February 13, 2022 • 23 mins
This episode focuses on the 2005 abduction and murder of Jennifer Teague in Ottawa, Ontario. We also touch on the abduction and murder of Ardeth Wood.
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All music by Kai Engel licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For more info, please visit https://www.kai-engel.com/.
Written, hosted, edited, and produced by Steve Hollywood
Buy Me Coffee (please!) - https://paypal.me/greatlakestruecrime
Website - www.greatlakestruecrime.net
TwitterX - https://twitter.com/greatlakescrime
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/greatlakescrime
**Five-star reviews really help and are always appreciated**
All music by Kai Engel licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For more info, please visit https://www.kai-engel.com/.
Written, hosted, edited, and produced by Steve Hollywood
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
On September eighth, two thousand andfive, eighteen year old Jennifer Tigue was
walking home from a late night shiftat a Wendy's fast food restaurant near Ottawa,
Ontario. She would never make ithome that night and would never be
seen alive again. From the southshore of Lake Erie, this is Great
Lake's True Crime. Before we continue, I wanted to give a big thank
(01:11):
you to our loyal listener, Kim, who recently bought me a virtual cup
of coffee through the website at podpagedot com slash Great Lakes True Crime.
Also, if you like the show, please consider helping us by leaving a
five star review. If you haven'tyet, I'm trying to get the show
noticed more so positive reviews and newsubscriptions really help with that effort. You
(01:34):
can follow the show on Facebook andTwitter just search for Great Lakes True Crime,
and we're also on YouTube now aswell. You can check out links
in the show notes for our socialmedia handles, web address, and the
show merchandise page. Jennifer Tigue,known as Jen to her friends, was
(02:00):
born on June thirtieth, nineteen eightyseven. She had two older brothers named
Kevin and Carrie. As the youngestand the only girl in the family,
Jennifer grew up loving sports and learneda role with the teasing from her brothers.
She was only five foot four andweighed just over one hundred pounds,
(02:21):
but could definitely hold her own.Some might say she was small but mighty,
and she was described by friends askind, generous, and generally loving
life. In fact, a friendof jennifer Is named Kaylee described her as
quote the most happy person I've evermet in my life. Jennifer's father,
(02:42):
Ed Tigue, was in the Canadianmilitary. Just a year before she was
born, the Tigue family moved fromHalifax, Nova Scotia to Ed's new post
in the Canadian capital of Ottawa,Ontario. And to my fellow Americans,
yes, Ottawa is the capital ofCanada, not Toronto. While in Ottawa,
(03:04):
however, Jennifer's parents divorced, Jenniferand her brothers moved with their mother,
Jeanne, to bar Haven, whichis located in the southwestern Ottawa area.
For many decades, bar Haven wasa small, quiet enclave just outside
of Ottawa, but it's now apart of the city of Ottawa proper.
The area has experienced massive growth overthe past few decades, and now it's
(03:29):
a population of about one hundred thousandpeople. It's a very family oriented community
with new housing, well regarded schools, and plenty of shopping opportunities. And
although their parents were divorced, Jenniferand her brothers remained very close with their
father, ed, who remarried andlived in the area. In two thousand
(03:51):
and five, things were looking upfor Jennifer. She was getting ready to
start Grade twelve, which would beher final year in high school, and
she enjoyed her part time job atthe local Wendy's restaurant. She wasn't totally
sure what she wanted to do afterhigh school, but one thing about Jennifer
she loved to shop and could frequentlybe found shopping with her mom. With
(04:14):
her love of shopping, Jennifer alwayshad some type of part time job to
keep the money coming in. Jenniferwas also known to be very athletic,
and she especially stood out at soccerand baseball. She was a hockey fan,
with her favorite team being the OttawaSenators, and in fact, a
variety of Senators mementos decorated her bedroom. After she got off work the night
(04:40):
of her abduction, Jennifer met upwith some friends around one am at a
local convenience store called Max Milk.It was when she started walking home alone
not long after one am that shewent missing. Based on the nature of
Jennifer's disappearance and the fact that therewas no activity on her cell phone or
(05:00):
account, police immediately suspected that Jenniferhad been abducted rather than having voluntarily gone
missing. Friends were in disbelief.They couldn't believe anyone would want to hurt
Jennifer. An extensive search was conductedby many local residents across most of the
bar Haven area, and the disappearancewas a national news story in Canada.
(05:24):
Police set up a command post inthe parking lot of a local church.
Helicopters flew overhead searching for Jennifer.Teams of detectives interviewed witnesses, and a
massive ground search was undertaken. OnSeptember eighteenth, ten days after the disappearance,
(05:46):
an off duty police officer was outon a popular hiking trail in the
Stony Swamp conservation area. He noticeda foul smell in the air. To
smell that as a police officer,he was all too familiar with, so
the officers stopped to investigate, andit was then that the body of Jennifer
Tigue was discovered. No details aboutthe discovery were released to the public.
(06:14):
Nothing about the location, what shewas wearing, or any other details of
the scene were revealed. Later on, we learned that her body had been
faced down in some shallow water,and it was badly decomposed, and she
had been naked. The location ofthe body was about three miles or five
kilometers from where she disappeared. Jenniferwas laid to rest on October first,
(06:41):
two thousand and five, at CedarView Alliance Church. More than five hundred
people came to mourn the loss andto celebrate Jennifer's life. Because of where
the body was found, it wasapparent that whoever killed Jennifer was likely a
local resident and someone who knew thatthis would be a good area to dispose
of a body. Unfortunately, therewas no forensic evidence found at the scene
(07:05):
that would help pinpoint a suspect.Five days after the funeral, police announced
that not one, but two separateindividuals had confessed to murdering Jennifer. After
some investigation, however, neither confessionturned out to be credible. Police did
(07:30):
have two suspects in mind, however, and it looked like the case might
be solved pretty quickly. Suspect onewas said to have been interested romantically in
Jennifer, but she did not reciprocatethe feelings. Upon interviewing Suspect one,
police noticed scratches on his neck,which she explained by saying they were cuts
from shaving. Detectives were skeptical ofthis story, however, The suspect admitted
(07:57):
that he offered to walk Jennifer homethat night, but she declined, saying
it wasn't necessary. He took apolygraph, handed over the razor that he
shaved with, and was ultimately clearedof any suspicion. As for Suspect two,
he had driven past Jennifer and herfriend while they sat outside the Maximilk
convenience store. As Suspect two pulledthrough the parking lot and haunked the horn
(08:22):
at the two friends, Jennifer flippedhim the middle finger, apparently she was
not a big fan of his.This suspect was said to have had a
history of stalking issues, and hewas described as deceptive, paranoid and generally
suspicious. Police also noticed that thecar driven by suspect two had a broken
window on it, and he didn'thave a good explanation for how it got
(08:46):
that way, So police had atheory about this broken window. They suspected
that it was broken in a strugglewith Jennifer. So Suspect two agreed to
take a polygraph, and the resultsturned out to support his position that he
had nothing to do with Jennifer's disappearanceeither, So now suspect two was cleared
(09:07):
of Jennifer's murder. After those twosuspects were cleared, detectives were back to
square one. Jennifer's mother, Jean, was devastated. After about two and
a half weeks, the ground searchwas called off and the number of officers
on the case was greatly reduced,much to the family's chagrin. The trail
(09:30):
began to turn cold, but thepublic demanded answers when considering that there was
another unsolved case of a young woman'smurder nearby, they were terrified that there
was potentially a serial killer on theloose. That other woman was a twenty
seven year old University of Waterloo graduatestudent named Artith Wood. Ardith had been
(09:56):
visiting her parents in the Ottawa suburbof or in August two thousand and three
when she set off on a bikeride and never came home. Her disappearance
was also a national news story inCanada, and a mess of five day
search was undertaken for Ardath until hernaked body was discovered by a police tracking
(10:16):
dog close to the bank of acreek. Because of the similarities, including
the fact that the body was alsofound near a multi purpose trail with no
for US evidence to be collected,the two cases became linked in the minds
of many throughout Ottawa. The casewent unsolved for two years. Police investigated
(10:39):
more than five thousand tips they hadreceived, and they came up with eighteen
hundred persons of interest to follow upon. A month after Jennifer's disappearance,
however, a man and I usedthe term loosely named Christopher Myers, was
in police custody on suspicion of asexual assault that was carried out in a
(11:03):
manner similar to Ardith's abduction and murder. Myers failed a polygraph test focused on
Ardith's murder, and in January twothousand and eight, he pleaded guilty to
second degree murder for attacking and forciblydrowning Artith Woods after he encountered her on
the bike trail. In addition toArtith's murder, Myers also pleaded guilty to
(11:28):
three sexual assaults, one where he'dattacked a woman from behind and physically assaulted
her, another where he sexually assaulteda woman he lured into his home,
and a third where he dragged awoman into a wooded area and groped her.
On top of the murder and theother assaults, Myers also pleaded guilty
(11:48):
to two robberies in which he grabbedyoung women, assaulted them, and stole
their purses. Yet, for allthese crimes, Myers was sentenced to life
in prison, but with parolability inonly ten years. He's already had one
parole hearing in August twenty twenty,which fortunately was denied. By April two
(12:15):
thousand and six, it had beenseven months since Jennifer's murder, with no
arrests made in no leading suspects.Police tried to reignite interest in the case,
so they released a sketch of apotential suspect in the case. Although
it's not clear in my research howthe sketch originated. This idea seemed to
work. The Wendy's Corporation, whereJennifer had worked, offered a fifty thousand
(12:41):
dollars reward for information leading to thearrest and conviction of her killer. The
Ottawa Police Services Board offered another fiftythousand dollars, increasing the total award amount
to one hundred thousand dollars. Thefollowing month, in May two thousand and
six, Ottawa police released twenty fourphotos of potential witnesses in connection with the
(13:05):
killing. The photos had been retrievedfrom surveillance footage in the Max Milk store
around the time of Jennifer's disappearance.Just over one week later, on June
ninth, two thousand and six,twenty four year old Kevin Davis got high
on the illicit drug known as magicmushrooms, stripped naked, and then ran
(13:28):
onto a busy road, screaming thathe had killed Jennifer Tigue. Davis was
taken to the hospital and when questionedby police, he said he didn't know
anything about Jennifer's murder. He hadbeen taken to the hospital under the Mental
Health Act, and because of thatpolice could not immediately interview him to get
more information. Davis lived at hismother's home, and the address at that
(13:56):
house was right along the route Jenniferwould have used to walk home from Max
Milk. After a week in thehospital psychiatric ward, Davis was released and
was then questioned more by police.He denied killing Jennifer and stated that the
night of the murder, he wasat a friend's house playing video games.
(14:18):
Later, he said he couldn't rememberanything about that night, not even the
video games, and his friend wasunable to provide an alibi for him.
But while Davis could not prove thathe wasn't the perpetrator, police couldn't prove
that he was. So the investigationsslowly carried on. Police were still following
(14:39):
up on seventeen hundred tips they hadreceived from the public. Then another break
came in the case. Out ofthe clear Blue. A couple weeks later,
Kevin Davis walked up to an offduty police officer at a shopping center
and once again confessed to murdering Jennifer. He said he deserved to be punished
(15:01):
for his actions. This time,he was not under the influence of any
drugs, so Davis was taken tothe police station for questioning. Despite being
read his rights and advised that heshould have an attorney present, Davis insisted
on telling police what he did.He said he wanted to get it off
his chest, as he will recall, police did not release any details about
(15:24):
the discovery of Jennifer's body for thisvery type of situation. That is,
if someone confessed to the murder,they would want that person to provide details
of how and where he left herbody to confirm that the confession was truthful.
So police took Davis to the scene. He pinpointed the exact location where
(15:46):
he left the body and noted thathe left the body face down. Only
the killer would have known this information. In fact, police had intentionally released
to the media and public an incorrectlocation of where the body was found.
They said it was on a differenttrail altogether. Davis admitted that he followed
(16:10):
Jennifer after she left Max. Hehad been searching for a young woman to
rape and murder for a week beforehe randomly came upon Jennifer. He said
he wanted a younger victim because shewould be easier to control. Finding Jennifer
at the time and place he foundher was a completely random opportunity. The
(16:33):
street was dark, so it seemedlike an ideal spot for an abduction.
He wanted a victim in a vulnerableplace, and Davis had apparently never met
or seen Jennifer before. Once Davishad abducted Jennifer and brought her back to
his mom's house, he was unableto go through with the original plan,
which included raping her. Instead,he moved on to strangling her while his
(16:59):
mother was fast sleep in the roomnext door under the influence of sleep medication.
After the murder, Davis wrapped thebody and his grandmother's quilt and took
it down to his mother's car.He then drove to the area near the
trail and disposed of her body.One of the reasons for committing such a
(17:25):
horrible crime, according to Davis,was his hatred of women after constantly being
rejected. Of course, it couldbe that they rejected Kevin because he's the
type of guy that would stalk,murder, and try to rape young women,
but there are also some other nonsensicalreasons given for the crimes, including
(17:45):
general anger towards the world after beingfired from his job at home Depot and
the death of his pet cat,so Davis was charged with first degree murder
on January twelfth, two an eight. He announced his intention to plead guilty
on murder chargers at the start ofthis trial, which was scheduled for January
(18:07):
twenty fifth, two thousand and eight. Pleading guilty without first making some type
of deal for a more lenient sentenceis highly unusual, but Davis did it
anyway. No trial was held,and he was sentenced to life in prison
with no chance of parole for atleast twenty five years. Prior to the
announcement of his sentence, however,Davis testified about the specific details of his
(18:32):
crimes. As part of that testimony, Davis confessed that he deserved his punishment
of life in prison. He revealedthat if he could, he would give
up his own life in order tobring back Jennifer. One of the most
devastating details for Jennifer's mother to hearwas that Jennifer's last words were that she
(18:55):
needed to get home soon or hermother would be worried about her. Ed
Teague did not believe that Davis hadany true remorse in his heart over Jennifer's
murder, but her mother admitted tobeing relieved by the guilty pleas so they
didn't have to go through the difficultordeal of a trial. Jennifer's abduction and
(19:15):
murder really shocked the otherwise tranquil communityof Barhaven. For nearly a year,
residents lived in fear because they didn'tknow which one of their neighbors might be
a murderer. Residents were scared forthe lives of their children and their friends.
During these months that the killer wasrunning free. Parents stopped letting their
(19:36):
kids walk home alone. Employers evenstarted paying taxi fare so their workers could
get a ride home at night.Nine years after Jennifer's murder, her stepmother,
Sylvie, wrote a book with inputfrom ed about coping with tragedies like
this one. The book was bornout of a need to forgive their daughter's
(19:59):
killer. One of the messages containedin the book is a call for greater
justice and attention paid to the victimsof crime, with less focus on the
criminals. The book is titled Beyondthe Darkest Hours Where Hope Lies, and
it was published in twenty fifteen.Jennifer's stepmother has also advocated for stronger legislation
(20:22):
and harsher penalties for criminals such asDavis. Jennifer Ann Teague is interred at
Capital Memorial Gardens in Ottawa, Ontario. Her headstone is engraved with the words
Forever eighteen Forever in our Hearts.And that's all for this episode of Great
(20:42):
Lake's True Crime. Before we go, though, I do want to leave
you with a streaming recommendation. Thisone is for a TV show that I
may have mentioned before, but it'sa show that I've likely watched more than
any other show in the past eightyears. It's called Republic of Doyle.
(21:03):
Our Canadian listeners are certainly familiar withhis show. For those who aren't familiar
with it, Republic of Doyle isa lighthearted Canadian crime drama set in Saint
John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Thescenery alone is a reason to check it
out. The show originally aired onCBC Television from January twenty ten to December
(21:25):
twenty fourteen. It's now available onYouTube Free with commercials and Acorn TV in
the United States. I'm guessing it'sstill available in Canada on the CBC streaming
service anyway. The show stars AlanHawko, who incidentally has interacted with me
(21:45):
several times on Twitter as a privateinvestigator with his father played by Irish actor
Sean McKinley. Over the show's sixseasons, there are some epic guest star
appearances, including Nicholas Campbell who playedDa Vinci in Davini. She's in Quest,
some of hilarious episodes with Scott Grimes, a few Russell Crowe appearances,
(22:07):
and are recurring appearances by Victor Garber, who was the captain in the film
Titanic. He played my favorite characteron the show, Garrison Steele. It's
a very entertaining show, often sillybut sometimes serious, and I frequently turn
it on at night to help mefall asleep again. The show is called
Republic of Doyle. Look forward onAcorn TV or YouTube and possibly a few
(22:30):
other apps for Great Lakes true crime. This has been your host and producer,
Steve. Thanks for listening. Buys, the people, the
On September eighth, two thousand andfive, eighteen year old Jennifer Tigue was
walking home from a late night shiftat a Wendy's fast food restaurant near Ottawa,
Ontario. She would never make ithome that night and would never be
seen alive again. From the southshore of Lake Erie, this is Great
Lake's True Crime. Before we continue, I wanted to give a big thank
(01:11):
you to our loyal listener, Kim, who recently bought me a virtual cup
of coffee through the website at podpagedot com slash Great Lakes True Crime.
Also, if you like the show, please consider helping us by leaving a
five star review. If you haven'tyet, I'm trying to get the show
noticed more so positive reviews and newsubscriptions really help with that effort. You
(01:34):
can follow the show on Facebook andTwitter just search for Great Lakes True Crime,
and we're also on YouTube now aswell. You can check out links
in the show notes for our socialmedia handles, web address, and the
show merchandise page. Jennifer Tigue,known as Jen to her friends, was
(02:00):
born on June thirtieth, nineteen eightyseven. She had two older brothers named
Kevin and Carrie. As the youngestand the only girl in the family,
Jennifer grew up loving sports and learneda role with the teasing from her brothers.
She was only five foot four andweighed just over one hundred pounds,
(02:21):
but could definitely hold her own.Some might say she was small but mighty,
and she was described by friends askind, generous, and generally loving
life. In fact, a friendof jennifer Is named Kaylee described her as
quote the most happy person I've evermet in my life. Jennifer's father,
(02:42):
Ed Tigue, was in the Canadianmilitary. Just a year before she was
born, the Tigue family moved fromHalifax, Nova Scotia to Ed's new post
in the Canadian capital of Ottawa,Ontario. And to my fellow Americans,
yes, Ottawa is the capital ofCanada, not Toronto. While in Ottawa,
(03:04):
however, Jennifer's parents divorced, Jenniferand her brothers moved with their mother,
Jeanne, to bar Haven, whichis located in the southwestern Ottawa area.
For many decades, bar Haven wasa small, quiet enclave just outside
of Ottawa, but it's now apart of the city of Ottawa proper.
The area has experienced massive growth overthe past few decades, and now it's
(03:29):
a population of about one hundred thousandpeople. It's a very family oriented community
with new housing, well regarded schools, and plenty of shopping opportunities. And
although their parents were divorced, Jenniferand her brothers remained very close with their
father, ed, who remarried andlived in the area. In two thousand
(03:51):
and five, things were looking upfor Jennifer. She was getting ready to
start Grade twelve, which would beher final year in high school, and
she enjoyed her part time job atthe local Wendy's restaurant. She wasn't totally
sure what she wanted to do afterhigh school, but one thing about Jennifer
she loved to shop and could frequentlybe found shopping with her mom. With
(04:14):
her love of shopping, Jennifer alwayshad some type of part time job to
keep the money coming in. Jenniferwas also known to be very athletic,
and she especially stood out at soccerand baseball. She was a hockey fan,
with her favorite team being the OttawaSenators, and in fact, a
variety of Senators mementos decorated her bedroom. After she got off work the night
(04:40):
of her abduction, Jennifer met upwith some friends around one am at a
local convenience store called Max Milk.It was when she started walking home alone
not long after one am that shewent missing. Based on the nature of
Jennifer's disappearance and the fact that therewas no activity on her cell phone or
(05:00):
account, police immediately suspected that Jenniferhad been abducted rather than having voluntarily gone
missing. Friends were in disbelief.They couldn't believe anyone would want to hurt
Jennifer. An extensive search was conductedby many local residents across most of the
bar Haven area, and the disappearancewas a national news story in Canada.
(05:24):
Police set up a command post inthe parking lot of a local church.
Helicopters flew overhead searching for Jennifer.Teams of detectives interviewed witnesses, and a
massive ground search was undertaken. OnSeptember eighteenth, ten days after the disappearance,
(05:46):
an off duty police officer was outon a popular hiking trail in the
Stony Swamp conservation area. He noticeda foul smell in the air. To
smell that as a police officer,he was all too familiar with, so
the officers stopped to investigate, andit was then that the body of Jennifer
Tigue was discovered. No details aboutthe discovery were released to the public.
(06:14):
Nothing about the location, what shewas wearing, or any other details of
the scene were revealed. Later on, we learned that her body had been
faced down in some shallow water,and it was badly decomposed, and she
had been naked. The location ofthe body was about three miles or five
kilometers from where she disappeared. Jenniferwas laid to rest on October first,
(06:41):
two thousand and five, at CedarView Alliance Church. More than five hundred
people came to mourn the loss andto celebrate Jennifer's life. Because of where
the body was found, it wasapparent that whoever killed Jennifer was likely a
local resident and someone who knew thatthis would be a good area to dispose
of a body. Unfortunately, therewas no forensic evidence found at the scene
(07:05):
that would help pinpoint a suspect.Five days after the funeral, police announced
that not one, but two separateindividuals had confessed to murdering Jennifer. After
some investigation, however, neither confessionturned out to be credible. Police did
(07:30):
have two suspects in mind, however, and it looked like the case might
be solved pretty quickly. Suspect onewas said to have been interested romantically in
Jennifer, but she did not reciprocatethe feelings. Upon interviewing Suspect one,
police noticed scratches on his neck,which she explained by saying they were cuts
from shaving. Detectives were skeptical ofthis story, however, The suspect admitted
(07:57):
that he offered to walk Jennifer homethat night, but she declined, saying
it wasn't necessary. He took apolygraph, handed over the razor that he
shaved with, and was ultimately clearedof any suspicion. As for Suspect two,
he had driven past Jennifer and herfriend while they sat outside the Maximilk
convenience store. As Suspect two pulledthrough the parking lot and haunked the horn
(08:22):
at the two friends, Jennifer flippedhim the middle finger, apparently she was
not a big fan of his.This suspect was said to have had a
history of stalking issues, and hewas described as deceptive, paranoid and generally
suspicious. Police also noticed that thecar driven by suspect two had a broken
window on it, and he didn'thave a good explanation for how it got
(08:46):
that way, So police had atheory about this broken window. They suspected
that it was broken in a strugglewith Jennifer. So Suspect two agreed to
take a polygraph, and the resultsturned out to support his position that he
had nothing to do with Jennifer's disappearanceeither, So now suspect two was cleared
(09:07):
of Jennifer's murder. After those twosuspects were cleared, detectives were back to
square one. Jennifer's mother, Jean, was devastated. After about two and
a half weeks, the ground searchwas called off and the number of officers
on the case was greatly reduced,much to the family's chagrin. The trail
(09:30):
began to turn cold, but thepublic demanded answers when considering that there was
another unsolved case of a young woman'smurder nearby, they were terrified that there
was potentially a serial killer on theloose. That other woman was a twenty
seven year old University of Waterloo graduatestudent named Artith Wood. Ardith had been
(09:56):
visiting her parents in the Ottawa suburbof or in August two thousand and three
when she set off on a bikeride and never came home. Her disappearance
was also a national news story inCanada, and a mess of five day
search was undertaken for Ardath until hernaked body was discovered by a police tracking
(10:16):
dog close to the bank of acreek. Because of the similarities, including
the fact that the body was alsofound near a multi purpose trail with no
for US evidence to be collected,the two cases became linked in the minds
of many throughout Ottawa. The casewent unsolved for two years. Police investigated
(10:39):
more than five thousand tips they hadreceived, and they came up with eighteen
hundred persons of interest to follow upon. A month after Jennifer's disappearance,
however, a man and I usedthe term loosely named Christopher Myers, was
in police custody on suspicion of asexual assault that was carried out in a
(11:03):
manner similar to Ardith's abduction and murder. Myers failed a polygraph test focused on
Ardith's murder, and in January twothousand and eight, he pleaded guilty to
second degree murder for attacking and forciblydrowning Artith Woods after he encountered her on
the bike trail. In addition toArtith's murder, Myers also pleaded guilty to
(11:28):
three sexual assaults, one where he'dattacked a woman from behind and physically assaulted
her, another where he sexually assaulteda woman he lured into his home,
and a third where he dragged awoman into a wooded area and groped her.
On top of the murder and theother assaults, Myers also pleaded guilty
(11:48):
to two robberies in which he grabbedyoung women, assaulted them, and stole
their purses. Yet, for allthese crimes, Myers was sentenced to life
in prison, but with parolability inonly ten years. He's already had one
parole hearing in August twenty twenty,which fortunately was denied. By April two
(12:15):
thousand and six, it had beenseven months since Jennifer's murder, with no
arrests made in no leading suspects.Police tried to reignite interest in the case,
so they released a sketch of apotential suspect in the case. Although
it's not clear in my research howthe sketch originated. This idea seemed to
work. The Wendy's Corporation, whereJennifer had worked, offered a fifty thousand
(12:41):
dollars reward for information leading to thearrest and conviction of her killer. The
Ottawa Police Services Board offered another fiftythousand dollars, increasing the total award amount
to one hundred thousand dollars. Thefollowing month, in May two thousand and
six, Ottawa police released twenty fourphotos of potential witnesses in connection with the
(13:05):
killing. The photos had been retrievedfrom surveillance footage in the Max Milk store
around the time of Jennifer's disappearance.Just over one week later, on June
ninth, two thousand and six,twenty four year old Kevin Davis got high
on the illicit drug known as magicmushrooms, stripped naked, and then ran
(13:28):
onto a busy road, screaming thathe had killed Jennifer Tigue. Davis was
taken to the hospital and when questionedby police, he said he didn't know
anything about Jennifer's murder. He hadbeen taken to the hospital under the Mental
Health Act, and because of thatpolice could not immediately interview him to get
more information. Davis lived at hismother's home, and the address at that
(13:56):
house was right along the route Jenniferwould have used to walk home from Max
Milk. After a week in thehospital psychiatric ward, Davis was released and
was then questioned more by police.He denied killing Jennifer and stated that the
night of the murder, he wasat a friend's house playing video games.
(14:18):
Later, he said he couldn't rememberanything about that night, not even the
video games, and his friend wasunable to provide an alibi for him.
But while Davis could not prove thathe wasn't the perpetrator, police couldn't prove
that he was. So the investigationsslowly carried on. Police were still following
(14:39):
up on seventeen hundred tips they hadreceived from the public. Then another break
came in the case. Out ofthe clear Blue. A couple weeks later,
Kevin Davis walked up to an offduty police officer at a shopping center
and once again confessed to murdering Jennifer. He said he deserved to be punished
(15:01):
for his actions. This time,he was not under the influence of any
drugs, so Davis was taken tothe police station for questioning. Despite being
read his rights and advised that heshould have an attorney present, Davis insisted
on telling police what he did.He said he wanted to get it off
his chest, as he will recall, police did not release any details about
(15:24):
the discovery of Jennifer's body for thisvery type of situation. That is,
if someone confessed to the murder,they would want that person to provide details
of how and where he left herbody to confirm that the confession was truthful.
So police took Davis to the scene. He pinpointed the exact location where
(15:46):
he left the body and noted thathe left the body face down. Only
the killer would have known this information. In fact, police had intentionally released
to the media and public an incorrectlocation of where the body was found.
They said it was on a differenttrail altogether. Davis admitted that he followed
(16:10):
Jennifer after she left Max. Hehad been searching for a young woman to
rape and murder for a week beforehe randomly came upon Jennifer. He said
he wanted a younger victim because shewould be easier to control. Finding Jennifer
at the time and place he foundher was a completely random opportunity. The
(16:33):
street was dark, so it seemedlike an ideal spot for an abduction.
He wanted a victim in a vulnerableplace, and Davis had apparently never met
or seen Jennifer before. Once Davishad abducted Jennifer and brought her back to
his mom's house, he was unableto go through with the original plan,
which included raping her. Instead,he moved on to strangling her while his
(16:59):
mother was fast sleep in the roomnext door under the influence of sleep medication.
After the murder, Davis wrapped thebody and his grandmother's quilt and took
it down to his mother's car.He then drove to the area near the
trail and disposed of her body.One of the reasons for committing such a
(17:25):
horrible crime, according to Davis,was his hatred of women after constantly being
rejected. Of course, it couldbe that they rejected Kevin because he's the
type of guy that would stalk,murder, and try to rape young women,
but there are also some other nonsensicalreasons given for the crimes, including
(17:45):
general anger towards the world after beingfired from his job at home Depot and
the death of his pet cat,so Davis was charged with first degree murder
on January twelfth, two an eight. He announced his intention to plead guilty
on murder chargers at the start ofthis trial, which was scheduled for January
(18:07):
twenty fifth, two thousand and eight. Pleading guilty without first making some type
of deal for a more lenient sentenceis highly unusual, but Davis did it
anyway. No trial was held,and he was sentenced to life in prison
with no chance of parole for atleast twenty five years. Prior to the
announcement of his sentence, however,Davis testified about the specific details of his
(18:32):
crimes. As part of that testimony, Davis confessed that he deserved his punishment
of life in prison. He revealedthat if he could, he would give
up his own life in order tobring back Jennifer. One of the most
devastating details for Jennifer's mother to hearwas that Jennifer's last words were that she
(18:55):
needed to get home soon or hermother would be worried about her. Ed
Teague did not believe that Davis hadany true remorse in his heart over Jennifer's
murder, but her mother admitted tobeing relieved by the guilty pleas so they
didn't have to go through the difficultordeal of a trial. Jennifer's abduction and
(19:15):
murder really shocked the otherwise tranquil communityof Barhaven. For nearly a year,
residents lived in fear because they didn'tknow which one of their neighbors might be
a murderer. Residents were scared forthe lives of their children and their friends.
During these months that the killer wasrunning free. Parents stopped letting their
(19:36):
kids walk home alone. Employers evenstarted paying taxi fare so their workers could
get a ride home at night.Nine years after Jennifer's murder, her stepmother,
Sylvie, wrote a book with inputfrom ed about coping with tragedies like
this one. The book was bornout of a need to forgive their daughter's
(19:59):
killer. One of the messages containedin the book is a call for greater
justice and attention paid to the victimsof crime, with less focus on the
criminals. The book is titled Beyondthe Darkest Hours Where Hope Lies, and
it was published in twenty fifteen.Jennifer's stepmother has also advocated for stronger legislation
(20:22):
and harsher penalties for criminals such asDavis. Jennifer Ann Teague is interred at
Capital Memorial Gardens in Ottawa, Ontario. Her headstone is engraved with the words
Forever eighteen Forever in our Hearts.And that's all for this episode of Great
(20:42):
Lake's True Crime. Before we go, though, I do want to leave
you with a streaming recommendation. Thisone is for a TV show that I
may have mentioned before, but it'sa show that I've likely watched more than
any other show in the past eightyears. It's called Republic of Doyle.
(21:03):
Our Canadian listeners are certainly familiar withhis show. For those who aren't familiar
with it, Republic of Doyle isa lighthearted Canadian crime drama set in Saint
John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Thescenery alone is a reason to check it
out. The show originally aired onCBC Television from January twenty ten to December
(21:25):
twenty fourteen. It's now available onYouTube Free with commercials and Acorn TV in
the United States. I'm guessing it'sstill available in Canada on the CBC streaming
service anyway. The show stars AlanHawko, who incidentally has interacted with me
(21:45):
several times on Twitter as a privateinvestigator with his father played by Irish actor
Sean McKinley. Over the show's sixseasons, there are some epic guest star
appearances, including Nicholas Campbell who playedDa Vinci in Davini. She's in Quest,
some of hilarious episodes with Scott Grimes, a few Russell Crowe appearances,
(22:07):
and are recurring appearances by Victor Garber, who was the captain in the film
Titanic. He played my favorite characteron the show, Garrison Steele. It's
a very entertaining show, often sillybut sometimes serious, and I frequently turn
it on at night to help mefall asleep again. The show is called
Republic of Doyle. Look forward onAcorn TV or YouTube and possibly a few
(22:30):
other apps for Great Lakes true crime. This has been your host and producer,
Steve. Thanks for listening. Buys, the people, the
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