All language subtitles for in.cold.water.the.shelter.bay.mystery.s01e01.1080p.web.h264-gloriousmongoose_track4_[eng]

- [water trickling]
- [loon calling]

[birds chirping]

[boat engine starts]

[dramatic music playing]

[woman screams]

[static]

A New Zealander living in Canada
has been charged with murdering his wife.

[reporter 2] Laura Letts-Beckett, beloved
teacher, drowned in August of last year.

They were on vacation
from their home in Westlock, Alberta.

[reporter 4] It had been believed
that while on a fishing trip,

Laura Letts-Beckett had fallen out
of a boat and drowned in these icy waters.

Fifty-year-old teacher Laura Letts-Beckett
died in August last year.

Initially, her husband claimed she
fell off a Zodiac while they were fishing.

Now, police say it was murder.

[camera clicks]

[Jacquie] He's looking
at a minimum of 25 years in jail.

[Tim]
Was this a murder or a tragic accident?

[Terry] There were two people on a boat
and one of them drowned.

Only one knows what happened, who's alive.

[no audio]

How can you possibly
put a first-degree murder charge

on the husband of the deceased
that's going through grievous trauma?

He had so much to gain, money-wise.

Life insurance policy
is up to about $850,000.

This was the start of the campaign

to turn Laura's drowning into a murder.

[Jacquie]
It was obviously not a typical case.

It was a highly unusual case.

He wants the family whacked,
he wants officers blown up.

[Tim] We're talking about hidden
diamonds and dynamite.

And now he's also charged with plotting
to kill these five witnesses.

I was astounded that this man
was facing this charge.

Twenty-seven judges and justices

came and went off R v. Beckett.

The biggest miscarriage of justice,
I think, in the world.

[dramatic music playing]

[light music playing]

[Colin]
Shelter Bay, it's a beautiful spot.

Tourist destination for the world.

It's a cold body of water.

People do drown in there, and there's been
close calls in our park before,

but this was pretty real.

The first time I met
Peter and Laura was the first year

that I worked at the campgrounds.

They'd roll in in this big bus RV.

They normally stayed
for like two weeks at a time.

I spent a lot of time
at their picnic table.

Peter's like a jovial guy.

He took on this persona.
The campground unofficial host, I guess.

Laura was like a classic schoolteacher.

She was caring. She was really sweet.

They spent a lot of time out on the water.

This was somebody I knew, and this was
somebody who wasn't there anymore.

You know, somebody who died.

Yeah. I still don't really know
what to believe.

I was the non-commissioned officer
in charge of Revelstoke Detachment.

[siren wailing]

There had been a sudden death
down at Shelter Bay.

When I arrived at the scene,
Peter was wrapped in a blanket.

The constable on duty gave me
a rundown of what his story was.

You're in an isolated area
with nobody around,

nobody to back up what you're saying.

And some of what he was saying
was suspicious.

There's something wrong with this.

This isn't your typical whodunit.

Things he was saying
didn't make sense logically.

I don't know when he's telling the truth
or when he's not telling the truth.

Only the truth comes out of my mouth.

I loved that girl. She loved me.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

[Jacquie] I recall him mentioning to me
that he had taken a tranquilizer

or something to that effect.

I've been to many deaths in my career,

and that's the only one that I can recall

that ever said
that he took a tranquilizer.

[birds chirping]

[Peter] Woke up on August 18th.

Another beautiful day.

I used to wake up early

and, uh, with my love in bed,
I'd go out fishing.

Normally about 4:30, five o'clock,

it's great time for the rise
of the rainbow trout that Laura loved.

I come back about 8:00 or 8:30.

Had, uh, breakfast, which was normal.

As a pretty successful fisherman.

We made love.

Had a shower.

He did mention at one point that prior
to going out fishing, they made love.

And I don't think
that question was ever asked of him.

[Peter] This particular day,
Laura wanted to go into Revelstoke,

do some laundry, and do a bit
of shopping at thrift shops.

She loved thrift shops.

And then headed back to the lake

and the campground about 2:30,
three o'clock,

and out in the little Zodiac
for our afternoon fish.

[boat engine starts]

[Peter] This particular day, she brought
a four-and-a-half-foot umbrella.

First time ever.

[Jacquie]
He indicated that she had an umbrella.

He also said that she could not swim,

but was not wearing her life jacket.

[Peter]
Off we went hitting up the coastline,

fishing the drop-off which is between
10 meters and 30 meters from shore.

Laura was reading.

The book she had in the boat that day
was called, I Saw the Lord.

She had suggested that we go in to try

and get some more shade
because it was really hot.

I was pulling in one of the two rods
I had out as I was coming to shore.

My focus is out the back of the boat.

And I heard this splash
winding in one of the two rods.

I realized that Laura wasn't there.

I spun the boat around.

I could see her bright
yellow shorts in the water.

I went over the side
to dive down to grab her.

[heart beating]

[Peter] And I made six,
maybe ten attempts to do that.

[Jacquie] He tried to recover her.

However, he was too buoyant
due to his size.

[Peter] I knew this wasn't working.

I realized that I need to get some weight.

We were only 20 meters offshore.

Swam and then waded to shore,
grabbed a rock.

Just instinctive stuff
from my diving days.

Used the rock under my arm
to give me some negative buoyancy.

Grabbed her, dropped the rock...

then proceeded to take it ashore.

The rock, it did not make sense to me.

[Peter] I started administering CPR.

Just giving lots of air to her.

And the amount of water
that came out of her nose,

hitting the side of my face,
was one of those paralytic moments

of PTSD that I had for years.

I couldn't save her.

Losing my other half, it's still hard.

It's the worst day of my life.

We inspected the Zodiac
as much as we could,

to look for any evidence
that we could find.

It's a small Zodiac.

Very overcrowded.

We didn't see any claw marks
or anything on the side of the vessel

that would indicate that she was trying
to struggle to get back into it.

There was a life jacket
sitting in the boat.

Apparently, she was sitting on it.

So that was on her end of the boat.

But she does not swim.

Was not wearing a life jacket.

His story did not make sense.

[Peter] It was not homicide or murder.

I knew that.

But was it an accident or was it suicide?

[dramatic music playing]

Hey, buddy.

Hi.

Hi.

Hey. How was your day?

Hey, how was your day?

I only knew Laura to be smiling and happy.

She was always there, ready to help.

Now, Laura's family, their main farm
operation was a big operation.

Huge amounts of land,
and they're still very successful farmers.

Bob shall be ready to retrieve
within a moment's notice,

the most obscure item requested for,

for various business equipment
that dots our farmyard.

[Karen] How I am related to Laura
is our moms are cousins.

And as families,
we spend time with each other.

And Laura was bossy, but that's okay.

Bossy's good.

She was a firstborn.

She's an older sister to two boys.

She had a lot expected of her.

And I think she rose to the occasion.

[Shirley]
She studied at the University of Alberta

and got her Bachelor of Education.

And she was a marvelous teacher.

The kids loved her.

She wanted to be independent.

The money that her parents had
didn't influence her whatsoever

and she didn't rely on that at all.

Very wealthy.

They own a lot of land.

They garnered their respect
from the community

from being involved through their church.

[church bells clanging]

We were all raised in a Brethren church.

They called it the Open Brethren.

We have a faith, and a very strong faith,

and it was decades deep
and generations deep.

I guess there are some that
could have seen it as being a bit extreme.

But it--to me,
it was like another evangelical church.

In terms of religion,

she followed whatever
her family wanted her to follow.

And that actually
is probably a lot of her turmoil.

Her family didn't believe
in marrying anyone who had been divorced.

When Laura went off to university,
she met this young man.

He was the one.

And she just didn't know what to do

because she know her family
would not accept him.

And then she got involved
with a local doctor in town.

But because he was a divorced man,

that was the deal-breaker.

I knew she was heartbroken,
not being able to step forward

and do what her heart said
instead of what her parents said.

I think that was the impetus
for the trip to New Zealand.

She was looking for something fun,
and she found some fun.

[Peter] You're never very far
from the water in New Zealand.

I was born in Hastings, New Zealand.

I came from low-socioeconomic family.

We would all go out and pick fruit
to fund our summer holidays.

Traditionally,
everybody holidays at the beach.

Motor camps, swimming,
surfing, scuba diving.

Spent a lot of time in the water.

I loved fishing with my father.

It was one of his favorite sports.

Always fished, yeah.

Always boated.

And, uh, out of that evolved
Unimog Adventure Tour,

and gannet and coastline tours.

Our love story began
on the 30th of November 1995.

I came down from the hill,

pulled up outside
the Visitor Information Centre

in Napier with the Unimog.

The guests got on,
including this little Canadian.

Laura's about 5'5"
and probably then maybe 110 pounds.

Very, uh, articulate, is Pete.

And he--and he's easy to talk to.

And he could get on well
with, um, a lot of the customers.

[low chatter]

Can talk up, uh--
talk up a storm when required.

[inaudible]

[Peter] After we went
with the green ex-army vehicle

around the rugged coastline
to Cape Kidnappers,

to the largest mainland
gannet colony in the world.

So they went for their walk,
and I went out diving for paua or abalone.

When they all came back,

I was cleaning the abalone.

Paua shell is used for jewelry.

It's beautiful on the inside.

She asked if she could have a shell.

And I said, "Of course you can."

[Phil] When I first met Laura,

she was in the front of the cab
of the truck with Peter.

Very quiet person.

Seemed to be very shy. Yeah.

Like chalk and cheese.

Peter was larger than life.

Gregarious.

Could be charming, charismatic.

[Peter] We're driving back,
and she's asking me about paua.

"How do you eat them?"

And I said, "Well, I've got some
in the fridge at home now."

I said, "Would you like to try some?"
And she said, "Yeah, I'd love to."

And at that moment I thought,
"I just invited her for dinner."

I just met this girl.
And I'm not like this.

Anyway, we talked from maybe seven o'clock

to one o'clock in the morning.

And then the next day,

they were all over each other.

Held hands, cuddled, kissed.

She--I don't know.

She just clicked with me for some reason.

I ended up touring her around
the island in one of my rental cars.

And I think on day two,

I said to her, "You were abused
as a child, weren't you?"

And she said to me, "How can you
possibly see through all my masks?

How could you possibly know
my innermost-kept secret?"

And I said, "I don't even know
why you wear your mask.

Why do you?"

And that was the relationship we had.

Like, every time I wanted to phone her,
the phone would ring.

[dialing]

Laura would come to school
some days very, very tired

because she'd been on the phone
for hours with this fellow.

[Peter] And, you know,
we spent five years apart

between 1995 and 2000.

[Laura]
"Dear Peter, hello to you from Canada!

There has not been a day go by

that I have not thought about you
since we last spoke.

I would love
to be transported there in an instant,

to sip kiwi wine and eat paua fritters

and have one of our wonderful talks.

As always and forever yours, Laura."

My first marriage lasted 23 years.

We were separated when I met Laura.

It took a while for Peter
to come to Westlock.

I wasn't convinced
that my marriage was over.

My children were still young,

and we reconciled.

But the marriage never got any better.

And Laura and I, our love wouldn't die.

The first time I visited Canada

was Christmas Day, year 2000.

And it was just like we hadn't been apart.

That was my first white Christmas.
Incredibly romantic.

And I made the decision to move to Canada.

When we first met Peter,
he was, you know, funny.

He just encapsulated joy, really.

And everybody
kind of fell in love with him.

We actually thought
he was a great guy, like, just jovial.

He was great friends with her parents.

[Peter] Laura's parents,
Park and Beth Letts, loved me.

[Shirley] I don't believe
that her parents knew

about Peter and his marriage and children,

and I don't believe
she wanted them to know.

[Peter] We married
on the 5th of July 2003.

We had a beautiful wedding.

It was at the Westlock Inn,
about 120 guests.

I was received with open arms

from her family and all of her friends.

Everything was hunky-dory.

[dramatic music playing]

My boss knew that I had warned my staff

to stay away from Peter,

and that started
some talks happening on that end to--

for me to need to follow up
with the police.

This was the third year
that they had come back.

But the third year was a little different.

Peter was aggravated
and more confrontational.

The first night in the campground,
he was asking for firewood.

He was saying
the bundles are getting smaller,

they're getting more expensive.

He was coming at me a little bit.

It was a bit
of an uncomfortable situation.

And, uh, you know, he was drunk,

and he definitely
was like visibly intoxicated.

The next evening, Laura came up
to, uh, hang out with me,

and, uh, we were laughing
and having a good old conversation.

And, um, Peter zipped off in his boat

and did a big U-turn out in the water

and, uh, went to the front of his bow
and, you know,

was standing on the front of his bow

with his hands on his hips starting at me.

[dramatic music playing]

He's an intimidating guy.

He's like six and a half feet tall,
and he's just a big presence.

It was a really disturbing thing.
I didn't--it was a bad feeling.

It was definitely one of those things

where the hair on the back of my neck
was standing up.

I made sure to warn my staff
to stay away from him.

I think it's best if we just keep
our distance from him and deal with Laura.

That was kind of my last main interaction
with Peter and Laura,

and I think the last time I saw Laura.

[dramatic music playing]

[Jacquie] We wanted to have
a forensic pathologist,

but the coroner couldn't justify
a forensic pathologist

when we had only suspicions
and no evidence.

So he made the decision
that it was going to be a pathologist

and not a forensic pathologist.

There was no evidence of murder,

but evidence
in a drowning is very difficult.

They drown.
They have lungs full of water.

Unless you find a bump on the back
of the head or something,

it's very difficult to prove
that there's something untoward in it.

[dramatic music playing]

The decision had to be made
how we get Laura back to home.

[Shirley] Her mom and dad
had one request of Peter,

that he bring her home.

They wanted to see her one last time.

They wanted to bury her.

They wanted--you know,
they wanted her home.

We were ten hours away.

The most practical solution
under the circumstances was cremation.

They never had an opportunity
to say goodbye.

I just wanted to get back home with Laura.

You're in a fog.

I don't remember setting the ashes

in her seat of the motor home

with her teddy bears,

Ernie and Audrey,

cuddling her.

And she was there.

We at that point were like,
"This is very suspicious."

I think he did something.

Uh, we all think he did something.

[dramatic music playing]

Shortly after Laura passed,
there was a phone call that was made

to the Revelstoke detachment
by one of Laura's cousins,

who relayed some
very shocking information.

[Shirley] My cousin had relayed
one story to me

about Peter telling Laura,

one day she would die,

and that she would die on a lake.

And that she would never know
when that day might be.

[Terry] She wouldn't know when
and wouldn't know where,

but Peter was telling her how.

Laura had a cousin,
Virginia Lyons-Friesen.

She made this crazy statement.

And I thought, "Wow.

How does that get picked up
and turned into a murder investigation?"

At that point, the file was given
lock, stock, and barrel to Major Crimes.

[camera whirs and clicks]

[Terry]
We started with the investigation

at the end of November

in a clandestine manner...

[cameras clicking]

...which included
surveillance and wiretap.

Intercepting private communications of Peter,

installing listening devices
within his home.

I didn't even know
that they were running an investigation.

I had no reason to believe
that there would be.

[camera clicking]

[Terry] On May 2011,
we did a general warrant

and we executed it surreptitiously
into Peter's residence.

Laura loved to journal,
or she was a journaler,

and wrote down her thoughts
or whatever was going on in the day,

and we thought
maybe there would be information

that would be gleaned
from what she had in her journals.

[Laura] "Were we ever real
and genuine with each other?

I know I was.

The abuse that you pointed out
in the very brief encounter with me

really took me off guard.

Very insightful. Eerily so.

I saw that as a healthy spiritualness,

but perhaps it was all deceptive
maneuverings that took place.

Perhaps I was just a walking billboard

with loneliness, rejection, humiliation,

and a broken heart written all over me."

[Terry] In the fall 2007,

there had been some issues
between them and their marriage,

and Laura and Peter separated.

[Gail] Just out of the blue one day,

she calls because Peter had left

and she was going to a lawyer.

Well, that was a bombshell.

[Peter] Laura's parents
had discovered the fact

that I had had
one previous 23-year marriage.

At first when I came to Canada,

we said it's none of their business
that I had been previously married.

Why should we tell them?
We know what the end result will be.

They wanted
to affect an immediate divorce.

All the papers were drawn.

They were strategically served on me
by my birthday.

Lots of threats

and allegations of physical
and emotional abuse

that were totally untrue
just to justify it.

I took the motor home.

I thought there needs
to be a cooling-off period here.

This ain't my problem.
This is Laura's problem.

She's lost two previous loves
because of this family dynamic.

I'm going.

And he was gone.

He took the motor home,

and as far as I--
well, he went to the States

and he was gone.

[Peter] But I hadn't given up
on reconciliation.

And of course, in the end, we reconciled.

[Jacquie] Major Crimes talked
to some of her family and relatives

and friends in Westlock.

I don't know
whether Peter was physically abusive,

but he had a temper

and he... he would show anger,

and that must have been very intimidating.

I really feel like Peter is a bully.

[Terry] There was a contact that was made
by one of Laura's cousins,

and she wanted to pass on some information

that she believed was very relevant
to the file.

[Shirley] Peter would stop the motor home
out in the middle of nowhere,

and he would drive away
and leave her there.

She could have been miles from anywhere.

She'd have to walk to the nearest town,

or whatever she could find.

And, like, who does that?

I just told the police everything

that I had heard through the family

that might make him think
that they should investigate.

If you look at it through the lens

of them being in this troubled marriage,

murder becomes, you know,
more of a believable narrative.

We believe one of the motives
was financial gain.

Laura was described
as a very frugal person,

and people saw that her lifestyle
changed considerably after she met Peter

and became involved
with a relationship with him.

Laura drove a very old,

in good condition, SUV.

All of a sudden, there were flashy cars
and a big motor home.

[Gail] The BMW and Jaguar.

Like, a Jaguar?

That's just not Laura.

Laura was careful with her money.

Um, Peter was the opposite.

[Gail] The honeymoon,
in Laura's opinion, was disastrous.

He had her.
He got her, hook, line, and sinker.

He was now married to her.
He now had access to her finances.

He couldn't live the lifestyle
he wanted to live without money,

and he was obviously not prepared
to earn it himself.

Laura was the main breadwinner
of the family.

Well, he did have a few jobs.

I know he drove a bus,
I think, for a while,

but it never seemed
like he had a full-time,

long-term job.

He got a job as a long-haul trucker,
and he was fired.

He's told us he quit, but I did know
from someone else that he was fired.

[Tim] Peter had allegedly a lot to gain
from her dying.

Her pension, the vehicles,
the motor home, the boats.

Peter gained a lot financially

through his time with Laura.

That's the only reason I could see

that the motive was here, was about money.

[Terry] Laura was life-insured between
I think four or five different policies.

The last one that was bought
by Peter came into force

just a little over a month
before she died,

and that particular claim or policy
was for accidental death only.

Is everybody

whose wife is insured guilty of murder

because the wife has got insurance?

The life insurance angle,

that's the only thing they had
to hang their hook on.

During the investigation,
we obtained several statements from Peter.

We realized there was more and more
discrepancies about what happened

between the different versions
we were either learning ourselves

through our direct communications
with Peter,

or through intercepts
as a result of the wiretap.

And then we did
the, uh, reenactment in June.

We wanted to get his version
of events again,

capture that as best we can.

Obviously not close to the shore,
or is this okay?

- Yeah, this is fine.
- [Peter] Okay.

[Terry] First time that Peter met me
face-to-face,

and where he was introduced to me
was when we did the reenactment.

I was the operator of the boat
that Peter was on.

[Peter] We were coming in
to get some shade,

and that's when I heard a splash.

I immediately grabbed
my other rod thinking I'd hooked up...

which is a fisherman's instinct, correct?

And the beach umbrella came down
between us in the boat.

And I start winding,
and after a couple of seconds,

I said, "Laura? Laura, where are you?
What's happening?"

I hear nothing.

[Terry] That night of the incident,
Peter relayed the fact

that Laura went in the water
yelling and screaming, flailing her arms.

I don't hear "Peter."
I don't hear screaming.

I hear nothing.

And I'm looking for Laura,
and it's like she's gone.

I turned the boat around

and I saw her flailing.

She was head up.

And I just flicked off my glasses

and went over the side to get her.

And then I'm diving and diving and diving.

And she's getting
further and further away from me,

and I'm getting more and more tired.

I'm in a panic situation,
and I have to get some weight.

And I picked a rock from the shore here,

and I couldn't see Laura in the water.

And that's when I saw bubbles coming up.

[Terry] He says he finds Laura
below the surface.

If you think about the fact
that you're on shore

and looking out in the lake of water,
where do you start?

[Peter] And I remember putting
the insides of my feet

around her neck and on her shoulders.

Many inconsistencies
about how he brings her to the surface,

from going down and pulling her up to
going down and hooking her with his legs.

That's where I tried
to revive Laura, right here.

Eventually, we made our way to the shore.

[man] Peter, were you wearing shoes
that day?

[Peter] No, they were floating
out there in the water.

- [Terry] Did you lose them then?
- [Peter] Yeah.

Oh, no, I recovered them.
I was wearing these.

- [man] Those were the ones here?
- [Peter] Yeah.

Peter, at what point did your shoes
come off then?

[Peter]
When I was first diving for Laura.

[man]
So, when you first went in then?

- [Peter] Yeah.
- [man] Okay.

I believe the question advanced
from that was,

"Well, why do you still have them?"

Did you lose both of them?

No, they were just floating out
in the water.

These things float like Crocs.

Do you remember
when you were able to retrieve them?

[Terry] Peter never thought
about why he still has the shoes.

Well, uh, maybe...

maybe when I was pushing the boat
back in on the shore.

Had we caught him in a position
where he didn't have an answer?

It wouldn't have been before that

because all of my priorities and efforts

were on retrieval and resuscitation.

Okay.

I think the only time where
we really saw a turn in his demeanor

was the talk about the shoes.

I'm getting pretty wet to you guys.

Basically, at that particular point
in time,

he shut down the interview.

Why change?

There should be no reason
to change your story.

It's about saving the life
of a--of a human being

and, uh, the truth
is the truth, right? So...

[dramatic music playing]

Well, nothing happened for a full year.

We thought, "There's nothing happening,
nothing's gonna happen."

As far as I know, he just carried on life.

It left our community
with a feeling of unease.

Uh, I felt it,
um, and I don't think I was the only one.

[dramatic music playing]

[Peter] It was the 12th of August,

and Laura drowned on 18th of August.

Six days short of one year.

The fog was just starting to lift.

I was with very good new friends,

going for a ride to their place
on a beautiful day.

The home that he had been staying at
was within, I'm gonna say,

a few hundred meters
of the US-Canada border.

Given the proximity
to the US-Canada border,

we had some concerns of him
possibly absconding from jurisdiction

to face these offenses.

[police siren wailing]

[Peter] We were just entering Grand Forks,

and the driver got pulled over.

But instead of the officer
coming to her side,

They came to my side and said,
"Are you Peter Ernest Edward Beckett?"

And I said, "Yeah."

They said, "You're under arrest
for first-degree murder."

A Westlock man has been charged
with first-degree murder

in the death of his wife.

Laura Letts-Beckett died last August.

[reporter 2] Peter Beckett
left his family, his business,

and his council seat
to start a new life in Canada.

But just over a year ago,

his Canadian wife Laura Letts-Beckett
drowned in these icy waters.

[man] Go ahead and have a sit there.

Peter Ernest Beckett, you're under arrest
for the following offenses.

There's a saying in the RCMP,

and it's well-known
throughout the criminal justice system,

that the RCMP always get their man,
even if it's the wrong one.

That's changed now.

The saying is now,
the RCMP always get their man,

even if there was no crime to begin with.

The criminal justice system in Canada

is paved with these types of injustices.

[cell door closes]

[dramatic music playing]