Ontario Cold Cases - The Podcast

The Mysterious Disappearance of Ingrid Bauer: A Cold Case That Haunts Ontario Ingrid Bauer vanished in the quiet streets of Kleinburg, leaving behind a family and a community still searching for answers. In the summer of 1972, 14-year-old Ingrid Bauer vanished without a trace from the quiet streets of Kleinburg, Ontario. One moment she was walking to her boyfriend's house, the next, she was gone....

Cheryl & Plea - Richmond Hill’s Triple Vanishing: Wendy Smith, Pierre Mercon, Cheryl Rowe 2011: Cheryl plans Christmas dinner—vanishes pre-gifts. Last at ex’s. Bikers? Rapist pal? Three dead suspects. Kristina: 'She’d never miss morning.' Tip now.  Because every case deserves answers—and every victim deserves justice. Subscribe now to Ontario Cold Cases: Canada’s True Crime Podcast. Episo...

Wendy & Pierre - Richmond Hill’s Triple Vanishing: Wendy Smith, Pierre Mercon, Cheryl Rowe 1995: Wendy clocks in at Fantasia—never clocks out. 1996: Pierre calls Mom from Halloween bar—poncho under table. Two Richmond Hill kids, gone.  Because every case deserves answers—and every victim deserves justice. Subscribe now to Ontario Cold Cases: Canada’s True Crime Podcast. Episodes available...

Unraveling a 40-Year Mystery: The Donna Awcock Case She was a 17-year-old girl, an active and busy teenager who loved to babysit and play baseball. But on October 13, 1983, Donna Awcock disappeared, only to be found brutally murdered hours later. Her case went cold, and for four decades, her killer has walked free. Now, her sister Tammy Dennett is determined to find answers and get justice for Don...

Unraveling a 40-Year Mystery: The Donna Awcock Case Forty years ago, a brutal murder shook the community of London, Ontario. On October 13, 1983, 17-year-old Donna Jean Awcock—a vibrant teen who loved to babysit and play baseball—was found murdered. The case has remained unsolved, but her older sister, Tammy Dennett, is determined to find answers and bring her sister's killer to justice. Donna was...

Richmond Hill’s Triple Vanishing: Wendy Smith, Pierre Mercon, Cheryl Rowe One town, three nights, zero traces. A exotic dancer who never danced, a son who never got picked up, a mom who missed Christmas morning. Pull up a chair—let’s connect the dots before the trail freezes over. Three vanish from Richmond Hill’s shadows—20 years apart. Wendy Smith, 33, starts stripping at Fantasia, never clocks...

The Murder of Christine Prince  She was a Welsh nanny with a bright future, an engaged woman living her dream in a new country. But on a quiet night in Toronto, Christine Prince disappeared. Her body was found days later, miles from home, in the murky waters of the Rouge River. Her murder remains one of Canada's most chilling unsolved cold cases. For over 40 years, police have followed a trai...

Richmond Hill’s Triple Vanishing: Wendy Smith, Pierre Mercon, Cheryl Rowe A first shift, a costume party, and a Christmas plan. We investigate the chilling sequence of disappearances that scarred a community. Three individuals. Twenty years. One quiet town north of Toronto. In 1995, Wendy Smith started her first shift at the Fantasia Hotel strip club. She never finished it. Investigators believe s...

Four Blocks from Home: The Abduction of Christine Prince A rainy night, a dropped umbrella, and a killer who knew the road. DNA waits for a name. This episode dives into the heartbreaking and mysterious case of Christine Prince, a Welsh nanny who came to Toronto in 1981, hoping to build a career caring for children. Christine found work with the Kruzick family, caring for their young daughter and...

Cigarettes at 2:30 A.M.: Who Took Donna Awcock? Unraveling a 40-Year Mystery: The Donna Awcock Case A balcony wave, a 100-metre errand, a child’s Halloween bag in her throat. Forty years later, the DNA’s ready and Tammy’s Angels won’t quit. Let’s light up the truth. October 13, 1983: 17-year-old Donna Awcock waves from the balcony, babysitting next door. 2:30 a.m.—pizza gone, she’s sent for cigare...

The Unsolved Case of Valerie Karen Stevens: A Search for Answers In the early hours of September 9, 1989, Valerie Karen Stevens, a 19-year-old mother from Toronto, left her young daughter in the care of a teenage couple and set out to meet friends at the popular Diamond Club in downtown Toronto. Pregnant at the time, Valerie was never seen alive again. Days after she vanished, the teenage couple,...

Four Blocks from Home: The Abduction of Christine Prince A rainy night, a dropped umbrella, and a killer who knew the road. DNA waits for a name. Welsh nanny Christine Prince, 25, arrived in Toronto dreaming of a new life. June 20, 1982: after donuts with her fiancé, she waves goodbye at Bathurst & St. Clair. Minutes from home, an umbrella drops in the rain. Abducted, raped, beaten, drowned—bo...

Four Blocks from Home: The Abduction of Christine Prince A rainy night, a dropped umbrella, and a killer who knew the road. DNA waits for a name. She came from Wales to care for a little girl... One rainy night, four blocks from home, kindness became a trap. Abducted. Raped. Drowned. Trophies taken. Two men. One leader. DNA waits. Was Bernardo watching? A tree still grows where she walked. Ontario...

The Mystery of the “Phantom Killer” of Texarkana The Phantom Killer of Texarkana: (1946) Five dead, three wounded, zero arrests.  February 22: Masked man pistol-whips Jimmy Hollis, assaults Mary Jeanne Larey with gun barrel. Both survive.  March 24: Dick Griffin and Polly Ann Moore dragged from car, shot kneeling, bodies posed inside.  April 14: Paul Martin shot four times, dragged...

Disappearance - Who Killed Valerie Stevens? September 9, 1989. Pregnant 19-year-old Valerie Stevens kisses her 17-month-old goodbye and heads to Toronto's Diamond Club. She meets friends... then vanishes. Four days later, babysitters alert police. Welfare checks uncashed. Bank untouched. What happened that night?  Available Now! Because every case deserves answers—and every victim deserves ju...

Valerie Stevens Last Dance: Pregnant, Vanished, Betrayed?   Serial Shadows or Someone She Knew? In 1989, 19-year-old pregnant Valerie Stevens vanished after a night out dancing in Toronto, leaving her toddler behind. Three years later, her skeletal remains surfaced in remote Burford woods—murder suspected, but cause unknown. Uncashed welfare checks, untouched bank accounts, and a possibl...

FIRST BLOOD - The Phantom Killer of Texarkana February 22, 1946. Midnight. Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey park on Richmond Road. A masked man blinds them with a flashlight. 'Take off your f—ing pants,' he snarls. Pistol-whips Jimmy's skull—crack. Blood sprays the dash. He chases Mary Jeanne into thorns, assaults her with the gun barrel. Both survive—to describe the Phantom.  Because every...

Valerie Stevens Last Dance: Pregnant, Vanished, Betrayed?   Serial Shadows or Someone She Knew? She was 19, pregnant, ready for a night out... Valerie Stevens vanishes from Toronto streets. Body found years later in remote woods. Hitchhiking? Serial killer stalking bus stops and clubs? Links to six unsolved murders. FBI patterns: trophies, neatness, dominance. Or was it family... friends...

The Mystery of the “Phantom Killer” of Texarkana In 1946, Texarkana—a town split by the Texas-Arkansas line—lived in terror. The "Phantom Killer" stalked lovers' lanes under moonlit pines, his white pillowcase mask hiding a .32-caliber pistol. Five dead, three wounded in savage ambushes: skull-crushing beatings, execution-style shots, dragged bodies in bloody woods. Sheriff Presley, Texas Rangers,...

Whispers in the Dark - A Mick & Mack Mystery
 Tonight on Ontario Cold Cases—Whodunnit Wednesday and a Mick & Mack Mystery.
 Halloween, 1950. The Royal Ontario Museum sleeps under a restless sky. Inside, a night watchman hears whispers that call his name.
 Detectives Mick McCathie and Mack MacNeely meet Professor Arpad Korda—gothic as a cathedral—and his prize: a medieval manuscript that cl...

Halloween’s Deadly Séance: Was Houdini Silenced by Spiritualist Revenge? October 31, 1926. Halloween. Harry Houdini, the man who escaped every trap, took his final breath. Was it an accident… or murder? I’m Jay Nicoll, Ontario Cold Cases, and this is Historical True Crime Tuesdays. Houdini wasn’t just a magician. He was a crusader, exposing Spiritualist mediums who conned the grieving with fake sé...

The Mystery of the “Phantom Killer” of Texarkana The year is 1946 in Texarkana. A Phantom Killer in a pillowcase mask. Five dead in lovers' lanes: pistol-whipped skulls, dragged bodies, shots through glass. 400 suspects. Wife confesses—then silences. FBI files: still unsolved.  Coming Friday November 7th! Subscribe now to Ontario Cold Cases: Canada’s True Crime Podcast. Episodes available whe...

Whispers in the Dark - A Mick & Mack Mystery Halloween, 1950. The Royal Ontario Museum sleeps under a restless Toronto sky. Inside, a night watchman hears whispers that shouldn’t exist—voices that call his name.
 Detectives Mick McCathie and Mack MacNeely arrive to find a museum poised between reason and superstition: a Lugosi-esque professor, a cursed manuscript, and a gallery of wax figures...

Whispers in the Dark
 This is Ontario Cold Cases—Whodunnit Wednesday and a Mick & Mack Mystery.
 Halloween, 1950. In the Royal Ontario Museum, a night watchman hears his name whispered by empty halls.
 A professor unveils a manuscript that warns: ‘On All Hallows’ Eve, the dead walk where their likenesses dwell.’
 The lights go out. A wax vampire moves. A guard drops.
 Science says ‘ink and mer...

Halloween’s Deadly Séance: Was Houdini Silenced by Spiritualist Revenge? On Halloween 1926, Harry Houdini, the escape artist who mocked death, met a chilling end. Officially, a ruptured appendix. But as the veil thins, whispers of murder grow louder. Did his crusade against Spiritualist frauds—exposing séance scams and feuding with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—provoke a deadly revenge? A stranger’s brut...