File:Island-Crime-s1e01-Who-is-Lisa-Marie-Young.mp3

Summary

Island Crime s1e01:Who is Lisa Marie (42m) Mon May 18, 2020 (Laura Palmer)

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[Reproduced under Copyright Act (Canada) s.29.2 - Fair Dealing for the purpose of news reporting]

Transcript

[Auto-generated transcript – Contains errors]

Note: this episode was edited since it was originally posted. Sections which were originally included but were since removed are styled: [like this].

It's late, you've been out partying with friends. It's been a fun night but you're hungry. A cute, charming guy you met earlier that night offers you a lift to a late-night restaurant in his red Jag. Do you go?

My name is Laura Palmer. For more than 25 years I was a producer in a big-city newsroom. Now I live on an island and I'm digging into stories I didn't have time to tell.

This is season 1 of Island Crime, the case of Lisa Marie Young.

If you live in the coastal community of Nanaimo you will likely have heard about Lisa's disappearance. In the summer of 2002, she got into that red Jag and was never seen again. Her story has become a sort of urban legend.

But Lisa Marie Young is not a myth. There is at least some truth to the stories. My goal here is to sort out fact from fantasy. I'm beginning with an episode focused on Lisa Marie Young herself.

[First though I want to thank everyone who spoke with me, both on and off the record. Those conversations were hard unbelievably so in some cases to those of you who loved Lisa a warning some of what you'll hear will be painful I hope I've done Lisa's story justice herself]

[Music]

"She was a beautiful young lady. Every time I saw her she was always just beautiful, her hair was long and she always looked graceful to me, very sophisticated, you might say."

"Oh she's pretty feisty, she always was feisty. She was really good with her brothers, like really good, so she's like a momma to her brothers."

"She always had nail polish. There was always sparkle in her nails, loved doing her hair, and had lots of makeup. She was just that type of teen that she really enjoyed her fashion and it was her own. She didn't she didn't fly by the crowd. She led the crowd like in that sense. She was fire. She had spark to her."

In the episodes ahead you'll hear about the night Lisa went missing, and about the exhaustive search and the extreme lengths Lisa's family and friends have taken to find her and to keep her story alive, and I'll take you inside my search for answers about the most puzzling part of this story. If so many people on this island believe they know who is responsible for Lisa's disappearance, why has no one ever been arrested, and why has her body never been found?

This is episode 1 of Island Crime season 1: Who is Lisa Marie Young?

[Music]

If you're listening from outside of Canada let me set the scene for you.

Vancouver Island is the largest Pacific island anywhere east of New Zealand. This island isn't tropical, but we have the mildest climate in Canada. It's a place many people would love to call home, and the tourist-types describe the tranquility, the pristine coastlines, the snow-capped mountain peaks and the emerald forests. They use words like "magical" and "magnificent" and that is all true. But there is another side to this island. A moody, misty, mysterious dark side as well.

This podcast is haunted.

I don't have visions, but I do feel the weight of two souls nearby, as I piece together this story.

[and if that feels a little overwrought to you let me say this before I began working on this podcast I was the kind of journalist who seldom got attached to my stories I worked in Daily News which suited my dad nicely but this story Lisa's story is different. Two spirits who...]

They wake me up in the morning, and drift through my mind as I go to sleep. One is Lisa Marie Young. The 21-year-old woman who vanished after getting into that red Jag. No one I've spoken with believes she is still alive.

Joanne passed away recently without knowing what happened to her daughter. This story is for them.

[Music]

I drive across the island to interview Carolann Bosma. We are meeting just around the corner from the Nanaimo nightclub where Lisa Marie Young spent her final night [partying] having fun with friends. The "missing" posters all say "Lisa Marie" - both names - but, to Carolann and to most of her friends and family it's simply "Lisa."

Carolann is Lisa's foster sister - a distinction she doesn't like to make. In her mind, Lisa is her sister, full stop.

[Carolann is not at all eager to talk to me even after all these years Lisa's disappearance is still raw for her and so it has taken some time for me to convince Carolann to sit down with me it's not that she doesn't have anything to say and it's not that she doesn't care but for Carolann talking about Lisa is painful I can see the reluctance on her face as I approach her on this chilly fall day]

Carolann arrives with her two young twins, a boy and a girl. The little girl, I learned, is named for Lisa. A friend agrees to watch the pair while I chat with Carolann.

[children at the nearby library back]

Back in my newsroom days, this interview would have been conducted in an expensive studio designed for great sound but now that I'm on my own I record conversations in my old Honda hatchback. It's small and relatively soundproof.

Carolann tucks herself into the passenger seat and tries to make herself comfortable, but she doesn't take off her winter jacket. It's like she's hoping she won't be stuck in here for long with me.

"So my name's Carolann. I am Lisa's foster sister. I think I was around 17 when I met her and my youngest foster sister."

[Carolann's hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail. It's still wet. She looks tired and anxious. Now that could simply be because she's a mom to two toddlers, but as we begin to talk about Lisa, I know there is more than mommy fatigue happening here. Almost two decades later, Carolann is still traumatized by losing Lisa.]

["So I'm the middle sister and that's kind of how I know her was through foster care."

[Laura:] "Can you tell me a little bit about that because that's a part of Lisa's life I don't really know much about at all."

"We were living in a foster home in Nanaimo. I moved in and she was there. She was the oldest. We're actually three months apart exactly."]

"It's weird because I don't think of her as foster sister. We definitely became like family. So, it's foster sister is just almost like a sister from another family."

[The way that we kind of looked at it the way we kind of grew together it was just a different version of family I guess right so you two met when you were around 17 did you spend the rest of your time in foster care together yeah she stayed until she aged out and then and then I stayed until I aged out and then my foster parents like she kept me for a little bit longer.]

[Laura:] "What was life like in that foster home? Just paint me a bit of a picture if you can."

"Living with Lisa, you mean? [I don't know it was like family.] She definitely was the older sister, she really looked out for us, she was very protective over us."

[and I was the middle one, so I definitely was probably more of a prankster. Can tell me about her it's a little bit more description?]

"She loved girl clothes, and very, she had a very specific kind of taste that was her own. She worked at McDonald's and she loved to shop but she never went to like your main clothing stores, she went, she really, you know, kind of supported the local, kind of smaller shops. She really enjoyed that, like finding really specific kind of clothes and wearing them and putting them together. Lots of shoes, lots of boots, necklaces. She had a lot of necklaces, loved rings.

She always had nail polish. There was always sparkle in her nails, loved doing her hair, and had lots of makeup. She was just that type of teen that she really enjoyed her fashion and it was her own. She didn't she didn't fly by the crowd. She led the crowd like in that sense. She was fire. She had spark to her.

[I know I'm one of the other people I talked to talked about her feeling like her being one of the cool girls and seeing a confident she was very confident yeah too much so sometimes yeah she spoke her mind and she was very truthful and loud like if she had an opinion or whatever she wasn't afraid to say our truth I did see how people would say she was part of the cool crowd but Lisa made everybody feel important and invited and she always had like a kind hello you know like she remembered you one of the things that you know they still stick with me is she she knew people's birthdays you know and she really celebrated people's birthdays cuz I think to her it was that was something special you know and I know as she won with my birthday she always made a point to make it special like she there was always a Lisa touch when it came to your birthday can you remember any of having my 17th birthday I had just wanted a laid-back chill birthday and me and a friend had gotten in a fight cuz they wanted to have this elaborate birthday running around and I was like I don't want to a big fight had happened and Lisa was you know that big sister came out just was like we're done her brother was there and they had snuck out and got me flowers and the stuffy I still have it actually and then Lisa and I went out and it was like fun it was we went by a fire and hung out there then we went to someone's house and we sat around and this guy was playing a guitar and then she got this wild idea to head up to Westwood and she convinced her like two other people and it was like super cold out it was like the end of summer and she convinced them to jump in the lake like you're nuts but they did it was just one of those nights where it was you didn't know what was happening or what was coming but it was a night to remember you just mentioned her brothers did was she close to them yeah she loved them a lot she loved them like one of my last conversations was about them actually she dumb I got they'd had porches taken and um so it was a picture of her and her two brothers and she was actually moving like moving to a new place and so we were talking about that and she was so excited to go and her father both younger so Brian is the older one of the two and she was talking about Brian and about how he was getting everything she was just handing like she was she's like he's getting this and he's getting that and he's getting this and he's getting that I remember laughing cuz like it was just a spontaneous coffee with her she was talking about how her goals she had a like 10 year plan her plan in life was to include them especially her youngest brother special needs and she had said you know she was setting Brian up with her stuff and her part that you know the apartment and stuff and but her plan was to eventually she was talking about like moving up in life and no it's much career but money like how can I generate more money and her plan was to make sure that her brothers were gonna be okay and that her parents wouldn't have to worry about Robyn like as I got older and so she would at 21 she was already thinking about that but she definitely wanted them to know that she was going to be by their side and that and for sure was going to be taken care of look in her mind she was thinking about investments and what that would look like she was probably a good ten years ahead of her time after a while Carolann relaxes as she shares memory after memory of Lisa pranks concerts dreams shared and bit by bit Carolann is transforming Lisa the urban legend into Lisa the flesh-and-blood hard-working kid the kid who worked her way up through the ranks at McDonald's.

She was good at her job like for as young as she was she was good and she had attention to detail and she was efficient like she was quick learner where I wasn't. I couldn't get the cash right, I couldn't do my math right. I you know and I was more the person that as I got to know the regulars I just wanted to talk to them like how are you doing what do you got she's like you know you can't check in like so I mean it just I knew it wasn't the place for me, but for her it she shone, like she really shined bright there and she was fast she was like this little squirrel that was like everywhere she kind of went and I think she made a good manager because everybody loved her.

She knew at a young age I think that something about McDonald's it fit for her but she just was like I'm done I know where I'm going in life it just yeah it just kind of suited her she was not or what were was she working there towards the end of her life I know I heard she was getting a new new job or she's young onto a new job. She moved on from McDonald's and then she was in the bar scene like she was waitressing from what I can remember and then she was she ended up snapping her ankle, is what happened. She I used to get mad at her for these heels if she could walk on these heels and I always will get mad at her and be like you can't go dancing in those heels, you're going to step off a curb and break yourself I'm gonna be so mad at you and she did and so she was actually going to a call centre so that was going to be a whole new kind of adventure for her because she'd never kind of done that sort of stuff she was go go go really fast-paced environments and in speaking to her when she was telling me about this new job, it was it definitely was gonna bring forth I think different skills in her unless she was going to use later on in life

Her hurting her ankle was that around that time? yeah yeah

Did she break it, she had a cast?

I don't can't really recall actually the day after I meet with Carolann I get a text from her she's been in touch with Lisa Marie's other foster sister Becky.

They have come up with a list of small things they remember about Lisa that they want me to share.

Lisa loved her pizza with tomato and green peppers she rarely ate stuff like that because she was a health nut she ran to keep fit she loved it she totally would have loved Fitbit.

Lisa loves Skittles but not the yellow ones, and would throw them out.

Becky says Lisa's all-time favourite band was Smashing Pumpkins, and she loved the song "Tonight, tonight."

[She worked at McDonald's] but was a vegetarian. She put lots of pepper and ketchup on her fries. When they were sick together they would watch City of Angels and eat tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Becky and Lisa used to love playing pool together she wore Tommy Hilfiger perfume Lisa and Becky went to a Silverchair concert and Nickelback opened for them. She knew a lot of people in the music and acting industry. Her favourite color was lime green. She lived vibrant someone took pictures of Lisa one Halloween and she was dressed up for McDonald's she had glitter pipe cleaners made into the letter M she had huge eyelashes she looked so pretty these are small details they don't explain what happened the night Lisa disappeared they will likely not be helpful to the police in solving her case but they are huge for me and edging closer to understanding who Lisa was in life and maybe just maybe understanding why Lisa is gone driving home I reflect on my conversation with Carol Ann I think about her description of Lisa, a pretty feminine young woman who loved her perfume her makeup her jewellery and dressing up if you encounter Lisa's picture online it's the first thing you notice about her Lisa is pretty very pretty was her beauty what attracted someone to her that night someone who meant her harm Carolann also described Lisa as overly confident this is something I will hear again and again from those who knew Lisa well and then there is the mention of an injured ankle was Lisa still in some pain that night no one has ever said she was on crutches the evening she went missing but did a recent injury leave her weak less likely to walk or run away if she needed to I've also now learned Lisa was in foster care young people who age out of foster care are vulnerable we know this through a series of reports after high-profile deaths in this part of Canada the current reports show high rates of suicide and drug overdoses also a disproportionate number of indigenous youth aging out of care end up dead and the reasons for that are deeply rooted in Canada's painful history with indigenous people as I learn more about Lisa's story themes of inter-generational trauma emerge Beleza Carolann you in foster care is a city girl and she is also indigenous Lisa's mother and grandparents attended residential school I wonder to what extent the trauma and stress of those experiences was passed on through the generations but I'm not clear on why Lisa was in foster care not really Carolann doesn't want to say much about what she knows I think she's worried about causing harm to Lisa's memory or to Lisa's family she talks about how people assume if you were in foster care then you are either a bad kid or you're from a bad family but life can be more complicated than that people are more complicated than that but one thing I do know Lisa was beloved by her family Lisa Marie's mom's family is from the low quit first nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island near Tofino and if you haven't heard of Tofino know this it is one of the most beautiful places in Canada maybe on the earth it was named by Spanish explorers who arrived here in the late 1700s but indigenous people have called this ancient rainforest home for centuries before that Lisa Marie comes from a prominent indigenous family here her grandpa has been the elected chief for 13 terms he is a giant here and I'm hoping to interview him on this trip but this morning it's Lisa's grandma and Auntie I have come to me I meet up with Lisa Marie's aunty Carol Frank and her grandma Cecilia Arnett at the daycare where Carol is the manager the daycare is on a reserve surrounded by towering old-growth trees spruce cedar and hemlock some of them are over a thousand years old but the buildings here are new so is the daycare outside sits a lovely new playground and off in the distance the roar of the wild Pacific waves I get an uneasy welcome from Carol and Cecilia they have talked to reporters before they are polite but have the look of people who know painful questions are coming both are small in stature Carol is stylish with a sharp short haircut and fashionable glasses Cecilia is in her 80s but has the spark and energy of a younger woman I tell her I can't believe she's in her 80s and I'm not just blowing smoke and it's such a gorgeous shiny morning I'm reluctant to break the spell by beginning the interview I come here for but after a time we begin to talk about Lisa Marie.

My name is Carol Frank from Tla-o-qui-aht, and I am Lisa's auntie.

I'm Celia Arnett, I'm Lisa's grandma, I'm Tla-o-qui-aht too.

My name is (?)

Did Lisa have an indigenous name? No, she didn't. She grew up in the city, and then, no, unfortunately she didn't.

Lisa was born and raised in Nanaimo, BC. She grew up there all her life with her mom and dad and her two younger brothers so she was pretty well a city girl.

Do you, do you remember much of Lisa as a child? Do you remember what she was like?

Oh yes, I have lots of memories. I was there when she was a little baby. We went to see my daughter I saw her girl I visited him last so got your nothing quite well and be Stefano's them take her shopping to the mall. She's really a popular girl she's really happy go lucky girl yeah she take the first step I do yeah. She started walking when she was eight months old, and she grew up around her family and but she was uh, like she really enjoyed school and sports and she loved the Vancouver Canucks.

When my dad, Lisa's grandpa brought Lisa to a Canucks game in Vancouver so that really inspired Lisa she wanted to be a sports announcer when she got older. because this medium is people can't see pictures they really rely on us as storytellers to describe things for them

Could you describe Lisa as a child or as a young girl, like what she looked like, just give us a little bit of a picture?

She was a petite girl very pretty, she was a half First Nations and half Caucasian. She was yes she's a really pretty girl and had a lot of friends and showed us just really nice she was very fashionable oh yeah she looked at herself well and her cheerful, let's go sticker shopping with me go to lunches and we'd have fun teacher and I this is good memories hmm she never demanded you'd sing she just forgot her son I'd should say thank you come to my memory yeah you know as she got older and was a teenager and kind of on the cusp of adulthood what were her interest then what did she like to do as she got older as you say as much because she was busy with her friends she went out with her friends quite a bit birthday parties and mm-hmm she moved on her own when she was about 19 yeah so she moved into her own apartment but she lived right next door to her parent self so was my sister described it as a revolving door like she'd always be in and out of there like going to have dinner with them or breakfast with them just let them know what she was up to like if she's going out with friends she checks in with her parents and just to let them know that she was gonna she was okay and she was gonna be with friends yeah I'm the last time I saw her before she went missing, I asked her do you know your mom's side of the family is it he have to get to know them because they all love you she said I lost some Karma and I don't see them and my dad said Chris Grandpa love kilesa so I told the Krampus I was asking which grandpa he was, so it makes you thinking of you before he dies so she says okay let's wicked dates come on next time you're in town go pick up Chris gone bad but I like my picture taken she's okay I think was her being a city girl too it's a lot different than living like for us living on the reserved here like we know like we get to experience the culture in our communities with Lisa growing up her whole life in the city she never got that experience at all she'd come home and visit my mom because my mom lived on an island so she turned whenever heard whenever they got a chance they would go to my mom's Island and visit and I get lots of finishing English yeah beautiful think about it I'll climb it lon

[Music]

one of the first things I hear from Carol and Cecilia is that reminder that Lisa Marie had a foot in two worlds Lisa Marie's mother is indigenous she came from this place but Lisa's father Don is not Lisa Marie did not grow up with her indigenous family and culture she is a city girl that city Nanaimo is only about a two-hour drive from that low quiet reserve but it might as well be a different planet.

I spend more time talking with Carol and Cecilia. They were right to be cautious about my coming. Before I leave my questions bring them to tears. Over the years I've learned something about reporting on tragic painful experiences. These days it's called trauma-informed journalism. I want to handle these interviews with care, and I hope that my intrusive questions have been as sensitively approached as possible. Lisa's family want to talk about Lisa. They've invited me here. But as I drive away, I still feel guilt for hurting them.

I've brought my family here with me on this journey. We spend a relaxing evening on the beach. There is a campfire, there are s'mores, and my dog plays in the wild Pacific waves. As I watch other young families at the beach I think of Carolann and her kids. Lisa would have been at an age now where she might have had a family of her own. This Beach belongs to her people. She should be here.

The next morning I head into Tofino town to meet Lisa's grandpa, Chief Moses Martin. Today this coastal community is a thriving tourist hub, but it was once ground zero for an environmental battle that drew activists from up and down the coast and across the country. Moses was a leader in the so-called "war in the woods" here in the 1980s. He stood alongside other indigenous people and environmentalists and beat back a logging giant to protect the old-growth forests.

But I'm not here to talk to Moses about his involvement in that monumental achievement I'm here to talk about his granddaughter Lisa Marie hello I'm meeting Moses in the back of a waterfront building where he works as a guide his wife Carla is at the front desk talking to clients the small office space in the back is warm and comfortable Moses is sitting with a beautiful handmade drum on his lap it's early but Moses has been up for a while he just drove his grandson in to catch a flight it's a winding perilous Drive and he did it at night Moses is the co-owner of clay aqua he takes tourists out to see whales hot springs and to learn about the culture on this particular day there is a British couple in to book a bear watching adventure I hear them asking if they are guaranteed to see bears my name is Moses Martin and currently the chief was a tribe that had come from and then been us for quite a number of years I think I'm in my 13th term as chief of this tribe and yeah I've been involved in all kinds of things that the political table was well Canada and the problems and then the forest industry and grandfather of lots of kids. Lisa was one of them. She's gone now since 2002, and then yeah, it's something that you can never wish on anybody. It still leaves a thick hollow spot in your heart I think about Lisa and he was only 21 when she went missing mm-hmm no Lisa was very young of course did she did she get a chance to learn much about the indigenous part of her life no and I always feel partly responsible for that because I was in that that was involved in that war and it was in the end so as a result of that people were leaving here to look for work in other other areas and my daughter was one of them she ended up in my mom's never really had a chance to take too much of the cultural ways and traditional knowledge nothing like Stefan hmm when I was talking to Carol Carol would be your daughter girl time right yeah Carol was talking about how the hope is still there to bring Lisa home so that you know there could be maybe a traditional ceremony yeah and this is a song that I would sing at that if we have a brother home in that way and then I composed this song and then you say there's a prayer song to her mother yeah explain a little bit about what the song in the boat and then and I'm not gonna pull me out anymore not if we humbly ask our mothers to be closer today an Aquanaut may add a lot up in the market we asked her mother to give us the strength to deal with whatever problem that we're having and also that we all have a voice and lady in the glass as we learn to go down so ask your mother to come up no touchy and they entered with my coat my coat I go which means thank you in her language we all have many things to be thankful for and each other grandkids and life itself I know who knows be grateful for those needs and those are all part of our teachings same this zone and need I passed it on to my grandchildren and and hopefully when they begin to understand the language that there isn't as a guide

[Music]

Both Moses and Lisa Marie's grandmother Cecilia attended residential schools. So did Lisa's mom. If you are not familiar with Canada's residential school system, there is really one thing you need to know: the goal was simply to kill the Indian in the child. Forced assimilation through the government of the day and various churches. The last residential school to operate in BC was the one Lisa Marie's family members attended: "Christie", the Kyuquot residential school on Meares Island. It was run from 1900 until 1983 by the Roman Catholic Church. 1983, the legacy of the residential schools is far from ancient history. Lisa Marie would have been a toddler around that time.

[Music]

Lisa's story it is a classic, cold case true crime tale.

Beautiful young woman goes missing under mysterious circumstances. And it is also a much deeper story, with an historic backdrop of residential schools, and inter-generational trauma.

In getting to know Lisa's friends and family for this podcast I now follow them on social media. Shortly after my interview with Moses, a picture appears of Moses, cradling a new baby. A great grandchild. It's a stunningly beautiful image: Moses looks down lovingly at a baby girl dressed in red velvet for Christmas.

The caption says something about how loved the new grandchild is, and I think about Moses and that hole in his heart he described in talking about Lisa. How he carries a faded cracked picture of Lisa in his wallet, and how he will never replace it because it's the last one she gave him.

I think about Moses, and how he longs to play his beautiful song for Lisa Marie, when she is finally returned home.

Coming up in Episode two: Lisa's father Don Young, on the night his daughter vanished:

[Don Young:] "Lisa was going out with her friends for somebody's birthday and she came over and I was watching the hockey game or something. She and I were really close, so she hung out for a while and we had a beer and she said 'I'm going out with my friends' and that was about it."

[Laura Palmer:] "At what point in that morning did it occur to you that something wasn't right?"

[Don Young:] "Well, we tried phoning her phone a bunch of times. It wasn't unusual for her to sleep in if they did a night of partying right? You know, that age. So you know, 10, 11 o'clock. We didn't worry about too much. And Joanne and I went and got some takeout for breakfast, and we went and sat down in Departure Bay Beach, where we liked to go sometimes and just check out the scenery and we still couldn't get her, and then we started getting worried. I mean sometimes, people's phones, if they're dead they go to voicemail right away. I can't remember what happened then. I don't know if that was the case. I think it rang and she didn't answer. I think."

[Don Young:] "Yeah we started getting pretty worried and then we phoned the police and they told us to wait for a day and we said 'no, no, this isn't right' and they came over, and they gave us the - you know - 'don't worry about it, just wait because she's probably with her friends, blah blah blah' and we called back, because we were tight, she didn't go a day without phoning us."

I'm Laura Palmer, and this is "Where is Lisa?" Island Crime, season 1.