All language subtitles for A.U.S01E17.1080p.WEB.h264-CASUALTY_track3_[eng]

(ominous music)

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] An employee in
the world's greatest park

discovers something
terrible underfoot.

- He feels a crack
underneath his boot.

It turns out to be bone.

- [Narrator] What the
park worker discovers

would unearth a
mystery that would

make headlines around the world.

(camera shutter clicks)

- Underneath leaves

and a woman's fur coat,

police find the skeletal remains

of two young children.

Whoever did this hid their
body several years earlier.

- [Narrator] Once the media
gets ahold of the story,

the two children become known
as the Babes in the Woods,

a mystery that remains
unsolved for 70 years.

- It becomes the most notorious

double murder in
Vancouver's history,

a mother suspected of
murdering her own children,

but police don't know who they.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] A maverick cop

takes matters into
his own hands,

and with new breakthroughs
in technology

might solve what many think
is an unsolvable case.

Can the Babes in the
Woods be given justice

after decades of searching?

(suspenseful music)

(somber theme music)

- The unsolved ones
we have to stand up.

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

- Let the world know.

Those out there that
did commit a murder,

you know, there are people
that are coming after you.

- There's just a
lot of good people

trying to do the right thing.

(faint 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.

(dramatic music)

(gavel bangs)

(light idyllic music)

- [Narrator] In 1953,

Vancouver's Stanley Park

overlooks the Pacific
Ocean to one side

and a growing
metropolis to the other.

Park employee, Albert Tong,

walks through the
woods in Stanley Park

to clear the area and reduce
the risk of a forest fire.

- As he's walking
through the area,

the park worker feels a
crunch underneath his boot.

When he inspects further,

he discovers a woman's fur coat.

- [Narrator] When Albert
Tong lifts the fur coat,

he reveals a hidden crime scene.

(ominous music)

The crunch underfoot
was from a small skull

hidden under the ground
and wrapped in the coat.

- The fur coat is covering

the skeletal remains
of two small bodies.

With tree roots growing
over the remains

and the state of decomposition
the bodies are in,

Tong would know he's come
across a shallow grave

that has been there
for some time.

- [Narrator] The
location is close

to an old fish hatchery

and the trail to a bridge,

but the heavily wooded area

would conceal
anyone's activities.

- This could have been a case

where two children were lost

and exposed to the elements.

Then wrapped themselves up
in a fur coat for warmth,

but it doesn't take long for
police to rule that theory out.

(ominous music)

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] When detectives
arrive on the scene,

they discover a trove
of physical evidence.

- The bodies are
positioned head to foot.

From appearances,
they are two children,

one slightly larger
than the other.

The smaller skeleton
lies face down.

While the other larger
one lies with its head

and shoulders on top of the
feet of the smaller one.

- An Air Force flying helmet

is still on one of the skulls,

but each skull shows
signs of injury.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] Police
believe the murder weapon

has been left at the scene:

a small lathing hatchet
broken at the handle.

(pensive music)

This type of hatchet is
small, light, and cheap.

It has a hammer end
for driving nails,

and a thin blade for chopping.

Typically used for
lath and plaster walls

or roof framing, or by campers,

the hatchet is easy to carry.

- In the 1940s and 50s,

it would be fairly
common for someone

to be seen carrying a
hatchet in Stanley Park.

It wouldn't be
unusual for someone

to chop up some
firewood for camping

or for home heating if they
lived close to the park.

- [Narrator] There
are light wounds

on the skulls of each child,

indicating blows
from the hatchet,

but they're not struck
with a lot of force.

- The light wound suggests

that whoever struck with the ax,

did not have a lot of strength.

1950's thinking
leads them to believe

that a woman
possessed the hatchet.

The bodies were also covered

in a woman's fur coat.

(camera shutter clicks)

- [Narrator] The fur
coat is deteriorated,

but it's a short
coat and size 16,

indicating the
wearer was stocky.

It was made locally
from rabbit and mouton.

(pensive music)

(gentle music)

Vancouver's Stanley Park

voted the greatest
park in the world.

The thousand acre park
covers the northwest half

of Vancouver's
downtown peninsula,

while skyscrapers
and bridges begin

to fill the skyline
to the south.

- Although Vancouver
has its share of crime,

generally in the 1950s
people feel like it's safe

for kids to play outside
in the sprawling parks.

- [Narrator] A The jewel of
Stanley Park is Beaver Lake

where indigenous
peoples have gathered

since time immemorial.

The park worker
makes his discovery

in a wooded area nearby.

The park is home to
half a million trees,

many of them more
than a century old.

The Vancouver News Media

show up to report on
the grizzly discovery,

and soon newspapers around
the world tell the story of

two children who have been
found in this shallow grave

nicknaming them the
Babes in the Woods.

- Using the tattered clothing
and shoes at the scene,

police determine the bodies
are a boy and a girl.

The girl is approximately
eight-years-old

and the boy six or seven.

Because they appear to have
the same prominent jawbone,

police predict them
to be siblings.

(dramatic music)

- Stanley Park in the
heart of Vancouver,

two innocent lives were lost.

Who would do such a thing?

(somber music)

- Beneath the shoulder
of one of the children,

police recover a woman's
shoe size five-and-a-half.

- [Narrator] Police
believe that in a panic,

the woman may have run away
from the scene of the crime

and left her shoe lodged
beneath one of the bodies.

- Combined with a
coat that is smaller

and made from rabbit fur,

police believe they are looking

for a smaller woman of
modest means as a suspect,

possibly the children's mother.

- [Narrator] Given the amount
of foliage in the grave site,

police estimate the murders

to have taken place
years earlier.

- With the help of the
media, police try linking

missing persons cases
with the murder scene.

At the same time,

they've collected
statements from anyone

who may have witnessed
suspicious activity

involving a woman at
Stanley Park in 1947.

(light mysterious music)

- Given the fact that
the woman may have left

her shoe beneath the body
of one of the children,

police believe she
may have panicked

and run away from the scene.

They speculate she
threw herself into

Burrard Inlet she
committed the murders.

(light dramatic music)

- [Narrator] For Vancouver,

in the middle of
the 20th century,

a mother driven to
these desperate lengths

could be simply a
sign of the times.

After the Second World War,

the influx of male workers

to Vancouver from the east

as well as returning
soldiers from the war,

made it nearly impossible
for women to hold on to

the jobs that they had
during the war years.

(somber music)

Single mothers were then
left with low-wage jobs,

such as retail or
domestic service,

that required long hours.

(dramatic music)

With no access to
childcare resources,

widows and single mothers

would inevitably be driven
further into poverty.

- If you're a single
mother in the late 40s

and your only source of
income gets taken away,

things could become
very desperate.

- In 1948, there were
seven murders in Vancouver

and three involved
mothers and children.

- [Narrator] One case
is reported where

a mother throws her
children off a bridge.

In another, a
mother locks herself

and her child in
a gas-filled room.

- Police conclude they're
looking at another case

where a mother or female
guardian believes they've

run out of options to
care for their children.

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] The
mothers who were driven

to kill their children,

experienced extreme
socioeconomic disadvantages

and possible mental
health complications,

such as psychosis or depression,

and at the time,
there was an absence

of preventative social services

to protect these children

and get these mothers help.

(dramatic music)

While tips begin to flood

into Vancouver's
police department,

experts try to use
modern police methods

to reconstruct the victims.

- The idea here is to try

and humanize the evidence
as much as they can.

There isn't a lot of technology

at the disposal of
law enforcement,

so they try to give
their victims a face,

rebuild their wardrobes,

and hope it gives
them some clues.

- [Narrator] The clothing
worn by the children

is reconstructed in a laboratory

using only the scraps that
remained on their bodies.

- The girl's clothing has
deteriorated almost completely.

They note that she
wears underwear so big,

it needs to be taken in by
a safety pin at the back.

The boy is confirmed
to be wearing

a Canadian made
red tartan jacket.

He also wears beige corduroy
trousers and scamper shoes.

- Police believe that
the children's shoes

offer them a piece
of information.

They're the same type
of rubber soled shoe,

but different sizes.

And that type of shoe

only became available in 1947,

so they believe
they can narrow down

the date of the murders
to about 1947 or 1948.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] While
investigators piece together

the skeletons of
the two children,

an anthropologist is
brought in from Austria.

Erna Van Baiersdorf

specializes in sculpting
unidentified victims.

- She makes busts of what
the two young victims

could look like if
they were alive.

The two busts would
be photographed,

and the pictures
placed in newspapers

to try and identify the victims.

- [Christine] Medical examiners
find holes in the skulls.

They are consistent with the
wounds caused by the hatchet

police discover at the scene.

- [Narrator] The hatchet,

commonly used by shingle
weavers and lathers,

was likely used to strike
the boys over the head.

(sinister music)

- There are three cleft marks

that fit the thin
blade of the hatchet.

While fracture wounds
could have been

caused by the hammer
end of the hatchet.

- [Narrator] The sculptor says

the two children
look very similar,

possibly with blonde hair,

and are Swedish or Norwegian.

(dramatic music)

The Babes in the Woods case

becomes very famous
very quickly.

A $500 reward is
offered for information.

Police circulate pictures

looking for a break in the case.

- Tips begin to flood
into law enforcement.

As the number of leads increase,

police must search through
many eyewitness accounts

from years before to try
and identify their victims.

- [Narrator] In
1953, no one is aware

that the search would
last almost 70 years.

(dramatic music)

(somber music)

(suspenseful music)

(dramatic music)

In the heart of Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada,

famed Stanley Park is one of
the great parks of the world.

But in 1953,

shockwaves are sent through
Vancouver and beyond

when a park employee
discovers the skeletons

of two children buried
in a shallow grave

covered in a woman's fur coat.

Dubbed the Babes in the
Woods by newspaper reporters,

police believe the two children,

a boy and a girl
aged seven and eight,

were killed by their
mother years earlier

and buried in a shallow grave.

(tense dramatic music)

Police scour through
hundreds of tips

trying to identify the woman

who left her shoe and a fur coat

behind with her children.

- Because of the mental state

detectives believed
the woman was in,

they wonder if she
may have run away

from the scene of the murder

to the nearby Lion's Gate
Bridge and jumped off.

- Police are looking for reports

of a woman wearing a fur coat

accompanied by two
children in Stanley Park

sometime in the
winter months of 1947.

- [Narrator] There
are no shortages

of eyewitness accounts
to sort through.

A woman is found dead in a
gas-filled room later in 1953.

Prior to her suicide,

her two children haven't
been seen for months.

- While the children
closely fit the description

of the Babes in the Woods,

the case reaches a dead end.

- [Narrator] In 1950,

a woman and her two children

rent a small boat from nearby

Kitsilano Beach never to return.

Her body is later
found in Burrard Inlet,

but the children and the
boat are never found.

- Police can find no
evidence that this

is connected to their
Babes in the Woods case.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] A young boy
befriends two children

who seem to vanish afterward.

When the boy asks their
mother what happened to them,

she brushes them off
without answering.

(tense suspenseful music)

Police visit a hotel
where they believe

a guest could be George Pafell,

who is wanted for the abduction

of his own children
in New Jersey.

- After divorcing his wife,

George Pafell gets permission

to take his two young
boys to the park.

They're never seen again.

- [Narrator] But
the man isn't Pefall

and the children in
question are both boys.

(suspenseful music)

A biology teacher says

he was collecting
specimens for his class

when he saw two young
children and a woman

walking along the
Stanley Park sea wall.

One child banged a hatchet
against the metal railing.

Later that day,

the teacher sees a woman
looking distraught,

sitting on a bench
overlooking Beaver Lake.

- She has blood on her ankle,

wears only one shoe
and has no coat.

When the man asks
her what happened,

she replies she fell in a ditch.

- [Narrator] But the teacher's
visit takes place in 1951,

which doesn't fit the timeline.

(suspenseful music)

(light mysterious music)

A local woman gives
police a recollection

that seems very close to
what they're looking for.

- The witness recounts

she was in the park
on October 5, 1947,

and had written in her diary

that she had seen a
woman wearing a fur coat

with two children walking
towards the bushes.

The woman is carrying a hatchet,

presumably to chop some wood.

This isn't unusual
in the 1940s and 50s.

- [Narrator] As the
eyewitness leaves the park,

45 minutes later, she
sees the same woman

alone walking out of the bush.

This time with no
coat and one shoe.

- The witness takes the police

to where she saw the
woman with the shoe.

She leads them to
within 50 yards

of where the children's
bodies were found.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] Detectives
lock in on the date

October 5, 1947.

(dramatic music)

At the same time,
newspaper reports prompt

members of the public
and other police forces

to send missing persons
cases to Vancouver

that may fit the description
of the Babes in the Woods.

In all, police investigate
41 pairs of missing children.

- A lot of investigation
time is spent tracking down

all of the allegedly
missing children.

While none of them
turn out to be

the children found
at Stanley Park,

police do locate 26 of the
41 missing pairs of kids,

some as far away as
South America, Scotland,

and the United States.

At this point, Vancouver
police are working

with other police forces
across Canada on this case.

They're searching
school records, social
agencies, and tips.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Months of
investigation turn into years,

but by 1960, all
the leads dry up.

- Police have located
76 pairs of children

reported missing
in Western Canada.

They still can't connect
any missing persons

to the Babes in the Woods.

- [Narrator] One missing pair
of children can't be located.

Their mother Madeline Fortier,

lives in a small town in Quebec.

- Madeline Fortier was
in Vancouver around 1947.

She had a boy and
girl who matched

the approximate ages of
the Babes in the Woods.

Fortier told authorities

they were given up for adoption.

- [Narrator] But
police aren't allowed

to travel to Quebec to
investigate the lead.

Police don't believe the
case will ever be solved,

but just in case, they
keep the skeletons

of the two young children
found in Stanley Park.

- At the time, police don't know

what they may need
to use as evidence.

The bones and other items
recovered at the scene

are placed in three file boxes.

Then they are placed
in the basement

of Vancouver's Coroner's Court.

- [Narrator] And it's
here where the children

would stay for 25 years,

until a rogue cop takes
matters into his own hands,

and the course of the
case finally changes.

(tense music)

(suspenseful music)

(somber music)

(dramatic music)

The crime scene in
Vancouver's Stanley Park

makes headlines
around the world.

(sinister music)

Police are desperate to
determine who the children are

wrapped in a fur coat believed
to belong to their mother.

After years of investigation,

the children remain
unidentified.

- The Babes in the Woods
case is never forgotten.

In the 1980s,

a crime stopper recreation
is made asking for tips.

Police always believed the
answer is somewhere out there.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] For decades,
the remains of the children

sit in evidence boxes
locked in a basement

while the police museum
offers a recreation

of the crime scene
for all to see.

- The Babes in the Woods case
becomes the most notorious

unsolved murder in
Vancouver's history.

- [Narrator] But in 1997,

a Vancouver detective takes
evidence without permission

and alters the direction of
the Babes in the Woods case.

(suspenseful music)

(dramatic music)

Without telling his supervisors,

Detective Sergeant
Brian Honeybourn

removes all of the
skeletal remains

from the museum
displays and storage.

He has the bones cremated.

(dramatic music)

- Detective
Honeybourn is a local

and grows up knowing
about this case.

He has two daughters of his own,

so he feels the importance

of protecting these
children's remains.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] With a
ceremony on English Bay,

with the police chaplain,
the cremated remains

of the Babes in the Woods are
scattered to the ocean wind,

but not before small samples
are kept for DNA testing.

- With the advent of DNA
profiling and using PCR tests,

police know they only
need a few viable cells

to collect good DNA samples.

This is a revolution
in forensics science.

- [Narrator] Detective
Honeybourn as part of

the British Columbia
Unsolved Homicide Unit

sends a tooth from each skeleton

to the University of
British Columbia's

forensic dentistry experts.

- Teeth are the last parts

of the human body to decompose,

which means it's more likely

to extract viable DNA from them,

and in Vancouver here's
one of the world's

foremost experts in
extracting DNA from teeth,

which is needed because the
remains are now 50 years old.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] The teeth are
decontaminated, frozen,

then ground into a fine powder.

The powder is then treated
with chemicals to expose cells,

and DNA is extracted
from those cells.

- When the results return,

they shatter over 40 years

of assumptions in the case.

(dramatic music)

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] The Babes in
the Woods are both boys.

- For those 45 years,

leads from witnesses in 1953

who had suspicions
about two boys

in Stanley Park have
been disregarded.

Instead, every story involving

a boy and a girl
was investigated.

DNA evidence proving they are
both male changes everything.

The original assumption
was a crucial error.

(light dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Tipsters
calling in with information

regarding the two missing boys,

may have been
ignored completely.

The truth is lost to the ages.

- In 1997, all detectives can do

is review the files
to see if there

are any accounts
involving two boys.

They hope to discover
DNA that confirms

or eliminates the lead.

(gentle dramatic music)

- [Narrator] What police do know

is that the boys shared a mother

but had different fathers.

They know the hatchet
is the murder weapon,

but they don't know when the
murder would've taken place.

(dramatic music)

Looking back at the files,

Detective Honeybourn his unit

realized the time estimate

was based on
unreliable information.

- The original time
estimate of 1947,

is based on the availability
of a child's shoe,

which turned out to be false.

Also by the size of
the tree root growth

and leaves on top of
the shallow grave,

a botanist was never brought
in to examine the site.

The assumption that the crime

may have taken place
years later seems hasty.

- [Narrator] Detectives
scour through files,

eliminating old leads and
re-investigating new ones.

(suspenseful music)

A sailor reports
that he saw a woman

jump out of the
woods in May, 1944.

She had one shoe and no coat,

made a guttural
sound and ran off.

(dramatic music)

But one report seems
most promising to
Detective Honeybourn.

Two brothers disappear
from a rooming house

near the city's skid row.

- Skid rows are considered
a place in the city

where the poorest
of the poor live.

The skid row in Vancouver

was one of the original
logging trails.

- Awareness is changing towards
the needs of poor people

and the social
supports they need.

In the mid 20th century,

not only is there an
absence in social services,

it was not unusual for
society to be indifferent

to the plight of
people in poverty.

- [Narrator] The
boys' parents claim

a married couple from
Manitoba adopted them,

and identifying the
Manitoba couple,

will unlock the identities
of the Babes in the Woods.

- In 1998, Detective
Honeybourn is very confident

that he will soon identify
the Babes in the Woods,

so he speaks to the
nation's media about it,

announcing that the case
will soon be solved.

- [Narrator] But the detective's
hunch comes up empty.

(dramatic music)

Once again, the Babes in
the Woods case goes cold.

- By the start of
the new century,

investigators know
less than what

they thought they knew in 1953.

At this point,
things look bleak.

- [Narrator]
Decades have passed,

and the answer of who killed
the Babes in the Woods

may never be solved.

- At this point, detectives
believe a victory

would be identifying
these boys by their names.

After four decades, this
brings a degree of closure.

- [Narrator] But DNA profiling
hasn't closed the case.

It would take 20 more years
before the two boys found

in a shallow grave
in Stanley Park

could be given their names.

(gentle music)

(somber music)

(suspenseful music)

(dramatic music)

After four decades,
as Vancouver's

most notorious unsolved murder,

the Babes in the Woods case

is turned upside down in 1998.

(suspenseful music)

Police discover through
forensic dental analysis

that the Babes in the
Woods are actually two boys

who were murdered in the 1940s.

(suspenseful music)

Two young boys who
have shared a mother

but have different
fathers, of modest means,

wearing aviator helmets,

murdered with a small hatchet,

and left to rest
in a shallow grave

discovered years later
by a park's worker.

(suspenseful music)

Police know that bringing

a killer to justice
is very unlikely,

but 21st century
investigative technology

gives them the hope that they
can find out who the boys are.

- Giving the boys their names
back would be a moral victory,

and help put the case to rest.

(suspenseful music)

(light dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Detectives
want to close the case

for the sake of generations
of police investigators

who have poured countless
hours into finding answers

that have yet to come.

Tracking a family tree
through genetic genealogy,

finally giving each Babe
in the Woods an identity.

- With availability of DNA
kits to build family trees,

law enforcement sees
an opportunity to use

genetic genealogy for
criminal investigations.

Genetic genealogy can
find the relatives

of a criminal, partial
chromosomal matches,

which can lead to
a full DNA match.

- The first example
of genetic genealogy

being used to solve a murder

is the Golden State
Killer case in California.

(light dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Joseph
James DeAngelo Jr.,

the Golden State Killer,

known by many other names,

such as the Original
Night Stalker,

is one of California's most
notorious serial killer rapists.

(light dramatic music)

- He is a former police officer,

dangerous and widely
known for stalking

and taunting his victims
and law enforcement.

He's been able to get away
with at least 50 rapes,

13 murders, and 120 burglaries,

but his trail goes cold
over three decades.

- [Narrator] But
advances in technology

eventually turn the
tide against him.

(light dramatic music)

In a radical move,
investigators upload

the killer's DNA profile
to a public genealogy site.

California law enforcement

linked DNA from a rape
kit to a close relative.

- [Christine] And locate a
fourth cousin of the killer.

From there, they
create a family tree,

and narrow down their
search to find DeAngelo.

- [Narrator]
DeAngelo is arrested,

and finally in June 2020,

pleads guilty to 13 counts
of first degree murder,

and 13 counts of kidnapping

in a deal to avoid
the death penalty.

He receives multiple
consecutive life sentences

without the
possibility of parole.

(sinister music)

(dramatic music)

- Before DNA
technology came along,

you needed a smoking gun,

a fingerprint, or an eyewitness.

Now you can connect those dots

on a molecular level
using genetic genealogy.

It gives police a lot of hope

that they can now name
the Babes in the Woods.

- [Narrator] Police team up
with a firm in Massachusetts

that specializes in
forensic genetic genealogy

where they link incomplete
DNA strands to family trees.

This firm, Redgrave
Research Forensic Services,

had helped solve the murder

of nine-year-old
Christine Jessop,

a well-known cold
case in Canada.

(dramatic music)

- Vancouver police
used bone fragments

to extract DNA
from the older boy,

and sent it to the
lab for sequencing.

The firm then uploads
the DNA to the databases.

Then the search begins.

- [Narrator] Redgrave
uploads the DNA to sites like

GEDmatch, a public genetic
genealogy database,

and Family Tree DNA, a
genetic testing company,

where they can potentially
compare the DNA

extracted from the bone fragment

with DNA profiles
of living relatives.

- [Christine] With
thousands of people

voluntarily
undergoing DNA testing

in order to research
their family trees,

more profiles are
available to investigators

than ever before.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Meanwhile,
elsewhere in Vancouver,

a young woman also hopes
advances in genetic genealogy

will solve the mystery of
her missing family members.

(gentle music)

While flipping through
a family album,

26-year-old Ally Brady

discovers pictures
of two young boys.

One has blonde
hair and blue eyes.

The other has darker features.

When the young woman asks
her grandmother Diane,

who the boys are,

Diane says they are
her long-lost brothers.

- For some people when
you hear about your

long-lost relatives,
you want to know more,

but Diane is evasive.

- When family members ask Diane

about what happened
to her brothers,

she gets teary-eyed and
says, "It's in the past."

She doesn't want
to talk about it.

- [Narrator] Clearly to Ally,

something terrible happened
to Diane's brothers.

Ally's grandmother refuses
to give any details,

but the family hopes
that DNA ancestry

may give them clues about
their missing relatives.

(light mysterious music)

Hoping to find a connection
to her great uncles,

Ally Brady and her mother
collect a DNA sample

from the saliva of Diane.

- Ancestry databases like this

are great for finding
long-lost relatives,

but in this case,

the results are disappointing.

- [Narrator] But in 2020,

Ally Brady reaches out
to a local podcaster

who has covered the
Babes in the Woods case.

Ally tells the
podcaster her story.

With true crime podcasts

becoming increasingly popular

in the years leading up to 2020,

investigative podcasters
have been bringing

long gone cold cases back
into public discussion.

While at times they
can be sensational

or insensitive to victims
and their families,

they also can be
an enormous help.

The growing true crime curiosity

has inspired their
audiences to take action,

give tips, or investigate
their personal stories.

In some cases, this can
even break cases wide open

and might solve what many
think is an unsolvable case.

- The true crime podcaster

connects Vancouver
Police with Ally Brady,

and this ultimately
provides investigators

with a confirming piece
of genetic evidence.

- Police use a special
database called GEDMatch,

which does not automatically
include the DNA samples

from major ancestry services.

In order to protect
privacy of its users,

people have to opt in
to allow law enforcement

to use their DNA
samples on GEDmatch.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Once Ally
Brady gives police

permission to acquire
the DNA sample,

they send it to the
lab for analysis

and comparison to the skulls.

(suspenseful music)

The lab results come back.

It's a match.

- After so many years,
there is finally a piece

of indisputable evidence
confirmed by two DNA samples.

Finally, police have the answer.

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] After
seven decades,

the Babes in the Woods
have been identified.

(suspenseful music)

(suspenseful music)

(somber music)

(dramatic music)

The remains of two young boys
are found in Stanley Park.

The Babes in the Woods case

becomes Vancouver's most
notorious unsolved murder

with the skulls of the
boys left on display

at a police museum,

and their bones filed
away in cardboard boxes.

DNA analysis done in the 90s

sheds new light on the case,

but doesn't go far enough
to give the boys a name.

(dramatic music)

But in 2021,

police submit DNA samples

to a forensic genealogy firm

hoping to find living relatives.

At the same time,

Ally Brady and her family
connect with police.

They believe they are the
relatives of the missing boys.

(suspenseful music)

- Ally Brady's DNA sample
from her grandmother

confirms the work of the
forensic genealogists.

The Babes in the Woods have
finally been identified.

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] The
Babes in the Woods

are Derek and David D'Alton.

Derek and David
are half-brothers,

sharing a mother but
with different fathers.

They attend elementary
school in Kitsilano.

Their mother, Eileen D'Alton,

is listed as a widow in 1941.

(eerie music)

- In the 1940s, Eileen
went from place to place.

She works in a coffee
shop for a time

and lives with various
family members.

But when the murders take place,

there is no record of
Eileen's whereabouts

until she appears
on the front page

of the Vancouver Daily Province.

- [Narrator] In
an unusual twist,

Eileen D'Alton and her
twin sister Doreen Taylor

post their pictures
and shared a dress

in some kind of match game,

which puts her on the front
page of the newspaper in 1949.

(eerie music)

- [Glen] From this we know

Eileen lived with her sister

and Eileen's oldest
daughter Diane.

- [Narrator] Diane
would tell Ally stories

of how they'd have to
jump out of windows

of places they were
renting in Vancouver

to avoid paying rent that
they couldn't afford.

Diane would later tell
her granddaughter, Ally,

that the boys were taken
away by social services

while she stayed
with her mother.

(somber music)

Although this story has been
passed down in the family,

Vancouver detectives were
not able to verify whether

Derek and David had been
taken by social services.

As they could find no trace
of records to indicate this,

it is still uncertain who
had custody of the boys

at the time of the murder.

(light dramatic music)

In the 1950s,

Eileen changes her
family name to Bousquet.

An innocent question
from a granddaughter

about pictures in a photo album

unlocks a chain of events

that solves the 70 year mystery.

(light dramatic music)

- For Ally Brady
it's confirmation

of her longstanding suspicions.

Derek and David D'Alton,
her great uncles

are the Babes in the Woods.

(gentle music)

- Today I'm pleased to announce

that the Vancouver
Police Department

has positively identified
the two young victims

as David and Derek D'Alton.

The murders of David and Derek

have haunted generations
of homicide investigators.

It brings me great satisfaction

to be able to stand here today

to give these children,
finally after this many years,

a name and to bring some
closure to this horrific crime.

Last week, members of
the investigative team

had an opportunity to meet
with distant relatives

of Derek and David
and to inform them

of our investigative findings.

The family members have
decided not to be here today,

and we want to respect
their privacy by not

providing personal
details on them.

- [Narrator] As Vancouver
police make the announcement,

they state that the person
who killed Derek and David

was likely a close relative

who died approximately
25 years ago.

They theorize the boy's
mother is the likely suspect.

This makes little
sense to the family.

They had thought of
her as a gentle person

who babysat children often.

(gentle music)

The fur coat, which
was used by the killer

to cover Derek and
David's remains,

seems to support the belief

that Eileen did not
kill her young sons.

- In fact, the evidence
no longer suggests

that Eileen D'Alton
is the killer.

The fur coat the boys are
wrapped up in is size 16.

Eileen is five-foot-one,

and being petite
her entire life,

she is closer to a size two.

This case is now 70-years-old,

and investigators are
reasonably certain

that whoever killed these
boys is no longer alive.

- [Narrator] For the
family of Derek and David,

knowing what happened to them

does bring a modicum of closure,

but questions remain,

questions that may
never be answered.

(gentle music)

- Police now know that it's
Derek and David D'Alton

who were found in
Stanley Park in 1953.

However, they may never know
why the boys were killed,

or who did it.

- [Narrator] The killer may
never officially be known,

but in the end,

it's not about vengeance
or retribution.

It's about providing
dignity to the two boys.

(somber music)

Given the variables,

and length of the case,

and the fragility
of the evidence,

the fact that the boys now
have names is substantial.

Generations later,

police are stepping
up to find resolution

with tools and processes
once never imagined.

These completely old and cold
cases are given new life.

- There's a sense of relief
to finally bring justice

and closure to the
families of the victims.

Unfortunately, many of them
did not live to see it,

but it's important
for those who did.

The truth is that this
case was almost unsolved.

If it wasn't for the hard work

and perseverance of
the many investigators,

it might still be.

(gentle music)

(suspenseful theme music)