Shannon Madill's Last Audition | 4
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When a major crime happens, the first thing I do as a journalist is head to the scene. I start gathering information so I can begin to piece together the story. I try to talk to anyone who might have witnessed what happened. I look for someone who knows something, anything. Over the past 20 plus years on the job, there are a few common phrases I hear over and over.

People tell me they're shocked. It doesn't matter what the crime is or where it happened. I also get, "I can't believe this type of thing would happen here. It's such a quiet neighborhood." Sometimes that's accurate. Other times it's pretty obvious they're in a sketchy part of town where this kind of thing is not uncommon. What I've learned is that these are very natural reactions to very stressful situations.

The ones that really stick with me, though, are the emotional statements made by families coping with a sudden, traumatic, and unexpected loss. They are always sincere and true. I've heard so many families tell me their son or daughter had a smile that could light up a room.

She was a ham even very early in her life. A spotlight and a microphone were her best friends and that was from the time she was a tiny little thing. I'm Nancy Hixt. I'm a crime reporter for Global News. Today on Crime Beat, the story of a young woman who was so outgoing and vivacious that description fit her to a tee. Shannon Medill's personality could truly light up a room.

This is her story. Tell you a little bit about me. Just a general me. I am interning for my radio and television program. That's Shannon. What you're hearing is audio from an audition she did November 26th, 2014 for a TV show. I have lots. I like to cross country ski. Obviously.

She's a captivating young woman. Bright-eyed, very pretty, and full of promise. The kind of person you just want to be around. What no one knew at the time is that this is one of the last times Shannon would ever be seen. Just hours later, early in the morning of November 27th, 2014, she vanished. Here's Erin Medill, Shannon's older sister.

On December 1st is when my father called me to say that nobody had heard from her. She'd missed a family dinner with my brother. It wasn't completely out of character for Shannon to be hard to track down. She was a busy woman. Shannon spent a lot of time on the road commuting between Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta for auditions.

It's about a three-hour drive, one direction, on a very busy highway. And it can be a treacherous drive in the winter months when the weather can be sunny and mild in Calgary and a full-on blizzard to the north. I figured she was busy, I was busy, so nobody really thought it was weird that we hadn't heard from her.

What was unlike Shannon was missing a dinner date with her older brother. They were really close. So when she didn't show up, her family started to worry.

Erin reached out to Shannon's friends and work associates and soon found out she hadn't shown up for a number of commitments over several days between November 27th and December 1st, 2014. When we started finding out that she had missed rehearsals, she had missed her final callback for the lead in that TV show, which was supposed to be the Saturday. She'd missed a party. She'd missed a whole bunch of different things, but never two with the same group.

Which is why nobody really realized she was missing because, you know, it's November, December, people get busy, people don't manage to necessarily show up to things. So when you miss one party, your friends aren't concerned. They just figure something came up. So it wasn't until we realized how many days she had missed and how long nobody had heard from her.

Four days had passed, and no one had seen or heard from Shannon. I sent Shannon a couple of texts just saying, hey, are you around? I called her as well. There was no response, and that definitely wasn't normal. Her family and friends knew the 25-year-old had a lot on the go at the time. She was right in the middle of a split from her husband, Josh Burgess.

But even though they were separating, they were still close. He should know where she is. So Aaron sent him a text. I just said, hey, Josh, in case you don't listen to your messages, I thought I would text. Could you please let me know that Shannon is OK and safe? No one has heard from her and she never showed up at Stage West last night to meet Brett. I don't need details. I'm just worried.

He said, "We haven't spoken in a while, but I am her emergency contact for everything and I haven't received any calls." Also last time she was without her phone, her theatre friend checked in with me within a day. She mentioned a friend from Edmonton helping her because she felt uncomfortable driving the car in this weather.

At that time, Edmonton was just hit with a major snowstorm. Josh said Shannon had been searching for a place there so she could end what had become an unpredictable and often hazardous commute back and forth.

Josh and Shannon still technically lived together. And even though their split was amicable, they still tried hard to avoid being in the same place at the same time. Josh told Aaron he would check their place. She might have left a note or something to let him know where she'd gone. She often left him messages on a big whiteboard they had hung on their wall. Soon after, Josh told Aaron he found Shannon's cell phone.

There were a lot of missed calls and messages. Josh asked Erin if he should answer it the next time it rang. I said it couldn't hurt in case it's her calling her own phone. And then I said, "We will find her." And he said, "I hope so, Erin." Erin had exhausted every avenue she could think of to find her sister. And she decided it was time to call police.

Within days, investigators issued a plea to the public. The Calgary Police Service is seeking public assistance to locate a woman who went missing late last week. Shannon Medill, 25, was last seen by a family member at approximately 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 27, 2014 at her residence. Although there are no indications of foul play, it is out of character for her to not be in touch with family and friends. We are all concerned for her welfare.

Police said they were following up on several leads. But there was still no explanation for Shannon's sudden disappearance. As you know, every person has a huge electronic footprint. So we look into cell phone records, bank records, medical records, anything like that. Driving tickets, red light cameras will go every which direction we can think of to find her and where she's at right now.

The reason we're reaching out to the media is because we're hoping that with this media presence and with the publicity that somebody will know where she is and has seen her and could come forward with some information to help us in locating her. Police asked Shannon's family to attend the press conference as well. One by one, they walked onto a small stage in the media room of Calgary Police Headquarters. Erin smiled at reporters as she took her place at the microphone.

She became the family spokesperson. My name is Erin Medill, E-R-I-N, M as in Mary, A-D-I-L-L. I'm Shannon's older sister. Erin put on a brave face, but you could tell she was desperate for answers.

She introduced each of her family members who now stood behind her. This is Josh. This is Shannon's husband. This is my mother, Lisa. This is Lindsay, our sister-in-law. Our brother, Brett.

This is my other brother Tyler and that's my father David. You could see on every single one of their faces the family was incredibly stressed. No, she's never cut off contact. My sister is a very outgoing, very social girl. She very much enjoys spending time with friends. Even the previous weekend when she was in Edmonton, there were so many people that have told us that they were hanging out with her. So it is very

unbelievably unlikely for her to disappear and not actually contact anybody. At one point, Erin held up two photos of Shannon. This is my sister. She's a lovely outgoing girl. And Shannon, if you see this, please, you're not in trouble. We all love you and we miss you so much. We don't need to know where you are. We just want to know that you're safe. If you see this, please, please contact the police and just let us know that you're okay.

Erin said the family was trying to stay positive and hoped someone watching the news would know something and come forward with the answers. One of the worst parts about this whole experience is you have somebody that you love and you care about and you desperately want to find them and there's nothing you can do. It was nearly two weeks later before there was a major break in the case. Some photos were found attached to trees in a park in Calgary.

The pictures were of a woman, but her face was covered by her hair and flowers. It looked like it could be Shannon. The hair color was a match. It was enough to spur a massive search of the park, which wasn't an easy task. Fish Creek Provincial Park is one of the largest urban parks in Canada. It's over 13 square kilometers in size.

It's filled with paved and unpaved walking, hiking, and bike trails. There's a large man-made lake for swimming, and it's home to all sorts of wildlife, including deer, coyotes, and even mountain lions. Police spent two days scouring the area for clues. They even brought in a cadaver dog, dogs specially trained to find human remains. But investigators came up empty.

In the end, it turned out the photos were not related to Shannon's disappearance. It was just an eerie coincidence. The photos that looked so similar to the missing woman were part of an art project. The students involved came forward to officers after seeing the search on the news. Shannon was still missing. Days turned into weeks.

While Erin said the family was trying to stay optimistic, it was getting more and more difficult as time passed.

When you look at statistics, most likely when people go missing they come back. That's the most common outcome is somebody who wanted to disappear for a while for whatever reason. Then the second most likely is unfortunately suicide. Police tried to prepare Shannon's family for all possible outcomes. As time goes on you start to realize there's no way she's alive. She can't still be alive.

As the seasons changed and the weather warmed up, police searched the rivers. I tried to believe that she was in the river because for some reason that was the less sad outcome for me was that she had had an accident and somehow ended up in the river. So I actually became really obsessed with trying to walk up and down the river and see if I could find her. It was overpowering, just that desire to find her, to save her, to figure out what had happened. Every time a body was found,

My gut would just sink and I would wonder is this the one? Is this the time? Is this the phone call? But that phone call didn't come. There was no sign of Shannon. Where could she possibly be? And why hadn't they heard anything?

Erin said her mind would wander into some very dark places. It's so hard not to go to the absolute worst case scenario and the nightmares and I didn't sleep I would just have these horrible nightmares where she'd be chained in a basement somewhere screaming for me to help her. You have the cases where people have been kidnapped for 18 years and they show up. That was my biggest fear was it was going to be one of those scenarios where 10, 15 years later and you have no idea what happened to the person you love.

I want to take a minute here and go back to tell you a little bit more about Shannon. She was the youngest of three siblings. Her parents, David and Lisa Medill, said Shannon was born to perform. She loved the limelight. She was a ham even very early in her life. A spotlight and a microphone were her best friends and that was from the time she was at Tiny Little Things.

Shannon was exactly five and a half years younger than Erin to the day. She was sort of always my little shadow growing up, wanted to do everything I was doing, hang out with me all the time. I've gone through the photos taken during Shannon's childhood and found a consistent theme. She was always performing, whether she was striking a pose or dressed up in full costume.

She loved to be the centre of attention. My mom encouraged us to be artistic from a very, very young age. Life in the Medill family was always an adventure. Erin has endless stories of the trouble the two sisters would get into. I think she probably would have been about three because I think I was about eight. It was about March and we did this family trip and she was out on the ice and there were all these people watching and she ended up actually falling through the ice.

And yeah, at Lake's, Sylvan Lake I want to say it was. And anyways, yeah, so I happened to be holding her hand, so I didn't let go and then the adults came and picked her out. It was terrifying. The poor little thing was freezing cold. That was Shannon and Aaron's relationship. They were always there for each other. They could easily be mistaken for twins. They look remarkably alike.

Both have striking green eyes, slender builds, and beautiful complexions. Erin tells me Shannon was a miniature version of her. She was six inches shorter than Erin. The one thing that set them apart was their hair color. Erin is naturally blonde, while Shannon had fiery red hair, bold, just like her personality. Shannon was into everything, including music.

She played 15 instruments, including the French horn and the trombone. But it was the stage where she truly came alive. "The Queen! Beloved by my people, power behind the throat!" Shannon loved every part of acting, and audiences loved her. It seems no matter the circumstance, Shannon found a way to stand out.

When she graduated from high school, others had their names called and quietly accepted their diplomas. Shannon made a full stage entrance. "Shannon, adieu." Smiling and waving her arms in the air in that pumping, waving motion that Arsenio Hall made famous. She left the stage blowing kisses to the crowd. It was shortly after grad

that Shannon moved in with her big sister. She always loved the arts. She always wanted to be doing performing and such. But it took until she had the safety and the comfort of living at my house to actually quit her job and decide, I'm going to try to do this. She started doing a couple more auditions. She ended up doing a couple of, basically a lot of her stuff was book.

She would read books on audio tape and such. So it was the practical side of getting to perform which kind of paid the bills and then she was still doing all the auditions. Then at age 21, Shannon found love. I believe she was at a party with mutual friends and that's how she met Josh. And...

I believe he had a girlfriend at the time. So they kind of hit it off and she basically said the whole, "Oh, it's a shame you're seeing somebody." And he's like, "Yeah, it kind of is." And then he ended up contacting her. He got her phone number and information from the mutual friend after he'd broken up with his then girlfriend. Like just a very sweet, kind guy. He treated her really well.

Josh swept Shannon off her feet. And her family loved him as much as she did. He kind of just grew on everybody and they seemed to get along really great. He seemed to be absolutely head over heels in love with her and she seemed to really like him and

He was supportive of all the things that she wanted to do with her career and her moving forward. So it looked like it was a really good match. We're all of us quite loud and we can kind of talk all over each other and Josh was more happy to just sort of sit there and like I said with that grin of this is almost like somebody watching a movie. Because I think we're a lot to partake in. I think he was a little overwhelmed by the Medill show.

About two and a half years later, Shannon and Josh decided to get a place of their own. And soon after that, they tied the knot. They were getting more and more serious and actually the marriage came kind of out of nowhere. She just sort of told us on the Wednesday she was getting married on the Sunday. It was a very small, intimate wedding at the home of the Justice of the Peace who married them.

Only Shannon's parents and Josh's mom and sister were present for the ceremony. She had a cute little white dress and these dark tights and the white heels that she had and her hair was up and he wore a suit. There was one fairly significant detail that made their relationship different from most traditional marriages. Shannon and Josh made a mutual decision to have an open marriage. They would be

Erin said while many might find Shannon and Josh's arrangement strange,

It worked for them. Yeah, they seemed to really enjoy it. There really weren't any issues with it. It worked out really well for them. They just both had particular interests that they didn't want to have to limit themselves by a monogamous relationship. And both of them knew that they were both capable of having outside relationships.

that allowed them to feel like they were fulfilled in their life and desire. They both received what they needed from extra partners to make sure that they were being fulfilled and both of them had different needs from extra partners. Shannon and Josh each took advantage of the arrangement

only in different ways. They both had dating profiles, although hers was more, she would never actually actively look as much as if she developed a crush on somebody, then she could pursue the crush. He was more into the actively looking because what they were searching for was very different. He was more looking for a mistress. She was more looking for to have that crush to, you know, where you want to just kind of see what something's like for a night.

Basically, they were committed to each other, but not physically committed. At least that's how Aaron explained it to me. If Shannon was really busy with auditions, Josh would use that time to pursue someone else. Or, if Shannon developed a crush, she would pursue that. In their relationship, it wasn't considered cheating, and it was all openly discussed. Shannon even met Josh's girlfriends.

Even though they were both involved with other people,

It never affected their commitment to each other. They weren't trying to hide from the marriage or the relationship. It was just what worked for them. She actually was really happy with the way it was because it worked well for her. It took a lot of the pressure off, especially since she knew she was traveling around and she had a lot of extra, like, she liked to spend a lot of time with friends. She liked to be out a lot and Josh was a little bit more of a homebody. So it just made it so that they could both do the things that they really enjoyed in life without feeling left behind.

When they were together, Shannon and Josh would spend a lot of quiet time at home. They loved to watch TV together and game together. The one bump in their relationship happened in 2014, when Shannon began having problems with her health.

It was kind of an acute issue that came up. It was a health issue for Shannon that came up and they didn't know how they were going to work through it. They just disagreed on how they wanted to handle it, which led to a very childish type fight.

And that's when he first said he wanted a divorce and she called me at that point. She was pretty devastated. She called me up and we talked about how we were going to come through, work through it. But he came back the next day and he said that he actually wanted to try to work through it instead. He apologized and that's when they said, "Well, maybe we should close off the marriage so we can focus on us because we obviously have some issues we haven't been addressing." But closing the marriage wasn't easy.

It meant they would stop seeing other people entirely and focus on each other. That led to some major arguments. The open marriage isn't what caused the issues, but it's really hard to focus on something that's going south when you have distractions outside. From what Shannon told Aaron, Josh seemed torn.

He had a girlfriend that he really liked at the time and he wasn't ready to stop seeing her. I think he was also struggling with whether or not he actually did want to work through the marriage. So he kind of went back and forth over whether or not they were going to separate or whether or not he was going to close it off. And he basically kept telling both women that he was going to be with them. He basically tried to juggle both of them at that point in time. Shannon reached out to Josh's mistress. They knew each other.

Shannon explained what was going on and asked her to give them some space so they could work on their marriage. But Erin said that didn't happen and Shannon felt betrayed. There were two week-long cycles in there where he would say, he would say it's over, then he would say no, let's try to work it out. They would say, okay, let's close it off. He would say it's closed, then she'd find out a week later it wasn't. And then basically that repeated twice. She found out on his phone. She saw a message come through.

Shannon was conflicted. She loved Josh, but she didn't want to share him anymore. And he wasn't ready to leave either woman in his life. It wasn't the physical that bothered her, it was the lying to her that she had a really hard time with. The fact that he was telling her one thing and doing another and she couldn't trust him, that was the hard part. And even when she asked him to close it off, she didn't say forever, just, well, we sort out our stuff. We need to focus on each other. We can't have distractions.

And I just basically told her that make a pro/con list and whatever she chose, all 100% support. She was very unsure about what she wanted at that point in time. She was heartbroken. She wanted to stay with him, but she also didn't want to be with somebody she couldn't trust. At that time, Shannon was also dealing with the pressures of being a struggling actress. She had made a promise to herself.

She needed to make it soon or she'd have to consider going back to school and getting a real job. Shannon shared all of these stresses with Aaron in mid-November 2014, in the weeks before she went missing. She was angry, she was hurt, but she knew she had options. I gave her a hug, told her I loved her and told her to let me know what she wanted.

Erin had no idea that would be the last time she would ever speak with her sister. No, God no. Not, oh, I just got goosebumps. Not at all. No hint whatsoever. Police had worked tirelessly to try and find Shannon. By May of 2015, nearly six months had passed with no sign of her. That's when Calgary Police Detective Christina Witt took over the case.

At the time, Witt was working in the missing persons unit, but she'd worked in homicide before that. Witt's been a police officer for nearly 20 years. She's a determined and tenacious investigator.

Other detectives describe her as someone who will explore every possible avenue to solve a case. She's smart and hardworking. As time progressed, then obviously there was more suspicion because she hadn't surfaced anywhere. There was no real, what we would consider footprints of life, like her bank records or social media, her phone activity. None of that had surfaced since November 27th when she went missing. So all of that starts to raise the level of suspicion.

Witt went over every detail of the case and decided she needed to look back at all of the people in Shannon's life. She was going up to Edmonton on a semi-regular basis for work and had some issues.

People that she was seeing on a personal level up there, we had to look into that as well. Could this have been foul play after all? As well, Josh was dating a woman. We had to look at her as well and see, you know, was there some kind of resentment or something and she had harmed her. So once we were trying to cover everything off initially and we really had no one clear direction at the start. Was Shannon and Josh's open marriage coming back to bite them?

A case of a woman scorned? Who would harm Shannon? To find that out, police would have to conduct further searches and seize a long list of items for forensic examination.

But to do that, they would need warrants. You can't just get a court order unless you've identified an offence. And because we had no evidence of foul play, we couldn't just walk into a courthouse either and say, oh look, within the first two weeks, we believe she's been murdered. We didn't have that information to support those orders. Early on in the case, police made numerous neighbourhood inquiries and searched for Shannon anywhere they could think of.

Being the closest one to Shannon, Josh also had to answer a lot of questions. Police said he was always cooperative. They searched the home he had shared with Shannon twice. They found nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing suspicious. And Josh was forthcoming with information.

He did four different interviews with investigators. We had gotten her bank records and stuff too, so we were able to timeline where she had been. And it did seem consistent with the last place was her house at midnight, kind of early morning hours. And Josh had said that he'd been dropped off by his girlfriend at the time, and we had interviewed her, and that was all consistent. But Witt said something wasn't adding up.

The fact that her phone and her wallet were at the house and her keys and her dog, those are all things that were not typical behavior for someone to leave. But at the same time, if someone's suicidal, we don't know, maybe that is their intention to not be found as well. So there are inconsistencies, but as each piece alone, it really doesn't point us in any direction. But as time, time was a big factor. As time kept going and there's no footprints of life, our suspicion increased.

Again, when detectives refer to footprints of life, they're talking about digital footprints, including bank transactions, emails, texts, any normal activities that show someone is still alive. In Shannon's case, that stopped right at about 12.30 a.m. on November 27, 2014.

By May, investigators got a court order to search Josh's home again. They seized his cell phone and Shannon's car. The day that we went to execute those search warrants is when everything really unraveled. Witt said what happened next was the last thing she expected. In her lengthy career as a police investigator, this was not the norm. Myself and another homicide investigator attended the house.

and did a door knock to speak to Josh. But Josh wasn't answering. Witt finally got him on the phone. For 10 minutes, she tried to get him to come out. He hadn't come out yet, but he's on the phone, and he blurted out to me that he killed Shannon, that he killed his wife. At that point, Josh was still in the house, and he wasn't coming out.

It was a risky situation for everyone involved. And the last thing anyone wanted was a standoff. And things were escalating by the minute. So it transitioned from us going there to just seize some phones to now we're negotiating for him to get out of the house safely so he's not harming himself or whatever could happen, right, harming us.

Witt kept Josh on the phone and tried to negotiate to get him to surrender peacefully. An hour and 20 minutes later, he finally came out. He was covered in blood. He was naked except for some underwear and he was covered in blood. So we found out after, during the course of speaking to me, he was trying to cut his neck, or he was cutting his neck, and had injured himself. Josh was arrested.

But he was also in need of medical attention. So, he was released from custody, taken by ambulance to hospital, where he stayed overnight. He was rearrested the following day and taken to Calgary Police Headquarters.

But by then, he was no longer interested in making a confession. It's different to tell me on the phone, and I'm not recording that conversation, right? We're always looking for best evidence, and the best evidence was for him in a controlled environment where it's video audio recorded to say his information, and that hadn't happened. Josh was put into an interview room that had a small table and chairs. He was wearing a yellow golf shirt and blue hospital scrubs.

He looked scruffy. He hadn't shaved in a few days, and it appeared like he hadn't been sleeping. Before I go any further, I should tell you that what you're about to hear has never been made public before. This is the actual recording of an interview by homicide detectives with Josh. I had to apply to the court and have a judge agree to let me use the interview for this podcast.

The sound quality isn't great, and Josh speaks softly, so you really have to listen carefully. Detective Kurt Jacobs was the first to try to get Josh to open up. Jacobs has been a police officer for more than 20 years. He's friendly and calm, and you could tell he was trying to build Josh's trust. Hey, Josh. Hey. Doing all right?

Consider I'm Curt. But before we start, I need to read you something and this is called a secondary caution because you're here in a police facility and you're under arrest, okay? So regardless of anything that anyone has said to you or you have said to any other person in authority, you are not obligated to say anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say may be given in evidence. You understand that? I understand. All right.

Now, I understand you spoke with a lawyer, is that correct? Two, actually. Told me not to say anything. Despite that legal advice he'd been given, he kept talking to Detective Jacobs. He told the officer he was a military kid and moved around a lot before moving to Calgary when he was in grade two. What did you do for hobbies and interests? I was a video game kid. Video games? Yeah. Yeah? What kind of games did you play?

Strategy. Starcraft. Warcraft. Oh yeah. About an hour later, the conversation finally moved to Shannon. And you know, this is, I mean, going on since November 2014. And it's building, been building, been building. Places have slowly been gathering evidence. These files are very complicated and they take a significant amount of time.

and the amount of stress and burden on your shoulders must be very heavy. But I know that Shannon's dead and I also know that you're responsible for her death. I know that definitively. Josh didn't answer. He just sat there, his head down in his arms which were folded on the table. And that's why you're here today, Josh. That's why you're under arrest for murder. It's important for you to know that police have evidence.

Another hour passed. At one point, Detective Jacobs started flipping through a file folder. Have a look at that, buddy. That is currently where the police are. They have your house locked down. They've searched your house. They've searched the area. He also handed Josh a photo of Shannon, one of her headshots.

Josh stared at it as if she was there in person with her fiery red hair and her piercing green eyes gazing up at him. What's going through your head, buddy? I really miss her. You miss her? Yeah. Good luck on this picture and tell me what you would say to her if you could. Same thing I always said to her. Yeah, what was that? That I love her very much. That you love her very much.

Two hours later, detectives were well into the wee hours of the next day. They were all exhausted. But these homicide detectives somehow looked fresh and full of energy, even after several days of very little sleep. On TV shows, detectives are often portrayed as weathered or haggard-looking.

I can tell you the detectives at the Calgary Police Service are kind of the opposite. They're known for their dapper or stylish attire. Honestly, they all kind of come across as rock stars. Attractive, intelligent, and commanding attention. Hi, Josh. Hi. How are you doing? All right. Pretty stressed? Yeah. Tired. Tired.

At this point, Detective Witt took over questioning. Do you remember who I am? Christina from yesterday. Thank you for talking to me. Josh was referring to the lengthy phone conversation he had with Witt when she tried to get him to come out of his home. I'm sorry I made you go through that. I was trying to buy time to bleed out.

That was a bit of an exaggeration. While Josh had been bleeding and did require a few stitches, his self-inflicted cut was not a life-threatening injury. Witt took her time with Josh and patiently tried to get him to open up again, as he had on the phone when he confessed in the first place. You can tell me, do the right thing for Shannon and tell me.

But Josh wasn't willing to talk about it anymore. Detectives decided it was time to let Josh sleep. A mattress and blankets were brought into the room. Hey Josh, it's been a long evening with us. So we have a snooze. The cadaver dogs are finding...

Did you hear that? Cadaver dogs were at Josh's house. And while that was happening, Josh settled in and made himself comfortable. He was left alone to sleep for eight hours.

The next morning, Detective Jacobs woke Josh up with a bagel and coffee in hand. Did you get any sleep? I think so. Jacobs had another folder with him. He pulled out a photo. We have Shannon's body. She's been recovered. But there's no doubt you're responsible for the death of Shannon. We have evidence. You've already admitted to killing her. Her body's been recovered on your property.

Police found Shannon. She had been at their home all along. That's when Josh broke down. Can you put your head up for a few minutes? Listen, I know this is tough, Josh. I know it's difficult for you, but I realize that. Very difficult. This went on for a couple of hours. At noon, Jacobs left again.

While alone in the room, Josh stared at Shannon's headshot and started whispering. He spoke directly to Shannon and said he loved her. A short time later, at 10 a.m. on July 4, 2015, a third officer took over the interview. I'm a detective with the Homicide Unit.

Detective Ray Bangloy is a veteran police investigator and Witt's current partner. He's well known for his interview skills. There's something about him and his demeanor that just makes people open up. He's charming and likable, and he has a way of making people feel at ease. And he's well known for getting offenders to confess.

Bangloy had the green light from the prosecutor to charge him, but he wanted to give Josh another chance to tell his side of the story. I want to give closure to the victim's family, right? To Aaron, to Lisa. I got to know them a little bit yesterday, right? I did speak to your mom, Debbie. Josh stared at the photo of Shannon while Bangloy spoke. I'm not here to judge you.

Slowly, Josh revealed graphic details of the crime. On November 26th, the day before she disappeared, Shannon was already in the midst of moving out. She got a job offer in Edmonton, and she was taking it. Early the next morning, just after midnight, she was watching TV. That's when Josh came home. I came home, and I had a really nice night out.

It was calming. I need to warn you, Josh's confession is extremely disturbing and difficult to hear. At times, he whispered, so you really have to listen hard to hear what he said. I came home, she was on the couch, I was watching stupid Johnny Depp. And I just asked her if she wanted to have angry makeup sex. And we did, and I was happy.

It was pretty rough. And I told her we didn't have to do that. I could just make love. She thought I said break up sex. She got so mad at me. Josh continued to whisper the details. If you missed that, he said they ended up having sex, but soon after, they got into an argument. What type of mean things did she say to you that night? She said she regretted marrying me. She said she regretted marrying you.

She could have done all this on her own. She could have done what on her own? Her career. She didn't need me. Shannon told Josh she didn't need him. And that's when things took a violent turn. He put his hand over Shannon's mouth. I just wanted her to stop. You wanted her to stop talking? Yeah. But what was she saying? She never wanted to. She never wanted to see you again? No. Said she was disgusted touching me.

She said she was disgusted touching him. Over and over, Josh told Bangalore he just wanted Shannon to stop talking. What else did she do? What else did she say? I didn't let her say anything else. You didn't let her say anything else? No. Why? I'm so ashamed. I'm so angry. And what happened? I put my hand over her mouth and she bit me.

Bloody murder. She bit you? She screamed. And she screamed? I just wanted her to do it. I hurt her. I just couldn't. I put my hands around her neck. Put your hands around her neck? Yeah. I killed her with my hands. But my hands got tired. I used the belt. I don't know why. You used the belt? I don't know why. It just didn't stop.

I just don't. Why? I don't know. I don't know. He choked her until she was lifeless. And for hours after that, Josh went through every single detail, right down to the show that was on TV.

The movie Shannon was watching when he got home had ended, and a new movie was well underway. What movie was played? Adam's Family Values. I don't know why it didn't stop. I don't know why it didn't stop. I don't know. Shannon was gone. Murdered by Josh.

At that point, Josh had a problem. A major problem. He had just killed the woman he loved. And people were going to wonder what happened to her. Yeah, I don't think I slept. I just went to work. I knew I needed to be normal. Yeah. Went to work. He still loved Shannon. He didn't want to get rid of her body. He wanted to keep her close.

Josh kept Shannon at their home for the entire seven months she was missing. While police had searched the house more than once, they never looked inside the storage containers on the back porch. He kept her body in one of the large plastic bins right there on his patio. Put her in a bin. Yeah. Where's the bin now? I threw it out. You threw it out? Where?

If you missed that, Josh said he had only moved her body two weeks earlier. He threw the plastic bin into a dumpster and buried her in their yard. Now, let's just take a minute to think about this.

Not only did Josh kill the woman he loved and married, he kept her body just 20 feet from the couch he sat on to play video games every night. Every day for nearly seven months, Shannon's body was on their back porch sealed in a plastic container.

He said he put bags of empty bottles all around it so no one would notice. It would just look like storage. He never spoke about the crime to any friends, and he kept it hidden from her family. They had no idea of the secret he carried. To everyone else, it just appeared he had carried on with his life. He wasn't acting strangely. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

He maintained his silence right up until that day he blurted his confession out to Detective Witt. He even stood with the family as they made a plea to the public for help at the police press conference, knowing the whole time exactly where Shannon was. How could someone possibly do that?

It's hard to think the guilt wouldn't eat him up and he would have to tell someone, anyone to ease his conscience. I chose my mom because I just didn't want her to leave. I didn't want to hide her. He didn't want her to leave. In hindsight, neighbors said they were called seeing Josh digging and brushed it off thinking he must be doing some sort of a yard project.

Josh told police he had a plan to eventually confess, but when Detective Witt showed up at his home with a warrant, he panicked and blurted out what he had done. I was out of money. I was going to write everyone a letter. I even started on errands. It's in my pile of papers somewhere. Sorry, you even started on who? Errands. Hers was most important to me. After I sent them, I was going to kill myself.

I think he was overwhelmed by the events and he had said to us that his plan was to

commit suicide himself and leave a note for the family where they could find Shannon's body. And he very much cared about the family and he was very remorseful for the pain he had caused them. And he was missing Shannon a lot. Shannon's family was devastated by the news. It was like a punch in the gut. I thought I had rationalized that she was never coming home, but it wasn't until they actually said that they'd found her that I

that I couldn't believe anymore that I was never going to see her again. It was hard for Erin to think she'd walked right past her sister's body on several occasions. It just looked like storage. And I'd been in that house, I'd seen where she was, and I can tell you it didn't look like anything. Shannon's big brother, Tyler Medill, said the family felt completely betrayed.

I think he has some sense of remorse, but I don't think he really understands the gravity of what he's put us through. I think it's something that we've all kind of had to weigh, you know, the sense of betrayal of him sitting with us, conversing with us. And, you know, that I think just makes it that much more difficult to process. On the eve of his trial for second-degree murder, Josh Burgess pleaded guilty.

He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. No sentence would ever be sufficient to make up for the loss we've endured. There's a big difference between justice and fair. It will never be fair. We're never going to get her back. Erin told me she still struggles with how she feels towards Josh. You might be surprised to learn she doesn't hate him. She hates what he did. It was torture for us. It was really, really hard. But...

I can also understand what else was he going to do. I mean, I don't think he was mature enough to actually accept responsibility because it's hard to accept responsibility. But the second he made that decision to not admit to what he'd done the day he killed her, every day he sort of cemented himself further and further into not being able to tell. Aaron believes Josh regrets what he did. He apologized in court. I honestly have...

Such mixed feelings when it comes to him. I have, it's almost like there are three different people for me. There's the person he was before this happened, the person who did this, and the person he's been ever since. The person he was before this happened was a great guy who I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with and I thought was a great partner for my sister while it lasted. Aaron plans to attend his future parole hearings. Not necessarily to stop him from getting out,

But to find out if he's taken any steps towards making amends for what he's done. If he can show remorse, if he can show that he's become a better person, if he can dedicate his life to trying to make society a better place for what, to make up for what he's taken, then I support him being out on parole someday. I have some questions that only he can answer. A lot of the things that I've struggled with is a general sense of safety.

I'm curious to know if he ever thought he had it in him beforehand because obviously none of us ever thought he had it in him. I'm curious to know if he knew he did. Detectives Witt and Bangloy have gone to visit Josh in prison. They don't believe he set out intending to kill Shannon that fateful morning. Yeah, I think it was a crime of passion. I don't think, you know, that he had...

planned anything out. I think everything escalated and then he took it to a very grave level. You always think to yourself that you're going to be able to be the one who sees that wolf in sheep's clothing and you can't is the real answer to this. Each of Shannon's loved ones have dealt with their grief differently and each has their own feelings towards Josh.

This is Shannon's mother, Lisa. I want to be done with him. I don't want to think about him. I don't want to think about what happened. I don't think that's possible, but that's how I feel. My heart has a little dark...

dead area in it that will never recover. The true impact of Josh's actions will be felt for years, even decades to come. It's been the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with. I will continue to do my best to just be thankful for the 25 years that we did have. I just, I still feel selfish, I guess, that I wanted more.

I don't think there will ever be a day that will go by where I won't think about her. Just, I'm finally now starting to think about her and smile as opposed to it feeling like horror every time I think of her. They treasure the home videos they have of Shannon, where even for just a few minutes, she comes to life on screen. On her final audition tape, the one I played for you at the beginning of this episode, Shannon signs off saying goodbye.

A fitting end to the audition, but also the only goodbye her family ever got to hear. So yeah, that's me. Are we good? Thanks. I'm gonna go.

Thank you for joining me this week and for letting me share Shannon's story with you. Next time on Crime Beat. I grew up 30 minutes down the road from one of Canada's most horrific crimes. I was five years old the night it happened in a town of less than 500 people. And then the constable came and...

He took Walt up the highway and around and checked some culverts and that sort of thing. And I can remember standing at the door and the light hit the yellow stripe on his pants. And to this day, when I see that, it just brings everything right back. 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, with editing assistance from Tom Andriuk and Vildo Sturrum. If you like this podcast, please tell a friend about the show and help me share these stories by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

You can reach me on Twitter at Nancy Hixt, on Facebook at Nancy Hixt Crime Beat, or email me at nancy.hixt at globalnews.ca. I hope to see you next time.