This one was different because of Eugene.
[TRAFFIC SOUNDS, EERIE MUSIC]
Here's a little boy who's witnessed a horrific thing.
[DOOR OPENS AND CHIMES]
Horrific beyond imagination.
Hey, little man.
Are you with your mommy?
What's your name?
Is everything all right?
There's paint on the walls.
OK.
I've encountered some pretty violent scenes in my career
but this has to be the most senseless.
[KNOCKING]
Police!
Ma'am, we found your son.
Open up.
I knew the investigation would be complicated.
We had two victims. Two families.
Two circles of friends. Two lives.
This case was one of the most disturbing cases of my career.
It... nearly broke me.
- Sync and corrections by ByDem - - www.addic7ed.com -
♪
[TRAFFIC]
[FOGHORN]
[GULLS SQUAWK]
I remember that day like yesterday.
It was Father's Day, and I was at home with my family
when I got the call.
[DISPATCHER ON RADIO]
A three-year-old boy had been found wandering the streets.
We discovered two bodies inside the apartment.
Officer, please, we'd really appreciate it.
Sir!
Sir?
Is my son in there?
His name is Pasquale.
I'm sorry, Sir.
We're not releasing any information yet.
But, Sir, his van was parked out front, please!
Could you tell me if my son is in there?
Sir, can you please tell me. Sir!
Beautiful sunny day, and now...
worst day of their life.
I think they all knew in their heart what had really happened.
When you go into a crime scene,
you look at what is this crime scene telling me?
What other additional information is there?
Nothing appeared missing from the apartment.
There was no sign of forced entry.
[SIREN WAILING]
Based on the degree of violence,
it looked like something personal.
Somebody that knew one or both of the victims.
And there was a lot of uh, anger involved.
What are we looking at?
Dispatch said it could be a double shooting.
No, we got a high-velocity spatter,
cast-off pattern, transfer pattern.
A shooting wouldn't be this messy.
It explains why no one reported gunshots. Whatever happened,
the neighbours slept right through it.
There's a man outside asking about his son.
- Did you see him? - Yeah.
Apparently, the son went out to see his girlfriend last night
and never came home.
They were driving by today and happened to see his van
parked out front.
So, this is, this is the girlfriend's place?
He doesn't know.
Said the family has no idea where she lives.
OK, well, we should get him down to the station.
We can't tell him anything
without a positive identification, though.
Officer Carter? The, the family out front,
could you get them down to the station
and uh, put them in the family room?
Detective Forgan?
OK, I want prints, I want DNA.
And don't let anybody see that on the way out.
I don't want anybody talking about a bat
until we've had a chance to meet the families directly.
Understood.
♪
We learned a lot about Charlisa Clark.
She had gone through an abusive relationship
and was on her own now um, setting up an apartment.
Uh, looking out for Eugene.
Pasquale and Charlisa knew each other from high school.
Pasquale would have been a breath of fresh air
compared to her previous relationships.
I'd hoped that we might be able to get some key information
from that little boy, Eugene.
My name is Duncan.
I'm a police officer.
It's OK. I'm the good guy.
You're safe here.
Why don't you start by telling me your name?
Eugene.
I'm three years old.
Very good, Eugene.
Can you tell me your last name?
Charlisa.
Isn't that your mama's name?
Who put you to bed last night?
Mama.
Mama's gone.
Where'd she go?
Mama's pillow's wet.
Paint all over.
Was there anyone else there?
Pat.
Pasquale? Pat. You call him Pat?
Yeah.
Pat was there when you went to bed last night?
Yeah.
I was sick.
That's OK, Eugene.
When you woke up...
I was lonely.
Were you lonely a long time?
Yeah.
Yeah. Mama's gone.
You did a really great job.
We're gonna help you.
OK?
Good.
♪
He's three years old.
Three years old.
However, he may be able to tell us something,
and that would give us a direction to go in.
There was a good reason to work on the case a little bit harder.
And that was Eugene.
KORAL: What do we have so far?
Well, we have positive IDs on the victims.
Charlisa Clark, she's 24.
She's the resident of the apartment.
Eugene is her son.
She's a single mother, an artist.
And she volunteered a lot with the homeless kids downtown.
Pasquale Del Sordo, he's 25.
Charlisa's boyfriend.
Works for his father's construction company.
That was the dad and the brother we saw outside the scene.
Have the families been notified?
Yeah, I spoke to Charlisa's mother last night.
Sue Ross.
It took a while for her to register what I was saying.
How about the Del Sordo's?
Well, we didn't have a positive ID on Pasquale when we brought
them down to the station, so we couldn't tell them anything.
Were they able to give us any information?
Not much.
I mean, they were pretty frustrated, understandably.
Hm.
How about an autopsy report?
Cause of death was blunt force trauma, likely the bat.
A neighbour remembers lending it to Charlisa.
Said she was nervous about the area.
So it was a weapon of opportunity.
Likely.
There's no sign of forced entry.
The back door was locked.
The balcony door was open.
It's possible the killer knew the victims...
which brings us to Eugene's father, Max Hallett.
He assaulted Charlisa while they were still together.
She had full custody of Eugene.
He lives in Lindsay, about two hours north.
Works at a bar.
I asked the local police to pick him up.
KORAL: Good.
You'll have to officially notify the Del Sordos.
Dave? You OK to assist?
Yeah.
Death notifications, they were all the same.
Just a, a bad thing to have to do.
[DOORS CLOSE]
The approach with the Del Sordo family
was the same way I would want to be told.
In person.
Not over the phone.
And right to the point.
[DOORBELL RINGS]
Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Del Sordo?
Yes.
I'm sorry to inform you that your son, Pasquale...
MOTHER: Oh, no, please. [SOBBING]
Please.
Don't say it.
Not yet.
Please.
♪
RUTH: He was so caring, so happy.
[DOOR CLOSES SOFTLY]
He loved to work with his hands.
Didn't matter if it was wood carving or house framing.
He won awards for his carpentry.
He was the perfect son.
He used to drive me around everywhere, shopping,
make me listen to his rock music.
My music man.
FORGAN: We are very sorry for your loss.
What kind of person would do this?
We're doing everything we can to find out.
My son's a big guy.
It would take at least two people.
Anthony.
Look, Detectives, whatever you need, however we can help.
Just ask, OK?
Dammit!
[SMASHING GLASS]
Anthony!
What happened?
The cabinet!
He hit the cabinet.
OK, just find these guys, OK!
Whoever it is, just find them!
Come here.
OK, get the first aid kit.
OK, OK, OK.
Come here.
It never gets any easier notifying the families.
Even though they knew it was coming, it was awful.
I have children myself.
So I couldn't begin to imagine what it was like to lose them.
The Del Sordo's had hoped that their son
would come back from wherever he was,
even though they already knew in their hearts Pasquale was dead.
♪
So, what have we got?
Gluco crystal violet, turns anything that's been in contact
with blood the colour purple.
Take a look.
♪
Oh, man!
[EERIE MUSIC]
♪
There were tiny little footprints created by Eugene.
Oh, my God, this kid was in here for hours.
He had stepped in blood at some point.
It looked like he was going about his regular routine.
He was waiting for his mother to wake up.
♪
The kid made himself breakfast.
The little footprints... very vivid in memory.
It's um... It's tough to view.
[SIGH]
I've always had a barrier that kept my emotions in check.
Eugene broke through that barrier.
I became emotionally involved in the case because of that.
FORGAN: This was one of the most violent crime scenes
I've attended.
Trying to get information from a young boy,
who saw what he saw, is very complicated.
You have to develop a rapport first,
and then hope that information comes forward.
Hey! You like the, you like the car?
Yeah.
Yeah, police car.
You uh, you know this one's got a special motor.
They all do, and this one is actually very fast.
Can he flash the lights?
Sure, just press that button right there.
Yeah, look at that! [LAUGH]
Good job.
Sue Ross was Eugene's grandmother.
Eugene had started calling her Mom instead of Grandma.
Boy, has she got a tough road ahead.
How are you uh, how are you holding up?
I still haven't processed it.
She just had so much heart.
The kids she volunteered with, they called her Mom.
I guess they lost someone, too.
I felt something was wrong that day.
I stopped by her place, honked my horn,
and when she didn't come out,
I went to the ballet class I teach.
We had a recital.
I couldn't focus.
Something felt... off.
Did you know Pasquale well?
Not really.
They'd known each other since high school.
They just started dating.
I know he made her laugh, though.
Big, bright smile.
Eugene really loved him.
EUGENE: Detective?
Yeah, buddy.
Are you gonna catch the bad man?
♪
I'm gonna do my best.
That's a promise.
I want to go.
OK, sweetie.
I cannot promise I'm going to catch the bad man,
because I don't know if I can.
It was "I'm gonna try and catch the bad man."
RUTH: Pasquale wasn't home when I woke up.
He'd always been there before.
Even the nights he went to see Charlisa.
We told him to be careful on the nights he stayed out late,
but he trusted everybody.
[SOBBING]
He was so open, so happy.
Did you see Pasquale that night?
Yeah, but after I went to bed, I heard him leave and uh,
I wanted to stop him, but Flavio always said
that I'm overprotective.
That Pasquale's a man.
That he could look after himself.
♪
I knew it was too late to go out,
especially with Father's Day the next morning.
[SHUDDERING SIGH]
I wanted to call him and ask him to stay.
I should have called him.
He would have come home.
I know he would have come home.
Is there anybody you know who could want to hurt your son?
No. Everybody loved him.
OK. Does the name Max Hallett ring a bell?
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
No.
I remember Ruth being very upset.
What if I'd done this, or what if I'd done that?
Would things have been different?
Um, but there's nothing that Ruth could have done
that would have changed things.
Pasquale liked to go to nightclubs.
You know those places.
I thought maybe he decided to take Charlisa out that night.
I don't know, maybe he got into a fight.
Maybe someone attacked him, and he ran away
and skipped town until things cooled off.
But my wife knew.
She knew.
If he could come home, he would come home.
He always came home.
[SOB]
I know this is not easy for you, Mr. Del Sordo,
but I need you to take me through that day.
[SIGH]
Yeah.
Did you know where uh, Charlisa lived?
No.
So how did you know where Pasquale was?
The next afternoon, Pasquale still wasn't home.
So my wife and I we, we drove out to pick Joey up from work.
And on our way there, we saw my company van in the parking lot.
You know, the van that I told you about when I first met you?
So we, we went to check it out and the door was unlocked.
It was full of tools.
Pasquale had taken it to see his girlfriend.
So you just spotted the van by accident?
It was just a coincidence?
Well, it was on the way.
I mean, we take that road every time we go to pick up Joey.
Look, are we done here?
I mean I-I-I, I've told you everything that I know.
I'd like to get back home to my family.
We're almost finished.
Just we've just got some standard forensics, that's all.
Uh, prints, DNA, you know.
OK.
But you're wasting your time.
There were questions that had to be answered.
Flavio and Ruth Del Sordo said they just happened
to spot their van when they were driving.
I drove the distance from their home in Stoney Creek,
past the crime scene.
The direction they were going,
the van would not have been visible
because their line of sight was blocked by a building.
That told me they specifically had to be looking for something.
I had to crane my neck to see the spot
where the van was parked.
I drove past that area many times trying to understand this.
Flavio told me he didn't know where Charlisa lived.
There was no apparent reason for Flavio to hurt his own son.
It didn't feel right.
With any homicide investigation,
you look at the people closest to the victim.
But we had concern with Mr. Del Sordo that had to be eliminated.
Uh, Mr. Del Sordo.
I was wondering if you could just give us a,
a moment of your time.
Uh, I thought I answered all the questions at the station.
We'd like to know if you'd feel comfortable
taking a polygraph for us.
What?
You think I'm lying to you about my own son?
No-no-no, it's just a formality.
We need to rule people out completely,
so that we know where to focus our investigation, that's all.
No. This is ridiculous.
He's not doing it.
You're wasting our time.
No, Ma'am, we just need your husband
to answer a few questions.
You asked him, he answered. You asked both of us.
Mrs. Del Sordo, I know this is difficult for you.
Do you?
Do you have kids?
Then you know, we work every minute of our life
to make them happy, to keep them safe.
We just lost our son.
Instead of looking for the monster who did this,
you're here treating us like criminals!
He would never hurt Pasquale.
Not in a million years.
You want somebody to take your test?
I'll do it.
That won't be necessary, Mrs. Del Sordo.
Not at this time.
We're just trying to help.
You're trying to help?
Then find out who killed my son.
And leave us alone.
I would think if someone asked me to take a polygraph
in regards to a serious crime, and I had nothing to do with it,
I would say sure. I'll take that.
I'll show you I have nothing to do with it.
Flavio Del Sordo declined to take the polygraph test.
He's lost his son but I had to separate that
from the investigation that had to be done.
FORGAN: Someone was angry.
And it was personal.
It has to be someone
close to one or both of the victims.
Forensics came back.
Didn't have any luck pulling fingerprints,
but they got the next best thing.
A palm print on the baseball bat.
It was extremely lucky that the palm print
was found on the baseball bat.
Now the challenge is identifying it.
Back in 2000, palm prints were on a card and hard copy filed.
And they were filed alphabetically.
We're talking about thousands of palm prints.
So we had this palm print from the baseball bat
that really couldn't be searched on a national database.
OK. So we start by comparing Flavio Del Sordo's palm print
to the one on the bat.
I'll take that to forensics.
Anyone else?
Max Hallett. The ex-boyfriend.
I gotta pay that guy a visit.
Eugene's father is a bouncer in a bar in Lindsay, Ontario.
He was a bit of a hothead.
I could definitely see a violent streak in him.
He wanted access to his son, but that was denied.
I already told the cops everything.
I don't know what happened to Char.
All right, you don't want to talk about her,
let's talk about you.
On the night she died, you worked at the bar
until it closed.
That's right. And then I left.
Where did you go?
Home! Three blocks away. Like I said.
OK. Did anybody see you?
Yes, my mom saw me!
And yes, she was there when I got home, I made her coffee.
And yes, that's what she'll say if you ask her.
Are we done here?
I didn't kill Charlisa.
No matter what happened between us, I still cared about her.
I even had my friends check in on her from time-to-time.
What friends?
I had nothing to do with this.
And my friends didn't either.
Help me prove it.
Even though he had an alibi for his whereabouts,
we hadn't eliminated the possibility
that he was still involved in the deaths somehow.
Did he arrange for somebody else to kill these two people?
Or did he hire somebody?
Is your name Max Hallett?
Yes.
- Do you live in Lindsay, Ontario? - Yes.
- Are you Eugene's father? - Yes.
- Is Charlisa Eugene's mother? - Yes.
Last weekend, did you kill Charlisa?
No!
Last weekend, was it you who killed Charlisa?
No!
Last weekend, were you the person who killed Charlisa?
No!
The polygraph examiner uses reactions to detect deception.
Eugene's father?
He was hiding something.
[SIGH]
I didn't know what that something was.
So, is he lying?
I'm not saying he did it,
but it definitely looks like he's being deceptive.
Is there something you want to tell me?
Why?
How'd I do?
I think we should have a longer conversation
about you and Charlisa.
No way. I already told you.
I didn't hurt her.
I've seen your file.
You hurt her plenty.
Look, I don't care what this says.
And that was years ago! I paid the price for it!
I don't even see my own son!
Seems like a pretty good reason to be mad at Charlisa.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was mad! So what?
It doesn't mean I killed her!
OK. Maybe you know who did.
Maybe you've got friends who are willing
to do you a favour in Hamilton?
You know what? Just do what you gotta do.
I already answered all your questions.
OK, so you just start with the foundation.
I don't want a foundation.
[PLASTIC PIECE DROPS]
[CHUCKLE] OK, well look, just put that one right there.
OK.
See, that's it.
Now you just uh, put other blocks on top of that
and build it from there.
It's unbearably sad to think what Eugene saw.
He was acting out.
His grandmother was having difficulty with him.
Eugene, why don't you go upstairs?
I baked those cookies you like.
You wanna cookie, Don?
I'll be right up, can you save me one?
OK.
It seems like he's getting better.
The therapy's helping, right?
A little.
He still seems lost.
He cries so much.
Yeah.
He's been through so much.
Honestly, Don, I'm not sure I know what to do.
EUGENE WITH ECHO: Mama's pillow's wet paint all over it.
Think about the potential of what he saw.
Somebody that he knew, somebody that he could name
that was in the apartment.
Perhaps he might say something.
We had to try.
The whole point of Eugene going to a psychologist
was his well-being.
Eugene at three years old is not going to be a witness in court.
The hope was perhaps he might say something
that would assist the investigation.
Trying to get information from a young boy who saw what he saw,
is very complicated.
You never want to hurt him, so you can't push.
He was clearly traumatized.
Perhaps Eugene has come face-to-face
with the perpetrator in this case.
So, what happened in there?
Well, it's a process.
He gets close to talking, then he pushes back.
But, what did he say?
He saw something that night.
"Crazy eyes," he keeps saying.
Can you get him to say more?
Was it someone he knew?
Mm, no. No, I can't push it.
He's too fragile.
OK.
If Eugene knew the killer as someone, say,
a previous boyfriend of uh, Charlisa's, or a relative or,
or somebody that he could name um,
that may send the investigation in a different direction.
KORAL: I wish I had better news.
Forensics says the palm print isn't a match for Hallett.
He didn't physically kill her.
And since there's none of his DNA in the apartment,
there's nothing to suggest he was even there.
What about Flavio Del Sordo?
Not a match for DNA or palm prints.
They tested everything three times.
It doesn't look like we have a viable suspect in the case.
We had this palm print on the murder weapon.
The only way that we could search it was by
manually going through card by card, thousands of prints.
CAPTAIN: We can't.
We got 3000 unique palm prints in boxes all over the city.
Yeah, but some of the techs said that
they'd be just happy to do it.
It doesn't matter.
We don't have the money to pay for the overtime.
And with the workload in forensics,
cases would just back up.
Captain, going through these files is our last, best shot.
The answer's no.
I promised the kid.
I want to solve this case.
I want to find this killer, just like you do.
But we don't have the resources to do what you're asking.
OK.
The palm print was our best chance
to identify the perpetrator.
It was frustrating.
At some point in the investigation, things slow down,
no new leads are coming in.
No new evidence.
And you have to work on other cases.
Cases that are unsolved are never closed.
They may be set aside for a while waiting for
the evidence you need, but they're never closed.
OK, yeah. Thanks a lot. OK. Good night.
Don. Hold up.
You're gonna want to hear this.
I just had a visit from an RCMP officer.
A confidential informant came forward,
says he knows someone who confessed to killing
a man and a woman in a Hamilton apartment.
With a baseball bat.
Name of Carl Hall.
Who the hell is Carl Hall?
♪
Drug charges, threats...
He's currently in custody for another murder.
A woman named Jackie McLean.
Allegedly, he beat her to death with a steel bar.
Blunt force trauma.
Just like Pasquale and Charlisa.
But what's the connect?
How does he know them?
No idea.
Let me see that?
Carl Hall had been arrested and charged with the killing
of Jackie McLean in Hamilton.
For all the serious offences, palm prints are taken.
My partner immediately went down to the palm print file,
and sure enough, under the H's, his palm prints were there.
Is there any reason why your palm print would be on a
baseball bat in that apartment?
I don't know.
Uh, I mean, I used to know some guy who lived there.
Peter.
Peter who?
Peter Falsan.
I was at his place a few times, you know.
Maybe I touched some stuff, left my fingerprints, whatever.
Listen, are you gonna charge me with this crap?
[SNIFF]
Should we?
Go ahead.
I got no idea who these people are.
I'd never heard of them until you started asking me
these questions.
You expect us to believe that?
Look, we got a statement.
Someone who knows you.
Says you confessed to killing Pasquale Del Sordo
and Charlisa Clark.
Well, they're lying.
That's unbelievable.
Why would I do that? Huh?
I'm not sick.
You sure about that, Carl?
Because you seem like someone who needs help to me.
Yeah. I need help.
You've got a lot of troubles, my friend.
There was no doubt Carl Hall was capable of violence.
But why would he kill Charlisa Clark and Pasquale Del Sordo?
We learned that Carl Hall had been in rehab.
The RCMP would not divulge the name of the
confidential informant to us.
But, we were able to find him.
[KNOCKING]
FORGAN: So, you met Carl at rehab?
Yeah.
He didn't talk to many people.
When he did, it was to get into a fight.
But for some reason, he talked to me.
He told me about things he had done, things he felt bad about.
When um, did he tell you about Charlisa and Pasquale?
Those were their names?
The people he killed.
He um, he came into my room in the middle of the night.
He looked uh...
I don't know. Pale. Like he was sick.
He said he had done something horrible.
He said he used to do drug deals with this guy uh, Peter.
Peter Falsan? He used to live in Charlisa's apartment.
Yeah, Carl said Peter ripped him off.
He let it slide at first, but then Peter
harassed Carl's girlfriend, something like that.
OK.
Carl wanted payback.
So he went into Peter's apartment
in the middle of the night, found the bat
and saw a guy uh, he thought was Peter,
on his knees and...
He didn't realize it wasn't Peter?
I don't think so.
Not at first.
And then he saw a woman in the room.
He kept telling me, "she wasn't supposed to be there."
Over and over again.
This is mistaken identity?
Eugene doesn't have a mother
because she moved into the wrong apartment?
♪
I was shocked at that.
Carl Hall went into the apartment thinking
this is the place where he had a bad drug deal,
killed two people, and left.
But they were the wrong people.
Are you willing to say all this again on video,
and uh, testify in court?
[SIGH]
Sure.
All right.
OK.
Carl Hall was arrested and charged with the murders
of Charlisa Clark and Pasquale Del Sordo.
He didn't say anything incriminating.
But we have his palm print on the baseball bat.
It was beyond comprehension.
One of the most senseless acts I've ever seen.
MALE REPORTER: For twenty-two months since
her daughter was murdered,
an arrest in the murders of 24-year-old Charlisa Clark
and her boyfriend, Pasquale Del Sordo
bludgeoned to death in this Hamilton apartment.
Now I'm ready to speak for my daughter.
She was uh, amazing, she was gentle,
she was a beautiful child, and I miss her every day.
REPORTER: A witness came forward with information
about 27-year-old Carl Hall.
That led to his arrest in connection to the murder
of another Hamilton woman, 35-year-old Jacqueline McLean
in August 2001.
The arrest has relieved Pasquale Del Sordo's mother.
We bought a monument because we bought
the three graves together.
And my kids asked me, Mom,
why did you put your names on already?
Well, me and my husband are half in those graves already.
It's just unfortunate, the way things played out.
The family was offended.
They never came to terms with why we needed to get past
the hurdles with Flavio.
And I don't blame them.
♪
After we made the arrest, we paid a visit to Eugene.
Hey, Eugene. Happy Birthday.
We were able to live up to our promise.
So, we found the bad man.
Finally.
Just like I promised.
Absolutely felt for that little guy.
He said it was the best birthday present ever.
It was a great day.
- Sync and corrections by ByDem - - www.addic7ed.com -