Crime Beat: She's Still Gone | S7 E22

Everyone seemed to like her and everyone seemed to know her.Her father, I think, had a lot to do with that because they were very close.

The body had been found.We knew that there was an active search for her.We pretty much knew at a gut level that's got to be her.

One piece of evidence that they did collect was a cigarette butt very close to her body.

So the undercover officer picked up the cigarette butt that he had discarded.Not long after we received it, there was a hit.So in a strange twist, the DNA they collected in Windsor actually tied him to an unsolved murder in Toronto.

I go to the cells.He's lying down.I told him that he was going to be charged with first degree murder.He just looked at me and said, yeah, yeah, and lay back down and went back to sleep.

Welcome to Crime Beast.I'm Anthony Robart.In the summer of 2000, a woman vanishes in Windsor, Ontario.But as investigators dig deeper into her disappearance, they uncover a string of other crimes, all leading back to one man.Here now is She's Still Gone.

It was a day not unlike any other.Extremely hot, and it was humid.It was raining on and off.

It's sweltering, typical Windsor summer.Heat wave, it's over 30 degrees.It's hot, it's sticky.A guy is walking his dog near the Ford factory on Joulard Road in Ford City.It's a patch of roughly an acre, overgrown, waist -high weeds, you know, trees.But there is a path that goes through there and this guy walking his dog finds the body.

So he reports it to Ford security guards.The police are called.

When we arrived at the scene, there was a lot of activity already.Patrol officers were there containing and managing the scene.Forensic identification officers were there.Command post and other detectives were already there prior to our arrival.There was, in our minds, a female of slight build who has been in the elements for a lengthy period of time.The scene itself was one quadrant of an intersection between Trenton and Julliard Road.

And that quadrant is a vacant or abandoned field.I think there was a little bit of homelessness going there, but mostly it was a path, a walkway from one corner to the opposite corner, which was a bus stop.The body was found not far off the path.So in my eyes, it would have been difficult to imagine somebody walking by it on the path and not seeing it.It was just odd to me that it had never been reported until it was, but when I saw the body, it could have been easily missed because it was badly decomposed, basically skin over bone and some hair, and naked except for a bra.The position of the body definitely caused suspicion in our view.

The female was on her back, her legs were bent, and her bra was unclasped, so we felt that there was foul play almost immediately.

Windsor back in 2000 was, you know, not much unlike what it is now.There was crime, typical, you know, break -ins, robberies, the odd shooting or violent crime.We didn't, you know, we averaged a couple of murders a year maybe, so it was front page news when it happened.When they found the body, it was badly decomposed, had very little evidence to offer.So Windsor Police, you know, they started basically a shoulder -to -shoulder search through this abandoned lot, and they find some evidence and they don't really say much about it at the time.

We're looking for any type of evidence or something that may seem unusual.And we found some peculiar items next to the body.One was a pile of her clothes, or what we surmise to be her clothes, fairly neatly folded, and a stick on the other side of her, close to her body.So we didn't know the significance of those items at the time.

Police later said it was staged to look like a sexual assault.

We would take those types of details and hold them back.We wouldn't report on them because those things only the suspect would know.One piece of evidence that they did collect was a cigarette butt very close to her body.The clothes, the stick, the cigarette butt are seized and bagged and put into evidence for further analysis through the Center of Forensic Sciences.So the first steps of any investigation like that is to confirm the identity of the person.That was not so easily done because there was no forms of identification with the person and the decomposition.

Immediately we follow our data bank and we find out, is there missing persons in this neighborhood?The uniformed officers are already talking with neighbors that show up, asking, is there someone that they know is missing?It would have been a few days before the time of autopsy, but the rumors on the street and the information that people were sharing on the street among neighbors was that it was Michelle Charette.

Michelle Charette was this diminutive 40 -year -old woman who lived in Windsor's Ford City on Juillard Road.And on July 25, 2000, her sister saw her near St. Clair College, and then she disappeared.That was the last time anyone saw her.

Michelle was reported missing on July 31 by her father, George.When he first learned from his other daughter that Michelle was missing, he attended her residence, which was on the second story of a couple of businesses.And what did he find was a mailbox stuffed full of envelopes and paper and mail.And it was overflowing.So he knew that she had not picked up the mail in a long time.So George called the police, and the police used force and opened up the door.

And there was nothing inside.that would suggest there had been violence perpetrated there or that she had been living there for the last few days.

So weeks pass and it starts to get publicity.The Winter Star starts writing about it, but no one can find her.It's a mystery.Her dad starts to wonder if she got abducted.She used to go outside of her apartment and smoke a lot on Droulard Road, which at the time was a pretty safe place.kind of a rough neighborhood.

So he really started to wonder, did she go for a smoke and someone kidnap her?And she also spent a lot of time trying to help people who were less fortunate or had problems with the law or whatever.So another concern he had was that maybe someone she was trying to help did something to her.Back in 2000, Drillard Road was a pretty rough neighborhood.A lot of transient people.There was some drug use.

There was prostitution.It had been down on hard times after the Ford plant closed.Houses that were abandoned.abandoned businesses here and there.And this is where Michelle was living at the time.

Because of the total circumstances surrounding her death, plus the neighborhood in which she was in, it wouldn't be unusual to think that someone in the neighborhood was responsible for Michelle's demise.And sure enough, it was within a few hours of the canvas beginning that we got the name of a suspect.

Welcome back.Three weeks after Michelle Charette went missing, Windsor police discover her remains in a field just a block from her home.Staged to look like a sexual assault, the scene contains almost no evidence.So, officers begin canvassing the neighborhood, and within hours, they've got the name of a potential suspect.We now return to She's Still Gone.

So Michelle was 40 years old, one of six siblings from a Windsor family.

It was evident to us very early on that Michelle was the type of person that befriended everyone.Didn't care what your stripes were in life.Everyone seemed to like her and everyone seemed to know her.Her father, I think, had a lot to do with that because they were very close.

Michelle was a member of several churches and spent a lot of time doing charitable work, trying to help people who'd been down on their luck or in trouble with the law.

Yeah, I don't remember the exact time that I first met her, but there was a genuine warmth.

Maybe we should move over one spot.

She had a warm smile, warm eyes.a compassionate heart.She really did care about people in the margins.She wanted to see people discover a relationship with God, but during church services and community meals, she'd be here and she'd participate.If we were tidying up or something, she'd pitch in.When we were serving community meals, if she could help clean up, she'd do that.

She would come to our worship services, and I have memories of her just with her eyes closed and singing quietly, and she was connected there.She didn't talk a lot about her background or her family.knew her as a loner, discovered that she had a deep -rooted faith in God, but in a bit of a troubled package.She had some boundary issues around men.At that time, we had a big old hotel bar that we were meeting in while we were renovating it.And she would often come here through the day, and there'd be different work projects going on.

You know, sometimes we had to say, no, you can't come freely and go everywhere you want.This is a work site, and we have residential apartments upstairs.And she'd wander upstairs and knock on people's doors and say, no, you can't do that.The other thing, she moved on to the street and she had a second floor apartment above a building and two o 'clock in the morning she'd be sitting out on the sidewalk in this rough neighborhood in a lawn chair by herself, going out to have her smoke and didn't seem to have a good regard for, I should probably be careful.to open she was she was vulnerable.Once it was reported that a body had been found you know at least a couple weeks have gone by and we knew that there was an active search for her we pretty much knew in at a gut level that's that's got to be her as a community we were in shock.

This was you know on our doorstep.She lived literally across the street.Where her body was found is one block away.Police came around and there were several people connected to the church that they interviewed to try and piece together what happened.

As a result of the autopsy, we were able to determine the cause of death being strangulation and that it was Michelle through the dental records.People, when they learn something like that, they want to talk about the person.She was a super friendly, likable person.And that's why so many people came forward.You have to understand, this is not a neighborhood where people readily assisted police in investigations.They would kind of be tight -lipped and that sort of thing, but not so with Michelle.

So very early in the investigation, the name of Peter Dale McDonald comes up.Peter Dale McDonald was originally from Prince Edward Island, but he was a drifter.

He was suspect at the time of the canvas because of the fact that we determined he knew her, he was with her, perhaps on the last day she was seen alive, and he had a propensity for violence.Canvas, the interviews with neighbors, all pointing fingers in one direction.

At the time of Michelle's death,he was living in Windsor, but had been coming back and forth between Windsor and Toronto.He was a man with a long criminal history, violent history.Some people in the neighborhood knew this, and very quickly after Michelle's body was found, a couple people that knew him suggested to police that they look in his direction.

The couple owned a small diner, and Peter lived and used their facilities while he had been in Windsor.So he would dine at their restaurant.He lived in one of their rooms that they had above the diner.And they were not hesitant to say that Peter, to them, was intimidating.He was violent.He was new to the neighborhood.

All of these things came forward from others as well on the street.Day three or four of the investigation, I had occasion to stop in at the diner where the elderly couple was.As I was speaking with them, they were very friendly, very cautious now because of the fact that Peter was named as a suspect and he hadn't been arrested.There was no one else in the restaurant and I was talking to them over the bar.I looked down to my left and Peter was walking into the restaurant.and he sat down on a stool right beside me, and he could have reached out and touched me.

He didn't say a word.I said to him, Peter, get up and walk out, or you're going to go to jail.You know, he stared at me for a few seconds, and then he just got up and walked out.You know, never knowing who I was, but knowing I was a police officer, you have the nerve to do that.Like, incredible.Peter's motive there was to impress upon those two that he's still out of custody, and that he can intimidate them and bully them whenever he wants.

Don't be cooperating with the police because I'm still here.That's the way I read it.We had limited alternatives.and Peter was a big guy with a propensity for violence, serious violence.Murder is one thing, but it's murder by brute strength and physicality.There's not a lot of people that'll do that.

He seemed to be on the run, showing up here with no other family members or connections to the city.We kind of felt that he was the guy.We wanted to develop quickly solid evidence that either eliminated him as a suspect or gave us the grounds to arrest.

The detectives at that time requested that the Mobile Surveillance Unit follow Mr. McDonald to see what his behavior and his activity was, as well as obtaining a DNA sample, if we could get one, in case there is something to compare it to from the crime scene.McDonald was very erratic.He'd go from place to place.He didn't go to work.I never followed him to his house.He would just walk around in the downtown area.

There were times where we would just leave him at Jackson Park.He would just stay there at night and we would just pick him up the next day.So on the day that I was assigned to follow Mr. McDonald, I relieved the day shift surveillance unit at this location right here, which is 880 Victory in the town of LaSalle.Mr. McDonald exits the LaSalle address and gets into a late model pickup truck, which turns out to be stolen, and we followed him into the Windsor area.We followed Mr. McDonald to the liquor store.He grabbed a bottle of liquor and then made his way to a bar on the west end called Hurricane's.

We pulled into the parking lot, watched him park his truck, and ultimately we went inside and had a seat next to him.He was talking to another person, and I just started to get into the conversation.I had probably a couple beers with him.He didn't talk much.It was small talk, but we became, you know, friendly.During our conversation, Mr. McDonald got up to go to the washroom.

I had to make a decision.Do I stick around and continue the conversation?It wasn't going anywhere, it was just small talk.Or do I take the opportunity to seize the DNA that I knew that I could get?

So Windsor Police, they didn't find a lot of evidence, but...One thing they eventually did reveal, about six feet from Michelle's body, they found a cigarette butt.So the undercover officer picked up the cigarette butt that McDonald had discarded, and they sent it to the Center of Forensic Science, hoping to get a DNA match.

In the meantime, the cast -off DNA is submitted to the data bank in Toronto.Not long after we received it, there was a hit.

So in a strange twist, the DNA they collected in Windsor actually tied McDonald to an unsolved murder four months earlier in Toronto.

Windsor police suspect Peter McDonald of killing Michelle Charette, but can't connect him to her murder.The surveillance team manages to get a piece of his DNA, hoping for a match to their crime scene.Instead, a hit comes back to a homicide almost 400 kilometres away in Toronto.

We now return to She's Still Gone.It was April the 29th, 2000.We arrived here.The officer's uniformed car was already on the scene.It was parked outside the building here.The information that we had was that there was a deceased person.

in apartment 608 here at 99 Tyndale Avenue.He was lying on the opposite side of the bed, in the bedroom, on the floor, naked.And there was some white powder substance that was spread on him.a slice of cheese that was found near the body, some sheets that were rolled up on the end of the bed.This Brian Mulrooney doll was sitting on the pillow along with an Ontario hospital card in the name of James Campbell.There was a living room area there on the couch.

There were a couple of beer bottles.There was a tumbler.There were signs that something had happened that night, that there was some drinking going on, whether it was just the deceased by himself or was he with somebody.These are all questions that you have in the back of your head.And standing at the bedroom door, I could see the white powder that the officers first saw when they arrived.We didn't know what it was.

Didn't appear to be any scent to it.But later on, they found that it was talcum powder.Why that talcum powder was spread over him, I don't know.To this day, I don't know why.And when I saw the cheese, I started to think, whoever may be responsible for this, maybe they were leaving some sort of signs behind.I don't know.

It was just bizarre to me.There was no signs of any blunt force injury to Campbell at the time.We could see that there were no cut marks to him from a sharp edge object.There were no... bullet wounds to him.There didn't appear to be any bruising of any sort.We really didn't know what James Campbell had died from.

The forensic identification services officers began to collect the evidence and what we were hoping for was to locate some sort of blood or bodily substance of some sort, looking for DNA.The autopsy indicated that James Campbell's cause of death was manual strangulation.One other thing that was collected during the autopsy were fingernail clippings, looking forDNA from anybody else that he may have come into contact with.The canvassing, I don't believe there was any video cameras set up at that time at 99 Tyndale, so we didn't have the video at all, people coming and going.There were some people that did come forward that indicated that he would frequent the Gladstone Tavern, a bar called the Dufferin Tavern, he would frequent that as well.

He would meet with friends, have a beer, he seemed to be a pleasant fellow.And, of course, we would speak to the family as well.And I believe the last time they had heard from James was on April the 25th, so a few days before he was found deceased.There was no real leads.It was a real whodunit murder.We started to get some DNA results back.

The beer bottles were an unknown source.The tumbler, Campbell, was identified along with an unknown source.They were able to find bodily fluids on the sheets, including blood.Some of it was from Campbell, some of it was from an unknown source.The same person on all these items.So we were ahead a little bit, but not by much.

Once the DNA is extracted by the CFS, then they would submit it to the National Data Bank, where all DNA samples from all crime scenes would sit until there were some matches.On April the 5th, 2001, I received a call advising me that they had a match from our crime scene to an investigation that was being conducted by the Windsor Police Service.While they were surveilling Peter Dale McDonald, he threw away a cigarette butt.That was the DNA that matched our crime scene.That name never came up in our investigation, Peter Dale McDonald.So we had no idea who this person was.

But we found out that he had a lengthy criminal record.He had been incarcerated many times.and that he was in custody here in Toronto at the East Detention Centre on other charges unrelated to Windsor, unrelated to our homicide.So on June the 1st of that same year, we go and visit him.We ask the jail staff if they could have McDonald's removed from his cell so that we could speak to him.The guards later come back to us and said he refuses to come out of his cell.

doesn't want to talk to you.On June the 25th, we find out that he's making an appearance in court down at the Old City Hall.I go to the cells, McDonald's there, lying down.I asked him to get up, asked him what his name was, told me it was Peter McDonald.I then told him that he was going to be charged with first degree murder of James Campbell.He just looked at me and said, yeah, yeah, and lay back down and went back to sleep.

In Toronto, there was a hit, but we still didn't have a piece of DNA that connected him to our crime.We received a bit of a break about a year later.

A man who had been living across the hall from McDonald came to police and said that he had admitted to killing her.He had gone through his treatment program with McDonald, and they were drinking one night and basically said, I beat this woman to death and dumped her body in a field.

He had some level of detail, the informant did, of what happened.In addition to the circumstantial evidence we had, we felt that we could lay the charge.So, there was a charge of second -degree murder laid on Peter.About a year later, after a preliminary hearing, the Crown Attorney, Gary Nakoda, withdrew the charge.

The case against McDonald was actually dropped because the DNA evidence ended up being inconclusive.

Unfortunately, there was no DNA able to be reproduced from the cigarette butt that was seized at the scene.There was some biological matter, but it wasn't suitable enough for DNA analysis.You don't want to prosecute, lose the case, and then you've lost the ability to retry them if new evidence becomes available.While disappointing at the time, it was probably a good tactical move.

But the DNA that couldn't convict him for Michelle's murder ended up convicting him in the Toronto murder.

McDonald and Campbell had met each other in a park near where Campbell lived on Tyndale.And from there, they went back to Campbell's apartment.They had some sort of sexual interaction.Things got out of control, and McDonald ended up strangling Campbell to death.At trial, the evidence is called.Witnesses are called.

Forensic officers are called.The nail clippings, we found DNA from not just Campbell, but we also found it from McDonald.Obviously, there was some sort of contact between the two of them.At the end of all this, after the jury deliberated, they came back with a verdict of guilty of second -degree murder.Justice Epstein set his parole eligible after serving 13 years.

It's a rough several years for Michelle's family.They don't have answers.She's been murdered.No one's responsible for it.There's no closure.And her father, George, is getting old.

He starts to worry, am I going to live long enough to see my daughter's killer brought to justice?And so years pass.And in 2009, new investigators are assigned to the case.

I went about my career.wound up landing in our major crime unit as a homicide detective.And Michelle Charette's homicide was one of my cases assigned.I knew that there was a cigarette butt located six feet from Michelle Charette, which was unusual.It's not someone that's just going to pass by and discard their cigarette butt.It's going to be the killer's cigarette butt.

There were other people that had dealings with Michelle, but nothing that would arouse our suspicion.into committing such a heinous crime.Everybody knew her, so it wasn't hard to find out who was hanging around with Michelle at certain times prior to the murder, and it all led to Mr. McDonald.We knew we could resubmit the forensics, and that was going to be done, but the decision was made to pay Mr. McDonald a visit in Kingston Penitentiary.You walk by Paul Bernardo's cell to get to Peter McDonald's cell, you know you're in a bad place.In 36 years of policing, that's probably the most uncomfortable position that I've ever been in.

He doesn't know what's going on, and we introduce ourselves, and we want to talk about Michel Charette.Well, he doesn't want to talk to us about it.He shuts us down right away and asks to leave the room.So we left him a business card, say, listen, if you change your mind, just give us a shout, and we can have a conversation.We got up and left.

A few weeks later, he calls him.So the officers go to Kingston to meet him for a second time.The conversation didn't go very well from the beginning.

It became apparent to me that the only reason that he wanted to talk to us was for him to get something out of this interview.It was self -serving.He wasn't there to talk about Michelle.He made allegations that the guards were picking on him.He wanted out of Kingston.He wanted to be transferred to a nicer institution.

That went on for about an hour and a half.Him denying it, him wanting to be moved, and us saying, we're not moving you.We want to talk about the homicide.After an hour and a half to two hours of interviewing him, he started to break a little bit and started to talk about Michelle.She'd always hang around me.She was always bothering me.

She was always, you know, talking church with me.And she was just getting on my nerves.And ultimately, he told me that she had bothered him so much that he couldn't stand it anymore and that he put her in a chokehold and choked her out and killed her.

So he confesses, he's charged with the murder, crime is solved.Then he recants it.Now they're back to the square one.They have to build a case against him again without a confession.Not long after he's charged with Michelle's murder, there's another Toronto connection.Police in Toronto now suspect him of the murder of three sex workers in the mid -90s.

July 7, 1994, we received a call with regards to a female that was found down by Sunnyside Beach.This is the area here where Julianne was found.This is the dock.It's not quite the same as it was back then, but her body was found on the right -hand side, but her torso was just under the dock, and her clothing was found by a galvanized fence just on the east side of the building.

Patrick Middleton was 30 years old when his sister Julianne was strangled, partially disrobed, and thrown into Lake Ontario.

No, she didn't deserve what happened to her.

It was July 1994 when Middleton, a sex trade worker from Parkdale, was killed.

It appeared initially that it was possible it could be a drowning or suicide, but there were some red marks on her body around her neck and other parts of her body.of her torso, but that was consistent with her body sort of moving up against the dock from the flow of the water, the breakwater there.The following day on July the 8th, a post -mortem examination was conducted.What initially looked as though it was reddish bruising was starting to become a little darker.The cause of death was officially listed as drowning.but the factor of the strangulation became part of that.

The investigation lasted a number of months initially, but eventually the leads went cold.

When Middleton's father learned that another prostitute had been strangled and dumped in the lake just three months after his daughter's killing, he feared there was a serial killer on the loose.That woman was 33 -year -old Virginia Coote.Three years later, 35 -year -old Darlene McNeil, another prostitute, was murdered in the exact same way.

The other homicides were directly east of here.They were within the range of about a kilometer.The second scene is at the east side of the Palais Royale, between that and the Boulevard Club.And then you go further east, and it's at the rear of the Legion by the water where Darlene's found.So at that point, it's pretty obvious.We have someone in our minds that's responsible for all three.

We needed to set up some kind of a task force.So Doug Rady was put in charge of Project Breakwater.

Around 2000, we started to review these cases.These victims, they were last seen 11 o 'clock in the evening.to about 2 o 'clock in the morning by peoples in that area.We didn't have much to go on because nobody saw them walk away with anybody in particular.Back in that time, police services across the country were stopping people on a regular basis and recording that crime.in whatever form they used.

In Toronto, we used a particular contact card, I'll call it, and in it, police would write time, date, location, the name of the person, date of birth, home address, reason they're being stopped, perhaps what they're wearing.We got all the contact cards for those areas in 2000, and it gave us an idea of who was out and about in the hours we were looking at.So we went through everybody that came in contact with the police and went and interviewed them.And our reason was not to say all these people were suspects in the murder.We were looking for anybody who may have had contact with either the victims or a potential suspect.

With respect to Middleton, there was DNA evidence obtained.Further leads are followed up.Persons of interest come to light.DNA samples are taken to eliminate them.

And from our investigation, a name that came out was Newf.Somebody was going by Newfie or Newfoundlander.And from those contact cards, we started to get a particular person who was using that name in that area.That was a man I now know as Peter Dale McDonald.There was a worker at a hotel that said Newf used to be around here all the time, and he wasn't for a while, and then he came back.Our murders were in 1994 and 1997.

So being around in 94, not around for a while, and then back, that was unusual and perked our interest a lot.There was one incident where somebody yelled out the name Newf when one of the young ladies was seen walking near the time of her murder, but nobody saw anybody.In the end, we found a location in the east end of Toronto where he had been staying, and at the address I spoke to him.a gentleman who had known Peter Dale MacDonald for a while.At least the last few months he had lived with him but he wasn't there.He gave us a lot of information and he said he would probably see him in a while but he didn't know where he was at the time that I was talking to him.

What I learned about Peter Dale MacDonald's criminal history is he had 20 convictions.He had been sentenced to at least 14 years in jail.Armed robberies, break -and -enters.I would say petty crimes, but they were more robbery with violence and break -and -enters to commit indictable offenses.He was an active criminal who had been in jail in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario.He was a parole violator routinely or a probation violator.

Whatever he was on, he never complied with anything.During our investigation, we had to talk to parole officers and coordinators and various custody locations where Peter was.Turns out that even though he is registered as being in Dorchester, New Brunswick prison, he was actually paroled in a halfway house in downtown Toronto for about a two -year period, where on our file, it looks like he's in prison, but he's being stopped in the street using various aliases.When he hit our radar, he became quite clearly somebody who we should be concerned with.There was DNA evidence from one of the victims that may have given us a lead that Peter Dale McDonald was involved.Peter Dale McDonald's DNA came back to Julie Ann Middle.

Fortunately, she had several DNA samples that were evident, and we could not put sole proximity on Peter.So it was frustrating.We went to the Crown Attorneys, and it was quite clear that we did not have enough to go forward with a case for exclusive opportunity and fora chance of a conviction.It wasn't a strong case.

We had examined every potential lead at that time.Once the project breakwater concluded, we did not have any viable suspects.Eventually, the three cases go into the cold case squad.

Today, 16 years after his sister's murder, the family finally got to look at the man accused of killing her, 52 -year -old Peter Dale MacDonald.When police were asked why an arrest took so long in the case of the three prostitutes...

We need evidence that will allow us to lay a charge.And over the past 16 years and within the last little while, we've managed to come up with that extra piece that we needed to charge him.

It's a case that's haunted those who live in Parkdale.Everybody got scared in the neighborhood, especially all the prostitutes.Today, relief.There's been an arrest.That's wonderful.And some closure for the families of these girls.

McDonald, who remains behind bars serving life in jail, won't go to trial here in Toronto until he stands trial first in Windsor.

Welcome back.At the end of 2010, convicted killer Peter McDonald is facing four more murder charges.Already serving a life sentence for strangling James Campbell, he now stands accused in the deaths of three sex workers in Toronto and Michelle Charette in Windsor.But will all these families finally see justice?Here now is the conclusion of She's Still Gone.

In Toronto, the charges involving the sex workers were ultimately dropped.

In July of 2011, the Crown Attorney withdrew the charges based on no reasonable prospect of conviction.Whether it was insufficient evidence, loss of witnesses, they felt that it was not viable to pursue a trial.

The case against McDonald in Windsor, after he basically admitted to this murder, he then recants, says he didn't do it.

We needed more evidence other than a confession, because sometimes confessions don't hold up in court, confessions are thrown out.We knew that DNA testing had come a long way, since the homicide.So six months after the confession, after being charged, we submitted the cigarette.But for further analysis, it came back to Mr. McDonald.

It was pretty phenomenal to think that the cigarette butt had been discarded in an overgrown field, sat there for weeks, heat, humidity, rain, you name it.And there's enough integrity in that DNA more than a decade later to get a hit.Not just get a hit, but like a solid hit that police said, this is within billions.It's this guy.This is our guy.

I was very happy that I came back.What else can you say now?You've confessed, you're in the middle of a field where nobody goes, and your cigarette butt is six feet from Michelle's knee?How do you explain that when in court?

So he's charged, and it hasn't gone to trial yet, but there's a speak -to day.

He's up in court to discuss whether he's mentally fit to stand trial.That's a defense tactic.

And everyone thinks, oh, it's just a regular court day.It's not a trial.That comes weeks or months away.There was a lot of people in that courtroom, there was family, there was a lot of press.He's brought into court shackled, surrounded by tactical officers, and he's charged with second -degree murder.And he's asked, how does he plead?

And out of nowhere, he pleads guilty to manslaughter.I think there were gasps in the courtroom.I cover a lot of crime, a lot of courts over the decades, and this was like a dramatic moment.Michelle's father was in the hospital.that.Even the Crown, I think, later said that he wasn't expecting it until moments before it happened.

And I believe the defense lawyer was just as shocked as everybody else was.

So police did tell us at one point that when he initially confessed, he said he strangled her because she was trying to help him.And in his eyes, she was just nagging him.He had a temper.He had a quick temper, a violent temper.And he just snapped and strangled her to death.So this woman was 4 '10", 125 pounds, like a tiny girl, and he was a hulk.

He was this big, muscular, bruising, tattooed guy.You can only imagine just the fear she was going through.This guy had his hands wrapped around her throat, right?And literally crushed her windpipe.

It was unexpected.He did take ownership of the case, but when the Crown Attorney went through some of the facts in the case, Mr. McDonald interrupts the Crown on numerous occasions because he doesn't like what's being said.It makes him look really bad.

He was interrupting and talking about how it's being sensationalized and this is unfair to him.And he was actually silenced by the judge.

I remember the judge saying, you know, that was a horrible thing you did that day.But today, someone makes it better by taking ownership of it.And I accept your guilty plea.

He's immediately sentenced that day.He's already in prison serving time for the Toronto murder.But they add seven years to his sentence to be served concurrently.

On Thursday, February 23rd, Peter Dale McDonald, 54 years, entered a guilty plea to manslaughter in relation to the death of Michelle Charette.

Was there ever a motive in this killing?

Mr. McDonald is a lifelong criminal with a very violent background.So my experience with Mr. McDonald is that he has a bad temper and he just snaps as indication of his last conviction for a second -degree murder.He's just, uh, he's

He didn't have much to say about why he did it, except that he said he wanted to give Michelle's father some closure.And he also said something like, for what it's worth, Michelle said he was a good dad.Dad was emotional.He was surrounded by reporters outside the courthouse.It was a bittersweet day.It was a sad day, but in some way, like, he found a little bit of closure, a little bit of justice.

Very emotional, because he thought he was going to die and never know who did this to his little girl.What's it like after all these years?After all these years, what's it?

It's filthy.It plays a toll on me, you know.I think I've gained ten, aged ten years from this.I didn't think I'd ever see the end of it, the closing to this case.But with McDonald admitting he killed her, that kind of gives me a relief, but she's still gone.You don't expect burial when you're gone.

But the waiting time until they found her, that was a hard part.And then when we did find her, then we had the weight and that.I never thought we'd ever find the killer.We knew who he was, but we couldn't prove it.So it's a good feeling that we know the man committed it and bidded it, but that don't bring Michelle back.

She had that willingness to want to help people, but without the discernment, it would have been the very thing that would lead her to Peter McDonald.Her heart put her into a vulnerable spot.She couldn't foresee, this is what could happen to me.She had the heart of a lamb.She didn't have the eyes.to see a love.

George Charrette passed away in March 2019, seven years after Peter Dale MacDonald was convicted of killing his beloved daughter.MacDonald became eligible for parole in 2017.However, according to the Parole Board of Canada, his most recent application in May 2022 was denied.To this day, nobody has ever been convicted in the deaths of the three other women in Toronto.

I'm Anthony Robart.Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat.

Want more episodes of Crime Beat?Listen to the Crime Beat podcast now for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcast.And for past episodes of Crime Beat, go to the Global TV app, visit globaltv .com, or check out our Crime Beat YouTube page.