Pod Insights Canadian True Crime Colin Thatcher and the Murder of JoAnn Wilson [2] About this episode [Part 2 of 3] As she recovers from her gunshot wound, JoAnn Wilson decides to back down from the custody fight with her former husband.
Colin Thatcher has won this battle, but his fixation is far from over. A series of witnesses would later come forward with information almost impossible to believe...
*Additional content warning: this episode contains mentions of domestic abuse.
— This series is a carefully selected replay from our archive.
Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:
See the page for this episode athttps://www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes/135 https://www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript 11,443 words · 6 speakers
0:00 Speaker 00 Hi, this is Mark Bittman from the podcast Food with Mark Bittman. I've been writing about food and restaurants for almost 50 years, my whole career, really. And what I know is that the good restaurants all have something in common. They're busy, genuinely, chaotically busy. And somehow, in the last few years, the best of them have begun to make it look easy. And do you know why? Because they're running on Toast's technology. Toast is built for restaurant owners who understand that Toast's tools keep the line moving and keep their customers happy, with fewer mistakes and hiccups in ordering and paying. For owners, that turns busy into business. To learn more, head to toasttab.com.
0:45 Speaker 00 That's T-O-A-S-T-T-A-B, toasttab.com. Toast: Built for Busy.
0:54 Speaker 01 Hey, it's Paige from Giggly Squad. I'm a big believer that sometimes a new workout outfit is all the motivation you need. And luckily, Abercrombie just teamed up with Barry's to bring a YPB collection made for the red room. I'm talking about YPB's Sculpt Luxe leggings, shorts, double-layered bras, and the new 6 a.m. jacket. Basically, everything you need to go from looking like you're just trying to survive a workout class to looking like you're achieving your personal best. Shop YPB by Abercrombie in the app, online, and in stores, and bring your personal best to the red room.
1:28 Speaker 02 Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production funded mainly through advertising. The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening.
1:40 Speaker 03 This is part two of a three-part series. Where we left off, Joanne Wilson had divorced Colin Thatcher and remarried, but their custody and property settlement had turned into a bitter fight that lasted several years because he refused to compromise. After Joanne was shot in the shoulder in her own kitchen, she realized the personal cost she was paying to stand up to her ex-husband was becoming too high, and she backed down. Colin had outlasted her in the battle, and he was rewarded by getting what he wanted by default: custody of both of their boys.
2:21 Speaker 03 In the following year's provincial election, not only was Colin Thatcher re-elected as the MLA for Thunder Creek, but the incoming premier Grant Devine named him Minister of Energy and Mines, a prestigious government position. Five months after that, Colin arranged an abandoned farm meeting with his associate, Gary Anderson, who would tell police that Colin gave him a Magnum revolver and asked him to have a silencer made for it. That was October of 1982. Gary took the revolver and enlisted the help of a welder friend to make a silencer.
3:06 Speaker 03 After the first one was produced, they test-fired the revolver, but it didn't really silence anything. They made a few more, but none of them worked that well to reduce the noise of the gunshot, so they threw them away. Gary then moved up north for a while to find work. At the end of 1982, Colin took his sons Gregory and Regan to Palm Springs, California, to spend Christmas and New Year. By this point, he'd been Minister of Energy and Mines for about seven months, but his political success wasn't to last. Just a week after they returned to Saskatchewan in January of 1983, the then-premier of
3:51 Speaker 03 Saskatchewan, Grant Devine, announced that Colin Thatcher had resigned from his portfolio. Typically, a politician would announce their own resignation, as would most people, so the fact that Colin wasn't present for the announcement and didn't make himself available for questions or comments indicated that there was likely much more to the story. All the premier would say was that it was a mutual decision, and quote, "At this time, he has too many other responsibilities. He has some financial issues and, as a single parent, family responsibilities that are taking up more and more of his time." Over the following days, The Leader Post would report that Colin Thatcher had been
4:36 Speaker 03 productive as Minister of Energy and Mines, and he'd started making changes that were viewed as positive within his first few weeks. Just like his father Ross, Colin wasn't afraid to make bold moves, but “he couldn't hide his contempt for Premier Devine's leadership”. A few years later, the paper would report that Colin Thatcher hadn't actually resigned, he'd been expelled after he ignored an order given to him by the Premier. That may have been the last straw. Many of Colin's colleagues thought of him as a political liability, someone who wasn't a team player unless it suited him personally.
5:21 Speaker 03 His attendance at cabinet meetings was sporadic, and when he did show up, he constantly ruffled feathers. And Colin was facing other problems as well. While he was perceived to be a millionaire rancher with a home and separate ranch in Saskatchewan, as well as the condo in Palm Springs, the reality was that he was in serious financial trouble. The wealth he projected as part of his image was dwindling fast, thanks to his extravagant, out-of-control spending, and the various legal battles that had cost him dearly. The Leader Post would report that Colin Thatcher was “asset-rich but cash-poor”.
6:03 Speaker 03 He was weighed down by a heavy debt load, and had borrowed money from at least four financial institutions, worth close to $1.5 million, and several of them had either initiated foreclosure or were planning for it. Colin was struggling to pay his bills for the day-to-day running of the ranch. And there was more. His financial status had of course been negatively impacted by his divorce and the property settlement. Even though Joanne had eventually settled for around half the amount originally awarded to her by the judge. It was to be paid off over five years in installments.
6:46 Speaker 03 And Colin had paid the first installment in February of 1982. But it was now January of 1983, and in just a few weeks, Colin would need to pay the second installment of almost $90,000. You'll remember their property settlement had several clauses about payment. If Colin defaulted on any of the payments, the entire amount would become payable to Joanne immediately. So instead of just paying his $90,000 installment for that year, he would have to pay around $350,000. And there was another clause.
7:29 Speaker 03 It stated that if Joanne were to die, the next installment payment could be deferred for another year.
7:41 Speaker 03 In the meantime, Colin's associate Gary Anderson was back in Saskatchewan. He'd been working up north for a few months, and when he returned, Colin requested another abandoned farm meeting. By this point, it had been three days since Colin's sudden resignation as cabinet minister, and the two men spoke briefly about that before Colin brought things back on topic. Gary would later tell police that Colin told him he'd been stalking Joanne's house for about a week, including the night before, but he quote, "did not get her."
8:19 Speaker 03 Colin reminded Gary about the Ruger Security 6357 Magnum revolver he'd given him a few months earlier. He didn't mention the silencer he'd requested, but he did tell Gary he wanted the revolver back, and there was something else. Colin had another urgent task for Gary and it had to be done as soon as possible. He wanted him to procure another car, and then park it near Colin's house in Moosejaw and wait. So Gary did what he was told, buying a car for Colin, a brown 1974 Mercury with a V8 motor.
9:00 Speaker 03 The next day was Friday, January 21, 1983, and Gary parked the car a block away from Colin's home in Moosejaw, just as he had the last time. He then waited for Colin, who jumped into the driver's seat wearing a black ski-type jacket, blue jeans, and sunglasses. Gary handed over the Magnum revolver, and Colin told him to listen to news reports. Again, if he heard of anything happening to Joanne, he was to go back and collect the 1974 Mercury at the same location he'd parked it, clean it, and hide it.
9:44 Speaker 03 That same Friday evening, Joanne Wilson returned home from work, pulling into the driveway in her green Audi 5000 sedan. It was a few minutes before 6pm. She was likely looking forward to seeing her nine-year-old daughter Stephanie and second husband Tony Wilson, who had both been home sick that day. She pulled into the garage and parked next to Tony's station wagon. But a man was lying in wait for her in the garage at the rear of her home, and ambushed her as soon as she got out of the car, likely grabbing her from behind by the collar of her fur coat.
10:26 Speaker 03 Joanne fought for her life, screaming as she attempted to fend off repeated blows by a heavy instrument with a sharp curved blade, as it cut into her scalp, hands and wrists, and fractured her forearm and fingers. The 43-year-old endured a brutal beating that left the walls of the garage covered in blood spatter. She sustained multiple wounds and bruising to her head, and then her knees and legs, as though she'd fallen to her knees and was dragged along the garage floor. The man then shot her in the back of her head and exited the scene.
11:10 Speaker 03 Joanne Wilson passed away on the floor of her garage. She was murdered just five days after the sudden announcement that her ex-husband Colin Thatcher resigned from the legislature as minister, and just three weeks before, he was due to pay her the second instalment of the property settlement.
11:35 Speaker 03 Craig, the man walking home who heard the screams and found Joanne's body, told police about the man he'd seen walking out of the garage a few minutes before 6pm. He stressed that he'd only seen the man briefly in passing, but described a man with darker hair and a scraggly beard, about 30 years old with a medium build and average height. Craig recalled the man wearing dark trousers underneath a dark coat that was either leather or pleather, and he seemed to be hiding something under his jacket as he walked off. Meanwhile, police found the first piece of evidence only 15 minutes after they arrived
12:18 Speaker 03 at the scene: that credit card receipt lying on the ground a few feet away from the garage. It was for gasoline purchased from a Shell station on January 18th, three days before Joanne's murder. And the gas station was not local, it was located about 100 kilometres from Regina, near the town of Karen, the same rural area that the Thatcher Ranch is located.
12:49 Speaker 03 Investigators would attend that gas station to speak with the owner and see if he remembered anything about the purchase. In the meantime, a composite sketch was commissioned based on Craig's description of the man walking away from the garage. Soon, copies of that sketch would be sent around to police forces across North America, as well as the media. Locally, more than half of the Regina Police's homicide department was dedicated to the case, working around the clock to investigate one of the highest-profile murders in the history of Saskatchewan. Later in the week following Joanne's murder, Regina Police would offer a $50,000 reward
13:34 Speaker 03 for the capture of her killer.
13:45 Speaker 03 The day after Joanne's murder, Colin Thatcher had custody on his mind. He drove to Regina to meet with his longtime lawyer, Anthony "Tony" Merchant, who had represented him throughout the contentious custody battle, where Colin was found in contempt of court for refusing to speak about Regan's whereabouts. This time, Colin wanted to know how he could get physical custody of nine-year-old Stephanie, now that her mother was dead. His lawyer told him that he had the legal right to take her. So, he did. And he brought an entourage with him that included that lawyer, Anthony Merchant, and his wife, Pana,
14:30 Speaker 03 as well as Colin Thatcher's eldest son, seventeen-year-old Greg. When they showed up at Tony Wilson's house to take Stephanie, they learned, presumably from the housekeeper, that the little girl was with a friend down the street. There they went.
14:49 Speaker 03 Stephanie's friend's mum, Susan, would report that there was a knock at the front door at around 1pm, and she opened it to a woman who identified herself as Tony Merchant's wife. She asked about Stephanie and after a short conversation, Susan went back inside the house, but she soon realised the whole thing had been a ruse, because standing on her back porch was none other than Colin Thatcher, his lawyer Anthony Merchant, and another younger man that she couldn't identify, who was obviously Greg. Colin asked to see his daughter and Susan said it was fine, but she had to check with Tony Wilson, Stephanie's stepdad, first.
15:34 Speaker 03 Colin wasn't having it, and he started pushing past Susan to get into her house, and Susan pushed back to defend herself, resulting in a scuffle. Nine-year-old Stephanie saw the whole confrontation and fled to a bedroom. Susan followed her there and shielded her, but Colin was right behind them, yelling that he had a right to see his daughter. Susan would tell the leader post that the younger man was hot on his tail, yelling, "Let her go, she's my sister." Another physical struggle ensued, where Susan was holding Stephanie with both arms as Colin and Greg tried to pry her arms apart.
16:19 Speaker 03 Stephanie was screaming, "Please daddy, let me go", but Colin wouldn't. Eventually, he was successful in dislodging his daughter from Susan's grip. But Susan continued to fight him as he escorted Stephanie out, which resulted in several of his belt loops being torn. Susan remembered little Stephanie apologising profusely to her for causing so much trouble.
16:49 Speaker 03 Shaken, Susan called the police straight away. She would say that she felt completely violated in her own home. Hours later, officers recovered Stephanie from her father's home in Moose Jaw. She was unharmed, physically at least. Stephanie was placed back in the care of her stepfather, Tony Wilson, and her father Colin and his lawyer Anthony Merchant were both charged with abduction. In response, Colin immediately launched a new custody action to get Stephanie back. This action would go the same as all the others, a bitter fight where Colin and his lawyer never backed off,
17:33 Speaker 03 wearing Tony Wilson down to a point where he would surrender the action and Colin would be awarded custody. The abduction charges against them would eventually be dropped, but Anthony Merchant would plead guilty to a lesser charge of mischief in exchange for absolute discharge. Meanwhile, Colin turned his attention to the property settlement, in particular, the second installment payment of about $90,000 that was fast approaching. Joanne had been murdered just three weeks before the payment was due, and as per the clause in their contract, Colin immediately applied to have the payment deferred for another year.
18:18 Speaker 03 He would end up defaulting on that payment as well.
18:36 Speaker 01 Hey, it's Paige from Giggly Squad. I'm a big believer that sometimes a new workout outfit is all the motivation you need. And luckily, Abercrombie just teamed up with Berry's to bring a YPB collection made for the red room. I'm talking about YPB's Sculpt Luxe leggings, shorts, double-layered bras, and the new 6 AM jacket. Basically, everything you need to go from looking like you're just trying to survive a workout class to looking like you're achieving your personal best. Shop YPB by Abercrombie in the app, online, and in stores, and bring your personal best to the red room.
19:08 Speaker 04 The youth mental health crisis is growing and social media is a major driver. Kids are spending up to nine hours a day on screens, often unsupervised, and studies show a direct link to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. That's where Gab comes in. Gab offers safer phones and watches for kids with no social media, tailored to every age, offering the right tech at the right time, or Tech in Steps. From GPS-tracking-enabled watches for younger kids to phones with parent-enabled apps for teens, each device allows kids to more safely grow their independence. Visit gab.com/getgab and use code GETGAB for an exclusive offer.
19:49 Speaker 04 That's G A B B dot com forward slash get gab. Gab: Tech in Steps. Independence for them, peace of mind for parents.
20:10 Speaker 03 Investigators had been working around the clock on the case. They'd been speaking to neighbors of the Wilsons, who either knew each other or knew of each other, as well as what cars they drove. And several of them reported seeing two suspicious-looking cars, one in the days leading up to Joanne's murder, and another seen around the same time that she was attacked. In the days beforehand, one neighbor reported seeing a dark-blue car parked near the Wilson residence with a man sitting in the driver's seat. He noticed that the man rarely moved his head, except when people were walking past, and he would visibly turn his head in the other direction.
20:56 Speaker 03 This neighbor noticed the man's face was either heavily tanned or olive in color, which contrasted with his hands, which were stark white, as though he was wearing tight rubber gloves. He was also wearing a toque. Neighbour's housekeeper had also seen the car parked with a man sitting in the driver's seat. She described it as a blue Oldsmobile, and she first saw it three days before Joanne's murder, between three and five PM in the afternoon. She didn't think much of it until she saw it again the next day at the same time, again, with the driver just sitting inside the car.
21:39 Speaker 03 She said the man had a neatly trimmed dark moustache and beard, dark collar-length hair covered by a tuque, and was possibly wearing sunglasses and a dark-coloured jacket. This new description would prompt the police to revise the composite sketch, which previously described a man with a more scraggly beard and hair. The third time the housekeeper saw the suspicious car was Thursday, January 20, the day before Joanne's murder. The housekeeper was leaving the home she worked at, and the car was parked in front of her, so she took the opportunity to look at the number plate. It was mostly obscured by mud,
22:22 Speaker 03 but she was able to make a note of the last three numbers on the plate: 292.
22:31 Speaker 03 On January 23, two days after Joanne was murdered, investigators went to Colin's home in the town of Moosejaw. They spotted a car parked just down the street, a blue, four-door, 1981 Oldsmobile, which looked suspiciously like the car Joanne's neighbours had reported seeing parked on the street. Police noticed the licence plate was partially obscured, but they saw that this one ended in 292 as well.
23:06 Speaker 03 As it turned out, the car had been checked out of the government's Central Vehicle Agency by Colin Thatcher on January 10th, the day after he returned from Palm Springs after Christmas vacation with the boys. The police took photographs of the car, noting that the interior was clean. They left it there for the time being, but would return five days later to seize it. The neighbours who saw the car parked outside the Wilson home would confirm that this car was the same car they had seen, or that they were confident it was. But the blue Oldsmobile was only seen in the days leading up to the attack, in the afternoons.
23:51 Speaker 03 No one reported seeing it the day that Joanne was murdered. There was a different suspicious car spotted by neighbours that day, parked near the Wilson home at around the same time that Joanne was murdered. The police would announce that this car resembled a 1975 two-tone green Chrysler Cordoba, although a Ford Mustang was also mentioned in some of the media reports. But no green car was ever located, perhaps because the car had only been spotted once when it was dark outside, whereas the blue Oldsmobile was seen on three different days during daylight hours.
24:35 Speaker 03 The police may have been diverted looking for a green Cordoba, but Gary Anderson knew that the only other car in play was the brown 1974 Mercury V8 that he had delivered to Colin's home in Moose Jaw the day of Joanne's murder. After he saw the news that Joanne had been murdered, he went back to get the Mercury V8 from the same location he parked it. The car's licence Plates were clean when he left it there, but now they were smeared with mud. He drove the mercury back to his mother's farm to clean it up, and would later tell police what he found inside the car.
25:19 Speaker 03 A black ski-type jacket, a pair of blue jeans, sunglasses, grey work socks, a receipt, and a tuft of hair which appeared to come from a wig. He burnt the items in a barrel on the farm, cleaned the plates, vacuumed out the car, and left it at the farm. Gary Anderson and Colin Thatcher wouldn't speak again for eighteen months. But Gary did speak to the police before then. Investigators had been looking into Colin's known associates and saw that he leased some of his land from Gary Anderson's family. So investigators spoke with Gary,
26:01 Speaker 03 but he was uncooperative and deliberately vague. He denied any knowledge of what had happened to Joanne Wilson.
26:13 Speaker 03 A funeral for Joanne Kay Wilson was held on January twenty-fifth of nineteen eighty-three. The Leader Post published a photo of her second husband Tony Wilson walking in with his nine-year-old stepdaughter Stephanie. But absent from the service was Stephanie's older brothers Gregory and Regan, as well as their father Colin.
26:39 Speaker 03 The murder of the ex-wife of Colin Thatcher, only five days after his sudden resignation as Minister of Energy and Mines, had made massive headlines. That alone would have been shocking to people across Saskatchewan, but in this case even more so because of the prolonged and very public custody battle, not to mention the fact that Joanne had been shot in the shoulder in her own home less than eighteen months earlier. Her husband Tony Wilson would tell the media, quote, "We were very much in love. She was very beautiful with a lovely smile, and she was extremely loyal."
27:25 Speaker 03 Joanne's friends and family all agreed that the two years she was married to Tony were the best of her life, describing him as just the kind of husband that she needed and deserved. Tony would sign a sworn affidavit that Colin Thatcher, progressive Conservative MLA, quote, "orchestrated the death of his former wife."
27:53 Speaker 03 Colin's account of his whereabouts on the day Joanne was murdered included him driving between his home in Moose Jaw and his ranch near Karen. He said he arrived home at about 5:45pm and then sat down to eat dinner with his sons Greg and Regan, as well as their longtime babysitter, Sandra. Dinner was at 6pm. As you'll remember, Joanne was seen driving into her garage in Regina a few minutes before 6pm. And Regina is 70 kilometres from Moose Jaw, about a 45-minute drive according to today's Google Maps. Colin said that after dinner,
28:38 Speaker 03 he received a phone call from his lawyer, Anthony Merchant, with the news that something had happened at the Wilson home in Regina, but he didn't know for sure. Anthony promised to call again when he found out more.
28:54 Speaker 03 At about 7pm, Anthony called again with the news that Joanne Wilson had been fatally shot. Colin told the police that this is how he learned that his ex-wife was dead. He then made a phone call to his girlfriend in Palm Springs, California, to let her know. The girlfriend's name was Lyn Mendel, and when investigators tracked her down, she denied having any knowledge of what happened to Joanne Wilson.
29:25 Speaker 03 The police looked at what they had. There was quite a bit of interesting evidence, but most of it was circumstantial. They needed more. Fortunately, there were three more prime witnesses that knew things about Colin Thatcher. They hadn't come forward to police yet, but they would. One of them was Gary Anderson.
29:52 Speaker 03 After Joanne's murder in January of 1983, investigators were trying to locate the two cars that witnesses had seen near the Wilson house. And one of their tactics was to contact car rental companies to see if any cars that matched those descriptions had been rented out at the time. Obviously, the blue Oldsmobile seen the days before Joanne's murder had been checked out by Colin from the Government Central Vehicle Agency, and the Mercury V8 had been procured by Gary. Neither were rented. But while investigators were checking those records, they decided to also look into cars
30:34 Speaker 03 rented out the first time Joanne was shot, in May of 1981. You'll remember that witnesses said they saw a late-model, rust-coloured car with a lot of chrome around the taillights speeding away from the scene. The police had never located that car or the person driving it. They didn't even have an official suspect. But after Joanne's murder, investigators found a rental car contract for a car that matched the description released by police, rented just before Joanne was shot the first time, and the contract was signed by Gary Anderson.
31:17 Speaker 03 This was the first time that Gary had been instructed to rent a car and park it in Moose Jaw just a few blocks away from Colin's home, with the keys hidden in a designated spot. The police approached Gary for a second time, and found him to be just as uncooperative as the first. But afterwards, he got to thinking. He decided he had to do the right thing and come clean, but he was afraid for his safety. Gary was acutely aware of Colin Thatcher's public profile in Saskatchewan, and he had a unique vantage point to see what the man was like in private as well. Gary Anderson decided to hire a lawyer.
32:02 Speaker 03 And over many months, he negotiated an agreement for immunity in exchange for his testimony at trial. This immunity covered both times that Joanne was shot. Gary told them all about the original meetings with Colin, bringing Charles Wild into the scheme as well as Jack Gold, and all the times Colin thought Joanne was going to be murdered, but arrived home to find out she was still alive. The police would question Charles Wild and Jack Gold, whose real name was Cody Crutcher. Both would back up Gary's story.
32:41 Speaker 03 Gary told the police that the reason for all the different vehicles was in case one was spotted by a witness. It would make it difficult for the police to tie Colin to the crime. Gary also told investigators about Colin asking him to make a silencer for the revolver he purchased in Palm Springs. He directed them to the location behind his brother's home, where he threw out the doomed silences. He told the police that while he was willing to help Colin arrange things, he refused to commit the murder himself. And eventually, Colin gave up trying to hire a hitman and decided to just do it himself.
33:24 Speaker 03 So the police had one key witness to testify against Colin Thatcher and people to back him up. But a confession from Colin himself would be even better. They convinced Gary to wear a wire and meet with Colin to try and get him to say something incriminating. By this point, it had been 18 months since Gary had spoken to Colin the morning of Joanne's murder. But Gary came up with a ruse to contact him and arranged another abandoned farm meeting.
34:01 Speaker 03 On May the 1st of 1984, Gary was kitted up with the wire as well as a bulletproof vest before heading off to meet Colin. After the two caught up, Gary started talking about their previous business together in an attempt to elicit an incriminating statement from Colin. The following quotes have been slightly edited for clarity and brevity. Gary told Colin that after he picked up the 1974 Mercury, he quote “got rid of the stuff out of the car. Good,” replied Colin. Gary then spoke about cleaning out the car, quote “had a bitch of a time getting blood and stuff off.”
34:44 Speaker 03 Colin asked if there was ever a chance that it would surface, and Gary said no. They spoke about how the car story was confusing to police because they had two cars to track. Colin commented that investigators had been diverted looking for a two-toned green Chrysler Cordoba seen parked near the Wilson home on the night of the murder. That car was actually the brown 1974 Mercury V8. Gary continued talking about the crime, quote “you kind of gave me a scare there. I found the stuff laying in there and then I wondered what the hell, I don’t know, what the hell you’d done with the gun.” Colin replied, “Don’t even talk like that.
35:27 Speaker 03 Now, there are no loose ends at all, and you know, they’ve gone it every which direction. Was there any way a loose end from a couple of years ago can ever resurface?”
35:39 Speaker 03 This may have been in reference to the first time Joanne was shot and the involvement of Charles Wild and Jack Gold in the lead-up. Colin then asked if there was a chance of any problem surfacing, and Gary implied there wouldn’t be. They spoke about the fact that the police had already questioned Gary, but he said it wasn’t an interrogation. Colin then gave him some advice. If the police approached him again, he had to remember his rights, quote “you don’t even have to talk to them.” He cautioned Gary that they should be careful about not being seen together, but told him not to worry about being caught.
36:23 Speaker 03 It ain't coming to that because they have no way of... There's only two places to put the connection together and they've got zero else. Zero else. And you know what there is to put together and it's not possible and it's not coming from me. I mean, just always remember that if they ever say I did this or that, it's a crock of garbage. It's always just deny, deny, deny.
36:51 Speaker 03 So Colin did say several things that implied he was involved in the crime, but nothing that amounted to a smoking gun confession. He mentioned several times during the conversation that he was paranoid that the police were listening to his conversations and that he may have been bugged. At one point, Gary had mentioned that he was low on cash and Colin asked him, Do you need some bread? This is a colloquial term for money. Gary said he could use some since he'd purchased that Mercury V8. Colin said he'd leave a payment for him at an agreed-upon location and time. As they parted ways, Gary yelled back at Colin, I'm glad you got her.
37:37 Speaker 03 Colin's response was, Okay.
37:42 Speaker 03 So he didn't give any statements that were directly incriminating, but his responses and evasiveness, in conjunction with the other circumstantial evidence, convinced investigators that he was the mastermind. After this recorded conversation, the police went to the location where the money was supposed to have been left for Gary. They returned several times before finding a green plastic bag with an envelope in it containing $500, proof that Colin had paid Gary to do something. So the police had now spoken with one important witness. The second would be Colin's girlfriend in Palm Springs,
38:27 Speaker 03 33-year-old Lyn Mendel. She was 12 years younger than Colin.
38:35 Speaker 03 By this point, almost eighteen months had passed since Joanne's murder. An investigator circled back to Lynne to ask her for another interview. This time, they found a completely different Lynne. She and Colin had long since broken up and she'd remarried. Lynne told investigators that the reason she pleaded ignorance last time was because she was afraid of Colin and she feared for her own life. But now, she was ready to talk. Lynne told investigators about the history of their relationship. They met in Palm Springs in October of 1980, which was around the time that Colin and Joanne's divorce went through
39:18 Speaker 03 and their custody over Regan was becoming extremely contentious. Colin was making a lot of trips to California, where he had that vacation condo, and that's where he met Lynne after a mutual friend set them up on a blind date. Lynne said that she found him charming and fun at times. Early on, she noticed that he seemed to be fixated on how his ex-wife had wronged him. But after he asked Lynne to move into his condo, she put that out of her mind. After they'd only been dating a month, Colin invited Lynne to visit him in Moose Jaw.
39:59 Speaker 03 And while she was there, she attended a parliamentary event with him in the city of Regina and met members of his family. She told the police that she got to know the Thatcher family quite well. Lynne described her relationship with Colin as committed and serious, but also explosive. Quote, "Colin could be very charming, but he had some dramatic mood swings. On several occasions, he hit me."
40:29 Speaker 03 She said his volatile personality made him strangely attractive at times and extremely dangerous at others. Quote, "There was a little boy quality about him, but in a willful sort of way. He can't imagine not getting his own way." Lynne described a Jekyll and Hyde persona, which she chalked up to stress from his ongoing custody battle. But soon, she started to think he was completely obsessed with his ex-wife. Colin always referred to Joanne as "that bitch", and because Lynne had only heard his side of the story, she did sympathise with him.
41:10 Speaker 03 She would later testify that, quote, "Much of his conversation was taken up with his bitterness about his ex-wife and the entire proceedings that had gone on before the divorce. And a lot of hatred, a lot of bitterness. Many times, he mentioned he wanted to kill her, and it went on and on and on. He wanted to arrange for someone too. It was highly on his mind all the time." Lynne knew exactly when Joanne had been shot the first time in May of 1981, because Colin had spoken to her about it. He told her that he'd met someone that he wanted to hire to kill Joanne, but eventually
41:51 Speaker 03 he told her the plans had fallen through, and he would have to go about it himself, one way or another. After Joanne had been shot in the shoulder, Lynne said that Colin told her that he drove to Regina in a car someone else had rented for him, and he put on a disguise consisting of a wig, a long shaggy beard and overalls. He told her that he approached Joanne's home with a high-powered rifle and shot her through the triple-glazed glass. Afterwards, Lynne remembered him saying with a laugh, quote, "Gee, I didn't gauge the thickness of the glass, so the bullet obviously deflected because I only got her in the shoulder."
42:35 Speaker 03 Colin told Lyn he drove back to Moose Jaw, avoiding roadblocks by taking back roads and when necessary, winding through fields. He said he got rid of the gun, the wig and the overalls in a field somewhere before he arrived home. He told Lyn that, "The only thing that saved me is that the police didn't go, actually go physically to my house to see that I was there." You'll remember that both times Joanne was shot, Colin's alibi included his children.
43:13 Speaker 03 In the aftermath of the first shooting, Lyn Mandell reported that Colin told her Joanne and Tony Wilson were "very scared now", and he expected that they would compromise on the property and custody settlement, which they did. Lyn would say that she took all of his talk with a grain of salt, but she happened to catch Joanne's press conference on TV, where she set the record straight about why she felt she had no choice but to abandon her fight for custody of Regan. Joanne described being personally terrorised, but didn't name the person responsible. Lyn was watching with interest, and told police she could see how scared Joanne was.
43:59 Speaker 03 Her attitude about the situation started to change after that, especially in light of the fact that Colin's obsession with his ex-wife didn't seem to be dying down. Lyn would tell the Leader Post that he spoke often about doing away with Joanne. Quote, "When Colin talked about getting rid of his wife, his big justification was getting Stephanie. He was ticked off because he wanted Stephanie."
44:28 Speaker 03 Lyn Mandell was the one who told police that Colin had purchased the Magnum revolver in January of 1982 in Palm Springs. She told him the exact shop he purchased it from, and the police attended the store to corroborate that purchase with the store's owner. Lyn said she saw Colin practice shooting with the revolver, and she watched him pack it up to take back to Canada with him, because he didn't want to declare it at customs or register it under Canadian firearm legislation. So he wrapped it in newspaper and packaged it up in a Barbie doll shower box. Lyn told the police that in May of that same year,
45:12 Speaker 03 she was visiting Colin in Moose Jaw just after he'd been appointed Minister of Energy and Mines. It was an exciting time. She would say that over the years they were together, Colin had asked her to marry him multiple times, but she couldn't get him to make any actual plans, and he still seemed fixated on his ex-wife. But now that he was divorced and a government minister, she assumed that everything was in place and they were finally headed toward marriage. She told the police that when she tried to speak to him about it, the conversation devolved to a point where he physically assaulted her.
45:54 Speaker 03 Lyn was so upset that she took an overdose of painkillers, which landed her in hospital in Moose Jaw. She would later tell the lead a post that, quote, "It was embarrassing to admit I was beaten up that night. I was embarrassed. He told me we were going to get married."
46:14 Speaker 03 Relationships marred by domestic violence typically flow through a sequence, commonly called the cycle of abuse. Tensions build, leading to an incident, whether it be verbal, emotional, or physical abuse. Then there is reconciliation, where the abuser charms and love bombs the survivor back into their good graces. There's apologies and promises not to do it again, but it's often accompanied by gaslighting and victim blaming, where the abuse is downplayed or the survivor is told they were somehow responsible for making the abuser behave that way. Once the survivor has been suitably convinced to stay in the relationship, comes a period of calm.
46:59 Speaker 03 But because it's a cycle, it doesn't take long before tensions are building again. Lyn told police that after Colin beat her up that night, he wheeled out his charming side and convinced her to stay in the relationship. After that, Lyn continued to split her time between California and Saskatchewan. But she was starting to grow wary of their stormy relationship. Lyn would say that about a month before Joanne's murder, she started to realise that their relationship was a sham and Colin didn't even know who she was, other than “a tanned little blonde, a nice prop”.
47:40 Speaker 03 Lyn had much more to say and agreed that she would come to Canada to testify against Colin if need be.
47:49 Speaker 03 So Gary Anderson was one prime witness. Lyn Mendel was a second. There was one more prime witness yet to come forward, but the police had enough evidence to arrest Colin Thatcher.
48:04 Speaker 03 A week after Gary Anderson's recorded conversation, Colin Thatcher was arrested without incident at his Moosejaw home and charged with the murder of his ex-wife, Joanne Wilson. The next day, a pack of news photographers were waiting outside the courthouse when he arrived for his first bail hearing. Despite a number of his supporters submitting sworn affidavits in support of his release on bail, it was denied. The same day, the Regina Police got a search warrant for Colin Thatcher's Moosejaw home. In a small closet off the main bedroom, they found a Barbie doll shower box
48:47 Speaker 03 with a label on it that indicated it had been purchased in Palm Springs. There was also some old newspaper from the Los Angeles Times. This finding lent a great deal of credibility to Lyn's version of events.
49:06 Speaker 03 The Leader Post would describe the police investigation and subsequent trial as the most spectacular in the history of Saskatchewan. A case that received international press coverage and mesmerised the entire province. So much so that the trial was meant to be held in Regina, but Colin Thatcher's lawyer argued he wouldn't receive a fair trial there, so it was moved to Saskatoon. In October of 1984, the 46-year-old pleaded not guilty to murdering Joanne Wilson. If convicted, he would get the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
49:50 Speaker 03 No one was ever charged for the first time Joanne was shot in the shoulder, and Gary Anderson had immunity as part of his testimony. But this incident would be referenced several times by witnesses during the trial.
50:15 Speaker 00 I'm Jake Stauk, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English, and it's built. No drag-and-drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked, and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company. This is a new way to run IT. We guarantee you'll automate 50% of all tickets,
50:59 Speaker 00 and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot. Go to serval.com/tickets. That's S E R V A L dot com slash tickets.
51:12 Speaker 05 Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system.
51:15 Speaker 00 A missed call doesn't feel like anything. No red flag, no notification screaming at you. It just disappears into your call log. And nine times out of 10, that was someone ready to hand you money. That's why today's episode is brought to you by QUO, spelled Q U O. The business phone system built so you never miss a call. Here's what I like about it. All your calls, texts, and voicemails live in one place. So anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history, and respond fast. No more, "Wait, who talked to this customer last?" And if you're worried about after-hours leads slipping through, QUO's optional built-in AI agent can answer questions and even book appointments while your team's offline. It's the number one rated business phone system on G2,
51:59 Speaker 00 and over 90,000 businesses already trust it to stay reachable. Money is on the line. Always say hello with QUO. Try QUO for free. Plus, get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com/tech. That's Q U O dot com slash tech.
52:26 Speaker 03 The Crown's case was that Colin Thatcher likely killed Joanne Wilson intentionally himself. But that didn't exclude the possibility that he arranged to have someone else kill her and aided or abetted them in doing so. Either way, it was murder, but the jury wasn't tasked with deciding if Colin Thatcher himself actually murdered Joanne. The only decision they would be making was if Colin was ultimately responsible for her murder.
53:01 Speaker 03 In opening statements, Crown prosecutor Serge Cuivava compared Colin to the infamous fictional character J.R. Ewing from the Dallas TV series, played by Larry Hagman. The character's Wikipedia page states, quote, "As the show's most famous character, J.R. Ewing has been central to many of the series' biggest storylines. He is depicted as a covetous, egocentric, manipulative and a moral oil baron with psychopathic tendencies."
53:37 Speaker 03 The Crown's circumstantial evidence included Colin's purchase of a Ruger Security 6357 Magnum revolver in Palm Springs a year before Joanne's murder. The gun shop's owner, Ron Williams, testified about remembering this transaction, as well as a subsequent visit Colin made to the shop, where he purchased two boxes of ammunition to go with the revolver, a special kind that had only been on the US market for less than a year. He also purchased a holster. Colin's executive assistant testified that in the fall of 1982, about three months before
54:17 Speaker 03 Joanne's murder, Colin had asked him to pick up a government vehicle from his home and return it to the Central Vehicle Agency in Regina. The assistant told the jury that he did as instructed, and was surprised to find a gun holster under the front seat. When he mentioned it to Colin, there was no indication that it caused him any concern. The assistant ended up keeping the holster and handed it over to police weeks after Joanne's murder. The owner of the gun shop testified that this holster found under the seat was consistent with the holster he sold to Colin Thatcher.
55:03 Speaker 03 The court heard evidence about Joanne Wilson's cause of death. The autopsy determined that her most significant injury was the gunshot wound to her head, a massive disruption of the brain that caused her death. About 14 bullet fragments had been recovered and sent for ballistic analysis. The jury heard that they were consistent with the same kind of special bullet that Colin had purchased in the United States, and likely fired from the same Magnum revolver that he purchased. The court heard that the revolver was never found. There was some debate about whether this special ammunition was sold in Canada,
55:48 Speaker 03 and the judge would conclude that it wasn't readily available but could be purchased in Canada if needed. The jury also heard about the brutal beating that Joanne sustained before the gunshot, the fact that she'd been brutalised and cut with a heavy instrument with a sharp curved blade. Whatever this weapon was, was never found either. The court heard that the extent and severity of the beating strongly suggested that this attack was not the work of a hitman. This was presented as circumstantial evidence of Colin Thatcher's personal involvement.
56:31 Speaker 03 As you'll remember, one of the first pieces of evidence found by investigators was a credit card receipt found on the ground just a few feet away from the garage. The receipt was for the purchase of gas from a Shell station near Karen, located 100 kilometres from Regina, in an area where the Thatcher Ranch is also located. And the receipt itself had part of Colin's surname printed on it, as well as the scribble of his signature. Investigators visited the owner of the gas station, who testified that he remembered Colin Thatcher purchasing gasoline from him on January 18, 1983, three days before Joanne's murder.
57:16 Speaker 03 There appeared to be no reason for that receipt to be at the Wilson home in Regina the same night that Joanne was murdered. Colin would provide an answer for this when he testified in his own defence.
57:35 Speaker 03 Gary Anderson was the Crown's star witness, but he was a no-show on the first day he was supposed to testify. The following day, he explained that he was afraid and felt like the police weren't protecting him enough, so he took an overdose of a headache medicine the night before he was due to take the stand. The 38-year-old testified about supplying Colin Thatcher with guns, ammunition, cars and clean-up services. He told the jury that he'd introduced Colin Thatcher to Charles Wild, who connected them to Jack Gold, aka Cody Crutcher. Gary said he helped Colin plot an attempt on Joanne Wilson's life in 1981, when she
58:18 Speaker 03 was shot in the shoulder, and again in 1983, when she was murdered in her garage. He testified that Colin had driven him into Regina and showed him how easy it would be to kill Joanne, showing him the house that she lived in, where to enter the yard, and where to stand to get a good view of the house, and then how to leave. Gary told the jury the reason he participated in Colin's plans was "because I was a fool". In a later special feature on the case, published by The Leader Post, several of Gary's acquaintances described him as a person who was lost in life, but always wanted to be a big player
59:03 Speaker 03 in something. And Colin Thatcher was a big player in Saskatchewan. But according to one former associate, it was on-brand for Gary to refuse to be the one to pull the trigger. He was a criminal, but he was described as having a sense of honour and ethics, a line that he wouldn't cross. Gary testified that he didn't speak with Colin for more than a year after the first time Joanne was shot, and how when they met again, he asked Colin how he'd managed to miss killing Joanne at that close range. Colin responded that he did not know.
59:43 Speaker 03 Although Gary helped Colin with the planning and organisational tasks for the two times that Joanne was shot in Regina, he told the jury that it was Colin himself who fired the firearms. Gary Anderson also testified about the recorded conversation, where Colin advised him to deny, deny, deny, and said there were no loose ends when it came to his own alibi. The jury heard the full recording. On cross-examination, the defence suggested to Gary that there was nothing in the recorded conversation resembling a confession, and the comments Colin Thatcher made were generalised
1:00:26 Speaker 03 and could refer to any number of things. But Gary didn't agree. He pointed out parts in the conversation where Colin said he was paranoid about phones being bugged, and the fact that Colin often spoke in code. When the cryptic conversation is considered in that context, it still pointed to Colin's role in Joanne's murder. The defence also accused Gary of making the entire story up to try and collect the $50,000 reward, which Gary denied. Charles Wild also testified and corroborated Gary Anderson's story.
1:01:06 Speaker 03 Charles told the jury that he brought Jack Gold, aka Cody Crutcher, into the group as the proposed hitman. Charles testified about the first direct meeting with Colin Thatcher himself at the abandoned farm after one of the planned shootings didn't go ahead. Colin demanded to know what had happened and offered Charles a large sum of money to do it himself. Colin's plan was for Charles to travel to the United States and kill Joanne when she was visiting her family for Easter.
1:01:42 Speaker 03 Charles told the jury that he agreed to the contract but he never intended on actually carrying it out. In fact, neither did Jack Gold. They just wanted the easy money. The whole thing had been a scam.
1:02:00 Speaker 03 Lyn Mendel testified about her three-year relationship with Colin, his obsession with Joanne, and quote, "How many times he mentioned he wanted to kill his wife or arrange for someone to kill her. Apparently, it was a lot of times." Lyn told the jury that he spoke with her about his negotiations with the men back home to get it done, although he never gave her any of their names. She confirmed she did not know Gary Anderson or any of Colin's other associates, and had never even met them. She knew about each time the plans had fallen through, and testified that eventually Colin
1:02:42 Speaker 03 told her, quote, "He was going to have to go about it in another way." She told the jury about the first time Joanne was shot, how Colin joked about the fact he'd only managed to hit his ex-wife in the shoulder. Lyn Mendel also testified about Colin's purchase of the Magnum revolver, which was wrapped up a newspaper and a Barbie doll shower box to be taken to Canada. An investigator would testify about finding that Barbie doll shower box and LA Times newspaper at Colin's home in Canada. Lyn testified that by December of 1982, the month before Joanne's murder, Colin told
1:03:26 Speaker 03 her to be available by phone at certain times every day in case he called. And because he was very paranoid about the police listening in, he spoke to Lyn encoded messages in those calls. "Over the next few weeks, they spoke on the phone frequently," she said, with him feeding her bits and pieces of coded information that she knew was about Joanne and his plans for her. In one call, he implied he'd been going to Regina every night to find out how long the drive took, and also to find an opportune time to kill Joanne.
1:04:04 Speaker 03 Lyn testified about receiving two phone calls from Colin on the day that Joanne was murdered, January 21 of 1983. There's no indication that she gave the specific times about when she received these calls, other than the fact that the first one was earlier in the evening. In that call, she said that Colin told her, quote, "Well, I'm going out now. This might be the night. Stick around." In the later call, Lyn said he told her, quote, "Oh my god, I've just been called. Apparently Joanne has been shot in her home and has been killed."
1:04:45 Speaker 03 Lyn testified that this was a coded comment that she understood to mean that Colin had gone into Regina and had been instrumental in Joanne's murder.
1:04:57 Speaker 03 When Colin returned to Palm Springs a few days later, Lyn said she told him, "Well, you really did it, didn't you?" She told the jury that Colin nodded a yes, but scowled as he pointed to the walls of the condo. It was a reference to his paranoia about bugging. The most damning part of Lyn Mendel's testimony was about a conversation they had when they were outside the condo, and Colin was no longer worried about listening devices. Lyn told the jury that he shook his head and told her, quote, "I have to admit, it is a strange feeling to have blown your wife away."
1:05:40 Speaker 03 Over the next few days, Colin read The Los Angeles Times and The Desert Sun, the two newspapers they got delivered to the condo. Lyn would say he told her, quote, "I don't know why they said Joanne was beaten. I didn't beat her." Lyn didn't know whether that comment was for her benefit. She told the jury that they broke up not long after that. Colin returned to Saskatchewan and she moved out of his Palm Springs condo. Several months later, she married someone else, but she said she did continue to maintain some contact with Colin after that. When Lyn was asked why she didn't speak to police much earlier, like after Joanne
1:06:24 Speaker 03 was shot the first time, and certainly after she was murdered, Lyn said she was extremely afraid. After all, Colin was the high-profile Minister of Energy and Mines for the Saskatchewan Government. Quote, "What was I supposed to have done? There were a couple of times when I said, 'I've got to call Joanne,' but I didn't. If I'd phoned the Regina City Police and Colin found out, I'd be dead." Lyn said she didn't really want to know what had happened with Joanne and she was scared, so she didn't ask Colin any questions about it. Lyn Mandell was a US citizen who lived in the States, and as such, she couldn't be
1:07:07 Speaker 03 compelled by Canadian courts to testify. She chose to testify, but she told the jury about several threatening phone calls in the lead-up to the court proceedings. One anonymous caller warned her, as a friend, not to get involved in something that was none of her business. Another caller told her, quote, "You're safe and you'll remain safe as long as you don't go up north." On cross-examination, the defence suggested that Lyn fabricated her whole story because she was just very bitter that Colin wouldn't marry her, and that her overdose on painkillers
1:07:46 Speaker 03 after being beaten by him meant she was mentally unstable and therefore couldn't be trusted. She denied these suggestions. The defence also asked her, "What kind of woman sleeps with a man knowing he committed murder?" Lyn answered, "Someone who was very afraid that if she doesn't, she would get smacked around." The court also heard testimony from Tony Wilson, who testified that his wife, Joanne, also feared for her life before she was murdered. He said he wouldn't mind at all if Colin Thatcher was convicted of murder.
1:08:27 Speaker 03 Neighbours gave evidence about the apparent surveillance of Joanne Wilson's home for a number of days leading up to her murder. Specifically, the bearded man spotted sitting in the blue Oldsmobile with a number plate that ended in 292. Investigators testified that it was the same car that Colin had checked out from the government's central vehicle agency almost two weeks before Joanne's murder, making it a key piece of circumstantial evidence. But the identity of the bearded man sitting in the car was less clear. He was described as having dark hair, a toque, white gloves and skin that was either heavily tanned or olive in colour.
1:09:12 Speaker 03 One neighbour testified that the man he saw did not look like the accused, Colin Thatcher. Now, it should be noted that the leader post described Gary Anderson as "a hulking bearded figure", but Gary's testimony never mentioned anything about conducting surveillance outside Joanne Wilson's house in the days before her murder. He did testify that Colin Thatcher told him he'd been stalking Joanne's house for about a week, and the morning of the murder when they met up, Colin lamented that he didn't "get" Joanne the night before. The identity of the person sitting in the blue Oldsmobile in the days before Joanne's
1:09:56 Speaker 03 murder was never confirmed, but it didn't really matter. The Crown wasn't trying to prove who murdered Joanne, only that Colin Thatcher was ultimately responsible for it. Gary Anderson also testified about the day that Joanne was murdered, how he arranged the Mercury V8 and parked it near Colin's home in Moose Jaw as instructed and waited, how when Colin arrived, Gary handed him the Magnum revolver and they drove off. According to a court document, Colin dropped Gary off at the bus depot in Moose Jaw,
1:10:37 Speaker 03 and he caught a bus to Regina for reasons that weren't explained. It's assumed that the police knew what those reasons were, but decided it wasn't relevant for the trial. Gary was still in Regina two days later, when he saw the news of Joanne's murder. He asked a friend to lend him a truck so he could drive back to Moose Jaw and pick up the Mercury V8 as instructed.
1:11:04 Speaker 03 Gary testified about the car's licence plates being clean when he left it there, and now they were smeared with mud. And when he got the car back to his mother's place, he found a black ski-type jacket, a pair of blue jeans, sunglasses, grey work socks, and a tuft of hair which appeared to come from a wig. He destroyed these items by burning them. Gary was asked if he saw a fake beard or anything similar with those items, and he told the jury that he did not see anything like that.
1:11:40 Speaker 03 When it came to the man seen walking away from the murder scene, the only person who saw this man was Craig, the man walking home from work at the nearby legislative building. He testified that he only saw the individual for just a moment at a distance of about thirty to forty feet away. He didn't even look directly at him because at that point he didn't know there had been a murder and was focused on identifying the source of the screaming. Craig said it was only after he saw Joanne's body that he realised the man he'd seen was a suspect. But Craig said he was never confident of the accuracy of his description of the man leaving the garage,
1:12:25 Speaker 03 or the composite drawing that came out of it. He had described a man with dark hair and a scraggly beard. He may have been about thirty years old with a medium build and height, wearing dark trousers underneath a dark jacket that seemed to be either leather or pleather. There's no public information about Colin Thatcher's height and weight at the time, but photos depict him as being of average height and weight. At forty-five years old, he was quite a bit older than thirty, and he was clean-shaven with foppish brown hair that was graying parted at the side. During cross-examination, Craig agreed that the description he gave police
1:13:10 Speaker 03 didn't resemble Colin Thatcher as he knew him. He emphasized that if he had have seen Joanne's body first, he would have paid much closer attention to the person he saw leaving the garage.
1:13:27 Speaker 03 Gary Anderson had testified that he helped Colin with the planning and arranging, but it was Colin himself who fired the firearms both times that Joanne was shot. The problem was Colin had an alibi for them both. The first time when Joanne was shot in the shoulder in May of nineteen eighty-one, Colin said he was at home with their middle child, Regan. You'll remember this happened during the most contentious part of their custody battle. And when it came to the day that Joanne was murdered, Friday, January twenty-first of nineteen eighty-three, Colin told police that he spent the day driving between his home in Moose Jaw,
1:14:10 Speaker 03 about seventy kilometres or forty-five minutes' drive away from Regina, and his ranch at Karen, which is even further away, an additional twenty minutes' drive, according to today's Google Maps. He never mentioned anything about driving to or from Regina that day.
1:14:30 Speaker 03 We know that Joanne Wilson was murdered in Regina just before 6pm. At that same time in Moose Jaw, Colin said he was just about to sit down to eat dinner with his kids and the babysitter. He said he took the first phone call from his lawyer 15 to 30 minutes after dinner, and then he called his girlfriend Lynne after that. The court heard testimony from investigators who wanted to find answers to some logistical issues that didn't quite make sense. If Colin Thatcher did murder Joanne Wilson in Regina just before 6pm, they wanted to know how fast he would have had to drive to make it back to Moose Jaw
1:15:15 Speaker 03 in time to take the call from his lawyer. They decided to conduct a driving reconstruction to find out.
1:15:24 Speaker 03 Joanne had been murdered in January when the roads were a little snowy, and the reconstruction was done in October when the roads were clear. But it was conducted on the same day of the week, Friday evening at the same time. The jury heard that at 5.50pm, an investigator parked his police car around the street from the Wilson residence in Regina. He went to the garage and then set a stopwatch, running back to the police car and then speeding back to Moose Jaw on the highway at about 100 to 110 miles per hour, which is the equivalent of at least 160 kilometres per hour. The leader post would describe it as a high-speed race.
1:16:10 Speaker 03 The investigator told the jury he completed the drive in 28 minutes. By this point, Gary Anderson had confirmed that he'd procured the brown Mercury V8, that very fast car that he said he parked near Colin's Moose Jaw home. The investigator told the jury that the Mercury was a heavier car than the police cruiser, and it would drive very well on the highway. The police concluded that it was tight, but it was possible for Colin to murder Joanne in Regina just before 6pm, and then be back in Moose Jaw within 30 minutes to take and make phone calls.
1:16:55 Speaker 03 The problem was, his alibi placed him at home in Moose Jaw, sitting down for a family dinner. Colin Thatcher was capable of many things, but being in two places at the same time was not one of them. So if investigators were to consider the possibility that he had driven to Regina, murdered Joanne, and then sped home, they would also have to assume that Greg, Regan, and their babysitter Sandra all lied to the police about Colin being home for dinner, or perhaps they had an incorrect perception of time. They would all testify for the defence.
1:17:39 Speaker 03 So, there was a lot of circumstantial evidence against Colin Thatcher. His credit card receipt found metres from the garage, and the apparent surveillance of the Wilson residence by a person in a blue Oldsmobile in the days leading up to Joanne's murder. There was the fact that that same blue Oldsmobile was found near Colin's house, and that it had been checked out by him from the government's Central Vehicle Agency. There was Colin's purchase of a revolver, special ammunition, and a holster in the United States, and the Barbie doll shower box and LA Times newspaper found at his home in Moose Jaw, as per Lynne Mendel's statement to police.
1:18:24 Speaker 03 Other circumstantial evidence included the highly acrimonious custody battle, the fact that Joanne had been shot in the shoulder 18 months before she was murdered, and the fact that that assailant had never been identified. And the savage nature of the brutal beating Joanne sustained before the gunshot that killed her was circumstantial evidence that suggested it wasn't just an ordinary hit. It was deeply personal, a crime of passion.
1:18:55 Speaker 03 The direct evidence presented by The Crown included the statements Colin gave to various people, including Gary Anderson, when arranging the contract, as well as the recorded conversation eighteen months after Joanne's murder. There were the statements Colin made to Charles Wild and money paid to him regarding the Easter hit in the United States, as well as statements Colin made to Lyn Mendel, both before and after Joanne's murder. But there was one more important witness that hadn't yet come forward.
1:19:39 Speaker 03 That's where we'll leave it for part two. For more information and for the full list of resources we relied on to write this episode, visit canadiantruecrime.ca. Thanks to Gemma Harris for research in this series. Audio editing and production was by We Talk of Dreams, who also composed the theme songs. Production assistance was by Jessie Hawke, with script consulting by Carol Weinberg. Writing, narration, sound design and additional research was by me, and the disclaimer was voiced by Eric Crosby.
1:20:45 Speaker 00 I'm Jake Stauk, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English, and it's built. No drag-and-drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company. This is a new way to run IT.
1:21:27 Speaker 00 We guarantee you'll automate 50% of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot. Go to serval.com/tickets. That's S-E-R-V-A-L dot com slash tickets. Still waiting in line? Again? That's time you'll never get back. Save time and money with stamps.com. Over 4 million businesses have skipped the line with stamps.com. Join them to save up to 90% off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, registered mail, and packages in seconds. Then schedule a pickup right from your home or office. For a limited time, go to stamps.com and use code PODCAST for a free welcome gift. Taxes and fees apply.
Previous Colin Thatcher and the Murder of JoAnn Wilson [replay] Next Colin Thatcher and the Murder of JoAnn Wilson [3] Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated