WEBVTT - The Podcast Host Who Solved A Murder When Police Couldn't 0:00:06.552 --> 0:00:10.072 True Crime Conversations acknowledges the traditional owners of land and 0:00:10.152 --> 0:00:17.192 waters that this podcast was recorded on. In nineteen ninety three, 0:00:17.552 --> 0:00:21.832 fifteen year old Canadian Chrissy Harn was being a typical teenager. 0:00:22.712 --> 0:00:25.832 She didn't love school. In fact, she had a history 0:00:25.872 --> 0:00:30.032 of skipping classes. She was messy, a bit of a tomboy, and, 0:00:30.072 --> 0:00:32.512 according to a friend, a bit of an easy target 0:00:32.512 --> 0:00:36.431 for bullies too. She'd been struggling with her parents' divorce. 0:00:36.832 --> 0:00:39.831 Her dad lived too far away for regular visits. She 0:00:39.832 --> 0:00:42.791 didn't really get along with her new stepdad, but she 0:00:42.952 --> 0:00:46.232 was trying. Amongst the arguments, there would also be moments 0:00:46.272 --> 0:00:48.912 where they would connect, helping him out in the garage 0:00:49.071 --> 0:00:52.992 replacing the spark plugs in his car. A sensitive and 0:00:53.111 --> 0:00:57.511 shy girl, Chrissy wasn't a partier. In fact, her parents 0:00:57.512 --> 0:01:00.592 had praised her when she'd returned from an event because 0:01:00.632 --> 0:01:03.952 she said she felt uncomfortable with her peers drinking and smoking. 0:01:05.272 --> 0:01:08.432 Chrissy loved her mind Mary Anne, but like any teen 0:01:08.512 --> 0:01:12.512 parent relationship, they also fought, and so when her mum 0:01:12.631 --> 0:01:15.191 told her to get to school on the afternoon of 0:01:15.232 --> 0:01:18.392 May eighteen, nineteen ninety three, she put on her jacket 0:01:18.831 --> 0:01:23.912 and reluctantly started the short walkover. Mary Anne will remember 0:01:23.911 --> 0:01:26.552 this moment for the rest of her life like a 0:01:26.592 --> 0:01:30.631 scar that never heals, because that argument would be the 0:01:30.712 --> 0:01:33.511 last time she would ever speak to her daughter. 0:01:34.032 --> 0:01:36.272 And then she lacked to go to school. 0:01:36.352 --> 0:01:39.352 She walked down the other side of the street and 0:01:39.512 --> 0:01:43.272 around the corner, and that was the last I've seen 0:01:43.312 --> 0:01:54.392 of her. I'm Claire Murphy and this is True Crime Conversations, 0:01:54.632 --> 0:01:59.232 a podcast exploring the world's most notorious crimes by speaking 0:01:59.272 --> 0:02:02.152 to the people who know the most about them. It's 0:02:02.192 --> 0:02:06.512 a parent's worst nightmare, a missing child, a police pease 0:02:06.592 --> 0:02:09.992 force who thinks every teenager is a runaway, and a 0:02:10.072 --> 0:02:14.632 mother who desperately searches despite the roadblock she faces from 0:02:14.672 --> 0:02:19.432 the authorities. The case of missing Ontario teen Chrissy Haron 0:02:19.712 --> 0:02:22.431 would not be one sold in a year, not even 0:02:22.472 --> 0:02:26.352 a decade on from her disappearance, but a shock confession, 0:02:26.792 --> 0:02:30.352 a botched court case, an undercover sting, and more than 0:02:30.472 --> 0:02:34.872 twenty years later, someone would finally be held accountable for 0:02:34.912 --> 0:02:39.752 her death. Chrissy Harron's body has never been found, but 0:02:39.832 --> 0:02:42.392 the person who took her life is paying for his 0:02:42.552 --> 0:02:46.112 crime thanks to the dedication of a mother and one. 0:02:46.432 --> 0:02:52.352 Independent film and podcast maker David Ridgan worked alongside Chrissy's mother, 0:02:52.472 --> 0:02:55.792 Mary Anne for more than fifteen years as they brought 0:02:55.792 --> 0:02:59.352 her killer to justice. The host of the Someone Knows 0:02:59.352 --> 0:03:02.112 Something podcast sat down with us to tell us how 0:03:02.152 --> 0:03:08.392 a mother's undying love can outlast at all. Before we 0:03:08.472 --> 0:03:11.152 dive into the interview with David, there are a few 0:03:11.272 --> 0:03:15.272 key points you should understand to fully grasp Chrissy's story 0:03:15.432 --> 0:03:21.192 and David's investigation. Police kept Anthony Ringle in custody for 0:03:21.312 --> 0:03:25.112 thirty seven hours, five hours of that was before he 0:03:25.232 --> 0:03:28.352 was even read his rights. He was allowed phone calls 0:03:28.352 --> 0:03:32.712 to lawyers after he requested legal representation, spending a total 0:03:32.832 --> 0:03:36.232 of around twenty minutes only on calls with them, but 0:03:36.312 --> 0:03:40.192 no lawyer attended the questioning. When asked to explain himself 0:03:40.232 --> 0:03:44.832 on the record, Ringle would only say no questions, no comment. 0:03:45.632 --> 0:03:50.032 Despite this, police continued to question him, often without taking 0:03:50.032 --> 0:03:55.032 notes or recording the conversation. A second officer stepped in 0:03:55.112 --> 0:03:58.592 to take over the interrogation after it had seemingly wrapped up. 0:03:59.152 --> 0:04:02.272 Ringle said he did not want to continue and said 0:04:02.312 --> 0:04:05.192 he was advised by the lawyer not to take them 0:04:05.192 --> 0:04:07.352 to the place that he had had initially told the 0:04:07.392 --> 0:04:10.632 officer after calling nine to one one that Chrissy's body was, 0:04:11.112 --> 0:04:15.352 but they took him anyway. The list of questionable police 0:04:15.392 --> 0:04:19.832 conduct was adding up as Ringle's confusing and sometimes barely 0:04:19.912 --> 0:04:23.952 audible responses continued. He would switch from admitting to the 0:04:24.032 --> 0:04:27.432 murder to no comment. When asked why he would confess 0:04:27.512 --> 0:04:29.592 to it if he didn't do it, he gave no 0:04:29.672 --> 0:04:34.312 real answer. Several undercover police officers would infiltrate the trailer 0:04:34.312 --> 0:04:37.392 park where Ringle lived. They connected with him by telling 0:04:37.472 --> 0:04:40.232 him how they too were victims doing it tough in life. 0:04:40.872 --> 0:04:44.552 Then one night they sat down and watched the documentary 0:04:44.552 --> 0:04:48.952 about him. In the footage taken over many hours, Ringle 0:04:48.952 --> 0:04:52.712 would get upset with what he said were inconsistencies in 0:04:52.752 --> 0:04:56.112 the documentary's telling of his story. He would say they 0:04:56.112 --> 0:04:59.952 got it wrong when they claimed he drowned her. He had, 0:04:59.952 --> 0:05:03.432 in fact, more suffocated Chrissy by pushing her face down 0:05:03.432 --> 0:05:06.912 into the mud. He explained how he'd used her jacket 0:05:06.912 --> 0:05:09.472 to restrict her hands as he had nothing to tie 0:05:09.472 --> 0:05:12.752 her up with that enabled him. He said to remove 0:05:12.752 --> 0:05:17.032 her pants. He described the location where it all took place, 0:05:17.592 --> 0:05:20.232 just across the river, and how he had just come 0:05:20.272 --> 0:05:22.712 across her in the park that day, a place she 0:05:22.792 --> 0:05:25.872 used to frequent. He explained how he left her out 0:05:25.872 --> 0:05:28.512 there the first night, before returning to cover her body 0:05:28.712 --> 0:05:32.992 with sticks and logs the next day. Ringle also told 0:05:32.992 --> 0:05:36.351 the undercover officers how he'd thought about doing it again, 0:05:37.032 --> 0:05:40.791 but in almost attempting to justify the crime, Ringle said 0:05:40.832 --> 0:05:44.392 that by only doing it once and never again, essentially 0:05:44.632 --> 0:05:47.232 he'd been a good person. He even went as far 0:05:47.272 --> 0:05:49.872 as to say that he hoped he had the opportunity 0:05:49.992 --> 0:05:52.952 to apologize to Chrissy in the afterlife, where he would 0:05:52.992 --> 0:05:56.512 ask her was her life better before or after he 0:05:56.552 --> 0:06:02.152 did what he did. I know you've been investigating the 0:06:02.192 --> 0:06:05.592 case of Christine or Chrissy as she was known harn 0:06:05.712 --> 0:06:09.232 For gosh, it must be getting close to two decades now, 0:06:09.392 --> 0:06:11.112 but I'd love to take you back to the beginning. 0:06:11.472 --> 0:06:14.712 When did you first hear about her story and what 0:06:15.032 --> 0:06:17.032 led you to really focus in on this. 0:06:16.952 --> 0:06:20.872 One for Christine Herron. I'm a documentary filmmaker before I 0:06:20.912 --> 0:06:24.912 was a podcaster, and I had been looking at cold 0:06:24.952 --> 0:06:27.992 cases in general for television since two thousand and four, 0:06:28.432 --> 0:06:30.672 and at the time I found out about Chrissie's case, 0:06:30.712 --> 0:06:34.632 I was developing some television documentaries for CBC, the Canadian 0:06:34.632 --> 0:06:38.632 Broadcasting Corporation in late two thousands. I think about cold 0:06:38.672 --> 0:06:43.072 cases obviously, and I recall Chrissie's case made the shortlist 0:06:43.352 --> 0:06:46.592 pretty much right away for several reasons. I attended a 0:06:46.632 --> 0:06:49.192 memorial service for her in Hanover, which is a small 0:06:49.232 --> 0:06:52.272 town here in Ontario, southwest Ontario, just to do some 0:06:52.352 --> 0:06:56.152 initial research and something about the service for her, her 0:06:56.192 --> 0:07:00.632 photo up there on the stand, how people spoke about her, 0:07:00.672 --> 0:07:04.072 the whole atmosphere, it was very thick. It made me 0:07:04.072 --> 0:07:06.632 want to try to help, and I remember I remember 0:07:06.672 --> 0:07:09.792 saying to the associate producer who was there with me 0:07:09.832 --> 0:07:11.672 at the time, that Chrissy was someone I wish I 0:07:11.672 --> 0:07:15.152 had been able to meet. And I remember actually crying, 0:07:15.792 --> 0:07:18.752 and I remember feeling this kind of heat of frustration 0:07:19.472 --> 0:07:21.432 about the case. You know, I just kind of knew 0:07:21.432 --> 0:07:23.392 that I wanted to help on it, but I wasn't 0:07:23.432 --> 0:07:26.792 able to at the time. There are other cases took 0:07:26.912 --> 0:07:30.152 over in the early stages, but eventually I did get 0:07:30.232 --> 0:07:33.392 to Chrissie's case as the fourth in a series of 0:07:33.472 --> 0:07:37.392 films I made for CBC, and then the podcast kind 0:07:37.432 --> 0:07:40.392 of came after that, So there's several stages of production 0:07:41.112 --> 0:07:42.392 that went into Chrissie's case. 0:07:42.712 --> 0:07:44.432 Well, talk to me a bit about what it was 0:07:44.952 --> 0:07:47.192 about Chrissy that made you feel like she was someone 0:07:47.192 --> 0:07:49.752 that you wanted to meet. What was she like and 0:07:49.792 --> 0:07:51.832 what did you learn about who she was as a person. 0:07:52.672 --> 0:07:57.072 Christine was fifteen at the time she disappeared. She was rebellious, 0:07:57.712 --> 0:08:01.112 she didn't like school, but she enjoyed her walks outside. 0:08:01.352 --> 0:08:04.672 She liked the natural world, she liked reading, she liked 0:08:04.712 --> 0:08:09.552 being around children. She had that kind of, like I say, 0:08:09.752 --> 0:08:13.712 kind of counterintuitive nature that maybe she didn't get along 0:08:13.752 --> 0:08:17.832 with everybody, but she was very kind and I could 0:08:17.872 --> 0:08:20.152 just tell the way people were talking about her. But 0:08:20.272 --> 0:08:21.792 that's what she was like. And you know, when I 0:08:21.832 --> 0:08:25.512 met her mother, Mary Anne, I saw some video of 0:08:25.592 --> 0:08:28.272 Chrissy at the time and it was quite touching around 0:08:28.272 --> 0:08:30.712 the Christmas tree and things like that. It's hard to 0:08:30.752 --> 0:08:33.672 explain really what makes me want to take on a case. 0:08:33.712 --> 0:08:37.271 There's some other factors that were interesting as well, but 0:08:37.352 --> 0:08:39.792 mainly just the way it struck me at that ceremony 0:08:39.872 --> 0:08:40.192 for her. 0:08:40.712 --> 0:08:44.832 Well, let's delve into Chrissy's story. It's May eighteen, nineteen 0:08:44.912 --> 0:08:47.432 ninety three. You mentioned there that she didn't love going 0:08:47.432 --> 0:08:50.192 to school, and she'd woken up that morning and claimed 0:08:50.232 --> 0:08:52.592 to be unwell. Whether she actually was or not is 0:08:52.752 --> 0:08:55.352 a question many parents ask themselves about their children when 0:08:55.352 --> 0:08:57.352 they're trying to get out of going to school. But 0:08:58.392 --> 0:09:00.872 her mum was a bit concerned about the truancy officer 0:09:00.912 --> 0:09:04.872 Maryann who you mentioned, and insisted her daughter does go 0:09:04.952 --> 0:09:07.192 to school that day, so she kind of sends her off. 0:09:08.112 --> 0:09:11.672 What was Chrissy's reaction to her mom trying to force 0:09:11.672 --> 0:09:12.752 her to go to school that day. 0:09:13.032 --> 0:09:14.952 Well, I think it's like anything, if you try to 0:09:14.992 --> 0:09:18.632 make it happen, the opposite happens. If you try to 0:09:18.672 --> 0:09:21.391 force that idea out of your head, it's actually it 0:09:21.832 --> 0:09:24.872 galvanizes the idea in your head. So I think that 0:09:24.992 --> 0:09:27.112 by trying to get Chrissy to go to school, she 0:09:27.272 --> 0:09:29.232 was less likely to want to go. But eventually I 0:09:29.272 --> 0:09:33.271 think maybe it formulate a plan formulated in Chrissy's head 0:09:33.312 --> 0:09:36.752 that Okay, I'll go to school, but not go to school. 0:09:36.992 --> 0:09:39.151 You know, I'll go to school the school the long way, 0:09:39.672 --> 0:09:44.352 and it turned out that on that morning she was sick. 0:09:44.392 --> 0:09:47.632 And it was May eighteenth, nineteen ninety three. As you said, 0:09:48.072 --> 0:09:51.312 they had an argument and the obtruancy officer called, and 0:09:52.032 --> 0:09:53.672 so it was I guess it was around one or 0:09:53.752 --> 0:09:57.352 midday in the afternoon that Chrissy finally said okay, got up, 0:09:57.632 --> 0:10:00.672 left and slammed the door. And this was allegedly on 0:10:00.712 --> 0:10:02.592 her way to school. Mary Anne saw go down the 0:10:02.592 --> 0:10:04.552 street and turn the corner and that was the last 0:10:04.592 --> 0:10:06.952 that she ever saw of her. And it turns out 0:10:06.952 --> 0:10:09.112 that Christy didn't go to school that day. 0:10:09.792 --> 0:10:13.192 Was her mother, then, the last person to actually see 0:10:13.232 --> 0:10:16.312 her alive, apart from the person who would take her life. 0:10:16.352 --> 0:10:19.992 Did anybody else spot her in the aftermath of her disappearance. 0:10:20.232 --> 0:10:24.032 There was nobody else that came forward at the time. 0:10:24.592 --> 0:10:28.032 Nobody else reported to police or buy police in to 0:10:28.112 --> 0:10:30.712 my knowledge, and I've looked through thousands of pages of 0:10:30.752 --> 0:10:35.592 investigative information over two different police departments, the local department 0:10:35.632 --> 0:10:38.472 and the opp the Ontario Provincial Police which took over 0:10:39.112 --> 0:10:43.352 in nineteen ninety nine. Nobody else saw Christy that day 0:10:43.592 --> 0:10:46.792 to my knowledge or anybody else's except for the person 0:10:47.192 --> 0:10:47.912 who killed her. 0:10:48.392 --> 0:10:50.672 So Marianne does what most parents would do in this 0:10:50.712 --> 0:10:54.352 situation where their kid, who is known for skipping classes 0:10:54.392 --> 0:10:57.752 at school, does calls all their friends. Doesn't have a 0:10:57.792 --> 0:11:00.432 big circle of friends, but she know none of them 0:11:00.472 --> 0:11:04.072 have seen her. Police states too early to really do anything, 0:11:04.072 --> 0:11:07.192 but she does report it to police later that What 0:11:07.352 --> 0:11:11.232 was the police's initial response to mary Anne's request for 0:11:11.272 --> 0:11:12.392 them to search for her daughter. 0:11:12.712 --> 0:11:16.712 Well, initially, police, and in many cases this happens, right 0:11:16.792 --> 0:11:19.392 or wrong, police suggests that she'll come back, you know, 0:11:19.552 --> 0:11:22.511 so she's a runaway, and usually that's a pretty temporary 0:11:22.552 --> 0:11:26.872 maneuver by police. Usually it's give it some time. Unfortunately, 0:11:26.912 --> 0:11:29.192 everybody knows in the true crime world at the first 0:11:29.192 --> 0:11:32.752 seventy two hours and blah blah blah are important, and 0:11:32.832 --> 0:11:35.592 they are. And in this case though the police kept 0:11:35.632 --> 0:11:38.352 to that story, kept to that narrative. The local police 0:11:38.432 --> 0:11:43.152 chief his daughter had a habit of departing, apparently according 0:11:43.152 --> 0:11:45.832 to him, so he was saying, citing these kind of 0:11:46.232 --> 0:11:49.512 anecdotal stories of she'll be back, my daughter always comes 0:11:49.552 --> 0:11:51.312 back kind of thing. But that went on for like 0:11:51.352 --> 0:11:54.712 a year, and there were these false sightings of Christy 0:11:54.792 --> 0:11:58.232 and Toronto police kept, you know, suggesting that maybe she 0:11:58.432 --> 0:12:00.872 was with those people that were being seen in Toronto, 0:12:00.952 --> 0:12:03.032 or she was with a bunch of punk rockers or something. 0:12:03.352 --> 0:12:06.832 But basically, nothing ever came back of a real true 0:12:06.872 --> 0:12:11.592 sighting of Chrissy, and in the meantime, important time was passing. 0:12:12.232 --> 0:12:14.072 If you get to know the story, you'll realize that 0:12:14.152 --> 0:12:18.232 this was a massive mistake at this time because they 0:12:18.232 --> 0:12:21.112 could have probably found her if they did a proper search. 0:12:21.872 --> 0:12:26.912 They only undertook a rudimentary search around town and they 0:12:26.952 --> 0:12:30.192 never found any trace of her. But if they had 0:12:30.872 --> 0:12:34.272 taken it a little bit more seriously, I'm not sure 0:12:34.272 --> 0:12:37.032 what would have made them take it more seriously, maybe 0:12:37.072 --> 0:12:40.032 more experience. It was a very small force, local town 0:12:40.112 --> 0:12:43.072 force they had over police. In fact, the guy, the 0:12:43.112 --> 0:12:46.872 man who investigated the case in the beginning, was later 0:12:47.032 --> 0:12:50.472 arrested for you know, some kind of horrible crimes he 0:12:50.552 --> 0:12:53.112 himself committed, So I'm not sure how great of an 0:12:53.152 --> 0:12:56.631 investigator he was. The Ontario Provincial Police when they took 0:12:56.632 --> 0:13:02.271 over the case, reinvestigated everything, They reinterviewed everybody, They talked 0:13:02.312 --> 0:13:05.072 to other people that they hadn't talked to before, and 0:13:05.112 --> 0:13:09.352 the other investigation, but still nothing happened. You know, that 0:13:09.472 --> 0:13:12.472 was nineteen ninety nine. This happened in nineteen ninety three, 0:13:12.872 --> 0:13:16.392 so nothing the police did really made any difference to 0:13:16.432 --> 0:13:16.872 the case. 0:13:20.152 --> 0:13:23.672 You're listening to True Crime Conversations with me Claire Murphy. 0:13:24.072 --> 0:13:27.511 I'm speaking with David Ridgan, host of the podcast Someone 0:13:27.632 --> 0:13:32.032 Knows Something about the case of Chrissy Haron. Next, David 0:13:32.032 --> 0:13:34.832 and I dive into why Marianne searched for her daughter 0:13:34.952 --> 0:13:38.912 was derailed and how the community in Hanover, Ontario not 0:13:38.952 --> 0:13:42.272 only failed to help, but actually told her to give up. 0:13:45.432 --> 0:13:49.192 Do you think the police's attitude to Chrissy's disappearance contributed 0:13:49.192 --> 0:13:53.151 to how the community responded to Marianne and her other 0:13:53.192 --> 0:13:55.432 family members in that time, because Marianne spoke to you 0:13:55.472 --> 0:13:59.632 and said that she would put up posters asking for 0:13:59.672 --> 0:14:02.232 information about the whereabouts of her missing daughter that would 0:14:02.232 --> 0:14:04.312 get torn down, and that people kept telling her to 0:14:04.392 --> 0:14:07.592 kind of let it go, and that you know, Chrissy 0:14:07.752 --> 0:14:11.511 was just off, you know, being a rebellious teenager. Do 0:14:11.552 --> 0:14:15.312 you think the police's attitude didn't help that the community 0:14:15.312 --> 0:14:16.631 didn't seem to rally around them. 0:14:16.992 --> 0:14:18.752 Yeah, I'm not sure that it did. Help. I think 0:14:18.752 --> 0:14:22.232 the communities tend to have kind of a singular mind sometimes, 0:14:22.272 --> 0:14:25.792 and if one person thinks that something, then many of 0:14:25.832 --> 0:14:29.472 them will think the same thing. You know. They definitely 0:14:29.552 --> 0:14:32.952 Chrissy and Marianne were not wealthy people. They were not 0:14:32.992 --> 0:14:37.032 from a wealthy background or family, working class family very 0:14:37.112 --> 0:14:41.632 much so. And I'm not sure how much that impacted 0:14:41.632 --> 0:14:44.072 the case, but I can only imagine it. Did you know, 0:14:44.192 --> 0:14:46.872 this person's not as important as everybody else, which is 0:14:47.152 --> 0:14:50.112 another part of the reason I thought the case was important. Yeah, 0:14:50.152 --> 0:14:52.192 I mean, if police take it seriously, other people will 0:14:52.192 --> 0:14:53.152 take it seriously too. 0:14:54.392 --> 0:14:58.912 We did mention that eventually the opp does take over 0:14:59.232 --> 0:15:01.232 the case from the local police, but that is six 0:15:01.312 --> 0:15:04.152 years down the track. Do we know what actually led 0:15:04.192 --> 0:15:06.632 to that being escalated beyond the local police. 0:15:06.872 --> 0:15:10.712 I think that I think the local police in Hannover asked, 0:15:10.792 --> 0:15:13.112 but I also think that there was some pressure from 0:15:13.352 --> 0:15:17.912 Marianna and her family about this case, and I think 0:15:17.952 --> 0:15:21.552 that that eventually took over. See, the OPP in Ontario 0:15:22.072 --> 0:15:24.832 at that time was expanding and they were trying to 0:15:25.032 --> 0:15:29.952 basically user small town forces and take over them and 0:15:30.032 --> 0:15:33.352 be paid by the municipality instead of the small town force. 0:15:33.432 --> 0:15:36.432 So they would argue, for example, we're a force of 0:15:36.472 --> 0:15:39.512 a thousand members investigators, we have a huge forensic team, 0:15:39.552 --> 0:15:41.792 and we got lots of money. Why would you want 0:15:41.792 --> 0:15:45.272 to have four men or four people, you know, policing 0:15:45.312 --> 0:15:48.072 your city or town of six thousand when you could 0:15:48.072 --> 0:15:52.152 have you know, uber force taking over. But you know 0:15:52.232 --> 0:15:54.672 a lot of times towns did pay to have OPP 0:15:54.872 --> 0:15:57.952 come in and then we're unhappy because the sort of 0:15:58.032 --> 0:15:59.872 roster or menu of what they were going to be 0:15:59.912 --> 0:16:04.672 providing investigatively was not what they expected. However, in this case, 0:16:04.672 --> 0:16:08.512 the OPP took over the case and I think eventually 0:16:08.552 --> 0:16:11.392 took over policing in the town, just like many other 0:16:11.392 --> 0:16:14.072 small towns on Ontario at the time. So I guess 0:16:14.072 --> 0:16:16.272 it was part of an expansionist effort. So it kind 0:16:16.312 --> 0:16:19.712 of worked into the parents requesting that the OPP take 0:16:19.712 --> 0:16:21.952 it over. So you know, it might have been the 0:16:21.712 --> 0:16:24.392 thin edge of the wedge that allowed the OPP to 0:16:24.472 --> 0:16:26.792 kind of start to make their move on that town 0:16:26.872 --> 0:16:29.672 as well. I maybe talking out of my ass on 0:16:29.672 --> 0:16:32.872 that one. I'm not exactly sure about that history, but 0:16:32.952 --> 0:16:34.472 that's pretty much what I think happened. 0:16:35.552 --> 0:16:40.192 What Chrissy's family told anything about these investigations, like how 0:16:40.272 --> 0:16:43.832 much information were they given after the escalation to the opp. 0:16:44.392 --> 0:16:48.672 Very little, and that's not abnormal. But when you hide 0:16:48.672 --> 0:16:51.472 things from parents, you do it to help protect the 0:16:51.512 --> 0:16:54.992 case to some extent. I understand the impulse to do that. 0:16:55.032 --> 0:16:58.472 You don't want to distribute information to somebody who you 0:16:58.512 --> 0:17:01.752 think might then tell someone else that there's a suspect 0:17:01.872 --> 0:17:04.392 or that you're talking to this guy or you know, 0:17:04.472 --> 0:17:07.472 and then that information gets sed it around the community 0:17:07.552 --> 0:17:10.351 and soon enough, everybody's pointing at the same guy just 0:17:10.431 --> 0:17:13.792 because the police said they're interviewing him to somebody. Right, 0:17:14.151 --> 0:17:17.231 So you're kind of seeding the information, the poisoning the 0:17:17.272 --> 0:17:20.232 case by giving out too much information. But you would 0:17:20.232 --> 0:17:23.351 think that at some point police would learn to trust 0:17:23.391 --> 0:17:27.431 family members and realize that they kind of need the 0:17:27.472 --> 0:17:31.031 information to kind of help them get through their day 0:17:31.111 --> 0:17:33.391 to day, you know, they need something to hold on to. 0:17:33.631 --> 0:17:36.871 You can see how that might be an issue because 0:17:36.911 --> 0:17:38.952 the place where they live is not big, right, It's 0:17:38.952 --> 0:17:42.232 not a huge community of people. It's less than ten thousand, 0:17:42.311 --> 0:17:45.032 and that's pretty small town mentality when you think. 0:17:44.871 --> 0:17:47.151 About it, right, Yeah, it's pretty small. It was a 0:17:47.192 --> 0:17:50.391 pretty big industrial base when it started, it was like 0:17:50.431 --> 0:17:53.912 a furniture making place in Ontario. I think a lot 0:17:53.952 --> 0:17:58.591 of German settlers moved in at one point and lots 0:17:58.591 --> 0:18:01.391 of furniture production. But when I started working there and 0:18:01.431 --> 0:18:03.991 when Chrissy disappeared, it was kind of a shadow of that. 0:18:04.591 --> 0:18:08.351 Most lot of abandoned buildings and old factories around, and 0:18:09.351 --> 0:18:11.431 it was a small town down on its luck to 0:18:11.431 --> 0:18:13.792 some extent. Yeah, when I got in there. 0:18:13.712 --> 0:18:16.951 We mentioned out factories. What's a really interesting piece of 0:18:17.111 --> 0:18:20.631 evidence was that a young man in that community claimed, 0:18:20.792 --> 0:18:23.311 in the aftermath of Chrissy's disappearance that he received a 0:18:23.311 --> 0:18:25.471 phone call from someone claiming to be her and that 0:18:25.512 --> 0:18:28.311 she was in fact at one of these old abandoned factories. 0:18:28.351 --> 0:18:29.431 Did anything come of that? 0:18:30.272 --> 0:18:33.672 Nothing came of that, and in any of the documentation 0:18:33.752 --> 0:18:37.151 I've read extensively on that, it feels like somebody was 0:18:37.151 --> 0:18:39.672 playing a joke on this guy. I'm sure he got 0:18:39.712 --> 0:18:41.831 the call, but it felt like somebody was making a 0:18:41.831 --> 0:18:44.552 prank call on him, and I think that's what police 0:18:45.792 --> 0:18:48.071 figured out at the end as well. I mean, obviously 0:18:48.151 --> 0:18:51.272 Chrissy didn't show up. It was two or two months later. 0:18:51.351 --> 0:18:54.951 I think she would have had no resources. It's a 0:18:54.992 --> 0:18:57.912 small town, like, yeah, you can hide in a building 0:18:57.952 --> 0:19:01.351 for a couple of days, but it's not credible. And 0:19:01.792 --> 0:19:04.111 there was some other issues with the person who got 0:19:04.151 --> 0:19:05.871 the call, which I'm not going to mention now, but 0:19:06.512 --> 0:19:08.471 it seems like that it wasn't the first time that 0:19:08.512 --> 0:19:11.392 crank calls were made. What's to say, Well, let's fuss forward. 0:19:11.472 --> 0:19:15.992 Eleven years has passed since Chrissie's disappeared. It's August two 0:19:16.032 --> 0:19:18.631 thousand and four. There's finally a breakthrough in the case, 0:19:18.671 --> 0:19:23.232 but it does not come from any police investigation. Can 0:19:23.272 --> 0:19:26.792 you talk us through a bit of the surprise confession? 0:19:27.512 --> 0:19:30.111 Part of the reason I was intrigued by Chrissy's case. 0:19:30.431 --> 0:19:33.672 The other part is because there appeared to be a suspect. 0:19:33.952 --> 0:19:37.231 But this is a suspect that the police had not found. 0:19:37.712 --> 0:19:40.111 Up until August of two thousand and four. Police had 0:19:40.151 --> 0:19:43.192 no idea what happened to Christy, as I just talked about. 0:19:43.311 --> 0:19:46.272 And remember, Christy disappeared, as he said, eleven years ago, 0:19:46.671 --> 0:19:49.231 eleven years before in May of nineteen ninety three. So 0:19:49.992 --> 0:19:52.951 in August two thousand and four, at a party with 0:19:53.032 --> 0:19:56.951 his family members, a man aged thirty five at the time. 0:19:57.351 --> 0:19:59.511 Near the end of the evening, after some drinks and 0:19:59.552 --> 0:20:02.232 some kind of upset he had with his family, started 0:20:02.232 --> 0:20:06.071 telling people that he had killed Christine Herron. He picked 0:20:06.151 --> 0:20:08.671 up phone, he dialed nine one one and then he 0:20:08.752 --> 0:20:12.431 hung up. He changed his mind, but the police responded anyway, 0:20:12.472 --> 0:20:15.272 I don't know what happens in Australia, but here, even 0:20:15.311 --> 0:20:17.071 on a hang up to a nine one one call, 0:20:17.151 --> 0:20:19.711 they will respond to find out what the hang up 0:20:19.831 --> 0:20:24.032 was all about. So the police officer arrives, the man 0:20:24.111 --> 0:20:28.351 notices and starts walking down the stairs towards him, holding 0:20:28.391 --> 0:20:30.751 his hands up as if he wants to be handcuffed, 0:20:31.111 --> 0:20:34.472 and he confesses again I killed Chrissy, says I killed 0:20:34.552 --> 0:20:37.472 Chrissy to the responding officer, and he says, I can 0:20:37.472 --> 0:20:40.672 show police where I left her. And at the same time, 0:20:40.712 --> 0:20:43.351 eleven years earlier, when Chrissy disappeared, the guy would have 0:20:43.391 --> 0:20:46.471 been twenty four years old at that time, and his 0:20:46.591 --> 0:20:49.272 name was Anthony Edward Wringle. And this is a guy 0:20:49.311 --> 0:20:51.792 police said no and was not on the radar. Local guy, 0:20:51.871 --> 0:20:54.831 local guy. And he was born on December tenth, nineteen 0:20:54.871 --> 0:20:58.671 sixty eight, one of six children five for nine or thereabouts, 0:20:58.752 --> 0:21:01.991 blunt features, thin browning hair, and he had worked at 0:21:01.992 --> 0:21:04.311 the local Canadian Tire which is like a hardware store 0:21:04.351 --> 0:21:07.512 that yes does sell tires here, but he was unemployed 0:21:08.272 --> 0:21:10.991 at the time in May nineteen ninety three when Chrissy 0:21:11.151 --> 0:21:13.912 left the house to allegedly go to school that May, 0:21:14.831 --> 0:21:18.231 and when I met him, he was living between locations 0:21:18.272 --> 0:21:21.471 like at a family member's house, couch surfing, and at 0:21:21.472 --> 0:21:25.431 a local trailer park. So Anthony Ringo goes through the 0:21:25.431 --> 0:21:28.151 stages that what would have been a murder trial in 0:21:28.192 --> 0:21:31.032 two thousand and six. They took him to the police 0:21:31.071 --> 0:21:34.911 station and interrogated him, but the judge throws the case 0:21:34.952 --> 0:21:39.071 out basically because of police mistakes. So this is two 0:21:39.071 --> 0:21:41.591 thousand and six, and I heard about the case in 0:21:41.591 --> 0:21:44.591 two thousand and nine, so the case has stayed in 0:21:44.631 --> 0:21:47.631 two thousand and six for a year. So basically it 0:21:47.671 --> 0:21:50.911 sits in suspended animation until new evidence is brought forward. 0:21:50.911 --> 0:21:53.871 But no new evidence was brought forward, so Ringo is 0:21:53.952 --> 0:21:57.192 freed and nothing new happens, and it just sits there 0:21:57.591 --> 0:22:00.752 from two thousand and six onwards, And at the time 0:22:00.792 --> 0:22:03.632 Anthony still lived in the area. Nobody did anything. There 0:22:03.671 --> 0:22:06.071 was very little reporting on it, like there was like 0:22:06.552 --> 0:22:10.071 article in the paper about this, No reporter talks to him, 0:22:10.792 --> 0:22:14.191 no police action can be seen happening still two thousand 0:22:14.232 --> 0:22:16.552 and six, and then add three years more and I 0:22:16.591 --> 0:22:18.951 come on the scene two thousand and nine, church service, 0:22:18.952 --> 0:22:22.511 et cetera, and I begin working with Chrissy's mom, Mary Anne. 0:22:23.232 --> 0:22:27.552 Police barely assist me, but regardless, we're able to uncover 0:22:27.631 --> 0:22:30.311 many of the court files and investigative documents from the case. 0:22:30.351 --> 0:22:33.591 By freedom of information. Mary Anne for the first time 0:22:33.671 --> 0:22:37.311