Crime Story: Rachel Browne on how online extremism bleeds into everyday life
The Expert Witness from Uncover
CBC
4.5 • 10.9K Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the rural prairie town of Richmound, Saskatchewan, an abandoned school became the unlikely stage for a 21st-century crisis. When Romana Didulo, a cult leader who calls herself “Queen of Canada,” arrived with her followers and turned the school into her royal court, the town was thrust into a surreal standoff.
In this episode of Crime Story, investigative journalist Rachel Browne sits down with Crime Story host, Kathleen Goldhar to uncover how online extremism bled into everyday life and divided the town.
You can listen to more incredible tales of true crime every week on Crime Story. Find more Crime Story episodes in your favourite podcast app, or here: https://link.mgln.ai/CSxCQOC
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jacqueline Furland Smith, a 40-year-old former Canadian military trainer, |
| 0:05.0 | moves to Costa Rica to follow her dreams, but in the summer of 2021, |
| 0:10.0 | vanishes without a trace. |
| 0:13.0 | How can a woman just go missing and us put out all that effort to find her, and she's still missing? |
| 0:20.0 | I'm David Rijin, and this is Someone Knows Something, Season 10, the Jacqueline |
| 0:23.9 | Furland-Smith case. |
| 0:25.7 | Available now on CBC Listen and wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:31.7 | This is a CBC podcast. |
| 0:37.3 | Hey, everyone, Rachel Brown here. |
| 0:39.9 | First of all, I want to give a massive thanks to our listeners. |
| 0:43.1 | This project was a labor of love, and it's so cool to see it being received like this. |
| 0:48.0 | If you listen to all of the cult queen of Canada, I think you'll appreciate my recent chat |
| 0:52.3 | with Kathleen Goldhar on her podcast crime story. |
| 0:55.3 | I tell her about all things Romana, including behind-the-scenes stories from the making of this project. |
| 1:01.1 | And after this, consider checking out other episodes in the crime story feed. |
| 1:05.8 | It's linked in the show notes. I think you'll like it. |
| 1:09.1 | Now, on to my interview with Kathleen. Thanks for listening. |
| 1:16.4 | There's a lot of people who are struggling already financially who report on the |
| 1:20.8 | Telegram channel. I've lost my home. I have the CRA on my back because I'm not paying my taxes. |
| 1:27.2 | I've had my power and utilities turned off because I stopped paying my bills. |
| 1:33.1 | Queen Romano helped me what's going on. |
| 1:35.1 | So you see a lot of desperation, but then a lot of sort of blind loyalty and allegiance to her nonetheless. |
... |
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