All language subtitles for A.U.S01E01.Cultural Indifference [eng]

(ominous music)
- A young woman

in a northern
Manitoba small town

decides to walk
home alone at night.

And in the morning, a young
man makes a terrible discovery.

- The viciousness of it,

I don't think you ever really
prepare for that kinda stuff.

- [Narrator] Despite
evidence and lots of rumors,

there's a town that's
unwilling to talk.

- Because at the end of the day,

it's not just a family
who wants justice,

it's the entire community.

- I think it's really
important to remember her story

because of the symbol of
what she ultimately became.

She could have
been any one of us.

(soft suspenseful music)

- The unsolved ones,
we have to stand up.

- And approach these cases
in a way outside the box.

- Let the world know
there's those out there

that did commit a murder

and there are people that
are coming after you.

- There's just a
lotta good people

trying to do the right thing.
(faint police radio chatter)

- Because it's something

that you have to be
passionate about.

- Solve this, bring some
peace to the family at least.

Just doing my job.

(gavel pounding)

(marker scribbling)

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] The Pas, a large
town in northern Manitoba

known as the Gateway
to the North,

built initially on a fur trade.

The Cree First Nations people

call it Opasquia or
Highwood Narrows.

English settlers would
then shorten that name

to simply The Pas.

- By the late-'60s, driven by
the pulp and paper industry,

The Pas was quite a boom town.

A good place to get a job,

it's great if you
like the outdoors,

it's a good tourist destination.

- [Narrator] But like
any other boom town,

there are negatives that
come with economic prosperity

and a transient workforce.

- Had a kind of a Wild
West feel to it as well.

Substance abuse, violence,

and even prostitution
was not uncommon.

- [Narrator] The
Pas is also unique

in that bordering the town
are two Indigenous reserves

and one Metis settlement.

Tensions and racist attitudes

between the
predominantly white town

and its neighbors
were not uncommon.

- When I got to The Pas,

I got off the train
and went to barracks,

I lived in barracks
at the detachment,

one of the chaps at coffee said,
"Well, get ready to fight."

And I said, "What do you mean?

He said, "Well, you're
the new kid in town.

"They'll wanna see
how tough you are."

Saturday at noon, I
had my first fight.

That's the kind of town
it was, and he was right.

They wanted to see how tough
you are, and so they try you.

- [Narrator] While The
Pas had its rough edges,

no one would be prepared
for what was about to happen

when on a chilly
November morning in 1971,

a young man would make
a discovery in the woods

20 miles northeast of The Pas.

(uneasy music)

A father and son are off
on a fishing expedition

on a cold miserable
morning at Clearwater Lake.

The boy is just 14.

The wind coming off the
water is damp and biting,

so he goes for a wander,
looking for rabbit tracks.

- The young man
followed the trail

and found something
clearly wrong.

(eerie music)

- [Narrator] The father and
son drive to the nearest phone

and call the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police

as constables Tom
Boyle and Don Knight,

both in their early-20s,
are dispatched.

- Had just sat down to
watch the TV and got a call.

"There's been a body found."

- And all she was wearing
were thick rubber boots.

At the time, they didn't
have the availability

of ready-made evidence kits,

so they actually had
to stop at the store

and buy paper bags and tape

in order to be able to
collect the evidence.

- I don't think you
ever really prepare

for that kinda stuff.

I mean, through your training
and of course your experience,

you learn there's a
routine to go through.

You have to do certain things.

- And I was the exhibit guy;

in other words, gathering
all the exhibits

and making notes of the
scene and that kind of thing,

- [Don] And things were
totally different then.

- This is prior to the use of
using DNA for identification.

So, they relied heavily at
that time on fingerprints,

shoe prints, blood, and anything
else at the crime scene.

- [Narrator] There
are many tracks,

suggesting that there was
more than one person involved,

at least in bringing the
body to this location.

- You can see that she
was dragged into the bush,

person on each side of her

where she was dragged
to and dropped,

and then there's two
sets of tracks going out.

So, that meant two of them
were involved, at least.

- They can't do
plaster casts even.

The shoe prints or footprints
that have been left

are already filling
up with snow.

- So, they take
photographs instead.

And again, it's the '70s.

Even photographs aren't
the same as they are today.

- I was involved in
other murder cases,

but this one here is, it was
like they were in a frenzy.

I mean, the number of
stab wounds on her,

the viciousness of it...

They put the boots to her.

(somber music)

- [Narrator] The autopsy
would later be in Winnipeg.

But for now, the victim's body

is taken to a local
hospital for identification,

the task made
problematic by the fact

that the face had been
crushed or stomped in

and had many puncture wounds.

- It was going to be
very hard to identify her

and identify what killed her.

- It's kinda hard to
talk about, really,

because those kinds of things
you don't really forget.

That somebody could actually
do that to a human being

is just unbelievable.

- [Narrator] The first clue
to the victim's identity

are when the boots are removed,

revealing a tattoo on her leg.

"Cornelius Bighetty, I truly
love you, no matter what."

This would combine
with a very recent

missing person's report
and give the victim a name:

Helen Betty Osborne.

- Where she had been staying,

the lady said she
hadn't come home

and put in kind of a
missing person's complaint.

And so, all of a sudden

you put two and two
together real quick.

The lady said she
couldn't do it,

but the husband came
down and basically said,

yeah, that was her.

And of course, they
identified her clothes too.

- [Narrator] Not
far from the body,

the police would also
discover the victim's clothes

bundled up and discarded.

- On any murder investigation,

from the moment the crime
scene is discovered,

from the moment the
officers get there

and have to enter that
scene for the first time,

the clock starts
ticking for them.

They know that the
longer it takes,

the more the evidence
becomes degraded.

- Who was she with at the time

and who was the last
person that saw her?

That's where you
start, you know?

- Statistically,
homicides are committed

by people who are
known to the victim;

not always, but in the
vast majority of cases.

- [Narrator] Now, the police
have their first suspect.

They pick up Cornelius Bighetty
from the Pukatawagan reserve

and learn that he had been
dating Helen Betty Osborne.

Bighetty also had been with
her the night of her murder.

- On the night she disappeared,

there'd been some drinking,
some alcohol involved.

There was an
argument over a girl.

So, essentially, the
last time he saw her,

she was walking home alone.

- [Narrator] Bighetty is
interrogated for hours,

but remains aloof,

which leads the RCMP to
believe he's hiding something,

(eerie music)

so they show him some photos
from the murder scene.

- When he sees the photos,
Cornelius passes out

and then the police decide
to put him in a jail cell

for a few hours.

- [Narrator] The RCMP
then turn to a polygraph,

or lie detector test,
to get the truth.

- In the 1970s, the
polygraph is an instrument

that's used all over the
world by police agencies

to try to determine
the truthfulness

of somebody's statement.

That measures their
body's reaction

while they're put under stress.

Cornelius agrees to
take a polygraph test

and the results of that test
make it clear to the detectives

that he's not a
suspect in this matter.

- [Narrator] But
the interrogation

would render a crucial clue.

The night before
Betty's body was found

near Clearwater Lake,
the investigators
now could place her

walking to the home where
she was staying in The Pas.

(uneasy music)

- She was a high school student

and she was billeting at a home

that was near the school
she was attending.

The RCMP at the time
went to her room

and they found one of
her school notebooks

and they were able to obtain
a fingerprint from it.

And from that fingerprint,

they were able to
positively identify

the body of Helen Betty Osborne.

(somber music)

- [Narrator] Helen Betty Osborne

is born a First
Nation Cree in 1952

in Norway House, a reserve
in northern Manitoba.

- She was the first born
of Justine and Joe Osborne,

a fur trapper,

one of eight siblings who
all lived in a log cabin.

- [Narrator] By
the summer of 1969,

she outgrows the
education program

and must either settle
for grade-eight education

or leave home to study further.

Betty is known by her
friends as bright and funny.

- She had an interest
in mathematics

and participated in a program

that helped integrate
Indigenous students

with white students in The Pas

at Margaret Barbour Collegiate.

- She went away to The Pas
out of the safety and comfort

of her community and her family

so that she can get an education

so she can go back
to her community

and better her community.

- In The Pas on the weekends,

she sometimes goes to movies
with Cornelius and her friends.

- And in 1971, where the
movie theater was segregated

in the community of The Pas at
that time, they get spat on,

they get called racial
slurs anywhere they go.

I'm sure if they
went into a store,

they were followed around
and viewed with suspicion.

Those were the attitudes
and the prevailing attitudes

of people who lived
in the community.

(uneasy music)

- To start with, we
were knocking on doors.

And once we found
out who she was,

where was she doing that
night, and you go from there

and you start talking to
everybody that was at the bar

that you knew at least or
could find out who was there.

You start talking to people in
town, if they heard anything.

All it takes is one person
if you get the right one.

- Within Days of Helen Betty
Osborne's body being found,

the community starts to realize

that something
horrible has happened.

And pretty soon they get an
idea who may have been involved.

- One of the very first
leads in this case

came from someone
from the community,

a cab driver who was driving
out near the airport.

He saw something
that would be crucial

in identifying who killed
Helen Betty Osborne.

(apprehensive music)

(tense music)

- [Narrator] When the
mutilated body of a young woman

is found in a secluded wooded
area near Clearwater Lake,

northeast of The Pas, Manitoba,
an investigation is launched

by the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, or RCMP.

- You could see that she
was dragged into the bush,

person on each side of her.

They just brutalized
her is what they did.

It was like they
were in a frenzy.

- [Narrator] She's an Indigenous
student from Norway House

and soon identified as
Helen Betty Osborne.

The crime scene indicates
multiple people were involved

and her tattoo leads
investigators to a boyfriend.

But after an initial
interrogation,

they realize it's not him.

- Police are desperately going
to streets, homes, and bars

when a cab driver contacts them

to say he's seen
something suspicious.

- He sees a white or a light
blue car out on the road

and he sees something
thrown from the window.

- Incredibly, he remembers
two numbers from the plate:

four, two.

(grim music)

- A dog search of the highway

where the cab driver saw the car

would turn up a screwdriver
and part of a woman's brassier.

- Screwdriver
stabbed her the face,

which punctured the skull
and went into the brain.

I mean, it was just-

It's kinda hard to
talk about, really,

because those kinds of things
you don't really forget.

That somebody could actually
do that to a human being

is just unbelievable.

- It was inhuman
what they did to her,

how they violated her body

and the indignity of leaving
her the way that they did.

- [Narrator] On November
17th, Helen Betty Osborne

makes front-page news
in the local paper.

Parents from northern reserves

take their kids out of school.

Indigenous girls
who stay in school

are warned by their
parents and landlords

to walk in pairs or not
go out at night at all.

- Helen Betty's peers,
other First Nation kids,

other Indigenous kids that
she was going to school with,

police just went in

and hauled them down
to the police station,

put them in cells.

Even at that point in time,
the law was fairly clear.

The police did not have
power to detain anyone

unless they were charging
them with a specific crime

and arresting them accordingly.

"Clearly, what happened here
is that someone was murdered

"and we need to clear it up

"and it's probably likely one
of these violent Indigenous

"or Aboriginal kids that
have come from the reserve."

- This is a very
small rural town

and people are starting to talk.

Rumors are starting to spread.

(pensive music)

- Now that there
was a better idea

of what the murder weapon was,

there's some clarity or focus
coming to the investigation,

but there was still a question
of whose vehicle it was.

(pensive music continuing)

- It's not unusual
for investigators

to try new techniques to try
to get a break in a case.

And on this particular occasion,

they turned to hypnosis,
a first for the RCMP,

to try to find some information.

- [Narrator] Under hypnosis,

the cab driver now remembers
four of the six characters.

- The license plate and
the description of the car

point to a vehicle owned by
the Colgan family in The Pas,

but all the information they
have at this point is hearsay

and from
unsubstantiated sources.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] Meanwhile,
Helen Betty Osborne

is buried on a
bitterly cold day.

The family can't
afford a tombstone,

so they ask a man on the reserve

to build her a
wooden cross instead.

- You really feel for
the victim, of course,

and you also feel for
the victim's family,

and that's one of the
hard parts of the job.

- They're dealing with these
attitudes in the community

where there's this hearsay and
there's rumors and innuendo

and they're hearing
snippets of information,

but you can't make a case out
of snippets of information.

You have to go down
and do the hard work.

- [Narrator] It's
a Friday in May

when Constable Don Knight
receives a letter in the mail

that reveals details

about the murder of
Helen Betty Osborne.

- This is an anonymous letter,

but the author clearly
appears to have

intimate knowledge
of the murder.

- [Narrator] The letter
indicates a young woman

was in a car outside of a party

with a young man
who was intoxicated.

The young man would
share all kinds of things

related to Helen Betty
Osborne's murder.

The anonymous letter
mentions a confession

from local boy Lee Colgan.

- There are all kinds of rumors,

some based on talk from
Lee Colgan himself,

who's been chatting
a lot around town,

and this brings into
focus more suspects.

This includes Colgan's neighbor
and friend Jim Houghton

and a young man who's known

as a homeless drug
addict, Norm Manger.

- The author of the letter would
later be revealed, in fact,

to be a relative of the girl

that sat in the car with Colgan.

She didn't even live in The Pas,

but she was still too
afraid to come forward.

- And then I ended up
having an informant

who told us that
there was a fourth guy

by the name of Johnston who
left town shortly thereafter.

I knew his mother.

She was a waitress at the hotel

and we used to see
her all the time.

"Do you know where he is?"

She said, "Well, he left town,"
and she basically put him

right shortly after
that incident, right?

So, we knew then,

probably Johnston's
definitely involved as well.

- The anonymous letter is huge.

It confirms what investigators
already suspected.

Now they have something
they can move on.

- [Narrator] Seven
months after the murder

of Helen Betty Osborne,

RCMP obtain a warrant to search
the Colgan family Chrysler.

- Apparently, Lee Colgan
had washed the exterior

of the Colgan family car,

but hadn't bothered
to clean the interior.

- There's 114 hairs
found in the vehicle,

namely the seat area.

- Literally took
the inside apart

and we found some material
with a little clip.

And it was obvious it was
from a brassier, right?

And we had found the
brassier on the highway

not that far from the pump
house when they'd thrown it out.

The forensic lab in
Regina actually said,

"This clip fits that brassier."

They could match
it up, so we knew.

- And also, blood was located
and there was a blood match.

- Not a DNA match, more a blood
type, like the O-A-B types.

The blood is similar to
that of Helen Betty Osborne.

- Four suspects and then a car

clearly connected to Helen
Betty Osborne's murder.

- We knew obviously she
must have been in there,

but who was there?

- Things have changed so much.

And so, if they were
able to collect DNA,

if they were able to
use some of the tools

that we have at
our disposal now,

this is a case that was
solvable at the time.

- With the advancements
that we've seen

in forensic evidence analysis,

this case likely would've
been solved much quicker.

Now, what police really
need is someone to talk.

- [Narrator] Police
confront Lee Colgan

about what they found

and he tells them to talk to
local lawyer D'Arcy Bancroft.

- All four tell a
police the same thing:

"Talk to D'Arcy."

(light music)

- [Narrator] Shortly
after the vehicle search,

police pay a visit to the home

of local lawyer D'Arcy Bancroft.

- He was eccentric, had a
virtual zoo in his house:

big cats, couple of
ocelots, a chameleon.

Very strange.

- At the time, an individual
could in fact be charged

with non-capital murder

merely by being at the
scene of a homicide.

These four are all in the
same boat if someone talks.

- [Narrator] D'Arcy Bancroft
was not a typical lawyer

and he was most definitely
behind the coordinated silence

in the death of
Helen Betty Osborne.

(tense music)

(apprehensive music)

(tense music)

On November 13th, 1971,

the mutilated body of
Helen Betty Osborne

is discovered in the woods
near Clearwater Lake,

north of The Pas, Manitoba.

- You got the car,
you got the body,

found the screwdriver
that was used to stab her.

You've got all this stuff.

What evidence do you have
that puts them in the car?

Anything that we did have
was basically hearsay, right?

And without witnesses to say,

how are we gonna
get a conviction?

- Osborne was in the car,

but there's still
lots to be known

about what actually happened.

- [Narrator] With the
four suspects not talking,

police approach their
lawyer, D'Arcy Bancroft,

neither of whom is
willing to cooperate.

- The Crown says,
"Lay the charges now,

"it's gonna get
tossed at preliminary,

"and then you'll never
be able to charge them."

He did, he actually said.

He says, "At some point,
one of them may talk

"and then you're gonna
have your evidence

"to lay the charges
and make it stick."

- The RCMP start
putting pressure on

and they start following the
suspects who are still in town

and they get permission
to wiretap their phones.

In the bars, police take
an unorthodox approach

to putting that pressure on

and send the suspects
screwdrivers as a message.

- Letting the suspects
know that they're watching

and that they probably
know a lot more

than they actually
realize they do.

- [Narrator] Putting
pressure on his clients,

D'Arcy Bancroft writes
a letter of warning

to the RCMP to back off

and a second vouching
for their good character.

- The idea of counsel
now sending a letter

to the Crown Attorney's
Office and saying,

"You better back off," that
simply would not happen now.

And it may have been
certainly a different era

and a smaller community.

- The high pressure tactics
employed by the RCMP

are getting some
attention from above,

which puts a chill
on the investigation.

- [Narrator] Time
begins to pass.

One of the key
investigators, Don Knight,

is transferred outta the region

with the case still
lacking enough evidence

to press charges.

- It's very frustrating
as an investigator

to see a viable suspect
basically walk away

just because you don't
have enough evidence,

even though you know you know.

- But if people know anything,

they're not telling police
or they're simply afraid.

- [Narrator] The anonymous
letter that RCMP received

speaks to the fear
that some may have.

Part of that fear may
be of the local lawyer,

D'Arcy Bancroft, an
intimidating figure

who's connected to the
privileged class of The Pas.

- Well, they didn't
wanna get involved

because it had something to do

with a person that
they didn't value

and really felt
was beneath them,

and so it wasn't any
of their business.

By getting involved and
doing the right thing

perhaps meant for them

that they also would be looked
down upon by their neighbors

of getting involved and helping
these Indians at the time.

Up to this point,

so many officers had been
involved in this case,

but it had just stagnated.

They really had to just focus

on the long-term
strategy at this point.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] The main suspects
continue to live their lives.

Lee Colgan marries

and eventually ends up
in British Columbia.

The marriage is troubled,
as he abuses his spouse

and struggles with
alcohol addiction.

After getting divorced,

Colgan loses shared
custody of their children

because he threatens
to kill his ex-wife.

James Houghton also
marries, moves to Alberta,

and becomes a
successful salesman

who's known to
friends and family

as decent, caring, and generous.

Dwayne Johnston is
a stable family man

living in British Columbia

who socializes with
a local biker gang

and is rumored to have
killed an Indigenous man

back in Manitoba.

Norm Manger is an alcoholic
and living in British Columbia.

As pressure builds on the RCMP

well over a decade after the
death of Helen Betty Osborne,

Officer Bob Urbanoski is
officially assigned to the case.

- A new investigator can
be a very good thing.

They bring new perspectives,
they bring new insights.

- [Narrator] Over
the last 13 years,

about 200 officers had
looked over the case,

but Urbanoski is the
first one to be full-time.

- Urbanoski spends the
first six months in The Pas

asking a lotta questions.

- [Narrator] Urbanoski
tries something new

and places an ad in
the Opasquian Times

requesting the
public's assistance

in Betty's murder investigation.

Amazingly, police get
over 150 responses

and Urbanoski makes
almost 200 inquiries,

traveling to countless
cities and towns

from Vancouver to Toronto.

- He was like a dog
with a bone, right?

(laughing) He just kept on it
and kept on it and kept on it

and tried all kindsa
different things.

And finally, one of them worked.

- 13 years later,

the simple act of taking
out an ad in the paper

is the break that
Urbanoski needed.

(eerie music)

(tense music)

(apprehensive music)

(tense music)

- [Narrator] When Helen Betty
Osborne is brutally murdered,

RCMP hunt for clues and anyone
who might know what happened,

but residents of The Pas,
Manitoba, are reluctant to talk.

- Evidence points
to four young men.

Their involvement seems to be
the worst kept secret in town.

- A lotta people don't
want to get involved.

Doesn't matter what
their profession is,

they don't wanna get involved.

"I don't know, I don't
wanna go to court.

"I don't wanna get
involved," and that happens,

which makes it hard to
investigate sometimes

because you got
people that know stuff

that just don't
wanna get involved.

- [Narrator] After 13 years,
the case gains momentum

as RCMP Officer Bob
Urbanoski finds a new way

to engage a town that, for the
most part, has been silent.

(pensive music)

- Urbanoski needs one of
these four suspects to break.

- Lee Colgan is suffering
with alcoholism and violence.

He's definitely the weak link.

- Sometimes people don't know
that they have information,

and so that ad, I
think, was so important

and it obviously
became very important.

- For years, people have
been talking about this.

There's been rumors.

The suspects themselves
have talked about it.

- Bob Urbanoski really brought

that fresh perspective as
well to say, "This isn't right

"and there are pieces here
that if we put together

"we can make a case, and
there are people who know.

"And now enough time has passed

"that maybe they're thinking
about what that means to them

"in terms of keeping
this a secret."

- And finally, someone sees
the notice in the paper

and decides to talk.

- [Narrator] Andrea Wiwcharuk
responds to the Urbanoski ad.

She's 14 when she hears Dwayne
Johnston brag at a party.

"I stabbed her.

"I stabbed her."

According to Wiwcharuk,

Johnston added that
the murder felt great.

- "And they tore the car apart
and we'll never get caught."

- Most importantly, Wiwcharuk
is willing to take the stand,

but then something
else comes out.

There's a whole
other revelation.

- Suddenly, someone
else in The Pas

realizes they should speak up.

- This new revelation is
that Sheriff Gerald Wilson

of The Pas runs into
Colgan at the local Legion.

He buys him alcohol and
takes him back to his trailer

in the hopes of eliciting
a confession of some sort.

- [Narrator] The
sheriff would recall

that Colgan's confession took
place in maybe 1977 or '78,

but doesn't come
forward until 1986.

- Sheriff, while a peace officer
but not a police officer,

whatever rationale he may
have had to keep that a secret

I think is complete baloney.

And I would say he
had an obligation

to pass that information
on to the RCMP.

- All the information
that came out,

even though it may be
over a decade late,

it couldn't be more significant.

- [Narrator] Officer
Urbanoski visits Lee Colgan,

armed with a witness
willing to take the stand.

- Urbanoski knows that of
all of the four suspects,

Colgan is likely going
to be the one who talks.

- And he breaks his silence,

the silence that started
the day of the murder

and continued until his father

took him to see D'Arcy Bancroft,

only to find out
that Dwayne Johnston

had already been at
Bancroft's office.

- At the end of the day, the
Crown Attorney was right.

"Wait, someday it might
happen," and it did.

- [Narrator] Authorities
arrest Lee Colgan

at his parents' house

and charge him with
first-degree murder.

- And he breaks the silence,
the silence that started

after the murder of
Helen Betty Osborne.

What authorities wanna know
now is who did what that night?

Who wielded the screwdriver?

Who murdered Helen
Betty Osborne?

- [Narrator] Norm
Manger, James Houghton,

Lee Colgan, and Dwayne
Johnston are out drinking

and cruising the town for sex.

(uneasy music)

- They see Helen
Betty Osborne walking,

alone and vulnerable.

They pull her into their car.

- [Narrator] The men use
fake names with each other

so Helen won't be able
to identify them later.

Norm Manger is in front.

James Houghton drives,

with Colgan, Osborne, and
Johnston in the backseat.

- First, they go to
Houghton's cabin,

but Betty is
screaming and yelling

and there's people around.

(eerie music)

- So they forced her
back into the car

and they moved on to
a more secluded area.

- I think they intentionally
were going to rape her

and I think she just
fought them off,

so they decided, "Well, let's
just do a number on her,"

and just there was
no stopping them.

- There was a lotta
alcohol and drugs,

but the initial version
places Houghton and Johnston

outside the car with Betty.

Colgan and Manger
are inside the car

when the worst of
the beating happens.

Manger is extremely drunk.

(eerie music continuing)

- Stabbed her numerous
times, put the boots to her.

It was just a vicious,
vicious attack,

and dumped her body out there

and just drove away as
if nothing happened.

- Of course, they thought
they could get away with it

because in the
viewpoint that they had,

"This was just an
Indian that we picked up

"and nobody's going to care."

- [Narrator] Dwayne
Johnston is arrested

at his home in Revelstoke,
British Columbia.

Lee Colgan and Dwayne Johnston

are to attend a
preliminary hearing.

But minutes prior, Colgan
is offered full immunity

if he testifies
against Johnston.

- Better off to get
some convicted than none

because without
Colgan making a deal,

he wasn't gonna testify.

There was two people
that dragged her body in

and two people came out.

Manger, if you believe Colgan,
is passed out in the car.

- It's essentially a case

of what's the first
rat off the ship?

His lawyer was obviously
able to have discussions

with the Crown Attorney

in terms of working
on a deal for him.

- [Narrator] Colgan gives
police enough evidence

to charge Jim Houghton

and he's arrested on a
friend's porch in Alberta

and charged with
first-degree murder.

16 years after the
murder of her daughter,

Justine Osborne finds out about
the arrests from the radio.

- You oughta bring some sort
of closure to the family,

and that's really hard to do
sometimes 'cause families say,

and you can't blame
'em and they get upset,

"What are you guys, you're
not doing your job,"

that kind of thing.

And you know what?

It's a hard job to do sometimes.

- They've been
suffering for years

and there's still
a trial to face.

(tense music)

(apprehensive music)

(tense music)

- [Narrator] James Houghton

and Dwayne Johnston's murder
trial begins at 10:30 a.m.

From the 104 jury prospects,

20 Indigenous people
are eliminated,

leaving an all-white
two-woman and 10-man jury.

Because he agrees to turn
evidence against the others,

Lee Colgan cannot be held liable

for the murder of
Helen Betty Osborne.

- Norman Manger, although
he was inside the car,

wasn't charged.

- When the girl testified
that Johnston had said,

"I stabbed her and I stabbed
her and I stabbed her,"

no-brainer for the jury.

"Definitely he's one
of the killers, right?

"We don't know who
the other one is,

"so we're not gonna convict."

They had a reasonable doubt.

- For those four men, no one
was really held accountable,

perhaps the one, and it just
doesn't sit right at all.

- Not happy with only
getting one convicted.

Unfortunately, that's our system

and that's what the jury felt.

- [Narrator] Two days later,

the Manitoba Attorney General
commences an investigation

into why The Pas
Sheriff Gerald Wilson

did not reveal the confession

that Lee Colgan had made
to him in the late-'70s.

- Another inquiry
would be launched

by local leaders in The Pas.

And two months later, Sheriff
Gerald Wilson would be demoted

for withholding information.

- The sheriff claims
that everyone in town

was aware of the information

and the RCMP should
have been as well.

That's why he
didn't do anything.

(calm music)

- A short time later, Sheriff
Gerald Wilson is reinstated

after a arbitration hearing.

- What little credit
I can give him

is that he acknowledged
that racism,

that this wasn't his
neighbor's daughter.

This was some Indigenous
girl he didn't know.

And at the time, who
cared about them?

Certainly not him.

- [Narrator] The
province launches

the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry.

- Helen Betty Osborne's
case and what happened

was one of the ways to highlight

just how much
injustice there was

for Indigenous people at the
time, and it's still ongoing.

- [Narrator] The inquiry
finds many problems,

pointing to the failure
by authorities in The Pas.

It also finds problematic
that all four of the suspects

were early on represented

by a single lawyer,
D'Arcy Bancroft.

(calm music continuing)

- She definitely was a symbol
for change of this idea

that you cannot just throw
away Indigenous women.

You cannot just use
them and abuse them,

throw them away and think
nothing is going to happen

and that you'll
get away with it.

(brooding music)

- [Narrator] Dwayne Johnston
becomes eligible for parole

after serving only seven
years of his sentence

and begins a day parole program.

- But about 200 protestors
walk 800 kilometers

from the north to Winnipeg
in April 1996 to protest.

Johnston's parole is revoked.

- [Narrator] Unexpectedly,
Dwayne Johnston participates

in a healing circle from jail

with the RCMP and
the Osborne family.

- Johnston claims he did not
participate in the murder

and identifies James Robert
Houghton as the killer.

(uneasy music)

They had made a pact and
that they had all taken turns

stabbing Helen's body
with the screwdriver

to keep them all
bound to silence.

- This conversation between
Johnston and the family

is leaked to the media.

Already, lawyers for
the other two accused

are arguing they
can't get a fair trial

with this taped
conversation out there.

- Who knows if Johnston's

extremely belated
confession is reliable?

One person certainly
knows what happened.

- [Narrator] D'Arcy Bancroft,

initially the lawyer
for the four suspects,

was most probably
the only person

to hear all firsthand
accounts in his office.

- The inquiry has now reached

the end of phase
one of its work.

- [Narrator] The
Aboriginal Justice Inquiry

also finds problematic and
highlights in its conclusions

that all four suspects
were early on represented

by a single lawyer,
D'Arcy Bancroft.

D'Arcy Bancroft would
die only a few years

after the death of Helen
Betty Osborne at age 30.

His law partners would
then destroy his files.

- He shoulda said, "Look, I
can't act for all four of you."

For example, Colgan,
who probably told him,

"I didn't do anything.

"I know what they did,
but I didn't do anything.

Said, "Well, then,
you know what?

"You better get your own lawyer.

"I'll act for you

"and those guys will have
to get a different lawyer

"because I can maybe make
a deal for you right now."

But he didn't do that.

And so, he just told
them all to be quiet.

- The Indigenous
community came together

and said, "This needs to stop."

This is a person who
was going to bring value

to her community by
being a schoolteacher

and teaching the
next generation,

and it was just cut short.

For what?

Because these four individuals

decided that she
wasn't worth anything,

that they can use
her and discard her.

- Can't be forgotten that
someone did have the courage

to come forward and
speak and testify,

and that person wouldn't
have come forward

if she hadn't seen that
story in the paper.

- Lucky because, well, that
young boy found the body

or at least saw
the body early on.

Otherwise, it might
have never been solved.

- She's been a symbol for change

in the late-1980s and early-'90s

that we have to stop devaluing
our women in this way.

It has to stop.

(somber music)

(tense music)

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