Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America.
because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event, premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR. A listener's note. This podcast contains coarse language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised. As a journalist, I cover some of the worst crimes imaginable.
I try not to let what I see and report on get to me, but sometimes it's impossible. The story I'm going to tell you today is probably one of the most difficult cases I've ever covered. And if I'm being fully honest, I've struggled to put this episode together. I've started a few times and then had to stop.
It's a devastating case, and in covering it, I've gotten to know the family of the two victims really well. They've opened up their doors, their homes, their lives, and their hearts to me as they struggle to cope with a loss no one should ever have to experience. 3, 2, 1.
I'm Nancy Hixt, a crime reporter for Global News. On this episode of Crime Beat, the story of an inseparable duo. A young mother and her little girl who loved to dance and lived every single moment to the fullest. This is the story of Sarah and Talia. ♪
It was July of 2016 in Calgary, Alberta and the Calgary Stampede was in full swing. If you aren't familiar with the Stampede, it's better known as the greatest outdoor show on earth. For 10 days every July, the city turns into a total party town, country style.
People from all over the world come to Calgary to experience the Old West. It attracts more than a million visitors per year. It's a sea of denim, belt buckles and boots. And above all that, cowboy hats on every head. Those iconic white cowboy hats Calgary is known for. But in 2016, the celebration was overshadowed by tragedy.
A horrific discovery was made at a townhouse in a Calgary suburb. A woman was found dead, violently killed. A young single mother named Sarah Bailey. The discovery devastated her family and everyone who knew her. But there was more. Sarah's five-year-old daughter, Talia Marsman, was missing. Talia, honey, if you're watching this, love you.
Stay strong, honey. Please, if you have Talia, please let her come home to her family. She will be found. It's no matter what time. An Amber Alert was issued province-wide, and the frantic search for the little girl began. Before I go any further, to properly tell the story of Sarah and Talia, I need to take you back a few years. Back to the fall of 1981.
That's when Sarah Bailey came into this world. From the day she was born, she had the biggest smile and an even bigger personality.
Sarah didn't like to go to sleep. She wanted to be where the action was, and she would stay up all hours just giggling to herself. She never stopped talking. Her parents remember that even before she knew words, she would go on and on in her own nonstop baby babble. Sarah had a mind of her own. When Sarah...
had got something in her head, there was no way that you were going to get it out of there. She was very determined. That's Sarah's mother, Janet. She also loved to follow around her big brother, Michael. Me and Sarah had, you know, a typical brother-sister relationship, you know. I'd do anything for her, she would do anything for me.
Sarah was also really close with her extended family, especially her aunt Mary Lynn. She was never a girly girl. You know, she would get right down into the mud with the rest of them. And she always thought she was tougher than rock. Nothing was ever going to hurt her. Mary Lynn is married to Scott Hamilton. They have two kids, Alex and Justin. You know, they had such a special relationship.
Sarah and Alex and Justin, Sarah would have done anything for my kids. Even when Sarah was 18, 19, 20, you know, typically those kids don't have any interest in little kids, right? Sarah always made time for Alex and Justin and she always included them in everything if she was
doing something or running around with her friends, you know, she always had either Alex, Justin, or both. She would always have us like on our bikes or playing music and dancing or doing crafts, like always entertaining us somehow. And then as we got older, our relationship definitely grew. That's Alex, Sarah's cousin.
If you haven't already noticed, this is a very large but incredibly close-knit family. And to Sarah, family was everything. Sarah and my Aunt Janet, there was one point where they actually moved in with us and they lived in our basement for...
I don't know how long, but I remember that being just like the best time ever. My parents probably have something different to say about that because Sarah was, I think she was probably fresh 18. So she was like out partying, coming home late. But it was the best. I was probably nine, eight or nine. And I just like wanted to be in the basement all the time, like hanging out with Sarah. Sarah loved music. Her favorite artist was Michael Jackson.
I mean, if there was a Michael Jackson song on the radio at our place or playing, you know, on the stereo, she'd start bopping to it. That's Scott. Sarah was known for her dance moves. She had her own way of dancing almost, like Elaine from Seinfeld in a couple of scenes.
Whenever Sarah could, she was dancing or singing. And honestly, she was awful at it. She could not dance to save her life. I don't think her mom ever put her in a single dance class. She would always put on Michael Jackson and always be dancing around the living room or dancing around the kitchen, just working it out the best way she knew how. And that's pretty much how Sarah lived her life. Always taking the time to sing or dance like no one was watching.
Sarah was fun-loving. She was vivacious. She just, she loved life. If there was a party, she would attend it. If there wasn't a party, she would create it. Sarah pursued several career paths, but mostly worked as a server.
She was making more money as a waitress and once you're in that cycle as being a waitress or a server I should say it's very difficult to get out because it's cash. It's cash on a daily basis and you just don't get that on a regular paycheck. As Sarah got older she remained forever a family girl.
And when her mom eventually moved out east to retire in PEI, her relationship with her auntie Mary Lynn became even stronger. There were times through the course of a work day that I would leave the house and Mary Lynn would be on the phone with Sarah in the morning. I would get home from the office in the evening. Mary Lynn would be on the phone with Sarah.
and then Sarah would show up for supper. So the connection to Mary Lynn was huge. It was when Sarah was in her late 20s that she met a guy that caught her interest. His name was Colin Marsman. Colin was two years older than Sarah. He was tall, dark, and handsome. And it seemed he had it all.
I remember meeting Colin the first time Sarah had brought him over to our house. I remember seeing him get out of the car. He was a big guy, a whole lot bigger than her. And you know, he seemed nice enough. He was sociable. He could carry on a conversation. I think he probably was nervous to meet us in the beginning.
Just like we were nervous to meet him. Sarah was swept off her feet. She fell head over heels in love with Colin. It wasn't long before the couple announced they were going to have a baby. She was ready to have a baby. She wanted a baby so badly. So she was, yeah, over the moon.
She was massive when she got pregnant. And, like, if you knew Sarah, she was this tiniest little thing. Like, maybe weighed 115 pounds, like, was my height, 5'4". But just, like, always so, so, like, scraggly and thin. Like, could never put on weight. Like, would eat McDonald's five times a week, but could never gain a single pound. Like, she was so skinny. And then when she got pregnant, she was massive.
Like she was huge. She put on so much weight, but she was just like, she was probably the happiest pregnant person I've ever seen in my whole life. On September 8th, 2010, Talia Lee Marsman was born. I was there to help bring Talia into the world. And that was the happiest day of my life. She had no hair. She was so cute.
Just a little bundle of joy. I think she weighed about six and a half, seven pounds, and she just seemed so tiny. Everyone in the family instantly fell in love with Talia. This is Justin, Sarah's other cousin. I wouldn't be able to stop looking into her eyes. Like, she had the most beautiful eyes. Talia became the center of Sarah's universe. Talia was the light of her life.
When she had Talia, they were just like instant best friends attached to the hip ever since day one. But not everything was so perfect with the new family. Sarah and Colin's relationship was rocky and getting worse by the day. Soon after Talia was born, Sarah moved out and took Talia with her. She was three months old when they came to live with us.
for a couple of months until Sarah got her feet on the ground and was able to get her own place. And I loved having them. Oh my gosh, I loved having them there. So, you know, to give Sarah a break, we were always more than willing to take Talia anytime. A lot of times when they weren't living with us, I would call Sarah and say, I need some Talia time. You know, it was funny because I would say that to Talia. She would say, well, why are you picking me up today?
And I said, ah, I just needed some Talia time. She said, good, because I needed some Auntie time. She was really cute. There was some back and forth over the next few months. But the relationship was volatile. It was an on and off again relationship, to put it mildly. They just, for the most part, I think they were like firing gasoline.
And the two together, when things were possibly going sideways, the relationship became mercurial. It was bombastic. It wasn't long before the relationship ended for good.
By then, Talia was about two years old. They did everything together. Like, everything. Sarah would go get her nails done and Talia would get, like, a little manicure when she was, like, three. Because they just, like, did everything together. They were best friends. Talia loved nothing more than hanging out with her mom. But what's also super interesting is she didn't have, like, weird, um...
separation anxiety. Like she could go to school and daycare and like she wasn't one of those kids that had a hissy fit or would cry when mom left. Like even being dropped off at our house, she was always like, "Okay, here we go. We're gonna play. We're gonna do whatever." Just like, "Bye mom. Love you." But there was nothing she loved more than when Sarah came back to pick her up. That was like she was always so happy.
Sarah made sure Talia would spend time with her father. Her and Colin had a casual verbal custody arrangement. Sarah wanted Colin to be a part of Talia's life. She wanted Talia to have a dad. But money became a huge strain on their already broken relationship. He did give her some money, but it was erratic. It wasn't...
She worked triple time so she could give Talia the stuff that every other kid had. When Sarah was at work, Talia would spend some time in daycare and a lot of time at her Auntie Mary Lynn's.
My favorite memory of Talia is she would walk into our house, either Sarah dropped her off or my mom would pick her up, and she would come into our house and she would race up the stairs to my bedroom and bust the door open to see if I was in there because that's when I was 18, 19 and liked my alone time and liked to just isolate myself in my room.
but Talia would find me no matter what. And she'd come in and she'd just like lay on my bed with me and we'd just like hang out, watch movies, listen to music and just like talk about her day and what she did at daycare or like what she did at school today. Sarah just made it work. Juggling being a single mom with spending as much time as possible with Talia.
Talia was also a very busy little girl. She loved getting into any kind of adventure possible, whether it was jumping into puddles with her uncle Mikey or dancing with her cousin Alex. Alex has been involved in dance her entire life, and she's a teacher at a local dance studio. So as you would expect, all of Talia's dance fees were covered. At first,
Talia was a little bit shy of going on stage, but it didn't take long for her to shake those nerves off. She got on stage and she just looked like she was having the best time. Like, she was just smiling, like, probably doing the wrong dance move, but it didn't matter. She was in her own world, just rocking it out. If you can picture Talia, dressed to match all the other girls, in a pink dance leotard,
They were supposed to be tapping their little feet along with the music. That stomping you hear is Talia. She had the biggest smile, and you could tell she loved every single minute of dance class with Alex. Here we go. One.
One thing that really stood out about Talia was her infectious giggle. Once she started, everyone couldn't help but laugh along. Oh, I don't like that one. Oh, that one is so cute.
Talia loved her iPad. It was her prized possession. When she started to learn to text or FaceTime, I'd get these nonsense. She couldn't spell, she couldn't write. All she could do is figure out how to send a text on her iPad or a message. And you'd get these crazy texts. They made no sense at all. And then she learned how to FaceTime. That was a lot of fun for her.
And then she figured out how to record on it. So she would, I think I have one video of her. She's just sitting down talking about her day, recorded herself on the iPad. She would record herself doing all sorts of things, including reading her favorite books. All of the boxes.
Talia loved the movie Frozen. So anything Frozen, she could literally recite the entire movie to you without it being even on, on the TV. She knew every line, she knew every lyric to every song. That was her favorite movie. I think she watched it about eight times a day.
But she loved it, and she never got sick of it. That was just her favourite uplifting thing to sing. There's a video of her at the concert from the daycare where she got up on stage with another little girl. Let it go, let it go. She can slam the door. Don't care what they're going to say.
Like so many kids, one of her other favorite things to do was ride her bike. Her auntie Mary Lynn was helping her out. First, with training wheels. All right, keep going. My mom sees it. The way I can do home by myself. Yeah, that's what she's going to say. She's going to be proud of me. Yeah. Until I wasn't scared. No. Woo!
Really, Talia became the center of the entire family. She could make anyone smile simply by walking into the room. At that time, Sarah worked as many hours as possible. She was a server at Chili's Restaurant at the Calgary airport. She loved it. She really did enjoy her job there and the people that she worked with. She became special.
so close with her co-workers there at Chili's. And I think she was slowly getting more responsibility in that job where she was taking over more of the managerial positions. As much as she loved the job, she needed the money. Well, you know, in all honesty and transparency, there were periods of time where Colin went absent for three months. Sarah couldn't get a hold of him.
But even though he wasn't always around, one thing was perfectly clear: Talia loved her daddy. She was over the moon. She was so totally excited to see him. And I think it was not only the fact that he was there, but also the fact that she had another family to go visit, of which you can see in pictures.
This is one of the really difficult things that often happens when there's a breakup and kids are involved. The child can get caught in the middle. When he made time, I believe he was the consummate dad. He made every effort when he had Talia to make those times special, whether it was going to the zoo or going to the science center. Whatever he had to do, he did.
It was all very heartfelt. And I mean, she loved her father. There's no doubt about that. But Sarah's family said he was very on again, off again when it came to being a dad and couldn't be counted on. He got to see Talia every other weekend. But 90% of the time he would cancel or he would bail. He would say, I can't see Talia this weekend. So he was a...
essentially. He saw Talia maybe once a month over the past two years of her life, but...
Before that, when she was like between one and three, I don't think he saw her at all. He just dropped off the face of the earth. But court records show Colin claimed he wanted to be more involved in his daughter's life than he was being permitted to. Then, in February of 2015, Colin Marsman was arrested following a domestic incident with Sarah. They got into a fight.
She was in the car. He wouldn't let her out of the car. She called 911. The police showed up, separated them. Unfortunately, Talia was there to witness all of it. They put Colin in handcuffs. Anyway, at the end of it, there was a restraining order where if Colin were to see Talia,
He had to pick her up from our place. She could not stop talking about it to Mary Lynn, saying, Daddy was handcuffed and he was put in a police car and does that make him a bad person? And of course, Mary Lynn being the cuckoo
He was charged with unlawful confinement and threatening violence to prevent Sarah from using her cell phone to call police.
Then, two months later, he was charged again with threatening Sarah. Eventually, the first charges from February were withdrawn, and Colin was convicted of threatening to cause injury or damage to Sarah. He was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine and sentenced to follow a peace bond for one year.
Colin was ordered to have no contact with Sarah except through text to facilitate visits with Talia. At this point, custody arrangements were ordered by the courts. Sarah had custody of Talia and Colin was allowed to see his daughter every other weekend. Then, according to court documents filed in January 2016,
Colin stated he was being denied access to see Talia. He said that Sarah had relocated and wouldn't let him know where his daughter was. He claimed he had asked over 50 times. Colin also asked to have his child support payments reduced and asked that his payments of arrears could be reduced to $50 per month.
Things came to a head in July of 2016. Colin took Sarah to court over those child support payments. I drove her to the courthouse because Colin had initiated an action through family court to have his monthly support payments reduced, of which once the judge learned of all his income, she said, no, in fact, I'm upping it.
of which he was irate. Colin was ordered to pay $425 a month child support and $150 per month for what he owed in arrears. Sarah didn't have time to dwell on the blow-up with Colin at court. She had a busy work schedule, and with Stampede starting in town, she took Talia to her work where there was a special Western display.
Talia had her photo taken, wearing a denim shirt with little white stars all over it and of course, a cowboy hat, complete with a whistle on the strap. She rode a hobby horse for the picture. She had the biggest smile. Sarah shared the photos on Instagram with the caption, Happy Stampede. That weekend, Scott and Mary Lynn headed out west to the mountains,
They were excited to see Blue Rodeo in concert in Banff. That's when they got a call from Talia. We had gotten a call from Talia, a FaceTimed call. She was crying at the time. She had bumped her tooth and was bleeding. She said we needed to come back, that I needed to help her fix her tooth. Mary Lynn is a dental hygienist, and Talia said her auntie would know how to make her tooth better.
So I told her I couldn't come back, but that she'd be okay and that I'd see her the next day. She seemed to be okay with that. Then it wasn't long after that I got another call from her and the tooth had come out. She had wiggled the tooth out enough that it came out and she was happy. She was laughing and so excited that the tooth fairy was coming. And so I ended that conversation that all was good in the world.
What no one knew at that time was the next day, July 11th, 2016, their entire world would fall apart. So that day started out us driving back from Banff. We had plans to go to the Stampede later that afternoon to see Huey Lewis and the news. So we got back from Banff. I hadn't heard from Sarah that morning.
But she knew we were away and I knew, thought at that time she would already have been at work. The couple was enjoying the warm summer air at the Stampede Grounds and Huey Lewis in the news had just taken the stage. That's when Mary Lynn started getting messages from her daughter Alex who was away working as a nanny in Italy. She said, "Can you call Sarah? She didn't go to work." So I did. There was no answer.
This is unusual for Sarah. Sarah doesn't miss a shift. Even when she's sick, she comes in. And so no one knows where Sarah is. Because of the time difference between Calgary and Italy, Alex was about to go to bed. But before she did, she asked her mom to check on Sarah. I don't think Sarah has missed a day of work in her life.
30 years of being alive. I was like, "Oh, that's weird." Either she didn't know she was scheduled or she thought she was scheduled at a different time or she's just homesick. One of those, just... I literally had no idea. I think I got a call from the daycare or I called the daycare to see if Talia was there. That's when we realized that Talia wasn't. In the beginning it was just Sarah never showed up at work. At that point I think we still thought that Sarah was at the day or Talia was at the daycare.
until I called to find out if Talia was there. Talia wasn't there, which I thought was odd. It was strange that Sarah wouldn't have taken her to daycare. Sarah wasn't answering calls or texts. And at this point, her friends and co-workers were getting worried. Scott and Mary Lynn were still at the concert, so they called their son Justin to go check on Sarah.
I remember I was at the gym. So I left the gym, I drove to her house and I didn't see her car. So I parked where her car usually was parked. And I go around the back, I go downstairs and check to see if the door is open or unlocked. And it was locked. So I started banging on the door.
and their neighbor opened the door and he's like, "Hey, what are you doing?" And I was like, "I'm looking for my cousin. Is she here?" And he's like, "No, I don't think so." And I was like, "Okay, well, I'm going to keep banging on the door until she opens up." And so I kept knocking on the door for about like five minutes and then I called my mom and I was like, "Yeah, I don't think she's here." I just knocked on the door for about 10 minutes and she's not here.
And then she said, OK, they're at the Stampede. And I didn't really think much of it. Justin didn't have a key to Sarah's place. So that's when Scott and Mary Lynn decided to go check things out themselves, along with a couple of their friends who went to the Stampede with them. My worry increased as once we were driving up to Sarah's. I got a real bad feeling. Her car wasn't there.
Scott and one of his friends decided to go in first to take a look around. Immediately things look out of place, wrong. You walk in and you look over into Sarah's room and the light is on, the fan's on, and more disturbingly is on the bed of Sarah is T's iPad still charging.
And as you look around, I noticed immediately there was a Red Bull on the counter, unopened. And that was Sarah's coffee. Some people have coffee, she has a Red Bull to get her day going. And as we walk down the hall towards T's room, the door is closed. I walk in there and immediately inside the door is Sarah's work bag and then...
Up from the work bag, there is her work shoes. And her work shoes weren't just dropped, as in a mom trying to track down her child and get a shirt on them or get them dressed. They were literally placed parallel to the bed. It was a perfect placement. I go, wow, that's bizarre. Scott said as they walked around Sarah's basement suite...
That bad feeling he had got worse. We look in the bathroom, and in the bathroom there's a towel, but it's damp to the touch and it's on the floor. My friend and I go out. We bring in Mary Lynn and her girlfriend. And now at that point, Sarah's two friends from Chili's shows up, as well as their daughters. So now there's eight of us in the bathroom.
Basement suite. We get back to T's room and one of the ladies, friends of Sarah's, says, do you want me to videotape? And I said, yes, absolutely. Videotape before everything gets disturbed. And so she videotaped T's bedroom. And then I said, you know what? We all need to get out of here because I'm really uncomfortable now.
I think I started to get nervous when we were in Talia's bedroom and I saw Sarah's purse with her wallet was on the floor. Everything was in her purse. And now we're like probably three hours from when I've started to try and, three or four hours when I've started to try and get in touch with her. And I think slowly as time was going by, we were getting more anxious. Like where could they be and what are they doing?
One of Sarah's friends called 911. Calgary Police Constable Bradley Nicoluk was the first to arrive at Sarah's place. He went inside, but he didn't find anything suspicious. No sign of forced entry. I think it was at this point that we started to get really scared something had happened to her.
Nikoluk then spoke with some neighbors and tried to figure out where Sarah could be. He also spoke with Sarah's ex-boyfriend, Colin Marsman. Police came, wanted to know, talk to everybody that was there.
wanted to know if Sarah was in a relationship. We said no, but Talia's dad. And of course we were going to tell them that they were estranged. He wanted to know Colin's number. I gave the police officer his number. He tried to call it. There was no answer. So they thought that maybe because it was a blocked call, he wouldn't answer. So we called from my phone.
and I gave the phone to the police officer who talked to Colin. Scott and Mary Lynn started looking anywhere they could think of that Sarah might be. We drove around a little bit hoping that we would see her car. We checked around the movie theater. We checked the grocery stores. By then, it was nearly 8 o'clock and Sarah had been gone for hours.
Nicoluk said he must be missing something, so he decided to do another search of Sarah's place. We were at the door ready to leave when he said, "Well, just wait. Give me a minute. I'm just going to have another quick look around." Constable Nicoluk put on a pair of gloves and started a more thorough search of the home. He went through the drawers and cupboards and kept an eye out for a diary or a plane ticket.
Something that would explain where Sarah and Talia could be. Nikoluk even looked in between the mattresses. Then, when he got to Talia's closet, he used a flashlight to get a better look. Inside, he found a clothes hamper. He reached out to move the hamper out of the way, but it wouldn't budge. Nikoluk said it seemed very strange.
There were clothes stacked on top of the hamper, but it was a lot heavier than it should be. He took the clothes off, and that's when he made a horrific discovery. When he went into Talia's room, that we heard a gasp that I'll never forget. We heard him gasp. We heard him on the radio calling for help, that he needed all units there. He needed everybody to come. The officer had found a body.
There were two feet sticking out of the laundry hamper, the toenails painted red. Nikoluk said he touched one of the feet. It was cold and waxy. The officer's first instinct was to see if he could help the person, but soon realized they were beyond any help. He backed out of the room. It was obvious this was now a murder scene. It was at that time.
My sister Janet, Sarah's mom, they were leaving in four hours to go to Europe. So I remember saying, "I've got to call Janet." And they said, "No, we just got to wait. You just have to wait until we know for sure, until there's a positive ID." I said, "I can't wait. She's going to be on a plane in four hours to go to Europe. She needs to know."
Janet cancelled her trip to Europe and flew out to Calgary immediately. One by one, each of Sarah's family members learned the devastating news that she had been murdered. Alex was still in Italy and woke up to find her phone had exploded with missed calls and texts. My whole world was shattered, like absolutely shattered.
While Sarah's loved ones were flying in from the various locations, the investigation was already well underway.
There was no time to grieve the loss of Sarah. Talia was still missing. Scott and Mary Lynn were taken to Calgary Police Headquarters and questioned. We all believed at that time that Colin had her. And to be honest with you, I wanted Colin to have her. I wanted it to be Colin. Because I knew that if Talia was with Colin, she was going to be okay.
Scott wasn't the only one who pointed the finger at Colin Marsman, given the volatile relationship he had with Sarah.
At 1:40 in the morning on July 12, 2016,
Calgary police issued an Amber Alert. Just hours later, devastated and running on no sleep, Scott and Mary Lynn joined investigators at Calgary police headquarters to make a public plea for Talia's safe return. We've lost a niece, a sister, a daughter, and a mother within the last 12 hours. God rest her soul. We're also here...
to plead to those who've taken Talia Lee Marsman, Sarah's daughter. Please return her. Scott put on his best brave face and became the spokesperson for the family. Sarah was a beautiful young woman who was single-handedly pretty much raising her daughter. And we love her and we miss her. Talia is a vivacious, wonderful child.
curious. She lives in our hearts when we're not with her and she's in our thoughts also. Mary Lynn has just recently taught her to ride a bicycle. The bicycle sits in our garage waiting for her to come back. Mary Lynn held up a photo of Talia. She was sobbing uncontrollably. She was understandably completely devastated. At one point,
She looked at the cameras and spoke directly to Talia. Talia, honey, if you're watching this, love you. Stay strong, honey. Please, if you have Talia, please let her come home to her family. The next day, police released surveillance video of the mother and daughter together at a Dairy Queen restaurant the day before Sarah was found dead and Talia disappeared.
Police also revealed witnesses saw a young girl matching Talia's description with a stocky man near where Sarah's vehicle was located, a short distance from her home. The little girl was wearing red or pink boots with polka dots and was carrying a red-colored suitcase. It was three days after Talia went missing on July 14th, 2016,
Colin Marsman spoke to Global News. It was the first and last time he would agree to be interviewed. I'm finding out the same thing as everybody at the same time as everybody else. I just, I stay glued to the TV and I'm not fine. I'm finding out the same thing as everybody else at the same time.
Colin said he was trying to stay strong and was holding out hope he would be reunited with his daughter. It's a child like that who loves her. And I'm here and I'm waiting for her to come back home. And I'm praying and I believe that, you know, I'm going to see her soon. And I just can't wait to see my daughter. That's all I have, yeah. I don't know.
It was also on July 14th that police released a photo of a vehicle they believed was involved in Talia's disappearance.
That car was captured on CCTV surveillance video, driving close to where Sarah's car was recovered. The video also captured the car driving in that area at the time when Talia was last believed to be seen. That same day, the search for Talia moved east of the city. I remember covering that search.
walking down the rural roads as search and rescue crews and police scoured ditches, outbuildings, and treed areas. I can tell you, these are extremely emotional circumstances. And like the family, I was holding out hope Talia would be found safe.
By then, that little girl had captured the hearts of an entire nation as word of the Amber Alert had spread and messages of support poured in from all over Canada. Searchers worked tirelessly to try and find Talia but there was no sign of her. It was late that afternoon and the search manager began plotting out locations to search the next day.
That's when one of the officers saw a spot near a farmer's field where there was a break in some bushes. They drove to that spot and the officer got out. He saw a body. He yelled out, "Talia!" But there was no answer. The officer walked closer. It was Talia Marsman. She had been murdered, her little body dumped in the bushes.
the Chief of Calgary Police at the time made the announcement. We are very saddened to be announcing today that we believe we have found the body of five-year-old Talia Marsman. I think it's fair to say everyone involved, family, police and for sure our entire global news team was devastated by the news we had to report.
It is the worst possible conclusion to a story that's gripped our city, our province, our entire country. Everyone holding out hope all week now turned to heartbreak. Nancy Hicks has been following this story since the outset. Nancy is live tonight from Calgary Police Headquarters where a late night news conference just wrapped up. Nancy, so much pain for so many.
It's hard to put into words how I'm feeling tonight, how I know we're all feeling tonight. This is absolute heartbreak. We were all holding out hope that there would be a happy ending and that little Talia would be found. And tonight, police delivered the worst possible news.
Talia was found dead earlier today in a rural area just outside of Calgary. Her mother, Sarah Bailey, was found dead in her northwest Calgary home on Monday night. This is the worst possible outcome to the Amber Alert that was issued early Tuesday. The Amber Alert was over and there was more shocking news. Police had arrested a man and it wasn't Colin Marsman.
All the suspicions were wrong. Colin was not the killer. So who murdered Sarah and Talia and why? That's next time on Crime Beat. Thank you for joining me and letting me share this difficult story with you. Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez.
Our audio producer is Rob Johnston. Special thanks to Bildo Sturrum and Craig Jarron for their editing assistance. 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.
If you have a question about one of the episodes, about crime reporting in general, or a question about me, send them my way. Feel free to send me a message on Twitter at Nancy Hickst, on Facebook at NancyHickstCrimeBeat,
And I'd love to have you join me for added content on Instagram at nancy.hixt. You can also email me at nancy.hixt at globalnews.ca. That's n-a-n-c-y dot h-i-x-t at globalnews.ca. Thanks again for listening. Please join me next time.