All language subtitles for A.U.S01E18.1080p.WEB.h264-CASUALTY_track3_[eng]

(foreboding music)

- [Narrator] A violent
attack in a rooming house

on Vancouver's Eastside
leaves two people dead.

- It was absolute destruction,

doors kicked in,
everything broken.

A broken alarm clock

that showed the murder
probably happened

just after midnight.

- [Narrator] It would turn out

to be one of the
more bizarre cases

that Vancouver police
have ever worked on.

- Somebody has killed the bird

and has sprinkled the
feathers all over the body,

it's as strange as it gets.

- [Narrator] The
place is ransacked,

but there's more
to these murders

than the average
robbery gone wrong.

- And she has been posed
beside a "Playboy" magazine,

a Playboy Bunny's
holding an umbrella,

and the killer had posed her
with an umbrella as well.

- [Narrator] It will
take over 20 years

for investigators to
figure out what happened.

(dramatic music)

- The unsolved ones,
we have to send up.

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

- Let the world
knows those out there

that did commit a murder,

there are people that
are coming after you.

- There's just a lot
of good people trying

to do the right thing.

- 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.

(foreboding music)

- [Narrator] Vancouver
Canada, the nation's gateway

to the Pacific Ocean.

On November 12th, 1980,

a man who's named
Johnny in Forbes police

that there's been a
murder at a rooming house

on Cambridge Street.

(foreboding music)

Johnny's been away from
the house for a few days.

He comes back to collect
some personal belongings

and discovers something
unexpected on the
living room floor.

- He goes up the front stairs
and goes inside the place,

and he sees that when
he opens the door,

the guy, Eldon Jacobs,

his jacket is not
lying across the couch

the way he always leaves it,

and the place looks like
it had been exploded,

like bird cages is broken,

aquarium is broken,
stuff broken everywhere.

And he sees Eldon Jacobs
lying there on the floor

with multiple staffing.

- [Narrator] Johnny
grabs some clothes

and heads back outside where
his friend is waiting for him.

- So he comes back to
his friend and says,

"Oh, I just saw the
strangest thing.

"Do you want to come
and have a look?"

And they go, "No, let's
go to the police station."

(indistinct chatter on radio)

- [Narrator] Investigators
arrive on the scene

and find the body of Eldon
Jacobs lying on the floor

of the living room.

- He has been stabbed
multiple times,

which is almost certainly
the cause of death.

- Somebody has killed the bird

and has sprinkled the
feathers all over the body,

it's as strange as it gets.

- The broken bird cage
is placed on Eldon's legs

and a nearby fish tank
is smashed to pieces.

Two empty 40 ounce
bottles of liquor suggest

that heavy drinking
may be a factor.

- It was absolute destruction.

Doors kicked in,
everything broken.

A broken alarm clock

that showed the murder
probably happened

just after midnight.

- [Narrator] In the kitchen,

a tinfoil tray of lasagna
sits on the stove,

and a dead bird lies
in a cardboard box.

- Somebody's also poured
oil all over the place.

So it's like, what's with that?

Well, what's with that is
they were gonna start a fire

and destroy the evidence,
but didn't get to that.

- [Narrator] Upstairs,
investigators find
a second body,

that of 28 year old
Marilyn Meersmen,

another tenant of
the rooming house.

- She's partially nude and
under a blanket on her bed.

She has being raped and
stabbed multiple times.

- [Narrator] But like
Eldon downstairs,

there's more to this murder
than just a stabbing.

- She has been posed beside
a "Playboy" magazine,

a Playboy bunny's
holding an umbrella,

and the killer had posed her
with an umbrella as well.

So it was called the
Centerfold Murders after that.

- [Narrator] A total
of four tenants live

in this rooming house,
but Eldon and Marilyn

were the only two who were
home during the attack,

and they're both
new to this house.

Marilyn is originally
from Saskatchewan.

She's a legal secretary.

And Eldon is from Alberta.

He's a businessman.

They've both recently
moved to Vancouver.

In 1980, Vancouver is
a growing metropolis,

but the Eastend is
experiencing an increase

in poverty and crime.

- In 1980, I was
living in Coquitlam,

but I was raised in
Eastend of Vancouver.

And for four years,

I patrolled the area that I
had grown up in as a teenager.

We have a lot of
gang shootings now.

In those days, if somebody
had a gun or produced a gun,

in the vast majority of cases,

it would be a fake
gun, a replica.

It wouldn't be real.

And now it's just
not the same thing.

It's not the same way.

Now the guns are real
and the violence is real.

- [Narrator] Vancouver's
Eastend is home

to a lot of inexpensive
rooming houses.

For people like Eldon and
Marilyn who are new in town

and may not have a
steady income right away,

they're an affordable place
to live, at least temporarily.

It seems clear that some
things have gone missing

from the house,
including Eldon's van.

This makes robbery seem
like a possible motive.

- The murders are far too
unusual to be the result

of a robbery gone wrong.

A typical burglar isn't
going to take the time

to pose the bodies
in specific ways.

The sheer level
of violence seems

to suggest a personal motive.

- [Narrator] At 6:40
PM that evening,

Eldon's van is found
abandoned at a hotel

on Powell Street in Vancouver.

The hotel is about 20 blocks
from the rooming house.

- And so they get
to the scene of that

and check out the van,

And there's a knife
behind the seat

in the crack of the seat
between the back and the seat.

- The size and shape of
the blade can be compared

to the wounds on the body.

In this case,

the blade is 15 centimeters
long and there's blood on it.

It could easily be
the murder weapon.

- And there's a pop
bottle on the floor,

and the pop bottle looks

like it'd been
freshly placed there,

but unfortunately, the
investigators couldn't recall

at a later time whether or
not that pop bottle was lying

on its side or
standing straight up,

and there's a big difference

because one means
that it was put there

after the vehicle stopped, which
means it was really recent.

The other means it could
have been put there anywhere

with all the other
junk in the van.

And the van was loaded
with stuff stolen

from the Eldon Jacobs house.

- [Narrator] Investigators
managed to lift a fingerprint

from the pop bottle
found inside Eldon's van.

It's not Eldon's.

And when they enter
the fingerprint

into the National Data Bank,
they don't find a match.

Not having any solid leads,

police stake out
the parking lot,

hoping that the perpetrator
might return to the van.

They watch until noon on
Thursday before giving up.

Police seek the public's
help to identify the person

who abandoned the van.

- They're hoping that
somebody noticed the person

who parked it there
and walked away.

Unfortunately, no one seems
to have seen anything.

- [Narrator] As a
matter of course,

police interview all
the other residents

and some former residents
of the rooming house.

- One of the residents
has been booted out

and he's an older guy, a
European guy, heavy accent,

and he really doesn't
like the people there.

And so they give him the boot

because he doesn't
like the loud parties,

he doesn't like this,
he doesn't like that.

So they interview this guy.

They drag him in and
put him in a cellmate

where you have an undercover
officer in a cell.

So they're gonna do a polygraph.

I mean, he agrees
to a polygraph.

And while he is talking
to the cellmate,

he tells the guy like,

"Man, the worst
thing in the world

"is where a woman rejects you.

"That's the worst thing
can ever happen to a man."

So that's one stream
of conversation,

and then he starts in with,

"Well, if you killed one
person or two people,

"does it really
make any difference?

"Does it affect the sentence?"

So all the alarm bells are going
off, it's just going crazy,

but he won't confess
to the crime.

And he goes in for a polygraph
and he fails the polygraph.

I've interviewed
the polygrapher.

He says, "Yeah, no, he did it.

"There's no doubt about it.

"He's so crazy that I was
gonna call in a police officer

"to help me because I thought
he was gonna lose it."

But he said a lot of things.

He failed the polygraph,

but he didn't
confess to the crime.

So there you go.

The focus is on him, but there's
not enough to charge him.

- [Narrator] With all
the evidence pointing

at this former rooming
house resident,

investigators are confident
they found their murderer.

They just need some
physical evidence

to tie into the crimes, and
this case will be closed.

(dramatic music)

(mid tempo music)

(dramatic music)

Eldon Jacobs and
Marilyn Meersmen

are found murdered
in a rooming house

in the Eastend of Vancouver.

A broken bird cage,

as well as feathers and
bird seed are scattered

on Eldon's body.

- It was absolute destruction.

- [Narrator] A dead bird
is in a box in the kitchen.

- It's as strange as it gets.

- [Narrator] Marilyn
Meersmen's lifeless body

is found upstairs in her bed,

half naked and posed like a
model in a men's magazine.

Later that night, Eldon's
van is found abandoned

in a hotel parking
lot 20 blocks away.

Inside the van, police
find stolen goods.

- The van was loaded
with stuff stolen

from Eldon Jacobs' house.

- [Narrator] As well
as a bloody knife

and a pop bottle with
fingerprints on it.

When put into the system,

the fingerprints do not
match anyone on file.

The number one suspect
is a former tenant

of the rooming house who hates
all of the other tenants.

He fails a polygraph test and
makes incriminating statements

to an undercover police officer.

If investigators can find any
physical evidence to tie him

to the scene, they will
arrest him for the murders.

On November 19th, 1980,

Marilyn's funeral is
held in Saskatoon.

Marilyn is born in
about 1953 to parents,

Rene and Anna Meersmen
in Unity, Saskatchewan,

where she grows up.

She has a sister Shirley,
and a brother Marcel.

In 1969, Marilyn moves to
Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan,

and then in 1971 to
Edmonton, Alberta.

She lives there until
moving to Vancouver in 1980.

Her parents still
reside in Meadow Lake

and her siblings
live in Saskatoon.

- According to her mother,

Marilyn has a very
nice personality

and she's well
liked by everyone.

While in Edmonton,
Marilyn meets Eldon Jacobs

and the two become
romantically involved.

Eldon is a businessman,

but he's got a bit
of a checkered past.

(dramatic music)

Back in 1961, when he is 21
years old, Eldon is arrested

while parked in his car near
the North Saskatchewan River.

- He's drinking beer with a 17
year old and an 18 year old.

While it's not exactly
a serious crime,

it's still in clear
violation of the law.

Eldon winds up pleading guilty
to selling liquor illegally

and to two counts of
giving liquor to minors.

He is fined $45.

- [Narrator] Eldon and Marilyn
move to Vancouver together

and live in a rooming
house on Cambridge Street,

three blocks west

of the Pacific National
Exhibition grounds.

- A rooming house is a
relatively cheap place to live.

It fits Eldon's needs because
he has a lot of money issues.

He has debts, and he has
people who owe him money.

Either way, owing
money or trying to
collect it from someone

who doesn't want to
pay could be dangerous.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] When
he stops at a garage

to collect money from someone,

a witness sees a young
child sitting next to Eldon

in the car.

They do not know who this is

or how Eldon has
come to be with him.

Identifying the child could
give investigators clues

as to who might want
to harm Eldon and why.

But a thorough search for
the child leads to nothing.

The most promising suspect is
still the older European man,

but investigators find nothing

to tie him to the crime scene.

They tried to match
his fingerprints

to the prints found on the
pop bottle, but it's no good.

- What's left to do,

you could put out a reward,
that's a possibility,

but long time has passed.

It's very frustrating for people

who are doing the
initial investigation

because you know that's
the end of the road.

And in this case,

they really thought it
was the European guy,

the older fella.

- [Narrator] Six months
after Vancouver police

offer a $10,000 reward,

the murders of Eldon and
Marilyn remain unsolved.

Rewards for criminals
dates back all the way

to the Roman Empire.

In more modern times,
Wild West wanted posters

would post a reward
or bounty on criminals

that they wanted captured or
to get more information on.

This is carried
forward to modern times

to give citizens incentive
to help the authorities.

Places have seen payouts
at rates of 60 to 70%,

others only 15 to 20%.

- Even though the
tips are anonymous,

the main reason people
are hesitant to speak up

is the fear of being
called a snitch

and putting
themselves in danger.

Homes get shot up,
witnesses can be killed,

and families are put in
danger over giving information

about a crime.

- [Narrator] In 1981,
there is $230,000

in outstanding reward
money in British Columbia

of crime cases yet to be closed.

Success isn't measured
by how much is paid out,

but the number of cases
that are solved from tips

that are being called in.

Unfortunately, 15 years
after the murders in 1980,

there are still no
matches for prints,

no new evidence is found

to charge the European
man of interest,

and the sighting of
the child with Eldon

is simply a dead end.

However, like the rewards,

the evidence is left out
on a detective's desk

as a constant reminder.

This lingering evidence will
help bring this case back

to life years later.

- Forensics science
has come a long way

in the last 10 to 20 years.

With the huge database
that we now have,

a lot more of cold case
crimes can be solved.

All the hard work the
investigators have done

in the past collecting evidence

is what now opens
up a lot of cases

that we just didn't
have that availability

of resources before.

(dramatic music)

(mid tempo music)

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Eldon Jacobs, 40,

and Marilyn Meersmen,
28 are found murdered

in a rooming house in
the Eastend of Vancouver.

Inside Eldon's stolen van,

investigators find
a bloody knife

and a pop bottle with
fingerprints on it,

but they are unable to match
the fingerprints to a suspect

or anyone in the
National Data Bank,

even in the case of their
most promising suspect,

an older European man who
failed to polygraph test.

- So all the alarm
bells are going off,

it's just going crazy,

but he won't confess
to the crime.

- [Narrator] His fingerprints
don't match the ones

on the pop bottle,

and investigators can't find
anything else to place him

at the crime scene.

- The focus is on
him, but there's not
enough to charge him.

- [Narrator] A witness
sees Eldon with a child,

but this lead is another
dead end for investigators.

The case slowly goes cold.

A reward for
information is put out,

yet years pass
with no new leads.

- All the hard work the
investigators have done

in the past collecting evidence

is what now opens
up a lot of cases.

- [Narrator] Evidence
lingering since

the initial investigation
may now be of use

to reopen this case.

(mid tempo music)

The pop bottle remains on
Sergeant Joe Mikita's desk

until he retires and passes
it on to his successor.

He and Joe Erkhart, the
Civilian Fingerprint Technician

also keep copies of the
prints at their desks

until they retire.

- Sometimes, you need to be
reminded of your failures

or the cases you
haven't solved yet.

It can be painful, but
it can also be inspiring.

It can motivate you to work
harder, not only on that case,

but all cases.

- [Narrator] That pop bottle
serves as a constant reminder

within the department of
the two unsolved murders.

In 2001, a new cold
case detective decides

to take on the more than
20 year old mystery.

- My name is Wayne Cope.

I'm a retired police officer
for six and a half years.

The last six and a half
years of my career,

I worked at the provincial
unsolved homicide unit.

I was in charge of
a eight man unit.

I think that you have to be
really interested, inquisitive,

like why did this happen?

Who did it?

And you really care.

You just have to be
the type of person

that wants to solve puzzles.

You want to know who did this.

And my frustration

would be that if I
didn't find the person,

if I didn't catch the person

and the guy who replaced
me caught the person

with the same
information that I had,

I'd be very upset.

So I wanna be the one
to catch the person.

I wanna be the person
to solve the puzzle.

You have to be somebody
who really cares

about getting a positive result.

You can't be there just
to put in the time.

- [Narrator] Detective
Cope has assembled a crew

with the right mindset
to tackle cold cases.

They work hard to find
the right ones to take on.

- So what we do is we
travel the province

and look through all the files

and see what is possible
relative to charging people

for crimes that they committed
in the past, cold cases.

Cases can be two years old.

They can be 20, 25 years old.

I try and stay away from cases

that have a suspect
who's deceased

'cause frankly, I
want to charge people.

I wasn't interested
in just closing a case

for the sake of closing a case.

It's too time
consuming to do that,

and it's too much of
a use of resources

that could be used elsewhere.

- [Narrator] During
Detective Cope's research

into reopening the case,

he learns more about
the old European man

who is a suspect from
the initial investigator.

- The initial investigator,

I used to fish on
the Vedder River

in British Columbia
just near Chilliwack.

So he'd be out there fishing.

And the old guy, the
suspect coincidentally,

used to fish across the
river in the same spot.

And they'd scream
insults at each other.

And the European suspect
said, "I didn't do it.

"I know you think I did.

"I didn't do it."

- [Narrator] The first move
towards reopening the murders

of Eldon Jacobs and
Marilyn Meersmen

is made quite by chance.

- A retired policeman,
Rod Peterson,

20 years after the incident,

he was sitting down
and having a drink

with a fellow from the
Identification Unit.

And he mentioned the
case to him and says,

"Listen, whatever
happened to that old case

"where there was a
fingerprint and a pop bottle."

And the guy goes
like, "I don't know."

And Rod is, "Well, could
you check into it for me?"

And he went in and he checked
into it, and sure enough,

the fingerprint
was still on file.

We don't have a periodic review

where we just keep on
sending stuff through.

So he sent that same fingerprint
through and it got a hit.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Ottawa's
fingerprint database
matches the print

on the bottle to a man
named Lloyd James Delaronde.

(foreboding music)

Having been in and out
of the justice system

on minor charges
for over 20 years,

he becomes a person of interest.

- One of my detectives
came to me and said,

"Listen, I've been
down to Vancouver.

"I'm looking for the
knife that was used.

"I'm looking for
the alarm clock.

"I'm looking for all
these different things."

Nothing's there, releases, I've
been down there three times,

the evidence doesn't
exist anymore.

A case has to be
about something,

when if you say
somebody was murdered,

you have to have a knife.

If the evidence doesn't exist,
your case doesn't exist.

So I phoned up the guy at
the property office and said,

"Listen, I'll come down
next week sometime.

"Can you give me like three
hours because I got a photocopy,

"all of your books
that say it's gone."

I go down there, he
opens up all the books.

I say, "I don't
wanna see the books.

"Take me to the place where
would be if it did exist."

So we go off to the property
office, which is offsite.

- The handling of
evidence is very crucial,

and the record of
continuity of possession

can make or break a case.

It shows the flow of
handling in storage

and when fully applied,
it reduces the possibility

of having evidence
contested in court.

- [Narrator] At the
offsite property office,

Sergeant Cope questions

where the original
evidence might be.

- If it was here,
where would it be?

He says, "Well,
it'd be over there."

So about 45 minutes into it,

and I pushed through boxes apart

and there's an
umbrella lying there,

and then there's a
little a manila envelope

with an alarm clock in it.

I'm going, "Here
we go, this is it."

- [Narrator] Wayne Cope manages

to reassemble all
of the evidence

from the original investigation
with one exception,

the infamous pop bottle.

- How do you lose all
the evidence relating

to an unsolved homicide?

That stuff was lost,

and if it wouldn't
be for me and Locke,

that would've been
the end of the case.

Even though we didn't
have the pop bottle,

we had the print off
of the pop bottle.

So where do we go?

So yeah, research, who is
this guy, Lloyd Delaronde?

We have to find out
is he still alive?

Is he a criminal?

What kind of a person is he?

Six months earlier
before the homicide,

he was involved in an
incident in Alberta

where he was accused of cruelty

and found guilty of
cruelty to animals.

- [Narrator] Delaronde's
history continues to unfold

and reveal bizarre behaviors
and a troubled past.

Detective Cope stays hot on
the trail and continues to dig

into Lloyd Delaronde and
his animal cruelty charge.

- I phoned the
detachment and said,

"Listen, could you
tell me more about it?"

He says, "Yeah, he killed
some farmer's chickens.

"And yeah, it just said
he killed the chickens

"and that's why he was charged,

"convicted of
cruelty to animals."

I'm going, "He kills chickens.

"There's feathers all over the
crime scene because some guy,

"he has a problem with
birds, obviously."

So to me, that was the
aha moment where you go,

"This is a real possibility.

"This is probably the guy."

- A lot of time,

investigators feel like
they know someone is guilty.

But that's not enough,

you need evidence,
and you need proof,

and you need that evidence
to hold up in a court of law.

For a cold case especially,

you need to convince the
powers at be to spend the money

to build the case.

And to do that,

there has to be a high
likelihood of conviction.

- [Narrator] Wayne Cope needs
to convince his superiors

that this case is a winner.

If he can't, the
murders of Eldon Jacobs

and Marilyn Meersmen
could remain unsolved.

(dramatic music)

(mid tempo music)

(dramatic music)

More than 20 years after
the murders of Eldon Jacobs

and Marilyn Meersmen,

the case is reopened
by Sergeant Wayne Cope

of the provincial
unsolved homicide unit

in British Columbia.

- So what we do is we
travel the province

and see what is possible
relative to charging people

for crimes that they committed
in the past, cold cases.

- [Narrator] Sergeant
Cope collects up

all of the old evidence and
identifies Lloyd James Delaronde

as the prime suspect
in the killings.

- This is a real possibility.

This is probably the guy.

- [Narrator] Lloyd's
fingerprints match
the ones found

on the infamous pop bottle.

More significantly, Delaronde
has a previous conviction,

which bears an eerie resemblance
for the killing of the bird

at the rooming house.

- And he's convicted of cruelty

to animals and chickens,
killing chickens.

I mean, what are the odds?

I mean, I knew that I
had somebody of interest.

- For a cold case especially,

you need to convince the
powers at be to spend the money

to build the case.

And to do that,

there has to be a high
likelihood of conviction.

- [Narrator] Wayne Cope needs
to convince his superiors

that this case is a winner.

Sergeant Cope's proposal

for investigating
Lloyd James Delaronde

goes better than anticipated.

- When I sat with the
undercover people,

one of them looks
at me and says,

"When your request for the
undercover team comes in,"

he says, "I take that, I
put it right at the top

"of the pile and
everybody else waits."

"Well, thank you (chuckling)."

That's a great desired result.

I hadn't anticipated that would
happen, but that was good.

- [Narrator] With the go ahead
to further pursue the case

and a boost of confidence,

Sergeant Cope
continues his quest

to bring down Lloyd Delaronde.

Sergeant Cope finds out

that Delaronde is
an alcoholic living

in a residential hotel
in downtown Vancouver.

He earns money collecting
bottles and cans from dumpsters.

When confronted by detectives,

the man denies being
Lloyd James Delaronde.

He gives them a different name

and a different date of birth.

Sergeant Cope knows
that Delaronde

is scheduled to appear in
court for another incident.

So Sergeant Cope goes
to court undercover

and waits for Delaronde
to show up, and he does.

And Sergeant Cope now has
confirmation of his identity.

- I knew he had to show up in
court relating to an incident.

Okay, so I'm in court and all
the sheriffs and the judge,

I've been a policeman
for 25 years, all went,

"Hey Wayne, how you doing?"

Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.

So I'm sitting in the
courtroom waiting for him,

and then Lloyd Delaronde comes
and sits right in front of me

and I positively identify
him in the courtroom.

Yeah, that's the
guy, Lloyd Delaronde.

- [Narrator] When Delaronde
leaves the courthouse,

Sergeant Cope follows him
about five blocks to his hotel.

- So he goes in looking
like a normal guy.

When he comes out,

he's like some kind of surfer
guy in huarache sandals.

He's got the cut offs.

And he's all cool.

He's pushing the shopping cart.

And then he just goes to
the Westend of Vancouver,

picking up bottles and
schmoozing with people.

He had a lot of
friends out there.

- [Narrator] Unfortunately
for Detective Cope,

he can't just arrest Delaronde.

He needs him to confess,

and that is going to take work.

- There's nothing
to arrest him on.

I mean, you could go
in and interview him.

He's gonna lie about
his name again,

and maybe you'll get him
to tell you the truth.

He certainly won't
confess to the crime.

And unless you arrest him,

he doesn't even
have to talk to you.

There's simply not enough there.

I mean, so what,

I had a print there and I had
a drink with the guy, so what?

- To get Delaronde to confess,

Sergeant Cope and his
team must go undercover.

Over the course of five months,

an undercover officer
befriends Delaronde

and feeds him liquor
to gain his confidence.

For Sergeant Cope and his team,

it's a job that requires
a lot of patience

and confidence in their
ability to succeed.

- You have to absolutely know it

because you're
spending lots of money,

and it's not just the money,

generally speaking,
undercover operation costs

about 120,000 bucks.

We don't count overtime, we
don't count me, my wages,

we're counting cars and hotel
rooms and all this stuff.

- Operations like this
can be complicated

and require lots of resources.

- The money is not
that important.

The importance is the
commitment of manpower

because while I'm using the
undercover team to do that,

and I'm using me to do that,

they could be doing
something else

and arresting somebody
that has a better shot.

So you better be sure
because it's an embarrassment

if you present a case
and it's not solid.

- Often operations like
this require officers

to be available for
extended periods of time.

When a call comes, they
need to be able to answer.

- [Narrator] The undercover
unit commit to the operation,

and to begin building
trust with Delaronde.

(dramatic music)

Sergeant Cope's plan

is one that's been
successful many times before

and he has high hopes that
it will work on Delaronde.

- My theory is that we'll
use the Mr. Big scenario

and we'll move him
through the progression

of going to a
criminal organization

where he finally has
to confess to Mr. Big

if he wants to stay
in the organization.

- [Narrator] The
Mr. Big scenario

typically involves undercover
police baiting a suspect

with paid criminal activity
over a period of time,

which convinces the suspect

that they are part of a
criminal organization run

by a higher boss
known as Mr. Big.

Sergeant Wayne Cope explains

how the Mr. Big scenario works.

- What you do is you
have your criminal.

How do you do it?

An initial introduction.

So what happens?

The guy's walking down
the street and you say,

"Buddy, you wanna
make a few bucks.

"This will take no time at all.

"My niece has been
hanging out down here.

"She's in this bar or that bar.

"If I walk in the front door,
she's gonna run out the back.

"All I want to know,
is she there or not?

"That's all I need to know.

"50 bucks just like that,
two minutes of your time."

So who's not gonna do that?

She's not there, of course

'cause she doesn't exist.

Go to another bar,
doesn't exist.

They do this another couple
of times and all of a sudden,

"You're a guy I can trust.

"You're a guy who can do stuff.

"How about you do
something more for me?"

And they lead him
down the garden path

of doing criminal activities.

So he does all of these
scenarios over three months,

four months, five
months with his guy,

with his RCMP undercover
guy who is his boss.

But when my friend shows up
in his hotel room and says,

"Yeah, we're looking at
a murder for whatever,"

he will tell that to the guy
because that's a problem.

He's been told to
report problems.

- [Narrator] In December, 2002,

after two months of
Mr. Big scenarios,

Sergeant Cope puts
the next phase

of the plan into operation,

the introduction of the problem

that Delaronde will
have to report.

(dramatic music)

Two uniformed officers
arrive at Delaronde's door.

- It's exciting, but
stressful at the same time

because this is it,

either the team gets
an admission from Lloyd

or he clams up and runs off.

Those months of
intensive undercover work

would have been for nothing.

- [Narrator] Detective Cope
and his team's reputation

is on the line.

Can they swindle a
confession from Delaronde

and get justice for
Eldon and Marilyn?

Or will this be a
huge embarrassment
and a waste of time?

(dramatic music)

(mid tempo music)

(dramatic music)

Police believe that
Lloyd James Delaronde

is the man who
killed Eldon Jacobs

and Marilyn Meersmen in 1980.

Sergeant Wayne Cope

of the Provincial
Cold Case Unit runs

an elaborate
undercover operation

to convince Lloyd Delaronde

that he's part of a criminal
organization run by Mr. Big.

They tell Delaronde to report
any problems coming up,

and then they send
him a big one.

- So the problem is
I send in two guys

to interview him, saying,

"Listen, I want to talk
to you about a murder

"that took place in
Vancouver back in 1980.

"I'm not doing it now,
down at the police station,

"we'll set up a time.

"We don't wanna surprise you,

"we don't want any problems,

"we're just gonna
do it that way.

"Okay, thank you."

So they leave and then he goes

and talks to his RCMP
undercover guy that same night,

"They just came and talked
to me about this thing.

"I haven't heard about
this for years and years."

- [Narrator] Delaronde claims
that the two cops asked

about a van, but Sergeant
Cope and his team know

that's not true.

- So I bring in the
fellows that I talked to,

recruited to go and
talk to him and said,

"Did you mention the white van
to him, to Lloyd Delaronde?"

He says, "No, absolutely not.

"No white van was mentioned."

Well, boom, you
know you've got him.

- [Narrator] Delaronde is
already revealing his guilt.

The undercover officer
asks Delaronde to clarify

what the problem is.

- And he says, "Yeah, there
was a girl and there was a guy,

"and the guy picked me
up and I stayed there."

And so he gives him
a preliminary kind
of a confession,

but he has to do the same thing

to the boss of the organization.

And then the boss will decide

whether not he's gonna be a
member of the organization,

so there's a real motivation.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The undercover
police officer posing

as Delaronde's boss
takes him to Mr. Big

to relay what the situation is.

- They bring him
in, sit him down.

Mr. Big's sitting here,
crook's sitting there,

and the boss lays it out,

"Listen, just tell me the truth.

"Don't lie to me.

"I just wanna know
what happened.

"We'll fix it.

"No matter what
happens, we'll fix it."

And then he is off.

And he tells him every little
detail about what happened,

why it happened,

what evidence he
thought he left behind.

- That's why Mr.
Bigger operations,

while often costly
and controversial,

are so vital to solving a case.

It can take months or even
years to elicit that confession

or a piece of information
that can solve a case.

- [Narrator] So over two
decades after Marilyn

and Eldon's murders, Delaronde
confesses to killing them,

and he has no idea
that Sergeant Cope

and his team are
videotaping the whole thing.

(dramatic music)

When Delaronde comes out
of his hotel the next day,

an emergency response team
is waiting to arrest him.

- And then I rolled up and
took him into my custody

and gave him a Section
10 warning and all that,

that was a really rewarding
feeling doing that.

- Finally handcuffing
the criminal brings
a sense of success

and relief, especially
after a long investigation.

- [Narrator] 23 Years
after the murders,

Vancouver police charged
Lloyd James Delaronde

with two counts of
first degree murder.

- You'd think the only people
that remember are the family,

but they're not.

The police remember too.

And we review files like
anything that's unsolved

where there's a possibility
of a suspect being out there,

we review them constantly.

It's a pursuit,
and we caught him.

- [Narrator] While the
investigative team is happy

to have made an arrest,

some of the family of the
victims feel differently.

Marilyn's mother
has been grieving

since her daughter's death.

"I might have been happier if
this happened 23 years ago.

"I just want this whole
thing to be over."

(dramatic music)

Sergeant Cope
confronts Delaronde

with all of the
evidence that they have.

- I loved every moment of it.

When I started giving the
evidence about what I had done,

and especially when
he went through all

of these different
points to Mr. Big,

and I went through each one

of them saying there are 23
points that he could only know.

And go through the pictures,

here's the lasagna on the stove,

here are the bottles of liquor

that he thought were white
rum, but are actually vodka

and here's the picture of
the knife, all this stuff.

I mean, you described the
knife in absolute detail,

why the van was left where it
was left, you ran out of gas.

So all these different points,

it's not possible for
somebody to know that.

And even if he
told somebody else,

they'd never remember in
the detail that he had.

- A judge has to look at the
reliability of the confession.

Does the evidence connect
with the confession?

Does it describe details
only the killer would know?

If the confession
checks these boxes,

the judge will accept it.

- Finally, he just caved,
and he pled guilty to it.

It was too overwhelming.

I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed being
in court doing it.

It's a pursuit
and we caught him.

- It's the feeling
of achievement,

not only obtaining an
admission of guilt,

but bringing the
criminal to justice.

It's what we pursue
in this line of work.

- [Narrator] Delaronde
pleads guilty to two counts

of second degree murder
and describes how it went.

(foreboding music)

Delaronde agrees to
go home with Eldon

after the older man offers
him money for oral sex.

Back at the rooming
house, Delaronde meets
Marilyn Meersmen.

After a drinking binge that
goes on for several days,

Delaronde grows
angry with Eldon.

- He simply didn't like
Eldon to start off with

who just talked about money
and, "I own this, I own that,

"and all this stuff."

So he just thought,
"Well, I'll kill this guy

"and take all this stuff."

- He stabs Eldon in the back,
but it is not a fatal wound.

Eldon turns around
to defend himself

and there's a
tremendous struggle.

Delaronde stabs the
victim another 40 times.

- [Narrator] Afterwards,
he suddenly remembers

Marilyn who's upstairs.

Delaronde decides that he has
to get rid of the evidence

to make sure that
everybody is dead.

He says, "I just
couldn't walk out."

Delaronde goes upstairs
and tells Marilyn

that Eldon needs help.

As she walks downstairs,
he stabs her in the back,

then drags her
back into her room.

- Delaronde rapes
Marilyn Meersmen,

stabs her more than 13
times and slits her throat.

- [Narrator] He denies
that he posed her

to look like a photo
in a men's magazine.

After hearing his confession,

the judge sentences Lloyd James
Delaronde to life in prison

without the possibility
of parole for 15 years.

(mid tempo music)

Delaronde was born to a
teenage mother in Saskatchewan,

and throughout his childhood

is bounced around
living with relatives.

By the age of 15,

he makes his way to Vancouver
and drifts into prostitution.

His troubled past no
doubt leads to the death

of fellow Saskatchewan,
resident Marilyn Meersmen,

as well as Eldon Jacobs.

Thankfully, the hard work

of detectives like Wayne Cope
bring justice to the victims

of such horrible crimes and
it doesn't go unnoticed.

- That call came through my line

and he identified
himself and he says,

"I understand that you're
the principle person,

"the person responsible
for arresting

"and convicting this guy."

I says, "Yeah."

And he says, "I just
wanna thank you.

"I'm the cousin or
whatever of the family,

"and we really appreciate it."

- [Narrator] The
murders of Eldon Jacobs

and Marilyn Meersmen went
unsolved for over 20 years.

And if it wasn't
for the hard work

of investigators
like all those prior

and including
Sergeant Wayne Cope,

it might still be unsolved.

(uptempo music)