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00:06Scott Dale dreams of a white Christmas with his three children
00:11Scott was an amazing father. He was very nurturing
00:15He was enamored with Sherelle and willing to do anything for her
00:20But on a silent night a few days after Christmas his life slowly slips away the body was partially clothed
00:29in the fetal position
00:31This is where it starts to get dark and go off the tracks a
00:35Mysterious death raises suspicion fear and even hate and a small Canadian town
00:42Murder is something you don't expect. They're so dark. It's so sinister
00:48Your spidey senses go off and you're like there's more to this absolutely
00:53Her home was ablaze and she was believed to be inside
00:58dead
00:59Police must accept the murder weapon is actually wrapped up as a Christmas present
01:06I was a little bit incredulous. Does this happen in Killaloo?
01:11I think I was still in shock at that time. The whole thing was so unbelievable
01:16I think it was unbelievable
01:21I think it was unbelievable
01:53Hello, I'm Nancy Grace. Christmas is a magical time of the year. Who doesn't love baking gingerbread men, visiting Santa with your children, decorating the Christmas tree with your family? People celebrate Christmas all over the world, but in Canada, it's really special. There, you'll find a village covered in snow, straight off the cover of a Courier and Ives Christmas card.
02:19Killaloo is a small town in Ontario. When you talk about people that want to escape the big city life, this would definitely be the place for them. Citizens that live there enjoy a quiet, peaceful winter, a very cold Canadian winter.
02:39Scott Dell is an American living in the Canadian town of Killaloo. Christmas 1995 is not a joyous time for Scott. He is separated from his wife, Sherelle, and spending Christmas with her parents.
02:55Scott's children were alarmed and very upset when he failed to pick them up as planned. He was excited to see his kids. It was very unlike him to not show up. A close friend of his actually went out to the farmhouse to check on Scott.
03:18On December 29, 1995, the OVP received a call from a witness who reported that she had attended at a friend's farmhouse outside of the village of Killaloo.
03:30She was rather shaken and hysterical. She had found him deceased. She had tried to revive him, but it was pretty clear that he had been gone for a while and there was not any hope for bringing him back.
03:47The OVP responded by sending two police officers in uniform to the farmhouse, found the farmhouse unlocked, entered the home. As they went through the home in the living room, they found a turntable still spinning with a long play album on the turntable.
04:12It was remnants of candles that had been burned. They also found a 1.5 liter bottle of La Piedora wine on a desk, along with several pages of handwritten notes that made very little sense to them.
04:30They found a body in a bedroom upstairs in the farmhouse deceased on the floor. The body was in the fetal position. There was vomit near the body. The body was identified as Scott Dell.
04:45As part of the initial death investigation, there was no obvious signs of foul play.
04:52There wasn't really anything suspicious about this scene, but there was a bottle of wine that was found and it was white wine, but the wine had a yellowish green tint to it, which was just unnatural.
05:05The police took the bottle of wine, the wine glass, and the handwritten notes, hoping that maybe they would explain this death a little better.
05:20The body was removed from the home and transported to a local funeral home here in Killaloo.
05:35This friend of mine phoned me and said, Scott died. And I didn't believe her.
05:42I drove over to Scott's place. And of course, it was all taped with police tape.
05:48I think I was still in shock at that time. The whole thing was so unbelievable. He was my best friend.
05:58He's originally from Connecticut, and his parents encouraged him to move to avoid the draft.
06:07He was a very gentle person, soft-spoken, and he was super intelligent.
06:13In 1969, Scott Dell meets a small-town Canadian teenager at a party. Her name is Sherelle.
06:22Sherelle was absolutely beautiful. She was always perfect in her appearance. Her hair was perfect, her makeup, so she was quite the sight.
06:33Scott was totally in love with her. Scott was 20 years old, and Sherelle was 17 when they married.
06:41Scott and Sherelle Dale buy a small farm in Killaloo, and they raise three children.
06:4721 years later, they separate when Sherelle decides to explore other relationships.
06:55Scott loved Sherelle enough to accept her having sex with other people.
07:01All he wanted was her to come back. And it's just the face. She'll get past it.
07:07Immediately after they left the farmhouse, officers interviewed Scott's estranged wife, Sherelle Dale.
07:17Sherelle explains to the police that Scott had been struggling with mouth and throat cancer,
07:24a battle that had been going on for quite some time. She felt that his death was likely a result of his cancer battle.
07:31Locally, it was known to police and the coroner that Scott had cancer of the throat.
07:41The coroner issued a death certificate naming cancer as a cause of death.
07:46Sherelle Dale tells police husband Scott wanted to be cremated after his death.
07:52The local coroner released the body to Sherelle. The body was transported to a crematorium in Ottawa.
08:00Scott's family traveled from Connecticut and arrived within days of his death.
08:10When they were made aware of the reported cause of his death being cancer, they were very concerned.
08:15The family believed that he was in remission and pushed for a further fact-finding mission around the cause of Scott's death.
08:25But Scott, Dale's body has been released for cremation. It may have already happened.
08:31But by the grace of God, it was Christmas and the crematorium was not open.
08:38So the police retrieved his body from the crematorium.
08:42His body was being kept in a storage shed that lacked insulation.
08:47The cold Canadian winter helped to preserve his body, freezing it solid.
08:53And Scott's family ordered an autopsy.
08:57The cold Canadian winter at Christmas time turns out to be a break in the police investigation.
09:03The lab results from the autopsy reveal a stunning fact.
09:08His death was not caused by cancer.
09:10The coroner was able to confirm that there was no signs of active cancer in his throat or in his neck area.
09:18And that there was no tumor.
09:20What was even more shocking were the results of the toxicology screen.
09:25Scott had ethylene glycol present in his blood, which is the main ingredient in antifreeze.
09:32Traces of antifreeze are found in the wine bottle at the farmhouse.
09:39When the uniformed officers returned to Shirelle's home to inform her of the autopsy results, she tells them that Scott had been depressed.
09:51The two were estranged and he was spending the holidays alone.
09:55She suggested the possibility that Scott had committed suicide.
09:59They realized that Scott was alone at the farmhouse.
10:03He would have been the only one present when he was drinking what they believed to be the toxic mix leading up to his death.
10:12Police find paper in Scott Dale's handwriting at the scene.
10:17They assume it's a suicide note.
10:20The officers left the investigation as a suicide at that point.
10:26Not everyone's convinced Scott Dale would take his own life.
10:31Scott's friends and family brought up the question, why would this man, who had spent so much time valiantly fighting his cancer, then commit suicide?
10:41Scott was determined to be there for his children.
10:47I didn't think it was suicide.
10:49I never believed it.
11:00For the family of Scott Dale, the new year of 1996 brings tragic news.
11:05Police in Ontario rule Scott has taken his own life just three days after Christmas by drinking a bottle of poisoned wine.
11:16Scott Dale's family and close friends, however, remember how he fought for his life during his cancer scare.
11:24And they wonder, why would he give up now?
11:27Was another Christmas without wife Sherelle just too much for him to bear?
11:32At Scott's funeral on a cold day in January, wife Sherelle doesn't seem that mournful.
11:39All eyes on her as she turns the sad occasion into a celebration.
11:46At the funeral home in Killaloo, she came in sitting in a wheelchair because she had had a skateboard accident and she had cast around her leg.
12:01And it was decorated with rabbit fur and Christmas decorations.
12:07I was very sad.
12:09I kind of kept to the back at the funeral.
12:14And when Sherelle made this dramatic entrance, I just, I had this sick feeling in my stomach.
12:21Of how dare can she come there with Scott's family there?
12:26And yet it was all about her.
12:28She played this widow, dramatic widow.
12:32I felt like I was going to vomit.
12:35One year later, Ken Leppert joins the Killaloo Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police as a detective.
12:51In March of 1997, a woman called the detachment asking to speak to a detective.
12:57It was around 4.30 in the afternoon.
12:59I was about to leave.
13:00I took the call and I remember hearing a lady's voice on the other end of the call, who I now know to be Nancy Fillmore.
13:09She was very distressed, anxious.
13:14Nancy started to report a number of different crimes, credit card frauds, insurance frauds.
13:23And she eventually named Sherelle Dell.
13:26By her own admission, she was an accomplice in many of these crimes.
13:30And before we end the conversation, she adds in there is also a murder involved in this.
13:37But she didn't know if she could talk about it because of her own legal jeopardy.
13:43So I encourage her to come in and provide me with a video statement.
13:48The next day, Nancy Fillmore sits down with Detective Leppert.
13:53We treated her as appropriately as we could under the law as both a witness and a potential accused person.
14:02Nancy and Sherelle had been involved in an intimate relationship and had lived together at a home on Mill Street in Killaloo.
14:14And that that relationship had recently been terminated, not by Nancy's choice, but by Sherelle's.
14:22Sherelle was like a chameleon.
14:24One minute, she would be blonde on a skateboard and dating a man.
14:28The next minute, she would be dark hair dating a female.
14:32Nancy Fillmore and Sherelle Dell meet in spring of 1995, months before Scott's death.
14:40Sherelle has responded to a personal ad Nancy placed looking for a female partner.
14:47And the two women quickly become lovers.
14:50I believe the reason that Sherelle and Nancy became lovers is because Nancy had some money and Sherelle wanted to buy a house.
15:02Scott Dell has sole possession of the farm where he and Sherelle live together.
15:07He also has custody of the children.
15:10Nancy tells us that Scott was not a good person.
15:15Scott was abusive, physically abusive, that he was sexually abusive towards Sherelle, their children, and as well as foster children that they had in their home.
15:25Nancy explained that Sherelle was happy that her estranged husband was diagnosed with cancer,
15:32because now she could get the things that she wanted, the farmhouse and the children, upon Scott's death without a legal battle.
15:40Nancy relayed to us how much she feared and disdained Scott,
15:46and that there was nothing that the system would do to stop him from continuing to be a threat to their family.
16:01When Detective Ken Leppert investigates Scott Dell's background,
16:06he finds a long history of serious allegations made by Sherelle Dell.
16:12We uncovered that early in the 1990s, Sherelle made a series of allegations against Scott,
16:23alleging that he had assaulted her as a domestic partner,
16:27that he had sexually assaulted their children and other children that they were in the care of.
16:33Sherelle making that accusation against Scott ultimately is trying to destroy him, his reputation,
16:43and make sure that he has zero contact with any of the kids ever again,
16:48and trying to get him completely off the scene.
16:52And it didn't work.
16:54Scott was completely exonerated of all the allegations as well as granted custody of the children.
17:00Sherelle Dell has very little money when husband Scott's granted custody of the children and possession of the farm.
17:09Nancy Fillmore tells police she and Sherelle Dell commit credit card and insurance fraud just to make ends meet.
17:18Sherelle could make her do anything.
17:21And I used to say to Nancy,
17:23What are you doing?
17:24I told her,
17:25Get out. You gotta get out. It's gonna get worse.
17:27Several days after Nancy provided those initial statements,
17:32there was a call to the OPP asking for assistance in keeping the peace.
17:39Nancy had moved out and she went there with police escort to get her things out of Sherelle's and her house.
17:48Detective Lepper and I went to her house and Sherelle invites us into the home.
17:54We have a conversation with her and she's very, very gregarious, flamboyant.
18:01Sherelle was unrattled by Nancy, whereas Nancy was very upset, very anxious.
18:08Sherelle brings out two black trash bags that she says have Nancy's belongings in them.
18:14When Nancy looks inside though, she finds actual garbage and becomes infuriated.
18:21Filled with rage, she blurts out that she knows for a fact that Sherelle killed Scott.
18:28Nancy made several utterances to Sherelle, including the fact that she knew that she had killed Scott.
18:36Nancy said, I could have stopped it. He'd still be alive if I would have stopped it.
18:49Three days after Christmas, 1995, families in the small town of Killaloo are still celebrating.
18:56Scott Dell is not.
18:59Police believe he committed suicide by drinking himself to death.
19:04There are whispers throughout the town Scott would never have killed himself.
19:09His death is officially ruled a suicide.
19:13Now, two years later, a woman named Nancy Fillmore claims Sherelle Dell murdered her late husband.
19:21But can her story hold up under police questioning?
19:26She was clearly a jilted lover.
19:28There was no doubt about that.
19:30She could be motivated to fabricate allegations against Sherelle from that perspective.
19:38I read over the post-mortem examination report, the initial death investigation.
19:45It was certainly a set of facts that did not rule out the potential for a homicide.
19:53Nancy Fillmore tells investigators Sherelle Dell hatches a plan to kill her husband Scott over Christmas.
20:05Sherelle Dell convinces Nancy Scott Dell is a sex predator.
20:09So Nancy does not stand in the way.
20:12When Scott beat the odds and went into remission, it infuriated Sherelle.
20:18Nancy explains that at some point Sherelle learned that antifreeze was toxic to animals.
20:25But at the same time, it was sweet in taste.
20:30It was reported by numerous witnesses that she actually experimented with poisoning one of her own cats.
20:40And the neighbor brought the cat to the vet and the vet said it had consumed antifreeze.
20:48That cat was euthanized at the veterinarian's office.
20:53Sherelle Dell knows just how much antifreeze she needs to kill a cat.
21:00Her next step is to calculate the amount she needs to kill a man.
21:05Nancy told us about Sherelle making inquiries with the Poison Control Center in Ottawa.
21:11She told Poison Control that she had a special needs brother
21:16who had accidentally consumed two bottles of automotive antifreeze.
21:23And she was wondering if this was lethal or what she should do.
21:27The key part for us was that she actually gave Scott's weight of 130 pounds as her brother's weight.
21:35The Poison Control person told her to immediately get to the hospital, that it could be lethal.
21:41And I think that's all Sherelle needed to know because the operator from Poison Control also called the hospitals
21:49to let them know that this person was coming in to give them a heads up and no one appeared.
21:54December 1995, Sherelle Dell sends Nancy Fillmore out shopping with very clear instructions.
22:04She tells Nancy to buy a Christmas present for Scott.
22:08Nancy actually goes to Walmart with Sherelle's direction.
22:12She purchased antifreeze knowing that Sherelle was going to use it to poison Scott.
22:17And then Sherelle sends Nancy to the liquor store where she purchased a magnum of Le Piedor white wine,
22:28takes it back to the home on Mill Street.
22:32They empty some of the contents and they spike it with automotive antifreeze.
22:38On December 28, Scott returns from a trip out of town.
22:47He drops by Sherelle and Nancy's home to pick up his Christmas gift, a bottle of wine.
22:54The fact that she had bought him a Christmas gift probably elated him.
22:59Sherelle told Scott that she wanted him to go home and drink this bottle of wine while they were on the phone together.
23:07She presented this gift as more than just simply a bottle of wine, but more as a means of reconciliation between the two.
23:16He didn't have taste buds as a result of the radiation treatment,
23:20so he wouldn't be able to detect the off taste that the antifreeze would have caused to the wine.
23:27Scott began to consume the wine while talking to Sherelle for approximately nine hours of broken conversation
23:42and note-taking about the prospect of them rekindling their marriage.
23:49Scott wanted so badly to have his family back together for the holidays,
23:54and this really made him vulnerable to Sherelle's manipulation.
23:58At 4 a.m., after nine hours on the phone, Scott was starting to slur his words.
24:04He was starting to retch and wasn't feeling well at all.
24:08He wanted to go and lay down, but he never made it to his bed.
24:12Nancy was very engaged in the whole process and was telling us how she was not only taking it all in, but very nervous about what was happening.
24:21She could hear Sherelle's side of this conversation, and she knew that Sherelle was talking to him as he died.
24:30She hung up the phone and turned to Nancy and said,
24:38if you speak one word of this, you're next.
24:45When Nancy formalizes her statement and in detail about the homicide, it became a formal homicide investigation.
24:53Sherelle started to try to plant seeds to suggest that Nancy was the sole killer of Scott Dell.
25:01Nancy Fillmore is devastated when Sherelle Dell breaks up with her.
25:07Sherelle Dell has a brand-new lover, a young man named Brent Crawford.
25:13Ontario detectives are still not sure if they believe Nancy.
25:18They wonder, is Nancy Fillmore blinded by rage and simply out for revenge?
25:24The detectives couldn't just take Nancy's word for it.
25:28They had to really think about this.
25:30This is a person who hated Scott.
25:32She believed that he was a child abuser and a wife abuser.
25:36She was the one who actually purchased the wine and the antifreeze.
25:40So they had to consider the possibility that this was her committing this crime, not Sherelle.
25:51And perhaps just being a jilted lover, she decided to point the blame at Sherelle.
26:01Detectives execute a search warrant for Sherelle Dell and Nancy Fillmore's home.
26:07They find notes Sherelle Dell wrote to herself while husband Scott was dying.
26:14Handwritten notes from Sherelle, written at the time of the conversation that Scott was consuming the wine,
26:22corroborating not only what Nancy told us, but what Scott had authored on the other end of that phone call.
26:31The letters that were found at the scene could now be seen through a different light.
26:36Scott is writing love letters to his wife.
26:38And unbeknownst to him, she's on the other end of the phone line, encouraging him to drink poison wine.
26:48In reality, the whole scheme was a manipulation by Sherelle.
26:53And it was a murder plot, a brilliant one where she wouldn't even have to be in the same location.
27:05Detectives are now convinced Scott Dell was murdered by his ex-wife, Sherelle Dell.
27:11They build a case against her over the next five months.
27:15They also become concerned that Nancy Fillmore, who's their star witness, could be Sherelle Dell's next victim.
27:24Because of Sherelle's diabolical planning, she left very little evidence of her crime.
27:31And so Nancy is the main piece of evidence against her.
27:35She committed this crime remotely, so she wasn't at the scene.
27:40There's not going to be any forensics to link her to this case.
27:44So Nancy becomes a very important witness.
27:48Nancy is also aware and anxious about the target on her own back.
27:54She says, Kim, I'm not going to make it to trial.
27:57She's going to take me out. I can't open my mouth. I'm dead.
28:01We were strongly recommending that she leave Killaloo.
28:08We offered to pay for a move and to register Nancy in a witness protection program.
28:20And Nancy did not want to look at witness protection until she was able to recover the property that Sherelle was holding onto.
28:29August 19th, Nancy was successful in a small claims court.
28:35She got a court order that allowed her access to Sherelle's house at 18 Mill Street to get back personal belongings.
28:43Nancy Fillmore retrieves her personal belongings from the home she shared with Sherelle Dell.
28:48She seems ready to close that chapter of her life and move on.
28:52When that sheriff's order was executed, Nancy returns to her home on Queen Street and has a beer with a neighbor.
29:03I was called later that evening and told by the on-duty sergeant at the OPP detachment that Nancy Fillmore's home was ablaze.
29:12That she was believed to be inside.
29:17Somebody came up and said to me,
29:21Holy man, Kim, there's a big fire in Killaloo.
29:24And I knew.
29:27I just...
29:30I just...
29:33I just don't...
29:34Ontario Canada detectives are building a case against Sherelle Dell for the murder of her husband at Christmas time two years earlier.
29:53Police are worried Sherelle Dell may try to kill the star witness, Nancy Fillmore.
30:00They asked Nancy to enter a witness protection program.
30:04She refuses.
30:05And now her home is burning to the ground.
30:10Nancy Fillmore's home is on fire.
30:15And it's believed that she is inside deceased.
30:20The fire department have not been able to gain entry because of the advanced state of the fire.
30:26The suspicion at the time with the scene, it was that Nancy was having some drinks.
30:31There was some candles and the candles spilled over and a fire ensued.
30:34And that she had been basically drinking and passed out and didn't get out in time.
30:43I remember driving into Killaloo and all of the fire trucks were there and the police were there.
30:49And I saw Ken.
30:52And I'm like, why didn't you take her seriously?
30:54She was afraid for her life.
31:04It was very difficult.
31:05I look back and I...
31:07I just...
31:08I stumbled to describe it because it was very difficult for me.
31:11I know in my heart that we were not directly responsible for it, but it's also difficult to not feel otherwise.
31:20Nancy was becoming a problem for Cheryl because she had gone to the police.
31:26Nancy was to testify and so the timing was perfect for her to be eliminated.
31:32Nancy Fillmore's remains are discovered in the house.
31:38Detectives are now investigating a double homicide.
31:42When Nancy's house burns down to the ground with her inside, the detectives are fearful that this was Cheryl's attempt to silence her.
31:50Nancy was our key witness.
31:54The whole framework of our prosecution was no longer available to us.
31:58We had a fire marshal come in and conduct a traditional investigation to determine the cause and point of origin of that fire.
32:07We never found evidence to conclusively show that it was an arson.
32:14I went to Nancy's post-mortem examination.
32:18The autopsy results was that she died of carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of inhaling the smoke.
32:25Police canvass the area looking for witnesses.
32:29They also locate the whereabouts of their number one suspect, Cheryl Dell.
32:34So, of course, our first thought is Cheryl is involved in this and she tells us that she has an alibi and she's telling us the truth.
32:44She did have an alibi about where she was physically.
32:47Cheryl Dell is ruled out as the actual arsonist.
32:53But detectives wonder if she convinced her latest lover, Brent Crawford, to set the fire.
32:59On the 20th, the day after the fire, Brent was seen by myself outside of the fire scene watching our investigation.
33:10Brent had been seeing Cheryl and staying at her house throughout the summer of 97.
33:17The detectives bring Brent in for questioning and they ask him to take a polygraph test.
33:28He takes the polygraph exam and he fails.
33:32That's not admissible evidence in a court of law in Canada.
33:36But it painted a very dark picture of Brent's involvement in Nancy's death.
33:40The interrogation ended with Brent.
33:46He's fully aware that we are looking at him as now a suspect in Nancy's death.
33:54Because he wasn't under arrest and was free to leave, Brent exercised those rights and took off.
34:00So Brent travels to BC early in 1998.
34:03And we list Brent as part of our Canadian police information system that's available to all police officers across the country.
34:13Brent Crawford is nowhere to be found.
34:16Detectives focus on the Scott Dell murder investigation.
34:20The detectives were very frustrated with a lack of physical evidence.
34:25The circumstantial evidence against Cheryl was all they really had left after losing Nancy as a witness.
34:33We were going in any direction that we thought could provide evidence of how Scott died.
34:44I went to the poison control center in the fall of 1997.
34:49Spent a few days there going through their hard copy records.
34:52I find a very, very similar call, in my estimation, too similar to be anything but that call that Nancy reported to us.
35:03I can remember driving home from Ottawa when I found that poison control record on top of what Cheryl had told me, on top of what Nancy had told me.
35:13All of the physical evidence, the notes and the post-mortem examination.
35:17It was all coming together in a very powerful realization for me that Cheryl had killed Scott Dell.
35:30Detective Ken Leppard gets a tip that Brent Crawford has been spotted.
35:34I receive a phone call from an OPP officer.
35:38Brent had come back into Ontario and was now hitchhiking across Northern Ontario on Highway 11 at approximately 3 a.m.
35:49The police acted brilliantly.
35:50When Detective Ken Leppard was informed that Brent was hitchhiking, he sent his best undercover detective up to Northern Ontario.
36:00This detective actually picked Brent up as he was hitchhiking along the side of the road.
36:05Our undercover officer picked Brent up, engaged in conversation, and over the next three days, our undercover officer used covert techniques and strategies that resulted in Brent confessing about setting the fire and eventually providing a handwritten confession.
36:31Brent told us that his original plan was to take a knife and cut Nancy's throat.
36:34Brent told us that his original plan was to take a knife and to cut Nancy's throat.
36:38But once he got inside, he sees the clutter, he sees Nancy asleep on the couch, he sees the candles on a stand, and in his mind the easiest way to kill Nancy is to upend the candles and start a fire.
36:54Brent told us that he had got $750 from Shirelle, he was a 16-year-old kid, was physically involved with a lady that was 42 years of age, so he would do anything for her.
37:12Christmas 1997, Justice finally catches up with Shirelle Dill, two years after she kills her husband Scott.
37:20Shirelle Dill is arrested for the murder of Scott Dill on December 28, 1997, which is two years exactly from the date that she murdered her husband.
37:35Three days after Christmas 1995, Shirelle Dill gives her unsuspecting husband Scott a gift of poisoned wine, and it leads to his death.
37:54Exactly two years later, Shirelle Dill is arrested for his murder.
38:00I was in court the day that she was arrested, and she seemed really surprised.
38:11And her mother was in court as well, and the mother also seemed really surprised.
38:17They thought for sure that there wasn't enough evidence.
38:22Detectives are concerned they may not have enough evidence if Nancy Fillmore's testimony is not admitted at trial.
38:30The best evidence would be a confession from Shirelle admitting to something in regards to Scott's death.
38:36So we got a list of individuals who had been in custody with her and been bunkmates with her, and we started approaching those people.
38:45Shirelle was remained in custody while she was awaiting her trial, so she spent time in various different detention centers across the province.
38:54Ken and Duane asked me if I would be willing to attend the detention centers to interview the inmates that she'd spent time with.
39:03Duane and I put thousands of miles on the vehicles. We were all over the province.
39:09We were working four and five days a week, 14, 15 hours a day.
39:13So, you know, you get tired, you get frustrated, and then you find Brandy Cameron.
39:19Brandy Cameron, who was Shirelle's bunkmate, and Brandy was basically her protector inside.
39:27So Shirelle began to trust Brandy, and ultimately Brandy told us that Shirelle flat out told her,
39:35I killed my husband, I put antifreeze in his wine.
39:40And Duane and I looked at each other and went, did that just happen? Did that really just happen?
39:46Finally, after all of those thousands of miles, something came through.
39:52That's going to completely back up what Nancy's statement had said,
39:55and it's an admissible statement by a bunkmate of Shirelle's.
40:00There was a lengthy trial. It started out in Pembroke and moved to Ottawa.
40:09We went to trial in Ottawa, winter of 2001.
40:15Some of the residents were there from Kitalou, and they say,
40:18there's not the effect of, boy, she's not wearing her leopard skin leggings today, is she?
40:23She's looking pretty, pretty plain.
40:25She was being escorted in by a constable in full uniform, being taken by the elbow,
40:30and being let in and handcuffed, so it wasn't the glamour that she had.
40:35During the trial proper, Nancy Fillmore's statements, video, and transcripts were thrown out.
40:42We could not use them or rely upon them as evidence in any way.
40:46Her defense was that he's killed himself.
40:51And we realized that this was going to be a fight right to the end.
40:54And it was. We didn't know what the outcome was going to be.
40:57I'm sitting there with Dwayne and other investigators,
41:03and the judge opens his comments by saying,
41:09Scott Dell did not commit suicide.
41:15And you could just feel the adrenaline,
41:18because now he's ruled out any argument the defense made.
41:22He concludes how he has no doubt that Cheryl murdered Scott.
41:28And when he said that, he said, I find you guilty at first degree of murder.
41:34It's difficult for me to even talk about it.
41:36And she was found guilty.
41:38It was a huge relief.
41:42I thought I would feel really happy, but everyone there cried.
41:46Everyone that was involved in the trial cried.
41:49It was such a senseless murder.
41:52Cheryl was sentenced to 25 years with no parole.
41:55In Canada, a life sentence is 25 years.
41:59I hope she never comes back to Killaloo.
42:10Brent Crawford goes to trial a few months later, April 2001.
42:18Brent Crawford is convicted of first degree murder
42:21and sentenced to life behind bars,
42:24with the possibility of parole after 10 years.
42:28Cheryl Dell can really be compared to killers like Charlie Manson.
42:33She was able to convince people to kill for her
42:37without getting her hands dirty.
42:39She was a master manipulator
42:41and one of the most evil killers there is.
42:44Christmas for Scott's kids will always be remembered
42:48as the time that they lost their father.
42:51A time where he was so eager
42:54to spend time with his family and reunite.
43:03He wanted that family model with Cheryl and her family to continue.
43:10He wanted that above anything.
43:17And she used all of this to design a plan, unlike any other, to kill him.
43:29His vulnerabilities were used against him and he was manipulated.
43:35And his death is so tragic because how much he really just wanted to be a family man.
43:44The murders of Scott Dell and Nancy Fillmore are blanketed in the most picturesque of Christmas towns.
43:49The murders of Scott Dell and Nancy Fillmore are blanketed in the most picturesque of Christmas towns.
44:03It's such a striking contrast between the good inside man and our most joyous time.
44:12And the evil that can lurk beneath the surface.
44:18I'm Nancy Grace.
44:20Thank you for joining us here on The Christmas Killings.
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