File:Island-Crime-s1e09-Bob's-Story.mp3

Summary

Island Crime podcast s1e09: Bob's Story

Laura Palmer (Jan 21, 2021) (Previous) (Next)

source: https://island-crime.simplecast.com/episodes/bobs-story

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wF9vE-Yl0Q

archive: https://archive.org/download/island-crime-lisa-marie-young/island%20crime%20s1e09%20bobs%20story.mp3

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

Transcript

Island Crime s1e09: Bob's Story

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It's late December 2020, a year to the day. I sat down with Lisa's father, Don Young. I've just gotten off the phone with a man who missed hold critical information about the disappearance of Don's daughter. He tells me he is walking around downtown Nanaimo with a videotape and a hair sample. But before I explain who this man is and why his information could be the break this case has needed for 18 years, I'm going to back up and tell you a bit more about this man, this man named Bob, and how I came to know him. A few months ago, I drove across the island once again to meet with a source. I was about to come face to face with a man who will tell me he will take me to the place where he believes Lisa Marie Young died. It's bright and sunny near the end of summer. The ocean sparkles as I make my way down the coast. Lisa's hometown of Nanaimo is a port city. For a time, it was described as the heroine capital of Canada. In the mid 1990s, the Washington Post published a story about Nanaimo with the headline idyllic Canadian city, a gateway for drugs. The man I'm going to meet was once at the centre of Nanaimo's drug scene. A self described successful drug dealer at the time Lisa went missing. I'm . This is where as season one of Island Crime episode nine OBS story, allegations of organized crime involvement have come up repeatedly. During my investigation of Lisa's disappearance, Lisa's father, Don Young, was approached by someone he believes was a member of the Hell's Angels with an offer to help. The fact that Lisa's body has never been found could lend credence to the idea that someone involved knew what they were doing. And sources have also told me Lisa may have owed money to a gang. When I ask police about gang involvement, I get a kind of nonanswer. They will not confirm or deny the possibility. To date, I have spoken with three experts on gang activity in an attempt to understand what, if any, connection Lisa's disappearance could have to organize crime. One of those I speak with on background expresses serious doubt about Hells Angel's involvement. They tell me it would be extremely unusual for the Hell's Angels to order a hit on a young woman like Lisa. The higher ups wouldn't tolerate it. I don't have anything solid enough. What I have feels too speculative to publish. Still, so many people involved with Lisa's story seemed to have connections with the drug trade. Bob was a key figure in Nanaimo's drug scene back when Lisa disappeared. The name Bob surfaces for me for the first time online, he writes. There was a lot of things in that podcast that stood out for me. I knew all the players back then and knew exactly who they were talking about. When they couldn't reveal their identities. I hope they can find and charge those who are responsible. I begin messaging back and forth with Bob. Shortly after that, Bob's name comes up again. This time it is Lisa's father, Don Young, who raises Bob's name to me. At that point I've been speaking with a private investigator and he asked me to facilitate a conversation with Don. When I do, the first question the PI asks Don is this if there was one person you could speak with about what happened to Lisa, who would it be?

My name is Bob. I've known Don for many years, decades probably, but we know each other a long time and I was considered in a friend. I meet Bob at summers end. It's during the pandemic, and as much as possible I'm conducting interviews outside. Not great for sound, but safer than conducting a lengthy interview in my vehicle. We sit on a piece of grass near a duck pond. It's a very pretty spot filled with young families and people out for a stroll with their dogs. Bob has arrived in an older model blue van. He looks nothing like the man whose social media profile picture shows a bandana wearing tough guy astride a Harley. Bob is wearing his hair trimmed closely shaved to his head. He is casually dressed in shorts and a short sleeve T-shirt, exposing a massive tattoo of an elephant. He has piercing eyes and is still handsome despite clearly having lived a tough life. Bob and Lisa's father, Don Young, were colleagues at Purolator working as couriers at the time Lisa went missing in 2002. But Bob's drug use is already spiralling out of control. Unfortunately back then I started to develop a ten dependency to drugs. I got introduced to crystal methamphetamine and started dependency to that and was using lots back then and burning the candle at both ends. And eventually it ended up my job. Tendons and work started to suffer and after several warnings from the company, they finally let me go. I think it was 2003. Bob tells me his new job as a drug dealer brings him into close contact with a circle of criminals, including one of the men who is believed to be involved in Lisa's disappearance. I made the decision that when my drug use was starting to become a financial burden that I would start to sell it to try and easy financial pressure when it was causing. And so I got to know a lot of people in that world, in the drug using world, being a drug dealer of that then I got to know all these people and they were one of those he used it and I always tried to stay away from him. He was well feared back then, probably just didn't want to deal with them. And he also dealt in drugs too. But I would never buy off him because if you owe the money he owed you, I'll steer away from people like him. Do I know that I didn't want to be under their control, because when someone happens and your life is owned by them, you have to do what they say when they say so. Yeah, he was a pretty scary view back then. I press Bob for more on this man I have heard so much about since beginning to investigate Lisa's case. Bob tells me he tried to avoid having anything to do with this guy, but that wasn't always possible. But sometimes he just show up on my door and he just never refused to mention, Go away. He come in, and he knew that in Crystal bumps back then, we never refused them to comply. Eventually, Bob moves from having a side hustle as a drug dealer to getting deeper and deeper involved in the scene. You know, I'm no longer capable of paying the mortgage, so the house went after that. So I lost the house, lost the job, lost the house. Domino effect kind of game. Rolling in. Already addicted to Crystal lametha at that time and just took on the attitude like, screw it, and everything's gone now, so why stop? I just took the drug dealing thing, for one, and became a very noticeable figure in the drug trade. Well known letter. I asked Bob to take me back to the time when Lisa goes missing to describe just what is happening in his life. Back then, I still own that house, and it was still working at Pure later. But I was battling this addiction because I was going to use time, and it was starting to interfere in my work and my life, but I was trying to keep it together. I had a couple of young girls that well, not young, I guess they were in their 20s or whatever that were friends. I had a basement swing in that house that introduced me to they used to go out and like to party at the bars, do dancing, whatever, at the local clubs. There was the press room. There was the one that Lisa was last seen in the jungle, I think it was. And we used to frequent those flies a lot when I was I got the weekends off, so I would go down Friday night, Saturday night, and kind of party with them. I got to know a lot of the people, like that Dallas guy. I knew him. He came to my place, and I used to know Dallas because he used to walk on his hands a lot. That's how people knew him outside the bar and doing handstands and walking on his hands. And he was a well known person back then. He was a good character. He was a good guy. I dealt in the Crystal Method, and some of them did that. Not a lot of them. They were more into the snorting the corp team thing or the ecstasy thing. What's going on? It was big back then. The party type drug, bob is very much a part of the scene back in the day, hanging with people like Dallas Holly. A friend. Lisa called for help the night she disappeared, going to some of the same clubs Lisa went out to. I asked Bob to reflect on exactly what he hears after Lisa goes missing. Don worked at curator, and he was very concerned over her disappearance. He used to have a picture of her on the back of his missing and phoned this number. And like I say, at first, all that we ever heard was about the guy in the J who was last seen with him. And then somebody came out to me and says, I took a real interest for Don. So somebody came out to me and who I knew back then and filled me in on what really happened to really happen to not somebody I really want to mention, but the things that you wrote for days that they sell in your podcast, exactly what I heard. And then Bob tells me a very similar story to the one my source Dave, described in an earlier episode. He tells me Lisa was taken to a place where phony snuff films were being made. Something goes sideways, and Lisa dies, whereas Lisa will be right back after a quick break.

Bob is working the recovery program of a reformed addict. You can hear him acknowledging his responsibility for the bad choices he made in life. It's been more than a dozen years since Bob was a crystal meth addict, but he still has the hoarse, raspy voice which other addicts I have known suffer from after years of abuse. Today, Bob has reason for optimism. He has a full time job driving a truck. He is saving to buy a home once again before he retires. Like Dave, the criminal turned Christian you heard earlier in this series. I believe Bob sincerely wants to help if he can. Back then, Dave was known as Boxer Dave, and Bob was purely Bob two wellknown criminals at the center of Nanaimo's criminal life now changed men, both stepping up to help. And so when Bob offers to take me to the spot where he believes Lisa's life ended, I agree to go along. Bob climbs in the back of my vehicle, and we begin to drive to where he tells me lisa Marie Young perished. Yeah, we're getting really close here. Get going a little bit further. There's a set of four houses here, and if I remember correctly, she was in the fourth house. We pull up in front of a large, two story beige house built in the half acre property, backs onto a sanctuary. Place I remember was that place right there. Can you describe this house to me? I've never been inside it myself, but people who have said that when you walked in the entrance because apparently ran a hairdressing business out of this house. And when you walked into it, it was full of mirrors. And some of them were two way mirrors. As I understand it. This is where the Snuff films are being made and this is where at least the matter comes. Those mirrors Bob refers to, he will later explain, are used by the owner of the home to blackmail married men she seduces when they come to her hair salon. Pretty wild stuff, from what I heard. First of all, she was taken and buried in a shallow grave somewhere back in that park. And when I heard this, I actually went up into the park and I started looking around. Of course, it's a very vast place. I didn't realize I was looking for maybe some newly turned dirt or something. I thought maybe I might get lucky and find her, but I never did. And then shortly after that, this one I heard they moved their body up to a location up in the naval lakes by the naval lakes. And I think that's when they phoned Don in a panic, saying, they're moving her body and you need to get on this sort of thing.

Well, it's funny. In all the stories I'd heard, I pictured something, I guess, more down on its luck. This is a very beautiful area. The homes are large, and I guess I would describe them as upscale.

It's not at all what I had pictured. Like the videotapes, lisa's body being moved is one of those strange pieces of information that comes up again and again. The fact that Don remembers getting a frantic phone call at the time about Lisa being moved, a call he took seriously, has lent credibility to what would otherwise be the stuff of urban legends. Can I just get you to tell me what it is you're about to show me on your phone? What is the space? This is what I heard. Her final resting place ended up being so I've actually marked it with a marker there. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put up the satellite image. Now, if you go down the main highway, the number one highway, which is this one here, there's a turn off. I think it's called Christie Road. Just before you hit the town of Lady Smith. This is the road right here. It's Grew Road. So you turn right off a groove and then you turn onto Christie Road here and it kind of follows the highway.

There's road there right here. These are rental units. At one time, I think the highway used to come close to this. And these used to be a motel, but now they rented there. They're just rental units. And from what I understand, somewhere in this area there's an abandoned mind shaft that they used to call the bottomless hole. That's what I heard is they ended up dumping our body down this what they called the bottomless hall, a mine shaft, a well, a cave. As I've talked to people about Lisa's case, a number of different places have been suggested as spots where leases remains could be hidden. This is the most specific description I've heard to date. I wish I would like to see go and get some closure and people responsible to be accountable, but it's been a long time. Bob was upfront about his criminal record, which I'm able to confirm. And it also checks out with how Don Young described Bob back in the day. I believe Bob when he tells me he knew the people who are alleged to have been there the night Lisa disappeared. His descriptions and first hand accounts have the ring of truth. And then a few months later, I get a message. The police are searching that property Bob took me to. This is the property that I'm, a RCMP officer, spent yesterday searching. Police aren't saying what they were looking for, but confirmed the search was in relation to the disappearance in 2002 of 21 year old Lisa Young. Reporter Kendall Hanson breaks the story. Pictures show about a dozen authorities involved in a search of the area around this home and in behind in the sanctuary. The home now belongs to new owners, and I'm told they are completely caught off guard.

When police asked to do a new search, none of the neighbours were willing to go on camera. But one neighbour recalls seeing what looked like a body and a hammock in the backyard of Lakes Road around the time that Lisa Young went missing. Soon after, he says he saw equipment moving a lot of soil around in the backyard. He says he reported this to police at the time.

A cadaver dog named Luca is brought in as well. Lisa's friend Cindy brings Donuts to thank the police for searching and a dog toy for Luca. Bob was right about this home being linked to Lisa's disappearance, but I'm still struggling with the whole film-making part of the story. Early on, Kendall Hansen told me this aspect of Lisa's tale has been circulating for years. Kendall believes it, and it squares with the story I was told by Dave. But the Snuff film angle still feels off to me. Urban legends about Snuff films have been around since the 70s. Snopes describes itself as the oldest and largest fact checking site online. They have a whole section on Snuff films. Even trying to make a fake Snuff film seems so risky, as does the distribution. I'm just having a hard time believing this is why the group were gathered together the night Lisa vanished. But then I'm sent a startling picture. Bob has found a tape of some kind and a small plastic bag of hair. I phoned him immediately.

Hello? Is this Bob? Yeah, it is. Oh, hi, Bob. It's calling. We met a few months back. Oh, yes, I remember. Years ago, I asked Bob to tell me about what he has found. Years ago when all this went down, when Lisa disappeared and stuff, I had this dealing with this lady and I don't even remember what her name was, but I remember she had Lupus. We used to call her Lupus Laura or whatever her name was. And she gave me this tape because everybody back then knew that I had an interest in finding out what happened to Lisa because I worked up Pure later. I was a friend of Don and I was poking my nose around and finding out anything that I could. And she gave me this tape, and it came with a hair sample she claimed was Lisa. And she says there was evidence on this page that implicated somebody on her disappearance or had something to do with their disappearance. Right. So I put the tape and I used it and I thought it was a VCR tape. Like, I'm not even sure if the tape I have is the one that I had back in because what I remember, it was a VCR case that she had to me. Although I could be wrong I mean, it was 20 years ago now. I remember watching it, and I didn't see anything on this page that implicated anybody. It was like a homemade funnel tape that was kind of distasteful. And I didn't even watch it to you because I watched it for a while and I can handle this anymore. And I turn it off and then hair sample away. Right. Is it possible this rumored tape really exists? Is it possible this tape has been buried in Bob's belongings all these years? He tells me he was sorting through some of his things when he stumbled across the tape. Yeah. And I thought, Jesus had the chances of the I'm thinking, I wonder if this is a tape. Right. It's not what I remember because I thought it was a VCR tape. That one I viewed. But the fact that it came with this hairstyle, it seems kind of weird. So I'm just thinking it might be the same one that might have something to do with this. I don't know. I figured it's a long shot at that. In the picture Bob has sent, I can't quite make out what kind of tape it is. I asked him to describe what I assume is a VCR cassette. No, it's one of those old Sony eight millimeter, I think, tape. I don't think they even make the banking anymore where you have, like, camcorder type thing. Because remember back then, if you wanted to make a tape, I guess, or a movie or whatever, the VCR case was so big and bulky. Sony came out, I think, with Sony. Anyway, I came out with this camcorder thing and I had a smaller tape. And that's what this is. I know exactly what Bob is talking about. I owned one of those camcorders. I still have it. I asked Bob to try to recall as best he can what he viewed on the tape all those years ago. It looks like whoever took the tape, the couple that made the tape, did it alone. They probably had the camera on the bed that they were in on a tripod or whatever because there was no movement of the camera. So a picture of them from the foot of the bed was Lisa on the tape. I never got a chance to see who the woman was because I never showed her face, really. So I couldn't recognize the people in the tape. And then it was hard to see their faces anyway. Did you think at the time it was her? Well, no. I remember when she gave me the table, I thought, before I go ahead and take this anywhere further, I'm going to see what's on it. And I didn't see anything on it that really would have implicated anybody from what I viewed anyway. Although it did come with a hair sample. So I just kind of stuck it away and forgot about it. Right. And the other day I was going through my belongings and I came across this tape. And I got back that I had this hair sample. And it made me think, I wonder if this is the same tape that I got all those years ago. So to be clear, Bob isn't sure if the tape he has found is the same tape he viewed all those years ago. And even if it is, he doesn't recall seeing anything on the tape which would be helpful in the investigation into Lisa's disappearance. And yet there's that hair sample attached to the tape. It's strange, to say the least. Well, I kind of went with it. I just kind of thought like I thought, well, maybe this might be and then when they started spoken into, at least it disappeared. I remember thinking because I wonder what I did with that teeth. And then I found that like tucked away. And some of the stuff that I had in store, some stuff that I had, some belongings from way back when, and it was there. And when I see the hair sample that came with it, it just kind of made me wonder if this is a tape that I had. If it turns out there is something on this tape and the hair turns out to be Lisa's, the providence of this tape will be important. I want to know more about the woman with Lupus who Bob recalls giving him the tape and the hair. Yeah, with this lady I had dealings with. Her gig was a credit card fraud and she used to go around and get buy stuff with fraudulent credit cards. That was her gig. And I just remember she handed me this tape claiming and she had associations with people like back then. It's Bob's understanding that this woman is now deceased. I asked him repeatedly to try and recall what was on the tape he viewed. All he remembers is a distasteful homemade piece of pornography. Shortly after I speak with Bob, he hands over the tape and the hair to one of the officers on Lisa's case. Bob is right. It's a long shot. Even he can't be certain this tape is the same one he was given all those years ago. So we are left with the core story which has unfolded throughout this podcast. Lisa got into a vehicle with Christopher Adair, leaving behind friends at a late night party. Later, she calls Dallas for help from the red Jag. Come get me. They won't let me leave. Now two of Nanaimo's former tough guys have stepped up and talked about what they believe happened after Lisa made that call. They have named names. The police are doing fresh searches. It is long past time for the conspiracy of silence to end and for everyone with hard information to come forward now.

Please take a moment to rate and review season one of Island Crime. Season two is coming soon. Subscribe now, and you will hear a whole new investigation from the island.