A 1984 Murder in Ontario. Her Case Is Still Open. And Russell Williams Was in the Area. | MMA Mini

I am on vacation — this was pre-recorded before he left, and the full episode schedule runs as normal in his absence.

Two things this week.

First: the Michael Dunahee series is complete. Part 1, the Witness Wednesday with his mother Crystal Dunahee, and Part 2 are all in your feed. I say out loud what listeners will likely have sensed: the conversation with Crystal was one of the hardest he has ever had. I walked away from that interview questioning whether I should have done it. Not because it wasn't well-intentioned — it was. But because there are conversations that require a different kind of experience than I have, and that interview brought that into focus. Witness Wednesday is not going away. I am rethinking who he invites into those specific conversations.

Second: the next two-part series launches this Friday, and it is a departure from what MMA normally does.

In 1984, in Ontario, a 38-year-old mother named Barbara Chapman had a morning that was completely ordinary by every measure. She woke her two children up. She made them breakfast. She got them to the school bus. She called her mother. Her mother would later describe the conversation as normal — nothing out of the ordinary. That afternoon, Barbara's 12-year-old daughter came home from school, looked around the house for over an hour, and then went to check the garage. She found her mother there, murdered.

Barbara Chapman's case is 42 years old. The Ontario Provincial Police have never let it go dormant. There are regular fresh appeals for new information. It has never been solved.

One of the more unusual aspects of Barbara's case is the geographic proximity to a name most Canadians will recognize. Russell Williams — decorated Air Force colonel, later convicted of two murders and multiple sexual assaults — was attending the University of Toronto Scarborough in 1984 and would have been in the region. He has never been publicly named as a suspect in Barbara's case. He has never been identified through any forensic evidence as a potential culprit. But the proximity has drawn attention, and it is a thread Kevin intends to examine.

Part 1 this Friday. Part 2 the following Friday.

Tips regarding Barbara Chapman's murder:
Ontario Provincial Police / Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-TIPS (8477)

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