This podcast contains descriptions of sexual violence, murder, and the mistreatment and sexual exploitation of youth.

If you're impacted by the themes of this episode, we have resources in our show notes.

I woke up to my mom sitting on my bed.

And I said, what happened?

And she said, it's Aaron.

And she said she's been killed.

And, um, and I just remember sort of, um, yeah, and I just, I, I sort of, um, remember just, I, I sort of, um, remember just yelling.

Literally, like, yelling, no.

And then I reached over and punched a hole in the wall.

It was 1983.

Canada was at the beginning of a steady rise in crime

that would see violence levels peak across North America within a decade.

In Toronto, police were grappling with an alarming 50% rise in bank robberies over the previous

year, and they had their hands full investigating a series of mysterious, unsolved killings.

Two of those cases, the sexual assaults and murders of two women in their own homes, baffled police for decades.

The investigation took them from the Toronto neighborhoods of Yorkville and Little Italy, all the way to some of the coldest regions of the Canadian North.

I'm Toronto Star Crime Reporter Wendy Gillis. And I'm Toronto Star Court reporter Wendy Gillis.

And I'm Toronto Star Court reporter Betsy Powell.

And in this series, we'll take you through the harrowing story of two women's final moments at the hands of a rapist and murderer.

Layers of intergenerational trauma and how new science change the way

police close in

on a killer.

...