Crime Beat (2020–…): Season 2, Episode 1 - Episode #2.1 - full transcript
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Good evening.
I'm Antony robart.
This is "crime beat."
Tonight, a case that's haunted
investigators for nearly four
decades.
Well, I gave her name.
I thought everything was fine.
A young girl
disappears from a small town.
Operator received a phone
call from a pay phone.
Here's a girl screaming... hears
a girl screaming.
And then the phone went silent.
I want you to search every
ditch, every coulee, every barn.
People say don't feel guilty.
It's not your fault.
How can you not feel guilty?
People think that after a
certain amount of time that
you're healed.
That's just simply not the case.
Crime reporter
Nancy hixt brings us the story
of Kelly cook, the backup
babysitter.
Standard is what
you think of when you think
rural alberta.
It's a small farming town about
an hour's drive east of calgary,
and it's the kind of place where
everyone knows everyone.
So in 1981 when a teenaged girl
vanished, the community was
quick to rally together.
You all know why we're here.
22nd of April, Kelly cook was
abducted from her home in
standard.
She hasn't been seen or heard of
sice.
There's ever reason to believe
that she may still be alive.
The young girl's
disappearance was traced to
something so simple, something
most teenagers and their parents
can relate to.
She was last seen as she went
off to a new job as a
babysitter.
Kelly cook was a bright eyed
15-year-old girl with
aspirations of one day becoming
a lawyer.
She was known as an old soul,
happy to hang out with adults
and talk about social justice
issues.
She was a good kid.
She was very good at school, and
she had plans for the future.
She always was like that.
Even when she was tiny.
She was three going on 90
always.
She was very smart.
Early in the
morning of Wednesday,
April 22nd, 1981, Kelly was
busy getting ready for school
when the phone rang at the cook
house.
Kelly answered, but there was no
one there.
A few minutes later it rang
again.
When Kelly picked up the second
time there was a man on the
line.
He said his name was bill
christensen.
He was looking for a babysitter
that night from 8:30 until
midnight.
When she asked, you know,
calls out to mom and asks if she
can babysit and so then mom
said, go to school and see if
anybody knows who this person
is.
And just because of the last
name, everybody just kind of
made the assumption that he was
somebody's uncle, somebody's
cousin, somebody's... you know,
somebody in the area.
The kids Kelly
checked with didn't really know
bill christensen.
They just knew the last name.
Christensen was common in
standard.
Even know if you look up that
last name there's more than a
dozen listed in the phone
directory.
So Kelly told her mom it would
be fine, and her parents
relented and said she could go.
That night as expected bill
christensen pulled up to the
cook house.
My brother and I were just
talking the other day about it
and he said, I remember.
He said I stood at the top of
the stairs and he said I
remember what she was wearing
and everything that night.
And he said, you know, she
called back to mom and said, you
know, see you later, and mom
would have said, you know, call
me when you get there, and she
walked out the door.
So I was in the basement window
looking out and saw her walk
down the path and get into the
car and the car drive away.
Like in many
households with teenagers, there
was one single very important
rule in the cook home.
Whenever Kelly or her sister
would go babysitting, the girls
were expected to call and let
their parents know they had
arrived safely.
Kelly's parents waited and
waited for her call.
It never came.
I would say within the hour
she started to worry, to wonder
why the call hadn't come.
And she started to phone local
people who would have some idea
if there was anybody new in the
community.
The lady who worked at the
store.
The lady who worked at the post
office.
Like, she contacted all of them
hoping that they would say, oh,
yes, you know, bill christensen,
yeah, he moved here a month ago
and he lives wherever.
And, of course, none of them
could tell her that.
And I know when I went to bed
10:00 or 10:30 that she was
phoning around.
Just after
midnight around the time Kelly
should have been back from
babysitting her parents called
police.
It would probably have been
about 12:30 when I got woke up
and the rcmp were there.
Kelly's
disappearance was completely out
of character, so police didn't
waste any time.
They went out, my dad went
out with them in the police car
and, you know, they had their
lights on in the dips and stuff
looking... ditches...
Immediately.
Like, there was no 24-hour wait
time or anything.
It was... it was that night.
The overnight
search came up empty.
Kelly's parents were desperate
to find her.
The man we're looking for,
the man who abducted Kelly cook,
he may very well live in this
area.
He may live on one of these
farms, so you may be talking to
him today.
Plese be careful.
Helicopters were
brought in.
Volunteer search teams scoured
farms, outbuildings, and
anywhere Kelly could be.
Okay, and the next one you'll
be going to?
Five.
Okay.
Go for it.
Every vehicle
that drove to or from the area
was searched.
Every person questioned.
Is there a problem?
No.
Just a routine check, sir.
Do you travel this road
frequently?
No, as a matter of fact, not
often.
The searches went
on for days.
Hundreds of volunteers,
including complete strangers
from neighbouring towns joined
in the efforts to find Kelly.
The total search area has
been broken up and assigned to
different groups and you folks
have been given descriptions of
Kelly cook, her clothing, et
cetera.
I want you to search every
ditch, every coulee, every barn,
granary, culvert, or any other
place... grainery... you can
think of.
Days blurred together after
that.
Like, I know mom went out.
My aunt went out.
My grandmother went out with my
mom and my aunt.
They took us.
Like, we were never left alone,
my brother and I.
They took us.
And, like, I just realize the
absolute despair that you must
feel as a parent that you are
willing to take your, you know,
older mom, like, her mom, my
grandma, my brother and I out to
abandoned buildings in hopes of
finding something.
Like, you must be so desperate.
Like, you can't stay at home any
more and just sit and hope for a
phone call to come.
The searches
didn't stop as the days turned
into weeks.
Still, there was no sign of
Kelly.
Coming up on "crime"
"beat," an eyewitness comes
forward with a description of.
A chilling phone
call would be the first real
break in the case, but would it
lead investigators to Kelly?
We now return to Nancy hixt.
Come on, Tim!
Earl Peters was
one of the original
investigators assigned to.
Kelly's case.
Peters is now retired, but
nearly 40 years later he still
knows all the facts in this
case.
Peters became an rcmp officer in
1967, so by the time he was
assigned to Kelly's case in
1981, he had 14 years experience
under his belt.
Peters still has all of his
notebooks from back then.
That's your original notebook
for that?
This is number one in that
particular investigation.
This is my Bible.
Oh.
Okay?
So this is... no, you can't have
it.
No, you can't see it.
But I will refer to it.
We were getting so many tips.
I can't even begin to remember
how many from, like,
clairvoyants and I remember one
that said, oh, she had this
vision and Kelly was tied to a
tree and animals were eating
her, and, of course, that wasn't
true, but, again, you dare not
investigate those things.
There wasn't a day that the
police weren't at the house.
There wasn't a day that the
media wasn't at the house.
Every day that it was reported
and dad would... he'd kind of be
at the helm of the interview.
Mom... like, mom would talk.
Mom would be a part of it, but
dad, you know, definitely was
the leader of it, and at the end
of every interview he would talk
to Kelly through the camera in
hopes that, you know, he'd say
to her, you know, we're looking.
Don't give up.
So every day there was that in
the house.
Police report no new leads in
the abduction of 15-year-old
Kelly cook from her home in
standard six weeks ago.
An rcmp spokesman tells cfac
news the case has hit a dead end
and police are appealing to the
public to gain further clues.
Kelly cook was abducted from her
home April 22nd by a man
posing as bill christensen who
picked her up to babysit.
The first real
lead came to police from a phone
operator.
The operator saw Kelly's case in
the news and immediately came
forward to investigators.
That very same night sometime
between 10:00 and 10:30 an agt,
which is telus now, alberta
government telephones, telus,
operator in calgary received a
phone call from a pay phone in
hussar.
It's about a
20-minute drive from standard.
That call was made the same
night Kelly went missing, about
an hour and a half after she
left her parents' home with bill
christensen.
She simply hears a girl
screaming.
It's loud enough that it caused
her to remove her headset, and
then the phone went silent.
A scream and a
hangup.
It was the worst news the cook
family could have received, and
they believed it was Kelly.
The problem was the possible
trail to where she could be
ended with the hangup.
There was also one witness, the
owner of a local gas station,
who offered some insight into
who bill christensen might be.
There was a fella that
approached the service station
manager to use his phone.
He said the pay phone outside
doesn't work.
And he wanted to use the phone.
So the service station manager
having been stung before said,
yes, but he stood there and
watched to make sure it was a
local call, so he saw it was a
local call, and I heard
conversation babysitting.
So in all probability we believe
that this is our perpetrator,
this bill christensen.
That was the
first really detailed physical
description of the man believed
to be bill christensen.
Earl Peters still has his notes
from the interview with the
owner of the gas station.
So he said, to me the man
looked like a farmer.
I don't remember him wearing a
hat, but he was rude.
Dark hair, possibly curly, no
grey.
Fair to dark complexion.
Fair tan.
Clean-shaven.
A man in his 40s,
approximately 5'9", 190 to
195 pounds, well built, sounded
as if he knew the people, that's
why I thought he was a were
philadelphiaer.
From... farmer.
From that
description police were able to
create a composite sketch of
Chris sen.
That sketch... christensen.
That sketch became a key factor
in house the investigation
unfolded.
But even after it was released
the police manhunt for
christensen came up empty.
We have questioned bill
christensens all across Canada
and I think that we investigated
at least 35 of them, so bill
christensen was just a name we
believed that he used.
The man was a
phantom.
No one knew him.
No one knew where he might live
or why he may have taken Kelly.
After the break on
"crime beat"...
A major development in the case
came from a group of teenagers
who lived several hours away
from.
A shocking
discovery led investigators to
intensify their search for bill
christensen.
We now return to Nancy hixt.
Nearly two months
after Kelly disappeared her
family was given the worst news
possible.
My dad was at work, and the
rcmp had actually gone to dad's
work and told him that they had
found her, and that he needed to
go home obviously and tell
everyone, but that the news
media did have the information
as well, and that there was a
risk that if we were listening
to the radio that that's how we
could have found out about it.
And so one of dad's co-workers
and friend drove him home to
tell us.
And, of course, he comes home in
the middle of the day and we
knew why he was home.
Do you remember
the conversation?
Uh...
Kind of, I guess.
Whoo.
Takes you back.
Um...
I remember the night she left,
it was dark, so, of course, the
outside light goes on.
The outside line never got shut
off... light never got shut off.
And...
Yeah.
So that afternoon when dad come
home and told us, mom went down
and shut the light off.
Kelly's body was
found June 28th, 1981.
Investigators said it was
obvious someone had gone to a
lot of work to make sure Kelly
would never be found.
Every intent was made to
ensure that she wasn't found.
It's just that the perpetrator,
bill christensen, was somewhat
ill informed on what he had to
do to dispose of the body.
She had found on
the shore of chin lake, which is
an irrigation res svae south
of... reservoir south of taber,
a 21⁄2 hour drive south of
standard.
The body is fully clothed,
bound with ropes and weighted by
two cement sender blocks.
Cinder blue jackets within 24
hours dental blocks... cinder
blocks.
Within 24 hours dental records
show it's the body of Kelly cook
and has been in the water for a
considerable amount of time.
A young man
riding his motorcycle made the
horrific discovery.
Nearly four decades later Gerry
Nelson remembers it like it was
yesterday.
Well, it was a normal Sunday
afternoon and a few of my
friends had came to the farm and
we were going to go for a
motorcycle ride around the lake.
We got to this area.
Of course, a little bit of a
sand inlet that we race around
and come back out to a rock
crop, so you sew down and you're
looking... slow down and you're
looking for somewhere to go
through the rock, and noticed a
body.
He stopped and
waited for his four friends to
catch up to him.
Gerry stayed about 10 feet away,
but what he saw is forever
burned into his memory.
You know, she was face down
and head towards the west so we
came upon her feet not knowing
that it was a female at that
time, not being able to tell,
you know, what the gender was
because the body was fully
clothed and face down bound by
the ropes with the cinder blocks
to her side.
Ankles, hips, and shoulders.
There were three ropes around
her body.
When we noticed the cinder
blocks, it was a, oh, my
goodness, this is a little more
serious than a drowning.
Gerry and his
friends flagged down a boater
and asked him to call police.
And fortunately within
minutes there were officers on
scene.
Several days
later Gerry learned the young
woman he found was Kelly cook.
Every time I cross that
bridge I look at this point and
it's definable by the landscape
and every time I cross that
bridge I think about, you know,
finding Kelly that day.
I truly believe that, you know,
she was gone before she went
into the water because her hands
weren't bound.
Her wrists were in a rope that
went around her waist, and the
first thing I'm going to do when
I go in the water with ropes on
is try to get free, and if she
was conscious she could have
gotten free from that type of
being bound, I would think.
In my mind I question, you know,
what was going through that
person's thoughts?
And, of course, like I said
before, we can only think.
There's no way we can understand
bcause any... anything that
would turn out with this result
obviously that person thinks
without clearness.
A funeral was
held in standard and bells rang
out in honour of Kelly.
The church was filled to
capacity.
Local businesses closed for the
day and Kelly's entire class
attended the funeral.
We didn't only have to grief
the loss, we had to grief how
she was lost.
So it's... there's no positive
around her loss.
It's all very... it's all very
sad.
It's all very negative.
It's all very wrong.
The case became a
homicide investigation and the
hunt for a killer intensified.
The circumstances of this
case indicate that the suspect
did not act spontaneously or
take advantage of a circumstance
to commit this offence, but
rather stalked his victim and
carried out the offence
according to some perverted plan
that he had.
The use of the name bill
christensen is thought to be an
alias and it's a very, very
common name in the community of
standard, and the use of this
name again would indicate to us
premeditation.
I can remember as
a child watching a TV news
special about Kelly's case.
Investigators pleaded with the
public for help in solving the
case.
We have people standing by
now to take your calls.
The program
showed a reenactment of the
crime, including the original
call to Kelly from the gas
station.
Police went through the entire
timeline of events and showed a
map of possible routes the
killer took.
Does the person that was
responsible for this crime have
some connections in standard and
in chin lakes?
Well, we don't have any
answers at all.
There's only one person that
does have them.
Until that day that he's caught
or whatever, this is all we'll
ever know, which is nothing.
As it gets longer there's
less and less chance of solving
it.
No matter what is said and
done right now nothing will
bring Kelly back.
If through this program we can
prevent... or program can
prevent this from happening to
someone else and, you know, last
but not least is to catch this
guy for his arrest and
conviction.
Coming up, as
police were running out of
leads, they turned to
cutting-edge techniques to get
inside the mind of a killer.
Another twist in
the case.
Police learn Kelly's killer had
his eyes on another young girl.
Here's Nancy hixt.
With Kelly's
killer still on the loose, the
rcmp decided to try some new
investigative avenues.
Officers told me this was one of
the first cases in western
Canada to be taken to the
behavioural science unit of the
FBI in Quantico, Virginia.
Earl Peters still has a copy of
the profile the FBI created of.
Kelly's killer.
This is from Quantico.
So, for example, marital status.
He is currently unmarried.
He has previously been married.
Probably more than once.
Each of the previous marriages
ended bitterly with the offender
exhibiting a great deal of
animosity toward his spouse.
It is probable that the offender
frequently abused his spouse or
spouses, and came to the
attention of law enforcement as
a result of domestic disturbance
complaints.
Personally I find it
interesting, but I'm not
prepared to put all my eggs in
that basket.
It's an educated guess.
Still, the
profile provided a lot of
information about who bill
christensen might be.
And police couldn't ignore it.
In the meantime, that generic
composite sketch of bill
christensen that was released
earlier created an
investigational nightmare.
When the composite drawing
was released we were just
flooded then with tips.
So-and-so looks similar to the
composite drawing.
Probably from day one that the
composite drawing was released
we were backlogged by 500 tips
for the next two years or more.
Every tip had to
be investigated for fear some
key information would be missed
or overlooked.
We probably would have been
better off if we had not
released the composite drawing
because unfortunately now once
we have all of these tips we
have to follow through on them.
We can't just ignore them.
So we plowed an awful lot of
resources into following up on
the tips as opposed to
concentrating more on the key
investigation itself.
And would you say
that the tips based on the
composite kind of led nowhere?
Oh, yes, absolutely I would
say led nowhere, yeah.
By the time I left the
investigation... by the time I
left calgary in 1990 we had
already interviewed 2,200
suspects.
The vast majority of them would
be looks similar to the
composite drawing.
2200 suspects by
1990.
As new tips rolled in, that
suspect list continued to grow.
Unfortunately for police
battling against time, some of
the tips were completely made
up.
Unfortunately some people do
use the police for a vendetta.
They're going to cause grief to
ex-spouses or bad neighbours or
whatever.
Again, it's not... you can't
just dismiss it, though, because
you think that's what it is.
Because it could be an estranged
spouse, but it may still be a
legitimate complaint or
observation.
Many tips came
from people who genuinely wanted
to help knowing this could have
been their child.
When you look at Kelly you
say, well, this could be
anyone's daughter.
She wasn't living a high-risk
lifestyle.
She had done everything that she
reasonably could do and yet she
still fell victim to it.
So I think an awful lot of
people could see their own
daughter being caught up in
this.
Has there ever
been anybody who you're like,
well, I think it could be this
person?
Like you have one person in your
mind or no?
You know, it's... no, there's
not one.
Several.
There's a number that are really
very interesting.
By now I'm sure
you figured out Kelly's case has
never been solved.
After nearly 40 years the killer
has never been caught.
What most people don't know is
Kelly cook was not bill
christensen's first choice.
Kelly was the backup babysitter.
His first pick was a 17-year-old
girl that I'll call Stacey.
For safety reasons, we aren't
revealing her true identity.
Stacey was well known as the top
babysitter in the area.
On April 18th, 1981, four days
before he called Kelly, bill
christensen called Stacey.
He asked her to babysit for him
and his wife that evening.
But Stacey wasn't available and
turned him down.
Bill christensen went on to ask
for recommendations of other
babysitters.
Stacey passed along two names.
One of those was Kelly cook.
The teenager didn't think much
more of it until a few days
later.
On April 23rd, 1981, Stacey
got up and went to school like
any other day.
But when she got there an
announcement was made over the
school intercom.
The principal told students
Kelly cook was missing.
I still remember sitting at
my desk and when it came on I
just froze and I'm like, oh... I
was so scared.
And I don't... I mean, I don't
even think I... well, I didn't
know the impact at that time.
Stacey told the
principal she had given Kelly's
name to a man named bill
christensen.
It was horrible.
Her first ever
interview with a journalist was
with me for a special "crime"
"beat" podcast series about this
case.
So do you remember getting this
phone call?
Oh, yeah, I remember exactly
where I was in the house that
day.
Of course, there's no cellphones
and I remember exactly grabbing
the phone and they asked me, hi,
this is... and they said my full
name.
And I said, yes.
And he said, I'm bill
christensen.
I live in the area.
I'm new to the area and I need a
babysitter.
And I said, I'm busy.
I was going out that evening.
And he said, do you know anyone
in the area that can babysit?
And I thought, okay, he's new to
the town and Chris sen is a very
pop... christensen is a very
popular name in standard, so I
yesterday, "yes."
I said Kelly cook.
And her... and I figure skated
together, and so I gave her
name, and I thought everything
was fine, and then when I went
to school on Monday there was an
announcement over the intercom
that does anyone know the
whereabouts of Kelly cook?
Then I went to the office and...
And I said, yes, I do.
I known... I just had this
horrible feeling with me that,
oh, no, what had I done?
From that moment
on Stacey blamed herself for.
Kelly's disappearance.
Yeah, it was just a life
changer for me.
If only you could take that
phone call back.
But then what if... like,
there's all these what ifs?
What if I would have said I
can't tonight, but how about
next week?
Then like you said, have you
thought that could have been
you?
Yeah, then what if it would have
been me the week after?
Knowing she had
been the original target of bill
christensen, police kept an
extra watch over Stacey,
especially after Kelly's body
was found.
And that's when I realized,
like, this could have been me.
That was the big turning point
of, wow, that could have been
me.
I know that people say don't
feel guilty.
It's not your fault.
Anyone would have done it.
She probably would have done the
same for me.
But how can you not feel guilty
about someone losing their life?
Like, yeah.
To make matters
worse, the killer was still out
there, and no one really knew
who this bill christensen was.
The trail to find.
Kelly's killer was growing cold.
Up hope. Family refused to give
that's after the break.
After nearly 40
years investigators update the
case and reveal what it will
take to solve the mysterious
death of Kelly cook.
Here's Nancy hixt.
Dozens of people
have been interviewed by the
rcmp, but no charges have ever
been laid.
There's a special room at the
calgary rcmp major crimes
building filled with files from
the cook investigation.
There are boxes stacked on top
of boxes right up to the
ceiling.
On those boxes are names of
suspects, but none of them have
ever been charged with a
kidnapping and murder of Kelly
cook.
We interviewed suspects right
across Canada.
We went to quite a few of our
maximum penitentiaries and
interviewed people there that
had been convicted of murder,
could potentially be involved.
There have been suspects that
appeared more interesting than
others, and we devoted a
tremendous amount of resources
to them, but ultimately
eliminated them as well.
The question is
after all these years, what will
it take to move this case
forward and bring justice for
Kelly?
This file is not concluded,
should not be concluded.
This file should only be
concluded when the perpetrator
is either caught or presumed
dead.
Do you still have
hope that it could be solved?
Absolutely.
You know, until another 30 years
passes and then in all
probability he's dead, one would
remain optimistic that it could
be solved.
And that, of course, is why I'm
cautious about what I say
because we want to make sure we
have the ability to successfully
prosecute.
So what do you
think it's going to take to
solve this?
Maybe a deathbed confession.
I have to kind of believe that
after all these years that this
person known as bill
christensen, who knows what his
real name is, has probably never
confided to anyone.
So so often we will get
information from a spouse, a
family member, et cetera, but we
haven't got that, so I think
this person has kept it to
themselves.
Now, is that because they've
died?
I don't know.
Earl Peters told
me what police really need is
the name of the killer, the
correct name.
In the meantime, rcmp officers
are still investigating.
I now have two investigators
who are assigned to Kelly's
investigation, and currently
they're working on some new tips
that have come in over the last
year since we did the podcast.
Staff sergeant
Jason zazulak runs the serious
crimes branch of the alberta
rcmp.
He told me the podcast series
led to several investigative
anticipates to explore...
Avenues to explore.
I think it's possible that
the person responsible is
somewhere within the newer tips
and the investigators as they
work through these carefully,
that's what we'll be seeking to
find, to find this person and
ultimately we would like to if
the person is still alive be
able to sit across the table
from them and a proper interview
and convince them that now is
the time to tell the truth.
Now is the time to explain
whatever happened on that day in
those days.
Now is the time to tell us, and
whatever consequences come of
that, it's time.
Zazulak said.
Kelly's case remains a priority,
and there are some proactive
strategies happening, including
further DNA analysis.
The first step in that will
be consultations with our force
enic laboratory.
These are... forensic
laboratory.
These are all items that have
been tested already, and so the
danger that we run is that each
time you test one of these
exhibits or items, especially
when you're looking for
something like DNA, you're
actually destroying a part of
the exhibit in the examination
process, so we don't have an
unlimited number of tries, and
we have to be very critical,
very discerning about the
resubmissions.
Before that
retesting takes place, police
plan to exhaust all tips.
Every time the case is profiled
on the news, rcmp investigators
receive more tips, and that
pushes the case forward.
Currently police have
approximately 40 persons of
interest in this case.
Investigators are hoping this
show could lead to identifying a
suspect.
So what we're looking for in
tips, and especially at this
stage, we want to hear from
someone who the offender told,
or we want to hear from the
offender themselves.
It's less useful for us for
someone who has taken an
interest in the case to be doing
their own research, need I
can't, social media... media...
And what they may be able to
obtain otherwise to share
theories about the case with us.
Over the years.
Kelly's sister marnie has been
contacted by dozens of people
claiming to know who is
responsible.
You know, people think that
after a certain amount of time
that you're better.
That you're healed.
And your heart is better.
And that's just simply not the
case.
Time helps for sure, but the
story seems to forever be
evolving, and I think that's a
little unsettling.
It's unsettling to wonder if...
I hope that I've never met him.
I hope that I've never trusted
him, that he's never come into
my home.
And there's
another stress weighing heavily
on marnie.
While she wants justice for
Kelly, she also struggles with
worrying what horrific details
she would learn if the killer is
caught.
I'm still conflicted.
Part of me for sure does not
think it's fair that this
individual is living... you
know, could be living a fabulous
life.
Could be doing this to other
people, other families.
So that's what's haunting.
And then there's a part of me
that I'm not really sure you
want to know the answers.
And I don't think they're good.
I don't think the answers are
good answers.
Like, they... how could they be?
Right?
The ultimate result wasn't good.
Kelly's family
has done the math.
They know time is running out
for the killer to be caught and
brought to justice.
The original investigators of
this case felt bill christensen
was between 30 and 45 years old
back in 1981.
If that estimate is accurate,
the killer would now be around
70 to 85 years old.
My dad wanted justice on
earth, and, you know, wanted him
to pay and wanted people to see
that he paid, whereas I believe
that even with that justice, the
ultimate justice he'll get
somewhere else.
That's what I believe.
I also think a part of it is you
go back 38 years, and I know for
myself a lot of my memories are,
like, almost like snapshots of
what I listened to or what I've
made myself remember.
The memories aren't clear any
more.
So, you know, even to remember
her as a person, I don't have
that memory any more.
I have, uh, like, a picture.
I have a snapshot of what I
think she... I know what she
looked like because I have a
photo of it.
But to actually know how she
looked or how she walked or...
Those memories are gone because
it's been so long.
Nearly four
decades after their nightmare
began, Kelly's family can only
hope someone will finally come
forward with the tip needed to
catch her killer.
There's a significant cash
reward for the tip that leads to
the arrest and conviction of
Kelly cook's killer.
The reward fund is now over
$130,000.
If you have information about
who killed Kelly cook, contact
your local police agency, the
rcmp, or call crime stoppers.
I'm Antony robart.
Thank you for joining us tonight
on "crime beat."
Want more on this "crime"
beat" episode?
Listen to my "crime beat"
podcast now for free on apple
podcasts, spotify, or wherever
you find your favourite
podcasts.
mature subject matter.
Viewer discretion
is advised.
Good evening.
I'm Antony robart.
This is "crime beat."
Tonight, a case that's haunted
investigators for nearly four
decades.
Well, I gave her name.
I thought everything was fine.
A young girl
disappears from a small town.
Operator received a phone
call from a pay phone.
Here's a girl screaming... hears
a girl screaming.
And then the phone went silent.
I want you to search every
ditch, every coulee, every barn.
People say don't feel guilty.
It's not your fault.
How can you not feel guilty?
People think that after a
certain amount of time that
you're healed.
That's just simply not the case.
Crime reporter
Nancy hixt brings us the story
of Kelly cook, the backup
babysitter.
Standard is what
you think of when you think
rural alberta.
It's a small farming town about
an hour's drive east of calgary,
and it's the kind of place where
everyone knows everyone.
So in 1981 when a teenaged girl
vanished, the community was
quick to rally together.
You all know why we're here.
22nd of April, Kelly cook was
abducted from her home in
standard.
She hasn't been seen or heard of
sice.
There's ever reason to believe
that she may still be alive.
The young girl's
disappearance was traced to
something so simple, something
most teenagers and their parents
can relate to.
She was last seen as she went
off to a new job as a
babysitter.
Kelly cook was a bright eyed
15-year-old girl with
aspirations of one day becoming
a lawyer.
She was known as an old soul,
happy to hang out with adults
and talk about social justice
issues.
She was a good kid.
She was very good at school, and
she had plans for the future.
She always was like that.
Even when she was tiny.
She was three going on 90
always.
She was very smart.
Early in the
morning of Wednesday,
April 22nd, 1981, Kelly was
busy getting ready for school
when the phone rang at the cook
house.
Kelly answered, but there was no
one there.
A few minutes later it rang
again.
When Kelly picked up the second
time there was a man on the
line.
He said his name was bill
christensen.
He was looking for a babysitter
that night from 8:30 until
midnight.
When she asked, you know,
calls out to mom and asks if she
can babysit and so then mom
said, go to school and see if
anybody knows who this person
is.
And just because of the last
name, everybody just kind of
made the assumption that he was
somebody's uncle, somebody's
cousin, somebody's... you know,
somebody in the area.
The kids Kelly
checked with didn't really know
bill christensen.
They just knew the last name.
Christensen was common in
standard.
Even know if you look up that
last name there's more than a
dozen listed in the phone
directory.
So Kelly told her mom it would
be fine, and her parents
relented and said she could go.
That night as expected bill
christensen pulled up to the
cook house.
My brother and I were just
talking the other day about it
and he said, I remember.
He said I stood at the top of
the stairs and he said I
remember what she was wearing
and everything that night.
And he said, you know, she
called back to mom and said, you
know, see you later, and mom
would have said, you know, call
me when you get there, and she
walked out the door.
So I was in the basement window
looking out and saw her walk
down the path and get into the
car and the car drive away.
Like in many
households with teenagers, there
was one single very important
rule in the cook home.
Whenever Kelly or her sister
would go babysitting, the girls
were expected to call and let
their parents know they had
arrived safely.
Kelly's parents waited and
waited for her call.
It never came.
I would say within the hour
she started to worry, to wonder
why the call hadn't come.
And she started to phone local
people who would have some idea
if there was anybody new in the
community.
The lady who worked at the
store.
The lady who worked at the post
office.
Like, she contacted all of them
hoping that they would say, oh,
yes, you know, bill christensen,
yeah, he moved here a month ago
and he lives wherever.
And, of course, none of them
could tell her that.
And I know when I went to bed
10:00 or 10:30 that she was
phoning around.
Just after
midnight around the time Kelly
should have been back from
babysitting her parents called
police.
It would probably have been
about 12:30 when I got woke up
and the rcmp were there.
Kelly's
disappearance was completely out
of character, so police didn't
waste any time.
They went out, my dad went
out with them in the police car
and, you know, they had their
lights on in the dips and stuff
looking... ditches...
Immediately.
Like, there was no 24-hour wait
time or anything.
It was... it was that night.
The overnight
search came up empty.
Kelly's parents were desperate
to find her.
The man we're looking for,
the man who abducted Kelly cook,
he may very well live in this
area.
He may live on one of these
farms, so you may be talking to
him today.
Plese be careful.
Helicopters were
brought in.
Volunteer search teams scoured
farms, outbuildings, and
anywhere Kelly could be.
Okay, and the next one you'll
be going to?
Five.
Okay.
Go for it.
Every vehicle
that drove to or from the area
was searched.
Every person questioned.
Is there a problem?
No.
Just a routine check, sir.
Do you travel this road
frequently?
No, as a matter of fact, not
often.
The searches went
on for days.
Hundreds of volunteers,
including complete strangers
from neighbouring towns joined
in the efforts to find Kelly.
The total search area has
been broken up and assigned to
different groups and you folks
have been given descriptions of
Kelly cook, her clothing, et
cetera.
I want you to search every
ditch, every coulee, every barn,
granary, culvert, or any other
place... grainery... you can
think of.
Days blurred together after
that.
Like, I know mom went out.
My aunt went out.
My grandmother went out with my
mom and my aunt.
They took us.
Like, we were never left alone,
my brother and I.
They took us.
And, like, I just realize the
absolute despair that you must
feel as a parent that you are
willing to take your, you know,
older mom, like, her mom, my
grandma, my brother and I out to
abandoned buildings in hopes of
finding something.
Like, you must be so desperate.
Like, you can't stay at home any
more and just sit and hope for a
phone call to come.
The searches
didn't stop as the days turned
into weeks.
Still, there was no sign of
Kelly.
Coming up on "crime"
"beat," an eyewitness comes
forward with a description of.
A chilling phone
call would be the first real
break in the case, but would it
lead investigators to Kelly?
We now return to Nancy hixt.
Come on, Tim!
Earl Peters was
one of the original
investigators assigned to.
Kelly's case.
Peters is now retired, but
nearly 40 years later he still
knows all the facts in this
case.
Peters became an rcmp officer in
1967, so by the time he was
assigned to Kelly's case in
1981, he had 14 years experience
under his belt.
Peters still has all of his
notebooks from back then.
That's your original notebook
for that?
This is number one in that
particular investigation.
This is my Bible.
Oh.
Okay?
So this is... no, you can't have
it.
No, you can't see it.
But I will refer to it.
We were getting so many tips.
I can't even begin to remember
how many from, like,
clairvoyants and I remember one
that said, oh, she had this
vision and Kelly was tied to a
tree and animals were eating
her, and, of course, that wasn't
true, but, again, you dare not
investigate those things.
There wasn't a day that the
police weren't at the house.
There wasn't a day that the
media wasn't at the house.
Every day that it was reported
and dad would... he'd kind of be
at the helm of the interview.
Mom... like, mom would talk.
Mom would be a part of it, but
dad, you know, definitely was
the leader of it, and at the end
of every interview he would talk
to Kelly through the camera in
hopes that, you know, he'd say
to her, you know, we're looking.
Don't give up.
So every day there was that in
the house.
Police report no new leads in
the abduction of 15-year-old
Kelly cook from her home in
standard six weeks ago.
An rcmp spokesman tells cfac
news the case has hit a dead end
and police are appealing to the
public to gain further clues.
Kelly cook was abducted from her
home April 22nd by a man
posing as bill christensen who
picked her up to babysit.
The first real
lead came to police from a phone
operator.
The operator saw Kelly's case in
the news and immediately came
forward to investigators.
That very same night sometime
between 10:00 and 10:30 an agt,
which is telus now, alberta
government telephones, telus,
operator in calgary received a
phone call from a pay phone in
hussar.
It's about a
20-minute drive from standard.
That call was made the same
night Kelly went missing, about
an hour and a half after she
left her parents' home with bill
christensen.
She simply hears a girl
screaming.
It's loud enough that it caused
her to remove her headset, and
then the phone went silent.
A scream and a
hangup.
It was the worst news the cook
family could have received, and
they believed it was Kelly.
The problem was the possible
trail to where she could be
ended with the hangup.
There was also one witness, the
owner of a local gas station,
who offered some insight into
who bill christensen might be.
There was a fella that
approached the service station
manager to use his phone.
He said the pay phone outside
doesn't work.
And he wanted to use the phone.
So the service station manager
having been stung before said,
yes, but he stood there and
watched to make sure it was a
local call, so he saw it was a
local call, and I heard
conversation babysitting.
So in all probability we believe
that this is our perpetrator,
this bill christensen.
That was the
first really detailed physical
description of the man believed
to be bill christensen.
Earl Peters still has his notes
from the interview with the
owner of the gas station.
So he said, to me the man
looked like a farmer.
I don't remember him wearing a
hat, but he was rude.
Dark hair, possibly curly, no
grey.
Fair to dark complexion.
Fair tan.
Clean-shaven.
A man in his 40s,
approximately 5'9", 190 to
195 pounds, well built, sounded
as if he knew the people, that's
why I thought he was a were
philadelphiaer.
From... farmer.
From that
description police were able to
create a composite sketch of
Chris sen.
That sketch... christensen.
That sketch became a key factor
in house the investigation
unfolded.
But even after it was released
the police manhunt for
christensen came up empty.
We have questioned bill
christensens all across Canada
and I think that we investigated
at least 35 of them, so bill
christensen was just a name we
believed that he used.
The man was a
phantom.
No one knew him.
No one knew where he might live
or why he may have taken Kelly.
After the break on
"crime beat"...
A major development in the case
came from a group of teenagers
who lived several hours away
from.
A shocking
discovery led investigators to
intensify their search for bill
christensen.
We now return to Nancy hixt.
Nearly two months
after Kelly disappeared her
family was given the worst news
possible.
My dad was at work, and the
rcmp had actually gone to dad's
work and told him that they had
found her, and that he needed to
go home obviously and tell
everyone, but that the news
media did have the information
as well, and that there was a
risk that if we were listening
to the radio that that's how we
could have found out about it.
And so one of dad's co-workers
and friend drove him home to
tell us.
And, of course, he comes home in
the middle of the day and we
knew why he was home.
Do you remember
the conversation?
Uh...
Kind of, I guess.
Whoo.
Takes you back.
Um...
I remember the night she left,
it was dark, so, of course, the
outside light goes on.
The outside line never got shut
off... light never got shut off.
And...
Yeah.
So that afternoon when dad come
home and told us, mom went down
and shut the light off.
Kelly's body was
found June 28th, 1981.
Investigators said it was
obvious someone had gone to a
lot of work to make sure Kelly
would never be found.
Every intent was made to
ensure that she wasn't found.
It's just that the perpetrator,
bill christensen, was somewhat
ill informed on what he had to
do to dispose of the body.
She had found on
the shore of chin lake, which is
an irrigation res svae south
of... reservoir south of taber,
a 21⁄2 hour drive south of
standard.
The body is fully clothed,
bound with ropes and weighted by
two cement sender blocks.
Cinder blue jackets within 24
hours dental blocks... cinder
blocks.
Within 24 hours dental records
show it's the body of Kelly cook
and has been in the water for a
considerable amount of time.
A young man
riding his motorcycle made the
horrific discovery.
Nearly four decades later Gerry
Nelson remembers it like it was
yesterday.
Well, it was a normal Sunday
afternoon and a few of my
friends had came to the farm and
we were going to go for a
motorcycle ride around the lake.
We got to this area.
Of course, a little bit of a
sand inlet that we race around
and come back out to a rock
crop, so you sew down and you're
looking... slow down and you're
looking for somewhere to go
through the rock, and noticed a
body.
He stopped and
waited for his four friends to
catch up to him.
Gerry stayed about 10 feet away,
but what he saw is forever
burned into his memory.
You know, she was face down
and head towards the west so we
came upon her feet not knowing
that it was a female at that
time, not being able to tell,
you know, what the gender was
because the body was fully
clothed and face down bound by
the ropes with the cinder blocks
to her side.
Ankles, hips, and shoulders.
There were three ropes around
her body.
When we noticed the cinder
blocks, it was a, oh, my
goodness, this is a little more
serious than a drowning.
Gerry and his
friends flagged down a boater
and asked him to call police.
And fortunately within
minutes there were officers on
scene.
Several days
later Gerry learned the young
woman he found was Kelly cook.
Every time I cross that
bridge I look at this point and
it's definable by the landscape
and every time I cross that
bridge I think about, you know,
finding Kelly that day.
I truly believe that, you know,
she was gone before she went
into the water because her hands
weren't bound.
Her wrists were in a rope that
went around her waist, and the
first thing I'm going to do when
I go in the water with ropes on
is try to get free, and if she
was conscious she could have
gotten free from that type of
being bound, I would think.
In my mind I question, you know,
what was going through that
person's thoughts?
And, of course, like I said
before, we can only think.
There's no way we can understand
bcause any... anything that
would turn out with this result
obviously that person thinks
without clearness.
A funeral was
held in standard and bells rang
out in honour of Kelly.
The church was filled to
capacity.
Local businesses closed for the
day and Kelly's entire class
attended the funeral.
We didn't only have to grief
the loss, we had to grief how
she was lost.
So it's... there's no positive
around her loss.
It's all very... it's all very
sad.
It's all very negative.
It's all very wrong.
The case became a
homicide investigation and the
hunt for a killer intensified.
The circumstances of this
case indicate that the suspect
did not act spontaneously or
take advantage of a circumstance
to commit this offence, but
rather stalked his victim and
carried out the offence
according to some perverted plan
that he had.
The use of the name bill
christensen is thought to be an
alias and it's a very, very
common name in the community of
standard, and the use of this
name again would indicate to us
premeditation.
I can remember as
a child watching a TV news
special about Kelly's case.
Investigators pleaded with the
public for help in solving the
case.
We have people standing by
now to take your calls.
The program
showed a reenactment of the
crime, including the original
call to Kelly from the gas
station.
Police went through the entire
timeline of events and showed a
map of possible routes the
killer took.
Does the person that was
responsible for this crime have
some connections in standard and
in chin lakes?
Well, we don't have any
answers at all.
There's only one person that
does have them.
Until that day that he's caught
or whatever, this is all we'll
ever know, which is nothing.
As it gets longer there's
less and less chance of solving
it.
No matter what is said and
done right now nothing will
bring Kelly back.
If through this program we can
prevent... or program can
prevent this from happening to
someone else and, you know, last
but not least is to catch this
guy for his arrest and
conviction.
Coming up, as
police were running out of
leads, they turned to
cutting-edge techniques to get
inside the mind of a killer.
Another twist in
the case.
Police learn Kelly's killer had
his eyes on another young girl.
Here's Nancy hixt.
With Kelly's
killer still on the loose, the
rcmp decided to try some new
investigative avenues.
Officers told me this was one of
the first cases in western
Canada to be taken to the
behavioural science unit of the
FBI in Quantico, Virginia.
Earl Peters still has a copy of
the profile the FBI created of.
Kelly's killer.
This is from Quantico.
So, for example, marital status.
He is currently unmarried.
He has previously been married.
Probably more than once.
Each of the previous marriages
ended bitterly with the offender
exhibiting a great deal of
animosity toward his spouse.
It is probable that the offender
frequently abused his spouse or
spouses, and came to the
attention of law enforcement as
a result of domestic disturbance
complaints.
Personally I find it
interesting, but I'm not
prepared to put all my eggs in
that basket.
It's an educated guess.
Still, the
profile provided a lot of
information about who bill
christensen might be.
And police couldn't ignore it.
In the meantime, that generic
composite sketch of bill
christensen that was released
earlier created an
investigational nightmare.
When the composite drawing
was released we were just
flooded then with tips.
So-and-so looks similar to the
composite drawing.
Probably from day one that the
composite drawing was released
we were backlogged by 500 tips
for the next two years or more.
Every tip had to
be investigated for fear some
key information would be missed
or overlooked.
We probably would have been
better off if we had not
released the composite drawing
because unfortunately now once
we have all of these tips we
have to follow through on them.
We can't just ignore them.
So we plowed an awful lot of
resources into following up on
the tips as opposed to
concentrating more on the key
investigation itself.
And would you say
that the tips based on the
composite kind of led nowhere?
Oh, yes, absolutely I would
say led nowhere, yeah.
By the time I left the
investigation... by the time I
left calgary in 1990 we had
already interviewed 2,200
suspects.
The vast majority of them would
be looks similar to the
composite drawing.
2200 suspects by
1990.
As new tips rolled in, that
suspect list continued to grow.
Unfortunately for police
battling against time, some of
the tips were completely made
up.
Unfortunately some people do
use the police for a vendetta.
They're going to cause grief to
ex-spouses or bad neighbours or
whatever.
Again, it's not... you can't
just dismiss it, though, because
you think that's what it is.
Because it could be an estranged
spouse, but it may still be a
legitimate complaint or
observation.
Many tips came
from people who genuinely wanted
to help knowing this could have
been their child.
When you look at Kelly you
say, well, this could be
anyone's daughter.
She wasn't living a high-risk
lifestyle.
She had done everything that she
reasonably could do and yet she
still fell victim to it.
So I think an awful lot of
people could see their own
daughter being caught up in
this.
Has there ever
been anybody who you're like,
well, I think it could be this
person?
Like you have one person in your
mind or no?
You know, it's... no, there's
not one.
Several.
There's a number that are really
very interesting.
By now I'm sure
you figured out Kelly's case has
never been solved.
After nearly 40 years the killer
has never been caught.
What most people don't know is
Kelly cook was not bill
christensen's first choice.
Kelly was the backup babysitter.
His first pick was a 17-year-old
girl that I'll call Stacey.
For safety reasons, we aren't
revealing her true identity.
Stacey was well known as the top
babysitter in the area.
On April 18th, 1981, four days
before he called Kelly, bill
christensen called Stacey.
He asked her to babysit for him
and his wife that evening.
But Stacey wasn't available and
turned him down.
Bill christensen went on to ask
for recommendations of other
babysitters.
Stacey passed along two names.
One of those was Kelly cook.
The teenager didn't think much
more of it until a few days
later.
On April 23rd, 1981, Stacey
got up and went to school like
any other day.
But when she got there an
announcement was made over the
school intercom.
The principal told students
Kelly cook was missing.
I still remember sitting at
my desk and when it came on I
just froze and I'm like, oh... I
was so scared.
And I don't... I mean, I don't
even think I... well, I didn't
know the impact at that time.
Stacey told the
principal she had given Kelly's
name to a man named bill
christensen.
It was horrible.
Her first ever
interview with a journalist was
with me for a special "crime"
"beat" podcast series about this
case.
So do you remember getting this
phone call?
Oh, yeah, I remember exactly
where I was in the house that
day.
Of course, there's no cellphones
and I remember exactly grabbing
the phone and they asked me, hi,
this is... and they said my full
name.
And I said, yes.
And he said, I'm bill
christensen.
I live in the area.
I'm new to the area and I need a
babysitter.
And I said, I'm busy.
I was going out that evening.
And he said, do you know anyone
in the area that can babysit?
And I thought, okay, he's new to
the town and Chris sen is a very
pop... christensen is a very
popular name in standard, so I
yesterday, "yes."
I said Kelly cook.
And her... and I figure skated
together, and so I gave her
name, and I thought everything
was fine, and then when I went
to school on Monday there was an
announcement over the intercom
that does anyone know the
whereabouts of Kelly cook?
Then I went to the office and...
And I said, yes, I do.
I known... I just had this
horrible feeling with me that,
oh, no, what had I done?
From that moment
on Stacey blamed herself for.
Kelly's disappearance.
Yeah, it was just a life
changer for me.
If only you could take that
phone call back.
But then what if... like,
there's all these what ifs?
What if I would have said I
can't tonight, but how about
next week?
Then like you said, have you
thought that could have been
you?
Yeah, then what if it would have
been me the week after?
Knowing she had
been the original target of bill
christensen, police kept an
extra watch over Stacey,
especially after Kelly's body
was found.
And that's when I realized,
like, this could have been me.
That was the big turning point
of, wow, that could have been
me.
I know that people say don't
feel guilty.
It's not your fault.
Anyone would have done it.
She probably would have done the
same for me.
But how can you not feel guilty
about someone losing their life?
Like, yeah.
To make matters
worse, the killer was still out
there, and no one really knew
who this bill christensen was.
The trail to find.
Kelly's killer was growing cold.
Up hope. Family refused to give
that's after the break.
After nearly 40
years investigators update the
case and reveal what it will
take to solve the mysterious
death of Kelly cook.
Here's Nancy hixt.
Dozens of people
have been interviewed by the
rcmp, but no charges have ever
been laid.
There's a special room at the
calgary rcmp major crimes
building filled with files from
the cook investigation.
There are boxes stacked on top
of boxes right up to the
ceiling.
On those boxes are names of
suspects, but none of them have
ever been charged with a
kidnapping and murder of Kelly
cook.
We interviewed suspects right
across Canada.
We went to quite a few of our
maximum penitentiaries and
interviewed people there that
had been convicted of murder,
could potentially be involved.
There have been suspects that
appeared more interesting than
others, and we devoted a
tremendous amount of resources
to them, but ultimately
eliminated them as well.
The question is
after all these years, what will
it take to move this case
forward and bring justice for
Kelly?
This file is not concluded,
should not be concluded.
This file should only be
concluded when the perpetrator
is either caught or presumed
dead.
Do you still have
hope that it could be solved?
Absolutely.
You know, until another 30 years
passes and then in all
probability he's dead, one would
remain optimistic that it could
be solved.
And that, of course, is why I'm
cautious about what I say
because we want to make sure we
have the ability to successfully
prosecute.
So what do you
think it's going to take to
solve this?
Maybe a deathbed confession.
I have to kind of believe that
after all these years that this
person known as bill
christensen, who knows what his
real name is, has probably never
confided to anyone.
So so often we will get
information from a spouse, a
family member, et cetera, but we
haven't got that, so I think
this person has kept it to
themselves.
Now, is that because they've
died?
I don't know.
Earl Peters told
me what police really need is
the name of the killer, the
correct name.
In the meantime, rcmp officers
are still investigating.
I now have two investigators
who are assigned to Kelly's
investigation, and currently
they're working on some new tips
that have come in over the last
year since we did the podcast.
Staff sergeant
Jason zazulak runs the serious
crimes branch of the alberta
rcmp.
He told me the podcast series
led to several investigative
anticipates to explore...
Avenues to explore.
I think it's possible that
the person responsible is
somewhere within the newer tips
and the investigators as they
work through these carefully,
that's what we'll be seeking to
find, to find this person and
ultimately we would like to if
the person is still alive be
able to sit across the table
from them and a proper interview
and convince them that now is
the time to tell the truth.
Now is the time to explain
whatever happened on that day in
those days.
Now is the time to tell us, and
whatever consequences come of
that, it's time.
Zazulak said.
Kelly's case remains a priority,
and there are some proactive
strategies happening, including
further DNA analysis.
The first step in that will
be consultations with our force
enic laboratory.
These are... forensic
laboratory.
These are all items that have
been tested already, and so the
danger that we run is that each
time you test one of these
exhibits or items, especially
when you're looking for
something like DNA, you're
actually destroying a part of
the exhibit in the examination
process, so we don't have an
unlimited number of tries, and
we have to be very critical,
very discerning about the
resubmissions.
Before that
retesting takes place, police
plan to exhaust all tips.
Every time the case is profiled
on the news, rcmp investigators
receive more tips, and that
pushes the case forward.
Currently police have
approximately 40 persons of
interest in this case.
Investigators are hoping this
show could lead to identifying a
suspect.
So what we're looking for in
tips, and especially at this
stage, we want to hear from
someone who the offender told,
or we want to hear from the
offender themselves.
It's less useful for us for
someone who has taken an
interest in the case to be doing
their own research, need I
can't, social media... media...
And what they may be able to
obtain otherwise to share
theories about the case with us.
Over the years.
Kelly's sister marnie has been
contacted by dozens of people
claiming to know who is
responsible.
You know, people think that
after a certain amount of time
that you're better.
That you're healed.
And your heart is better.
And that's just simply not the
case.
Time helps for sure, but the
story seems to forever be
evolving, and I think that's a
little unsettling.
It's unsettling to wonder if...
I hope that I've never met him.
I hope that I've never trusted
him, that he's never come into
my home.
And there's
another stress weighing heavily
on marnie.
While she wants justice for
Kelly, she also struggles with
worrying what horrific details
she would learn if the killer is
caught.
I'm still conflicted.
Part of me for sure does not
think it's fair that this
individual is living... you
know, could be living a fabulous
life.
Could be doing this to other
people, other families.
So that's what's haunting.
And then there's a part of me
that I'm not really sure you
want to know the answers.
And I don't think they're good.
I don't think the answers are
good answers.
Like, they... how could they be?
Right?
The ultimate result wasn't good.
Kelly's family
has done the math.
They know time is running out
for the killer to be caught and
brought to justice.
The original investigators of
this case felt bill christensen
was between 30 and 45 years old
back in 1981.
If that estimate is accurate,
the killer would now be around
70 to 85 years old.
My dad wanted justice on
earth, and, you know, wanted him
to pay and wanted people to see
that he paid, whereas I believe
that even with that justice, the
ultimate justice he'll get
somewhere else.
That's what I believe.
I also think a part of it is you
go back 38 years, and I know for
myself a lot of my memories are,
like, almost like snapshots of
what I listened to or what I've
made myself remember.
The memories aren't clear any
more.
So, you know, even to remember
her as a person, I don't have
that memory any more.
I have, uh, like, a picture.
I have a snapshot of what I
think she... I know what she
looked like because I have a
photo of it.
But to actually know how she
looked or how she walked or...
Those memories are gone because
it's been so long.
Nearly four
decades after their nightmare
began, Kelly's family can only
hope someone will finally come
forward with the tip needed to
catch her killer.
There's a significant cash
reward for the tip that leads to
the arrest and conviction of
Kelly cook's killer.
The reward fund is now over
$130,000.
If you have information about
who killed Kelly cook, contact
your local police agency, the
rcmp, or call crime stoppers.
I'm Antony robart.
Thank you for joining us tonight
on "crime beat."
Want more on this "crime"
beat" episode?
Listen to my "crime beat"
podcast now for free on apple
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