Kelly Cook: The Back-up Babysitter - Part 2
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Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America.

because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event, premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR. A listener's note. This podcast contains coarse language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised. Do you remember the very first job you ever had?

Mine was babysitting. I remember I couldn't wait to turn 12 so I could compete with my older brother for the babysitting jobs that would come up. I'm from a small town in Alberta. I grew up on a farm, so I would babysit for kids whose parents lived nearby. It didn't seem risky at all because my parents knew the people who hired me.

And it didn't seem risky to Kelly Cook's parents back in 1981 when she was offered a job to babysit. But that single decision, that one moment, has haunted her family ever since. When she asked me about it, it was during the week and I didn't really like her babysitting during the week. But she said, you know, well, you know, I have all my homework up to date and the whole bed and

So unfortunately, I reneged and she went. I'm Nancy Hixt, a crime reporter for Global News. I was five years old when Kelly Cook went missing. She lived only 30 minutes down the road from us. I never thought I would one day cover the case myself. And I never thought 38 years later, her case would still be unsolved.

Today on Crime Beat, part two of our special look at this case. So if you're just joining me now for the first time, stop, go back and listen to the last episode. I should also mention, you're going to hear something on the show today that's never been made public before. And I feel like I need to warn you, it's extremely emotional. This is Who Killed Kelly Cook?

On April 22nd, 1981, 15-year-old Kelly Cook was picked up at her parents' house in the small community of Standard, Alberta. A man who identified himself as Bill Christensen had asked her to babysit. Kelly's mom had specifically asked her to check with friends to see if they knew this Bill Christensen. So Kelly checked. Everything seemed fine.

Technically, the kids she checked with didn't really know him. They just knew the last name Christensen. It was common in the area. Still, Kelly told her mom it would be fine, and her parents relented and said she could go. That same night, Bill Christensen drove up to the cookhouse. Kelly ran out, and the car drove away.

She was never again seen alive. The days that followed were filled with frantic searches, but all hopes of finding Kelly alive ended just over two months later. That's when the case of a missing girl turned into a homicide investigation.

Kelly's body was found in only a few feet of water along the edge of an irrigation canal, a two and a half hour drive from her home. She was bound, her body weighted down by cinder blocks. That's when the manhunt for her killer began. What most people don't know is Kelly was not Bill Christensen's first choice.

Kelly was the backup babysitter. His first pick for a babysitter was a 17-year-old girl that I'll call Stacy. Stacy isn't her real name, but for safety reasons, that's how I'll identify her in this podcast. Stacy was well known as the top babysitter in the area.

If you remember from the last episode, the spring Kelly Cook went missing, the principal of the standard school received a call from Bill Christianson. He was looking for Stacy, wanting to hire her for a babysitting job. Christianson has always been a popular name in that community, but the principal didn't know a Christianson with the first name Bill.

He turned down the man's request for information about his student. But six weeks later, somehow, the mystery man managed to track Stacey down himself. On April 18th, 1981, Bill Christiansen called and asked Stacey if she could babysit for him and his wife that evening. Normally, Stacey would jump at the opportunity.

But on this particular night, the teen had a date: Easter dinner at her boyfriend's parents' home. So Stacey turned down the request. Bill Christensen then asked if she could recommend any other babysitters. Stacey passed along two names. One of those was Kelly Cook. 1981 started out as an exciting year for Stacey.

She was about to graduate from high school, and life seemed filled with possibilities. Stacey was a quiet girl. She loved to hang out with her best friend and listen to the latest pop music hits on the radio. Don't stop believing. Hold on tight.

Stacey liked simple pleasures. She loved to play backgammon, she was into running, riding her bike, playing volleyball, and had recently been featured in the local paper for figure skating. At the time, Stacey was looking forward to post-secondary education, so high school was especially important. She got good grades, but she worked hard for them.

She was also working hard to save up some extra cash. That was going well thanks to a nice little babysitting business she started for herself. Stacey was such a good babysitter, people would book her a year in advance to watch their kids on New Year's Eve. There was always stiff competition in Standard between Stacey and the other girls for babysitting work. So when she turned Bill Christiansen down,

She thought Kelly would gladly take the work. And she didn't think much more of it until a few days later. On April 23rd, 1981, Stacey got up and went to school like any other day. What she learned when she got there continues to haunt her to this day. There was an announcement made over the school intercom.

The principal told students Kelly Cook was missing. I still remember sitting at my desk and when it came on I just froze and I'm like, oh, I was so scared. And I don't, I mean, I don't even think I, well, I didn't know the impact at that time. Stacey told the principal she had given Kelly's name to a man named Bill Christensen.

She explained when she turned him down, he had wanted names of some backup babysitters. "It was horrible." This is the first time Stacey has ever done an interview with a journalist. For safety reasons, her name has never been made public, and she's gone out of her way to make herself difficult to find.

I know from my experience, I've been trying to track you down for a very long time. So it was very difficult. So it probably took you off guard to even get a phone call from me. Yes, but I knew right away as soon as I saw your name what it was about. And so I'm very happy, though, that it takes a long time for someone to find people.

Truth be known, it took a lot of work to get Stacey to even return my calls. She even contacted our global reception desk before calling me back just to verify that I was who I was claiming to be. Yeah, when you got a hold of me, I'm like, oh, I think I know it's all coming back again.

And then I thought, well, what if this isn't the person that really, you know, so I phoned and I said, is this person looking for me? And, you know, because, yeah, no, I'm very aware of any emails or phone calls or whatever. I still am checking people all the time. After several lengthy phone chats, Stacey agreed to talk to me for this podcast.

It was obvious she was extremely stressed about it. So do you remember getting this phone call? Oh yeah, I remember exactly where I was in the house that day. Stacey broke down. Talking about the case had taken her right back to the exact day it all started. Of course, there's no cell phones and I remember exactly grabbing the phone and they asked me,

hi, this is, and they said my full name. And I said yes, and he said, I'm Bill Christensen, I live in the area, I'm new to the area, and I need a babysitter. And I said, I'm busy. I was going out that evening, and he said, do you know anyone in the area that can babysit? I thought, okay, he's new to the town, and Christensen is a very popular name in Standard, so I said yes. I said Kelly Cook, and her

And I figure skated together and so I gave her name and I thought everything was fine. And then when I went to school on Monday, there was an announcement over the intercom that does anyone know the whereabouts of Kelly Cook? And I went to the office and I said, yes, I do. I know. And I just had this horrible feeling with me. I don't know what have I done?

From that moment on, Stacey blamed herself for Kelly's disappearance. Yeah, it was just a life changer for me. Stacey was interviewed by police. It was only then she learned Bill Christensen had been trying to track her down for some time. And later I was just like kicking myself because it's like,

You didn't know this person. What were you doing? But everyone, you know, knew of someone and it's such a popular name. If only you could take that phone call back. But then what if, like, there's all these what ifs. What if I would have said, no, I can't tonight, but how about next week? Then like you said, have you thought that could have been you? Yeah, then what if it would have been me the week after?

Knowing she had been the original target of Bill Christensen, police kept extra watch over Stacey. Even though I wanted to go and do the searches and also like my family members wouldn't let me, they said, we'll go, but you can't go. And I knew that I couldn't go, but I just wanted to do anything I could to help the situation and to find her safe. And then Kelly's body was found. But it was just like...

the worst horrible feeling at that funeral but I made myself go and the day they found the body was another horrible day because I know exactly where I was in the town and the police came and they said before you hear this from anyone else we want to tell you but we want to take you home because I was working for the town and they took me home and they told me that the body had been found.

And there was always a hope, you know, that maybe she was just abducted and they'd find her safe. You always have that hope, which I'm sure the family was hoping even more than I was.

Knowing Kelly had been murdered created a long list of what-ifs that Stacey still constantly thinks about. That's when I realized, like, this could have been me. That was the big turning point of, wow, that could have been me. The young girl tried to help police figure out who killed Kelly. She did several interviews and even underwent hypnosis.

I think that was about six months to a year after. They thought that something out of my background, my history, could come out of the case. And they thought that, you know, I might remember someone like right before that, that might spark something. I had a hard time though.

going under hypnosis, so I think that I was just so nervous and so guarded that, because I remembered the whole thing after.

Hypnosis was sort of relatively new to us, and we did use hypnosis with some of the witnesses once proper statements were obtained from them, and there was no chance of messing that portion of it up, is that people were hypnotized looking for any enhancements of their memory. That was new to us. Certainly, whether or not, how do you say it, paid off, the case isn't solved.

That's Al McIntyre. He was a constable with the RCMP, working with the counter-smuggling team in Calgary when Kelly went missing. Six days after Kelly's disappearance, McIntyre was assigned to her case. So when the case...

started to unravel on the 22nd of April, 1981. The immediate GIS unit that was available for response, they started investigating the case. And within days, it went from being a missing person to clearly what was going to be an abduction.

and they created a small task force and I was brought in because I had previously been stationed in Drumheller, which is nearby, and I knew the roads and kind of knew the area and I'd been a plainclothes investigator in the Drumheller detachment. So I was brought over to work with a couple of the other GIS members, General Investigation Section members that were currently stationed in Calgary and working on the case.

McIntyre worked tirelessly on the case. As a father of two daughters, it struck a nerve.

He told me officers explored every possible investigative avenue they could think of to try to find the man known as Bill Christensen. This was the first case that I was aware of in Western Canada when we had taken a case to the behavioral sciences unit of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. We took the case to the FBI in July of that year and met with

Special Agent Roy Hazelwood. He was a behavioral scientist. Roy Hazelwood is well known as one of the pioneers of criminal profiling. Profiling has been used by investigators in some of the most high-profile cases in North America, including serial killer Ted Bundy. McIntyre said he met with Hazelwood at Quantico on a Monday.

He handed the agent the entire file, including photos and holdback evidence. The FBI then pored over those details for several days before presenting a profile of who Bill Christensen could be.

They look at a number of factors on the file and they then produce a profile which we felt, you know, very interested to hear and certainly, you know, probably as relevant. But they give you everything from, you know, the geographical location of where the suspect might reside, socioeconomic class of the suspect, type of vehicle the suspect would operate.

But back then, this approach to investigations was all pretty new, and a lot of officers were skeptical of the accuracy of criminal profiling. One of those skeptics was another former RCMP investigator who worked tirelessly on this case, Earl Peters. I first introduced you to Peters in the last episode. He's the one who kept all his notes and details on the case.

He's retired now, but still has a copy of the FBI profile of Kelly's killer. This is from Quantico. So for example, marital status. He is currently unmarried. He has previously been married, probably more than once. Each of the previous marriages ended bitterly, with the offender exhibiting a great deal of animosity toward his spouse.

Still, the profile provided a lot of information about who Bill Christensen might be. And police couldn't ignore it.

Peter's read me a few paragraphs from the FBI profile. It's in a special folder he calls his Bible. Family history, it's probable that the offender came from a broken home or a home with a great deal of marital strife. He experienced a disruptive childhood and exhibits outbursts of violent temperament very early. He may have had a parent die at an early stage of his life.

it is probable that he was raised in an upper, lower or lower middle socioeconomic environment. Was there anything that stood out as this seems really interesting out of this profile? Like, oh, this is something we should really use. No, not to me. Again, it's good information to consider, but to use it...

To eliminate a suspect based on this profile would be a mistake in my opinion. That suspect list grew and grew. Some of those names seemed promising. Others, not so much. Another one that one of our other investigators, he came back one evening, it was wintertime I recall, and he'd gone out to interview this suspect.

He lived in an apartment building and he was buzzed in and went up to the individual's apartment, knocked on the door. This fella answered the door and he explained what he was there for and he said, "Can I come in?" And so, "Oh yeah, okay." So he went into the apartment, it's winter time, it's 7:30. And he said, "The apartment's all dark." And he said, "Well, like, do you always sit around in the dark?" Well, the accused person, as it would be, said, "Well, why not? I'm blind. What's the difference?"

So this person has surfaced as a suspect in a murder. That somehow this blind man somehow drove to Standard, picked up Kelly, took her to Chin Lake, murdered her, and then drove back to Calgary. Why would he surface as suspect? I have no idea. It just doesn't make sense. Every single name had to be investigated. Unfortunately for police battling against time, some of those tips were completely made up.

Unfortunately, some people do use the police for a vendetta. They're going to cause grief to ex-spouses or bad neighbors or whatever. Again, it's not, you can't just dismiss it though because you think that's what it is. Because it could be an estranged spouse, but it may still be a legitimate complaint or observation. A lot of tips also came from people who genuinely wanted to help.

knowing this could have easily been their child. When you look at Kelly, you say, well, this could be anyone's daughter. She wasn't living a high-risk lifestyle. She had done everything that she reasonably could do, and yet she still fell victim to it. So I think an awful lot of people could see their own daughter being caught up in this.

Dozens of people were interviewed by the RCMP, but no charges have ever been laid. There's a special room at the Calgary RCMP Major Crimes Building filled with files from the Cook investigation. I've been inside that room. There are boxes stacked on top of boxes right up to the ceiling. On those boxes are names of suspects.

many of which I recognize from other cases I've covered. People who've committed horrific crimes. But none of them have ever been charged with the kidnapping and murder of Kelly Cook. We interviewed suspects right across Canada. We went to...

Quite a few of our maximum penitentiaries interviewed people there that had been convicted of murder, could potentially be involved. One of those visits even involved interviewing one of Canada's most notorious child killers, Clifford Olson. Police eventually ruled out Olson as a suspect in Kelly's case.

As it turned out, Olson was busy committing another gruesome crime in Vancouver on the exact same day Kelly went missing. There have been suspects that appeared more interesting than others and we devoted a tremendous amount of resources to them but ultimately eliminated them as well.

I can tell you when I first heard about Kelly's case as a child, I definitely didn't think I would one day be reporting on it myself. I can't help but think how different things would be if this case happened today given advancements in technology including cell phones, CCTV cameras on every corner and social media.

So many years later, more than 20 of which I've been a journalist, I've personally received emails, calls, and even letters related to this case. Some are cryptic and even handwritten. Some include a copy of the sketch along with a photo of a specific person they believe is Bill Christianson. Several people have asked me to report on their conspiracy theories.

And obviously, I always check out the tips. But so far, none have included any concrete evidence. A lot of those people have also reached out to Kelly Cook's family. It's one of the reasons Kelly's mother, Marion Cook, was hesitant to be part of this podcast. For years, her daughter Marnie has done all media interviews. After everything happened,

like in your interviews and everything, there's always consequences. And that's why when Marnie decided to take this over, and I couldn't at a time while it was kind of still in my head there, that I told her I wished she wouldn't because of the crazies that come out. That's concerning for you about this, isn't it? It scares me to death.

Marnie has been contacted over and over by people claiming to know who's responsible. While the family wants answers, what those people don't realize is the impact those calls and letters and emails have on the family. Though people likely mean well, it's extremely stressful to deal with.

It takes you back. Every time it takes you back. And then makes you question if someone came forward and told us that it was somebody, potentially maybe somebody we knew. That doesn't make you feel very good. There's been some that I guess hit close to home that you don't feel you can ignore. Maybe they know something that

maybe a little bit close to your heart or... So yes, some of them you can't help but get emotionally somewhat involved in, but...

There's not, again, there's not much we can do about it. We have to have the faith in the RCMP. Marnie also monitors some of the online forums about Kelly's case. Those include perspectives from a lot of armchair detectives. In Kelly's case, it's hundreds of pages is the one forum that they have. And everybody has an opinion. Everybody has an angle, right?

and everybody has a suspect. It's hard to follow because, like I said, everybody has an opinion. I'm sure most of the people that they're talking about on there, and they do mention people's names, they're not good people. And you're right, like probably the police have... If you as a general individual of society

thinks that it could be them, I would think that the police have also thought it might be them. And there's another stress weighing heavily on Marnie. She worries about the case being solved, that she might not be ready for the details that could come out. I don't think they're good. I don't think the answers are good answers. Like they would, how could they be?

Right, the ultimate result wasn't good. It would only make sense that they think that this person's done it before or after. It was well calculated, it was well planned out so I hope not. I really do. Earl Peters, the retired RCMP officer, worked on Kelly's case in some capacity for most of his career.

Years later, it still weighs on his mind. This file is not concluded, should not be concluded. This file should only be concluded when the perpetrator is either caught or presumed dead. Like, do you still have hope that it could be solved? Absolutely. You know, until another 30 years passes and then in all probability he's dead, one would remain silent.

optimistic that could be solved. And that of course is why I'm cautious about what I say because we want to make sure we have the ability to successfully prosecute. So what do you think it's going to take to solve this? Maybe a deathbed confession.

I have to kind of believe that after all these years that this person known as Bill Christensen, who knows what his real name is, has probably never confided to anyone. So, so often we will get information from a spouse, a family member, etc. But we haven't got that. So I think this person has kept it to themselves. Now, is that because they've died? I don't know.

Peters told me what police really need is the name of the killer. The correct name. Somewhere in there. I think that it's realistic to believe that we probably have spoken to the person responsible for this, but we don't know. Every single time a new investigator takes over Kelly's case,

They go back and double-check that no mistakes were made, no evidence or suspects overlooked. Al McIntyre worked on the case full-time for eight months, and like Peters, he hasn't been able to let it go.

All these years later, he still thinks about Kelly and still finds himself looking for potential suspects. Did we miss anything? We've gone over that in terms of people double-checking our notes and going back over and re-interviewing. It was only a little while ago.

As a retired person, I saw something and I was calling directly out there, and it was over a tip that I had come across in my notebook. And I said, you know, that thing always bothered me, that one individual city employee for the city of Calgary. And I talked out, or called out and spoke with the RCMP investigator of the day and just made sure that, go back over that tip one more time and have a look at it and double check that I was right when we eliminated that person based on employment records.

And they went back out and double-checked it and they said, "No, you had actually done quite a bit more on it." My memory was failing me, of course, that I had done a lot more on it than the person was properly eliminated and there was no question about it. So I said, "Okay, well, that was great. Thanks very much." But, you know, you just never let it go. The ones you solve, you still remain passionate about, but the ones that are unsolved, you feel like you somehow, you know, you've let people down. For Stacy, the originally requested babysitter,

One of the hardest things to live with is not knowing why she was targeted. Oh yeah, it still does, like why? And if only there was answers, it would just help the family. I always think of the family, the family, but I mean also with me. It would just make it so much better that at least you'd know why.

Recently, Stacey went back to standard. And predictably, the case came up in conversation. I was with friends that I had graduated with and this person actually said, which comes up again and again, oh, have you thought of this angle and that? And they said, you know, that person was after you. Stacey didn't want to say that person's name, but said he matches the sketch of Bill Christensen to a T.

What was that person's connection to you and to Standard? He used to live in Standard and he was a family member of a close friend of mine. Stacey told me police have already ruled out the person she feels it might be.

But she can't help wonder if somehow investigators missed something. If police were wrong in ruling him out. Nothing much I'd wish more in life right now than to know who did this and why. Because if we knew who, then I would know why.

I've went under hypnosis. I've went to mediums to bring things out to say, okay, you know, I have to get rid of this guilt feeling and it's still bothering me after this many years. But, you know, how can you help me? Can I, you know, tell Kelly through a medium that, you know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Stacey recorded one of her visits to a medium.

She brought the audio recording along to our interview and said I could share some of the excerpts of that conversation. I feel that he has been picked up for...

Stacey discussed a lot of details of the crime with the medium. And the medium kept offering her input.

She even gave Stacey a name. Again, Stacey didn't want to say that name in our interview.

So when you hear this name that this medium says, like, what have you done with this? Or, you know, do you Google this guy? Well, so four years ago, I did talk to the police and I said, you know, I went to this medium, but it was a very brief conversation because they kind of threw it out as if, oh, no, you know.

as if they didn't, I don't know if it was because they didn't believe in the medium or I don't remember now and that was only four years ago. But yeah, it was kind of like, you know, we'll write the name down but that's it. The medium said she didn't feel police were still investigating Kelly's case. I don't think anybody's looked at her case in a long time. No. No. I feel like the police can't do it.

I have a feeling that someone one day will say, either he will come forward or someone that he has said to, I did this, and that they will eventually come out. But I don't know if it's just a deep hope. It must be just a deep hope. But I have a feeling one day before I go, that name will be there. But RCMP officers are still investigating.

Earlier this year, the case was again handed off to a new officer. A fresh set of eyes to go over the file and see if they can solve it. We do have a lot of information that's out there in social media. A lot of people who have their theories about what happened and I read through some of the things on social media on bulletin boards and specific sites last night. What I found consistently in there is that

Amongst the theories, there's a lot of questions about why didn't the police do this or why didn't the police do that. I can assure you that it was done. It's just not something that has been revealed to the public. Staff Sergeant Jason Zazalak runs the Serious Crimes Branch of the Alberta RCMP. He's been a Mountie for 19 years.

He said historical homicides like Kelly's remain a priority, and every tip that's received is followed up. There are approximately 10 to 15 new tips that are received each year. There are also some proactive investigative strategies happening with Kelly's case. Zasalak wouldn't elaborate too much, but said officers are taking advantage of ongoing developments in technology, including

including advancements in DNA testing. In this case, there are items that would be resubmitted. We know that we have Kelly's clothing. We don't know what may be able to be extracted from that in the future that may tell us something about what happened or the identity of the person who perpetrated this crime. So we still hold out that hope.

Every single time the case is profiled on the news, RCMP investigators receive more tips. You're watching the NewsHour on Global Calgary. Now there's new hope in the cold case. Within just 24 hours of a global news story on the Kelly Cook murder, police have been able to reopen their investigation because of tips from the public.

Even if that perpetrator is dead, even if for whatever circumstances they can't be brought before the courts, we still want to know what happened and we want to be able to share with the family as much information as they would like to know about what happened. Over the years, police have looked at more than 2,200 suspects.

So currently when we're looking at the persons of interest, my understanding from the investigators is they're looking at a general pool with new tips that have come in of around 40 people who they would like to continue gathering information on and trying to validate information on.

when they're speaking about specific suspects. I don't believe there are any specific people who would meet the criteria of suspect at this time. Zasilek said once those 40 persons of interest are looked at closer one or more could eventually end up on the suspect list.

But for now, there isn't a single person in this case that's considered a viable suspect in the murder of Kelly Cook. One fairly major incentive to go to police with a tip that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed Kelly Cook is a significant cash reward.

Over the years, the reward fund in Kelly's case has grown from $40,000 to more than $100,000. But Kelly's family has done the math. They know time is running out for the killer to be caught and brought to justice. The original investigators of this case felt Bill Christiansen was between 30 and 40 years old back in 1981.

If that estimate is accurate, the killer would now be around 70 to 80 years old. There's a huge part of me that believes that this person is no longer living. Maybe that's what makes me sleep at night. Kelly's mother told me it's not enough to just think he's gone, or to write him off because of his possible age. She wants facts.

evidence and justice. Well he's still young enough to cause trouble if he is out there and I don't know. I've been told that you know that they figure he's not with us anymore but okay I can accept that too but I need proof. You just can't tell me we think he's not you know he's gone.

The one reason Kelly's mother, Marion, agreed to be part of this podcast is because she wants answers. "We have no answers, what I feel. No answers at all. It will never end for me. I'm her mom and it will never change." Stacey has never been able to let go of the guilt she feels about Kelly's death.

That decision to give Kelly's name to the killer replays over and over in her mind. And I know that people say, don't feel guilty. It's not your fault. Anyone would have done it. She probably would have been the same for me. But how can you not feel guilty about someone losing their life? Like, yeah.

This case has impacted every single aspect of Stacey's life for 38 years. I was very afraid to move out on my own, but I also knew that I couldn't get an education and carry on in a small town like that. Was there the concern that this Bill Christensen was still going to come after you? And has that been on your mind, you know, ever since? Oh, yes. Yeah, I mean, I was afraid and...

I mean, I take it to, I've always taken it to other people and said, you know, this is a, you know, a learning that never let your kids babysit unless it's someone you know. And like I said, I was very selective about telling people because I was just nervous. Like, what if they tell this person and it's him and he comes after me because of this?

So I was always a little bit reluctant to tell people. And Stacey still takes personal safety very seriously. If she goes out for a run, she makes sure she's aware of who's around her. And she has an alarm system in her home. I'm very lucky to be here. I'm, you know, I've been very fortunate.

And yeah, and just, I mean, it's changed my life in that I don't think I would have been this protective. You know, like you can't live in a house without an alarm. You know, a lot of people could do that or, you know, like all of that. You just, it does, it changes a person's way. She often thinks about what she would say to Kelly's killer if she could. Like, why and I hate you? Like, why me?

Why do people do this? Like, what got into your mind to do this? Do you hope that he hears this, the guy, Bill Christensen? Oh, yeah. I mean, if, you know, if he's somewhere still in this life, I would hope that he would come forward or say to someone, when I'm gone, will you please, you know, help these people out by just saying, yes, I'm the one that did it.

Stacey told me as long as the killer is still on the loose, her fear will never end. If there was some closure, it would have been much easier. Not to say it would have been easier for that guilt that you feel. She has mixed feelings about talking about the case publicly for the first time on this podcast. I've just, I've talked to my family and, you know, just...

I just decided that if this is the last straw to try and put some peace to the family and to myself and any others about this case, it's well worth it. You know, that was my decision. I'm like, okay, if it could give peace of mind for someone to come forward, it would just make, you know, a big difference to everyone. Last week, I had a bad dream.

came back. So, no, I know I'm doing the right thing though. Stacey hopes one day to sit down with Kelly's family. She said she's never contacted them, but thinks of them all the time. Stacey has always felt like it should have been her, not Kelly, not the backup babysitter. And there's nothing anyone can say or do

to make that awful feeling go away. I think that, you know, after this long, I just, I don't know, there's just something in me that says I just wish that I could, I could say sorry. I want to thank you for listening. And I want everyone who hears this podcast to remember that Kelly's murder has never been solved.

After nearly 40 years, there is one thing that Kelly's family wants more than anything, and that is justice. They want her killer caught. If you know anything that can help police finally solve Kelly's case, please come forward.

Remember, you can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS. That's 1-800-222-8477. Next time on Crime Beat. If you think of the worst possible nightmare you can imagine and multiply it by about a thousand and you'll be getting...

a little bit closer to how horrible it was. The devastating impact of a sexual predator. He punched her on the side of the head, dropped her to the ground, choked her with his hands to the point where she blacked out. A crime that's left scars on the very souls of the victims. She will live the rest of her life with the scars of this nightmare.

I've covered crime for more than 20 years, and this case shook me to my core. That's next time on Crime Beat. Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez. Our audio producer is Rob Johnston. Special thanks to Vildo Sturrum for his editing assistance.

Please consider telling a friend about this podcast and help me share these important stories by rating and reviewing Crime Beat on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen. And subscribe now so you don't miss an episode.

Feel free to send me a message on Twitter at Nancy Hixt, on Facebook at Nancy Hixt Crime Beat, and join me for added content on Instagram at nancy.hixt. You can also email me at nancy.hixt at globalnews.ca. Thanks so much for listening. Please join me next time.