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please take care when listening. This.

1:52

Is the final part of

1:54

a two part series and

1:56

additional content. Warning: This episode

1:59

includes brief. and the tension of

2:01

the death of an animal as well as

2:03

supernatural themes. Then

2:05

here is this wild looking creature standing on

2:07

the side of the road and I'll never

2:10

forget the look in his eyes, the crazed

2:12

look. He said to me, I could kill

2:14

you. Where

2:17

we left off it was 1982

2:19

and 30 year old Michael Oros

2:22

had finally been located, arrested and

2:24

charged. He'd been found in possession

2:26

of goods believed to have belonged

2:29

to Gunter Leche, the German Bushmen

2:31

who disappeared leaving behind a half

2:33

built cabin. Leche hadn't been seen

2:36

for almost a year. Oros

2:38

went berserk, it was smashing everything inside the

2:41

cells. So they called Mike who was the

2:43

only member in that detachment that would have

2:45

been powerful enough to take on Oros. On

2:48

that note all of a sudden Mike had him

2:50

in his chokehold and he looked at Mike after

2:52

when he woke up and he said, I'm

2:55

going to kill you someday. A

3:02

month or so later the judge acquitted

3:04

Oros and set him free citing a

3:07

lack of evidence. Oros

3:09

soon returned to the wilds of

3:11

north western British Columbia and for

3:13

the next two and a half

3:15

years there were barely any reported

3:18

sightings of the infamous Chezle Free

3:20

Mike. That

3:25

was until March of 1985. After

3:30

spending winter in the city of

3:32

Whitehorse in the Yukon, Frank and

3:35

Eileen Hayes were returning by snowmobile

3:37

to their remote cabin homestead close

3:39

to Teslan Lake. They hadn't been

3:42

there since the fall. When

3:45

they opened the door they were

3:47

confronted by a shocking sight. Their

3:50

cabin had been ransacked and looted.

3:53

All their tools were missing, their

3:55

fishing equipment was missing, their rifle,

3:58

ammunition and a canoe. Frank

4:01

Hayes opened his workshop door to

4:03

find it had been used as

4:05

a slaughterhouse with the butchered remains

4:08

of a moose strewn about the

4:10

room. Hayes said the

4:12

room was filthy. He

4:14

would tell the police, quote, It was

4:16

a mess. Everything was

4:18

gone. He even took our wedding rings.

4:21

More than six years of their hard

4:24

work had been destroyed over one winter.

4:26

The loss of possessions and damage was

4:29

estimated to be valued at about $7,000.

4:34

By this point, Frank and Eileen Hayes

4:36

had no choice but to spend the

4:38

night in their cabin knowing they had

4:41

to get out of there as soon

4:43

as possible because whoever it was would

4:45

probably be coming back. The

4:50

next morning they set out back

4:52

to town intending to report the

4:54

incident to the RCMP. When

4:57

the snowmobile reached Teslan Lake, Frank

4:59

said he suddenly saw what looked

5:01

like a man in the distance.

5:04

He knew straight away that there

5:07

was no one else that could

5:09

be than Chezle Free Mike who

5:11

was still notorious in the area

5:13

with frequent reports of threats, blakins

5:15

and stolen goods. Quote,

5:18

I took out my binoculars and I

5:20

could see him looking through a pair

5:22

of binoculars that he had stolen from

5:24

our cabin back at me. No

5:30

one knew it at the time, of

5:33

course, but Michael Oros had still been

5:35

keeping diaries. In early

5:37

February of 1985, about a

5:39

month before the cabin break-in

5:41

incident, he wrote that there was

5:44

going to be a quote,

5:46

big shootout and predicted that

5:48

it was going to happen that

5:50

year sometime soon. Another

5:53

entry starts with the headline, Death

5:55

Day, although that didn't turn out

5:57

to be the case. His

5:59

mental health had declined even further

6:02

by this point, and his diaries

6:04

would be described as being

6:06

written in fits and starts, his

6:08

handwriting changing so much that

6:10

a magnifying glass would be required

6:13

to decipher his words. Oros

6:16

wrote racist comments about indigenous

6:18

people, notes about guns, ammunition

6:21

and supplies, and his thoughts

6:23

on various books, movies and

6:26

songs. One

6:28

entry is reportedly full of rambles

6:30

about how a Hollywood producer and

6:32

agent wanted to make him a

6:35

star. Some days he

6:37

boasted about women wanting to sleep with

6:39

him, and on others he wrote about

6:41

vivid dreams he'd had, like this one.

6:56

Michael Oros's writing itself

6:58

is like a fever

7:00

dream, blurring the lines

7:02

between paranoid fantasy and

7:04

reality. The

7:18

majority of his rage was now

7:20

targeted towards the police. I've

7:23

been trying to beat these straights that have been

7:25

tortured drugging me for twelve years now and I've

7:27

had to fight the pigs all the way. Then

7:30

I finally realized it was mostly pigs doing

7:32

it to me. So the last year or

7:34

so I've kind of set back and enjoyed

7:36

myself doing things I want to before I

7:39

die, and I got a few more things

7:41

as I figure out how to beat these

7:43

pigs or sit waiting for them to kill

7:45

themselves. Neurosthenia, this is what

7:47

the dictionary calls the symptoms of

7:50

being tortured, drugged by the horrible,

7:52

horrible straight people. Neurosthenia

7:54

is more commonly known as chronic

7:56

fatigue syndrome. And

8:00

last night I swear I heard a dog barking

8:02

someplace." Oros notes that

8:04

the temperature at this time was

8:06

a freezing minus 26 degrees

8:09

Celsius, or minus 14 Fahrenheit.

8:13

His paranoia has intensified, and he

8:15

seems to think that he isn't

8:17

long for this world. I'm

8:20

scared to leave house for fear of

8:22

spies sending message to helicopter or plane

8:24

or something. I am now outside

8:26

the laws the pigs are the main ones who've been

8:28

tortured drugging me for the last 13 years. They

8:31

have criminally assaulted me, and I don't

8:33

have to let any of them near

8:35

me again in absolute self-defense. These

8:40

diary entries were all written in the

8:42

weeks leading up to mid-March of 1985,

8:44

when Frank

8:47

and Eileen Hayes returned to their

8:49

remote cabin on Teslan Lake to

8:51

find it ransacked. After

8:54

seeing Michael Oros, aka Chezle

8:56

Free Mike through the binoculars,

8:59

they made haste to the

9:01

Teslan RCMP detachment to report

9:03

it. It

9:06

was too late to do anything

9:09

about it that day, but the

9:11

following afternoon the Yukon RCMP charted

9:13

a bush plane and flew down

9:15

the long, relatively narrow Teslan Lake,

9:17

looking for any sign of the

9:20

notorious bushman. Finally

9:22

he appeared and opened fire at the plane

9:24

with a .303 rifle. He

9:28

didn't hit it, but the attempt to

9:31

shoot at police officers is an arrestable

9:33

offence. This also

9:35

warranted calling the RCMP's Northern

9:37

BC Emergency Response Team, a

9:40

Canadian equivalent of what Americans

9:42

refer to as a SWAT

9:44

team. ERT police

9:46

officers are specially trained in

9:49

tactics, specialized weapons and equipment

9:51

needed to provide an integrated

9:53

response to situations that are

9:56

high risk and volatile. And

9:59

this was desperate. definitely one of

10:01

those situations. By

10:03

this point, the Northern BC

10:06

ERT included both Constable Gary

10:08

Rogers and Constable Mike Boudai.

10:11

They had both been selected and sent to Ottawa

10:14

for training in 1982, the year after they

10:18

each had their separate encounters with

10:20

Michael Oros. He is Gary.

10:23

Both of us had a similar interest

10:25

in physical activities and firearms and that,

10:27

so we were both selected to fill

10:29

slots on the Northern BC emergency response

10:31

team. Part of our training was learning

10:34

the counter-terrorism tactics, especially instinctive shooting. Rather

10:37

than aiming for a visual target,

10:39

instinctive or reflex shooting is taught

10:42

specifically for use in combat or

10:44

life-threatening situations, where there might only

10:47

be a conscious awareness of the

10:49

target. They are taught to rely

10:51

not on sight, but on instinct.

10:55

After training in Ottawa, Constables

10:57

Rogers and Boudai were assigned

10:59

to operational duties with the

11:01

Northern BC ERT team, secondary

11:04

to their regular full-time duties.

11:07

Mike Boudai was now a trained

11:09

police dog handler, a natural

11:12

fit, according to his brother Bob, who

11:14

says they grew up with dogs and

11:16

Mike always loved them. Now

11:18

27 years old, Mike

11:21

had trained a young German shepherd

11:23

by the name of Trooper, who

11:25

was now his constant companion. Gary

11:28

Rogers, by this point 28

11:31

years old, had trained as

11:33

a marksman and had regular

11:35

duty as a criminal investigator

11:37

or homicide detective. That

11:39

March of 1985, both Constables

11:42

were still based at terrorist

11:44

detachment, but for Mike, it

11:46

was now only temporarily. He

12:00

moved into my wife and my basement

12:02

suite and was living there at the

12:04

time that we got called to Tezil

12:06

Newkarn on what's now infamously known throughout

12:08

the RCMP as the Tezil Lake incident.

12:14

The next day was Tuesday, March 19th of

12:16

1985. Early

12:20

that morning, a spotter plane was

12:22

sent out to continue to monitor

12:24

the whereabouts of Michael Oros. The

12:27

RCMP already knew that after he

12:29

fled his cabin, he was on

12:31

such high alert that he decided

12:33

to camp out on a tiny

12:35

island in the middle of Tezil

12:37

Lake in below freezing temperatures without

12:39

a sleeping bag. There's a story

12:41

about that that we'll get to

12:43

a little later. The

12:46

spotter plane got a visual on Michael

12:48

Oros at about 7.30 that

12:50

morning, still on that

12:52

island. The emergency

12:54

response team was notified. The

13:16

Northern BC ERT team, made

13:18

up of RCMP members from

13:21

both Terrace and Prince Rupert

13:23

detachments, had arrived in Whitehorse

13:25

late the previous night. The

13:28

group had two police dogs and

13:30

handlers, which of course included Mike

13:33

Budai and his young German Shepherd,

13:35

Troopy. The team had

13:37

spent the early morning hours developing

13:39

a game plan and after only a

13:41

few hours sleep, they received a

13:43

call. It was showtime. We

13:46

had three sub-teams of three people

13:48

apiece. Ideally, we wanted to take all three

13:51

teams and place them in strategic spots to

13:53

contain Oros. Contact them through

13:55

Loudhealer at a distance. The autonomy was under arrest, order

13:57

them to surrender, and then we'd take it from there.

14:00

but there was only two helicopters available

14:02

at the same time. Because

14:05

only two of the teams could be

14:07

deployed first, there would be a delay

14:09

in the arrival of the third. In

14:12

addition, there were issues with all

14:14

the gear and equipment they needed. It

14:16

just wouldn't all fit into those two

14:19

helicopters, so they had to leave some

14:21

of it behind. These

14:23

issues contributed to a

14:25

delay that inadvertently impacted

14:28

their central radio communications.

14:30

Each team had working line-of-sight

14:32

radios to communicate with their immediate

14:35

team members, but for them

14:37

to communicate centrally with other teams

14:39

and the aircraft across a

14:41

greater distance, they would need

14:43

a mobile repeater to boost the

14:46

signal. And right at that

14:48

moment, the delays had resulted in

14:50

the repeater being temporarily unavailable.

14:53

The team could have aborted the mission.

14:55

They had equipment issues that only had

14:57

a few hours of sleep, and while

15:00

they knew adrenaline would keep them going

15:02

for a while, it wouldn't last forever.

15:05

But Chezlais Fremike hadn't been an

15:07

easy person to find, and he

15:09

was there now. After all

15:12

the trouble he'd caused over the years,

15:14

the team was committed to seizing the

15:16

moment to try and capture him as

15:18

peacefully as possible. Still,

15:21

they couldn't help but wonder if it

15:23

would actually turn out that way. The

15:26

whole idea was to contain him, but

15:28

if he'd made any hostile move, we'd have to shoot him.

15:31

We were prepared for it. We knew this was not going

15:33

to go much other way.

15:35

All the members that were there were

15:37

prepared to be in a firefight, but

15:39

we did everything that we could to

15:41

try to minimize our vulnerability. Didn't

15:46

go that way. Ryan

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16:44

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16:51

go to amazon.com/true crime ad free.

16:53

That's amazon.com/true crime ad free to

16:55

catch up on the latest episodes

16:57

without the ads. It

17:09

was Tuesday, March 19th, 1985 and at 7.30

17:11

that morning a spotter plane had confirmed that

17:17

Michael Orest was still on the Little

17:19

Island in the middle of Cassiline Lake

17:21

where he'd spent the night. The

17:24

Northern BC ERT team's strategy was

17:26

to drop the first two sub

17:28

teams around the icy lake with

17:30

one ahead of Orest and the

17:32

other behind him. The goal was

17:34

to surround and contain him as

17:37

long as possible and if all

17:39

things went well they would have

17:41

a verbal confrontation with Orest and

17:43

talk him down. They

17:45

knew that if he was able to

17:47

enter the bush they would probably lose

17:49

him which would give him the advantage

17:51

because he knew the terrain so well

17:54

so they had to be very

17:56

careful. But because of the delays

17:58

with the helicopters and equipment. Several

18:01

hours went by before the two

18:03

teams finally got up in the

18:05

air. By this point it was about

18:07

11 a.m. and when Orys

18:09

was spotted again he had moved to

18:12

a different location. He got into

18:14

a position on Teslan Lake right at the

18:16

narrows where on the east side there's a

18:18

big stretch of open water and it was

18:20

obvious from the air we could see that

18:22

our original landing pipe was useless. We knew

18:24

that the other team was going to be

18:26

delayed and Orys was making good time moving

18:29

south with the dog team. He was wearing

18:31

snowshoes, his slide was pulled by two husky

18:33

type of dogs and we could

18:35

see from the air that our strategic spot would

18:37

be in on land fixed on that point and

18:39

put ourselves in a stationary camouflage position so that

18:41

he would have approached us and we would have

18:43

been in a position to control him. Both

18:49

teams waited and watched from

18:51

strategic locations. On

18:53

one team constables Gary Rogers

18:56

and Mike Boudai were armed

18:58

with m16 US military rifles,

19:01

highly effective and dependable weapons that

19:04

they were both proficient at using.

19:07

Mark of course also had trooper the

19:09

German Shepherd with him who was trained

19:11

to pick up smells, sounds and anything

19:13

else that a human might not be

19:16

able to detect. The

19:18

third member on their team constable

19:20

Paul Haugen was armed with a

19:23

long-range sniper rifle. Their

19:25

plan was to wait until Orys had

19:27

moved closer, about 200 meters away from

19:30

them because it would be easier to

19:32

get a controlled shot in from that

19:34

distance if they needed to. But he

19:39

never made it that close

19:41

and they watched as he

19:44

suddenly left his sled and

19:46

disappeared into the tree line.

19:48

He's about 500 meters north of us

19:50

by this point. Certainly you know it had a

19:52

good visual on him, not a problem with that

19:54

shot, but too far to engage. Then

19:57

He came back out and he came back to

19:59

his sled. And we could see at

20:01

a rifle Israel, three British Food web

20:03

or to vintage army rifle gain. Highly

20:05

dependable, effective weapon. Michael.

20:08

Are as disappeared into the same

20:10

brush Again, The team on the

20:12

ground suspected that he knew exactly

20:14

where they were and was likely

20:16

moving through the bush. They.

20:19

Had no way of knowing it at

20:21

the time that Aura had assess the

20:23

conditions and the positioning of the teams

20:25

and changed his strategy. As it turned

20:28

out, he'd put on a wide a

20:30

pair of snow shoes that enabled him

20:32

to move faster over the chest deep

20:35

snow. And then instead of

20:37

retreating holding his own, he came

20:39

on the attack and he made

20:41

afghan roughly five hundred meters distance

20:43

of chest deep snow in the

20:45

sick brush in about ten minutes.

20:48

And when we never and to spit he

20:50

could move that fast net clap. Our

20:53

us was spotted twice by

20:55

Constable Hogan, closer, each time

20:58

sneaking along the bus line.

21:00

That. Then he disappeared again as

21:03

the sub team continue to

21:05

wait in position. Constable.

21:08

Gary Rogers had his and sixteen

21:10

pointed out to the light using

21:12

a tree branch for stability and

21:14

Casey had to take a long

21:16

shot. Minutes.

21:20

Went by. And.

21:25

Said Mike. I haven't seen him on

21:27

B B. Ten minutes once you're flying

21:29

teepees. He might be common for

21:31

us and might just called back on radios

21:34

he said yep that are under control which

21:36

I'd only assume I did. I ever worked

21:38

with with anybody that was as capable as

21:41

make posing in all of us census as

21:43

I say does hearing smarts his physical

21:45

stamina as Billy was weapons and building to

21:47

control his dog I use a soda machine.

21:51

And. At this point. i get

21:53

can explain it was or it has since

21:55

something's going wrong but i had to do

21:57

but and ninety degree turn over my that

22:00

and I saw Oris's

22:03

face just develop it was

22:05

fairly thick underbrush no leaves or anything

22:07

that basically from his shoulders down I

22:09

couldn't see but his face

22:11

was exposed and it was like this glowing

22:14

orange light now this is because

22:16

the Sun was shining at him for one thing

22:18

he had a reddish beard and reddish hair and

22:20

that little lighter skin and it was just I

22:22

clearly could see him so I yelled booties

22:25

right behind you and with

22:27

that was just bang and

22:35

then it's

22:38

hard to describe this the feeling of what

22:40

happened to me it's like

22:42

when many people report that they're going into

22:45

a car accident or some serious instant traumas

22:47

coming at them they go

22:49

into like an altered state of consciousness and

22:51

you know I'm not imagining this I know

22:53

exactly what happened and I'm uncomfortable with the

22:55

scientific explanation it was like a detach from

22:57

a body and I was sitting on the

22:59

branch of the tree above me watching everything

23:01

that's going on and I'm fully aware and

23:03

all kinds of time to analyze and react is

23:05

how I felt and I could

23:07

see Boris in slow motion but I see his rifle

23:10

I could just see the motions I just heard the

23:12

shot and I knew he had

23:14

a rifle because they'd seen him with the rifle

23:16

when he was in visibility I could see slowly

23:18

him rotating and behind Mike and

23:20

while he's doing that I can see the motions

23:22

of him working the bolt on the rifle to

23:25

reload and I just

23:27

instantly reacted there was no time to

23:29

aim no nothing I just knew what

23:31

was happening and I just popped up

23:33

my m16 swung and just did an

23:35

instinctive shot and down he was he

23:37

was out he'd had vanished and I

23:39

was going to flip the switch on onto fully auto

23:42

and just rake the bush down below him to finish

23:44

him off because I could have missed him and he

23:46

could have come right back up and another one at

23:48

me but then again I wasn't

23:50

a hundred percent sure where Mike was I couldn't see Mike and

23:53

I just started to get confused and

23:55

so I didn't lay down a fire I

23:58

knew I got ready to boot and sit. And

24:00

can equipment and coming. And.

24:02

There's nothing. and then I could hear Trooper

24:04

whining and I could hear trooper steps don't

24:07

move around. And I knew what

24:09

happened and it is still a damn

24:11

what would happen. He shot the dark

24:13

step and to say thank you do

24:15

but I leave my position. I'm leaving

24:17

the other member who's wide open out

24:19

on that point but completely vulnerable. I

24:21

can do that either. Can't have to

24:23

stay here and I'm just wait. So

24:25

it was just the stand off. As.

24:29

Constables Dari Rogers and Paul Hogan

24:32

why Said In shock for about

24:34

twenty minutes the second sub team

24:36

carefully advanced able he assisted by

24:39

the sparse a plane flying i

24:41

the heads. By this point the

24:43

mobile Were Pisa was operational again.

24:47

We. Were flying over in they could see

24:49

or slowing down. the said he served looks

24:51

like there's blood or on his head but

24:53

we're not seen his dad you guys be

24:55

real real careful with as they kept them

24:57

all circling says pt sport could happen in

25:00

into all the time and to the other

25:02

team leap frog down until they come in

25:04

and kind of that. And.

25:09

And is over. Constable

25:20

my to die had been on

25:22

bust some behind and saw in

25:24

the back of his neck he

25:27

was just twenty seven years old.

25:29

His dog treat I was

25:32

physically unharmed, but was obviously

25:34

unsettled and distressed. Say.

25:38

Three around. Michael, ours, the man

25:40

responsible for the ambush, was lying

25:43

about twenty meters away on his

25:45

back in the snow with one

25:48

gunshot wound to the forehead. Constable

25:51

Gary Rodgers didn't know what at

25:53

the time that his sudden ceiling

25:55

that something was wrong and his

25:57

fast instincts and reacting to at

25:59

lock. Prevented and even

26:01

worse tragedy. Because when

26:03

the second came reach the

26:05

body as Michael hours they

26:07

made an astonishing discovery. Just

26:10

a second before Dowry rotated

26:12

around and took his instinctive

26:14

shot. Aura had already pulled

26:17

the trigger a second time.

26:19

But. This time something

26:21

malfunctions. When the members went

26:24

up to arrest the inspectors rifle

26:26

and they found. That. The

26:28

both was intact. They saw the ejected shell

26:30

where he had had shot make and it

26:33

was laying on the snow. And

26:35

they opened the bolt. And.

26:37

They found it was alive round and

26:39

nurses chambered. Or is it's woman

26:41

penny Dreadful of me and pull the trigger

26:43

before I could respond. And for some reason.

26:45

No one can explain this. Is. Round

26:48

failed to go off. His firing pin

26:50

inside of his breach countries around the

26:52

track and field make adventure that time

26:54

it punctured the one set for me

26:56

but around failed to ignite and memory

26:58

for savoring have been killed and if

27:00

if he had have killed me. I

27:03

hate to think what what has happened. At

27:05

kept the three cartridges from from that. Has.

27:09

On the Iris Russell concerned that

27:11

he did pull the trigger that

27:13

second time sit. There appeared to

27:15

be nothing wrong with either the

27:17

Rasul all the cartridge. Nothing that

27:19

could explain why it didn't saw.

27:22

There. Are theories that will get to

27:24

a Bit Laser that over the

27:27

decades Gary has had plenty of

27:29

time to think about what might

27:31

have been had our Us been

27:33

successful the second time. He believes

27:35

that the likely scenario would have

27:37

involved ours shootings and both dead

27:39

and seizing their rifles which would

27:41

have made the third member on

27:43

their team constable Paul Hogan a

27:46

sitting duck and it would has

27:48

snowballed from their. Sours.

27:50

Has got to m sixteens with two hundred rounds

27:52

of ammunition. The. Other members would come in

27:54

the news that this is going on they would not

27:56

have stayed back to they would have advanced and he

27:59

would is modem now. now you

28:01

get six RCMP members dead and then then what do

28:03

you do? Oros'

28:05

tracks in the snow were analyzed

28:08

to figure out what happened and

28:10

how he was able to get

28:12

the jump on them so quickly

28:14

in that extremely tense few minutes

28:16

before he shot Mike Boudai. Later,

28:18

when this was overly backtracked, Dustin could see

28:20

exactly what his movements were. He

28:22

went through and he passed Mike

28:24

Boudai and troopered his German Shepherd

28:27

just inside the thick heavy evergreen

28:29

timber that was like maybe 20

28:31

meters, something like that, 30 meters. And

28:34

then he came out to the edge of the lake and where

28:36

he could spot and saw where the helicopter landed and

28:39

he could see the three sets

28:41

of snowshoe trails from the three of

28:43

us that were deployed and he just

28:46

backtracked and followed them and he came

28:48

to a position where he was 27

28:50

meters behind Mike and 42 meters from

28:52

me and he could see both of us

28:55

and then he stopped and he placed

28:58

his snowshoes, jammed them in the snow,

29:00

took his rifle, set his rifle on

29:02

Mike's back and shot right

29:05

through the back of the neck and killed

29:07

him instantly. Mike

29:10

Boudai's family wasn't aware that he'd

29:13

been called to Whitehorse with the

29:15

ERT team to respond to the

29:17

developing situation at Teslan Lake. They

29:20

had no idea of the danger that

29:22

lay ahead. Bob

29:24

Boudai, one of his older brothers, had

29:26

been teaching late that day. When

29:31

I came home, I got a phone

29:33

call from a friend that told me

29:35

there's an emergency in the family and

29:37

that my older brother was trying

29:39

to get a hold of me. So

29:41

I started dialing and

29:43

your heart just goes right up into your throat

29:46

and as I was dialing, I

29:49

was thinking my dad had diabetes and

29:51

he had had some falls and I

29:53

didn't really know who it

29:55

was but I just knew someone was dead. I

30:00

actually had the operator cut in on

30:02

the party line back then. And

30:05

when she cut in, my brother kind

30:08

of hollered at me that Mike's

30:11

dead. I said, what? I

30:14

was just in total shock. That was the

30:16

most shocked I ever was in my life

30:18

and having talked to him just a day

30:20

and a half before. The

30:27

funeral for Constable Michael Joseph

30:29

Boudai was held in his

30:31

hometown of Brooks, Alberta and

30:33

was reportedly one of the

30:35

largest in RCMP history. Mike

30:39

was a guy that I know other members looked up

30:41

to him. St. Mary's Church

30:43

in Brooks, they had

30:45

the church full and then there was

30:47

an adjacent hall and it was completely

30:50

full and then the parking lot was

30:52

full. There were police forces

30:54

from Quebec and from the States

30:56

came up. There was a real

30:59

brotherhood there. Family,

31:02

friends and colleagues remembered the

31:04

27-year-old police dog handler as

31:06

a fearless yet fun-loving character

31:09

with a great sense of

31:11

humor. Mike was described

31:13

as a diamond in the rough and

31:15

a free spirit who loved the outdoors.

31:18

Bob says he learned that his

31:20

younger brother had actually been a

31:22

little sick when the emergency response

31:24

team was called about Oros. Mike

31:27

didn't have to go up there. He had a

31:29

bad cold I guess and I didn't even know

31:31

what was Gary that told me but one of

31:33

the fellas did that Mike said

31:36

there's no way I'm going to leave

31:38

my team short handed. So he decided

31:40

he was going and that was it.

31:43

He was brave and they said

31:45

he had no fear in him

31:47

really. I'm sure he did but

31:49

he just wasn't showing it. He

31:51

was focusing on what they were going

31:53

to have to do. Churupa

31:55

was at the funeral as well

31:58

and Bob recalled a powerful moment.

32:00

as the procession entered the cemetery.

32:03

They had representatives of dog teams

32:06

and their handlers pretty well all

32:08

the way across Canada, right up

32:10

to Quebec anyhow. And

32:13

the thing that we remember the

32:15

most, Mike's dog led the funeral

32:17

procession and as they went into

32:19

the cemetery, dogs all let out

32:21

an eerie howl. And

32:24

it made the hair stand on your back. We

32:29

can never forget that, something incredible.

32:31

The dog sensed that there was

32:33

something wrong. This

32:40

brings us to a key question that

32:42

Gary says has been asked over the

32:44

years. Michael Oros may

32:46

have been quiet enough to sneak

32:48

up behind Constable Mike Budai undetected,

32:51

but why didn't trooper the dog

32:53

pick up on it and alert

32:55

him? Gary believes

32:57

the most likely explanation is this.

33:01

I think the dog fell asleep. That's my feeling

33:03

because that was a young dog and that dog

33:05

had virtually no sleep. It was up with us

33:07

during the night. We never went to bed till

33:09

like three in the morning. We were up again

33:11

at five. None of us had much sleep. And

33:13

I think what happened when it all settled down,

33:15

he sat down. The sun was out. It was

33:17

warm, all quiet. I think the dog

33:19

dozed off. That's what happened. Trooper

33:24

was taken under the wing

33:26

of another RCMP dog handler.

33:36

The life of Michael Oros may

33:38

have come to an end, but

33:40

there were still a lot of

33:42

unanswered questions about the story of

33:44

his alter ego, Shezlay Free Mike.

33:47

And more importantly, he was still

33:50

the prime suspect in the disappearance

33:52

of Gunter Lishi. So RCMP investigators

33:54

carefully went through all his belongings

33:57

to see if there were any

33:59

clues. In

34:01

his toboggan not far from where

34:03

he was shot was his last

34:05

diary which covered the last weeks

34:07

of his life. Those

34:10

are the diary entries where he seems

34:12

to be aware that something big was

34:14

going to happen soon, that he

34:16

was going to die. The

34:19

only mention he makes of Gunter

34:21

Lishi is an entry dated February

34:24

14th, just over a month before

34:26

the Tesla Lake incident. The

34:30

tarot cards are reading bad again. The little

34:32

airplanes that flew yesterday could only mean trouble

34:34

for me this time of year. They shouldn't

34:36

be any airplane activity spurt. Those planes flew

34:39

around for some reason and it can't be

34:41

good. Also on the

34:43

radio, the CBC has started a

34:45

campaign of anti-Nazi propaganda to try

34:47

and get out of being punished

34:49

for killing Gunter Lishi with the

34:51

torture drugs. This is the Canadian

34:53

government propaganda organization and they must

34:55

be pretty scared. Unhinged

34:58

ranting about the CBC aside,

35:01

the fact that Michael Oros

35:03

wrote that Gunter Lishi had

35:05

been killed when the RCMP

35:07

considered him to be just

35:09

a missing person was of

35:11

great interest to investigators. It

35:14

was a strong indication that

35:16

Oros knew something about Lishi's

35:18

fate. A

35:21

professor of forensic psychiatry from the

35:23

University of British Columbia would describe

35:26

the diaries of Michael Oros as,

35:28

quote, The

35:30

tragic ramblings, disconnected ideas of

35:32

a very solitary individual who

35:34

has cut himself off from

35:36

society over the years and

35:38

become totally obsessed and paranoid.

35:41

His concept of the world around

35:43

him has become bizarre and irrational.

35:47

This testimony was given at an

35:50

inquest to determine what led to

35:52

the deaths of Michael Oros and

35:55

Constable Mike Boudai, mandatory any time

35:57

police are involved in a shooting.

36:00

As for Oros's propensity

36:02

for being reclusive, isolated and

36:05

paranoid, the professor added,

36:07

quote, Together that

36:09

is a poor combination. For

36:11

him it is double jeopardy

36:13

because his imagination has become

36:15

delusional over time. For

36:17

him, the imaginations, the suspicions,

36:20

the plots have become reality.

36:22

He gets consumed by his

36:24

own fantasies in the end. Michael

36:28

Oros was found to be deranged

36:30

with an aversion for authority. In

36:34

reference to his obvious mental

36:36

health issues, the jury recommended

36:38

that known isolated loners like

36:40

him should be checked on

36:43

at regular intervals and that

36:45

psychiatric treatment or observation should

36:47

be extended to anyone suspected

36:49

of possible violence. This

36:52

was obviously a well-meaning recommendation,

36:54

but quite a tall order

36:57

when considering the historic deficiencies

36:59

in available mental health treatments.

37:03

The inquest jury heard that the RCMP

37:06

were not as prepared as they might

37:08

have been for the crisis because of

37:10

the equipment they had to leave behind

37:13

and the equipment that didn't work. And

37:16

although they had extensive training, the

37:18

freezing wilderness conditions and harsh terrain

37:20

were a lot for them to

37:22

contend with. Because

37:24

author Vernon Frolic would write in

37:27

his book Descent into Madness, quote,

37:29

Oros had the advantage. The police were

37:31

going in to make an arrest to

37:34

preserve the peace. Oros

37:36

wanted to kill them. The

37:40

jury ruled that the shooting

37:42

deaths of Michael Oros and

37:44

RCMP constable Mike Budai were

37:47

homicides, a term that

37:49

does not imply blame. Two

37:53

months after the inquest, some RCMP

37:55

members were sent back to the

37:57

Hutsagola Lake area that Michael Oros

37:59

was in. Auros considered his

38:01

home base and of course where

38:03

Gunter Lishi decided to build a

38:05

cabin that would never be finished.

38:08

The goal of the trip was to

38:10

tie up some loose ends on the

38:12

Tesla Lake incident report, but

38:14

in the shallow waters of the

38:16

small lakeshore lay a shocking new

38:19

discovery. Tired

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38:41

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39:56

In August of 1985, five months after the... Husland

40:00

Lake incident that ended the

40:02

lives of both constable Mike

40:04

Budai and fugitive Michael Oros,

40:06

the RCMP went back to

40:08

the Hutsagola Lake area to

40:10

finalise their report. As

40:13

they were looking around the lake's

40:15

shoreline, they suddenly spotted what looked

40:17

like a skull. Then

40:20

they saw a lower jaw. There

40:22

was fabric from a shirt, an

40:24

amount of plastic and other bones

40:27

from the shoulders, upper legs and

40:29

pelvis scattered nearby. The

40:31

lower jaw was compared to Gunter

40:34

Lishi's dental records. It was

40:36

a positive identification. The

40:39

remains were examined and there was

40:42

a suspicious hole in the right

40:44

shoulder blade, consistent with a high-caliber

40:46

bullet that would have punctured the

40:48

lung. It was

40:50

determined that after this fatal shot,

40:53

Lishi's body had been wrapped in

40:55

plastic and buried in sand under

40:57

the shallow waters of the Hutsagola

41:00

Lake, which is why no one

41:02

had been able to find or

41:04

detect it during those initial intensive

41:06

searches, including search dogs. The

41:09

remains were likely dislodged by a

41:11

wild animal and brought to the

41:14

surface sometime later. An

41:17

inquest jury would find that Michael

41:19

Oros killed Gunter Lishi by shooting

41:21

him in the upper back at

41:24

Hutsagola Lake on or around August

41:26

21st of 1981. A

41:30

friend of Lishi's who was well

41:32

versed in his distinctive building style

41:35

and plans determined that work on

41:37

his cabin likely ceased on this

41:39

day. But why?

41:42

What happened that day? According

41:47

to Vernon Frolic's book Descent into

41:49

Madness, the Diary of a Killer,

41:51

there were two main theories about

41:53

what inspired Gunter Lishi's decision to

41:56

build his cabin just 100 metres

41:58

away from the water. that

42:00

Michael Oros had made his home

42:02

base. One theory

42:05

was that Lishi respected Oros

42:07

and his notorious reputation. After

42:10

all the German did keep that

42:12

photo of Oros taped to the

42:14

wall of his half-built cabin along

42:16

with other photos of his friends.

42:19

Perhaps he thought Oros could

42:21

have used the company. The

42:23

other theory is related to the

42:25

fact that many thought Lishi was

42:28

just as dangerous as Oros but

42:30

without the obvious mental health issues

42:32

and in such a cutthroat environment

42:34

in the wilderness with no roads

42:36

and no signs of civilization within

42:39

about 70 kilometers survival

42:41

could be considered a zero-sum

42:43

game with no room for

42:45

trust or friendship. Perhaps

42:48

Lishi wanted to take over the

42:50

territory for himself and plan to

42:52

kill Oros if and when he

42:55

objected to the cabin being built

42:57

so close we'll never really know.

43:01

As for Michael Oros there were

43:03

clues to be found in his

43:05

own dated diary entries from the

43:07

time. They revealed that when

43:09

Lishi and his building materials were

43:11

dropped off at Hutsagola Lake that

43:14

summer to build his cabin Oros

43:16

wasn't actually there. He'd ventured south

43:19

to spend the warmer months roaming

43:21

the bush near the Shezle River

43:24

his old haunt. Perhaps

43:26

Lishi knew this but

43:29

as he got underway building his

43:31

new cabin in the first few

43:33

weeks of August Oros wrote in

43:35

his diary that he was slowly

43:37

making his way back to Hutsagola

43:39

Lake. It appears that

43:42

he hadn't been overly successful

43:44

at sourcing enough food to

43:46

sustain himself which was likely

43:48

related to his deteriorating mental

43:50

health. In

43:53

mid-August Oros wrote that he was

43:55

about a week away from returning

43:57

to Hutsagola Lake when he saw

43:59

a floating floatplain land on another lake

44:01

he happened to be camping at. There

44:04

was no evidence that the men

44:06

on this plane even knew who

44:08

Chezle Free Mike was, but Oros

44:11

decided they were on the team

44:13

of The Straits, sent there to

44:15

poison him and the wildlife with

44:17

chemicals. He wrote that

44:19

he thought about killing the men,

44:21

but decided to just leave and

44:23

make haste back to Hutsagola, convinced

44:26

that the area would soon be

44:28

flooded with poisonous drugs anyway. Oros

44:31

was exhausted, hungry and

44:33

dizzy. That night

44:35

he wrote that he flew into a

44:38

rage and killed one of his dogs

44:40

for being disobedient. Then

44:43

he changed his mind and wrote that

44:45

the chemicals had turned him into an

44:47

instrument of death. The straits

44:49

or the sneak arounds, it was their

44:52

fault that his dog was now dead.

44:55

The next diary entry is

44:58

just one word repeated over

45:00

several pages. Kill, kill,

45:02

kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. Two

45:06

days after that, when Oros was

45:08

camping for the night next to

45:10

yet another lake not far from

45:12

Hutsagola, he wrote, Then Kudol

45:14

Lake, and home cabin, tomorrow. The

45:18

date of that diary entry is August 20,

45:20

1985. The

45:24

following day, August 21, is

45:26

when Oros likely arrived at

45:28

his home base cabin to

45:30

find Gunter Lishi building his

45:32

own cabin there. It's

45:34

also the very same day that

45:37

the inquest jury determined that Oros

45:39

killed Lishi and work on his

45:41

half built cabin ceased. When

45:45

the RCMP found Michael Oros's

45:47

diaries in his toboggan after

45:49

the Tesla Lake incident, they

45:51

searched for any entries on

45:53

or around that date. Oros

45:55

wrote about everything else, he

45:57

surely would have written something

46:00

about what happened when he arrived

46:02

back at Hutsagola, but all

46:04

those pages around the date

46:06

of August 21 had been

46:08

ripped out. Michael

46:12

Oros had been incredibly upset

46:14

after the first time that

46:16

the RCMP found his stash

46:18

of diaries. They weren't

46:20

just diaries to him, they were

46:22

his personal documentation of all the

46:24

things he believed was being done

46:26

to him. His diaries covered

46:28

more than 10 years of his

46:30

life and he planned to get them

46:32

published one day so that everyone would

46:35

know about it, according to the book

46:37

Descent into Madness. The

46:39

fact that Oros ripped out those

46:42

pages that likely chronicled the day

46:44

of Gunter Lishi's death indicates he

46:47

was acutely aware that his diaries

46:49

would likely be found yet again.

46:54

People like to say that Michael

46:56

Oros was obsessed with the original

46:58

Mad Trapper, you know, the one

47:00

from Rat River, but the Vancouver

47:02

Sun reported that no evidence of

47:05

this has ever been found and

47:07

the stories remain unconfirmed. Michael's

47:11

mother, Margaret Oros, showed about as

47:13

much interest in her son's death

47:15

as she did his life. The

47:18

press reported that she continued to

47:20

refuse to speak about him and

47:23

the only new information to be

47:25

released publicly was that she'd instructed

47:27

a funeral home to cremate Michael's

47:29

body and hold the ashes until

47:31

further notice. It said that she

47:34

never collected or sent for them.

47:37

Margaret Oros passed away in 2007. On

47:43

the first anniversary of Constable Mike

47:45

Boudai's death at Teslan Lake, Constable

47:48

Gary Rogers was among a group

47:50

that returned to the spot where

47:52

it took place. They

47:55

built a can or monument

47:57

to Mike's memory, featuring a

47:59

large stone. and a plaque. I

48:03

asked Gary how the Tesla

48:05

Lake incident impacted his life.

48:07

He not only lost his team member

48:09

and close friend that day but he

48:11

was also the one who shot and

48:14

killed the man they were responding to.

48:16

It's not just the fact of being involved in the

48:18

shooting. Having to kill another human

48:20

being under those circumstances never bothered me one

48:22

iota. It was me or him

48:25

and that was completely justified. There was a

48:27

an inquest held in the jury world that

48:29

was completely self-defense and I was given the

48:31

highest award in the RCMP commissioners accommodation for

48:34

my quick reaction in ending an incident. So

48:36

that end of it has always been fine

48:39

and thankfully I was always

48:41

confident that I didn't do something to screw

48:43

this up and cause my stuff. I

48:46

know that I didn't. There's

48:48

nothing I could have done and he

48:50

would know that too. But losing

48:52

one of your best friends and your teammates. Oh

48:56

just terrible grief. My

48:58

wife says that that I exhibited ticked off

49:00

all the boxes for PTSD for a long

49:02

time with it. You see in

49:04

1985 PTSD wasn't really a

49:07

thing right? The

49:09

symptoms of post traumatic

49:12

stress disorder often include

49:14

flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety

49:16

and uncontrollable thoughts about

49:18

the traumatic event. It

49:20

was first proposed as a diagnosis

49:23

in 1980 but it didn't hit

49:25

the wider public consciousness until many

49:27

years later. So

49:30

I self-medicated with alcohol. But

49:33

a commanding officer had his eye

49:35

on Gary. Through the

49:37

system he said let's just monitor that young

49:39

member. So I was going for regular psychiatric

49:42

assessments just going to next and just to

49:44

make sure that I was on the straight

49:46

and narrow and I appreciated it. You've got

49:48

lots of support from friends and

49:50

you know the grief after a while time goes by

49:52

and it goes on and I've been okay and I've

49:54

been in a number of

49:56

other high-profile cases and some very

49:58

violent. stuff as well and seemed

50:01

to handle that alright.

50:06

As for Constable Mike Budai, there is a

50:08

low notation on Google Maps that simply

50:12

says Michael Budai Memorial. It marks

50:14

that area where the final shootout

50:18

happened on Teslan Lake at the Narrows. His

50:20

loved ones rallied for years to have Class

50:24

A Park. That didn't happen but

50:26

in 2015, a park

50:28

in Terrace, BC was

50:30

named the Constable Michael

50:33

Joseph Budai Municipal Park

50:35

to commemorate the 30th

50:37

anniversary of his death.

50:40

The park features a large

50:42

wooden monument with a white

50:44

sign that has Mike's story

50:46

and his RCMP portrait with

50:48

trooper and at Regina, Saskatchewan

50:50

where new members do their

50:53

training. A memorial plaque to

50:55

commemorate Constable Budai was installed

50:57

on a park bench. He is

50:59

a real character. All ages, larger

51:01

in life, much, much larger. Big loss. He

51:03

was so well liked and respected that it

51:06

was a tremendous tragedy to so many people

51:08

when he was killed. It was

51:10

just like, you know, all people couldn't have happened to him.

51:12

Yeah, I did. Although

51:20

it's been almost 40 years since

51:22

the Teslan Lake incident, the Budai family has

51:25

never forgotten the immense weight of the

51:28

loss of Mike Budai. Well, we were

51:30

in great shock

51:32

but you know what, we lost both of our

51:34

parents about 16, 17 years ago and all three

51:39

of us, my sister Janet, my older brother

51:41

Frank and I all agreed that

51:43

this is tough but it wasn't anywhere

51:47

near Mike's. There was

51:49

just too much shock and disbelief.

51:53

He was kind of a hero to some people. I

51:56

know there was another mountain that became

51:58

a mountain and he said, said it

52:00

was Mike who inspired him. He was

52:03

brave and I hope people

52:05

will remember him for his

52:07

courage. They said he had

52:09

no fear in him really. It

52:17

might seem as though we've come

52:19

to the end of the story

52:21

of the Tesla Lake incident, but

52:23

there have been many mysteries and

52:25

strange coincidences surrounding both the events

52:27

of that day and the years

52:29

after it. The

52:31

main mystery is that no one

52:34

has ever been able to explain

52:36

why Michael Orys's rifle misfired as

52:38

he pulled the trigger a second

52:41

time aiming it at Constable Gary

52:43

Rogers, but there is a

52:46

theory. As

52:48

a way of dealing with the

52:50

tragedy, Gary Rogers eventually decided to

52:52

write a book about it from

52:55

his perspective. But by that time,

52:57

the definitive book on the case

53:00

had already been published. Descent into

53:02

Madness, The Diary of a Killer

53:04

by Vernon Frolic, details Michael Orys's

53:07

own journey leading up to the

53:09

Tesla Lake incident. The author was

53:12

a Crown Prosecutor from Terrace, BC

53:14

and had inside access to both

53:16

the investigation files and the

53:18

investigators themselves, as well as more than

53:21

10 years of Michael

53:23

Orys's diaries. So

53:25

Gary Rogers had defined a new

53:28

angle for his own book called

53:30

No Witnesses to Nothing. Multiple

53:33

sources tell me that not only

53:36

is there more than meets the

53:38

eye, but it's of significant importance

53:40

to the RCMP as well as

53:42

the indigenous peoples in the area.

53:45

So whatever happened that day, you'll find

53:47

that there's many, many people feel that

53:50

there was some sort of paranormal intervention.

53:53

I'm ambivalent about it. I

53:55

know that there's something happened that day that

53:57

can't be explained. My experience of this so-called

54:00

OBE is out of body experience. It's very

54:02

common. In fact, if I didn't react that

54:04

way under the circumstances, there'd probably been something

54:06

wrong with me. So that's explainable.

54:08

That's no problem. But what stopped that

54:10

round? I don't know. This is where

54:12

it starts to get into the First

54:14

Nations story, which one thing that the

54:16

legend from the Tlingit people in the

54:18

north was that Orys was the manifestation

54:20

of a mythical creature they call the

54:22

Kushtaka or Kushtaka, who's the wild man

54:24

of the woods. You

54:27

might recall in part one,

54:30

we mentioned the Inland Tlingit,

54:32

a subgroup of the Tlingit

54:34

people of Alaska, who once

54:36

migrated to northwestern British Columbia

54:38

and southern Yukon, the future

54:40

stomping ground of the notorious

54:43

Shezle Free Mike. And

54:45

as the story goes, they were

54:47

just as annoyed by him as

54:49

anyone else. Perhaps even

54:51

more so. Like many

54:54

indigenous cultures, the Tlingit have

54:56

ancient traditions and folklore that

54:58

includes mythological creatures that inspire

55:01

fear and dread, often

55:03

born out of a practical need to

55:06

keep the group together and stop people

55:08

from wandering off. One

55:10

of those mythical creatures is

55:13

the Kushtaka, sometimes referred to

55:15

as Alaska's other bigfoot, a

55:17

creature of the wilderness. As

55:20

legend has it, Kushtaka are shape

55:22

shifters that inhabit the wilderness and

55:24

commonly take the form of half

55:27

man and half otter. They're

55:29

said to have frightening supernatural abilities

55:31

that they use to lure people

55:33

to the forest and steal their

55:36

souls. Here's where Michael

55:38

Orys comes in. So

55:40

they said Orys is the manifestation, he is

55:42

the Kushtaka, he's possessed by the Kushtaka. Now

55:45

also, the De Niro at Tezlan Lake is

55:48

a large island and it's called

55:50

Big Island, but on the maps you'll find it

55:52

called Shaman Island. And. The

55:54

history is that a very powerful shaman by

55:56

the name of Kashklao, the Daidan was buried

55:58

on the strategic path. it pointed the north

56:01

end of that island That that's historical fact.

56:04

And legend, nobody goes on an island and disturbs

56:06

the spirit. A cash cow. So.

56:08

What does that have to do

56:11

with Michael? Ours? Wow. Big Island

56:13

or some an island is the

56:15

very same islands that he chose

56:17

to sleep on the night before

56:19

the Tesla like incident. And because

56:22

a powerful Sharman is buried on

56:24

that island the clink. It people

56:26

consider it to be a sacred

56:28

spot. I have to

56:30

night that unlike the Kristofer,

56:33

the Sharman were actually real

56:35

people believed to possess extraordinary

56:37

powers, Supernatural powers that included

56:39

the ability to heal the

56:42

body and. Spirit and see

56:44

into the future. That.

56:46

Regardless of powers, there is

56:48

actually a real person buried

56:50

on that island. Back.

56:53

In the nineteen eighties, the Vancouver

56:55

Sun reported that the monument to

56:57

mock that burial site was still

56:59

visible from. The air. Now.

57:02

Although the clink it people

57:04

reportedly no longer have Sherman's

57:06

they remain and important and

57:08

revered cigar in the mythology.

57:11

The. Sharman was believed to be powerful

57:13

enough to go head to head

57:15

with the Krista Car. Or.

57:18

What happened the night before and country

57:20

didn't deny teams when orders was making

57:22

his run from the cabinet headed south

57:24

he camped overnight on that island rid

57:26

of the pointer cash cause grievous biden

57:28

why do with he would a normal

57:30

is getting into strategic and defensive spot

57:32

as where the Sherman's barrier and as

57:34

way or sceptre. Are scattered on the

57:36

and the Greatest Showman. And amid is

57:38

way off the next morning. So.

57:41

As the legend dollars the local

57:43

clink it in the Tesla like

57:46

area had come to believe that

57:48

Michael ours was a manifestation of

57:50

the starter. And when he

57:52

choice to sleep on a sacred

57:55

burial site that night, he awakens

57:57

the spirit of the Sharman. The

58:00

island is sacred to the Tlingit

58:02

people. Nobody is to touch that

58:04

island at the pain of death

58:06

if you do. That's their legend.

58:08

That's their teaching. That's

58:10

Ed Hill, a central figure in

58:12

the next part of this story.

58:15

And when Mike Oris camped on

58:17

that island overnight before he was

58:19

shot and killed by Gary Rogers,

58:21

the Tlingit people knew ahead of

58:24

time. They said he'll die. He's

58:26

touched that island. And the

58:28

next day when he left the island he was killed. It's

58:31

believed that after Michael Oris

58:33

killed Constable Mark Boudai, the

58:35

shaman spirit stepped in as

58:37

he was preparing to fire

58:39

his rifle the second time.

58:42

It's the shaman that caused the

58:44

rifle to misfire and why Constable

58:46

Gary Rogers was able to get

58:48

his own shot in and prevent

58:50

a mass tragedy. So

58:53

you can take out of that what you

58:55

want, whether or not the kushtaka exists or

58:57

whether the shaman spirit was involved or something

58:59

that involved stopping the bullet for me. Makes

59:02

for great folklore but it did happen. It's

59:06

also believed that this Tlingit

59:08

folklore might have had something

59:10

to do with the strange

59:12

story of what happened on

59:14

the 10th anniversary. The story

59:16

of the memorial painting is

59:18

yet another mysterious series of

59:20

events related to the Tesla

59:22

Lake incident. Here's Gary

59:24

again. Ten years later on the

59:27

anniversary of March 19th, 1995, a

59:30

group of us including a very close friend of

59:32

mine, Sergeant Ed Hill, and an indigenous painter by

59:34

the name of Roy Henry Vickers, who were along

59:37

with us. And we went back to

59:39

the spot to get the vision for a memorial painting

59:41

and also to start to raise the seed money for

59:43

an addiction recovery center. I'm going to

59:45

defer to Ed Hill on this to expand on what

59:47

happened that day on the Tesla Lake when they got

59:50

the vision. It was a magical time we

59:52

went through and it was a healing event too for all

59:54

of us. And the story has been

59:56

passed around. It's stayed.

1:00:01

Ed Hill has always had a

1:00:03

keen interest in art and painting

1:00:05

since high school and is today

1:00:07

a professional working artist based on

1:00:09

the west coast of British Columbia.

1:00:11

But back in the early 1980s

1:00:14

he was Staff Sergeant Ed Hill

1:00:16

and he was actually the boss

1:00:19

of a young constable named Gary

1:00:21

Rogers. I was RCMP for

1:00:23

34 years. I joined in

1:00:25

1968. Partway through my

1:00:27

career I worked in a place called

1:00:29

Bella Bella 300 miles north of Vancouver

1:00:32

on an island in the Pacific. And

1:00:34

there I got to know the indigenous

1:00:36

culture. Bella Bella Detachment

1:00:38

is on Campbell Island in

1:00:41

the territory of the Heltsick

1:00:43

First Nation. And during their

1:00:45

time there, both Ed Hill

1:00:47

and Gary Rogers developed a

1:00:49

keen interest in appreciation for

1:00:52

indigenous culture and traditions. They

1:00:55

also became good friends and

1:00:57

kept in contact after they

1:00:59

moved to other detachments in

1:01:01

British Columbia. Gary ended up

1:01:03

at terrorist detachment with Mike

1:01:05

Budai and Ed was posted

1:01:07

to Tofino. When I

1:01:09

was stationed in Tofino, British Columbia,

1:01:11

again on the west coast, I

1:01:13

met the indigenous artist Roy Henry

1:01:15

Vickers. And long

1:01:18

story short our friendship developed

1:01:20

such that he taught me

1:01:22

his painting techniques and protocols.

1:01:25

And as such I started painting

1:01:27

and the very first painting I

1:01:29

ever did he reproduced

1:01:32

in print form and the edition

1:01:34

sold out in his gallery in

1:01:36

Tofino. And so the

1:01:38

very first painting I ever did, well there

1:01:41

I went and I kept painting and I

1:01:43

have been painting continuously ever since 1985. So

1:01:47

that's Ed Hill's backstory. The

1:01:49

other central figure in this

1:01:51

part of the story is

1:01:54

of course Roy Henry Vickers,

1:01:56

the renowned indigenous artist and

1:01:58

recognized community leader. His

1:02:00

website also describes him as a

1:02:02

tireless spokesperson for recovery from addictions

1:02:05

and abuse, who had a dream

1:02:07

to see the opening of an

1:02:09

addiction recovery center that would treat

1:02:11

a range of addictions holistically, because

1:02:14

at the time, there were no

1:02:16

such centers in Canada. After

1:02:19

Constable Mark Boudai was killed at Teslan

1:02:21

Lake in 1985, Ed

1:02:24

Hill had an idea and

1:02:27

he pitched it to Roy

1:02:29

Henry Vickers as a collaboration

1:02:31

to raise money. And that

1:02:33

is the start of a

1:02:35

fascinating and eerie story of

1:02:37

how a friendship between a

1:02:39

noted Indigenous artist and his

1:02:41

RCMP Staff Sergeant student led

1:02:43

to the creation of the

1:02:45

memorial painting. I knew

1:02:47

Mike, I'd consumed a few pop

1:02:49

with him over the years. It

1:02:52

hit me very hard and I said

1:02:54

that someday I'd like to do a

1:02:56

painting in his honor. So it was

1:02:58

10 years later in 1995 that the

1:03:01

RCMP flew me and Roy Vickers

1:03:03

and a couple of other people

1:03:05

into the Yukon and we set

1:03:07

an expedition up to get out

1:03:10

onto the lake, the

1:03:12

frozen lake where Mike Boudai

1:03:14

had been murdered. The

1:03:17

group included noted Tlingit elder

1:03:19

Matthew Tom, who was the

1:03:21

great grandson of that shaman

1:03:23

buried on Big Island, according

1:03:25

to the province. Gary

1:03:28

Rogers also brought a friend of

1:03:30

his along from terrace who happened

1:03:32

to be the local Catholic priest,

1:03:35

eclectic group. Before

1:03:37

The two artists could start

1:03:39

the memorial painting, they had

1:03:41

to find the right image,

1:03:43

a vision, the perfect scene

1:03:45

scape that captured the spirit

1:03:47

of the Tesla Lake incident

1:03:49

woven with Tlingit symbolism. The

1:03:52

process started with a Tlingit

1:03:54

tradition where Roy Henry Vickers

1:03:56

placed tobacco in front of

1:03:58

the shaman's grave. He

1:04:00

would tell a journalist for the

1:04:02

province. quite almost. As soon as

1:04:04

we got here, I could begin

1:04:06

to feel the whole story. Com

1:04:08

allies it was magical. We.

1:04:11

Weren't able to get a hold

1:04:13

of Roy Henry Vic is that

1:04:15

aired. Hill is often asked to

1:04:17

tell the story at various public

1:04:19

events. He tells me it typically

1:04:21

takes about forty five minutes. So

1:04:24

this is the really short version.

1:04:26

Or I. Find

1:04:30

it was going

1:04:32

to work there.

1:04:38

Are. Spot.

1:04:46

On the island. I

1:04:48

walked. Off.

1:04:58

So I went back

1:05:01

to compromise for Rock

1:05:03

River Park. And

1:05:05

I work. On

1:05:10

Trump or Swan. Street

1:05:14

and I talk about trump

1:05:16

or slots on. A

1:05:19

Verification. Or

1:05:21

aircraft. Went back to town and.

1:05:25

For seven days of March and

1:05:27

that with the only family only

1:05:29

time we ever saw an eagle.

1:05:31

Eyes. Cultural House Eagle

1:05:34

was supporting our child.

1:05:43

Or sign. Later.

1:05:48

that day gary rodgers two

1:05:50

boys oddest to the exact

1:05:52

place when my food i

1:05:54

had been positions with his

1:05:56

dog treats us the place

1:05:58

where exactly team years earlier

1:06:00

to the day he was shot

1:06:03

dead by Michael Oros. It

1:06:05

was only then that Roy Henry

1:06:07

Vickers and Ed Hill realised

1:06:09

that the scene-scape they'd already

1:06:11

chosen with no knowledge of

1:06:13

what took place and where

1:06:15

had a very special significance.

1:06:18

Roy had brought a pipe along,

1:06:21

a red stone cultural pipe and

1:06:23

he loaded it and the

1:06:25

three of us sat in that little

1:06:27

hole in the ground where Mike Medea

1:06:30

died where he had been laying watching

1:06:32

out over the ice when the bullet

1:06:34

hit him. It killed him. Roy lit

1:06:36

the pipe and passed it around and

1:06:39

we took our smoke of the pipe

1:06:41

and I looked over Roy's shoulder. Sorry,

1:06:45

this is the part even of sitting in a

1:06:47

parking lot when I get emotional.

1:06:49

I said, Roy,

1:06:52

look over your shoulder. And

1:06:55

he looked over his shoulder and he looked

1:06:57

back and just smiled. There,

1:06:59

through the gap in the trees,

1:07:02

were our footprints in

1:07:04

the snow on the ice.

1:07:07

Roy and I had found the spot,

1:07:10

taken the photograph that would be the

1:07:12

painting that was literally

1:07:15

the last sight of the world that

1:07:17

Mike Medea saw when the bullet hit

1:07:19

his head without us ever

1:07:21

knowing where he had

1:07:23

been beforehand. The

1:07:29

finished painting is called Sheep Standing

1:07:31

By Himself by Roy Henry Vickers

1:07:34

and Ed Hill. It's

1:07:36

a scene-scape of the narrows, the

1:07:38

part of Tesslyn Lake where the

1:07:40

incident took place with Big Island

1:07:42

at the back and it's full

1:07:45

of symbolism including the trumpeter swans,

1:07:47

the eagle. If you look closely

1:07:49

there's a silhouette of the shaman

1:07:51

lying at peace on Big Island.

1:07:54

The Artists, together with the

1:07:56

RCMP, decided to sell the

1:07:59

painting along three hundred limited

1:08:01

edition prints of it to

1:08:03

raise money to get the

1:08:05

Addiction Recovery Center going. All.

1:08:07

Of the Prince sold out and

1:08:10

raised the first hundred thousand dollars

1:08:12

for the recovery center. After

1:08:16

our our our to

1:08:18

our five twenty or

1:08:20

hour crashed on shudder.

1:08:23

At. Alive and well as

1:08:25

probably already mad and recovered

1:08:27

alcoholic beverage talked. So.

1:08:31

That brings us back to Gallery

1:08:33

Rogers and the Angel he decided

1:08:36

to take with the book. He

1:08:38

ended up writing cold, no witnesses

1:08:40

to nothing. I wrote that for

1:08:42

therapy I had to had to do

1:08:44

it myself to let it out. I

1:08:46

narrowed it down to spirituality in the

1:08:49

science behind the saw. This is

1:08:51

always something I'd been been very interested

1:08:53

in town and not to mention the

1:08:55

religious. I'm actually practicing stoic and a

1:08:57

student of first nations and mythology. So.

1:09:00

I took the story i'm citizen Lake

1:09:02

incident and what if the stock was

1:09:04

true. Suppose. That is true what

1:09:07

would happen house with a guy and then

1:09:09

I took from an Ism and then ran

1:09:11

without. and then there's a very high profile

1:09:13

case of to read informants been murdered to

1:09:15

have never been solved that are you insulted

1:09:17

was an inside job near seem be members

1:09:20

or wouldn't have huge target importation case of

1:09:22

the to be No thirteen. So. Rattles

1:09:24

reels together and than benny to pull

1:09:26

together cohesive story. Gary.

1:09:28

Rodgers book based on the

1:09:30

Tesla like incidences called no

1:09:33

Witnesses To Nothing Described as

1:09:35

a police procedural novel based

1:09:37

on a true crime story

1:09:39

straight out of See a

1:09:41

Silo, The Exiles when many

1:09:43

believe that paranormal intervention occurred.

1:09:45

Instance One: as many books

1:09:47

he's written based on true

1:09:49

crime stories, he's in a

1:09:51

whole new three and now

1:09:53

as an international best selling

1:09:55

crime reiser and film content

1:09:57

producer and Hillside. blogs frequently

1:10:00

most notably at his

1:10:02

website dyingwords.net. Roy

1:10:05

Henry Vickers still has his

1:10:07

gallery in Tofino. You can

1:10:09

find him online at

1:10:12

royhenryvickers.com. Ed Hill

1:10:14

is based in Gibsons on the

1:10:16

Sunshine Coast of British Columbia where

1:10:18

he continues to paint scenes from

1:10:21

the area with a story to

1:10:23

go with each painting. You can

1:10:25

find him at edhillart.com. Thanks

1:10:38

for listening and special thanks to

1:10:40

Gary Rogers who's been a real

1:10:42

pleasure to deal with and extremely

1:10:44

generous with his time and help.

1:10:46

After I first reached out to

1:10:48

him and he sussed me out

1:10:50

he put me in contact with

1:10:52

Bob Budai, Mike's brother as well

1:10:54

as Ed Hill. Special thanks to

1:10:56

them both for taking the time

1:10:58

to speak with me. I really

1:11:00

enjoyed our interviews and Gary and

1:11:02

I ended up chatting for about

1:11:04

an hour afterwards about all kinds

1:11:06

of things, cases he's worked on,

1:11:08

his opinions and insights on other

1:11:10

cases and much more. Luckily I

1:11:12

kept the recording going and I'll

1:11:15

be putting our conversation up for

1:11:17

premium feed listeners. Gary

1:11:19

remains a prolific writer and

1:11:21

you can find all about

1:11:23

what he's up to on

1:11:25

his blog dyingwords.net. The

1:11:27

voice of Michael Orys's diary

1:11:30

entries was fellow podcaster Craig

1:11:32

Baird of the Canadian History

1:11:34

EHX Podcast. You should definitely

1:11:36

check it out. Follow

1:11:39

Canadian True Crime on Facebook and

1:11:41

Instagram to see clippings, photos and

1:11:43

more from this case. And for

1:11:45

the full list of resources and

1:11:47

anything else you want to know,

1:11:49

visit the page for this episode

1:11:52

at canadiantruecrime.ca. If

1:11:54

you found this mini-series compelling, we'd love

1:11:56

for you to tell a friend, post

1:11:58

on social media or leave

1:12:00

a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

1:12:04

Canadian True Crime donates monthly

1:12:06

to those facing injustice. This

1:12:08

month we have donated to

1:12:10

the Canadian Resource Centre for

1:12:12

Victims of Crime who offer

1:12:14

support, research and education to

1:12:16

survivors, victims and their families.

1:12:19

Learn more at crcvc.ca. Audio

1:12:23

editing was by Eric Crosby

1:12:25

who also voiced the disclaimer.

1:12:27

Our senior producer is Lindsay

1:12:29

Eldridge and Carol Weinberg is

1:12:31

our script consultant. Research,

1:12:33

writing, narration and sound design was

1:12:36

by me and the theme songs

1:12:38

were composed by We Talk of

1:12:40

Dreams. I'll be back soon with

1:12:42

another Canadian True Crime story. See

1:12:44

you then.