The Detectives (2018) s02e02 Episode Script
The Second Chance
[BOB PULFER.]
: The Louise Ellis case was the most complex, most difficult case that I ever investigated.
It was hot.
Something you never want to experience.
[CHEERING ON TELEVISION.]
[PHONE RINGING.]
[MORGAN.]
: Hello? [MISSEN.]
: I found her car.
It's parked by the side of the road, the river road, Wakefield.
I'll be right there.
I'm calling the police.
[CHEERING ON TELEVISION.]
[A CAR IS APPROACHING.
.]
[BOB PULFER.]
: Where is Louise Ellis? A huge puzzle right from the start.
Every day I was wondering "what else can we do? What have we done wrong?" Any sign of her? [BOB PULFER.]
: How did the vehicle get here? Did somebody pick her up and drive her away? Where the hell is she? [BOB PULFER.]
: What's going on? Brett! Brett! Just wait for the police.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It was something that I was obsessed about and it's never going to leave my memory and my mind.
When we started this case in 1995, my staff sergeant dropped a missing person's report on my desk and all he said was, "Here, Pulley, have a look at this.
" - Thanks for coming in.
- What have we got? Louise Ellis, local journalist, came up from Ottawa to visit some friends, never showed.
Her husband called it in.
He's here, searching the woods.
Mr.
Morgan, I'm Detective Pulfer.
This is Detective Savage.
You really shouldn't be searching the woods like that, Sir.
You could be contaminating a scene.
Well, my wife's gone missing.
She's gotta be around here somewhere.
All her stuff's still in the car.
When's the last time you saw her? Saturday.
She's supposed to be visiting a friend.
What friend? John Maisonneuve, her ex-boyfriend actually.
His daughter was having a birthday party.
He's got a cottage around here.
He called looking for her.
She never showed.
All I can figure is she might have pulled in here, stopped, gone to the bathroom, and got lost or something.
She's missing and I'll do everything I can to help find her.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Brett Morgan was quite upset.
Distraught almost.
Basically, started a little mini search to see "How can I help out here?" [SAVAGE.]
: Mr.
Morgan, please step this way with me.
I'd like to ask you a few more questions.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We find this vehicle abandoned.
Usually if you see a car abandoned, it's run out of gas or it's broken down.
[ENGINE START.]
But the car did start; there was lots of gas in it, and it was working top form.
There were some pajamas, a gift for a friend, and there was a bag with some personal belongings.
And her wallet was in there.
This was quite bothersome to us.
It struck home something is wrong here.
Let's get a full search team in here ASAP, huh? Mr.
Morgan, where did you say your wife's ex lived? Down this road right on 4.
I know where it is.
Get a squad car over there right away.
[BOB PULFER.]
: How did the vehicle get here? Where is Louise Ellis? Did she visit her ex? What's going on here? [PULFER.]
: When was the last time you spoke with Louise? I guess that would have been Thursday night.
I called her and invited her to the party.
My daughter, she turned eleven.
Even after the breakup, she was still close with Louise.
Your daughter with Louise? No, an earlier marriage.
But Louise and I were together five years.
She was quite close with my daughter.
Did she seem upset, uh, strange? Was anything on her mind? Well, she seemed fine.
She was happy to be invited to the party, but it was typical Louise, very noncommittal.
She said she probably wouldn't come to the party but that she'd call or she'd let me know if things changed.
We only spoke for just a few minutes.
Any idea where she might be? I really wasn't expecting her.
You know, we found a present in Louise's car for your daughter.
Maybe she was planning on surprising us at the last minute.
Well, if you weren't expecting her, why'd you call her house looking for her? I, um, well, I was just checking in.
It's not like Louise to not call for my daughter's birthday.
To not come is one thing.
Not call, that's different.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We viewed John Maisonneuve definitely as a person of interest because Louise was supposed to go and visit him.
He claimed that the meeting was rather noncommittal.
But yet in her vehicle, we found her overnight bag; we found a gift for his daughter, and pajamas and a bottle of wine.
So it was a red flag for us.
Oh, God.
I hope she's OK.
I've known Louise for years.
How did you end up finding her car? I noticed it, um, Saturday, I think.
I remember thinking it looked like Louise's car, but I didn't think anything of it, you know, until Brett called.
Then I drove right over to check the plates.
Did you and Louise have plans? I invited her over but she didn't commit.
She said, if she goes to the birthday party, she might drop by on her way home, but that was it.
What about Brett Morgan? She loved him.
He loved her.
John Maisonneuve? He seemed fine.
He liked seeing Louise from time to time and he seemed all right with Brett.
Thank you.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Brenda Missen told us a lot of things about Louise's life.
Brenda knew her as a very lovely person to be with and a good friend.
Brenda was worried.
[JOURNALIST.]
: Forty-six-year-old Louise Elli, a freelance writer, disappeared Saturday.
While police concentrated their efforts on the Gatineau River, about thirty friends joined the missing woman's family in the ground search of the area near where the car was found.
I just try to keep feeling very hopeful that she is all right somewhere.
[JOURNALIST.]
: Friends have also put up posters.
Anyone with information should call the Ottawa police.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Volunteers, friends of Louise, they scoured bushes, rivers, roadways.
Nothing of interest was found for us.
Detective Pulfer, I'm Allen Ellis.
Louise's father.
I'm sorry, Mr.
Ellis.
You must be going through a very difficult time.
We'll find her.
Have you learned anything new? We're still assessing the situation, sir.
Please call me Allen.
I brought some photos.
I thought it might help you.
Did she have any enemies? Any reason she might want to run away? Oh, she was happy! I'm as shocked as anyone at all this.
Any other problems, ex-boyfriends, money issues? No, nothing.
Well, all right, Allen.
We'll, uh, we'll continue doing what we can to find her then.
Thank you.
I'm here to help.
As you need.
If you'll excuse me a moment? Yes, of course.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Allen was very distraught over the fact that Louise was missing.
He told us "Whatever I can do to help you out, I will do that for you cause I want to find Louise, because I love my daughter.
" You got anything new? Nothing, other than the husband's fresh tracks when he was looking around.
If she got out of the car and she didn't go in the woods, then she stayed on the road.
So she could have got into another car or, uh, of course, somebody else could have parked this vehicle here.
Let's get her photo out to the media, huh? At this point, she could be anywhere.
[BOB PULFER.]
: What happened to Louise? Did Louise just decide to run away from her life as she knew it? Did she go and visit John Maisonneuve? Did something happen? The fact that nothing was found was a huge puzzle.
We searched the river; we searched the road; we searched the bush.
I thought "Is she in the water somewhere?" Like I was obsessed.
They called off the ground search.
They found no signs of Louise anywhere.
How's the family doing? Well, father and husband are taking it pretty hard.
They're gonna continue searching.
Let's do this.
OK.
So we got Louise Ellis, forty-six-year-old freelance writer.
Started off as a reporter; now she's working mainly government contracts.
She leaves Saturday.
She tells her husband she's going to visit her ex.
Her ex wasn't sure if she was showing up at all.
A successful career? Husband and father seem to think she was pretty happy, so that's a tough sell.
Suicide? Yeah.
But again, it doesn't fit.
There were no warning signs.
Plus, the search dogs found no evidence of her leaving the vehicle.
Could be foul play.
No body nearby.
And again, search dogs would have found something.
Killer could have left the body somewhere else and planted the car there as a decoy.
Where do we go from here? Let's freeze the bank accounts.
If it was foul play, somebody may try to access them.
And if she did run away, she's likely to try, too.
And then we're gonna dig deep into everyone she knew, starting with Brett Morgan and John Maisonneuve.
[MORGAN.]
: Do you guys have any ideas, suspects? [SAVAGE.]
: For now, we're just gathering information, sir, which is why we need to take an official statement.
Am I a suspect? [SAVAGE.]
: At the moment, you are our best source of information.
That doesn't make you a suspect.
Well, maybe I should be.
[MORGAN.]
: I wanna be up front about this, but I want you to understand the whole story.
I killed someone.
I was young, hooked on coke, and things got messy.
It was an accident.
I was convicted of manslaughter.
[BOB PULFER.]
: This was a shocking revelation.
One of the first things he told us, "I strangled a hooker in Edmonton in 1978.
" It was just unheard of for me to have a confession like that, interviewing someone about a missing person.
I think about it every day.
It took me a while to get myself straight, and that's how I met Louise.
Louise help you get clean? Not exactly.
You know who David Milgaard is? The guy who was wrongly convicted for killing a nurse? Exactly.
One day, I'm in jail and my cellmate tells me he's the one who killed that nurse that put Milgaard in jail.
- What's his name? - Larry Fisher.
Larry Fisher? Yeah.
He seemed like he was telling the truth.
It bothered me that Milgaard could be innocent and was in jail so I told on him.
Skip ahead, there I am in court, testifying against my own cellmate.
And I mean, you rat out someone in jail and it brings a set of problems.
So Louise was covering the trial and, uh, she was writing the story for some paper.
She saw me testify and, uh, she started writing me letters.
And after I got out, we got together.
What happened to your ex-cellmate? Well, here's the thing.
I don't know.
I, I heard he was out of jail.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Perhaps Larry Fisher was taking out some sort of revenge on Brett Morgan for being a rat.
We'd better have a look at Larry Fisher.
Maybe he's involved in the disappearance of Louise Ellis.
Mr.
Morgan, do you mind if I take a look around? Yeah, yeah.
Go ahead.
Thanks.
[DEEP SIGH.]
OK.
Mr.
Morgan, walk me through the day Louise left.
[BOB PULFER.]
: I had a little peek around the house while John was talking to Morgan.
I could see that the house was very very neat and tidy, the way she kept it.
She was very organized, very meticulous.
I found financial records and a handwritten will.
I decided to go into the bathroom and I could smell the new shower curtain, and the hangers on the shower curtain were askew.
And that was not Louise Ellis.
What happened in this bathroom that he had to go out and buy a new shower curtain? That was it.
I was home before midnight.
Is that a new shower curtain? Yeah, yeah.
Shredded the old one in the washing machine when I was doing the spring cleaning.
Louise asked me to buy a new one before she left.
Whose files are these? Louise's.
Would you mind if we took them? They could go a long way in helping us find out what happened.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Sure.
Whatever you need.
Thank you.
[SAVAGE.]
: Other than Larry Fisher, is there anyone you can think of that would wanna hurt Louise? Her ex, John Maisonneuve.
She left him for me and he's not over it.
She left him for you? He didn't tell you? He calls her all the time.
Thursday, before she disappeared, we're trying to watch a movie and he calls her and she's on the phone talking to him for at least an hour.
I fell asleep on the couch.
An hour? Yeah.
He's possessive.
I don't trust him.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise and John Maisonneuve had a lengthy relationship.
And now, all of a sudden, on one of the nights before Louise went missing, John Maisonneuve calls their home and talked for over an hour.
[MAISONNEUVE.]
: It was just a quick call, maybe ten, fifteen minutes, maybe a little more.
How much more? I wasn't exactly recording it.
Uh, an hour? I don't know.
When did you and Louise break up? About three years ago.
Around the Milgaard trial.
You've spoken with Brett.
Yeah.
Mind if I take a look around? Of course.
Anything you need.
Look, that trial consumed her.
Is that the reason it ended? You could say that.
Did it bother you, the, uh, ex-con stealing your wife? Of course.
You still hoping she comes back? You could say that too.
Louise is a beautiful person, vibrant, intelligent, passionate, full of life, full of love.
She always sees the good in people, even terrible people.
Like who? Morgan.
Frankly, the guy's a jerk.
He used her.
He played her.
He made her think that he was reformed and brave.
He doesn't have a job, doesn't have money.
And now she's missing.
So you think Morgan's behind her disappearance? Who else? The guy's got a temper.
You mind if I take a look around outside? No.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise left John Maisonneuve for Brett Morgan, but John Maisonneuve still loved Louise Ellis.
John Maisonneuve did not have a strong alibi.
He was calm and cooperative but pointing the finger at somebody else.
In the driveway leading to his property, It was surprising to find some very deep ruts caused by tires.
Perhaps these tire ruts were caused by Louise Ellis' vehicle being there a few days before that.
I needed to get a sample of the dirt from his driveway to compare it to what was found on Louise's vehicle.
If these soil samples did match up, maybe Louise was on John Maisonneuve's property.
Maybe there was some involvement by John Maisonneuve in her disappearance.
At this point in the investigation, we still had three persons of interest.
We had John Maisonneuve, an ex-boyfriend.
And Brett Morgan, a convicted murderer and Brett's cellmate, Larry Fisher.
Maybe he's involved in this.
Judge's reviewing David Milgaard's conviction have heard dramatic testimony, testimony that may link someone else to the murder of Gail Miller.
Milgaard has spent more than twenty-two years in prison for that killing, but he said all along that he's innocent.
And now the Supreme Court is trying to determine if he is telling the truth.
Today it heard from three women who all had damaging things to say about another man, the man Milgaard supporters believe may be the real murderer.
Sasha Petrosic has the story.
Fisher's a convicted sex offender in prison for committing three rapes in the same neighborhood in the months before and after Saskatoon police found Gail Miller's body.
She had ben raped and stabbed to death.
Fisher told police he was at work that day This case is so crazy to me.
The fact that Morgan actually spoke out against him is a pretty big deal.
Morgan was right, Fisher's out of jail.
What? If Milgaard is out, why the hell isn't Fisher in prison? Other than Morgan's testimony, they didn't have any proof that Larry Fisher killed Gail Miller.
So he served his time for rape and he's out.
Well.
Morgan's got good reason to be nervous then, huh? Except, Larry Fisher was pulled over for a traffic violation the same day Louise Ellis disappeared, in Saskatoon.
Three thousand clicks from here.
Yes.
Got some bad news.
Soil on the car isn't a match with Maisonneuve's farm.
[DEEP SIGH.]
So that means she never made it to Maisonneuve's cottage.
Well, it doesn't completely absolve him, but it certainly makes him look a hell of a lot less guilty.
Uh, I wish I could say the same for our friend Brett Morgan.
Look through Louise's will.
It basically leaves everything to one person, and it isn't Maisonneuve.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Brett Morgan was the total beneficiary of her will, plus her RRSPs and her home.
He now moved from a person of interest to a very strong suspect in that he was going to benefit from her death.
I had to go to her bank myself and find out what Louise Ellis owned.
A few months ago, she was thirty-five thousand dollars in debt, and she didn't even know it.
Her husband was cashing false checks on her line of credit by forging her signature.
When she found out about it, it was too late.
Did anyone call the police? Louise didn't want to press charges.
Brett was on parole.
This could have put him back in jail.
Any other transactions on the accounts since her disappearance? There was a withdrawal on that same day for $280 at her usual ATM in Ottawa near her home.
What time was that at? 2:53 p.
m.
She was supposed to be out of town at that time.
Exactly.
And Louise's bank card is the only one associated with the account.
Were you able to make a copy of the image of the transaction for me? Yes.
- Her husband made the withdrawal.
- Yeah.
Thank you very much for this, Lisa.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Here's Brett Morgan using her one and only bank card at an ATM machine.
I saw the cheque; I saw the forgery; I saw his picture in the bank.
I thought "This is our guy.
" He's already murdered a woman before.
The victim was Gwen Telford.
Motel staff found her body around 3:33 in the afternoon.
We figure she'd been dead for twelve hours at least.
[BOB PULFER.]
: John MacLeod was the investigating detective in Edmonton in 1978.
He told us Morgan sat on the chest of this woman, put a pillow over her face, put his hands on her throat, and as he strangled her said "Die, you bitch, die.
" It should have been murder, plain and simple.
The reason it was reduced to manslaughter is he lied through his teeth.
He denied everything.
He came up with a bunch of crazy excuses to convince the courts that it was an accident.
They settled, manslaughter.
Morgan is a master manipulator.
I mean, hell, he even manipulated me for a while.
How so? After we found Gwen's body, he drove around with me for days pretending that he was looking for the guy who did it.
[SAVAGE.]
: Bob? Surveillance says Morgan's back at the scene where he found Louise's car.
Says he's stopping vehicles, taking statements, handing out flyers.
Oh, yeah.
That's Morgan.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It seemed like this was the way Brett Morgan operated, trying to manipulate the police, be the con man.
Here we have him in Ottawa being very helpful, going on television, going for Ottawa Citizen interviews.
Excuse me, sir, but my wife has gone missing.
I'm hoping to find anyone who may have seen her.
Oh, this, yeah.
I saw this on the news.
Actually, I may have seen something.
Great, great.
Can I get you to write your name here, and any contact info? Sure.
Thank you.
Really appreciate it.
- Have a good one.
- I will.
Thanks, guys.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We don't know what is going on with Brett Morgan.
Was this part of his ruse, part of this being a con? The media left at two o'clock in the afternoon.
At that point, Morgan thought he was alone.
Walks over to the Gatineau river and throws the piece of paper he'd been writing on in the water.
Looked like he was so caring.
But in fact, threw the name of the witness in the river.
In my eyes, the missing person is now a homicide.
Brett Morgan? He was the devil.
We had a lot of circumstantial evidence pointing to Brett Morgan as the person responsible for the murder of Louise Ellis, but there was one thing missing: the body.
Find Louise and we can actually charge Brett Morgan.
With all the evidence we gathered, we were able to apply for a wiretap on Brett Morgan's phone, his house and also we put one into his vehicle.
It's so good to have someone to talk to.
You're the only one who really listens anyway, Marie.
Marie? Who the hell's Marie? Have you seen what they're saying about me in the paper? The whole frigging town thinks I killed her.
The same thing happened to Milgaard.
The cops don't do their job and an innocent guy gets blamed.
I just, I just want my wife.
[MARIE.]
: That's why I'm here, Brett.
Right? And when we find Louise, everyone will know that they have misjudged you.
Is she buying his crap and helping him look for Louise? You're a brave man, Brett.
Thank you.
I've been thinking a little about the case.
When you found the car, was Louise's seat in the same position? It was exactly the way Louise left it.
She's short.
She likes to drive close to the steering wheel.
Makes sense.
Why was it there? She was visiting Maisonneuve.
I'm telling you; we check his property, we'll find her.
Well, then, you tell me when and I'll come.
- Seriously? - Absolutely.
If the police aren't gonna help you, then I will.
All right? - Just let me know when.
- I will.
I Thank you, Marie.
[BOB PULFER.]
: I was extremely worried about this woman.
Brett Morgan was capable of great brutality.
We felt that we should speak to Marie at the police station.
Would you mind telling us what you were doing at Brett Morgan's house? Just talking about what happened to his wife.
I see.
How long have you known him? Only a couple of days.
I saw him on TV.
He was looking for his wife.
And what, you felt sorry for him? I did, yeah.
But not anymore.
What changed? I've been thinking a little about the case.
When you found the car, was Louise's seat in the same position? It was exactly the way I left exactly the way Louise left it.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Almost said, "Just the way I left it," but he said, "It was just the way Louise left it.
" that was a major faux pas by Brett Morgan.
Look, I don't wanna mess anything up, OK? But I can help.
I'm a private investigator.
Well, I'm taking courses.
And I told him that I could help him find the body, so now he trusts me.
And he needs to be stopped, right? Let's stop him.
You're gonna have to give us a couple of minutes.
So what are you thinking? You're seriously considering this? Well, it wouldn't be the first time we worked with a private investigator.
In training? I don't know.
I don't like it.
I think we gotta do it.
I think we have to.
It's our best chance to find out what happened to Louise.
[BOB PULFER.]
: John and I weighed the pros and cons of having this totally unknown person involved in this level of the investigation.
It was a very difficult decision, but Brett Morgan trusted her; she knew what we wanted to do, and she had a real gift of the gab.
She could, uh, probably talk Brett Morgan into doing almost anything.
We needed her to find Louise's body.
Now as long as you have this purse with you, we'll be able to hear everything that's going on.
OK.
I've never been bugged before.
Marie, what you're about to do is extremely dangerous.
OK? We'll do everything we can to prevent you from being hurt, but we can't guarantee your safety.
Now are you still sure you want to go through with this? Yeah.
I'm sure.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It was a huge risk in allowing this civilian to get knee-deep into what we believed now was a homicide investigation.
- [MORGAN.]
: Good morning.
- [MARIE.]
: Good morning.
- Let's go.
- Let's go.
[BOB PULFER.]
: He took the hook.
He took the bait.
We weren't too worried about her danger cause we were very close.
I guess you could say we were risk-takers, but we did want to find a body for evidence.
[MARIE.]
: I spoke to my friend at the newspaper.
They said that John Maisonneue failed a lie detector.
No surprise there.
You really think that he killed her? Oh, yeah.
I think I know where she is too.
How? I told you I killed someone before, so I've been putting myself in that mindset.
If I'm John Maisonneuve, I'm looking for a nice quiet place close to home.
There's a back road to this property.
Pull over here.
[BOB PULFER.]
: As they started to go off the highway up in Quebec, we're realizing how hard it is to follow someone in a rural area doing surveillance.
We had to back surveillance off.
We could not go in there into John Maisonneuve's property.
If we would have pulled in to follow them, if he would have turned around, we would have been burnt.
Dammit.
We better not lose them.
That was a dicey situation.
Yeah.
I think it's in through here.
Are we close? Yeah.
Just a little further this way.
[SIGH.]
I only sweat like this when I'm about to have sex.
[SCOFFS.]
You're thinking about that at a time like this? Forget it.
We won't find her today.
[BOB PULFER.]
: That was very, very frustrating for us.
Wondering what had we done wrong, what does he know, what are we gonna do? [DEEP SIGH.]
You wanna come back to my place? Figure out where to look tomorrow? Just let me, um, go to the washroom.
Hey.
Let me get that.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We actually saw Morgan lean over to kiss Marie Parent.
Knowing Brett Morgan, we weren't surprised.
Be right back.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It was not the way we did things.
We said "OK, that's it; we're done.
" "This is not the way this investigation's going to go.
" After the attempted kiss, we told Marie Parent "You're done.
" And that's the way we left it.
But Marie Parent still wanted to get him searching again.
We had to take that risk.
Unfortunately, Brett Morgan did not seem to be interested.
Why is he all of a sudden getting cold feet? Has he become aware of the wiretaps? What's causing him to back off? So we had to use another tactic.
Hi, Brett.
Lisa Costello at the bank.
I have some bad news.
I'm afraid we won't be able to release any part of Louise's estate until she's officially deceased.
She would either have to be found or missing for seven years.
I'm sorry.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Brett Morgan was the solel beneficiary of everything that Louise Ellis owned.
Here in Ontario, unless you find a body, a person must be missing for seven years before you can access the will.
We used that tool to get him searching again for Louise Ellis' body, and it worked.
He was a con man who got conned by two better cons.
Hop in.
Oh, we're not gonna take my car? We're gonna need a truck where we're going.
Some pretty bad roads on Maisonneuve's property.
So are you scared about what we might find? It won't be pretty.
What about you? You scared to be alone with me? No.
No, I'm not scared.
[BOB PULFER.]
: So they drove for 25 minutes.
They got to this location maybe two miles away from John Maisonneuve's property.
We still had wiretaps in her purse.
[MARIE.]
: Are you sure this is the place? Positive.
This is where Maisonneuve took her.
I feel it.
Are you working for the cops? The cops? What? Are you wearing a wire? What are you talking about? A wire! Are you recording this? Of course not! Why would I do that? How do I know I can trust you? - What are you saying? - How do I know? This is getting out of control.
OK.
Frisk me.
OK.
I trust you.
OK.
- Put these gloves on.
- Why? Thorn bushes are bad where we're heading.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It was touch and go for a while.
Were we concerned? Extremely concerned but the play was going on.
Oh no.
Did we lose the signal? Or did we lose her? I'm going in.
- [MORGAN.]
: Oh, my God.
- Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! - What? - Listen.
- My poor Louise.
- Listen.
[MORGAN.]
: My God.
My poor Louise.
My God.
[CRYING.]
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise Ellis was never afforded a burial.
She was just dumped in the ground, covered up with sticks, and just left her there to rot.
It was horrific.
Driving back into Ottawa, John and I did not talk much.
The investigation was done.
We had enough evidence to arrest Brett Morgan as the person responsible for the murder of Louise Ellis.
I really wanted him to say to us, "Yes, I killed Louise Ellis and here's the reason I did it.
" How'd you find her, Brett? I looked, day in and day out, like you should have been doing.
Really.
Is that why you only found Louise after the bank told you the estate wouldn't pay out until you had a body? We did a little digging of our own, too.
We found Louise's signature forged on 35 thousand dollars' worth of cheques.
I was gonna pay her back.
[PULFER.]
: And then, of course, there's the picture of you withdrawing money from an ATM using Louise's bank card.
So what? I used her card all the time.
She trusted me.
[SAVAGE.]
: Look at the date and time on it.
[PULFER.]
: Saturday, the day she disappeared, 2:53 p.
m.
, long after you said she'd left for Maisonneuve's.
So I took money out after she left.
We found her bank card in the vehicle.
What does that prove? There was only one card on Louise's bank account, which means you planted it in the vehicle long after it had been abandoned on the side of the road.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Her bank card was used at 2:53 p.
m.
If she left at 2:00, how is that bank card in her vehicle? Impossible.
Unless Brett Morgan put it in the car after she was dead.
[PULFER.]
: How'd you kill her, Brett? Huh? I'll tell you how.
It was Saturday morning.
Louise told you she was going to Maisonneuve's.
But you didn't like that, did you? So you got angry and you beat her, like you had so many times before.
I never touched her.
That's not what her diary said.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise wrote about what her relationship was like with Brett Morgan in her diary, having beer poured over her head, being hit on the ankle, held down like a dog.
But this Saturday, beating her wasn't enough, was it? She knew about the cheques.
She knew she was never gonna see that money.
You were afraid she was gonna blow the lid off your little scheme, tell her family.
You'd wind up back in prison.
So you decided to cash in, didn't you? You'd take her money and her property, but to do that, you had to get rid of her.
So you snuck up on her in the shower and you killed her and then you wrapped her in the shower curtain and you took her out to where you found her body.
And you dumped her in what you thought was Maisonneuve's property, but it wasn't.
We found your little map, Brett.
[PULFER.]
: You were so hell-bent on framing Maisonneuve for the murder, you didn't realize the map was wrong.
It was nowhere near his property.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Morgan, that day, used a map that was out-of-date and in fact, did not put the body on John Maisonneuve's property.
He tried to frame John Maisonneuve, but it didn't work.
We got him.
She gave you a roof over your head and a second chance.
She helped you get out of prison and you put her in one.
And then when she wanted out, you killed her and you dumped her body in the woods.
Well, you're going back to prison, pal.
Count on it.
Hopefully for the rest of your pathetic life.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We told him every piece of evidence we had against him and it did not faze him; he never confessed to it.
[JOURNALIST.]
: After a six-month trial and two-and-a-half days of deliberation, a jury found Brett Morgan guilty of first-degree murder.
About a dozen of Louise Ellis' friends and family were in the courtroom as the verdict was announced.
Many were overwhelmed by emotion, bursting into tears.
Morgan was automatically sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for twenty-five years.
Judge Colin McKinnon told Morgn that Louise Ellis was in the prime of life.
"She gave everything to assist you.
She had so much life to live, and the jury found you took that from her.
" [BOB PULFER.]
: What Brett Morgan did to Louise Ellis was unimaginable and despicable.
Allen Ellis, Louise's father, he just wailed that night.
It just totally destroyed him.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise Ellis firmly believed in Brett Morgan.
They became friends and lovers.
To see how long she put up with the physical and verbal and financial abuse was very troublesome because all she wanted to do was help him.
It's been twenty-three years now, but I do think about her and the case.
It was uh it was a haunting case.
: The Louise Ellis case was the most complex, most difficult case that I ever investigated.
It was hot.
Something you never want to experience.
[CHEERING ON TELEVISION.]
[PHONE RINGING.]
[MORGAN.]
: Hello? [MISSEN.]
: I found her car.
It's parked by the side of the road, the river road, Wakefield.
I'll be right there.
I'm calling the police.
[CHEERING ON TELEVISION.]
[A CAR IS APPROACHING.
.]
[BOB PULFER.]
: Where is Louise Ellis? A huge puzzle right from the start.
Every day I was wondering "what else can we do? What have we done wrong?" Any sign of her? [BOB PULFER.]
: How did the vehicle get here? Did somebody pick her up and drive her away? Where the hell is she? [BOB PULFER.]
: What's going on? Brett! Brett! Just wait for the police.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It was something that I was obsessed about and it's never going to leave my memory and my mind.
When we started this case in 1995, my staff sergeant dropped a missing person's report on my desk and all he said was, "Here, Pulley, have a look at this.
" - Thanks for coming in.
- What have we got? Louise Ellis, local journalist, came up from Ottawa to visit some friends, never showed.
Her husband called it in.
He's here, searching the woods.
Mr.
Morgan, I'm Detective Pulfer.
This is Detective Savage.
You really shouldn't be searching the woods like that, Sir.
You could be contaminating a scene.
Well, my wife's gone missing.
She's gotta be around here somewhere.
All her stuff's still in the car.
When's the last time you saw her? Saturday.
She's supposed to be visiting a friend.
What friend? John Maisonneuve, her ex-boyfriend actually.
His daughter was having a birthday party.
He's got a cottage around here.
He called looking for her.
She never showed.
All I can figure is she might have pulled in here, stopped, gone to the bathroom, and got lost or something.
She's missing and I'll do everything I can to help find her.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Brett Morgan was quite upset.
Distraught almost.
Basically, started a little mini search to see "How can I help out here?" [SAVAGE.]
: Mr.
Morgan, please step this way with me.
I'd like to ask you a few more questions.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We find this vehicle abandoned.
Usually if you see a car abandoned, it's run out of gas or it's broken down.
[ENGINE START.]
But the car did start; there was lots of gas in it, and it was working top form.
There were some pajamas, a gift for a friend, and there was a bag with some personal belongings.
And her wallet was in there.
This was quite bothersome to us.
It struck home something is wrong here.
Let's get a full search team in here ASAP, huh? Mr.
Morgan, where did you say your wife's ex lived? Down this road right on 4.
I know where it is.
Get a squad car over there right away.
[BOB PULFER.]
: How did the vehicle get here? Where is Louise Ellis? Did she visit her ex? What's going on here? [PULFER.]
: When was the last time you spoke with Louise? I guess that would have been Thursday night.
I called her and invited her to the party.
My daughter, she turned eleven.
Even after the breakup, she was still close with Louise.
Your daughter with Louise? No, an earlier marriage.
But Louise and I were together five years.
She was quite close with my daughter.
Did she seem upset, uh, strange? Was anything on her mind? Well, she seemed fine.
She was happy to be invited to the party, but it was typical Louise, very noncommittal.
She said she probably wouldn't come to the party but that she'd call or she'd let me know if things changed.
We only spoke for just a few minutes.
Any idea where she might be? I really wasn't expecting her.
You know, we found a present in Louise's car for your daughter.
Maybe she was planning on surprising us at the last minute.
Well, if you weren't expecting her, why'd you call her house looking for her? I, um, well, I was just checking in.
It's not like Louise to not call for my daughter's birthday.
To not come is one thing.
Not call, that's different.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We viewed John Maisonneuve definitely as a person of interest because Louise was supposed to go and visit him.
He claimed that the meeting was rather noncommittal.
But yet in her vehicle, we found her overnight bag; we found a gift for his daughter, and pajamas and a bottle of wine.
So it was a red flag for us.
Oh, God.
I hope she's OK.
I've known Louise for years.
How did you end up finding her car? I noticed it, um, Saturday, I think.
I remember thinking it looked like Louise's car, but I didn't think anything of it, you know, until Brett called.
Then I drove right over to check the plates.
Did you and Louise have plans? I invited her over but she didn't commit.
She said, if she goes to the birthday party, she might drop by on her way home, but that was it.
What about Brett Morgan? She loved him.
He loved her.
John Maisonneuve? He seemed fine.
He liked seeing Louise from time to time and he seemed all right with Brett.
Thank you.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Brenda Missen told us a lot of things about Louise's life.
Brenda knew her as a very lovely person to be with and a good friend.
Brenda was worried.
[JOURNALIST.]
: Forty-six-year-old Louise Elli, a freelance writer, disappeared Saturday.
While police concentrated their efforts on the Gatineau River, about thirty friends joined the missing woman's family in the ground search of the area near where the car was found.
I just try to keep feeling very hopeful that she is all right somewhere.
[JOURNALIST.]
: Friends have also put up posters.
Anyone with information should call the Ottawa police.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Volunteers, friends of Louise, they scoured bushes, rivers, roadways.
Nothing of interest was found for us.
Detective Pulfer, I'm Allen Ellis.
Louise's father.
I'm sorry, Mr.
Ellis.
You must be going through a very difficult time.
We'll find her.
Have you learned anything new? We're still assessing the situation, sir.
Please call me Allen.
I brought some photos.
I thought it might help you.
Did she have any enemies? Any reason she might want to run away? Oh, she was happy! I'm as shocked as anyone at all this.
Any other problems, ex-boyfriends, money issues? No, nothing.
Well, all right, Allen.
We'll, uh, we'll continue doing what we can to find her then.
Thank you.
I'm here to help.
As you need.
If you'll excuse me a moment? Yes, of course.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Allen was very distraught over the fact that Louise was missing.
He told us "Whatever I can do to help you out, I will do that for you cause I want to find Louise, because I love my daughter.
" You got anything new? Nothing, other than the husband's fresh tracks when he was looking around.
If she got out of the car and she didn't go in the woods, then she stayed on the road.
So she could have got into another car or, uh, of course, somebody else could have parked this vehicle here.
Let's get her photo out to the media, huh? At this point, she could be anywhere.
[BOB PULFER.]
: What happened to Louise? Did Louise just decide to run away from her life as she knew it? Did she go and visit John Maisonneuve? Did something happen? The fact that nothing was found was a huge puzzle.
We searched the river; we searched the road; we searched the bush.
I thought "Is she in the water somewhere?" Like I was obsessed.
They called off the ground search.
They found no signs of Louise anywhere.
How's the family doing? Well, father and husband are taking it pretty hard.
They're gonna continue searching.
Let's do this.
OK.
So we got Louise Ellis, forty-six-year-old freelance writer.
Started off as a reporter; now she's working mainly government contracts.
She leaves Saturday.
She tells her husband she's going to visit her ex.
Her ex wasn't sure if she was showing up at all.
A successful career? Husband and father seem to think she was pretty happy, so that's a tough sell.
Suicide? Yeah.
But again, it doesn't fit.
There were no warning signs.
Plus, the search dogs found no evidence of her leaving the vehicle.
Could be foul play.
No body nearby.
And again, search dogs would have found something.
Killer could have left the body somewhere else and planted the car there as a decoy.
Where do we go from here? Let's freeze the bank accounts.
If it was foul play, somebody may try to access them.
And if she did run away, she's likely to try, too.
And then we're gonna dig deep into everyone she knew, starting with Brett Morgan and John Maisonneuve.
[MORGAN.]
: Do you guys have any ideas, suspects? [SAVAGE.]
: For now, we're just gathering information, sir, which is why we need to take an official statement.
Am I a suspect? [SAVAGE.]
: At the moment, you are our best source of information.
That doesn't make you a suspect.
Well, maybe I should be.
[MORGAN.]
: I wanna be up front about this, but I want you to understand the whole story.
I killed someone.
I was young, hooked on coke, and things got messy.
It was an accident.
I was convicted of manslaughter.
[BOB PULFER.]
: This was a shocking revelation.
One of the first things he told us, "I strangled a hooker in Edmonton in 1978.
" It was just unheard of for me to have a confession like that, interviewing someone about a missing person.
I think about it every day.
It took me a while to get myself straight, and that's how I met Louise.
Louise help you get clean? Not exactly.
You know who David Milgaard is? The guy who was wrongly convicted for killing a nurse? Exactly.
One day, I'm in jail and my cellmate tells me he's the one who killed that nurse that put Milgaard in jail.
- What's his name? - Larry Fisher.
Larry Fisher? Yeah.
He seemed like he was telling the truth.
It bothered me that Milgaard could be innocent and was in jail so I told on him.
Skip ahead, there I am in court, testifying against my own cellmate.
And I mean, you rat out someone in jail and it brings a set of problems.
So Louise was covering the trial and, uh, she was writing the story for some paper.
She saw me testify and, uh, she started writing me letters.
And after I got out, we got together.
What happened to your ex-cellmate? Well, here's the thing.
I don't know.
I, I heard he was out of jail.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Perhaps Larry Fisher was taking out some sort of revenge on Brett Morgan for being a rat.
We'd better have a look at Larry Fisher.
Maybe he's involved in the disappearance of Louise Ellis.
Mr.
Morgan, do you mind if I take a look around? Yeah, yeah.
Go ahead.
Thanks.
[DEEP SIGH.]
OK.
Mr.
Morgan, walk me through the day Louise left.
[BOB PULFER.]
: I had a little peek around the house while John was talking to Morgan.
I could see that the house was very very neat and tidy, the way she kept it.
She was very organized, very meticulous.
I found financial records and a handwritten will.
I decided to go into the bathroom and I could smell the new shower curtain, and the hangers on the shower curtain were askew.
And that was not Louise Ellis.
What happened in this bathroom that he had to go out and buy a new shower curtain? That was it.
I was home before midnight.
Is that a new shower curtain? Yeah, yeah.
Shredded the old one in the washing machine when I was doing the spring cleaning.
Louise asked me to buy a new one before she left.
Whose files are these? Louise's.
Would you mind if we took them? They could go a long way in helping us find out what happened.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Sure.
Whatever you need.
Thank you.
[SAVAGE.]
: Other than Larry Fisher, is there anyone you can think of that would wanna hurt Louise? Her ex, John Maisonneuve.
She left him for me and he's not over it.
She left him for you? He didn't tell you? He calls her all the time.
Thursday, before she disappeared, we're trying to watch a movie and he calls her and she's on the phone talking to him for at least an hour.
I fell asleep on the couch.
An hour? Yeah.
He's possessive.
I don't trust him.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise and John Maisonneuve had a lengthy relationship.
And now, all of a sudden, on one of the nights before Louise went missing, John Maisonneuve calls their home and talked for over an hour.
[MAISONNEUVE.]
: It was just a quick call, maybe ten, fifteen minutes, maybe a little more.
How much more? I wasn't exactly recording it.
Uh, an hour? I don't know.
When did you and Louise break up? About three years ago.
Around the Milgaard trial.
You've spoken with Brett.
Yeah.
Mind if I take a look around? Of course.
Anything you need.
Look, that trial consumed her.
Is that the reason it ended? You could say that.
Did it bother you, the, uh, ex-con stealing your wife? Of course.
You still hoping she comes back? You could say that too.
Louise is a beautiful person, vibrant, intelligent, passionate, full of life, full of love.
She always sees the good in people, even terrible people.
Like who? Morgan.
Frankly, the guy's a jerk.
He used her.
He played her.
He made her think that he was reformed and brave.
He doesn't have a job, doesn't have money.
And now she's missing.
So you think Morgan's behind her disappearance? Who else? The guy's got a temper.
You mind if I take a look around outside? No.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise left John Maisonneuve for Brett Morgan, but John Maisonneuve still loved Louise Ellis.
John Maisonneuve did not have a strong alibi.
He was calm and cooperative but pointing the finger at somebody else.
In the driveway leading to his property, It was surprising to find some very deep ruts caused by tires.
Perhaps these tire ruts were caused by Louise Ellis' vehicle being there a few days before that.
I needed to get a sample of the dirt from his driveway to compare it to what was found on Louise's vehicle.
If these soil samples did match up, maybe Louise was on John Maisonneuve's property.
Maybe there was some involvement by John Maisonneuve in her disappearance.
At this point in the investigation, we still had three persons of interest.
We had John Maisonneuve, an ex-boyfriend.
And Brett Morgan, a convicted murderer and Brett's cellmate, Larry Fisher.
Maybe he's involved in this.
Judge's reviewing David Milgaard's conviction have heard dramatic testimony, testimony that may link someone else to the murder of Gail Miller.
Milgaard has spent more than twenty-two years in prison for that killing, but he said all along that he's innocent.
And now the Supreme Court is trying to determine if he is telling the truth.
Today it heard from three women who all had damaging things to say about another man, the man Milgaard supporters believe may be the real murderer.
Sasha Petrosic has the story.
Fisher's a convicted sex offender in prison for committing three rapes in the same neighborhood in the months before and after Saskatoon police found Gail Miller's body.
She had ben raped and stabbed to death.
Fisher told police he was at work that day This case is so crazy to me.
The fact that Morgan actually spoke out against him is a pretty big deal.
Morgan was right, Fisher's out of jail.
What? If Milgaard is out, why the hell isn't Fisher in prison? Other than Morgan's testimony, they didn't have any proof that Larry Fisher killed Gail Miller.
So he served his time for rape and he's out.
Well.
Morgan's got good reason to be nervous then, huh? Except, Larry Fisher was pulled over for a traffic violation the same day Louise Ellis disappeared, in Saskatoon.
Three thousand clicks from here.
Yes.
Got some bad news.
Soil on the car isn't a match with Maisonneuve's farm.
[DEEP SIGH.]
So that means she never made it to Maisonneuve's cottage.
Well, it doesn't completely absolve him, but it certainly makes him look a hell of a lot less guilty.
Uh, I wish I could say the same for our friend Brett Morgan.
Look through Louise's will.
It basically leaves everything to one person, and it isn't Maisonneuve.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Brett Morgan was the total beneficiary of her will, plus her RRSPs and her home.
He now moved from a person of interest to a very strong suspect in that he was going to benefit from her death.
I had to go to her bank myself and find out what Louise Ellis owned.
A few months ago, she was thirty-five thousand dollars in debt, and she didn't even know it.
Her husband was cashing false checks on her line of credit by forging her signature.
When she found out about it, it was too late.
Did anyone call the police? Louise didn't want to press charges.
Brett was on parole.
This could have put him back in jail.
Any other transactions on the accounts since her disappearance? There was a withdrawal on that same day for $280 at her usual ATM in Ottawa near her home.
What time was that at? 2:53 p.
m.
She was supposed to be out of town at that time.
Exactly.
And Louise's bank card is the only one associated with the account.
Were you able to make a copy of the image of the transaction for me? Yes.
- Her husband made the withdrawal.
- Yeah.
Thank you very much for this, Lisa.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Here's Brett Morgan using her one and only bank card at an ATM machine.
I saw the cheque; I saw the forgery; I saw his picture in the bank.
I thought "This is our guy.
" He's already murdered a woman before.
The victim was Gwen Telford.
Motel staff found her body around 3:33 in the afternoon.
We figure she'd been dead for twelve hours at least.
[BOB PULFER.]
: John MacLeod was the investigating detective in Edmonton in 1978.
He told us Morgan sat on the chest of this woman, put a pillow over her face, put his hands on her throat, and as he strangled her said "Die, you bitch, die.
" It should have been murder, plain and simple.
The reason it was reduced to manslaughter is he lied through his teeth.
He denied everything.
He came up with a bunch of crazy excuses to convince the courts that it was an accident.
They settled, manslaughter.
Morgan is a master manipulator.
I mean, hell, he even manipulated me for a while.
How so? After we found Gwen's body, he drove around with me for days pretending that he was looking for the guy who did it.
[SAVAGE.]
: Bob? Surveillance says Morgan's back at the scene where he found Louise's car.
Says he's stopping vehicles, taking statements, handing out flyers.
Oh, yeah.
That's Morgan.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It seemed like this was the way Brett Morgan operated, trying to manipulate the police, be the con man.
Here we have him in Ottawa being very helpful, going on television, going for Ottawa Citizen interviews.
Excuse me, sir, but my wife has gone missing.
I'm hoping to find anyone who may have seen her.
Oh, this, yeah.
I saw this on the news.
Actually, I may have seen something.
Great, great.
Can I get you to write your name here, and any contact info? Sure.
Thank you.
Really appreciate it.
- Have a good one.
- I will.
Thanks, guys.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We don't know what is going on with Brett Morgan.
Was this part of his ruse, part of this being a con? The media left at two o'clock in the afternoon.
At that point, Morgan thought he was alone.
Walks over to the Gatineau river and throws the piece of paper he'd been writing on in the water.
Looked like he was so caring.
But in fact, threw the name of the witness in the river.
In my eyes, the missing person is now a homicide.
Brett Morgan? He was the devil.
We had a lot of circumstantial evidence pointing to Brett Morgan as the person responsible for the murder of Louise Ellis, but there was one thing missing: the body.
Find Louise and we can actually charge Brett Morgan.
With all the evidence we gathered, we were able to apply for a wiretap on Brett Morgan's phone, his house and also we put one into his vehicle.
It's so good to have someone to talk to.
You're the only one who really listens anyway, Marie.
Marie? Who the hell's Marie? Have you seen what they're saying about me in the paper? The whole frigging town thinks I killed her.
The same thing happened to Milgaard.
The cops don't do their job and an innocent guy gets blamed.
I just, I just want my wife.
[MARIE.]
: That's why I'm here, Brett.
Right? And when we find Louise, everyone will know that they have misjudged you.
Is she buying his crap and helping him look for Louise? You're a brave man, Brett.
Thank you.
I've been thinking a little about the case.
When you found the car, was Louise's seat in the same position? It was exactly the way Louise left it.
She's short.
She likes to drive close to the steering wheel.
Makes sense.
Why was it there? She was visiting Maisonneuve.
I'm telling you; we check his property, we'll find her.
Well, then, you tell me when and I'll come.
- Seriously? - Absolutely.
If the police aren't gonna help you, then I will.
All right? - Just let me know when.
- I will.
I Thank you, Marie.
[BOB PULFER.]
: I was extremely worried about this woman.
Brett Morgan was capable of great brutality.
We felt that we should speak to Marie at the police station.
Would you mind telling us what you were doing at Brett Morgan's house? Just talking about what happened to his wife.
I see.
How long have you known him? Only a couple of days.
I saw him on TV.
He was looking for his wife.
And what, you felt sorry for him? I did, yeah.
But not anymore.
What changed? I've been thinking a little about the case.
When you found the car, was Louise's seat in the same position? It was exactly the way I left exactly the way Louise left it.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Almost said, "Just the way I left it," but he said, "It was just the way Louise left it.
" that was a major faux pas by Brett Morgan.
Look, I don't wanna mess anything up, OK? But I can help.
I'm a private investigator.
Well, I'm taking courses.
And I told him that I could help him find the body, so now he trusts me.
And he needs to be stopped, right? Let's stop him.
You're gonna have to give us a couple of minutes.
So what are you thinking? You're seriously considering this? Well, it wouldn't be the first time we worked with a private investigator.
In training? I don't know.
I don't like it.
I think we gotta do it.
I think we have to.
It's our best chance to find out what happened to Louise.
[BOB PULFER.]
: John and I weighed the pros and cons of having this totally unknown person involved in this level of the investigation.
It was a very difficult decision, but Brett Morgan trusted her; she knew what we wanted to do, and she had a real gift of the gab.
She could, uh, probably talk Brett Morgan into doing almost anything.
We needed her to find Louise's body.
Now as long as you have this purse with you, we'll be able to hear everything that's going on.
OK.
I've never been bugged before.
Marie, what you're about to do is extremely dangerous.
OK? We'll do everything we can to prevent you from being hurt, but we can't guarantee your safety.
Now are you still sure you want to go through with this? Yeah.
I'm sure.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It was a huge risk in allowing this civilian to get knee-deep into what we believed now was a homicide investigation.
- [MORGAN.]
: Good morning.
- [MARIE.]
: Good morning.
- Let's go.
- Let's go.
[BOB PULFER.]
: He took the hook.
He took the bait.
We weren't too worried about her danger cause we were very close.
I guess you could say we were risk-takers, but we did want to find a body for evidence.
[MARIE.]
: I spoke to my friend at the newspaper.
They said that John Maisonneue failed a lie detector.
No surprise there.
You really think that he killed her? Oh, yeah.
I think I know where she is too.
How? I told you I killed someone before, so I've been putting myself in that mindset.
If I'm John Maisonneuve, I'm looking for a nice quiet place close to home.
There's a back road to this property.
Pull over here.
[BOB PULFER.]
: As they started to go off the highway up in Quebec, we're realizing how hard it is to follow someone in a rural area doing surveillance.
We had to back surveillance off.
We could not go in there into John Maisonneuve's property.
If we would have pulled in to follow them, if he would have turned around, we would have been burnt.
Dammit.
We better not lose them.
That was a dicey situation.
Yeah.
I think it's in through here.
Are we close? Yeah.
Just a little further this way.
[SIGH.]
I only sweat like this when I'm about to have sex.
[SCOFFS.]
You're thinking about that at a time like this? Forget it.
We won't find her today.
[BOB PULFER.]
: That was very, very frustrating for us.
Wondering what had we done wrong, what does he know, what are we gonna do? [DEEP SIGH.]
You wanna come back to my place? Figure out where to look tomorrow? Just let me, um, go to the washroom.
Hey.
Let me get that.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We actually saw Morgan lean over to kiss Marie Parent.
Knowing Brett Morgan, we weren't surprised.
Be right back.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It was not the way we did things.
We said "OK, that's it; we're done.
" "This is not the way this investigation's going to go.
" After the attempted kiss, we told Marie Parent "You're done.
" And that's the way we left it.
But Marie Parent still wanted to get him searching again.
We had to take that risk.
Unfortunately, Brett Morgan did not seem to be interested.
Why is he all of a sudden getting cold feet? Has he become aware of the wiretaps? What's causing him to back off? So we had to use another tactic.
Hi, Brett.
Lisa Costello at the bank.
I have some bad news.
I'm afraid we won't be able to release any part of Louise's estate until she's officially deceased.
She would either have to be found or missing for seven years.
I'm sorry.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Brett Morgan was the solel beneficiary of everything that Louise Ellis owned.
Here in Ontario, unless you find a body, a person must be missing for seven years before you can access the will.
We used that tool to get him searching again for Louise Ellis' body, and it worked.
He was a con man who got conned by two better cons.
Hop in.
Oh, we're not gonna take my car? We're gonna need a truck where we're going.
Some pretty bad roads on Maisonneuve's property.
So are you scared about what we might find? It won't be pretty.
What about you? You scared to be alone with me? No.
No, I'm not scared.
[BOB PULFER.]
: So they drove for 25 minutes.
They got to this location maybe two miles away from John Maisonneuve's property.
We still had wiretaps in her purse.
[MARIE.]
: Are you sure this is the place? Positive.
This is where Maisonneuve took her.
I feel it.
Are you working for the cops? The cops? What? Are you wearing a wire? What are you talking about? A wire! Are you recording this? Of course not! Why would I do that? How do I know I can trust you? - What are you saying? - How do I know? This is getting out of control.
OK.
Frisk me.
OK.
I trust you.
OK.
- Put these gloves on.
- Why? Thorn bushes are bad where we're heading.
[BOB PULFER.]
: It was touch and go for a while.
Were we concerned? Extremely concerned but the play was going on.
Oh no.
Did we lose the signal? Or did we lose her? I'm going in.
- [MORGAN.]
: Oh, my God.
- Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! - What? - Listen.
- My poor Louise.
- Listen.
[MORGAN.]
: My God.
My poor Louise.
My God.
[CRYING.]
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise Ellis was never afforded a burial.
She was just dumped in the ground, covered up with sticks, and just left her there to rot.
It was horrific.
Driving back into Ottawa, John and I did not talk much.
The investigation was done.
We had enough evidence to arrest Brett Morgan as the person responsible for the murder of Louise Ellis.
I really wanted him to say to us, "Yes, I killed Louise Ellis and here's the reason I did it.
" How'd you find her, Brett? I looked, day in and day out, like you should have been doing.
Really.
Is that why you only found Louise after the bank told you the estate wouldn't pay out until you had a body? We did a little digging of our own, too.
We found Louise's signature forged on 35 thousand dollars' worth of cheques.
I was gonna pay her back.
[PULFER.]
: And then, of course, there's the picture of you withdrawing money from an ATM using Louise's bank card.
So what? I used her card all the time.
She trusted me.
[SAVAGE.]
: Look at the date and time on it.
[PULFER.]
: Saturday, the day she disappeared, 2:53 p.
m.
, long after you said she'd left for Maisonneuve's.
So I took money out after she left.
We found her bank card in the vehicle.
What does that prove? There was only one card on Louise's bank account, which means you planted it in the vehicle long after it had been abandoned on the side of the road.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Her bank card was used at 2:53 p.
m.
If she left at 2:00, how is that bank card in her vehicle? Impossible.
Unless Brett Morgan put it in the car after she was dead.
[PULFER.]
: How'd you kill her, Brett? Huh? I'll tell you how.
It was Saturday morning.
Louise told you she was going to Maisonneuve's.
But you didn't like that, did you? So you got angry and you beat her, like you had so many times before.
I never touched her.
That's not what her diary said.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise wrote about what her relationship was like with Brett Morgan in her diary, having beer poured over her head, being hit on the ankle, held down like a dog.
But this Saturday, beating her wasn't enough, was it? She knew about the cheques.
She knew she was never gonna see that money.
You were afraid she was gonna blow the lid off your little scheme, tell her family.
You'd wind up back in prison.
So you decided to cash in, didn't you? You'd take her money and her property, but to do that, you had to get rid of her.
So you snuck up on her in the shower and you killed her and then you wrapped her in the shower curtain and you took her out to where you found her body.
And you dumped her in what you thought was Maisonneuve's property, but it wasn't.
We found your little map, Brett.
[PULFER.]
: You were so hell-bent on framing Maisonneuve for the murder, you didn't realize the map was wrong.
It was nowhere near his property.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Morgan, that day, used a map that was out-of-date and in fact, did not put the body on John Maisonneuve's property.
He tried to frame John Maisonneuve, but it didn't work.
We got him.
She gave you a roof over your head and a second chance.
She helped you get out of prison and you put her in one.
And then when she wanted out, you killed her and you dumped her body in the woods.
Well, you're going back to prison, pal.
Count on it.
Hopefully for the rest of your pathetic life.
[BOB PULFER.]
: We told him every piece of evidence we had against him and it did not faze him; he never confessed to it.
[JOURNALIST.]
: After a six-month trial and two-and-a-half days of deliberation, a jury found Brett Morgan guilty of first-degree murder.
About a dozen of Louise Ellis' friends and family were in the courtroom as the verdict was announced.
Many were overwhelmed by emotion, bursting into tears.
Morgan was automatically sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for twenty-five years.
Judge Colin McKinnon told Morgn that Louise Ellis was in the prime of life.
"She gave everything to assist you.
She had so much life to live, and the jury found you took that from her.
" [BOB PULFER.]
: What Brett Morgan did to Louise Ellis was unimaginable and despicable.
Allen Ellis, Louise's father, he just wailed that night.
It just totally destroyed him.
[BOB PULFER.]
: Louise Ellis firmly believed in Brett Morgan.
They became friends and lovers.
To see how long she put up with the physical and verbal and financial abuse was very troublesome because all she wanted to do was help him.
It's been twenty-three years now, but I do think about her and the case.
It was uh it was a haunting case.