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Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Breaking the Oath: The Murder of Sian Simmonds

Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Curiouscast

True Crime, Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.82.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2022

⏱️ 75 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 212: On the afternoon of January 27, 1993, the day before her 20th birthday, Sian Simmonds, a student who was working he way through school, was found dead in her basement suite in the Guildford neighbourhood of Surrey, B.C. She had been shot and bludgeoned. Neighbours had heard screams coming from her suite. Only days later, a man named David Schlender was arrested. Already on bail for the attempted murder of one of his cocaine dealers the year before, Schlender told police he’d been hired by another man, Brian West, to commit the murder in exchange for wiping an outstanding drug debt. The investigation of Brian West led to another man, Josephakis Charalambous, the Simmonds’ family doctor who had hired West to murder Sian. Eighteen months before her murder, Sian and her older sister Katie had filed grievances with the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons alleging sexual assault by Charalambous. Rather than face censure by the College and risk losing his substantial annual income, Charlambous had sought to silence the girls. As the truth came out about the doctor, his carefully constructed facade of the community minded healer came tumbling down revealing an ugly pattern of violence and predatory behaviour toward young women and girls. Sources: Betrayal of trust | Maclean’s | DECEMBER 12, 1994 R. v. West, 1997 CanLII 3157 (BC CA), < https://canlii.ca/t/1dzn4 > R. v. Charalambous, 1997 CanLII 3363 (BC CA), < https://canlii.ca/t/1dznk > Mountie Seduced My Wife. I Want a New Trial — PressReader.com Charalambous v. Canada (Attorney General), 2009 FC 1082 (CanLII), < https://canlii.ca/t/26bkj > Charalambous v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 FC 1045 (CanLII), < https://canlii.ca/t/gl077 > Charalambous v. Canada (Attorney General), 2016 FCA 177 (CanLII), < https://canlii.ca/t/gs5q6 > Charalambous v. Attorney General of Canada, 2017 CanLII 1337 (SCC), < https://canlii.ca/t/gx021 > Doctor denied day parole 27 years after hiring hitman to kill teen | Vancouver Sun Scandalous Case had Public Riveted — PressReader.com Documentary pays tribute to parents of murdered children - New West Record Family Physician Hired a Hit Man to Silence Her…Permanently - Medical Bag Serving Life 25-One Guard’s Story — Scribd Dr. Death M.D. by David Pietras - Ebook | Scribd Doctors Who Kill by Carol Anne Davis - Ebook | Scribd Fatal Prescription: A Doctor without Remorse by John Griffiths | Goodreads Medical Ethics | The Canadian Encyclopedia About CAVEAT Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey Mike here, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Dark Poutine early and

0:04.7

add free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

0:09.3

This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and tools

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0:19.3

enable flexibility and automate workflows. Plus, Slack is full of game changing features,

0:25.0

like huddles for quick check-ins or Slack Connect, which helps you connect with partners inside

0:29.9

and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works, get started at Slack.com-slash-dhq.

0:48.5

Well, I guess it's time to start the show. Welcome back to Dark Poutine on Mike Brown,

0:53.4

across the table from me. A good friend, Matthew, stocked in with a capitalist.

0:58.6

Hello everybody. How are you today, Matthew? I am good. You are good? Despite the knee.

1:05.2

Despite your knee? What happened to your knee? I'm not sure. I have to get it checked out. It's

1:09.6

swollen up. Your knee is swollen up. I think it's from sitting cross-legged at my desk all day

1:15.4

when I work. Okay, because it wasn't from exerting yourself in some form of exercise then or

1:21.4

me exercise. I do walk and yoga. Yeah, yoga. Yeah, no, it's from sitting down to sitting down.

1:30.8

The views, information and opinions expressed during the Dark Poutine podcast are solely those

1:37.4

of the producer and do not necessarily represent those of curious cast. It's affiliate,

1:43.2

global news, nor their parent company, chorus, entertainment.

1:47.5

Dark Poutine is not for the faint of heart or squeamish. Our content is often intense and some

1:54.2

listeners may find it disturbing. We are not experts on the topics we present nor are we journalists.

2:00.0

We are ordinary Canadian schmucks chatting about crime and the dark side of history. Let's get to it.

2:06.4

Put on your two. Grab yourself a double double and an anymobar. It's time to scarf down some

2:11.3

dark poutine. Live from New York, it's dark poutine. No, it's Surrey. My life lives from... Well,

...

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