Bernd Goericke and Andrea Scherpf Pt. One - podcast episode cover

Bernd Goericke and Andrea Scherpf Pt. One

Jul 03, 202553 min
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Episode description

October 6, 1983. British Columbia, Canada. 27-year old Bernd Goericke and his 22-year old fiancée, Andrea Scherpf, are found shot to death next to a remote road. The couple hailed from West Germany and had been hitchhiking through Canada and an unidentified man driving a pick-up truck is seen using Andrea’s travellers’ cheques in the days following her death. Nearly six years later, a suspect named Andy Rose is charged with the crime based on testimony from a former friend who claimed she heard him confess to the murders. After two trials and two overturned convictions, the charges against Andy are dropped when DNA testing on a key piece of evidence excludes him as the perpetrator, but no one else is ever charged with killing Bernd and Andrea. On this week’s episode of “The  Path Went Chilly”, we travel back to our home country of Canada to explore an unsolved double murder which led to a wrongful conviction.If you have any information about this case, please contact the Chetwynd branch of the RCMP at (250) 788-9221 or the Canadian Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Support the show: 

patreon.com/thetrailwentcold

patreon.com/julesandashley

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_murder_of_Andrea_Scherpf_and_Bernd_Görickehttps://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2648100646

https://archive.today/20120723055359/

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2008-2009/someone_got_away_with_murder/timeline.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/newfoundlander-s-ordeal-with-rcmp-sting-subject-of-cbc-documentary-1.834222

https://vancouversun.com/news/metro/police-seek-new-leads-in-1983-murder-of-two-german-tourists-near-chetwynd“The Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions: A Handbook” by Gisli H. Gudjonsson

https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/files/mrbig.pdfhttps://ucfiles.com/filestatus.php?number=104200082

https://www.newspapers.com/image/501465197/https://www.newspapers.com/image/495935807/https://www.newspapers.com/image/496051750/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/495047641/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/494831236/https://www.newspapers.com/image/496376227/

Transcript

Speaker 1

Welcome back to the Pathway Chili.

Speaker 2

I'm Robin, I'm Jules, and I'm Ashley.

Speaker 3

Let's dive right into this week's case.

Speaker 2

October sixth, nineteen eighty three, British Columbia, Canada, twenty seven year old Burned Erica and his twenty two year old fiance, Andrea Sharp are found shot to death next to a remote road. The couple hailed from West Germany and had been hitchhiking through Canada, but an unidentified man driving a pickup truck is he when using Andrea's travelers checks in

the days following her death. Six years later, a suspect named Andy Rose is charged with the crime based on testimony from a former friend who claimed she heard him confess to the murders. After two trials and two overturned convictions, the charges against Andy are dropped when DNA testing excludes him as the perpetrator, but no one else is ever charged with killing Burned and Andrea.

Speaker 1

After that, the path went Chiley. So today we are going to be covering an unsolved cold case which led to a wrongful conviction. The nineteen eighty three murders of Burnt Gerica and Andrea Shirp. You know we love to cover wrongful conviction cases on a show because this is a topic that Ashley is very knowledgeable and passionate about. But this is the first time we have covered one of these stories from Jewels and I's home country of Canada.

Our two victims were a West German couple named Burnt Gerica and Andrea Shirp, who have been making a lengthy two month trip through western Canada. They relied on hitch hiking as their primary mode of transportation, but unfortunately, while they were in British Columbia, it seemed like they hitch a ride with the wrong person, who fatally shot the couple and robbed them of all their personal possessions before

dumping their bodies. It would not be until six years later when police finally charged a suspect named Danny Rose, a Newfoundland resident who had been living and working in British Columbia at the time of the murders. The problem was that the only evidence against Annie was the testimony of a woman who claimed that he showed up at her trailer one night while covered in blood and made

a drunken confession to the murders. Even though there were a number of logistical issues which made it almost seem impossible that Andy could have committed this crime. He was found guilty by two separate juries at two separate trials. Andy was in the midst of going on trial for the third time in two thousand and one when the prosecution decided to drop the murder charges against him as DNA evidence from a pair of bloody genes found near the murder scene did not match him. Thus far, no

one else has ever been charged with this crime. While the investigation did turn up a compelling alternate suspect who also allegedly confessed to the murders, the evidence does not

really point towards him either. On this series of episodes, we're also going to be discussing a controversial police procedure known as the Mister Big technique, which was invented by the Royal Canadian Mountain Police and is actually banned in the United States, though it has played a role in some controversial convictions in Canada.

Speaker 3

Okay, I have two things I want to ask you about. First of all, I've heard of the Mister Big technique. Isn't it almost like the read techniques that's designed to elicit a confession from someone.

Speaker 1

It's very similar, but it involves undercover police officers, usually posing as criminals, and they try to use that as a means to get a confession out of a suspect by saying like, oh, we'll let you join our criminal gang if you tell us about all the murders you did.

But there's a lot of controversy about it because you almost have to question the validity when they supposedly confess, because you're wondering, are they just tell the undercover officer what they want to hear by just bragging about a prime they did not commit, as.

Speaker 2

You Americans call it entropment.

Speaker 3

Yes, sense, so basically where the read techniques are controversial, But it's a uniformed officer who's sitting in an interrogation room. This is a group of officers undercover who are making promises and offering something attractive to that person who doesn't know their law enforcement to solicit a confession.

Speaker 1

Exactly. Yes, Okay, well.

Speaker 3

Highly controversial, Okay, I can buy that. I'm also highly concerned about a couple of things that you've already told me. When we're talking about this woman who says he shows up bloody and confesses to a murder. You described her as a former friend. Do we later find out that that confession never took place, or that he actually did make a drunken confession.

Speaker 1

He always denied making that confession, And of course it was very suspicious because she didn't actually come f forward herself to share this story. We're going to find out that it was shared kind of third hand by another friend of hers, who said that, by the way, she told me one time, someone came to her trailer, well bloody and confess to this double murder. So obviously there

were a lot of credibility issues. And what was particularly problematic about this case is that this was literally the only evidence proving that Andy Rose was responsible, Yet somehow the juries found it convincing enough to convict him on two separate occasions.

Speaker 3

I'm really frustrated because I can put into my mind a million scenarios where this woman would have a reason to make Andy look bad. Let's say she had formerly been interested in him and he wasn't interested. Let's say they had had a fling and she wasn't happy with the way it turned out. Let's say that they were friends and he did something that made her mad. There's a lot of reasons why people would even let's say, well she was drinking and hanging out with friends, would

throw someone else under the bus. And so that's really problematic that one he doesn't say like, yeah, I did it, or he doesn't confess to law enforcement, which in and of itself doesn't necessarily prove anything. Either, he has this person, who, like you said, third party, is saying that he's guilty and he did this and confessed to her. And then we also have some unidentified individual who was using Andrea's

travelers checks in some pickup truck. Remember they were hitch hiking, so it makes a lot of sense that you would think maybe someone they ran into while hitchhiking, hurt them, took their belongings and started using their travelers checks. That's the person I want to know about. And somehow Andy gets tied into this just because some woman who could have been upset with him says he confessed to her through a third party.

Speaker 1

And when you look at the timeline, it seems impossible that Andy could have been at these locations to use the travelers checks. It seems obvious it was somebody else. So yeah, this is definitely one of the weakest cases I've ever seen where someone went to trial and it still managed to secure a guilty verdict.

Speaker 2

And they did they go and do their due diligence with regards to testing the veracity of her statement. I mean, we know polygraphs are controversial, but did they give her a polygraph? Did they talk to other people in her life to see if she was indeed a credible witness?

Speaker 1

Do you know, Robin, Well, we're going to talk about that. They actually had to wear a wire and have a conversation a phone conversation with Andy years after the fact, but he never actually made any incriminating statements to back up her story that he confessed to this murder.

Speaker 2

So our story begins in my home province of British Columbia in nineteen eighty three. Our central figures our twenty seven year old Burned, Gerica and his twenty two year old fiance, Andrea Shirp, who originally hail from Bulga, West Germany. Following his graduation from university, Burned received an extended trip to Canada as a gift, so he and Andrea decided that they would spend nearly two months traveling through the

western portion of the country. A good chunk of this trip would involve camping and backpacking, and they planned to use hitchhiking as their primary mode of transportation. The couple first touched down in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on August eighteenth, before going to visit relatives in the municipality of Roblin for

the next several weeks. They proceeded to hitchhike their way through Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, and when they arrived in the municipality of Port Hardy, they boarded a ferry which took them to the port city of Prince Rupert. From there, they proceeded to travel north and cross the border into Haines, Alaska, before crossing the border back into Canada and continuing up north to Whitehorse, the capital city

in the Yukon Territory. At some point, Burned and Andrea started heading back south into British Columbia, as they were scheduled to return back home by boarding a flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt, Germany, on October seventh. The last confirmed sighting of the couple took place on October third, as they were seen hitchhiking in Dawson Creek, nearly twelve hundred kilometers northeast of Vancouver, but unfortunately they would not make

their flight. On October sixth a low resident discovered Burned in Andrea's bodies in a field next to an isolated road about a half kilometer away from Highway ninety seven. Burned had been shot once in the back of the head and once in the face, while Andrea received a fatal gunshot wound to the temple. The location was about thirty two kilometers west of the district municipality of chetwind and it was estimated that the couple had been dead

about three days before their bodies were discovered. The investigation would be headed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police aka the RCMP, and they initially could not even identify the two victims because their identification, including their passports and driver's licenses,

were missing. In fact, all of the items which Burned and Andrea had been carrying, including their backpacks, clothing, camping equipment, and a guitar Burned owned, were presumably stolen by the person who killed them, and they were never recovered, which makes me.

Speaker 3

Incredibly suspicious of the person who was using the cashier checks or the checks, because they obviously are unidentified. They're driving this truck. I could easily see them pulling over and talking to this couple and saying, hey, I can give you a ride, no problem. These are young kids. They're just floating from place to place. They were known to be hitch hiking, and so to me, it makes the most sense that that truck pulls over says that they can take these kids somewhere and then when they

execute them is basically what happened. They steal all of their belongings and I'm sure scattered them along the way somewhere, but those checks were used. Those had to be on Andrea's persons before she was killed, because I can't imagine someone robbing them and them not reporting that or not saying anything and saying, oh, someone took my checks, but that's okay, We're just going to keep on going. That

would be a major problem. If you were hitch hiking someone robbed you and took your money and access to your bank accounts, you would have said something. So that had to be tied into the person who killed them, because everything else was this scene as well. So it makes sense that whoever had those checks also killed this couple.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I definitely think that's what happened. That they were picked up hitchhiking by the wrong person who proceeded to kill them, and that person continued traveling south and using

Andrea's checks. And cases like this are just a time capsule of a much different era where no one thought too much about the dangers of hitchhiking, and you hear stories about people traveling to foreign countries and hitch hiking the entire way, and unfortunately, cases like this are pretty much the ultimate cautionary tales and show why people know these days that hitch hiking should not be done and correctly.

Speaker 2

If I'm wrong, Robin, bit, aren't some of these areas in which they were traveling and where they were found close to the Highway of Tears. Isn't it Highway ninety seven?

Speaker 1

Uh? Let me just double check that I should know this. Yeah, yeah, because you live in the area.

Speaker 3

I almost think you're right.

Speaker 1

I almost think you're right, Jewels, Oh, it's Highway sixteen.

Speaker 2

Actually, is it Highway sixteen? Okay?

Speaker 1

But yeah, this was the era of the of the Highway of Tears, where a lot of people were murdered hitchhiking in British Columbia.

Speaker 3

Okay, I have a very important question too. Is the Dawson's Creek? You mentioned the Dawson's Creek that I fell in love with in my teen TV show. No, okay, I just had to make sure. I just had to make sure.

Speaker 1

Go on this to be clear. This is Dawson Creek without an S on the end, so it's totally different.

Speaker 3

Yeah, he doesn't own it. Okay, that's fair.

Speaker 1

Fair. A forensic pathologist who conducted postmortem examinations on Burnt and Andrea was unable to determine the exact make and model of the bullets and guns used during the murders, but she fell it was consistent with either a thirty eight caliber or three fifty seven magnum handgun. The pathologists also suspected that the victims might be European, which prompted the RCMP to contact Interpol, and they eventually learned about a missing West German couple who had not returned home

as scheduled from a trip to Canada. A friend of theirs, who lived in Edmonton, Alberta, had to be brought to British Columbia. To view the body, and they were positively identified as Burnt and Andrea on October the sixteenth, ten days after they were found. The most promising piece of evidence was a pair of PSI thirty four genes, which were discovered inside a waste disposal bin located alongside Highway ninety seven, about one kilometer south of the murder scene.

The genes were heavily stained with blood spatter, particularly below the knees, and a forensic rologist determined that the blood was consistent with the two victims. There was also a bloodlike substance underneath Andrea's fingernails, which may have belonged to

her killer. Investigators would also learn that on October the fourth and fifth American Express Travelers checks belonging to Andrea were used to purchase gasoline at no less than five service stations in Prince George Quinnell Mickley's Lake Lach Lajash and one hundred Mile House, which were all located hundreds of kilometers south of the murder scene. According to the various clerks at these stations, the individual who used these checks was a white male who appeared to be fed

foot nine and approximately forty years old. And spoke with a slight American accent. He was also described as having straight, collar length, brown hair and slumped shoulders, and he was dressed in work clothes. The witnesses said that the man had a pleasant demeanor and did not do anything to arouse suspicion, which is why he agreed to accept travelers checks from him, and even though these checks had a woman's signature on them, the man was able to provide

seemingly plausible stories to account for this. For instance, the clerk at the gas station in Mcleis's Lake said that the man told him he had bumped into a lady who ran out of gas up the road, so she gave him a signed ten dollars travelers check in order to fill up a gas can to bring back to her. The man was reportedly driving a green late nineteen sixties model pickup truck, which may have been a Chevrolet, but unfortunately none of the witnesses took down the license number.

Even though a number of pickup truck owners from British Columbia were questioned by the RCMP, they were unable to find a match, and while two separate composite sketches were created and circulated for the mail driver. He could not be identified.

Speaker 3

I love how what threw them off was a quote lady's signature, because you know, I mean, most guys don't have a real pretty signature, but us women, I don't know that we have a distinct gendered signature. But Andrea is right at the top of the check as well. And so when he goes in and he's saying, hey, I have this traveler's check one A traveler's check is kind of an odd form of payment, maybe not so much back in the eighties, but you would think they'd

scrutinize the check. It says Andrea at the top, and then he has to come up with these stories of hey, this woman gave me this check. She wants me to bring her car back. I'm just gassing it up for and like you said, because he seems pretty pleasant, which means he doesn't appear to be this kind of criminal mastermind or some gang leader or anything like that. It seems as though people just believe him and doesn't really register until it's called into question that these two kids

died and Andrea happens to be one of them. So really interesting because it almost seems like this person so calm and cool and collected. Could they have done something like this before? Is it something that he just had enough time driving hundreds of miles to kind of be calm and regroup and think of stories he could tell to use her money? And do you think that was the main motivator behind the crime itself, just to get their stuff?

Speaker 1

Possibly? I mean, they never specified just how much money was the travelers checks were worked, because obviously we know he used one ten dollars one, which isn't a lot of money. As possible that he wasn't even planning to kill anyone, but maybe he made sexual advances on Andre or something and things escalated into violence. Or maybe he was just a serial killer who just loved to pick up random people and rob them while traveling through the area.

Because they described him as having an American accent, So if he was from say, Washington State, and he went up to Canada to kill people, he might have just had the mentality, well, if I crossed the border and go back home, they'll never figure out that I was responsible for these crimes.

Speaker 2

I don't know, like I've got nothing to go on here, but I almost get a gut feeling that you're right, Ashley, that this is somebody who's done this before, and that they are like a chameleon, and that they can fit in in any scenario and come off seeming decent, so that people don't take down his license plate and they allow him to pay with these travelers checks that say Andrea sharp on them when he is clearly not an Andrea.

And it almost feels like there's a possibility that the robbery element could just be a secondary motivation, like if your motivation is to murder, and then well, why wouldn't you then take advantage of the situation and take whatever belongings you could.

Speaker 3

That's very true. I mean you have this idea that one he could have been making sexual advances. One it could be a power control thing. He sees a couple, just like we know several killers have targeted couples, and what he does is he, let's say he kills the young man first and then kills the then kills Andrea. It makes sense and like you said, maybe just taking all our things as a way to erase their identity

temporarily so he can get away further. Because if he's done it before, he knows you don't leave that kind of information. It makes the police very easily able to identify who the victims are and maybe gets them a jump start on the investigation. Oh question, do I have an American accent?

Speaker 2

Yes?

Speaker 1

I mean America is such a big country that I liked more specifics about which kind of region that your accent is from, because listening to your voice, I can tell you're American, but I wouldn't be able to guess where you're from.

Speaker 2

I love it, Jules, you said, yes, I hear American accent, but I also like, this will sound weird. When I hear Robin talk, I hear a Canadian accent that we don't necessarily have out here.

Speaker 3

So people think I'm from New York, which makes no sense because I'm from Florida and I've never been up in New York. But I don't have the typical Southern draw unless I've I don't know, unless I'm really tired or something. But I'm a Southern girl and people are always like, are you from New York? So we are very vastly different. Depending on what region you're from, people think they can identify where you're from.

Speaker 2

I get refined Southern from you. Yay.

Speaker 3

Thank you, God, bless you.

Speaker 2

Over the next several years, the RCMP collected around nine hundred tips, but none of them led the case any closer to a resolution. However, a major development took place in July of nineteen eighty nine, when the RCMP detachment in Gander, Newfoundland was contacted by Tom Martin, a drug dealer who acted as an informant for them. Martin claimed that months earlier, he'd been living in the town of Grand Falls, Windsor and sharing a house with a woman

named Madonna Kelly. According to Martin, Madonna told him that she knew the identity of the person responsible for the murders of two German tourists in British Columbia. The RCMP eventually brought in Madonna for questioning, and she recounted this story, confirming that she'd been living in a rented trailer in Chetwyn, British Columbia, back in nineteen eighty three. At the time, Madonna was working at a sod farm and befriended another

employee named Andy Rose. Like Madonna, Andy also hailed from Grand Falls, Windsor, Newfoundland, and was one of thirteen siblings in his family. Over the years. Andy had worked and lived in a number of different places, including Toronto, Edmonton, and Thompson, Manitoba, and had one failed marriage under his belt. Even though Andy was described as being a nice guy when he was sober, he did have issues with alcohol and had become something of a drifter who had a

hard time holding down steady employment. After arriving in Chetwynd in nineteen eighty three, Andy lived with one of his brothers for a month and moved into a motel once he got the job at the Sad Farm. According to Madonna, during the early morning hours of October fourth or fifth that year, Andy suddenly showed up on the doorstep of

her trailer while he was intoxicated. Madonna described him as wearing blood stained jeans and having blood stained hands, and she also said he appeared to have scratches under his eyes. Andy then told Madonna that he had murdered two German people by blowing their heads off and leaving their bodies

by the side of the road. The female victim had apparently fought back and caused scratches on Andy's face, which is why he wanted to borrow some makeup from Madonna in order to help him cover them up since there was a full moon that night. Madonna also described Andy as quote howling like a werewolf when he shared a story. She claimed that Andy threatened to kill her and her infant son if she ever told anyone about what he did, which is why she remained silent for nearly six years.

Madonna then left Shetwynd and moved back to Newfoundland only weeks after this incident took place.

Speaker 3

Okay, let's look at his behavior. He seems like, like she talks about, he had an alcohol problem, he had become a drifter. It's kind of like he had this huge family, he started working on this farm and his life just started to kind of unravel.

Speaker 1

His mental health.

Speaker 3

Seems to be a little bit an end question here. And then you contrast that with the individual we know was caching these checks of Andrea's. That's someone who's calm, who's well put together, who arouses no suspicion, who can very calmly tell you stories about what he is doing and how he got these checks in his possession. Does not seem like the same person to me whatsoever.

Speaker 1

Yeah, That's what I'm thinking as well, And as we're going to talk about There is nothing to indicate that Andy ever traveled south during that time period, hundreds of kilometers to even use these travelers checks at these different locations. In fact, he was so poor that I'm not even

sure he had access to a vehicle during that time period. So, I mean, I can understand investigating him after hearing this story about his so called confession, But when you look at like his movements and the timeline of when these murders took place, it just seems impossible that he could have just traveled one hundred kilometers south and then just suddenly returned act to chatwind and then moved on with his life.

Speaker 3

And think about too, if he's this person who's struggling, let's say, financially, who has an alcohol problem, who's a drifter, and these two kids are hitch hiking, don't you think there's some awareness when you're hitch hiking, Like if a really like I don't know, dishoveled individual pulls overs like get in the car, like you have the right to go, eh, we're okay, we're okay, we're gonna wait a little bit. You know, you don't have to get in the car

with that person. So I also think there's a lot to say about who people choose to get in the

car with. Even in the eighties, when you have someone who's charming, well put together, who is you know, kind and clean, and their car is clean, those kinds of things go a really long way to allow you to make assumptions of safety, Whereas if someone was just shoveled, let's say, had a really beat up car, those kinds of things, maybe you say I'm okay, no, thank you, especially when you're not just as you know, one individual,

there's two of you, so two brains thinking. I would think that the person who pulls over and picks them up, both of these kids are looking at ho they were going, yep, let's get in the car with them.

Speaker 1

That totally makes sense because when you hear the description of the guy using the travelers checks, who seemed like a pleasant, charming guy, he sounds like an individual that the couple would have been comfortable climbing into a vehicle with. Well. Upon further investigation, it turned out that Andy had left Shedwyn around the same time Madonna did, and traveled to the town of Courtney to look for work before he relocated to Edmonton and got a job moving furniture for

U Haul. By nineteen eighty nine, Andy was forty years old and finally achieved a bit of stability in his life, as he had spent the past three years living and working in Sun Dance, Manitoba. In fact, on October the twenty eighth, while the RCMP were building a case against him, Andy's common law wife gave birth to their first son. Even though Andy had once been arrested for public intoxication and spent the night in a drunk tank, he had no serious criminal record or history of violence, but the

RCMP still felt he was worth pursuing as suspect. On September seventh, just ten days after Andy's child was born, the RCNP requested that Madonna phone him and Sun Dance while they secretly recorded the conversation. Their call lasted for about an hour, but when Madonna brought up Andy's alleged murder Confashion from nineteen eighty three, he completely denied that the incident occurred or that he had ever killed anybody.

During the call, Andy did provide a potential alternate explanation for Madonna's story, as he acknowledged getting into a bar fight in Chetwind during that time period in which he was punched in the nose and wound up bleeding onto his own clothing. Andy recalled there being a full moon on that particular night, so if he had shown up to Madonna's trailer after the fight, perhaps this was the

incident she recalled. And he also maintained that he did not own a gun or a car while he was living in Chetwind and would not have had the means to acquire them. He told Madonna, quote, I couldn't even buy my own breakfast. I drank every cent I had I end quote. Regardless, even though Andy did not make a confession or reveal anything incriminating during the recorded phone call, the RCNP still believe that Madonna's story was strong enough

evidence to charge it with Burned and Andrea's murders. Andy was quickly arrested in sun Dance and eventually extradited into British Columbia to stand trial for the crime.

Speaker 3

Let's say he actually had confessed to exactly what Madonna said. He was such an inebriated individual at the time, and he's even saying, Man, I'm drunk all the time, every dime I have goes to drinking. He wasn't going to be sober enough to go hundreds of miles to pick them up, to go cash these checks, those kinds of things.

He says he didn't have a car, but if he did, I highly doubt that someone who's struggling that hard with an addiction that they would prefer to buy beer or booze over let's say, shelter car, those kinds of things, holding down their job, having stability with their family, that alcohol was that important to him. I just don't see him being able to be one the person who presents as a safe driver and someone who is able to concoct these stories and go hundreds of miles casting these checks.

It doesn't make sense. I would more likely, as a police believe that someone who's struggling with addiction like this would tell a fabricated story how at the moon and be in some drunken stupor where he's reiterating some news story he saw in the newspaper or on the news. So it's perplexing to me that her telling this story and not even being able to corroborate it on these recordings that he has with Madonna, they went forward and

charged him anyway. It doesn't make sense. There's no evidence to match it, and it actually goes against what we think we know about this individual who was so calm and collected, so well put together. It is not someone who's struggling with alcohol addiction.

Speaker 2

There's an incongruity there, for sure. If it was a crime that she was talking about and it was like a smash and grab or a home invasion or something that would involve just him quickly getting money to feed that addiction, then that would make sense. But this seems to be like well thought out and like you said, he didn't have access to a vehicle, or he didn't own a vehicle. It just doesn't seem to be in

line with the person that's described. Andy's trial would take place at British Columbia Supreme Court in Prince George in March of nineteen ninety one, and his defense team would

attempt to poke holes in the Crown's case against him. Obviously, one of the biggest issues was that, in the days following the murders, Andrea's travelers checks were used at various gas stations located hundreds of kilometers south of chetwind The composite sketches of the man seen using the travelers checks did not have much of a resemblance to Andy, and employment record showed that he'd worked an eight hour shift at the sod farm in chetwind every single day between

October third and October sixteenth, nineteen eighty three. And like we just mentioned, Andy did not even own a vehicle during that time period, so how would he have even driven to all of those gas stations. There was also no physical evidence linking Andy to the murders, and even though he did wear size thirty four Janes back in nineteen eighty three, there was nothing to conclusively prove that the blood stain thirty four genes found in the trash

bin near the murder scene actually belonged to him. While Madonna had described Andy as wearing blood stained jeans while confessing to the murders outside her trailer, the trash bin was located only about one kilometer south of the crime scene, so there was some question about why Andy would have traveled over thirty kilometers to Chetwynd while wearing the bloody jeans and then make another thirty kilometer trip back to that particular trash bin in order to get rid of them.

Another potential hole in Madonna's story was her description of Andy howling like a werewolf at the full moon. His records showed that there was actually a crescent moon in the night sky during early October of nineteen eighty three, and the full moon did not appear until two weeks after the murders. Regardless, even though Andy took the witness stand to testify in his own defense, the jury still

found Madonna's testimony to be more credible. On March eighth, they wound up finding Andy guilty on two counts of second degree murder, and he received a sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for fifteen years.

Speaker 3

Well, let's go to the pants real quick. When you look at Min's jeans, thirty two thirty fours, though that waste size is the most common waist size rebel wears of thirty four. So I mean, when you look at these thirty fours were found on evidence that could have been a million people's pair of jeans. So unless you had said, hey, it had you know, some card that linked it back to him. There was a wallet found in it, there was initials, you know, sewn into the

waistband or something that didn't happen. It's just a size thirty four pair of jeans, and he says he didn't even he did wear that size, but he didn't even have a car to be in that location in the first place. So when you think about him being put up on the stand and in Madonna, clearly Madonna seems to be stable when she's presenting, You've got to remember this is a man who's had mental health issues with addiction and those sorts. He's been a drifter. He clearly

has had a really difficult life. I wonder how intelligent he comes off to the jury versus how Madonna comes off, because, genuinely, whether the facts are congruent or not, when you have two different personalities up on the stand, someone who seems articulate and stable and grounded, even if they're not saying facts that make sense, they're going to be believed over someone who's sputtering off these truths but don't seem to

be a very reliable human being just in general. So I think he was set up to fail by testifying in the first place.

Speaker 1

I mean, I know Andy had some previous mental health and alcohol issues back in the early eighties, but he seemed to be in a good place by the time he was arrested, so I'm not entirely sure he came

across that badly on the witness stand. But I haven't seen footage of the original trial, but I would be curious to see Madonna's testimony because all I can think was it must have been pretty damn convincing, because there are just so many holes in the prosecution's case, But on Madonna's testimony alone, the jury just seemed to think that proved Andy's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and that's

why they decided to find him guilty. But I guess we just got to put ourselves in the shoes of a potential juror back in nineteen ninety one, when issues with wrongful convictions were just not general knowledge with the public, So they probably just had the mindset, well, why would this witness get on the stand and lie about this story. She must be telling the truth. Therefore, Andy is guilty.

Speaker 3

Question for you guys, when you look at America's justice system, it's you know, you're innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You need to be ninety nine point nine nine nine percent sure that this is the true account.

Speaker 1

All of that's the same in Canada pretty much. Yeah, Like they still have the same mindset that you should not find someone guilty unless you feel that they have proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt. I mean, there are some differences between the Canadian and American justice systems, but the basic essentials of a trial are pretty much the same.

Speaker 3

Okay, so he would have had many rights himself as well.

Speaker 1

Andy was sent to the Matsque Institution in Abbotsford, but his defense team immediately appealed his conviction. Just under two years later, on November twelfth, nineteen ninety two, the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that Andy was entitled to a new trial as they believe that the original trial judge had given inadequate instructions to the jury about the

burden of proof and reasonable doubt. During the ruling, the three justices wrote, quote, experience tells us that while very few innocent persons are convicted, it does happen end quote. Andy would return to British Columbia Supreme Court in Prince George for his second trial in April of nineteen ninety four, and once again the only real evidence against him was the testimony of Adonna Kelly, who continued to maintain that Andy had confessed to her about his involvement in the murders.

But even though the defense attempted to poke hole as a Madonna's story, the jury still seemed to think that she was a believable eyewitness. So on April the twenty sixth, Andy was found guilty on two counts of second degree murder for the second time. When sensing took place, Andy told the court quote, I didn't kill those people. I don't know what else I can say. There is no

evidence I didn't kill them end quote. He received the same sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility parole for fifteen years, and was subsequently sent back to prison.

Speaker 3

I don't get it. In nineteen ninety one, and in nineteen ninety four, we definitely didn't have the technology we have with DNA. Remember Andrea had had blood evidence underneath her fingernails. Supposedly he was scratched. If we had that technology, we could go back and say, hey, look had this happened. But at the time, Andy saying I don't know what else to do. How do you truly prove your innocent? Your job is to prove that I'm guilty, you didn't

do that, and it's almost impossible. I've told you I didn't have a car, I didn't have any money at the time. I sure wasn't driving hundreds of miles. I didn't say that I wasn't at Madonna's house confessing to that I was in a bar fight, which it would explain scratches and blood on me. But I don't know how else to prove I'm innocent. I've thought about that

a lot before. If I had to prove my innocence, you know, you can prove I have receipts for this, I was here, But there's a lot of ways that people look the other way and say, like, I just don't buy it. I believe you're guilty. So it's very difficult. Andy found himself in an almost impossible situation of saying, prove that I did it. You didn't prove it, and yet the jury said, yes, they did.

Speaker 1

Andy was just unlucky because, as we're going to talk about, DNA testing does become a part of this case within the next few years. So I think that if Andy's trial had taken place just a couple years afterwards, he probably wouldn't have been convicted because they would have been able to use DNA evidence to pretty much prove beyond a shadow of a doubt to a jury that he could not have committed this crime.

Speaker 2

I'm curious, Robin, do you know in Canada if we have with the equivalent of in America's a bench trial.

Speaker 1

Let me just look that up. I seem to recall some examples of this happening in Canada, but I just want to double shu murder trial.

Speaker 2

Make sure you look in the Yeah, because it would be advantageous. I would think for Andy's defense to say, like, let's do a bench trial because the evidence was so weak.

Speaker 1

Yes, they do, because let me just look this up here. Yes, you've heard of the Richard Olin murder from New Brunswick that took place in twenty eleven. Yes, yes, where his son went on trial for murder. And I do know that his conviction was overturned and he got a retrial, and I think they did ask for a bench trial, and the judge pretty much ruled that I don't believe the evidence is strong enough to prove his guilty on

a reasonable doubt and found him not guilty. So yeah, those do exist and are definitely better if the prosecution is presenting a weak case, because most of the time the judges will act objective and say that I don't I'm not going to decide if you're guilty or innocence, but if I don't think the evidence is strong enough, I will acquit you.

Speaker 2

Because I think the judge is more likely to actually weigh the evidence in the case, whereas I think the jury is more likely to be swayed by who's telling the best story or what is the best narrative.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and I think that's probably what happened in these two trials.

Speaker 2

So Andy's defense team appealed his conviction, alleging that the trial judge had once again misdirected the jury and there were too many inconsistencies in Madonna's testimony. On February fourteenth, nineteen ninety six, the BC Court of Appeals announced that they had originally been planning to dismiss the appeal, but we're now going to reserve judgment until new forensic testing could take place. Well, DNA profiling and criminal investigations was

still a relatively new thing. When Andy was for charged with the murders in nineteen eighty nine, the defense was hoping to perform DNA testing on the blood stained genes, as well as Andrea's fingernail clippings, which had traces of blood on them. The Court of Appeal ordered the Crown to release these exhibits for testing, and Andy even agreed to provide the RCMP with a blood sample so as

DNA could be compared with the evidence. The results would later show no trace of Andy's DNA on the genes or the fingernail clippings, though it was determined that the blood under Andrea's nails was likely her own and may not have been the result of her scratching her killer.

Speaker 3

This is really fascinating. So even though he agrees, Andy agrees to go ahead and give this blood sample, we find out that Andy's DNA's nowhere. It's not anywhere that it probably should have been. Remember, Madonna says that he had these scratches on his face. If Andrea had truly scratched him with her nails, and you had looked at that blood and the DNA evidence of skin cells that were underneath her fingernails, they would have matched the perpetrator.

And I'm assuming they run that evidence through other databases and they can't find a hit anywhere.

Speaker 1

I actually haven't heard that it has been clarified how thoroughly they have run this DNA to try to test it and see if it matches any other offenders. But I do know for certain that they have never attempted to use genetic genealogy on it, even though that is probably the best chance they have of figuring out who this DNA belongs to.

Speaker 3

Also that in phenotyping too, being able to run it through and having it pop up basically an image with about ninety eight percent certainty of skin color, eye color, you know, freckles are not dissent, all of those things. It'd be fascinating for them to have a true I know they have composite sketches, but a true image of what they think this person would have looked lying.

Speaker 1

Well. A surprising new development would occur in September of nineteen ninety seven when the RCNP was contacted by the police in pall Up, Washington, who shared information about a potential alternate suspect, Vance Hill. Hill originally hailed from California, but moved to Canada in nineteen sixty seven and eventually settled in Prince George. Vance and his wife, Willadeine Hill, had three children together while he worked in construction, but

he also struggled with chronic alcoholism. In April of nineteen eighty three, the Hill separated and Willadeine decided to move back to California with their children, while Vance remained in Prince George. On October the twenty first of that year, three and a half weeks after the murders, Vance was arrested by the RCMP on two charges of obtaining lodging

by false pretenses. After a brief stint in jail, Vance decided to leave the country and return to California so he could move into a new place that was closer to his family. In January of nineteen eighty four, Vance supposedly confessed to Willadeine that he was responsible for murdering a male and female hitchhiker he had met at a

bar in Chetwynd. He claimed that the couple had asked him for a ride in his pickup truck, but while they were driving, Vance began to harass the woman when her male companion began to protest, Vance stopped the truck and both men climbed out. They proceeded to have a heated confrontation until Vance reached into his truck, pulled out

a rifle, and fatally shot the man. The woman started screaming, and when she refused to shut up, Vance shot her as well, before dumping both victim's bodies by the side of the road. At the time, Willodeine apparently did not believe her husband's story and thought it was nothing more than one of his quote unquote drunken fantasies. But shortly thereafter, Willodeine found a suicide note that Vance had written inside her garage, in which he expressed his intention to kill

himself because he didn't want to go to jail. Since Vance did not actually go through with ending his life, Willodeine never told him that she found his note. However, on July the twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five, which happened to be Vance's fifty seventh birthday, he finally did decide to kill himself ya a self inflicted gunshot wound. Vance left behind two more suicide notes, one for his wife and the other for his landlord, but neither of them

made any mention of the murders. It was not until nineteen ninety seven when Willadine told her nephew about her late husband's alleged murder confession, and he decided to share this information with the Pialla Police Department. Once they contacted the RCMP about this, will Adeine was brought in to be formally questioned and she confirmed the story, well.

Speaker 3

This one surely seems more probable than what Andy's convicted on. Again, what a struggle is is that you have someone who has an alcohol addiction and who clearly has some mental health issues, as he's been suicidal multiple times, and then eventually does take his own life. It's really sad when you think about it. You know, his wife finds this note that he's going to kill himself and here's why, and then he doesn't follow through with it, which is

really distressing. So you know that there was this fight of you know, almost begging him to save his own life and not hurt himself, and then all of a sudden, she does complete suicide and will Adein goes to find these notes and she says, well, it's interesting because these don't mention that, so is that not why he wanted to complete suicide the first time, so very confusing grief wise for her. I can imagine her sitting back and trying to process, like, what caused this? Why did he

decide to take his own life? He has his kids, Yes, we weren't working out, but he had his children. What was it? And talking to her nephew about hey, you know once he had mentioned in this suicide note that he had killed this couple. So, you know, I feel like she's almost just trying to process her grief and the nephew shares with the police and they bring her in. It does seem like a story that's again, way more believable than what Andy's was.

Speaker 1

And I can give Willodeine some slack for not coming forward and telling the police because he never shared any specific details when he made this so called confession. He just mentioned murdering a couple, but he didn't give any names. He never said where the murders took place. And for all we know, will Adeine, because she was living in the United States at that time, probably had no idea that Anne d Rose had gone through two trials for

a crime that her husband may have actually committed. So she's just casually mentioning this to her nephew years after the fact, that I think he was the one who put two and two together and thought, wait a minute, there's a big case in Canada involving a murdered couple and an innocent man might be in prison. So that's

why I'm going to contact the police. But yeah, overall, I mean, I'm not going to say it's one hundred percent true, but will Adeine's story does seem more believable than Madonna Kelly's.

Speaker 2

On the basis of this new information about vance Hill, Andy's defense team filed an application to reduce fresh evidence, and in June of nineteen ninety eight, the BC Court of Appeal ruled that this was enough grounds to overturn Andy's conviction for the second time, and he was awarded a new trial. Andy was subsequently released from prison on bail and would move in with one of his brothers

in Thompson, Manitoba to await his third trial. But since the RCMP was concerned about whether the evidence against Andy would be strong enough to secure another con they felt they might need to strengthen their case before the trial began, so in October of that year, they decided to launch a Mister Big sting operation and if you're not familiar with a Mister Big technique, we'll be sharing more details about it in our next episode, and we covered it

a little bit in this one early on, but needless to say, it's considered to be one of the most controversial elements of the Canadian justice system. It usually involves undercover police officers posing as criminals who attempt to befriend and gain the trust of suspects in cold cases. These officers give off the impression that they want the suspect to join their so called criminal organization and get paid good money to perform jobs for them, but only if

they disclose their full criminal history. Of course, this is often used as a ruse for the suspect to make a full confession to the crime that they are believed to have committed, and if the undercover officers managed to secretly record or videotape the confession, then this can be the one final piece of evidence for required for them

to make an arrest. Following his release from prison, one of the conditions of Andy's bail was that he was required to sign in at the RCMP headquarters in Thompson, and while there he was approached by a man calling himself Fred. Fred claimed that he was an ex convict and quickly befriended Andy and wound up developing a close relationship with him. But in actuality, Fred was an undercover RCMP officer and the whole endeavor was a Mister Big sting operation.

Speaker 3

Let's hear it? How did this meeting with Fred go?

Speaker 1

Okay? Well, here are the details. The Mister Big operation would last over eight months, as Fred made Andy believe that he was part of a criminal organization which would pay him substantial amounts of money to assist them with their illegal activities. On July sixteenth, nineteen ninety nine, Fred brought Andy to a hotel suite in Winnipeg to meet a man named Al, who is the alleged head of

this organization aka mister Big. But of course Al was also an undercover RCMP officer and na and over the course of two days, all of his conversations with Andy in the suite were secretly videotaped. Al told Andy that he was aware of his upcoming murder trial, but warned him that the police were pressuring Willadeine Hill to recanter story, which meant there was a major risk Andy might get

convicted again. However, Al assured Andy that his organization had the influence to alter the evidence against him and guarantee that he would never even have to go on trial. But Al said that he could only offer this assistance if Andy officially became a member of their gang, which meant he had to come clean and disclose the full details about the murders he had committed. Even though Al told Andy that he did not care if he actually committed the crime and would fix the situation for him,

Andy continued to maintain his innocence. During their meetings, Andy was told no less than twenty four times that he did not confess to the murders, he would go back to jail, but he still refused to admit any culpability. Given Andy's past struggles with alcoholism, the undercover officers decided to take a bane of the situation by bringing him to the hotel bar to drink beer for around two hours. When they returned to the suite, Andy finally stated quote, well,

we'll go with I did it okay. He then made a full confession to the murders, unaware that the whole thing was being videotaped. Needless to say, Andie's defense team were a gas when they learned about what happened. But he maintained that his confession was false and he had been coerced, as he claimed that he only told the

officers what they wanted to hear. Indeed, even though Andy admitted to the crime during the recordings, he did not reveal any exclusive details which were not already public knowledge. For instance, when asked about how he obtained the firearm used to commit the murders, and he never went into any specifics and simply said, quote, oh, I had it, I had it.

Speaker 3

Oh that's dirty. I think when you get somebody under the influence and you start to plan to something that they've struggled with, Like you said, it's controversial to say the least. But you know, he had maintained his innocence multiple times, twenty four times. He's being told you're going to go back to prison, you know that, right, and he's saying, yeah, but I didn't do it. Yeah, but

I didn't do it. And this is to a group who's promising him thinks he's never had financial security protection in the legal system, which clearly he hasn't had and so it's really troubling when you think of this idea that they say, Okay, we're not getting the information we want, so let's actually get him intoxicated. Let's play into an addiction he has. And I wonder if he was actively an addict at the time, which is really stressful to

think about too. But then he starts just unloading this very generic explanation for what he did, Like he can't even name how he got the gun. Remember he said he didn't own that, he didn't own a gun, he didn't own a truck, any of those things. And so here he's just going like, oh, yeah, I had I had it. Man, he's so drunk, who knows what he's saying. He's simply basically telling them a very watered down story so that he can check the boxes off and get

what they're what's being promised to him. Worse than the read techniques in the United States, you think it can elicit a false confession. That's basically the only thing that I see coming out of this is that people are using a criminal enterprise and people's weaknesses and addictions to manipulate them mentally. That's pretty bad.

Speaker 1

I will acknowledge that there are some documented cases where the Mister Big technique did work successfully and help put guilty people away because some of them were stupid enough to make a confession to a crime they did commit. But there are also other cases, just like this one, where it just seemed obvious that the subject was just saying what people wanted to hear and that they were

being manipulated. And they always seem like the Reek of Desperation, where the police are pretty much at their last resort and are thinking, well, we can't find any other evidence against this person, so we're going to do this elaborate sting operation and just hope we get the making a confession on tape. But of course the circumstances of how they do it are pretty problematic, and I think that Andy Rose's case is when of the very worst examples.

So I think that about brings an end to Part one, and on our next episode will reveal how the Mister Big technique affected Ay's case when he went on trial for the third time. So join us next week as we present part two of our series on the murders of Burnt Gerrika and Andrea Shirt.

Speaker 2

Robin do you want to tell us a little bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?

Speaker 1

Yes, The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up with us on Patreon if you join our five dollars tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus episodes in which I talk about cases which are not featured on the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon and if you join our highest tier tier free

the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of UNSAWD Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was

the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smart ass remarks about Jewel, Kaylor then be sure to join Tier three.

Speaker 4

So I want to let you know a little bit about the Jules and Nashty patreons. So there's early ad free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our Pathwent Chili mini's, which are always over an hour, so they're not very mini, but they're just too short to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those.

Speaker 2

So we hope you'll check out those patreons. We'll link them in the show notes.

Speaker 1

So I want to thank you all for listening, and any chance you have to share us on social media with a friend or d rate and review is greatly appreciate it. You can email us at The Pathwentchili at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwent. So until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold trails and Chili pass call for warm clothing.

Speaker 2

Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy

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