For 27 years, the fate of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was unknown to the small-town, Minnesota community that adored him. It was with advances in DNA technology and renewed interest in the kidnapping and abduction of Jacob thanks to online sleuths that led to the long overdue closure his family deserved.

Overlapping with the onset of Robert Pickton's serial murders was the death of Gilbert Jordan, the first serial killer in Canada to use alcohol as his weapon of choice. A shining star example of legal apathy with respect to predation upon missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, the story of Gilbert Jordan demonstrates to us how leniency in the Canadian criminal justice system is often a matter of life or death. Due to character limitations, all source material will be available on the website www.crimeopediapod.ca

In December of 1993, Sharon Frances Merasty was found deceased nearby a water body without proper winter clothing and no indication of an intention to be outside for very long. Yet, local police ruled out foul play; her family think otherwise. Although the circumstances of her death remain inconclusive, her case reminds me a lot of a practice in the province of Saskatchewan called the Starlight Tours.

In 1945, a day before Christmas, George and Jennie Sodder lost five of their ten children to a destructive house fire in Fayetteville, West Virginia. The circumstances around the fire and the resultant total lack of physical evidence of the children stumped the family and national media outlets for decades. Given the circumstantial oddities of the case, you can come to your own conclusions entirely dependent on which sources you read. Due to character limitations, all source material is available at www.crimeopediapod.ca

Intimate partner violence is an epidemic, but the intersection of Indigenous identities puts women, girls, and 2S individuals increases the risk substantially. If it weren't for our knowledge about how Canadian systems seek to oppress and refuse to support Indigenous Peoples, I'm sure we'd all still be wondering how this could be. Due to character limitations, all source material will be available at www.crimeopediapod.ca

In the 1970s and '80s, serial killer Robert Hansen found himself in a routine of abducting women from Anchorage and Seward Alaska before releasing them into the Alaskan wilderness to be hunted like the game he was prized for. Due to character limitations, all source material will be available on the website crimeopediapod.ca

Thank you to all who have been patient with me while I had to take an unexpected absence from the show for the last few months. Your grace and continued listenership means the world to me! Let's jump right back in with a case that I'm very much looking forward to telling. All source material is available on the website www.crimeopediapod.ca

This episode in the MMIWG series addresses the Canadian child welfare system, and how en masse apprehension of children created ripples of trauma resulting in the increased vulnerability of women and girls. Due to character limitations, all source material is available at www.crimeopediapod.ca