- 2 days ago
When Reita Jordan vanished without a trace in March 2013, she wasn’t immediately reported missing. Her long-time boyfriend told detectives she’d likely left on her own because most of her clothing was gone. But why couldn’t anyone get in touch with her? After two months of investigating, Halifax police would finally start to piece together the grisly details of what happened to Reita – and their quest for justice would turn into a precedent-setting legal case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
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00:03This program is rated 14 plus and contains scenes of violence and mature subject matter.
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00:12So I left a message.
00:13I said, Rita, honey, I said, you got to call somebody.
00:16You got to tell somebody where you're at.
00:18Her friend had called me and said, we think she's missing.
00:21Footprints of life have stopped.
00:23Things aren't looking great for Rita Jordan being found alive.
00:27With no answers, her family says they're desperate.
00:31We're here because we love our sister and nobody else is looking for her, so we feel that we have
00:36to.
00:36We have some theories, some ideas, but we want to eliminate people.
00:42He takes her cell phone and sends a text message to her friend saying, gone in town.
00:49When it was first all going down, you went and you checked his house.
00:52You had warrants for his house.
00:54And I remember saying, check the work truck.
00:57There are like two hours left or so.
00:59They decide, let's bring Rita's mother, Donna Jordan, into the interview.
01:04I forgive you.
01:05And she went in and she kept her composure and confronted him.
01:10Do we believe everything that he told us about how things went down?
01:13No, we don't.
01:17Welcome to Crime Beat.
01:18I'm Anthony Robart.
01:19In the spring of 2013, 34-year-old Rita Jordan vanished without a trace.
01:25When she first disappeared from her home just outside Halifax, Nova Scotia, investigators found themselves facing a troubling mystery.
01:33No crime scene, no witnesses, and no indication of what had happened to her.
01:39But as investigators dig deeper into Rita's disappearance, they uncover a trail of lies and deception and the terrifying lengths
01:48someone went to to hide their brutal crimes.
01:53Here now is Gone in Town.
02:00Back in 2013, this was the residence of Paul Callen.
02:04It was his family home where he lived with Rita Jordan at the time.
02:08Normal type house.
02:10Two-car garage that's detached.
02:11Probably about 20 minutes from Halifax downtown.
02:15It's a nice, quiet neighborhood.
02:16You never know that something tragic happened here.
02:23Rita Jordan has been missing for 30 days.
02:25As a result of their investigation, there's still a lot of questions that are not answered, with the big one
02:31being, where is she?
02:33They've checked possible locations, bank records, private residence, numerous things, but still no answer to where she is.
02:41If you have any information surrounding any activity, whereabouts of Ms. Jordan, the investigators are more than open to speaking
02:49with you.
02:50Rita's family declined an on-camera interview, but I did speak with her sister, who says that Rita is very
02:56much loved and missed, that she's never gone missing like this before.
03:00Concern is growing.
03:02I was texting her, no answer.
03:04Calling her phone, messenger, no answer.
03:08This is Rita just looking like a baddie.
03:10She was just beautiful.
03:11Never had to do much.
03:13It's just natural.
03:14Bold, beautiful, strong, crazy, some would say.
03:19Centre of attention.
03:24Did she get in trouble?
03:26Did she go away somewhere?
03:27Maybe she just didn't want to be found.
03:29We're talking to her family members to find out, like, when did people actually last talk to her, see her?
03:34I talked to her all the time on messenger.
03:37So March 10th?
03:40It was the usual.
03:41We used to play games on Facebook, and she would be like, send me this.
03:45And I would just send her to play her games, just normal stuff.
03:50Generally, missing person cases, they don't usually take very long.
03:54Most of them are solved fairly quickly, within a day or so.
03:56They usually get found.
03:57Rita Jordan's case was a little different.
03:59Yeah, she did it often.
04:00She would go for a week, come back.
04:03Most of the time, she would message me.
04:04So whether it was for a game or going to mums later, there was always activity on there, from her
04:11to me.
04:13We want to build a timeline.
04:14We want to look at social media.
04:16We want to look at her phone records.
04:18We want to talk to people that know Rita Jordan.
04:21This is just a general statement.
04:22We're going to talk about a girlfriend of his by the name of Rita Jordan.
04:26We learned that she's living with a guy named Paul Cowman.
04:29And how old are you, Paul?
04:30I'm 50.
04:31He's an older male, a little bit older than Rita, maybe 15 years or so.
04:35And she's living with him in Hammond's Plains.
04:38She was with him for a while and would talk very highly of him, how she's addicted to Paul.
04:43And she was so happy.
04:44Can you tell me, Paul, how long you've known Rita?
04:49It's about seven years, I would say.
04:51She would say, I had her at hello.
04:53I said, you got me at hello, too.
04:56She wasn't living with him right away, actually.
04:58She just hung out with him a lot.
05:00He came to pick her up a lot.
05:01He's a professional guy.
05:03He's a plumber.
05:03Nothing really out of the ordinary with him.
05:05He's divorced.
05:06What's the last day you saw her?
05:08It would have been Monday morning.
05:10Calling her three times a day and twice in the evenings.
05:13Like I told you earlier, it was Thursday when her phone was open for voicemail.
05:21So I left a message.
05:22I said, Rita, honey, you got to call somebody.
05:25You got to tell somebody where you're at.
05:28Her friend had called me and said, we think she's missing.
05:31Her best friend, Krista Andrews, she had not heard from Rita Jordan in approximately 10 days or so.
05:37She had already filed a missing persons and they said they're not going to do anything because we haven't really
05:42called.
05:43They needed somebody that, like family, I guess.
05:46So I was like, okay, well, yeah, I'll call.
05:48If you haven't seen her, we haven't seen her.
05:50So I put in a report.
05:53It was March 28, 2013.
05:56Unfortunately, please, we're 10 days behind the last time somebody's talked to Rita.
06:01I mean, I was so happy when Krista called me up.
06:03She says, I'm going to call missing persons.
06:07I said, yeah, please do.
06:08She asked me, well, why didn't you go?
06:10I said, well, okay, if she left and her clothes were all there.
06:14I said, well, okay, someone abducted her.
06:17When she left with all her clothes and stuff, well, she found somebody that is going to take care of
06:23her better than I did.
06:24I don't know.
06:24I mean, Rita's a part of my life too, but what she was into and stuff like that.
06:31And, you know, like, I don't know.
06:34I'm just trying to keep my good appearance, I guess.
06:37You know what I mean?
06:38There were some flags with her type of lifestyle, unfortunately.
06:41I actually met her on patrol in my early patrol days in downtown Halifax.
06:46Just an all-around wonderful person that battled addiction.
06:50Usually happens to the best of us.
06:52I'm not sure how things started for her in that world, but then she got involved with, like, harder drugs.
06:58She had worked prostitution, walking the streets.
07:01All those things are risk factors for us in the police world.
07:05I had picked her up one evening.
07:07November 2010 is when my wife left me.
07:10And then it was February 2011.
07:15Rita first spent a night with me.
07:17Previous to that, it was just, I would call her off and...
07:21Make a meeting.
07:22Make a meeting.
07:23So she would be classified as a vulnerable person.
07:25She wasn't out there hurting people.
07:28I thought, oh, she's out doing her thing, which was maybe a Dark Knight binging, or who knew?
07:35But right away, I really didn't feel like she was met with foul play, or I didn't think that.
07:42Police investigated it for the first while as a missing person.
07:45And that's important, because if all you have to do to get away with murder is get rid of the
07:50body, then that's going to be the end of it, isn't it?
08:06Welcome back to Crime News.
08:08It's been several weeks since Rita Jordan was last heard from, and investigators are now working to reconstruct her final
08:15known whereabouts and determine who she was with.
08:19Aware that Rita had been intermittently involved in the sex trade, Halifax police are worried for her safety.
08:27We now return to Dawn in Town.
08:31This is your Aunt Rita and Papa and Sebastian in the in-cube in the hospital.
08:39This is when she was 16.
08:41When she had her first kid, I was only 12.
08:43She was 16.
08:45He was always with his father.
08:46One of the things Rita taught me was to not trust anybody and know my surroundings at all times.
08:52She taught me how to fight, taught me how to be rough around the edges.
08:56So you left for work that Monday morning at 6, and Paul was still there with her?
09:00Mm-hmm.
09:01So she has clients, and we start to learn some of those names.
09:04She got up and seen me to the door.
09:07She said, that's Paul's car out in the driveway.
09:09We learned that Paul Moulton, who is a close friend of hers, he stayed overnight smoking crack with Rita Jordan
09:16at the house where she lived with Paul Callum.
09:17And Paul Callum was home that night as well.
09:19So that's 17th of March leading into the 18th.
09:23So, okay, you're out, you're working all day.
09:25What did you buy when you go home?
09:27He told investigators that he worked until about 6 o'clock at night.
09:31Well, I got in the door and I said, hey, Rita.
09:33And he had no answer.
09:34The kitchen was cleaned up, and I went downstairs.
09:38Rita was not there, and her belongings were gone.
09:40Jesus Christ, where'd she go?
09:42So I go back upstairs, and there's no sign of her boots anywhere.
09:46Jackets are gone.
09:47So then I called Paula, and I said, Paula, I said, you don't know where Rita went to.
09:53There's also a drug dealer that came by in the afternoon that Paul Moulton told us about.
09:59He said, no.
10:00He goes, I left around 3 o'clock.
10:01He did confirm that he went out to the Hammond's Plains residence, and Paul Moulton was there, and Rita Jordan
10:07was there.
10:07But she was fine when he left.
10:09And she was outside in your garage cleaning the bench off.
10:14So there's a little window in there of, like, 3 o'clock, mid-afternoon, Paul Moulton sees her.
10:21And then 6 o'clock, Paul Callen comes home, and she's gone.
10:25So from the 19th forward, do you have any contact with her?
10:28No contact with her whatsoever.
10:31So one thing we do in missing person investigations is we send out media releases that we're looking for somebody
10:37that they're missing,
10:38if the public has information to contact us.
10:40So we were getting some information, like she went to Newfoundland with somebody, she was seen at the liquor store,
10:46she was seen on a bus.
10:47We tracked down these people.
10:48We crossed those off the list as not valid.
10:53The vice unit starts checking with CBSA.
10:55Did she leave the country?
10:56Did she take flights?
10:57Crossing all those things off the list.
10:59There's no record of her leaving the country.
11:00She's not in hospital.
11:01She's not in jail.
11:03She just disappeared.
11:09The vice unit, they were able to get some preliminary phone records back.
11:12And as far as you know, she didn't take the phone with her, but you don't have it?
11:15No.
11:16No, I didn't see anyone.
11:17I like to call it Footprints of Life have stopped March 18th.
11:21Her cell phone towers were in the neighbourhood where she lived with Paul Counton.
11:25That's where she was on the 18th, the 17th.
11:28It didn't move all over the place.
11:30Everything's coming back to March 18th.
11:33Things aren't looking great for Rita Jordan being found alive.
11:37With no answers, her family says they're desperate.
11:40So today, they took it upon themselves to keep looking.
11:44We're here because we love our sister and nobody else is looking for her, so we feel that we have
11:49to.
11:50We would anyways.
11:52This was her last whereabouts, and so we decided this area would be the first we would check.
11:59The sisters say they're frustrated with police who they feel have simply given up.
12:04Because we're all anxious, we're all wanting to know, we all had questions.
12:09At the time, yes, it feels like it goes like molasses.
12:13Like nobody's doing anything for you, nobody's there.
12:16Public's perception was like, oh my goodness, this took like a long time for this to get to homicide investigation.
12:22They should have done that right off the start, right?
12:23And this was an integrated investigation with Halifax Regional Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
12:28But this isn't a normal homicide investigation.
12:31We don't have a body.
12:32No body at this time, but it's still very much an active investigation.
12:36I know that they're diligently working on this case.
12:39Meanwhile, her family is holding out hope.
12:41They say what they really want is closure, and to find out what happened to the young mother.
12:46If anybody anywhere knows anything, they need to speak.
12:51She's a human being, doesn't matter of her past.
12:54She's loved by a lot of different people.
12:57We have some theories, some ideas, but we want to eliminate people, cross them off the list.
13:04And one of those ways we can do that is through polygraph.
13:06We still had Paul Moulton, Wade Weeks, and Paul Counton all in the mix.
13:12Wade Weeks was a close friend of Rita Jordan.
13:15They were probably in some kind of relationship also at some points of time, but they were friends.
13:23So we offered a polygraph to Wade Weeks.
13:26He came in, and his results were truthful in what he told the police.
13:33We did a polygraph with Paul Moulton.
13:36He came in, did a polygraph.
13:38Again, he was truthful.
13:42Then it came to Paul Counton next.
13:43We offered Paul a polygraph.
13:48And the results of his polygraph were deceptive.
13:51Back on the 18th Monday there, when you come home from work, everything, her stuff was gone, except what we
13:57saw in the laundry there today.
13:58And then she forgot to take the stuff in the laundry, I guess.
14:00Her mother thought it was a little odd that she took everything.
14:02I think Emily was talking to you, and you told her that.
14:33Yeah.
14:34We reached out to Paul Counton.
14:35He brought the key to the investigator and turned over the key.
14:38They did not find anything of a crime scene, so nothing that showed, like, some kind of incident that happened
14:43in the house.
14:43And they looked outside and outside around the property and everything like that, and Rita was not at the house.
14:50When it was first all going down, you went and you checked his house.
14:54You had warrants for his house, his property, but you didn't warrant his work vehicle when he was driving it.
14:59He came to give you keys, and I remember saying, check the work truck.
15:03Can you please check the work truck?
15:05Check the work truck.
15:07We had nothing to really say that something might have happened in the truck kind of thing.
15:11Like, there's nothing that really gave us grounds to go look into vehicles.
15:16Like, he was always in his work truck.
15:18Like, why wouldn't you check what he lives in?
15:21Goes to work in it every day.
15:36So the first time I came to Paul Cowen's residence, it was during the investigation.
15:44I started watching the residence a little bit.
15:46We did a canvas of the neighborhood.
15:48Didn't tell us anything.
15:49Nowadays, there's a lot more doorbell cameras out there, but in 2013, it wasn't as popular as it is now.
15:57And there was one witness, a friend of Paul Cowen.
15:59Paul Cowen told them that he lied to the police.
16:04It was actually 3 o'clock when I got home, not 6 o'clock.
16:07Why would Paul lie about that?
16:09You and Rita fight much?
16:11Well, I mean, yeah, the arguments here and there, but nothing.
16:14Actually, Donna told me about a fight you guys had out of the third place.
16:17But we're starting to get some pieces of evidence, the phone records.
16:21Everything's not so nice with Paul Cowen and Rita Jordan.
16:25So there were these text messages between Rita Jordan and her friend, Wade Weeks.
16:32Can you help?
16:33Can you come get me?
16:35I got a plan.
16:36I got to get out of here.
16:37He put his hands on me.
16:38I don't think I'm safe here.
16:40Weeks.
16:40Just got your message.
16:41Just let me know.
16:43Are you all right, sweetie?
16:44And we also have an indication that he was saying he would kill himself if she left him.
16:51And those are things you do see in cases involving intimate partner violence.
16:58I'm sure you and Rita get a little violent at times.
17:01No, not violent.
17:02No.
17:02No, I never hit a woman or, you know, never.
17:07I think I'm going back to my mom's.
17:10What's going on?
17:11What happened?
17:11You were around.
17:12Just let me know everything all right.
17:14Can't wait to see you.
17:16Did he hurt you?
17:17He tried.
17:17I'm tough, though.
17:19She called mom and said I wanted to come home.
17:22And mom feels horrible because she had my other sister staying there for the moment.
17:30And she said, you could sleep on the coach.
17:32Come sleep on the coach.
17:33And Rita was like, hell no.
17:36And then we haven't seen her after that.
17:37So there's a lot of guilt there.
17:42She was the oldest sibling.
17:44She most definitely was the band leader.
17:47Yeah.
17:48This is our sister group.
17:50Four girls.
17:51Too cute.
17:52Rita being the oldest, me being the youngest.
17:54This is me.
17:55This is us going to school.
17:58First day of school, probably.
17:59The mullets.
18:01Mm-hmm.
18:01We were always teasing, yeah, like, always playing, always putting on concerts.
18:06She would tell us how to dance and what we were doing, what parts.
18:10This was your Aunt Rita.
18:11The Christmas party in 2013.
18:15A couple months before.
18:16My last one with her probably was the most I remember, probably because we were older, and it was shoot
18:24by Salt-N-Peper, and it was Christmas morning.
18:28My little girl got a karaoke machine.
18:32And, yeah, that was the last one.
18:34It was a blast.
18:37So sometimes people lie by admission.
18:39He didn't mention anything about their relationship not going well.
18:42He knew that Rita Jordan was planning to leave him, that she didn't want to be with him anymore, and
18:48that he was a trick.
18:48And that she was planning to take some of Paul Counton's property.
18:53I'm talking to somebody now that will interested in buying the four-wheelers, they're talking about the Corvette.
18:58Is there anything else of value in the garage?
19:00And Rita's like, no, there's no value there.
19:02I already have his gold.
19:05We don't really believe in coincidences, right?
19:06Like, she's going to leave on the 18th, and she disappears on the 18th.
19:10Global News has learned Rita worked at this sporting goods outlet in Burnside.
19:14She left early this winter.
19:15We would work night shifts 3 to 11 at Hallie Hansen together, and it would just be a great night.
19:21Just, like, using all the things that you're not supposed to use just to be funny, and, like, we were
19:26just so, having so much fun.
19:27And singing songs from across the room just when we're doing the whole line work, and it was always fun.
19:34Never a dull moment.
19:35We grew up together, and we had a duplex on Duffus Street.
19:38And she rented the other side.
19:40We were always together.
19:42She had everything that she wanted at that moment, you know?
19:46And he didn't like that.
19:48He was no longer the one, so.
19:53She was working.
19:54She straightened her hair, got all her teeth fixed.
19:56She was beautiful.
19:57She was ready.
19:59She was ready.
20:00And he wasn't.
20:01Well, I mean, I was hoping she would give me a call, right?
20:03Like, she took out on the board.
20:05So investigators know they're going down the right path.
20:07We're looking at the right person.
20:09It's just figuring out, how are we going to prove that Paul
20:12Counton's the person, right?
20:13So they do come up with an investigative plan to arrest Paul
20:16Counton.
20:17Summarize the belief.
20:18I was part of the arrest team, so we arrested him as he finished work.
20:22He was calm.
20:24We only have a 24-hour clock once we arrest somebody.
20:27He was going to walk out the door in 24 hours.
20:30There's going to be two things going on at the same time.
20:32We're going to interview him and try to get him to tell us what happened.
20:36And we're going to have undercover operators with him when he's not being interviewed down
20:42in cells.
20:42Because sometimes people will talk and disclose details of the crime that they've been arrested
20:47for.
20:47Neither one of those things is getting us to admissions or a confession.
20:52I think we would have did anything at the time.
20:54I think mom was pretty desperate.
20:55I think we were all pretty desperate for any type of answer.
20:59And then the interviewers have another idea.
21:02Bring in a family member of Rita Jordan.
21:05There are like two hours left or so.
21:08They decide, let's bring Rita's mother, Donna Jordan, into the interview.
21:14And she went in and she kept her composure and confronted him.
21:32Knowing what she knows now, it makes her feel horrible because she said some things to him
21:37that weren't necessarily true, but she needed her daughter.
21:39I know, you must be so scared.
21:46You're a good man, you probably know what's right.
21:51You know right from wrong.
21:53It's killing us, not knowing where she is.
21:57Donna Jordan went into the interview room, sat down and began interviewing Paul Callen and
22:03asked him and begged him to tell her what happened.
22:20And you have to understand a family member that's lost another and then they go even farther
22:29and they go into a room only inches away from the person who was essentially a member of the
22:35family, went to birthdays and so forth and talked to him about the details.
22:40She has to be probably one of the strongest people I've ever met.
22:42Let the words come out.
22:44She's right here supporting you, sitting there holding your hand, begging, begging for you.
22:51Telling you she's not going to leave your side.
22:53She's not going to abandon you.
22:57She's had him.
22:57We have to start together today.
22:59Her ashes...
23:02are...
23:02in the lake down in Sheriffrook, next to the movie.
23:07Ashes?
23:10Thank you, Paul.
23:16It's okay.
23:18It's all right, Paul.
23:22It's all right.
23:25She couldn't even speak, and she said he burnt her.
23:32And then just cried.
23:35He put her ashes at the lake in Shearbrook,
23:39where Rita Jordan's family have a cottage,
23:42went out to the buoy where the family would dive and swim,
23:46and he put her ashes in the water.
24:03Welcome back.
24:04After a tearful confession to Rita Jordan's mother,
24:08Rita's boyfriend, Paul Calnan,
24:10has admitted to disposing some of Rita's remains
24:13in a lake by their family cottage.
24:15Investigators must now determine if it was murder or an accident.
24:22Here now is Don in Town.
24:29The first time that I actually was inside the house was the day
24:33after Paul Calnan was arrested in June.
24:36He agreed to come out with us and agreed to do a reenactment.
24:41He had been charged already with the murder of Rita Jordan
24:43and indignity of human remains.
24:45He took us through his version of events,
24:47walked us through the house.
24:48It's sad to think that something terrible happened here to Rita Jordan.
24:53It's almost peaceful.
24:57Rita!
24:58I'm there, too.
25:00Remember, he's in custody, but he's not handcuffed and that.
25:03He's walking through, so...
25:04There was at least three bags that couldn't...
25:07I'm there to make sure he doesn't try to escape or anything like that
25:10and to take part.
25:11She's usually down in the bedroom, so...
25:14I go, Rita!
25:17So what we know is March 18th, Paul Calnan came home that afternoon.
25:22When he came home, her stuff was packed.
25:25I'm walking down.
25:28I don't know, probably hear I say Rita, and her room is down here.
25:33Goes downstairs, talks with Rita.
25:35She was sitting over there on the computer.
25:37So I say hi to her.
25:40So just for me to clarify, Paul had to take you off track.
25:42Are you guys arguing at this point in time?
25:43Um, yes and no.
25:46Not...
25:47Not fully arguing yet.
25:49But you guys just shared some...
25:51He shared some...
25:52Yeah.
25:53They come upstairs.
25:54They're arguing.
25:55So I'm just going up the steps.
25:57He found his laptop in her bags by the door.
26:00He found his gold ring that she was going to plan to take with him.
26:03Now she's standing...
26:05Right here?
26:07With her back to the steps.
26:09So as I'm going like this, she takes a swing at me.
26:11And I went like that.
26:13He said it was a total accident.
26:15He said she was at the top of the stairs.
26:17She took a swing at him and fell down.
26:19Oh yeah, definitely her right hand.
26:20So she takes a swing?
26:21Yeah, and they go like that.
26:22Yeah.
26:22And she fell backwards down the steps.
26:26This way.
26:26I'm not sure if it was backwards.
26:27His version is that she swung at him and fell down the stairs.
26:31On some very padded stairs.
26:33And at the bottom of the stairs, she died what appears to be instantly.
26:37So then she's going down the steps.
26:39So, geez, I run down.
26:40Let's just go slow right here now.
26:42This is very important so that we can get clear.
26:45You notice that she's gone down over the stairs.
26:47Yeah.
26:48How far down does she go?
26:50Before we go down there, take me through what's down there.
26:52She's to the bottom.
26:53Like her feet are pointing up.
26:55All the way around the turn.
26:57Yeah.
26:57Down here and then down again.
26:59Yeah.
26:59Right to the hardwood or the laminate floor.
27:01Yeah.
27:01Down four stairs, turn down two more stairs.
27:04Turn, fell down more stairs.
27:06Like that was his version.
27:07She was dead at the bottom of the stairs.
27:08Okay.
27:08So her head is down.
27:09Well, I'm not sure how she was falling here.
27:11Because I was ducking to get out of her way.
27:14Yeah.
27:16But when I got down here, her head was here.
27:20Okay.
27:20Her head was here.
27:21And the rest of her body was like up the steps.
27:25Up the steps.
27:25When it gets to the details of what actually happened to Rita
27:29and how she died, it's more like he's pausing, thinking.
27:32Because it doesn't flow smooth, right?
27:35And I listened for an air out of her mouth.
27:41And there was none.
27:42So I tried resuscitating her, molt to molt.
27:47I'm going like this.
27:49And you're pulling her up then?
27:50I'm pulling her up.
27:51I did get her up here.
27:53And I checked to see if she was still dead or not.
27:56They kept going back and saying, I wanted to check to see if she was really dead.
28:01You would think the normal response would be, I kept hoping that she was still alive.
28:07And you really want to know that you run up the stairs and you call 911.
28:14Oh, yeah.
28:14I'm talking to her.
28:15I'm slapping her in the halt.
28:16And I'm listening for her.
28:17I didn't actually check her pulse.
28:19Okay.
28:21Actually, yes, I did.
28:22I checked her neck.
28:23So then from there, I took her and put her in the truck.
28:26And then he outlined the details of what he did to dispose of her body.
28:31The person that he said he loved apparently died right before his eyes.
28:36And his reaction was to take her to the woods and dump her.
28:42The day that Paul Callen killed Rita, he put her in his blue truck in the front seat of the
28:47wheel well, wrapped up in a blanket.
28:49He drove around for a little while.
28:51That would match up with the cell phone last tower of Rita Jordan.
28:54And ultimately, Paul Callen decided to take her body to Ingramport, 10, 15-minute drive at most.
29:02This would have been all gravel road.
29:05This is roughly the spot where we believe Rita Jordan was put.
29:11We never did actually find her remains here.
29:15And this would have been where he put her the day he killed her.
29:19Until he came back the next day, he could see her body, her elbow.
29:24So he moved her deeper in the woods.
29:27We never did find the exact spot.
29:29And unfortunately, Paul Callen changed his mind
29:33because we were going to come out this way and get us to show us exactly where he had put
29:38her.
29:39Somewhere along here.
29:41We'll never know exactly where.
29:43He had taken her belongings that she had packed up and had taken them out there and burned them.
29:49It was around this area over here by the power lines is where we found a couple of little burn
29:54sites.
29:56The only thing that was left that we could find was pieces of metal, some pieces of the bags.
30:02A month later, the police came to his door and said, this is now a homicide investigation.
30:08Paul Callen leaves that night, late at night, goes back to the spot where he disposed of Rita Jordan in
30:16the woods.
30:17He wraps her up in a tarp.
30:19He puts her in the back of his truck and drives out to Muscadabit, which is completely another direction.
30:24He gets stuck.
30:25And while he has her body in the back, calls a tow truck.
30:29He continues on.
30:30He takes the body out and he burns the body in the woods.
30:34But the police call.
30:36He then puts the body out, wraps it up in a tarp and drives back to his house where the
30:43police are.
30:44So they search the house.
30:45Paul Callen says he waits till they leave.
30:48He takes the body into his backyard and then he burns the rest of the remains.
30:53He's taking chances of getting caught.
30:57Somebody could come over and see him in the backyard doing this.
31:00It shows me that he was motivated.
31:02Looking back, like, huh, if he had the crystal ball, if you could have put surveillance on Paul Callen,
31:07you would have got him going and getting the body later on.
31:10You would have got him going to Pleasant Valley and you might have caught him with the body maybe, right?
31:17And I just remember being so upset.
31:19Why wouldn't you have just said, listen, I need to check the vehicle.
31:22Now I'm without my sister.
31:24The lead investigator and I, we did go to the family cottage in Sherbrooke with the RCMP Underwater Recovery Team.
31:32And they were describing like pieces of the ashes and bone was in the water sitting up among the weeds.
31:38And they would go to try to get these ashes and they would just start to disintegrate in the water.
31:43But they were able to come up with a few pieces.
31:46They couldn't say 100% that it was human.
31:49There was no DNA that could have been extracted.
31:51But with Paul Callen telling us where he put her ashes and remains, there was no doubt that what we
31:57did find eventually,
31:58that was what was left to Rita, Rita Jordan, unfortunately.
32:05How does a human do it?
32:07I don't even know how it was possible that we don't have a single stitch of her to bury.
32:12Well, that's why we have graveyards, right?
32:14So people can go more and talk to their loved ones.
32:16We don't have anything.
32:19So, something would be nice.
32:24Yeah, we haven't been able to do anything.
32:27He went far beyond what anybody could even imagine somebody would do to hide a body.
32:33And we asked ourselves, why?
32:36Who would go into these extreme lengths to get rid of a body if it was an accident, right?
32:42There was something about that body that he needed to destroy down to bone and ash.
32:51There was something about that body that said she didn't fall accidentally down the stairs,
32:56that would convict him of second degree murder.
32:59Obviously, we had a lot more questions, but we had to get him to court.
33:03Investigators weren't done with Paul Callen.
33:05Like, he had more information to tell us.
33:16Welcome back.
33:18Paul Callen admits to burning Rita Jordan's body,
33:21but maintains her death was accidental, claiming she fell down the stairs and died instantly.
33:27But police feel the lengths he went to to get rid of her body tell a much more sinister story.
33:35We now return to the conclusion of Gone in Town.
33:40Today was the first day of testimony in the second degree murder trial for Paul Trevor Callen.
33:46The Crown had the chance to give its opening arguments this morning.
33:49Callen has pleaded guilty to indecently interfering with human remains,
33:52but not guilty to causing Jordan's death.
33:56And I'll never believe a story that's told to me, ever,
33:59because my sister isn't here to tell me that.
34:01It's not enough for me, because I didn't really like him.
34:07The way he looked at you through his glasses, never liked him.
34:11Nearly a dozen members of Jordan's family were on hand for the opening day of the trial.
34:15The Crown plans to call dozens of witnesses and introduce a variety of evidence as part of their case.
34:20There was his defence that he took cocaine.
34:23His brain was fuelled by coke and he wasn't thinking clearly.
34:27But what he did was very calculated.
34:32Each time I looked at that fact that he said he was high on drugs,
34:36it was almost laughable that somebody could say that.
34:39The next day you go to work, I'm working with tools,
34:42I don't think I'm so high that I'm still panicking.
34:45And certainly he was thinking well enough when the police came asking the first time about a missing persons.
34:51He seemed relatively calm and cool there and was able to lie to them.
34:56He was calm and cool certainly just after the homicide when he called a friend to say,
35:01I haven't seen Rita, do you know where she is?
35:04You're probably the last person that was with her.
35:06I wasn't the last person with her.
35:08And we're not talking over a couple of minutes, a couple of hours or a couple of days.
35:13This is a long period of time for somebody to reflect about the person they love.
35:18Very shortly after the incident, he takes her cell phone and sends a text message to her friend, Wade Weeks,
35:26saying gone in town.
35:27You can see after the fact that he is putting in place what he's going to try to make his
35:36defense so quickly after he kills her.
35:40He was taking rational steps to hide what he had done.
35:43Paul Cowenlin, I think, definitely used crack cocaine after Rita Jordan was dead.
35:52That's probably his coping mechanism for the things he was doing.
35:57We don't believe that he was high on cocaine, crack cocaine, when he killed her.
36:02This was the scene outside of Paul Trevor Cowenlin's home.
36:05Forensic units sifting through the wooded area just behind Cowenlin's house.
36:09The police did an excellent job of going over the crime scene.
36:12If she indeed died inside that house, we don't know for sure.
36:18We did involve the medical examiner on a couple fronts.
36:20Nothing's ever 100%.
36:22But the type of fall that Paul Cowenlin described Rita Jordan taking, it's very, very, very unlikely that that would
36:31end in instant death.
36:32Because there's no evidence that there's damage to walls.
36:35And it's not a straight staircase, 10 steps straight down kind of thing.
36:40May have been different.
36:41If you're talking about somebody on a straight shot, 14 stairs down, you know, at the bottom is concrete.
36:47The police went over those stairs.
36:48There wasn't any evidence at all that somebody had fallen down those stairs and no blood, no marks on the
36:53wall.
36:54When you go down the first set of stairs, somebody going down those stairs would have hit that wall with
36:59some force.
37:00There was nothing to indicate that that wall had been fixed.
37:04Then the next wall, only a couple of stairs down.
37:06Once again, no blood on the stairs and they went over every inch.
37:10I don't think it was any kind of blood related trauma.
37:14Because if there's any amount of bloodletting, like it's very, very difficult.
37:18If it's like blunt force trauma or serious amounts of bleeding, like a stab wound or you were shot or
37:25hitting with objects.
37:26Like it's very, very difficult to clean up all that blood.
37:31Or we would know like, well, something's missing here or the carpet was torn up or there's evidence of clean
37:37up.
37:37There was none of that.
37:39It's more likely close contact strangulation.
37:44End of the day, we did not have a body.
37:47Making headlines today after three weeks of graphic testimony and four days of intense deliberations.
37:53The verdict in a high profile murder case is finally in.
37:56Natasha Pace has the latest in the trial for Paul Trevor Kelman.
38:06Emotion filled Nova Scotia Supreme Court this morning as the family of Rita Jordan heard the news they've been waiting
38:12three years for.
38:13Jury found him guilty of second degree murder and indignity of human remains.
38:17And he got sentenced to life in prison.
38:20Yeah, second degree, I believe, was the appropriate charge.
38:22There was nothing really substantial to say that he was planning on killing her.
38:28In addition to the mandatory life sentence, he imposed a concurrent five year sentence for indecently interfering with human remains.
38:36All the waiting was worth it. Justice has been served.
38:39These are tears of relief.
38:41The only thing is I wish that would bring my daughter back, but it never will.
38:46But at least for her, she...
38:49She'll rest now.
38:50She'll rest now.
38:51The Jordan family was present every day of the three week trial, desperate for closure in Rita's death.
38:57Yesterday it was terrible.
39:00But today is great.
39:02I'm so happy.
39:04I think the thing that stood out the most about the case was Donna Jordan.
39:08I can't imagine what she went through during this trial.
39:13Rita was my first born.
39:15She was a caring, loving, beautiful, curly haired girl that we miss very much.
39:23She was a beautiful human being and we remember everything about her and she's still with us.
39:29She'll always be with us.
39:30The family wore purple ribbons to court in memory of Rita.
39:34Purple is against domestic violence and so that's why we wear them.
39:40What you see more recently is all of society getting more involved in realizing just what a plague this is
39:48and the incredible seriousness that can come, the outcome that Rita Jordan faced.
39:55Whatever they may or may not have said about Rita Jordan, an intimate partner violence, it never justifies the level
40:04of violence at any point in time.
40:07She packed her bags, she was leaving, which she had a right to do and he didn't like that and
40:13she was killed because of it.
40:15We never ever thought he was capable of doing such monstrous things.
40:19Like we didn't believe it until.
40:25The Countlin family did not wish to speak following the sentencing, but the defense confirms they will be appealing the
40:31murder conviction.
40:31There's 30 days from today basically to file the appeal so it will definitely be filed before the 30 days
40:37is up.
40:38I would say about 20 seconds after the verdict, I knew that they were going to appeal based on our
40:44use of the after the fact conduct and how the jury used it to convict him.
40:50Rita Jordan's family had been hoping that a guilty verdict would mark the end of their ordeal.
40:56But with the appeal, Rita's family worried her accused killer could go free.
41:02The primary ground of appeal for Mr. Countlin was the use of what's called after the fact evidence.
41:08And after the fact evidence is anything that the accused says or does after the commission of the offense.
41:14But Paul Countlin's lawyers argued it should not be allowed as a way to prove intent.
41:21The majority of judges sided with them and decided to overturn the conviction, ordering a new trial on the lesser
41:28charge of manslaughter.
41:30However, one of the three judges disagreed.
41:33In this case at the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, it was a split decision.
41:37And that's why this case and the decision out of the Supreme Court of Canada is influential.
41:43Why it's precedent setting is because it really clarified how courts could use after the fact conduct to help make
41:51their decision about innocence or guilt.
41:54Prior to this case, the Supreme Court of Canada had always been consistent that we could use evidence of after
42:01the fact conduct.
42:02However, some of the lower courts were getting away from that in which they were limiting it.
42:07That they were trying to say it would be neutral as to intent.
42:10It is the extraordinary nature of that and the risks that Mr. Countlin took in that, that lead to an
42:18inference of intent here.
42:19And the position that we took was that this was highly relevant.
42:23The danger would be that if this evidence wasn't indicative of intent, that if it was somehow neutral and we'd
42:31never be able to get it in,
42:32that you would be able to commit the perfect murder if you were just able to completely destroy the body.
42:38And that simply can't be the case.
42:43Many, many, many nights at mom's talking about it, crying about it, watching the news together.
42:53Yeah, many, many, many, many nights.
42:55I just remember every single trial was horrible.
42:59I had to listen to it over and over.
43:04There was a very real possibility that they would be faced with another trial.
43:10Thank both counsel for your very helpful and able submissions.
43:13We'll take this matter under reserve.
43:16With the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, the conviction was reinstated and the matter was finally closed.
43:23The jury didn't believe him and the Supreme Court of Canada didn't believe him.
43:27I mean, we were more happy that he got what he deserved.
43:31He deserves much more, but yeah, it was a good day.
43:35It continues to be an important case.
43:38Here's a woman who's working.
43:40She's trying to make a life for herself.
43:41She's trying to change her circumstances that she was in with Mr. Kalman.
43:46And he killed her.
43:50And then this is our family picture.
43:53But yeah, there was no worry then.
43:55We didn't know that cruel things were in the world.
43:59And if it was, it only happened in the movies.
44:02So right there, we were pretty content and we were pretty damn happy.
44:07As you can see on both my parents' proud faces.
44:11I want her to be remembered how everybody remembers Rita.
44:14She was beautiful, kind.
44:17She had anybody's back.
44:19She was rough around the edges.
44:22She was smart and wise.
44:25Rita Jordan was Rita Jordan.
44:27She was just a beautiful person.
44:32We reached out to Paul Kalanen in prison to ask if he had anything more he wished to reveal about
44:38what happened to Rita.
44:39Specifically, where her family may find any more of her remains.
44:43He declined to speak with us.
44:45And so, Rita's family remains without answers.
44:50Finding solace only in the memories of Rita from happier times.
44:57Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat.
45:00I'm Anthony Robart.
45:03Want more episodes of Crime Beat?
45:05Listen to the Crime Beat podcast now for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favourite podcast.
45:13And for past episodes of Crime Beat, go to the Global TV app, visit GlobalTV.com, or check out our
45:21Crime Beat YouTube page.
45:23I'll see you next time.
45:23Bye.
45:25Bye.
45:27Bye.
45:29Bye.
45:31Bye.
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