File:Island-Crime-s1e03-Searching-for-Lisa.mp3: Difference between revisions

Summary

Island Crime podcast s1e03: Searching for Lisa

Laura Palmer (May 22, 2020) (Previous) (Next)

source: https://island-crime.simplecast.com/episodes/s1e3-searching-for-lisa

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OMdsNH_cpM

archive: https://archive.org/download/island-crime-lisa-marie-young/island%20crime%20s1e03%20searching%20for%20lisa.mp3

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

Transcript

[Auto-generated transcript – Contains errors]

Sure enough it's Lisa on her cellphone I call her back she goes Dallas I don't know what's going on this guy won't bring me back we're sitting in a driveway on Bowen Road and he won't bring me back we're just sitting here she's like I'm bored I'm getting pissed off like I just want to bash my knuckles against this man I don't know what to do what a waste listen I'm coming too and when stuff like this can happen that's the voice of Dallas Holly a friend Lisa Marie uncalled for help he's likely the last person who knew her to hear her voice check TV reporter Kendall Hanson interviewed Dallas back then you'll hear from Kendall in this episode but you won't hear more from Dallas. Dallas died just shortly before I began work on this story and it's possible he has taken important information to the grave I do a little research on Dallas the check TV interview from 2002 reveals a lean handsome young guy with short bright blond hair gold hoop earrings and a thick gold chain he's mostly looks like he works out I read that he is a prizefighter for a time the Facebook remembrance page for Dallas is filled with recent pictures of him with his dogs and cats and girlfriends and photos of him showing off his tattoos in the years after Lisa's death Dallas racks up a criminal record robbery break-and-enter possession of a controlled substance and fraud I watched the tape of Dallas describing his final conversation with Lisa again and again Dallas a key figure in the night Lisa Marie Young went missing is dead I can't ask him if there is anything else he knew about what happened that night and his death is also a stark reminder that time really does matter in this cold case

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I'm Laura Palmer for more than 25 years I worked as a producer in a big city newsroom I recently moved to an island and I'm digging into stories I didn't have time to tell this is season 1 a violent crime the case of Lisa Marie Young episode 3 the search my sisters and because police weren't doing any searches at the time that it was our nation claw quit the First Nations that put a team of guys together to come to Goten and I'm all to do searches for Lisa just on tips that we're giving it to my sister that's about 12 12 of our men that came from Tofino here and they searched whose area was there we searched in most places they Chico part area and Haven - I went a few times with them and I just harvested every case it's during these early days of the search that reporter Kendall Hanson first begins working on Lisa's story I meet with him outside of Starbucks it's a cool day and Kendall's coat is turned up around his neck he has a cap on and I struggled to recognize him from his TV reports Kendall has a kind of gangly Jimmy Stewart quality about him he's like many reporters I've worked with over the years well-intentioned sincere he genuinely cares about this story and Lisa's case has become much more than simply a story to Kendall Hanson Kendall is meeting me on his day off he is a young family and a demanding full-time job as a reporter covering a huge geographical swath of this island so I appreciate his time and we get down to business quickly we conduct this interview in the mall parking lot Kendall folds his long legs into my Honda and we begin to talk about Lisa I'm Kendall Hansen I work at check news and I'm a video journalist there early on there was a call from Donna and Joanne Lisa's parents wanting coverage and I did numerous stories with them and their family primarily Joanne's family as they conducted searches in rural areas sometimes in Nanaimo sometimes around and I'm Oh usually in bush areas sometimes they it was kind of a random area that they chose and other times a psychic was brought in pretty early by Joanne's family and that was kind of what directed were some of these searches happened so you were doing stories back in the early days after Lisa went missing can you just describe what that time was like in the community what were people saying what did they think happened early on like within the first week or two there was a girl that I worked with I should call her a young woman and she seemed to have second-hand knowledge about that night and said that she would never go to the police she would never tell me anything about what happened that night but that people in and I knew new information about what happened to Lisa and I think that's been one of the challenges with this case for police right from the outset is that there's been lots of second-hand rumours and talk about what happened that night and yet kneeling down who the actual characters are I'm hoping that the police have I kind of assumed they have but as a reporter I'm not clear exactly who all there the night that Lisa disappeared except for two can I just go back again to some of those early days you mentioned meeting Lisa's parents tell me about that yeah both Joanne and Don did not want to be in the public eye they weren't comfortable public speaking yeah being interviewed was something they really did not want to do and I really felt for them because they were going through all the angst of knowing something had likely horrible had happened to their daughter and they kind of felt this need to interact with the media and they were also getting tips from different people in the community who were calling them directly and some of them were false and it was just a horrific time for them and I really felt for Don and Joanne and so they Joanne would call me for stories continuing on from the early days and the story kind of lost its leads and yet Joanne was always looking for media coverage and answers and so she would call me throughout the years often following that time what were those calls like uh she would sometimes just ruminate about the case sometimes she would just want to talk over the details about what she had heard or what people had suggested to her sometimes she would call me up kind of at a time a dark time she was just feeling down about missing her daughter and sometimes I feel like as a reporter you know I felt almost more like what's the word I should use I kind of felt like I was her therapist sometimes more than a reporter which was kind of an unusual predicament to be in you know I really felt for joint and we kind of grew a friendship over all that time - it was kind of a different relationship but when I saw her in the community it was very positive and eventually for a period of time Joanne was going to church with me and my family and at one point for one of the vigils that the Lisa's vigil was held at our church one time and she was a really sweet person who deserved answers as to what happened to her daughter so that's uh that's unusual to have that kind of relationship with someone in a story and I guess you would have met her early on in your career it was I was really green and it's funny how these things were all you know I never met Lisa most of the people you'll be talking to dead so I don't really have a sense of what least first-hand knowledge of Lisa but I heard so much about her from her parents and my heart just kind of goes out to them and know that I'm a father myself of daughters it's that much more troubling to me you tell me a little bit about that because sadly Joanne has passed away and I'm not gonna get the chance to talk to her although boy I wish I could have because so many people tell me she was just a force in terms of keeping this case alive one of the things I heard as I was starting to talk to people about Joanne was that she felt some frustration with how the case was being handled did she talk to you about that she did and I think that frustration kind of grew as the case wore on as well I think at the time police didn't necessarily deal with missing person cases the way they do no now there's a much more much more resources or put into cases right away to try and find out what happened to these people in the in the sense I got at the time was that a missing person file was laid by her parents time kind of went by and then police started going okay this must be a little more serious in the feeling I got was that it wasn't necessarily deemed something really serious right at the outset when Lisa's parents knew right from the outset this was not normal something is terribly wrong here when you were doing those stories did you go out on any of the searches yeah being a TV station we were there Joanne's family travelled out from Tofino her grandfather was kind of the spokesperson for those searches and Joanne and Don both tried not to interview much I remember I want to say in the first week or two Joanne and Dunn I interviewed them as they put up posters around Qualicum Beach which was the area where Christa Dara's grandmother lived but they plastered those posters around downtown Nanaimo on stores on telephone poles pretty much anything they could put them on anywhere people were okay with these posters being they were there and then the search itself you said you went out on can you tell me what that was like what happened yeah some of the searches I want to say had a couple dozen people they kind of waned as the years went on a lot of Joanne's family were there and they would basically grid search different areas where they were hoping to find Lisa's body and a psychic was brought in fairly early on who kind of would describe areas and so from those descriptions they would pick different areas that had a lot of trees and sometimes swamps and they would search kind of around those areas and there were numerous searches clearly and unfortunately none of that brought them to Lisa's body but Joanne I gathered just continued to hope that maybe she would find her daughter did she like in the years before she died talk to you about that finding Lisa's body was the key element that has prevented this case from being solved in in my opinion it's crucial for investigators to have her body to kind of get some certainty as to when where what there's evidence around bodies that can be very helpful in terms of solving cases like this so much is unknown still about this case but given everyone you've talked to over the years and including the police and family and friends can you walk me through what you know or what the evidence and firsthand stories are telling you happened that night right so we know that Lisa and some of her friends went to a nightclub on I believe it was Skinner Street and The Jungle Cabaret and as they were leaving they encountered a fellow in burgundy Jaguar and police put that information out fairly early that they were looking for the driver of this vehicle in August 2002 we I interviewed one of Lisa's friends named ole Dallas Holley he had been at a party that they went to after leaving The Jungle Cabaret they had gone to this house his story was that Lisa was hungry and she left this party with the gentleman who had left in the red Jaguar and that was Chris Adair and after a period of time Lisa called Dallas from Chris's car and said hey I'm stuck here on Bowen Road is what Dallas recounted he's not bringing me back I'm feeling uncomfortable I want to come back to the party this is my situation and Dallas told us that he was intoxicated he was in no position to go help her out but more or less said you know tell him to come back leave the car whatever and then another call happened a little bit later I want to say an hour or so later similar type of call similar situation Lisa still in this car with Chris Adair and she wants to come back to the party but Chris isn't taking her back to the party and that's where the solid information I have and Joanne says that she told me in the years well afterwards she told me that she was escorted by police with lights and siren down to the police station where they were holding Chris Adair they had questioned them him they were hoping that Joanne might help get him to talk about what happened that night and Joanne felt like she was close to kind of getting him to talk and she said one of the police officers kind of burst in to the door and he was the bad cop or and kind of tried to get Chris to open up and he kind of climbed up Joanne felt apparently Joey said his alibi was that Lisa got out of the car and walked away according to Joanne police told her there was evidence that Lisa was in that car but nothing that didn't go along with his alibi you know she was in the car she got out walked away that's kind of where the case goes cold Lisa's mom talked about Chris potentially taking Lisa to another location a party of sorts where there were some people and things potentially went wrong there and this is where we get into a lot of the hearsay and conjecture second-hand talked about potentially this other party and that's where things went wrong for Lisa it's unusual I think the level of details so many people seem to feel comfortable putting out online about this and why so many people seem convinced that they know exactly what happened you read through all of that and it's like a rabbit hole and at the end of that you won't sleep for a night or two if you have any kind of care about the case whatsoever it seems there are people who have information and for whatever reason police haven't been able to sort it out my feeling is that there's witnesses that are maybe what's the word I'm looking for compromised there's certain people who are compromised who police have probably interviewed which makes this case really difficult people who have perhaps been in trouble with the law they've been witnesses in different cases and so it makes sorting it out for police extremely difficult police have never said that to me that's just kind of my gut feeling even in the past few years of heard different rumours and it's hard to give them weight you know one is that this particular person has video of Lisa that night you know you kind of hope that you hope that police have this evidence and sometimes people come expecting reporter privilege which I always urge people when they come to me with information that they should be going to police with it but there's still this kind of fear of people who were involved which still kind of hangs over the community I had heard that about the video as well I mean when I think about 2002 this is not a point in time where everybody would have had cameras and such the way we did but you know possible I guess mm-hmm-hmm it seems to be something that I heard early on and I've been told that the video like this still exists so in my heart I believe that it is out there and I kind of assume and hope that police have this video already and this is part of their investigation I don't really know it's kind of funny how cases like this happened because I even look back and think as a reporter I was really green if only I had been a little bit better if my storytelling had been better maybe that had would have helped the case along better than it you know it's funny what goes through your mind you mentioned Dallas Holly he's he is also no longer alive and able to tell us what happened that night can you can you tell me about how he died I think you reported on that as well mm-hmm yeah Dallas and Joanne felt she approached Dallas after I interviewed and so I interviewed Dallas in August of 2002 and Joanne felt afterwards that perhaps he had more information than he was letting on when I interviewed him he seemed very forthright I was very green in my career I never held on to the original interview I wish I had asked a lot more questions I was close to deadline and wish in hindsight that I had asked a lot more detail but I didn't and Joanne felt like there was more information that he had that that could have been helpful perhaps he was holding back she ran into him in the community a few times and he didn't really want to talk to her he ran in circles that involved some people in the criminal world and Dallas collected a little bit of a criminal record himself fairly minor but he would have been someone who would have been good to talk to again from a reporter standpoint he was walking on the side of the road with his girlfriend in the spring of 2018 on the old Island Highway the story is according to police he walked in to collect something that in the fast lane of the northbound lanes on the inland Island Highway in a vehicle driven by a woman struck him and killed him and his girlfriend witnessed that which would have been horrific she was devastated and he was transported to hospital but died within hours of being struck and it's unfortunate because he might be an important piece and in the whole Lisa Young criminal trial if it ever came to that you said something to me when we were talking on the phone earlier about all the all the stories you've done this one has just stayed with you if you just talk about that a little bit yeah as a reporter you cover so many different stories a lot of stories have a lot of heartbreak but Lisa story has always bothered me the most of any and of had numerous nights without sleep as a result just this past weekend thinking about this interview I couldn't sleep on Saturday night and I think it's because it was early in my career and there just hasn't been any answers and this is one where I felt like there should be answers and I've gotten to know Don and Joanne quite well and I just really feel for them in a massive way and I've had daughters since and that's made it worse in some ways because as a parent you would do anything to protect your kids and it just it's devastating in some ways I don't know how Don deals with it and Johanna I can't help but feel that the pain that she felt over her missing daughter led to her death being a little more premature it was a real weight on her and it's just such an unjust dis that that this hasn't been solved what do you think could change that but you know we hear all the time about cases 20 30 years on being solved what do you think it's gonna take if someone told police where her body was that would be massive people involved know what happened that night and they really should step forward it's probably been weighing on them and it's time that they step forward and tell police what happened and I'm sure police aren't too far away from putting it all together given the right tips and it's really unfortunate that it hasn't happened until now but I still think that if someone told police where her body was if other people who were around that night who have information came forward and told police that could help move this case forward can you just give me a sense of the impact this case had on this community and the fact that it you know those rumours are out there and it's never been solved that that it continues to have on this community there's people every single year who show up for Lisa's vigil which is carried on every year until now and each of their stories is very individual about how they knew Lisa how they interacted with Lisa and then there's all those people who are holding on to information which I can't help but feel as cancerous to them and so there's a lot of heartache and a lot of pain by this not being solved and you know police officers have come and gone and that's perhaps one of the challenges with this case too is there isn't a continuity of investigators the ones that initially started investigating this have retired and moved on and I know that they bring new eyes on it but it's a difficult situation for a lot of people in the community and I think a lot of people I know a lot of people want and need to hear the truth of what happened that night people are brought to justice years after the fact and I think you're right about finding Lisa's body clearly being the key or people just coming forward who for whatever reason now feel like they can gee it would just be so great for her family mm-hmm yeah I think it would give a lot more peace to a lot more people in this community it's been maybe this isn't the right word but like a thorn or a really thorn might not even be a strong enough word right it's something that needs to be solved and I think it would be massive for the community if there was a conclusion to this case and we're all hoping that will happen after I turn off the mic handle and I talked for a while longer he tells me he wishes he had the time to dive into this case Kendall is in the Daily News is and that means tight deadlines and fast turnarounds he envies the luxury of time I have to invest in Lisa story and it's more than a professional aspiration to work on the longer form stuff Kendall became close with Joanne she was a friend and in the end he was a pallbearer at Joanne's funeral so when Kendall says it's not simply another story for him he means it

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for more detail on the events of those early days and to confirm the chronology I now turn to local newspaper archives the first article to appear in the newspaper about Lisa Marie Young's disappearance is on July 4th the headline parents fear daughter the victim of foul play Constable Marie Conway is quoted saying there is nothing to raise suspicions of foul play although Constable Conway is with the serious crimes unit he has taken over the file because the officer who took the original report is away til Friday it's a small detail but it's when I hear over and over again and when confirmed to me by Lisa's father Don that first police officer to meet with the Youngs on the Sunday when they raised the first alarm with police tells her parents he's off till Friday check back with him then and this article points to an inconsistency we highlighted in episode 2 regarding the Crime Stoppers video made about Lisa's case that video says Lisa's family didn't contact police for days but that first newspaper account says Lisa Marie Young's parents called the police before noon on Sunday morning when their daughter did not return home Don told me this also the police were contacted on Sunday not days later we know now that Lisa Marie makes her last call to a friend in the wee hours of Sunday morning later police will make an appeal they ask for anyone who saw the red jag Lisa was last seen in in an area that would be considered suspicious between 3:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. to come forward so Lisa's parents called to the police came in at or before a time when police will later come to believe something is happening concerning their daughter that may involve the red jag in the immediate aftermath of Lisa's disappearance Lisa's parents and her community take matters into their own hands they make posters with Lisa's picture on them Lisa's father Don works for a courier company his colleagues help distribute the posters all over the island Joanne's indigenous band puts together a team and searches a few areas outside of town and as the days pass the police to begin to suspect something bad has happened the July 10th headline police fear local met with foul play that stark headline a confirmation of what Lisa's family and friends have known since the morning Lisa failed to come home and that article also contains another important marker in this story the RCMP say they have identified the owner of the red jag and that they have spoken with the owner and yet they continue to appeal for information from anyone who has seen the red jag in those early hours and 80s or early 90s model with square headlights it's a relatively small community this car will stand out in people's memories I said at the beginning of this podcast that one of the strange things about this case is how many people seem to know so much about what happened that night including the names of people who they believed were involved in Lisa's death some of these individuals have been named online you won't have to dig too deep to surface at least three names of people that are alleged to have been at that last gathering but no one has been convicted in Lisa Marie's case no one has even been charged and I have not been able to confirm the names of anyone else who was at that final gathering Lisa attended but the driver of the red jag is identified the police know who he is he is one of if not the last person known to have been seen with Lisa before she disappeared so by July 10th the police know who red jag guy is but the next time he surfaces from the family's perspective is when he is brought in for questioning

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according to multiple reports the police bring in the driver of the red jag for an interview Lisa's mom Joanne is driven to the station to meet with him face to face this has never been confirmed by the police and Joanne Lisa's mom is now deceased and can't tell me firsthand but the account I heard from Don her sister her mom reporters and friends I've spoken to is consistent these are people recalling events from 18 years ago I'm relating them to the best of my ability by speaking with multiple people connected to the case Joanne is asked to attend a lock-up where police are questioning the man in the red jag a 27 year old named Christopher William Adair Joanne is asked to bring along pictures of Lisa in the hope that he will reveal more of what happened that night

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Joanne described being ushered into a small room there was a large picture of Lisa on the wall with the words rape murder and accident Joanne allegedly pleads with the red jag guy when police ask her to give him a hug she agrees but the response she gets back is this I'm sorry I can't I don't mean to disrespect your family but whatever happened that night Joanne did not get the answers she wanted and the police did not lay charges

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at this point the Young's once again take matters into their own hands they begin a new poster campaign this time naming the driver of the red jag Christopher Adair no one refuses to put up the posters in Qualicum Beach the small community where the family lives as soon as I'm confident that Christopher Adair is in fact the man in the red jag I begin searching for him I want to hear his perspective what does he say happened that night there are reports he told police that he dropped Lisa off and that she was taking a taxi home but without an interview with Mr. Adair without hearing from the police themselves I can't independently confirm this is true here's what I can tell you about Christopher William Adair aka red jag guy when he meets up with Lisa Marie Young outside The Jungle Adair is 27 years old the red jag belongs to Adair's grandmother a prominent realtor in Qualicum Beach who is now deceased a criminal record searched here in BC pops up ten results crimes committed between 2001 and 2003 in Nanaimo Port Alberni in Kamloops in Edmonton there's unauthorized use of credit card in Edmonton there's two fraud charges there's theft under $5,000 there's an assault there's another unauthorized use of a credit card there's a breach of a conditional sentence and there's assaulting a peace officer his name also pops up half a dozen times in small claims court in this period for matters involving a bank and Instacash outlet and a vehicle rental place I think about Lisa's father Don how he warned his daughter not to get into a vehicle with someone she didn't know his golden rule I've reached out to many people who know Christopher Adair most of them do not get back to me no one will go on the record here is the small amount of background I've been able to pull together on Christopher Adair he was raised at least in part by his grandmother his troubles started as a youth Donn's view that there was pressure on the police to keep Christopher's name out of the headlines is also confirmed one source tells me what happened caused a deep rift in the family I learned Adair was married for a time and lived in Edmonton but that he currently lives in Japan with a new partner I have reason to believe Christopher follows this story and listens to podcast so Christopher Adair if you're listening to this podcast please contact me at [1].

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with no charges and the case growing cold the unsearched takes an unusual turn so Joanne contacted me about coming to the island and taking a look for Lisa Marie and at that point I think she's been missing for a couple of years you know I always sit with things first and just see you I feel like I'm going to be a service you know is there any energy around this and I'm like getting any sort of information or impressions and in Lisa's case yeah there started to be definitely a flow of information including from Lisa herself and one of the things I do free early on while I'm talking to family members is I listen to them pretty closely and I wait to see where are they with this do they feel like their missing person is alive or not and so in Joanne's case she was really open to hearing whatever I had to say they certainly after two years entertained every sort of possible outcome and they were well aware the Lisa Marie could have passed the nine-time or something could have happened to her they felt very strongly that if she was alive if she would get in touch but even at that time they were still having tips but she was you know excited ear and sighted they're like not murder you plan to occur you know all over the place but they always had the hope that she was going to show up and I learned really toolless for me part of my makeup I guess was to Ollie puppet has to hope as well even sometimes when I knew that that person had passed because of the visions I had or because they were you know communicating with me from a place of spirit that I always had the hope they walk in the door - it just felt real to me if I was really just to kind of keep that alive and I could be wrong so you know I'm always going to keep that hope - that they could come home and be okay and that's sort of - and I started realizing that I wanted to bring those people home what if we couldn't bring them home physically that maybe somehow we could bring them upstairs in Episode four the psychic who led a search for Lisa's body and who still believes he knows what happened to Lisa.

I'm Laura Palmer and this is Island Crime.

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