Narrowing in on a killer - The Kelly Cook Story |10
41:14 Share

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.

Before we begin today, I want to take a minute to thank every one of you who emailed or sent a message on social media following the release of our last episode. So many told me they felt seen, validated, after hearing from the courageous women in that case.

Thank you to those who shared your own personal stories of abuse. I want you to know that I'm in awe of your bravery and strength. I will respond to each of your messages, and there are many. So I thank you for your patience, and I encourage those who are empowered to speak out to do so in your own way.

A listener's note. The following episode contains coarse language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature, and may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. It's difficult to lose someone you love. The echoes of laughter are no longer there. That empty feeling that comes when dreams and promises go unfulfilled.

Now, imagine the added trauma of losing someone to homicide. Even more devastating when decades later, you still don't know who did it or why. I'm Nancy Hixt, a crime reporter for Global News. Today on Crime Beat, we share new leads in the hunt for a killer. We have received 35 new tips.

There are people who will start their tip in saying, I just listened to this podcast or I watched a television program that was highlighting this case. And they'll preface what they want to share with us by acknowledging that the case has had some new life breathed into it through the work that you're doing. Along with some healing. So Marnie, Stacey. You look the same. Can we hug? Yes.

and renewed hope as we reveal new details in a case that have never been shared before. And I need to warn you, some of this information is graphic. This is Narrowing In on a Killer, The Kelly Cook Story. ♪

When people think of Alberta, they think of the rocky mountains and glacial lakes to the west, the badlands to the far east, and of course the prairies with miles and miles of cropland. Tabor is located in the southeastern corner of Alberta and is known as the corn capital of Canada. If you drive just a little bit further south, you'll find Chin Lake,

a provincial recreation area where you can go boating, water skiing, and fishing. But it's also an irrigation reservoir, so it's an important source of water for the area. Jerry Nelson grew up there and as a teenager used to spend hours exploring the countryside with his friends on their dirt bikes. June 28, 1981 started out as one of those typical summer days.

Well, it was a normal Sunday afternoon and a few of my friends had came to the farm and we were going to go for a motorcycle ride around the lake. We got to this area, of course a little bit of a sand inlet that we race around and come back out to a rock crop. So you slow down and you're looking for somewhere to go through the rock. When we

We're brave enough, we got off our bikes and walked around a little bit with distance to see if we could notice, you know, a little whatever. What Jerry saw that day still haunts him four decades later. When we noticed the cinder blocks, it was, oh my goodness. She was face down and head towards the west, so we came upon her feet.

not knowing that it was a female at that time, not being able to tell, you know, what the gender was because the body was fully clothed and face down, bound by the ropes with the cinder blocks to her side. Ankles, hips and shoulders. There were three ropes around

They flagged down a boater and asked him to call police. And fortunately, within minutes, there were officers on scene. Several days later, Jerry learned the young woman he found had been missing for more than two months. Jerry found the body of Kelly Cook, the backup babysitter.

You'll recall I guided you through her case in a two-part series in season one of Crime Beat. If you haven't heard it, I recommend pausing and going back to listen to those episodes before you continue with this one. For those who need a refresher, here's a quick look back at the case.

Kelly's story begins in the small community of Standard, Alberta, two and a half hours away from Tabor. She got a call from a man who identified himself as Bill Christensen. He asked her to babysit. Kelly's mom asked her to check with friends to see if they knew him.

They said they recognized the name, so it all seemed fine. That same night, he drove up to the Cook house, Kelly ran out, and the car drove away. Kelly never returned home. You all know why we're here. On the 22nd of April, Kelly Cook was abducted from her home in Standard. She hasn't been seen or heard of since.

From the background information we've been able to put together, there's every reason to believe that she may still be alive. The man we're looking for, the man who abducted Kelly Cook, he may very well live in this area. He may live on one of these farms. So you may be talking to him today. Please be careful. Just over two months later, Jerry and his friends found Kelly's body on the shore of Chin Lake.

I truly believe that, you know, she was gone before she went into the water because her hands weren't bound. Her wrists were in a rope that went around her waist. And the first thing I'm going to do when I go in the water with ropes on is try to get free. And if she was conscious, she could have gotten free from that type of being bound, I would think.

Marnie Cathal has always wondered about the teenagers who found her sister's body. All these years later, the details Jerry Nelson revealed are details she's never heard before. I just assumed because her body had been weighted that her body simply rose to the surface and that these kids just saw her from a distance, I guess. I had no idea that she had died.

physically washed up on shore. And that along with her body, the ropes and the cinder blocks had also washed up on shore. And that the fact that these boys came as close to seeing her. And again, you know, we're being led to believe that probably for a majority of the close to two months she was missing, she was probably there and in the water.

So it's not a pleasant sight to come on. And I've thought about him lots over the years. In putting together both the podcast series and the TV documentary on this case, Marnie and I have spent hours talking. She told me it's all a bit surreal. Honestly, and I've told this to some of my friends, listening to it, it doesn't even feel like my story anymore.

It feels like I'm listening to someone else's story because it's unbelievable and unbelievable that we lived it. So it's, yeah, it's ironic. And especially in the first podcast where you went back into the archives and pulled some of the old stories

It's been an emotional journey, and sharing her sister's story has spurred people from the past to resurface.

That includes several of the classmates that Kelly checked with, who said they recognized the name Christensen. The name was a familiar name, and they knew Christensens. They knew Christensens that lived towards Rosebud, and that's what she was told. And in saying that, nobody, those kids aren't responsible. And that's something also that's come from this podcast, is I've had some of those kids

classmates come forward to me and feeling bad. And 38 years later, and they're still living with a guilt that they told her something that wasn't true or what, but they believed it was true at the time. And they were 15 years old. Were you surprised when these people reached out to you? Completely surprised.

And not that I didn't think that other people had been affected by her death, but just the far-reachings. And like I said, there's only one person responsible. You might be asking yourself, what's the point of this episode? Why are we doing this now? It's been almost two years since we covered Kelly Cook's case for the podcast.

Part of Crime Beat's mandate is to shine a light in the darkness. And that includes trying to push cases forward and put a spotlight on unsolved murders like this one. Our coverage of Kelly's abduction and murder in both the podcast and the TV documentary has been listened to and watched by more than 3 million people. And every time this case is profiled, investigators receive more tips.

That gives Marnie hope that one day she will know who killed her sister. I feel very conflicted, I guess. You know, we've said from the beginning, oh, we need the answers. And, oh, you know, this person needs to be caught. And in that regard, I'm 100% sure that this individual needs to be caught just to prevent harm.

You know, maybe he's 75 or whatever years old now, but at 75 you're still able to be a bad person. So if he has continued on, then for sure he needs to be stopped. But again, through this whole process, I think I've come to really realize how unprepared as a family we might be to know the answers.

I've listened to the other families in the podcast that have sat through the courts and the trials and have had to leave at certain points because they can't bear to listen. Obviously, we don't, we've never had that. But again, we go back to, we can create all sorts of scenarios in our mind. And at the end of the day, we can always say, but that might not have happened.

Once this all comes to an end, we no longer have that option to say that didn't happen. So you're left with an entirely different image than maybe you've ever created in your brain. And I don't think it's going to be very good. Staff Sergeant Jason Zazalak runs the Serious Crimes Branch of the Alberta RCMP.

Part of that role is to oversee the Historical Homicide Unit. He told me the work we've done on Kelly's case has resulted in several new leads for investigators. So, and since that time, we have received 35 new tips.

And when the tipsters are getting in touch with us, the majority of people are going through Crimestoppers. Some will contact attachments, some have gone through yourself and you've been able to refer that to us, which we very much appreciate. There are people who will start their tip and saying,

I just listened to this podcast or I watched a television program that was highlighting this case and they'll preface what they want to share with us by acknowledging that the case has had some new life breathed into it through the work that you're doing. Zazalak said there are currently two officers assigned to work on Kelly's case, a primary investigator and a second officer assisting that lead.

Those investigators have sorted through all 35 new tips. Many of the tips can be concluded as unfounded very quickly, either through determining that that information has come in before or looking at the subject of the tip. For example, we get several tips where someone who is doing Internet research has picked a known topic.

American serial killers or people around. And they make very broad associations to...

This case in particular, other cases in Canada. And it doesn't take very long to determine that, well, this person has no associations to Canada, doesn't fit any of their type of modus operandi they would use. And we're able to eliminate those tips. Among those 35 tips, there are several new names, which means several new leads in the case.

Currently there's five tips that the investigators are looking at. It's that they are introducing new people into the investigation. There is some legitimate link to that area generally around standard and that time period and it opens it up for more questions that the investigators would like to answer.

The number of tips we get where an associate, a friend, a co-worker, a family member will mention that a specific person talked about details of the case in a way that was

more than what you would just talk about because something is in the news and it's very tragic and it holds people's emotions at that time. So we do get tips like that. And there's a couple that we have had in this case as well that we're working on where we're

The comments that are passed along to us that are allegedly made by the person of interest here are compelling enough that we want to look at that further. We're not talking about someone providing any sort of detailed confession, but people who...

just make comments that go beyond people just talking about something that's significant at the time. There's just something more compelling there that means we need to dig into this further.

Police are hoping one of these five tips will identify Kelly's killer. We also have assistants within the Serious Crimes Branch who have access to other police databases across the country and internationally. And so we would ask them to do a profile of sorts of someone who is the subject of a tip just to see what we can find out about that person. Zazalek said

There is still hope they may be able to retrieve DNA from the evidence collected. But before that happens, police plan to exhaust all possible leads. In Kelly's case, from the items that were seized, we don't have any DNA that's been extracted.

What we hope is that at some point we might be able to resubmit the rope and maybe some of the clothing to see if new techniques in DNA extraction might be able to find something. When we're dealing with those exhibits, certain processes that they'll use to extract DNA will result in that

that sample being destroyed or the amount of genetic material there reduced. And so each time you test, you do run the risk of not finding anything during that test and not being able to retest that item. So part of our process is to have conversations and consultations with our experts at the lab first

and be very honest and upfront with them about the state of things before they undertake any processes. Over the years, there's been a lot of speculation about where Kelly's killer was from. Were they transient? Were they from Chin Lake? And of course, the biggest question, what was their connection to the community of Standard? The use of the name Christensen was

when the person calls Kelly Cook's place and introduces himself as Bill Christensen, that surname Christensen is one that was common in the area. So that implies some sort of knowledge and some planning in this, in the offense and how this all came to be.

When we look at the different locations, so Kelly's house and then the reservoir where her body was found, there is a fair geographical distance to that.

We don't know and we may never know if this was a place that was predetermined by the killer that this is actually how they had intended all of this to happen and play out or was it a location of opportunity and it's very hard to say.

It may be that the person who committed this crime, who was responsible for Kelly's murder, never intended to kill her and there was some other motivation here. And if Kelly struggled or something happened where she was injured, incapacitated or killed, where her body was deposited, that may have been just a location of opportunity.

In a best-case scenario, the killer himself would come forward to police. But after 40 years evading arrest, investigators aren't betting on that happening. And instead, they're pouring over every new lead they get. I get a lot of messages and emails about this case too. Tips that are sent directly to me. Several names pop up over and over.

I find that sometimes the person sending the tip is convinced police haven't taken their information or the names they provide seriously. But Zazalak told me they double check every tip they receive.

There were a couple of repeats. So we were able to go back through the sub files that we have in the investigation, see that that information, you know, specifically about that person, but also match up the information. Just because a person's name has been previously mentioned and may have been previously cleared, we still want to analyze that new information and evaluate that to see if there is anything additional

that moves that forward. So there were a couple that we were able to clear that way. There are a few of the tips were, as we've talked about, people who are speculating based on their internet research and we weren't able to draw any conclusions from those. I have to stop here to say both police and Kelly's family appreciate all of the interest in Kelly's story and all the efforts people have made to help solve this case.

However, some of these efforts cause issues for both police and the victim's family. Here's an example that just happened a couple months ago. One tipster contacted police claiming to know who the killer is. Police deemed that allegation was unfounded. That same person went on to contact me and said police didn't investigate.

I followed up and learned the tip was looked at, but the person was cleared. In the months that followed, that same tipster went on to contact the victim's family. When we have independent third parties, tipsters going and either providing what they think is new information or expressing that they went to the police, the police aren't taking them seriously, and they just want to help.

It's very emotionally hard on the family and it raises their expectations. We hope that they will reach out to us, pass that along and we can help manage that as well. Ultimately, we would always want the tipsters to come to us first and if they can, not use Crimestoppers if there's not any legitimate cause for concern. Just reach out to your local police detachment or municipal police office.

On a very personal level, I don't want these people contacting me. I don't want these people finding me and then telling me their stories because I can do nothing. I can do nothing. Some of them are relentless with like, I've been contacted multiple times by the same person. You know, people think that after a certain amount of time that you're better, that you're healed and your heart is better.

And that's just simply not the case. Time helps, for sure, but the story seems to forever be evolving. And I think that's a little unsettling. It's unsettling to wonder if... I hope that I've never met him. I hope that I've never trusted him, that he's never come into my home.

There is still a significant cash reward for the person whose tip leads to the arrest and conviction of Kelly Cook's killer. That reward is currently valued at approximately $135,000. But the window for the killer to be caught and brought to justice is closing.

The original investigators believed Bill Christensen was between 30 and 45 years old back in 1981. So as Marnie said, he would now be between 70 and 85. So what happens when time runs out? What happens to all that money? My understanding is the village of Standard is in trust of Kelly's reward fund. And...

Many years ago, mom and I were asked to join in a meeting with a current committee that is responsible for the decisions around the reward fund. And...

with basically that what happens to the reward fund should this remain cold case and never solved and at that point in time we talked about it potentially becoming a scholarship and but then it's my understanding is the way it's set up it's a reward fund and

It just can't be transferred out to a scholarship. I think there's legalities involved and lawyers need to be involved. And at one point I was informed that every single person that had ever contributed, whether it was $500 or simply $5, would have to be individually contacted and asked if that's what they wanted done with the money.

It's not only Kelly's family looking for answers and justice in this case. You'll recall Kelly was not Bill Christensen's first choice. Kelly was the backup babysitter that night. His first call was to a 17-year-old girl that, for safety reasons, I refer to as Stacy. So do you remember getting this phone call? Oh, yeah, I remember.

exactly where I was in the house that day. When she spoke to me in season one, it was her first time ever speaking to a journalist. 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.

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?

Stacey told me she's always wanted to talk to Kelly's family. 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. Since then, Marnie listened to that interview. Especially Stacey, I guess.

I feel sad that I maybe didn't realize to the extent of the demons that she battles. Again, you think it's more about you, right? It happened to us and like I said, it's far, much farther reaching than us and that I have found out from this whole experience.

I arranged for the two of them to meet and was there to introduce them and get the conversation going. So Marnie, Stacey. You look the same. Can we hug? Yes. I know that it's taken a lot to get you guys to get together because it's been stressful for Stacey to do this, but I know it's something you've wanted to do for a long time. Yeah. It's... Yeah. Yeah.

It is. I knew it would be very hard because I've carried this. And I mean, I know how hard it is for me. So for you and your family. As expected, Stacey was extremely nervous and emotional. After all, she's thought about this meeting for 40 years. Marnie immediately reassured her.

At no point in time has anyone ever held you responsible. Ever. Okay. Ever. Like really. There's one person responsible for this. And that is, that's the only person responsible for this. Okay, well thank you. That does, those words just mean so much. I hope, I hope so. I feel bad that I never gave you a thought in that regard that you might...

have demons and you might be having these battles and because we never we never held you responsible none of us like none of us and I'm speaking for like everyone my my mom and my dad and like my entire family not one of us ever and just like that a decades-long weight was lifted

This means way more than I even thought it could, like right now. Just feeling like, you know when something's on your shoulders and I just feel lighter. I think I'll look at it differently now. I'll think, okay, you know, kind of more of a friend than just where I was thinking, gee, am I an enemy up there? You know, where, you know, so I feel so much better.

their real enemy has always been Kelly's killer. I want to know that I don't know them. That's with me too. Yeah. Yeah, because I mean, with him calling me first, that's always been a question of my mind. And even when we know, I don't know why I just said that, when we know who it is, I guess I'm positive, that...

you know, you'll then maybe know a reason why for me. Like, it may be just, okay, well, there wasn't a reason why it was me targeted at the beginning. Why did it end when you said no? Yeah, yeah. And why was he then so quick to, well, just, well, on to the next one, right? Yeah. And had Kelly said no, would it have been on to the next one after that? Right. Like, what was, what's the motive?

I mean, for the first few years, I mean, yes, I did live in fear. You lived with grief. I lived with fear. And that fear that I couldn't go anywhere. And then I moved from the area. And every time I went anywhere, I was watching my shoulders. So that was my fear. And to have that all gone one day would be...

So good. Absolutely. It has changed the way we would have led our lives. I'm sure our kids say we're overprotective. I'm sure that, you know, I mean, it surely changed the way that I live day to day. Both Stacey and Marnie hold out hope that someone will hear this podcast and finally come forward to give them the answers they've wanted for four decades.

Even driving up today, I was just like, oh, I have a feeling that's going to come to this. I do. And I just, but again, after the first podcast, that's how I was, right? And now I'm just like, oh, and just seeing you, I'm like, oh, this would be so good. For sure hopeful.

Scared hopeful, in all honesty. Scared to have the answers. I've said that all along, right? Scared to know the details and scared to potentially start the process of grief, I guess, if that's what you want to call it, over again, right? Because now you have all the answers. You have details that maybe they're not as bad as what we've made up in our minds or maybe they're worse than what we've made up in our minds. So there's that fear.

So the closure would be so nice and for some reason when you say am I hopeful, for some reason again it could be just a hope.

But I just have this feeling that one day we're going to know. And that's why we've been working with you on doing everything we can for the last straw to get this solved, right? And I said that too, like this is this is our final push. Yeah. Because we're never going to see the airtime. We're never going to see the work again.

in a three-minute or a two-minute TV, you know, oh, it's been 40 years, oh, it's been 50 years. Like, this is it. Yeah. There's no more after this because, like I said, there's not ever going to be the work put into it again. No one's going to put the work into it again. Kelly's case has also weighed on Jerry Nelson's mind. Since that fateful day in June of 1981,

when he came across Kelly's body. Every time I cross that bridge, I look at this point and it's definable by the landscape. And every time I cross that bridge, I think about, you know, finding Kelly that day. In my mind, I question, you know, what was going through that person's

thoughts. And of course, like I said before, we can only think. There's no way we can understand because anything that would turn out with this result, obviously that person thinks without clearness. If there is someone out there who knows who killed Kelly Cook, that $135,000 reward is still available.

So if you have information, again, not a theory, but tangible information about the killer, call the RCMP. Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez. Audio editing and sound design is by Rob Johnston. Special thanks to photographer-editor Danny Lantella for his work on this episode.

And thanks to Chris Bassett, the Acting VP of National and Network News for Global News. I would love to have you tell a friend about this podcast, and you can help me share these important stories by rating and reviewing Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

You can find me on Twitter at Nancy Hickst, on Facebook at Nancy Hickst Crime Beat, and I would love to have you join me for added content on Instagram at nancy.hickst. That's N-A-N-C-Y dot H-I-X-T. Thanks again for listening. Please join me next time.