The evil and senseless plot against Ray Johnson |3
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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. 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.

I've mentioned before that I was raised on a farm northeast of Calgary. What most people don't know is that my family built an Old West town on our farm. The kind you see in movies and TV shows, complete with a jail, a blacksmith shop, a church school, you name it, our little town had it. It was my dad's idea. He collected antiques and built a place to showcase them.

It evolved over the years and it was a true family project. Eventually, it grew to the point where tour buses would bring hundreds of people by for guided tours. Because the antiques are extremely rare, films like Legends of the Fall, Brokeback Mountain, and Shanghai Noon used some of my family's artifacts as props on their sets. It was a huge part of my childhood.

The reason I'm telling you this story is because for many years, I spent time with my dad at antique shows and flea markets, scouring for items to bring back to our own Western town. I'm Nancy Hixt, a crime reporter for Global News. The reason I'm sharing my personal history with antiques and collectibles is because I've experienced the power of connection that exists between collectors. It's a community.

And that community and the tragic loss of one of its members is at the heart of today's story. He spent a lot of time refinishing a lot of that furniture, and then he'd sell it to people that were in more need of something they could afford. And quite often he would give them things. He was that kind of a guy, pretty kind. He loved the flea market. He loved going to grad sales. And he loved people. He loved being around people. The flea market was really good for him.

Every once in a while you come across something in a file that just, you can't rationalize, it just doesn't make sense. It was like, you know, a bad movie that never happens to you. This is the story of the evil and senseless plot against Ray Johnson.

On a particularly blustery night in January of 2009, a man who is down on his luck and living on the streets was trying to stay warm in a makeshift camp just off the road in a secluded part of Calgary. In the middle of the night, he was startled by the sound of spinning tires, and he decided to venture out and take a peek.

I don't even think he was asleep yet. He was just awake and he hears it. Well, who's out there at that time of night? So he just takes notice of the fact that there's this truck there and it's spinning this tire because it has an incline and there was, it had melted with the weather and then froze again. So the truck had some difficulty getting up that incline. Patty McCallum is retired now, but for 33 years, she was an officer with the Calgary Police Service.

She said that man eventually went back inside his tent and fell asleep. The next day, he planned to walk downtown, but those plans were interrupted. He came across this box or this trunk, and he was quite enamored with this box because it was rather unique. The box was an antique trunk, and it was very ornate.

The man couldn't believe someone would just abandon such a beautiful item and dump it along the train tracks running through an industrial area. He was curious enough about it, approached the box or the trunk. The trunk was closed with a wire. Anxious to see what was held inside, he untied it, lifted the lid, and quickly shut it. He couldn't believe his eyes.

And he saw a foot or a leg. The man stepped back, unsure of what to do. He decided to call police. But that's not as easy as it sounds when you're living on the streets. So he goes to the 7-Eleven and they don't let him use the phone. So he goes to another local restaurant.

where he phones the police from there and says, explains what he sees, which then prompts the call to homicide. Officers get dispatched, they confirm they saw the box lid had been opened. They pressed basically and backed out. Said, "Yep, looks like a body." Folded into the trunk, they just saw the socks, sock and the foot and leg, and touched the body.

basically believed there was no life. So they backed out, they secured the scene and said, yep, we'll have to have homicide here to check. Patty McCallum was a detective with the homicide unit at the time. That afternoon, on Saturday, January 31st, 2009, she was called in to investigate the mysterious discovery of a man left inside the trunk with no wallet and no ID.

So you wonder why, what's the significance of putting somebody in a trunk and leaving it? Before I answer that, I need to take you back to many years ago in Enderby, B.C., when Ray Johnson was working in a logging camp. That's where he met his wife, Marion. She was the camp cook. Mom and dad, kind, giving, helpful people.

Always willing to help people, always kind to people, always put other people first. Dad would do anything for anybody. He'd give you a shirt off his back. They were just really good parents. We grew up with a good childhood, happy childhood. We did lots of outdoor stuff. They loved camping. They loved traveling, so we did a lot of that. That's Bonnie Gillard. She's Ray's daughter, the youngest of the six Johnson kids.

Ray and Marion had five girls and one boy. I can remember when I was little, I wanted to get up early in the morning and go and have breakfast with my dad before he went to logging. So I'd get up bright and early in the morning just to get a breakfast before he went to logging. He's very attentive, very kind. The Johnsons have always been a very close-knit family, and there's no shortage of fond memories to share.

Dad could play a mouth organ like anybody's business. He just could really play it. And Mom, she could play anything. And he was a big yodeler. And Mom could do all his yodel calls. Like, she could yodel like crazy. That's Lori Bowie, Bonnie's sister and the second youngest of the Johnson kids. She said her parents were inseparable. I don't think that they did a lot without each other.

He used to come home tired sometimes, and I can remember Mom would be tired herself, and so Dad would give us a bath or do our hair. Yeah, and then they opened a store up in Enderby, and Mom was running it, and then it kind of took off for them, so Dad quit the bush and started working full-time in the store. They had clothing and shoes and boots and everything,

They sold a lot of stuff to the logging industry down there, so they had a lot of logging boots, stuff like that. So I actually worked in the store quite a bit, so did Laurie. When mom would go home to make supper, we'd come home from school and go to the store and work. Both Bonnie and Laurie told me one thing about their dad stood out above the rest. Ray Johnson loved to help people.

There was a girl came into our store in Enderby and very poor kind of a gal and she was driving a truck that didn't have any windows in it. She was pregnant and it was an old kind of army truck and she had to drive quite a ways.

out into the bush where they lived. And dad took her upstairs, got her, my dad sold army surplus stuff as well. So he took her upstairs and got her a big heavy skidoo coat and boots and just gave it to her. And told her, you can get me another time. That's the way they were. In 1980, Ray and Marion moved to Calgary.

Then they started up that little secondhand store and he had antiques in there. And he spent a lot of time refinishing a lot of that furniture and then he'd sell it to people that were in more need of something they could afford. And quite often he would give them things. He was that kind of a guy, pretty kind.

Eventually, they sold the store. But their passion for antiques and collectibles was lit, and they started running a booth at the Calgary Flea Market. Everything was going well, until 2000, when Ray got sick. Dad's cancer was found first. And he wasn't getting better. Bonnie was helping him out quite a bit. And then Mom got sick.

She started with lung cancer and they removed her lung and then she went in for hip operations shortly after she could get off the oxygen from having her lung removed. And they did the hip operation and then shortly after that they found out she had liver cancer as well. Ray and Marion battled cancer at the same time. But the illness spread in Marion's body and the next year she passed away. And it was very quick. Like after the liver cancer was found, it went quickly.

Oh, he was devastated. Lonely and devastated. He started really counting on our family to be with and to enjoy life with after that because he was just devastated by it. He wasn't coping well. He really missed her. And yeah, he really, I think he just really loved her and I think he didn't know how to go on without her sometimes, you know. Ray eventually beat cancer.

Without Marion to keep him company, he tried to stay busy and turn to his passion for antiques. He loved the flea market. He loved going to grad sales. And he loved people. He loved being around people. The flea market was really good for him after mom passed because it gave him that opportunity to socialize with so many people. And he really enjoyed that. He threw himself into the business, buying and selling. He was big into tools. He loved tools.

So he, mostly his table at the flea market was tools, but he'd buy other stuff as well. He loved to fix up old furniture and tried to breathe new life into it. And he was always on the lookout for a good deal. And he always had cash. He paid everything in cash. That's the way he was. But nine times out of ten, you'd lift up his mat and he had an envelope with cash under it. And that would be to...

somebody was selling an antique or something, he could just give them the cash. He didn't have to go to the bank. I remember one of the things I did say to him, Dad always carried quite a bit of cash on him. And I did say to him, Dad, you shouldn't be carrying that, you know, around. And he says, oh, Lori, you've got to trust people more. He was very trusting. Ray turned 77 years young in 2009. I say that because that year he was more active than ever.

By then, he had been cancer-free for a while, and he was trying to make the most of life. As you might remember from the beginning of this story, my family knew the antiques community well, and my dad knew Ray. I remember him commenting on Ray's kind nature. They loved to visit with each other on Sundays at the flea market.

Ray's life wasn't about making money. It was about making memories. He lent out tools, offered discounts, and often let people pay later. If he could help someone, he would. He rarely spent money on himself, so it was a pretty big deal that winter when he decided to treat himself to a new truck.

Yeah, he set his sights on it, went and bought it, and then come home with it and had me take it for a test drive. He was quite excited that I went for a test drive. This wasn't just any old truck. He splurged on a brand new white GMC pickup truck. Was absolutely tickled pink with it. Plus, it made hauling around furniture and tools much easier. He was excited about that because he did so much grad selling and he liked the bigger canopy on it and

So that's where he would haul most of his stuff down to the flea market in the canopy of the truck. Bonnie is the only one of the Johnson kids to live in Calgary. And she made a point of spending time with her father like she did when she was a kid before he went to work. Now that he was older, the routine was a little bit different. I stopped every morning, got a coffee from him. He liked that. So I'd stop in and see him and check on him and get a coffee and be on my way.

Friday, January 30th, 2009 started out like any other day. Friday morning, I called him and said, let's do coffee out this morning just for a change because I always stop and got a coffee. So we went up to McDonald's and had a coffee and muffin together. And he was looking at the paper for grad sales and I was heading off to work and we just, just, it was just casual. And we sat and read the paper together. We probably more than we thought we sat and read the paper together.

After breakfast, Bonnie and her father said their goodbyes. I always gave him a hug, every morning. Bonnie went to work, and her dad planned to go home before heading out again. Almost every Friday he was out garage selling, so him and Mike Mooney used to like to go to garage sales together, and so, you know, that's usually where he was heading off, is to a garage sale. Mike and his wife live in Airdrie, and Mike has an antique shop in Airdrie.

And so Mike would be looking for antiques and dad would be looking for tools basically when he went to garage sales. And as I said, dad would buy pretty much anything he could sell off the market, but tools were his biggest. Ray was a creature of habit. He loved those daily coffee catch-ups with Bonnie, his regular Friday garage sailing with Mike, and every Friday night he liked to hit up the food court at the mall with Bonnie and her family. It was kind of our routine routine.

Yeah. Right? Exactly. Because there's something for everyone. Friday night, I got home from work, and we always went out for supper on Friday nights to the mall with him. That was just what we did every Friday night. And we phoned him, and there was no answer on the phone. And we thought, well, that's really strange, because he's always home ready to go to the mall.

You have to remember, this was 2009. Of course, cell phones were pretty common, but at 77, Ray was still a little bit old school, and he didn't have one. Bonnie decided she better stop by his place before she headed to the mall. Oh, I know. We probably called a couple times and then drove by his house and checked his, you know, knocked on the door, checked to see if he's home, but his pickup wasn't there, so we thought, well, he's not home, which, like I said, was so unusual because we'd been doing this for so long.

And he never went anywhere without telling us that he was going to be going, like if he was going to be going out of town or something, he would have told us. So we knew that, you know, so we thought, well, he just has to be at a grad sale. Just, you know, late getting home from a grad sale. So we went ahead for supper, came back and checked again, and he still wasn't home. That's when I probably started really getting a little concerned.

It was very strange because there was some clothes out in the clothesline which he never left out. He liked to air his clothes after he washed them, he liked to put them out in the clothesline. And then he had rolled his bed down but hadn't made his bed, which was uncharacteristic. He always had his bed made, his house was always spotless clean, everything was always done. And it looked like he had left in a hurry, which possibly had gone, you know, with Mike to the grad sale and planned on coming back and doing some stuff.

And so that worried me because I thought that's just so uncharacteristic of him to just leave things not done. Bonnie and her husband went home confused. She kept calling him, but there was no answer. The next morning, she tried again, over and over, but nothing. The next morning, we drove by his house again and again. We thought, well, he must be out garage selling.

And then that evening again, we tried to call him. So Saturday evening, we went back to the house again and nothing had changed. Nothing had been put away. Nothing had changed. And that's when we really started to get worried. Bonnie reached out to her sister in Red Deer, an hour and a half north of Calgary.

So Bonnie called me on Saturday and she said, "Lori, is Dad up there?" And I said, "No." I said, "Why?" And she said, "Well, it's odd." And then she told me that he was supposed to come to their place for, or they were supposed to meet at Market Mall for supper the night before and he didn't show. I phoned the hospital as well and asked if, you know, they had him admitted to hospital in case he'd been in an accident and couldn't contact us.

And then I talked to a couple of neighbours, see if they'd heard from him or seen him coming or going. You know, our dad was a really friendly guy. And so I said, I can remember saying to my sister, I bet any money he's got talking to somebody and just forgot, which wasn't the norm for him. But still, you know. By Saturday night, there was still no sign of Ray.

Bonnie decided to report him missing. I phoned the police and I gave them the vehicle number off his truck. I didn't remember the whole number, but I remember the first three letters. So I gave him that and I said a white Chevy pickup. And they said check with his neighbors. And they asked me, do you think he would have went out of town? I told them, no, that he would never do that without talking to us. And they said, well, wait the 48 hours. And if he's still missing, then to contact them. It was a sleepless night. The entire family worried about Ray.

The next afternoon, Sunday, February 1st, police reached out with an update. When I got to the house, there was two detectives standing outside, plainclothes detectives. And they said to me, have you got a key for the house? I said, yeah. So I said, can we go in? So we went in and they said to me, please sit down. And then I knew right away when they said that, I knew something was really wrong. And then when they told me that they'd found my dad and I said, what happened? They said, we believe he'd been murdered. I just lost it.

I couldn't even absorb that. It was so unbelievable. And I said to them, I said, oh, you've got the wrong person. I said, that's not my dad. I just couldn't believe it. It seemed impossible. I couldn't process it. I just kept saying to the police, oh, that's not true. It hasn't happened. It's not true.

And then they just said to me, "Yeah, it is true and it has happened." And then I phoned Lori and I was almost hysterical. I couldn't even hardly tell Lori what had happened. It was just so difficult because I couldn't leave it myself trying to tell somebody. It was like it was... You couldn't get the words out. You know, it was like, "It's not true. How can I tell Lori when this isn't true?" It was just... And I was quite upset when I called Lori on the phone. I just remember she...

I can't even tell you how it sounded, Nancy. It was, the sound in her voice was unbelievable. And I don't remember much after that. I kind of went down. And I don't remember much. I just remember saying, telling our family that dad had been murdered. I remember, I knew I had to go down to her. And I grabbed, I just, yeah, I just grabbed her.

what I could find and threw it in a suitcase. My daughter was trying to help me, but I can remember I was shaking really bad. It just rocked my world. I've never dealt with anything like this before. It just totally rocked my world. And like I said, it was so unbelievable. It just left me numb, just like you're paralyzed. Actually, that whole first week was just a blur. It's like you're out of mind. It's like you're

You're physically there, but you're not there. Ray was the type of guy who would give the shirt off his back to help someone in need. Who would murder him and why? Ray Johnson was stuffed in a trunk, his body dumped by the train tracks. You'll recall homicide detective Patty McCallum said there was no wallet, no ID in the trunk. There's a lot of luck along with skill doing this job.

And I think what happened is we found a bag, plastic bag, with this gentleman with ID in it. It had a bloody glove and an Alberta health care card and a Blue Cross card. Same name. So this had blown 10 to 15 feet away from where the trunk was and got caught under a trailer behind the Ideal party rental.

because there were some trailers parked in behind there. So when Crime Scenes did a check there, they found this bag. Bloody glove, blood, ID. I mean, it's a bag. Could it be a random bag? Sure. But it's, I mean, you have to take into consideration there's a rubber glove in it, there's blood in it. Is it possible that it's connected? So you're going to evaluate that once you explore.

what that name means. So when we had a tentative ID, we knew it to be Alfonso or Reno Alfonso Johnson.

He later became informed by a number of people that he went by the name of Ray, Ray Johnson. He was a person who visited garage sales, flea market. He had a booth at the flea market. So he was a regular there. He knew a lot of people. He was loved by a lot of people. He was somebody that was willing to give you the shirt off his back. And he just made a living buying and selling. And he just knew a lot of people. A lot of people knew him.

How did Ray Johnson meet such a violent end? You always think about the scene you have, the victim themselves will tell you a lot, then the history of that individual, what kind of life did they live, which was in a dark contrast to how we found him at the end. As we came to know him, he was a very likable, lovable man who kept to his own business. Like he

He was someone who would rather help you than hinder you, so we couldn't figure out why he would be targeted. Early on, Ray's family met with homicide detective Patty McCallum. That week I asked Patty where it was, and she said, well, I'll take you guys there, but she said, you're not going alone, so she drove us over there. It was hard to imagine that somebody would be able to just dump somebody like they did, just...

put them in a box and just dump them with no regard. On February 2nd, 2009, two days after he was found, police spoke to the media for the first time about Ray's death. An autopsy conducted today has determined this incident was a homicide.

with the cause of death being blunt force trauma. Police have yet to determine a motive for whether this was a targeted or random incident. Investigators also aren't saying if they have any suspects or why anyone would murder a 77-year-old. Please appreciate that our investigators are fully committed to this file, which is in a very active stage. And for those reasons, I'm not able to provide further details.

Funeral plans to lay Ray to rest were put on hold. His family was desperate for answers. I think the biggest thing on our mind was finding out who did it and helping the police with their investigation. One day later, I met Ray Johnson's family for the first time. His grandson, Tracy, spoke to the media. Sadly, we know that my grandpa was viciously beaten.

we can only hope and pray that he didn't suffer. Johnson lived at the Greenwood Village mobile home park. He was left alone there after his wife died of cancer a few years ago. This is where Ray Johnson made a living, at the Hillhurst Flea Market. We know that Mr. Johnson enjoyed a hobby of bargain hunting, including attending garage sales and flea markets.

One of the investigative avenues we are pursuing is that Mr. Johnson was targeted as a result of this activity. Ray Johnson would scour the newspapers and search the internet for goods to buy, then fix up and resell at his flea market booth. It's believed he had an appointment related to that at noon on Friday, but that's the last anyone can track Johnson. He's so helpful, and these guys, if they would have

If they would have said, you know, that they needed some money or something, like I was just confident that he would have helped. He just helped everybody out. We're pleading with the community to bring any information they might have so there can be justice for my grandpa and our family. I should note, Ray's brand new truck was missing. Police scoured the area where his body was found. Remember the sound of spinning tires that startled the man in the tent in the middle of the night?

Another interview with that man revealed further clues. Yeah, so that you're thinking, okay, so maybe there's significance to this truck, right? So it becomes a little bit more, it's more than just a random detail. There's potential here that this truck that he heard and saw at two in the morning is perhaps when it dropped the trunk. The man got a good look at that vehicle. It was a newer white truck.

Ray's family spoke to the media again in hopes someone would come forward with information. Our assumption at this time is that he was out buying something for his flea market when someone took advantage of him. Right now, police have one important clue, his brand new truck. It looked just like this, a GMC extended cab truck. It's been missing ever since Johnson disappeared. It's believed he drove it to an appointment that ended up being his death.

Both police and his family believe Johnson was out meeting with someone to buy an item for his flea market booth when he was taken advantage of and killed. That day, I also met with one of Ray's fellow flea market vendors. He would have had a list of where he was going and what they would have had. There would have been an address written down and the item that he'd be looking for. Johnson's missing truck was equipped with OnStar.

It's GMC-specific technology. That means the truck could be traced through GPS, and OnStar's command center has the ability to shut the vehicle down and help police in the case of a theft. But for some unknown reason, the OnStar system in Johnson's truck is not operational. So right now, that high-tech system is not helping investigators. But it's an avenue that's extremely important, and finding the truck is a key in the murder investigation.

It turned out the OnStar GPS had been disabled, so that possible lead was a dead end. Family tried to come up with any information that could help, and that's what led police to Ray's good friend, Mike. Mike Mooney declined to be interviewed for this podcast. Even years later, he's still very traumatized by the loss of his friend.

But the conversation he had with police gave them their first real lead. Mike, he was a very close friend of Ray's, and he was probably most likely the last person to see him alive. They met for coffee first in the morning, and then they went to a garage sale. He felt that Ray seemed rushed. He just knew that there was a place he was going to. It was somebody he had met before,

Mike told police he found an ad online earlier that winter. Ray didn't have a computer, so Mike often searched for listings and printed off any he felt Ray might be interested in. The ad was for a moving sale. Sellers were offering everything from furniture to electronics.

Ray followed up on the ad and met the Sellers, a husband and wife who lived in the inner city community of Bridgeland, one of Calgary's oldest neighborhoods. At that time, Ray bought a chess set. The day he went missing, he planned to go check out other items they had for sale. In fact, the couple had reached out to him. They said they had some tools and a tool chest he might be interested in. And the Sky had phoned him saying,

about coming to get it. So he thought if he didn't get down and looked at it, somebody else was going to buy. So that's why he was a little anxious to get down and do that. It was a solid lead, and now police had to find the couple. To do that, investigators turned to people at the flea market where Ray had a booth. He knew other people who were in the same community. So if you take the word of another person

you know, salesperson or person who's in the business and you go, "Yeah, this guy's got some stuff you might like," you're taking the word of somebody else you've done business with. And if you've done business once and it seemed okay and the stuff was good, chances are that you're going to go back without giving it a whole lot of thought. This is really where the camaraderie that exists in the antiques and collectibles community became apparent, and police followed a trail of witnesses.

It's just a domino effect. There were several people that once you talk to one, they would say, "You should really talk to this person or this person." So we had some people that we needed to talk to. And then if somebody says, "Oh, I think the guy he had met was a guy named Jason." Okay, so now we have a name. And this is the phone number that they use for... Yeah, he uses the usedcalgary.com ad. So these are the details you get.

And once we had a phone number and we compare it is on use Calgary, then we actually had one of our staff members use a different phone and make a call to see if they could buy with a story about buying some of the property that was listed. There was no answer, but it eventually led police to a couple. Who live in Bridgeland. So that makes sense, right? Because now we know that

Mr. Johnson went down to Bridgeland. We have this guy. He's also in a similar business where he buys and sells. With that address, police were finally able to identify the couple. Their names were Jason and Tasha Hubler. They were unemployed people. They lived in this small, war-style type home in Bridgeland.

They had issues, you know, family issues. They were struggling with financial issues. Let me recap what police knew at this point, because this was all unfolding very quickly. Just one day after his body was found, investigators confirmed with Ray's friend Mike that he was planning to go see the Hublers about some tools the day he disappeared.

And the more investigators dug into their history, the more red flags they found. We also find that he's had runs with police. There's some fraudulent behavior, etc. He in particular, there were people who described his behavior sometimes as violent. He had a bad temper and he would threaten people. So we had information about his bad temper.

police decided to do a drive-by of the Hublers' house in Bridgeland. That prompted a major turn in the investigation. One of the detectives discovered what appeared to be blood in the back lane outside the garage. Police got a warrant to search the home. But by then, the couple was gone. The objective now is to find this couple because they're clearly persons of interest that we need to talk to.

I should tell you, as an investigative reporter, I do my own digging when I'm covering these cases. I'm always keenly aware that my quest for information can sometimes interfere with an ongoing investigation.

In this case, I learned about the home in Bridgeland, and myself and a photographer went there to check it out. We have two media outlets who have information, and we're just saying, please don't, because right now we can't find these people, but we now believe that they're suspects in this case. We get commitment not to pursue anything, not to air anything until later.

Given police had two possible suspects who had no way of knowing police were on their trail, Global News agreed to wait. But the other media outlet decided to go with the story. In this case, once the newspapers went out and had photographs, it basically told the suspects...

Okay, we're on to you because up to that point they didn't know we were suspects or persons of interest so one held true and one did not so so what happened is we haven't been able to find these people and You know, we they disappeared. So once the news came out and showed the photographs it prompted these people to leave town and

So that is the consequence of if the information is leaked too soon, then yes, the truck could be lost. They could change license plates. They could do any number of things that will hamper the investigation. Police needed to act fast and came up with a new strategy. So we used the family to reach out and say, you know, trying to plead with these people to, you know, come forward.

You know, bring the truck back, come forward, let's get an explanation for what happened. That day, Ray's family invited me into his home and gave me a look at the man they loved so dearly and missed so much. And we just never expected to get that, the call that we did get. This wall shows his heart. This is who he was about his family.

Even though dad was 77, he was in pretty good shape. Even after having cancer and everything, he was a fighter. And we thought he had at least 10 good years in him yet. And our dad wasn't just our dad, he was our friend. And that's what's hard.

Somebody took him from us before his time. Police have scoured this Bridgeland home for clues in the murder of 77-year-old Ray Johnson. The couple who lived here packed up and moved on the weekend, just as Johnson's body was found. I think they need to come forward and they need to turn themselves in and face justice. It's time to put closure on this. When I close my eyes, I envision justice.

I don't see faces or anything. I just envision what might have happened to our dad. We wonder if he suffered. Those kind of things go through your mind. In the meantime, forensic crime scenes investigators were at the Bridgeland house looking for evidence of what happened to Ray. So there was evidence of cleanup, bleach. There was still blood splatter on walls and mirrors. Bathroom mirror, I believe. We had found that...

The inside door had a window in the door, and that window was covered with black cloth. I mean, people watch a lot of CSI, so they think that a little bit of bleach is going to take everything, but it was not.

Attempts were made to clean it up, but it wasn't done well. So there was still evidence. There was blood stains, a blood splatter that was still found, walls, mirror, in the bathroom. There was some blood around the kitchen sink or the bathroom sink, pardon me. Then another break in the case. Investigators were able to locate the suspects because Tasha Hubler had a court appearance.

Police covertly followed Tasha from court to an apartment complex downtown. Not long after, both Tasha and Jason Hubler left the building and got into a white truck. Investigators called in extra resources, including the police tactical team. Because they were on the run, there would likely need to be a takedown.

A surveillance team followed the truck until finally police caught up with them west of Calgary, just outside of Banff. The man in this police vehicle is now in custody, being questioned for the murder of 77-year-old Ray Johnson. He was arrested by the RCMP near Banff in a truck that matched the description of Ray Johnson's missing 2008 GMC Sierra extended cab.

It's believed the suspect was on the run. He was arrested with this woman, his wife. She's also now in police custody. Police have scoured this Bridgeland home for clues. This is where the murder suspects lived. One week to the day after Ray Johnson disappeared, two people were in custody charged with his murder.

Both accused have a history with police. Jason Hubler's criminal record dates back 14 years, with a variety of charges ranging from assault with a weapon to arson, theft, and mischief. Tasha Hubler is also charged with possession of stolen property and fraud unrelated to the Johnson case.

What made no sense to anyone who knew Ray Johnson is why. Why would anyone kill a kind, generous, and gentle man who was a father and grandfather? Family wouldn't learn those answers for more than two years.

Not until March of 2011, when Jason and Tasha Hubler stood trial together, both accused of first-degree murder. Nancy Hicks is live at the Calgary courts tonight. Nancy, there was emotional testimony there today.

The daughter of Ray Johnson took the stand today. Bonnie Gillard struggled to maintain her composure as she testified. I had to leave sometimes. I had to leave the courtroom because I couldn't listen to what was being said. Even when she told, when she gave her testimony, and when she said, Dad walked up to the door, I walked out at that point in time. I didn't want to hear. The case would be decided by a jury made up of nine women and three men.

Mike Ewinson was one of two prosecutors assigned to the case.

It was different than a lot of homicide cases that we were prosecuting because this one really hit home when we learned about Ray and his relationship with his family and how he'd spent that last day with Bonnie, you know, going for coffee and then her not seeing him again. And so I remember going home and telling my wife about being assigned to that case and actually getting a little emotional because it's something that hit home. Anybody could put themselves in the same shoes as the family. A lot of other fact scenarios we can

somehow compartmentalized because you just can't see yourself in that same situation or your family in that same situation. But this is one of those homicides where, you know, it really hit home. He, as a hobby, was buying and selling things from garage sales. And he was frequenting a flea market that was a flea market I had actually gone to in the past. Prosecutors painted a picture of a murderous plot that was planned and premeditated. The reason behind it all?

Jason and Tasha Hubler targeted and killed Ray Johnson for his truck. So Jason Hubler had told various friends as well as his landlord and a friend of his landlord that he was going to be coming into a truck.

Now, firstly, we knew that Mr. Hubler did not have the means by which to get a hold of a truck of that value. But second of all, he was giving different people different versions of how this truck was going to come to him. So he told some people a friend was going to be giving him a truck. He told others it was an inheritance. He told others it was going to come from a grandparent.

So none of that made sense. And he had told this different version to different people. And lo and behold, that explanation continued even after he got hold of the truck where he was going around telling different people the different ways he came into this truck, which of course was Ray's truck. The prosecution's theory was Jason Hubler first saw the new truck earlier that winter when Ray responded to the ad Mike Mooney flagged for him and stopped by their Bridgeland home.

Court heard that on January 19, 2009, less than two weeks before Ray was killed, Jason took Tasha to the flea market to meet Ray. And more importantly, so she could get a good look at his truck. The Hublers planned to lure Ray back to their home. They called him to let him know they had more items for him to check out. He set his sights on that truck, concocted the plan to get a hold of the truck,

And it was after leaving his friend that Ray headed to that address in Bridgeland and met his end. Every once in a while you come across something in a file that just, you can't rationalize, it just doesn't make sense.

So many other files have explanations where you can, you look and realize somebody had suffered from a drug addiction or mental health issues. And you realize, okay, that's where this offense germinated from. And so you have this explanation and you can place some weight on it and it may bring you a bit of solace to know that it's not pure evil. But in this case, he just set his sights on the truck, became infatuated with that truck and was willing to trade a man's life for that truck.

Key evidence in the case was a confession by Tasha Hubler, made soon after their arrest. I'm going to play some excerpts of that interview, but you have to listen very carefully. The audio is a bit hard to hear, and the details are very disturbing. The lights were off. He wanted the lights off. I'm not sure why. And then, as he came through the door, he hit him. When he hit him,

Mr. Johnson said something and then Jason hit him again. - Do you remember what he said? - I think he said, "Oh my God." I don't remember though. - And where did he hit him? - I didn't, the first one, I think he got him in the back. I'm not, I wasn't really watching. I didn't want to watch. - Okay. - I kept, I kept going out here 'cause I didn't want to see it. - Right. - I couldn't. - What did you use to hit him?

There was a couple pulls. He hit him quite a few times. Hit him quite a few times? Yeah. Tasha told the detective Ray Johnson collapsed, and after he was on the ground, the vicious beating continued. Jason hit him again, and then he was making noises, and Jason made me pull him so he was flat. I didn't want to do it. I didn't even want to touch him. It's okay. I just wanted to run away.

And then I made the excuse that I thought I heard something. So I would go back out to the 48, just being in the same room. And then he hit him a couple more times. And then he told me I had to take everything out of his pockets. But the look in his eyes, I just, I didn't want to say no. So I did that. And then we kind of flipped him over. Jason helped because I couldn't move him by myself.

And he was still making funny sounds. And Jason kept hitting him for about five, maybe ten minutes. I don't know. And then Jason said we had to put him into the box. So we both did it because he wanted me to do it by myself and I couldn't. Just being near the body, it's the creepiest thing I've ever seen. And then once...

He was in the box. It was tied up and the carpet was moved and he was put at the back door. Tasha also described using a taser on Ray. Jason made me try using the taser on him to see if he was still alive. What kind of taser was it? It's a pen taser. And where on Mr. Johnson was he touched with a... The head. Whereabouts? Right by his ear. Left or right?

I need to stop here to explain just how badly Ray Johnson was beaten.

Detective Patty McCallum attended his autopsy. He had a skull fracture, a very significant skull fracture. He was tasered, so he had unique wounds from the taser. But essentially, he was bludgeoned to death. The interview lasted several hours, and Tasha provided grim details of the murder, including how Ray ended up in the trunk. His feet were sticking up, so Jason took his shoes off.

And then he made me push the head down into the box. Remember the bag, the one police found with Ray Johnson's belongings in it? Tasha Hubler said after they killed Ray, they stole his money and credit cards. They put his wallet, glasses, shoes, and empty change purse into a garbage bag, along with towels and pillowcases they used to clean the floor with, and the gloves they wore.

They ditched the bag near the trunk after narrowly avoiding getting stuck. Mike Ewinson said Tasha's story was believable. Tasha largely told the truth to the police about what happened to Ray. And all the forensic evidence and evidence from other civilians backed her up.

The plan was always to kill him. The plan was to have him come over to the house in advance. They had taped up shields over the window. She'd saw that Jason Hubler had taped together two hammock poles, and she knew that that was going to be the murder weapon. And she witnessed Jason Hubler beat, raid to death. And then she had provided the trunk, which was a trunk that had existed and was identified by another civilian witness, a friend of theirs, as being a trunk that was in their house prior to the murder.

And Ray was stuffed in that trunk and discarded. Jason, on the other hand, was not so forthcoming. He told the detective Ray Johnson slipped on some dog food on the stairs. You guys didn't check the basement stairs. I beg your pardon? You guys didn't check the basement stairs. Well, I know our crime scenes unit does all the checking and they're supposed to comb the whole place. What's the stairs have to do with it? It's where he fell.

That's where he fell. Okay. Let's start with how Ray ended up there. I was downstairs looking at some of the stuff that I had downstairs. So what stuff was he interested in? Tools, futons. Tools and futons? I had two tents down there. There was camping stuff. A bunch of other stuff. Yeah. And I haven't seen your place. What are the stairs like? A death trap. Death trap.

- The first one's about a foot and a half to two foot drop. It's cut out of the basement floor. - Okay, so, so, no, what door did Ray come to? Like how did he get there and all that? - He came in the front door. - Yeah? - I told him to go downstairs and that's where most of our crap was 'cause we didn't have a room in that tiny little house. - Yeah?

Mike Ewinson said, unlike Tasha Hubler's story, her husband's version of events didn't match what the investigators found at the crime scene. Jason lied to the police and said that Ray had fell down the stairs.

That was a very provable lie in that the forensic evidence did not back up his version of events. So obviously with an explanation that he had fallen down the stairs, one would expect a lot of blood at the base of the stairs. We, that is the Calgary Police Service, did an excellent job in terming the examination of the residents. And of course, in that sort of examination, they'll look for what they can see.

based on their techniques, but also any evidence that's provided to them by the investigator. So for example, if Tasha Hubler says Ray was beaten in the upstairs living room, they're going to look for any indications and corroboration of that in the upstairs living room. And there was blood splatter in various points in the upstairs, which obviously should not have been there if the explanation was that he fell down the stairs.

Jason Hubler stuck with his version of events, that this was an accidental fall down the stairs. Meanwhile, as their joint trial continued, Tasha Hubler testified in her own defense. As she did the day of her police interview, Tasha admitted what happened.

But she claimed she was under duress, that she was being controlled by her husband when they killed Ray Johnson. Quite frankly, it was purely self-serving on her behalf to try to get out of any sort of finding guilt by saying, look, I had no choice in the matter. Because she'd given that full confession to the police. That statement was usable against her. And she was admitting a role in the murder. And so really the only thing she could stay on the stand at that point was, yeah, I did all those things, but I had no choice.

Then came an interesting twist in the trial proceedings. It took everyone by surprise, including the two prosecutors. What was very interesting and sits in my mind very strongly was that there's no duty of disclosure on behalf of defense counsel. So they don't have to tell us what evidence they may have or what evidence they may present. And when Jason's lawyer was cross-examining Mrs. Hubler,

He actually put to her, after she had claimed that Jason was violent and she wanted nothing to do with him and she just went along with the plan to murder Ray because she was scared of him, he actually put to her letters that Tasha Hubler had written Jason Hubler while in prison. And we as the Crown had no idea these letters had existed. They were under no duty to tell us and no duty to disclose them. And so this was all news to us unfolding before the jury.

These jailhouse-type letters are called kites. Basically, handwritten notes on pieces of paper that get passed between inmates.

Tasha's notes to Jason look like they've been written by an infatuated, lovesick teenager, complete with bubble letters spelling out I love you and hearts drawn on the margins. If you want to see one of these kites for yourself, I'll post a link to my Facebook and Instagram pages in the show notes. It was, it came out of the blue. Like I said, we did not know they existed. And next thing you know, Tasha's being cross-examined.

by defense counsel for Jason Hubler about letters she had sent him. And clearly, defense counsel for Jason Hubler was doing so to diminish her credibility because they are advancing the argument that Ray had fell down the stairs and you couldn't believe anything Tasha Hubler said because she was a liar. But we were able to use them for another purpose, and that was to say you could still believe everything Tasha Hubler said about the death, but these letters prove that Tasha Hubler wasn't under any duress.

And it was a series of letters from Tasha Hubler to Jason Hubler indicating her love to him. I remember that I was very offended, I think everyone was, when she referred to the situation that they were in, meaning the charges and the death of Ray, as a mess that they would get out of.

And so those letters were able to be put to Mrs. Hubler on the stand. She was unable, in my view, to explain herself away from them. And I think that they played a large part in the jury rejecting her claims of duress because the letters demonstrated that she was still in love with Jason Hubler. It was always the Crown's view that Jason had concocted this plan, that he was the driver of the plan.

But two people can share a plan to commit first-degree murder, and if one person is to put a number on it, 80% of the plan, another person is just 20% of the plan, they're both guilty of first-degree murder. I should add, there was a lot of evidence that showed some deplorable behavior by the Hublers after they killed Ray.

Court heard they went out for lunch with some friends, then used his credit cards to go on a shopping spree. The Crown said all of the evidence pointed to their guilt. Clearly there was a plan to get a hold of this truck.

and there was a plan to kill him. And that was clear based on all the comments made by Jason Hubler about getting hold of this truck, which were all provable lies given that there was no inheritance coming, that he didn't have a friend that was gonna give him the truck. So we could clearly prove to the jury based on that evidence that this was on his mind.

And then we could prove to the jury that there was specific steps taken to complete that plan, including taping up the windows, having him come over to the house, getting the trunk ready, creating a murder weapon. So that all proved a plan to commit the death of Ray.

And then, of course, then proving that he actually carried it out. And in this case, the forensic evidence of where the blood was located in the house, the medical evidence of the autopsy that occurred, of where the blows occurred and the manner of death. And we could clearly prove he had died based on a beating and a beating with a weapon. So that proved it was a planned homicide. We had them in his vehicle and using his credit cards after the fact. It took jurors just over eight hours to reach their verdicts.

I thought they were an excellent jury in that they were staring at the witnesses and taking notes. And it was clear they were taking everything really seriously. They found both Jason and Tasha Hubler guilty of the first-degree murder of Ray Johnson. This was planned and premeditated. I just felt a massive amount of relief when they returned those verdicts of guilty for first-degree murder for both of them.

In Canada, once convicted of first-degree murder, the sentence is automatic. Life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years. But something unique happened during the sentencing hearing. Maybe it was because of the impact Ray's life and death had on those in the courtroom. I also remember that that entire jury, after the finding of guilt, I heard the doors in the courtroom open and they all filed into the back of the courtroom.

So they actually had formed that camaraderie, I assume, amongst themselves, but they all sat there after it was over to watch the sentencing. I've never had that happen before. Both Jason and Tasha Hubler addressed the courts. And they both said they were sorry. I didn't feel that he was very sincere when he said he was sorry. I don't know about Tasha. One by one, loved ones of Ray Johnson read tearful victim impact statements. I miss being able to phone him.

and say, hi, Dad, how are you? And then just get into a good conversation. And had it been a car accident or something, you could accept things better. But I think you never fully accept the way he was taken from us. It was so hard on the whole family too, not even just us. I mean, it affected our children really bad. Our daughter married after that and had two children and...

He never got to see those two kids and he would have, you know, or any of our grandchildren for that matter, and that would have been his great-grandchildren. And I know with my dad's strength that he'd still be alive today. I just know it. He was that kind of a guy. He would have, he'd still be out there and he'd have all his senses. Despite all of the pain and trauma they were living through, Ray Johnson's family showed extreme kindness to the families of the killers.

I felt so sorry for his dad, you know, because his dad was in the court room. And that was the only one that was really in there on his side. We approached him and we told him, we gave him a hug. We told him we understood because he was losing a son too, you know. And he cried. He was a nice man. And he said, you know, you have a baby and you love that baby.

And they turn out doing something like this, and he knew his son had done it, you know. As you might expect, Jason and Tasha Hubler appealed their convictions, taking away the brief closure Ray's family got after the guilty verdicts.

It's been almost four years to the day since 77-year-old Ray Johnson was murdered. Time isn't making the loss any easier for Johnson's family, especially since the brutal details of the case keep coming up again and again. It's been four years of basically sleepless nights, bad images going in your mind.

trying to keep the thoughts out of your mind of what happened. It just felt a bit unfair that our family had to go through more after going through the trial and then being found guilty by 12 jurors, proven guilty.

We just felt like it should be over. That should be the end of things. Friday, a panel of appeal justices made their ruling, stating, the case against Jason was overwhelming. The grounds of appeal raised by Jason are without merit. Jason's appeal is therefore dismissed.

The ruling went on to state, "In this case, the evidence was so overwhelming against Tasha as it was against Jason that a conviction was inevitable. There is no realistic possibility that a new trial would yield a different result." It's the decision Ray Johnson's family was hoping for, but they worry they'll never really have peace. It just felt like it has kept going on and on and on. It seems like it's never over.

Eventually, they'll be applying for parole. I mean, it just seems like it destroys your life and it just never stops. Ray Johnson's case is one that both the prosecutor, Mike Ewinson, and the lead investigator, Patty McCallum, will always remember. If I'm at a social event and someone says, well, what's one of the more difficult or emotional trials you've ever done? This is the first one I will mention. And it's not to say it's the only one.

but just to have a man's life taken in such a terrible, callous fashion out of pure greed by two people who did that and discarded his body in a rail yard. And the impact on a family where you have them going for coffee, thinking they'll see each other for dinner and never seeing each other again. It's one that's almost unexplainable. We wouldn't use a term very often that somebody is just purely evil, but these two would fit that description.

Just purely greed that put him in the crosshairs of two people who just wanted his truck. Ray Johnson taught his family to always give people the benefit of the doubt. To have someone take advantage of his trust has truly shaken their faith in humanity. That's something they can never get back. Yeah, I think I became a lot more cautious. I found myself locking my car door, which I still do. I get in my car, I lock my door right away.

Yeah, I think you lose trust, you lose your sense of security. Yeah, who would put a vehicle over a life is the question. Like, what kind of person would choose a vehicle over somebody's life? The thing is, Ray was the kind of guy who would have helped the Hublers if they had just asked. We didn't understand it, and to this day I still don't understand. You know, and like Bonnie said,

to choose a life over a vehicle, you know. And we know how kind our dad was, like how kind he was and how he would have just given just about anything to anybody. He was just that kind of a person, you know. He probably looked at those two people and saw his own grandchildren because they were about approximately the same age as my daughter and her husband at that time.

For all his kindness, his trust, and his sense of community, Ray Johnson was met with unspeakable horror. It was like, you know, a bad movie that never happens to you. Thank you for joining me and letting me share Ray's story with you. Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dela 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 National Director of Content and Editorial Standards 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 Hixt, on Facebook at Nancy Hixt Crime Beat, and I'd love to have you join me for added content on Instagram at nancy.hixt. That's N-A-N-C-Y dot H-I-X-T. Thanks again for listening. Please join me next time.