Original subtitles

[Music]

good evening i'm antinea Robarts this is

crime beat the stories behind some of

Canada's most high-profile homicides

told by the reporters who walk the beat

every day

tonight we hugged each other and she

went out the door and that's the last I

saw at least it was just a missing

person and it's not illegal to be

missing she just vanished

now we have a criminal investigation now

we have foul play crime reporter Nancy

Hicks has the story of Lisa Mitchell the

mysterious disappearance of a Calgary

mother a 29 years old

Lisa Mitchell had a lot on her plate

Lisa and her common-law husband had two

children in the fall of 2012 she was

juggling two jobs to try to make ends

meet one of those jobs took her to the

small rural community of Longview

Alberta about an hour's drive south of

Calgary

on weekends Lisa was a waitress at the

Twin Cities hotel and saloon it's the

place to go for the charm of a small

town Cheers

the kind of place where everyone knows

your name that October the hotel was

preparing for a big Halloween bash

she needed a quick costume said I didn't

know I had to dress up mom it's a

Halloween it said it's a Halloween party

at the bar so it was actually one of my

mom's outfits it was a one-piece

jumpsuit like like purple and white

sparkles like a disco thing so she yeah

she dressed like that

Peggy lives in Longview and recommended

the part-time job at the saloon to her

daughter I work part time at the bar

because that's how you get to know

people in the small town right you don't

want to go there all the time but yeah

you can serve him in a cold

on October 27th 2012

Peggy joined Lisa for the party people

would comment like every time Lisa and I

walked into the bar they're like oh my

god you know you look so much alike

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it was one of the best nights Peggy

ever spent with her daughter it was so

much fun yeah we were dancing we were

laughing it made me smile it was a

inside feel good to see you out having

fun and we partied after till about 3:00

in the morning we got home and she ended

up staying the night here

we were up by about 9:00 the next

morning and we were just hanging out

having coffee and talking and there's

about 11 o'clock or so we were gonna

make a brunch but a phone call

interrupted their plans Lisa told her

mother she was urgently needed at home

they hugged goodbye and said they'd chat

soon Lisa hopped in her truck and headed

north to Calvin

[Music]

Peggy was blindsided by what happened

next

she does better

two days went by without a single word

from Lisa Peggy

started to worry I left her voicemails

yeah you know on my cake where are you

haven't heard from you call me right and

I think I sent her a couple texts like

haven't heard you know what are you

doing or is everything okay

so I drove to Dallas place and yeah

knocked on the door and yeah didn't know

what to expect and he opened the door

and I asked him where Lisa was and he

said she took off she left he said that

they were having a discussion the Monday

I think he said she attend a Moute to go

get cigarettes and when he came back 15

to 20 minutes later he said she was gone

the first thing I noticed as I looked to

my right and is there a front hall

closet and I saw her her shoes her

favorite shoes and her jacket and then

it's October

[Music]

where would she go without her favorite

jacket shoes and I said I want to see

the rest of the house and I went to the

house and there was a few of her

personal things I didn't see her purse

but I saw a lot of her jewelry that she

would normally have on if she left the

house she had a Phoenix necklace you

know a leather wristband type thing

there are certain things that she wore

when she left the house and they were

still there but I didn't see her

that's when Allen explained that after

she left Lisa sent him an email he

suggested she might have sent Peggy one

as well maybe that would lead to some

answers so Peggy went home and checked

her email and there was an email there

you know just had to get away you know

we'll be in touch love yet Peggy

couldn't believe it she struggled to

accept Lisa would just pick up and leave

they emailed back and forth for a few

weeks but there was never enough

information in those messages to

alleviate Peggy's worries she slept with

her phone beside her bed but when that

call finally came

Peggy missed it she was asleep it was a

couple weeks later on the 16th I get to

45 in the morning I got a voicemail she

said I'm okay sometimes things get out

of hand sometimes he takes a while I

can't remember the whole thing and but

I'm okay but the conversation ended

where she said okay he's home I got to

go

like who's home and why do you have to

go so you think in your mind is she with

someone controlling is she chained up in

a basement somewhere you know you've

heard of that right and yes they did

controlling him much why can't you have

a conversation with your mom like who is

this person that you're with but it just

didn't sound right coming up after the

break things weren't adding up was there

foul play or had she just taken off

Maggie decided she needed to go to

police

[Music]

Lisa's case was now being looked at by

Calgary police she was still considered

a missing person but that didn't make

sense to her mother who knew it wasn't

in Lisa's character to just take off we

now return to Nancy Hicks with the

disappearance of Lisa Mitchell Lisa was

the youngest of Peggy's two children

from a very early age she expressed

herself through art she started drawing

when she was four she was a lot into

anime with Sailor Moon and Dragonball C

and those types of

yeah she could draw a motorcycle from

memory in explicit detail Lisa also

loved music in high school that is when

she met her friends from they formed a

girls singing group and dance they you

know make their own videos they were

called just cuz see you said after high

school Lisa worked at a lot of grocery

stores and coffee shops and at one point

she worked for a mobile snow cone

company she would work selling snow

cones at different events that included

concerts which allowed her to meet some

of her favorite bands Nickelback was

playing so she was done her work and she

was just you know working her way to the

front like she always does and she ended

up talking to this lady there and it

turned out that it was Chad pokers mom

so I've got a picture of her upstate you

know on stage at the autograph table

sitting behind the table between Chad

and Lisa talked about that moment for

years it was not long after that she met

Allen shy back

she was at her restaurant somewhere

northeast Calgary and he was one of the

sous chefs or one of the cooks there my

husband at the time and I didn't didn't

like him we didn't think he would be

good for her because she was so up going

and so vivacious and he was more

introvert Lisa fell in love with Allan

but as her mom predicted their

differences

soon caused a rift in their relationship

right from the beginning he would get

upset if you know she won no because

like I said she just wanted to be out

there and have fun and he would get a

little bit of you know upset because I

said he was more of an introvert but

they worked it out and Lisa said we know

this is who I am

things were better for a while but

eventually the same old issues popped up

again and I got a call from her she had

come home from work and he had moved out

on her and taken everything so at that

time I was separated my husband sold me

and my current husband Jay said okay

we're on our way and we rented a vehicle

and went up there and I asked her at

that time because I know one of the

things he had taken was her guitar

and I said you know what did he take

that meant the most to you and we'll get

that back and she looked at me and she

said my heart after five years with Alan

Lisa moved in with her mom she even

started dating again during that time

she was gone alkane pal found where I

was and said he was sorry but what

happened he wanted her back

he showed me a an engagement ring he had

bought for her and I said you know she's

she's moved on she's in Toronto with

so-and-so so you know you got to talk to

her right and a couple weeks later when

at least I got back then yeah

they got back together it wasn't long

after that they started a family first a

little boy then just over two years

later they had a girl we would talk

three or four times a week and I

remember she said the power was out in

their house so they had to barbecue

their meals and one time something else

did in her oven didn't work so she made

cookies in a frying pan for the kids

like it was always for the kids

Alan works as a cook or sometimes as a

mechanic but Peggy said he had trouble

keeping jobs

Lisa would take care of the kids during

the day and then go to work at night so

I would be there during the day and Al

would come home from work and he'd

always be you know I'm tired

and meanwhile she's been looking after

the kids all day she's made supper and

all he wants to do is just sit in bed on

the couch he was always too tired to

play with the kids to help her in the

kitchen at that time and yeah and then

you see the the yelling started a little

bit because she would just get

frustrated because she had to get ready

to go to work and she couldn't do

everything the relationship took a turn

for the worse and Lisa told Peggy

the fights turned violent you can tell

them your thoughts and you could try to

guide them and support them but she knew

at any time that we would take her in

right even at one time we said bring the

kids out here and live with us that was

in July 2012 he said you can live with

us right that's when I got her the

part-time job at the hotel said it's a

start

after a decade together Lisa felt

obligated to try to work things out with

Alan so that's what they did they moved

in to a new place in southeast Calgary

I was hoping that they could be better

and because she felt good about herself

she was happy but at that time too she

wasn't she sure was with Elle when she

was happy like he didn't make her happy

just went down - when Lisa left her

mom's house that morning after the

Halloween party

Peggy thought everything was fine we

hugged each other and she went up the

door and I saw she had parked her truck

down the street and that's the last I

saw after the break the investigation

into what happened to Lisa was ramped up

as the evidence began to point to foul

play we now return to Nancy haste and

the disappearance of Lisa Mitchell

constable Carl sudoc was working with

the Calgary Police missing persons unit

when Lisa disappeared he was assigned as

the lead investigator on the case Lisa

was still out there as far as everybody

knew so we had to kind of follow through

and see okay where could she be who

could she be talking with why would she

want to leave her family first thing is

just talk to people who are close to her

find out what her movements are find out

where her banking is try and track her

banking you know if we could try and

find phone records just get a feel for

where she's supposed to be who she's

supposed to be with and what her

lifestyle was like what stood out -

sudoc were the emails from Lisa - both

Peggy and Alan yeah it was very

confusing the Lisa wasn't sure she

wanted to be there so she was dating

other men at the time which added

another level of complexity trying to

find out who she was dating because some

of these people that she was dating and

talking with were not in Calgary which

kind of fit the story of her leaving

Calgary and going away with someone else

that I believe the emails and the

voicemail had said but every possible

lead was a dead end

there was a cursory search done of the

house the officers took a look through

just to see if anything looked out

ordinary if there have been signs of any

sort of violence the house from what I

understand from their notes was it was

clean it was organized except the

basement there was just a bunch of junk

piled up which you look at half the

basements in Calgary looks pretty much

the same

it appears Lisa had in fact just picked

up and left investigators needed to find

out if Allan had any more information

that could help them track down Lisa

we interviewed Allan just to get him

into a story of exactly what happened

I'd asked a senior and a homicide

investigator to sit down and have a chat

with them someone who's very very

experienced in interviews and can pull

the information out that we need to

follow through because right now at

least it was just a missing person and

it's not illegal to be missing on

January 29th 2013

Allan was interviewed by Calgary police

homicide detective Dave sweet Reese's

common-law husband opened up to sweet

about their rocky relationship

sometimes pushing guy asked you were you

the observer or were you the abused you

were the abused he said since then they

had come to an agreement they were going

to put the past behind them and work

together for their kids had their

relationship in such an on-and-off thing

for over the 10 years he looked like he

was beat down he looked like it was one

of those things like okay she's finally

left me so what do I do

it seemed police had hit a dead end

Lisa had vanished without a trace

it was right about that time that a

change in the law allowed constable

sudoc access to some of Lisa's private

information which could help them track

her down they needed to find Lisa so

they could rule out foul play and a

change in the missing-persons act in

Alberta opened up some new investigative

avenues at that time you could get the

tax records so we were able to see who

she smoked with and what she was

speaking about she had spoken to a lot

of people so we had to go through and

talk to every one of those persons to

see if they've heard from Lisa if she if

they she was with or if they were with

Lisa at the time because she had an

online dating profile at times she was

dating people so we were talking to

people that she had dated a couple of

those people were there was minimal

information about them so we didn't know

who there were there was one guy with a

very generic name and the number came

back disconnected so we thought okay

that's something we can look into

because all of a sudden this person's

disappeared and Lisa was having a

long-term conversation with her so we

have to find him and interview him

officers continue to investigate but

there was still no sign of Lisa months

turned into years Allen needed to move

on and build a life without her Allen

was working hard to build a happy home

for his kids

[Music]

coming up after the break Lisa's mother

needed answers police hoped an appeal

for help from the public could spark a

break in the case the months turned into

years and still no answers but police

didn't give up we now return to Nancy

hexed with a seemingly small detail that

led to a major break in this case a plea

for help tonight from the family of a

missing Calgary woman Lisa Mitchell

disappeared without a trace

Nancy Hicks report Mitchell's mother has

so many unanswered questions questions

police have tried to answer but so far

have no good leads

sometimes I go to bed at night and I

just wonder if she's warm comfortable

happy not knowing not knowing it's the

worst a few weeks after that story aired

police announced a break in the case on

December 6th 2014 more than two years

after Lisa Mitchell disappeared police

found her body

lisa mitchell had been in their home all

along it took investigators an

incredible amount of time and resources

to be able to uncover the truth remember

that phone calls to Peggy the one she

got when she was asleep that call turned

out to be key evidence in the case we

were able to get the phone number that

that had called Lisa because I asked

Peggy for her phone records it didn't

show up because it was a private number

it was registered with a kind of one of

those page she go type phone companies

the phone was purchased in Calgary but

registered in Edmonton there were only a

handful of calls made for two Allen shy

back and one to Peggy Mitchell on the

surface that sounds about right

after all Peggy did receive a call

except that Allen told us he never heard

from Lisa after the emails which stopped

coming on November fourth something in

Allen's story is not making sense so as

far as we can tell he's lied to us for

some reason

we don't know his involvement we don't

know why but now we have evidence that

there's more to Allen than what we're

hearing that took the investigation in

an entirely new direction the fact Allen

did not disclose the full truth to

Detective sweet changed everything now

we have a criminal investigation now we

have foul play

crime analysts are able to map out cell

communications in this case the cell

ping showed where the caller was when

that voicemail was left for Peggy in the

middle of the night it was down the

street from Allen's house so which means

that if Lisa left that message for Peggy

she was either in Allen's house or near

Ellen's house now that it's a criminal

it's a crime I can use the full power of

the Criminal Code to request Allen's

phone records find out where he's been

for the last few months

get his bank records find out what he's

been spending his money on do those

sorts of things and investigate to see

how was Allen involved and was he really

involved it turned out Allen had been

doing a bit of shopping in the days

following Lisa's disappearance so the

banking records provided us at the

stores he went shopping at him out he

paid him so from that I was able to go

to each of those stores and request a

copy of the receipt for that transaction

he went shopping for a large plastic tub

cat litter

bleach gloves cement mixing bucket

and a four by two foot piece of plywood

well he didn't have a cat so the cat

litter was kind of a red flag Peggy had

told me that he was deathly allergic to

cats and also there was a cash

withdrawal from Walmart at that same

transaction for $40 the cell phone used

to contact Peggy was a $39.99 cost for a

three month or one month use that was

bought at a Walmart those are not normal

things that you purchase III don't

purchase her the normal person would

purchase so why I went out and actually

purchased those items just so I can see

exactly what they were I went and

purchased the same SKU and I brought

them back to my co-workers and missing

persons to homicide and said what do you

guys think and they all said that's a

burial kit the police still didn't have

the proof they needed to find her body

or make an arrest during this time Alan

she vac was just going about his normal

life he didn't realize he was a suspect

and while he was at work investigators

took another look around his house

the house looked like any normal house

he had pictures of him and the children

and beasts up in the walls the computers

were mirrored so I didn't know what was

going on back because I had to be

analyzed and we took a look at the

basement and in the basement was the

bucket the plywood the bleach the gloves

and and a large built out cement

construction in the corner of the

basement that was covered with boxes

police were careful not to move anything

they didn't want to tip shy back off

that they were on to him they still

needed more evidence investigators

needed to come up with a way to get him

to confess and that's when they decided

to do an undercover sting dubbed

Operation Aurora that was the major

crimes investigative technique to the

friend Allen and find out what happened

it was a mr. Baig sting a tactic used in

a lot of major crimes investigations

police sometimes create fake criminal

organizations and the suspects confess

to a crime boss or mr. big

but that scenario wouldn't work in this

case well that was a troubling part

balanced on a criminal he had no

criminal past he had no he wasn't your

biker he wasn't your gangster he wasn't

even your shoplifter they were able to

befriend Alan through non criminal means

so the undercover guys were very

creative and finding ways to get out

we worked on arranging babysitters so we

could help him come out and you know

hang out with the guys there was a lot

of time and effort put in to making the

undercover operation work we came up

with a scenario where Alan was taken out

of town you know work with these guys

hang out with them where we were

prepared now to search his house

Alan shy back went on a trip to Winnipeg

and that's when police turned up the

heat you won't make a feel a lot of

pressure so we wait until Alan's with

one of our undercover operators and

there's a phone call made where

Detective sweet kind of explains what's

happened now it's a criminal

investigation and that we're going to be

searching his house and kind of leave it

at that

Allen was in a vehicle with an

undercover officer when Detective sweet

told him his house was being searched I

was told he stopped breathing for a

second he turned white he started

getting clammy sweaty I began to

hyperventilate and had to have a

cigarette Allen gets out of the truck

the undercover operator gets out of the

truck with him they have a smoke and

Allen actually tells us what happened

investigators made an arrest in the case

Allen Sri BAC was charged with

second-degree murder and causing an

indignity to Lisa's body

four and a half years after Lisa

disappeared in April of 2017 shy back

stood trial graphic details of the case

were revealed in court it turned out

Lisa's body had been hidden in plain

sight

next on crime beat dramatic details of

the undercover operation would soon come

to light for nearly two years

police work to solve Lisa's case and

what they needed was a confession to get

that they used a covert police technique

a mr. big sting operation here now is

Nancy Hicks with the conclusion of the

disappearance of Lisa Mitchell as any

major crime there's somebody who can

help him so the undercover up here knows

a guy who Alan's met before who has

talents and abilities who could possibly

help him out in this situation Shai vac

went to an apartment where he met with a

man he believed could help him evade

arrest the reality

[Music]

shy back opened up to mr. big and told

him about the tumultuous relationship he

told the officer the day after the

Halloween party in Longview Lisa arrived

home and they started arguing back said

the fights continued when they got up

the following day

I came Lincoln when it was a couple of

nursing bujjamma what was buried

everything sold he did shy back said

they were in the kitchen when things

took a turn for the worse he said Lisa

had a chef's knife in her hand he

decided he had to make Lisa disappear

[Music]

two or three times out

while shy back was confessing police

were busy searching the house constable

sudoc needed to find her body and they

needed to do it carefully so they didn't

destroy evidence so we consulted with UC

archaeologists how do we ask invade how

do we bring it down do we spend days we

spend weeks and then ultimately it came

down we just start bashing away its

cement until we find her and then make

the plan or go with plan a B or C so we

cleaned the basement out the good folks

at homicide were more than happy to come

out and help me break the cement away

and with air hat or chisels and hammers

we were able to break it down to the

point we found a large Rubbermaid

container in the cement and we opened it

up and with their releases remains in

cat litter and salt or soft water salty

Lisa was placed in a plastic tub in the

fetal position she was covered in salt

and cat litter and the tub was

duct-taped shut

shai vac used a door to create a mold

around the plastic tub and then poured

cement overtop the container in tuning

her it was cracked and he used the

bleach and cleaner to clean up from time

to time and he banned the children from

going downstairs into the basement

police found air fresheners all over the

house to try to hide any smell shy back

tried to cover off every angle that

could lead investigators back to him I

just lay on the old model because I

access your email accounts in South

America the phone call I have included

the voice packs those together voicemail

was her voice I like to try and help

make sure that she was gone police

enlisted the help of an audio specialist

from their tech crimes unit and were

able to find the calls he used to splice

together the voicemail

he had been tracking Lisa's

communications for some time leading up

to her disappearance

he put stalker wear on her on her phone

so every time something would happen

with her phone the information would go

to an email account or a storage area

that he had set up so you can go through

and review all that a forensic

examination of Shai Beck's laptop

revealed a history of online searches in

the weeks and months after Lisa vanished

in December 2012 he googled how body

decomposition is affected by various

things such as salt lye concrete lack of

air and lack of insect activity similar

searches were done in April and May of

2014 along with other queries on murder

legislation in Canada the state of

decomposition made it difficult for the

forensic pathologists to examine Lisa's

body but determined she died as a result

of probable manual strangulation during

the trial

shai back testified in his own defense

in every confession he gave shy back

maintained he killed Lisa in

self-defense he said that he was

defending himself against Lisa again he

was there Lisa was there

Lisa's now dead the court found the act

of holding his hands around Lisa's

throat resulting in her death was not

self-defense however the judge said she

had a reasonable doubt that he intended

to kill her Alan she vac was found not

guilty of second-degree murder and

instead convicted of the lesser offense

of manslaughter he was also convicted of

interfering with her remains in court

shavax said he was deeply sorry for what

had happened he was sentenced to seven

years in prison five for manslaughter

and two for indignity - Lisa's body but

the prosecution wasn't satisfied with

that sentence and filed an appeal

Alberta's top court pointed to shy backs

deception he led Lisa's family to

believe she was alive and hold out hope

she might return the Alberta Court of

Appeal found the original sentence was

unfit and increased his overall sentence

by three years the what-ifs have

replayed over and over in Peggy's mind

what if she would have done a more

thorough search of shai max home that

day when she confronted him what if she

had done some snooping around any one of

the times she visited the home and slept

over while caring for her grandkids but

then okay if you take that what if and I

would have done that maybe they wouldn't

have gotten

as good as they did yeah things happen

for a reason sometimes right like one of

the officers in the end apologize for

saying you know didn't truth will they

tell me what they were doing because

obviously he couldn't and I had said to

him I said but you gotta it doesn't

matter took a two years you got Peggy's

life forever changed when her daughter

disappeared every day

she thinks of her and the day her body

was found

Peggy's life took another dramatic turn

she's now raising her two grandkids

Lisa's children when this all happened

December 5th they find Lisa a week later

we buried her and a week after that so

within two weeks we had kids total

life-changer uh yeah hits my close to

retirement age I am raising a 10 to 12

year old yeah

but they they bring life back this time

yeah you know I can't take you swimming

today or yeah I do have 20 minutes to

read a story with you or we can have a

movie night that just it's different it

makes you well it's made us take a

second look and really enjoy life

that's it back there was one point that

her daughter wanted to hear her voice

because she was very young I believe she

was three when her mom disappeared

and it was a couple years ago she had

said to me she says grandma I don't

remember my mom's voice it's a hard day

huh so I said okay I've got some VHS

tapes and she's like we don't want to

PHS and I pulled them out because when

Mesa was in the dance troupe with just

cousin her friends they made their own

videos

we sat here on a Saturday afternoon and

we watched all her videos from her dance

works and her Just Cause days with her

girlfriends and in these video she was

singing she were dancing she was talking

and they were just just amazing yeah we

spent a whole afternoon just crying

laughing and it was really good it was

what she needed

but along with remembering the good

times come questions about where their

parents are they know at first we were

allowed to tell them that their mom's an

angel and their dad is with the place

and that's all we're allowed to say for

the first few years but over the last

few years they know that their dad did

something to make their mom die and that

is why he's in jail

the older the kids get the more

questions they ask and Peggy knows it's

only a matter of time before it they

want to know exactly what happened to

their mother we do have the hard copies

of newspapers and one of the the

pretrial transcript so we have hard

copies for them but you wind when do you

bring that up and her daughter just

brought some some stuff up in a few days

we were throwing rocks at the river we

went down there for a few hours and

she's just picking him up and Chuck in a

minute and she says grandma you know

this is I'm getting rid of some of my

anger I said why do you have that much

anger at your young age you know you

can't carry that and she goes I'm glad

my dad's in prison for what he did to my

mom and but she didn't go into detail

and I said throw more rocks get it out

before we go home

[Music]

Peggy loves that Lisa's legacy will

always live on through her children how

how much of Lisa do you see in them

every day every day I mean she was very

outgoing very extroverted loved to have

fun but in a good way

she was an awesome mother she adored

those kids they were the light of her

life and her kids will carry that off

her son remembers a few things but they

knows that he remembers having fun and

that she made him smile and feel good I

mean he was young she was just she had a

spirit that keeps living on in them in

February 2000 nineteen just over six

years after Lisa's death and just a few

years into his 10-year prison sentence

she back was granted a parole several

months later sex toys were found in his

room at a halfway house and he admitted

he had paid for sex at a massage parlor

on more than one occasion the parole

board found he was deceitful and revoked

his day parole

chiman was sent back to prison

I'm an TV Robart thank you for joining

us tonight on crime

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