're up to I know that you were what you were trying to trick those
little girls into your car we're going to be watching you kind of thing that's the kind of warning he got yeah well
they should have said Hey look with his underwear stuff right no more no more you don't even look at little
girls and if you do no new underwear for you for the rest of your life or we're gonna
hang you you sick son of a [ __ ] well here's a reason why kalichek should have been on their radar for for reasons
already stated but more importantly for this one uh in the early part of June in
1959 we have kalichuk's probation officer advises the Air Force officials of another incident of indecent exposure
involving kalichek and the town of Seaforth not far from the Clinton base now on July 2nd just three weeks after
the murder of Lynn Harper kalichek was hospitalized due to overwhelming anxiety tension depression and guilt according
to the rcaf documents but this is after the charges are dropped right right but he but he's he's experiencing this
overwhelming anxiety well tension depression and guilt three weeks after the murder of Lynn Harper right that's
my point is that a lot of people would assume well he was charged with this but they dropped the charge so he shouldn't
have anxiety over that yeah that's no longer on his mind right the other thing that I think to me is
like bingo bingo Boingo is that this idiot sold his car hmm and and again I think if you look at
um everybody that heard this story Lynn Harper's story they also heard about Stephen's story and Steven's accounts
and Stephen claiming that he saw a car and that he saw an orange thing on the car and I think that spooked him
and that's why he got rid of the car I also believe like I said that the crime took place at least the sexual crime
took place somewhere else and I believe that was probably the car do we have a rough description of that car that he
sold uh I actually could not find that okay but it but it is mentioned that he sold
his car after her death right okay that's that's very interesting in itself now kalichek drank himself to death in
1975. uh his final days were spent in a psychiatric hospital in Ontario yeah it just seems like this whole case you know
it was law enforcement investigators putting their blinders on going after Stephen not following leads you know I I
don't know if it was ever reported if uh kalichek was uh investigated at all well
you're right it's never been confirmed that the Ontario Police ever investigated him regarding the murder of
Lynn Harper now I want to bring up somebody I'm going to shift gears here a little bit
Captain we'll bring up somebody his name is Barry rule uh he's a retired OPP Sergeant uh he says that a traveling
salesman uh should be a suspect in a string of unsolved murders he also believes that he knows the identity of
the person who killed Lynn Harper in June of 1959 rule is the author of a book called a viable suspect rule said
he first met who he believes is Lynn Harper's murderer who he calls Larry Talbot although that's not the suspect's
real name uh Talbot's not you know he's not been convicted of any of these things a lot of fictitious names in True
Crime he's got he's got family members out there and we have an author who's accusing him of multiple murders so
choosing to use a different name um he says that he met Talbot during a robbery but it's a bit more complicated
than that it's it's reported as a robbery I've heard Barry roll story on this of how this robbery went down and
it sounds like a good recommended reading uh yeah I want to take you through this this story a little bit so
Barry rule uh his his now wife her name is Pat um at this time they were lovely name
they weren't living together um Pat had a cottage and Barry had a place elsewhere but anyway one night
they have dinner they have drinks and Barry decides to stay over that's the night that the break-in happens he's
sleeping he hears a loud disturbing noise he gets up out of bed only to find a masked man with a gun
inside this Cottage okay now so Barry exited the bedroom and and confronted this masked man in another room
well the first thing that the guy wearing the mask says to Barry where's the bride or bring out the bride
something something of that nature so he says you know let's leave her out of this you know go ahead you can I can
give you my wallet whatever let's leave her out of this he says no bring her out
here he's got a gun you got to do what he's saying so he calls for Pat Pat comes out of the bedroom
he tells the burglar tells Pat to lift up her nightgown expose herself [Music] um you know Barry pleads with this guy
let's again let's not get her involved in this he insists so she lifts up the night
count eventually what ends up taking place is that he that Barry and Pat are robbed he
takes some money from them and at some point Barry he's a he's a he's a police officer at some point he must have
realized that this burglar does not have a real gun he has a pellet gun so he starts calling the burglars the the
bluff here because because this guy's threatening them and he's asking them to do things that they don't want to do I
mean pellet guns hurt but I mean you can take one you can take a couple so at some point Barry recognizes this to be a
pellet gun and he starts to challenge the man that's broken into the home and he says you know what I don't think
you're going to shoot us I don't think you're going to shoot us at all I like this guy I like the cut of
his jib that's right nice jib the thing here is now the masked man he gets scared of Barry and he flees the house
well Barry is a police officer he he sets out on Chase and he's chasing after this dude
while he's chasing the dude the dude turns around and shoots Barry in the chest with the pellet gun
Barry fights through this he tackles this man and let me put it how can I put this
politely does he say to him now lift up your skirt for me boy now to put it politely he beats the crap out of the
guy yeah all right very good right I don't think this guy was out to rob the place and I tell you why and Barry
doesn't either because of things that they found on this guy after he's arrested okay he had four sets of
shoelaces in his pockets okay inside the guy's car they found they found his car parked nearby he had
left the keys on the Wheel and inside the car were his shoes and his underwear so this burglar had was wearing gloves
and a mask carrying a flashlight a gun he had a knife on him he had four sets of
shoelaces he had removed his shoes so he could be quiet and also probably not to
leave Footprints and he had removed his underwear as well possibly for some kind of fast
situation if you need to be fast with your pants I think they I like Barry think that
this man was there to to rape Pat to tie her up and who knows possibly kill her but because because this guy is somewhat
of a sophisticated criminal when caught in the act he's able to turn it into a burglary I was just there to rob you
guys anyway this is how this guy this Larry Tolbert guy becomes known to bury rule
yeah the problem I have with this and and feel free to give me the evidence to say that I'm wrong but
he's breaking into possibly rape uh older lady well they weren't old at the time they
were they were in their early 20s right but in the 50s that's a older lady okay right well it's older than our
victim that we're talking about Lynn Harper right that's what I'm saying so I'm just saying that it doesn't that
part doesn't fit for me well Barry rule believes this Larry Talbert is guilty of
multiple or well let's say this to put it more accurately he says he should be a a lead suspect in several unsolved
murders that took place over a span of years in this area now one of them one of these such cases was the murder of a
Oakville woman this is Pauline Dudley she was age 17 her body was found and located by a farmer working in his
Fields this was in Oakville in August of 1973 she was 17 years old um the thing here is
the car that toddler owned at the time was spotted not far from where Dudley's body was found and when police located
him they searched his car well they found Blood on the on the headrest and hair on
the floor along with other items in the trunk now here's what they found in the trunk
they found a wooden dildo cream a knife two flashlights brown sheets a short sleeve shirt and inside the pockets of
the short sleeve shirt were surgical gloves they bring him in because of these strange items that they find in his
vehicle that spotted near the body of this unsolved murder and when they bring him in he fails
several polygraph tests long story short Talbert was never charged for Pauline Dudley's murder
it was one of those situations captain that we've talked about plenty of times on this show where we have a group of
police and we have a group of detectives who say we know who did this we're we're
absolutely convinced we know who did this we got nothing on the guy we got no evidence
so yeah we have no evidence and we're not going to make it up thank you that's what they're basically saying
we know that they did it how does this we can't prove it and we did and we're refusing
to manufacture events yeah well how does this bring us back to the murder of young Lynn Harper well I think part of
that you brought up something interesting was that you know Lynn Harper was a young victim 12 years old I
think this Pauline Dudley thing shows that that this person is might be capable of committing murder
against a younger girl I know 17 is different than 12. I get it um but here's the big thing
Barry rule lists a number of reasons a number of connections but the one that stands out the most is including the
similarity between culbert his tolbert's car at the time and the one that Stephen
Truscott said he saw now Truscott said that he saw 1959 Chevy possibly Bel Air on the evening that
Lynn Harper went missing and we have Talbert who has a 1957 Chevy so we have a similar vehicle there's one
problem here though uh the vehicle that Tolbert owned at the time was a turquoise blue
now according to Barry rule we have a situation where she probably disappeared if she got into that car she disappeared
around 7 30 7 45 Sunset was at 906 that night um so Barry would tell us that there's a
chance that with that sun and at that angle and the distance that we have Steven trescott from the car that he had
may have thought he was seeing a gray car right one thing that they share the similarity of is they both have a lot of
Chrome on them he did say he saw a lot of chrome now we have this Larry Talbert why would he be in the area he's a
traveling salesman what does he sell um hopes and dreams no I don't I I don't know what he sells murder I don't know
what he sold but I do know this that we have very rule uh the retired OPP sergeant
well he likes he likes Talbert for several murders he believes he should be investigated and looked at in several
cases um all of these were ones that he was able to go back in time and he was able
to confirm that Talbert would have been in the area or near that area when a murder was committed well maybe he sold
shoelaces and underwear I don't I don't think he was a shoelace salesman or maybe wooden dildos but you know Barry
roll points out something interesting here you know what better job for a uh serial killer to have than a traveling
salesman you know you you could commit a murder on Tuesday in one town and you could be hours and hours away by
Wednesday or Thursday you know and if nobody saw you if nobody spotted you maybe they don't have things to connect
you to the crime I'm gonna go with this Captain it's a little bit of a stretch it's a leap I'm gonna say it's a leap
but you should have been investigated but a we could just make the argument that the case should have been
investigated period yeah and I mean Barry roll lists several other cases that he would like to see this Larry
Talbert uh uh investigated for I'm not going to go into all of them um because like I said it's a bit of a
leap and we're here to discuss the Lynn Harper case but it's certainly an interesting leap and one that I'm
willing to take I hopefully have to pick up his book at some point I did not get
a chance to read the book itself but I did see an interesting presentation that he did regarding his suspect all right
well let's get back to Lynn Harper's case and and so what are our final conclusions on this Lynn Harper case
because we had a you know a kid sentence then released now he's out it just seems like even after they let
him out they didn't really investigate this case no it's it's it's similar to The West Memphis Three case where you
have somebody that ends up not serving the appropriate sentence for the crime that they're convicted of
and later they're released and then you just say huh yeah we can't we're not really going to
go back and investigate this even though now it looks like we'd never found the guilty party yeah it's sad too because
you know in this case it's even harder though because the amount of time that's passed the the Primitive investigative
tools that we would have been using back in 1959 well they actually uh went to test Steven so they could get answers uh
DNA tests but when they went back through the DNA evidence that they collected at the time it was all damaged
yeah so they couldn't actually do the test and he was willing to take the test yeah I think that I think again shows
another sign of his character that's definitely a check mark on the Stephen Truscott side uh that he did not commit
this murder um what are what are my thoughts and opinions it's tough for me Captain
because like I said it's it's that one hour of time that there seems to be so many questions in differing
um opinions as to what happened by eyewitnesses during that one hour of time it's very tough it's very confusing I do
like that we have um and Stephen trescott's favor I like that he spotted a vehicle
um and then later we have Barry rule coming out saying hey I have a suspect that has a similar vehicle right I like
that in his favor what I don't like is that you give me a license plate number and that's not a legit number it doesn't
work yeah I think that whole part of the story is fictitious I don't think he saw
a license plate I think he might have I'm hoping that he's innocent because I I like to and I know it does happen
but I don't want to believe that this kid was killed by another kid um I think maybe he was scared into
giving that license plate number the problem that I have too with the license plate is me personally if I see a
situation go down to the point where I'm going to make a mental note not only of
the description of the vehicle but a mental note of the license plate number then guess what it's not going to take
me till police come to me to ask me what happened to Lynn Harper I'm going to be
going to other people and saying look this could be nothing but I was with Lynn Harper she's only 12 and I saw her
get into this car and here's the license plate number I think something weird happened
we're right I mean to to take a special note I drive past a thousand cars every day I never I never make note of the
license plate number uh right but again this case is all about the small little things that don't
really matter until a tragic event actually happens and to me this is very much like a butterfly effect case you
know if if Stephen wasn't so nice to give her a ride then maybe she wouldn't have been on State Route 8 at
the time that there was a uh somebody traveling in that area to pick her up right that could have done this crime
um if somebody saw him if the DNA evidence um didn't get destroyed there's all these little tiny things that if they
happen we would have had an answer the and then the big butterfly effect in this case that we haven't really talked
about much but you you have a country that sentence a boy that's 14 years old for a crime that I believe you didn't
commit you sent him to be hung within months of being tried when you didn't even spend months on the
investigation and this was such a black eye on the Canadian justice system that they got read of the death penalty
altogether right and uh Stephen was one of the main reasons for that it was a good wake-up call for them yeah so this
case to me is all these little you know Butterfly Effects if Stephen didn't or what if uh
you know heck what if Stephen and Lynn actually went into the bush to make out for a little bit maybe this doesn't
happen there's all these little tiny things that maybe could have stopped this tragic event but it's a really
fascinating story this was one like you know as we're researching it like the the first day of researching I I really
got into it and trying to break down all the different points of the eyewitness uh testifying and all that stuff and
what's really interesting too is you know Stephen went by a different name for so many years now him and his wife
actually have become experts on this case and they can break down all the testimony all the eyewitness accounts
that contradict what the investigators have and again rule number one don't create your own
Theory and if you do create your own Theory spend as much as you much time trying to prove it or trying to disprove
it as you do trying to prove it yeah and I think for me you know we talk about all these tiny little moments
for me too one thing that I come back to that makes me believe Stephen is innocent and underlines that for me is
what what exactly were Lynn Harper's intentions that evening that we don't know we've heard stories that she wanted
to go see the ponies or that she wanted a ride up to Highway 8. for some reason she if she wants to see
the pony she doesn't accept the ride all the way there what was that argument about that night
was she planning to walk away or run away from home and got picked up by the wrong person and that's why she wanted
Stephen to drop her off rather than take her all the way to The Farmhouse you know if if we knew her actual intentions
I think that would give us a better Direction better sense of direction as to Stephen's intentions
and I maybe and I'm I'm with you Captain I think there we got a couple people that see him on the bridge we got a
couple people that see them cross the bridge that lines up with Steven's story that
makes that that makes that very precise small little time window even smaller all right so do we have a recommended
reading for this week yes this week we are recommending a question of evidence the case book of great forensic
controversies by Colin Evans um scientific sleuthing and slip UPS in investigations of 15 famous cases
ranging from the suspicious death of Napoleon to the murder cases of Dr Sam The Fugitive Shepherd and O.J Simpson a
question of evidence takes readers inside some of the most vexing forensic controversies of all time in each case
Colin Evans lays out the conflicting medical and scientific evidence much like we saw in the Lynn Harper case in
Stephen trescott case today all right thank you to you Captain thank you to everybody out there and remember we you
don't have much time we have a pre-order of the douche canoe shirt so you want to
go to truecrime garage.com click on the store Page and and get your douche canoe
sure I don't want somebody saying six months from now oh oh I wish I would have got one like too late I'm not you
know too late yep all right that's enough for this week thank you to everybody out there we will see you back
in the garage next week until then be good be kind and please pretty pretty please don't Litter I will kill you
[Music] [Applause] thank you [Music]

Lynne Harper /// Part 2 /// 143

Part 2 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 examines the wrongful conviction of Stephen Truscott for the murder of Lynn Harper in 1959, highlighting investigative flaws and alternative suspects.

Key points

The Disappearance of Lynn Harper. Lynn Harper, a 12-year-old girl, vanished in 1959, leading to a rapid investigation.
Stephen Truscott's Arrest. 14-year-old Stephen Truscott was arrested just days after Lynn's body was found.
Controversial Trial. Stephen's trial began just months after his arrest, resulting in a quick guilty verdict.
Overturned Sentence. Stephen's death sentence was commuted to life in prison after a controversial trial.
Ignored Leads. The investigation overlooked key evidence and potential suspects after focusing on Truscott.
The Strange Case of Steven. Investigators question the odd circumstances surrounding Steven's story and its implications.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This was supposed to be a big deal.

Discussion about the controversial trial.

5:36WatchDec 2, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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