Dark Roast: Caffeine Casefiles Podcast

Welcome back, Caffeine Casefilers. June 30, 2002. A 21‑year‑old Tla‑o‑qui‑aht woman named Lisa Marie Young left a house party in Nanaimo, British Columbia, with a man she’d just met—a man driving a distinctive burgundy red Jaguar. She sent her friend a text: “My phone is not working.” Then she vanished. The man in the Jaguar was identified as Christopher William Adair. He was questioned by police,...

A father of four. Murdered on Canada Day. His daughter found him. 💔🇨🇦 This is the short version. Tap the links for the full story. * 📰 Trial begins (CTV News): https://www.ctvnews.ca/saskatoon/prince-albert/article/trial-of-man-accused-of-killing-prince-albert-father-begins/ * 📰 Victim identified as ‘always funny’ father of four (CTV News): https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/prince-albert-homicide-vi...

A 28-year-old tow truck driver. Three teenage hitmen. A $7,500 contract killing. The towing industry’s dark underworld exposed. 🚛🔫💔 This is the short version. Tap the links for the full story. Links to the story: * 📰 Teen pleads guilty (CBC News): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/teen-recruited-to-shoot-gta-tow-truck-driver-pleads-guilty-to-murder-9.7238849 * 📰 Hired gun confession (Tor...

Welcome back, Caffeine Casefilers. Between March and May 2022, four Indigenous women disappeared from the streets of Winnipeg. Their bodies were found—some of them, anyway—in garbage bins, dumped at landfills, treated like refuse by a killer who believed their lives didn’t matter. Jeremy Skibicki was a white supremacist who targeted Indigenous women at homeless shelters. He drugged them, assaulted...

A #VanLife dream turned into a nightmare. Gabby Petito’s story gripped the world—but the Netflix documentary only tells part of it. For the full picture, tap the links below. * 🎥 Watch American Murder: Gabby Petito on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81766093 * 🎙️ Listen to Serialously with Annie Elise - Episode 248: * (search “Episode 248: Why Did Netflix LEAVE THIS OUT About Gabby Petito”...

A 100-mph crash. Two dead. One survivor. Accident or murder? The Crash on Netflix will leave you questioning everything. This is the short version—tap the links for the full deep dive. * 🎥 Watch The Crash on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81941710 * 🎙️ Podcast deep dive - RedHanded (episode on Mackenzie Shirilla): Search “RedHanded Mackenzie Shirilla” in your podcast app * 🎙️ Podcast deep...

☕️ A NEW BREW – SHORT TRUE CRIME STORIES YOU CAN SIP. 🎬 Today I’m talking about Netflix’s Maternal Instinct — but facts were left out. 😳 Taylor Parker faked pregnancies for YEARS before the murder — not just once. She committed welfare fraud. She ran prison schemes to dodge medical bills. Even her mom’s reason for staying quiet? The documentary didn’t tell the whole story. For the FULL deep div...

Welcome back, Caffeine Casefilers. I’m your host, Cait. You pour the coffee. I pour the truth. She was sixteen years old. A high school baseball player. A peer counsellor. She had just landed her first job at a restaurant. On June 11, 1994, Ramona Wilson kissed her mother goodbye, walked out the door to go to a dance a few towns over — and vanished. Ten months later, her body melted out of the spr...

Welcome back, Caffeine Casefilers. As Canadians Know - June is Indigenous History Month. A time to honor the original stewards of this land and their rich heritage. But as true crime storytellers, we have a responsibility to acknowledge that this history includes a painful legacy of systemic failure. So this June, we’re dedicating our episodes to the truth: that every Indigenous life is a story wo...

Welcome Back Caffeine Casefilers! This is Part 2 of this series takes a deeper look into the tragic death of two-year-old Vienna Rose Irwin. In this episode, we cover the findings from the coroner’s report, and the details from the civil lawsuit filed by her family. If you missed the previous Episode, go back and listen Episode 6: The Sweetest Little Girl Key Details: * A two-year-old girl who was...

Welcome Back Caffeine Casefilers! Grab your favourite choice of Caffeine, and buckle in… This week I’m talking about a family Dynasty that was the law in their county for 87 years - Until a murder investigation reveals the cracks and the truth crumbles the whole empire. The Rise and Fall of Murdaugh Country. June 7, 2021. A dirt road in rural South Carolina. A father calls 911 with a frantic, sobb...

Welcome Back Caffeine Casefilers! In this weeks episode, I’m talking about the Unsolved Murder of Karen Woodcock - A Mother of 7 - who went missing, found dead by the roadside only 2 kilometers away from her home, whose murder is still unsolved to this day. It was Canada Day, 1973. Families across Peterborough, Ontario, were lighting barbecues and watching fireworks. But somewhere out on the quiet...

Episode 16 Welcome Back Caffeine Casefilers! In this weeks episode I talk about the mysterious disappearance of Jaclyn “ Jackie” Ferland Smith - Who walked out of her house in August 2021, never to return and yet to be found. Grab your favourite choice of Caffeine and sip slowly Pura Vida. It’s a phrase that promises a pure life, a slower pace, and a slice of paradise. For Canadian expats Jaclyn “...

Welcome back Caffeine Casefilers! Grab a mug, fill it with something dark and unforgiving, and let’s get started. In the summer of 1981, a shadow fell over British Columbia. Eleven children vanished. The man responsible was Clifford Olson—a compulsive liar, chronic criminal, and psychopath who would become one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers. But when police finally caught him, they didn...

Welcome back Caffeine Casefilers Grab a mug, fill it with something dark and unforgiving, and let’s travel to British Columbia Robert Pickton was a quiet, unassuming pig farmer who hid in plain sight. While throwing raucous parties at his “Piggy Palace” and cruising the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, he was committing the worst serial killings in Canadian history. In this episode, we ex...

Welcome back Caffeine Casefilers. Grab a mug, fill it with something dark and unforgiving, and let’s get started. Between 2007 and 2016, residents of long-term care homes in Ontario, Canada, were dying. Nothing unusual there—elderly people with complex medical conditions pass away every day. But eight of those deaths were something else entirely. They were murders, committed by the one person ever...

Welcome Back Caffeine Casefilers! In this weeks episode I talk about the strange case of Ken Parks and how his sleeping disorder led him to killing and the attempted killing of his Mother and Father in-law In the early morning hours of May 24, 1987, 23-year-old Ken Parks drove 20 kilometers from Pickering to Scarborough, let himself into his in-laws’ home with a spare key, and brutally attacked th...

Welcome back Caffeine Casefilers! This week, we head to Las Vegas, where a devoted father is found suspiciously mutilated, stuffed in a sleeping bag, and set on fire in his own garage. The one thing that is truly baffling? His 16-year-old daughter, Sierra, is nowhere to be found and isn’t responding to calls or texts. That is, until she and her boyfriend, Aaron Guerrero, are located in Salt Lake C...

Welcome Back, grab something strong and sip slowly because this case stays with you On October 26, 2015, Lee Antoni returned home to his Calgary house after a weekend away and made a horrifying discovery: his wife, 31-year-old Amanda, lying dead at the bottom of the basement stairs in a pool of blood. The scene was so violent that responding officers called it “the bloodiest” they had ever seen. B...

Welcome back. Grab a mug, fill it with something dark and unforgiving, and let’s get started. A loving grandmother. A brilliant inventor. A five-year-old superhero fan. On June 30, 2014, Alvin Liknes, Kathy Liknes, and Nathan O’Brien walked into their Calgary home and never walked out. In this episode, we explore the lives behind the headlines. We follow Alvin’s journey from the prairies to the oi...

Welcome Back, Grab a mug with something strong, sip slowly , this one stays with you They were musicians, artists, and scholars with their whole lives ahead of them. On April 15, 2014, Lawrence Hong, Joshua Hunter, Kaitlin Perras, Zackariah Rathwell, and Jordan Segura were killed at a house party in the quiet Calgary community of Brentwood. This episode examines the night of the tragedy, the subse...

Welcome back. Grab a mug, fill it with something dark and unforgiving, and let’s get started. In 1984, the murder of nine-year-old Christine Jessop shook the small town of Queensville, Ontario. Police, with no physical evidence, zeroed in on her eccentric but innocent neighbor, Guy Paul Morin, simply because they thought he was “weird” . This episode explores how a flawed investigation and tunnel...

Welcome back Caffeine Casefilers, grab something strong and sip slowly. In today’s episode I will be talking about the tragic loss of Vienna Rose Irwin who passed away on May 25, 2023, two-year-old Vienna Rose Irwin’s story is one of immense love and heartbreaking loss. The beloved daughter of Claire and Clayton, Vienna was the cherished center of a large, extended family in Port Hope, including g...

Welcome back. Grab a mug, fill it with something dark and unforgiving, and let’s get started In 1959, a fourteen-year-old boy gave his friend a ride on his bicycle. Days later, she was found murdered—and he was arrested, tried as an adult, and sentenced to hang. This is the definitive story of Steven Truscott: the infamous wrongful conviction that shook Canada to its core, the relentless fight for...

Welcome back. Grab a mug, fill it with something dark and unforgiving, and let’s get started. They looked like the perfect couple. They were anything but. Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka—dubbed the “Ken and Barbie Killers”—terrorized southern Ontario throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. But this isn’t just a story about two monsters. It’s about a system that failed. Repeatedly. Catastrophica...