This case brought me face-to- face with something terrible.
Hatred that I'd never seen before.
A lot of people are naïve to the fact
that this kind of surprisingly violent behavior could happen
in our country,
but it does. It does happen here too.
And it's sick.
There was monsters in the alley that night.
Hatred is around.
And evil has a chance to explode.
- Sync and corrections by ByDem - - www.addic7ed.com -
It was October 3rd, 2010.
My boss had called me and told me that there had been
a homicide at a strip mall in northwest Calgary.
What time was it called in?
8:56 this morning.
[DAVID SWEET]: This person had died in a parking lot.
His body hadn't been found for several hours.
I've never seen a stabbing this bad.
That looks more like a beating to me.
[DAVID SWEET]: The victim was unrecognizable.
He had been badly, badly beaten.
It was clear to me that he fought for his life.
All right, brother, help me out here. What happened to you?
[DAVID SWEET]: I think sometimes the dead can help us,
if we ask for it.
If I show kindness and compassion,
somehow they'll help me a little bit along the way.
If this was a robbery, then why are your pants down?
Is this your truck?
Looks like you were trying to get in.
All right. Run the plates on this truck
and get a full forensics unit on site right away.
Sure thing.
[DAVID SWEET]: In this case, his pants were on awkwardly and
there was a blood trail that led from
the parking lot into a nearby alley.
Could this murder be prostitution-related
in some way, shape or form?
Like, had he met with a prostitute and then was robbed
as a result of that meeting?
I saw the victim's wallet, his keys
and his cell phone strewn about in the alleyway itself.
Forensics just pulled up.
OK, good. Have them see if they can pull a tread off
these footprints, here?
[DAVID SWEET]: The victim had been likely stomped to death
and that was evidenced by some marks that we saw on the wall
that looked like they'd come from footwear.
What are we thinking on this one? Robbery gone wrong?
Not likely.
[DAVID SWEET]: His money was still inside the wallet.
His bank cards were still in the wallet. Credit cards.
His identification. All that stuff was left behind.
There you are. Mark.
Mark Mariani. 47 years old.
[DAVID SWEET]: Because of the savagery of the attack,
you couldn't compare the driver's license photograph
to the victim on the ground...
and say that they were one and the same person.
I think we need to call Adrianna Snowden here.
We didn't know who this person was.
We didn't know what their association was to Mark.
But it was something I absolutely needed to find out.
All right, get a few guys to canvass the area.
Talk to store clerks, neighbors. See if anybody saw or heard anything.
I'm gonna... notify the family.
[DAVID SWEET]: What got him to that location?
Is there somebody in the alley that he's supposed to be meeting with
waiting for him to enter?
[JOURHALIST]: 47-year-old Mark Mariani was found beaten
to death in a parking lot acros from Northfield Center Mall.
Mark Mariani was shopping at the strip mall.
It's unknown why he went into the back alley.
Mariani was later found here in the parking lot
by the front wheel of his vehicle.
Police say it's unclear how he got here.
Whether or not he was dumped here,
or he crawled here himself.
[DAVID SWEET]: Mark lived with his parents.
I met the Mariani family at Mark's mom and dad's house.
- [KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK] - Mark's sister Kathy came to the door.
I think they knew right away something bad had happened.
I'm so sorry.
Um, Mark had me down as his emergency contact.
When they phoned to say that they'd found Mark,
I rushed over here as soon as I could.
I didn't want them to hear it from a stranger.
I'm, I'm very, very sorry.
He didn't come home last night. We were all out looking for him.
We knew something was wrong. He would've definitely let Mama
know that he wasn't coming home.
[DAVID SWEET]: My first impressions of the family
when I met was that they were kind, warm, supportive.
Did uh, did he have a girlfriend?
No, he didn't have a lot of luck with women.
He was too much of a nice guy, you know?
He had his heart broken one too many times.
Is that why he's living with your parents?
Uh, no no. Nothing like that. He had Crohn's Disease;
you know, he wore a colostomy bag.
It gave him a lot of trouble,
so he couldn't hold down a job.
So my parents helped take care of him.
Did your brother ever tell you about anybody
he was having problems with?
He was the nicest guy that you would've ever met.
Yeah. Can I take a look at his room?
Um, yeah. It's just down there.
Was your brother a lawyer?
Uh, no, not exactly.
He took these courses out of Vancouver.
It cost him thousands.
It was all about how to write legal letters to get
the court's attention and help people get out
of having to pay taxes.
What kind of people was he helping out?
Mark was a really good guy,
I'm sure of it. But, I did worry he was getting in over his head
with some pretty shady characters.
Do you remember any names?
What about uh, Adrianna Snowden? Does that ring a bell?
No.
[SOBBING FROM THE NEXT ROOM]
Can... can I?
Oh, yeah, no. No. Go on.
[DAVID SWEET]: What Mark was doing for money
from a legal perspective seemed very unconventional.
Didn't mean what he was doing was wrong.
But there might be something in the background there that needs
to be explored further. Like who was he actually dealing with?
What people was he meeting? Who was he helping
through these legal processes?
We needed to look into Adrianna Snowden.
What can I get for you?
Can I get a Coke, please?
You got it.
You mind me asking your name?
Adrianna.
Adrianna Snowden?
Maybe.
Were you working here last Saturday night?
Yeah. What's this about?
You heard about the guy that was found dead
outside a strip mall last Sunday?
This is him?
He had your name and number in his wallet.
I'm a financial adviser.
I'm starting my own business.
Some bartenders give personal advice;
I help people manage their investments.
Do you remember anything about him?
He wore a beige bomber.
He sat on the bench over there. He was with another guy.
The other guy was balding, thick glasses, mid-forties.
I remember the other guy cause he gave me the creeps.
Did they uh, pay cash or credit card?
Cash.
Do you remember what time they left at?
I don't know; around 1:30, maybe?
I don't know. Around closing time.
All right. Thanks a lot.
[DAVID SWEET]: We needed to identify this man,
the man that had given Adrianna the creeps.
He was one of the last people that Mark had seen.
His phone's full of weird text messages.
Like what?
I think he was promising something he couldn't deliver.
Look at this message. Some guy named
Bart Davitz telling Mariani he wants his money.
They were supposed to meet the night he was killed.
[DAVID SWEET]: Mark met Bart Davitz at the bar that night.
A few hours later, he's dead.
Mark was meeting Bart Davitz over a debt.
A few hours later, he's dead.
I understand he owed you money.
He did. He was my business partner.
I used to help him try and find clients.
He owed me about $500 in commission,
but we're all squared away now.
He paid you back at the saloon, right?
No, at a Tim Horton's near his house.
Then we went to the saloon to talk about future leads.
People who needed his help.
What kind of help?
Mark was an independent "legal processor."
Not, not a lawyer.
No, he'd mostly just write nasty letters
with a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo on them.
Strange way to make a living.
Did Mark have any enemies in his business?
You know any unhappy clients?
He didn't always win.
I'm gonna need a list of all the clients,
and anybody else you think might have a, you know, a grudge
against him.
What else happened after the saloon?
Did he meet up with anybody?
I don't know. I went home.
Can you corroborate that?
I had nothing to do with what happened to Mark.
He was my friend and he was my business partner.
And we stood to make a lot of money together.
[DAVID SWEET]: I think Mark Davitz was a bit of a con man.
At least certainly not a trustworthy person.
So I needed to timeline Mark's movements that night.
OK. Here he is at the ATM.
This is from coffee shop.
There's the payment.
Here he's leaving the bar.
With Davitz around closing time, just like Adrianna said.
And this is outside the video store.
We got eyes on the alleyway?
Of course not. The only place he goes
where we don't have a camera. And he gets killed.
[DAVID SWEET]: That's Murphy's law. Really.
There was no video cameras in the alley
that Mark had ventured into.
So we didn't have the video that we needed.
Wait a minute. Stop it right there. What's that?
[DAVID SWEET]: Although we didn't capture Mark's offense
on the camera, we did capture the video clerk
exit the video store later that night.
So security footage shows you leaving the store around 2:30 am
as if you were looking for something.
Do you remember what that was?
Yeah, there were uh, noises all over the place.
Coming from the outside.
Yeah? Outside where?
Everywhere. The parking lot. The alley. The roof.
- The roof? - Yeah.
[DAVID SWEET]: The video clerk told me about the weird noises
on the roof of the video store.
When the clerk looked down,
he didn't see Mark. His view would've been obstructed
by darkness.
So when you came out, did you see anything?
No, and I really wasn't looking for anything either.
Late at night, I'm not looking for trouble.
Yeah, all right, look, thanks a lot.
[DAVID SWEET]: It was a poorly lit alley at best.
And he was scared to go into the alley
to investigate what he was hearing.
We canvassed the entire neighbourhood,
but if it wasn't for that store clerk, I don't know
that we would've ever checked the roof.
What we found was a can of red spray paint.
Something we didn't pay attention to right away was
all of the graffiti that we could see along the wall
of the alleyway.
The color of the swastika seemed to match
the color of the paint can we had just recovered from the roof.
[KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK]
- Hey. - Hey.
Did you uh, complete the report on the Mariani case?
I'll be done tonight. But I can give you the broad strokes.
All right, great.
Did you know our victim was wearing a colostomy bag?
Yeah. His family said he had Crohn's.
Cause of death was blunt force trauma.
I counted about fifty-five boot impressions.
Jesus! So he was stomped to death.
One of the worst cases I've ever seen.
Major skull fractures. Multiple back
and shoulder abrasions. Fractured ribs.
Injuries consistent with blows coming from a steel-toed boot
or evena hammer.
I did notice something unusual.
There was red paint on his jacket.
As if he'd rubbed up against something wet before he died.
A bit like this one?
Yeah, that'd be about the right color.
Drying time is between one and seven minutes.
So, if this is the paint, then whoever was using it up
against the wall was also there
when Mariani was getting beaten to death.
Makes sense.
[DAVID SWEET]: Whoever tagged that wall
was at very least a witness...
or was responsible for the murder of Mark Mariani.
Mark Mariani was stomped to death.
And the red paint on his jacket matched the Nazi graffiti found
on the wall right in the area where Mark had been murdered.
We don't see a lot of Neo-Nazis in Calgary.
But through our canvassing, we did discover
that there was a house of Neo-Nazis
that lived nearby the crime scene.
C'mon, Zoe, move your ass.
Hang on.
- Ow, you're hurting me. - Shut your mouth!
[DAVID SWEET]: The police are allowed to take garbage.
We're allowed to take anything that's disposed of,
that's gotten rid of by somebody.
It can be done without a warrant.
What we're typically looking for
would be things like bloody clothing that the uh,
offenders may have discarded.
YOU MIGHT FIND A WEAPON: things of that nature.
Surely didn't expect to find a paper that would have markings
some match very closely to graffiti tags
that we saw on the wall
where the red swastika had been.
That was the break for us.
OK, so this is who we got living in the house.
Robert Reitmeier and his wife.
Tyler Sturrup.
Right. So Reitmeier and Sturrup both have rap sheets.
Ugly ones. And they're both out on parole.
Reitmeier was also a prime suspect in an attempted murder.
He curb-stomped a native man downtown.
The victim survived, but the damage done...
They're also members of a white power gang
called the Western European Bloodline. Also known as WEB.
Yeah.
Former members of the Aryan Guard.
They're affiliated with a few other similar groups
across the country.
Lowney, anything online?
They're both active on social media.
He's got a hell of a list of interests.
"Horror and terror," "Spreading Hatred,"
"Slitting your throat..."
[DAVID SWEET]: Looking at his likes and interests,
two of them stood out to me. And one was graffiti
and the other was curb-stomping people.
Sturrup's page is under "Hooligan o'Vengeance"
It's set to private, but our genius friend
Reitmeier has a public account "Rob the Ripper."
Piece of work, this guy.
[DAVID SWEET]: And just like that, Rob became my friend.
What an idiot.
[DAVID SWEET]: I needed to know more about Sturrup and Reitmeier.
And I knew that both had the same probation officer.
Reitmeier was in last week. Sturrup's due in a few days.
It must be hard dealing with a couple of guys like that.
Helps that I'm on this side of the desk, though.
They think they're the Master Race,
but they're the ones peeing
in cups and struggling to find work.
Hm!
I mean, you could see the hate in their eyes, the anger.
Both of them would kill me if they had a chance.
Sturrup, at least can hide it a bit better.
He comes in, answers questions, leaves.
Looks for work.
Calls his grandmother every now and then.
That's nice of him.
What about Reitmeier?
Yeah, he stomps in here playing soldier.
Full regalia, bomber jacket, swastikas,
black boots, red shoelaces. Well... most of the time.
How do you mean?
Last time, he was wearing sneakers.
I remember because it looked so ridiculous with his get-up.
OK.
[DAVID SWEET]: The days after the murder,
Rob stopped wearing his boots and would only show up
to the probation officer wearing running shoes.
And I thought that was really, really interesting.
I suspected it meant that he'd gotten rid of his boots.
Or he had put them somewhere safe,
so not to be identified with them.
What about his wife, Zoe?
Does he talk about her much?
Yeah.
She came to Canada a few months ago.
Her mother reported her missing recently.
Left behind a two-year-old kid.
Like I said. The "Master Race."
[DAVID SWEET]: The evidence is starting to point
in one very specific direction.
We had Nazi symbols graffitied on a wall
right in the area where Mark had been murdered.
We had red paint from his jacket
matching to those Neo Nazi symbols.
The victim had been beaten or stomped to death
by a heavy lugged footwear pattern like a boot.
This had all the signs of a hate crime, except for the victim.
I needed to put this Neo-Nazi group under surveillance.
Judge just signed off on the warrant.
We can tap their phones and set up video surveillance in the house.
So how do we get in without tipping them off?
We're going to wait until Sturrup leaves to see
his PO and we're gonna pay the house a little visit.
[DAVID SWEET]: We had warrant to search the Reitmeier residence
to prove that Rob Reitmeier might be behind
the Nazi graffiti found on the wall.
[KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK]
Can I help you?
I'm Detective Lowney from the Calgary Police.
Can I have your name, please?
Zoe Reitmeier.
Mrs. Reitmeier, we have a warrant to search
your apartment. Is there anyone else in the house?
Yeah, me.
- What do you want? - Your name for a start.
Robert Reitmeier.
They say they have a warrant to search our place.
Graffiti? What is this crap?
You may have noticed the city has been cracking down on vandalism.
No. No, I haven't noticed.
We got tips that it's somebody at this
address may be responsible for these.
- This is bullshit. - Please step outside.
While we're inside the residence investigating
on the graffiti, under a second warrant from the court,
we're able to set up our own wiretaps and cameras.
I need to get them talking about the crime
and I need to be in a position where I'd be able
to listen to those conversations.
All right. It's done. Should be up and running.
Thank you for your patience.
We'll be in touch if there's anything else.
Can we get audio on that?
I saw you with that cop.
All happy to answer her questions.
Next time you talk when I say you talk!
You know what? Keep yelling. Keep screaming. You keep it up?
And you are never gonna see your baby!
Jesus Christ.
[MOANING]
Get the closest uniformed officer in there right now.
We learned that Rob's wife, Zoe, was pregnant.
No! Not the stomach! Not the baby!
Not my stomach! Don't!
You don't tell me what to do.
BEG!!!
[DAVID SWEET]: I would never have been able to live with myself
if something had happened to anybody inside that house.
Even if it meant compromising our case.
Sit. Down.
Please, please, please.
[PANTING]
What!
We've had a noise complaint. Everything OK in there?
I'm fine.
I wasn't asking you.
Yeah. Yeah, we're fine. Just watching TV.
Probably too loud. Sorry.
- We done here? - Are we?
I said we're good. We'll turn the TV off. Right?
Yeah. Yeah, we will.
OK. Just keep it quiet.
You want it quiet, huh?
How's that, huh? That quiet enough for you? Huh?
Quiet enough?
[HEAVY MUSIC]
- Sieg Heil! - Sieg Heil!
[MAYHEM SHOUTS]
[DAVID SWEET]: I was sort of surprised just to see
what this Neo-Nazi culture actually looked like.
[BATTLE CRY]
People purporting to be following a cause but
really not acting like they did.
[BATTLE CRY]
Offensive behavior, offensive language.
These guys were fueled by alcohol.
It was violent.
Lots of talk about violence.
Lots of "I'm gonna do this or I'm gonna do this."
- kinda talk. - [EVIL LAUGH]
And it's sick.
[YELLING]
Over the period of months that we were monitoring the Reitmeier home,
I was totally concerned for Zoe, for the baby that she was carrying.
I think Rob was abusive towards everybody in his family.
I could see that when Rob was drinking, that he was dangerous.
But all of the hours and hours spent listening and watching
and monitoring them, sharing Facebook posts and feeds,
we never saw evidence that Sturrup and Reitmeier killed Mark Mariani.
Nothing.
I was starting to get worried.
I guess you didn't get the memo.
Hmm?
Our PO. He's on CPT.
CPT?
Yeah.
Colored People Time.
Next!
You go, man. I've got all day.
Suit yourself.
Hello, Tyler.
Keeping out of trouble?
You know it.
[DAVID SWEET]: The Mariani family erected a small memorial
in the alleyway where Mark had been assaulted.
It's very frustrating for the family.
Of course, they want all the answers.
We spent a lot of time saying "I'm sorry. I don't know."
There's even information that we don't want to share right away.
I come here every day hoping to feel Mark's spirit.
How are your parents?
They haven't stopped crying.
They keep wanting to come here,
but it's just too painful. It would be too much for them.
My mother said to invite you over for dinner,
since you've been working so hard.
She's afraid that you're not eating well.
My family owns an Italian restaurant.
Tell your mom thanks...
but uh... maybe another time.
OK. I should get back. Thank you.
The Mariani family suffered greatly.
I needed to solve this.
I decided that it would be important to get the case
back in the public's eye.
- I'm gonna need your help. - Well, anything.
We need to get Mark's name back into the news.
Gotta get people talking about him again so...
any ideas you got would be great.
Well, what about a fundraiser?
For Crohn's disease.
Make it a big event. I think Mark would love that.
That's a great idea, Mama.
That's perfect.
[DAVID SWEET]: Social media played a role in this particular case.
The idea of doing a fundraiser;
that was a way to deliver information about developments
in the case to both Rob and Tyler.
Mark's case was shared through the internet,
through broadcasters, through newspapers.
[JOURNALIST1]: On October 3rd, last year,
Mark Mariani was shopping at this strip mall.
[JOURNALIST2]: As for the Mariani family, they say their brother
suffered from Crohn's Disease and lived in constant pain.
[DAVID SWEET]: We're not sure if uh, the motive was robbery
or if there was a motive at all.
Or just a crime of opportunity where unfortunately,
Mr. Mariani was beaten in the alley.
[DAVID SWEET]: I needed to get them starting to feel
a noose tightening or the stick starting to point towards them.
And that build up a pressure, hopefully.
Or to make Rob and Tyler break.
So, when the Mariani family came to me with the idea
of doing a fundraiser,
it brought the case back in the public's eye.
[SIGH]
Yeah, I see it.
They got a picture of your mural right there, too.
Man, I thought the cops were done with this shit.
It's back in the news?
Don't worry about it. It even says in here,
the cops are "baffled." "Pursued all other avenues."
They got nothing, brother.
They're just blowing smoke up the family's ass.
Trying to act like they're doing something.
Mmm. All right, cool.
Let me know if you hear anything else, all right?
Yeah.
[DAVID SWEET]: You can imagine if you've committed a homicide
and start to feel like the world's closing in on you
a little bit? The stress of that?
You look like shit.
The noose would just continue to tighten.
This is bad, man; this is bad.
What's bad?
Just a drunken night gone wrong.
Real wrong.
That dude that got stomped?
You did that.
Yeah. That was me.
[DAVID SWEET]: Just like that, we had our confession.
The words that I was dying to hear for ten months.
Acknowledgement, admissions in relation to their role
in the death of Mark Mariani.
Rob and Tyler were arrested.
We brought them both in at the same time.
[DAVID SWEET]: When Tyler walked into that interview room,
he was extremely confused on how we knew he was
one of the people involved.
I already told you. I don't know the guy.
Don't know what happened.
Really?
You wanna tell me what this is?
I got no idea what I'm looking at.
You're looking at a footprint.
On Mark's jacket.
Your footprint.
I want to thank you for leaving it for us at your PO's office.
[DAVID SWEET]: He explained to Tyler all of the evidence
that we had collected in relation to his bootprints.
How footwear played an integral part of this investigation.
We were able to obtain a boot impression from Tyler
at the probation office.
Matching boot impressions found on Mark's body and his clothing.
There's more.
Remember that biker you met at the probation office?
Your biker buddy works for us.
I think you know where this is going.
Just a drunken night gone wrong. Real wrong.
That dude that got stomped? You did that.
Yeah. That was me.
[DAVID SWEET]: Tyler was shown admissions that he had made
to a person he thought was a friend of his.
That was really a friend of mine.
This old guy... takin' a piss in the alley.
Just wrong place, wrong time.
All right. So.
Is there anything you want to say now?
It just went too far.
Way too far.
Just... tell me. Why'd you do it?
He was weak.
Had to.
Not much more to it.
You're going to jail for murder.
Your buddy, Sturrup, he made sure of that one.
You uh, want a sneak preview?
Man, I thought the cops were done with this shit.
It's back in the news?
Don't worry about it.
It even says in here the cops are "baffled."
"Pursued all other avenues."
They got nothing, brother.
What do you think of that, hm?
Because I worked really hard on that. I really, really did.
[DAVID SWEET]: Rob didn't know the things he had seen on the internet
were pushed through to him by me.
Nice of you to accept my friend request.
Guess you put it right through your little pathetic network.
Got you talkin' about the case all over again.
All we had to do... was listen.
[THROWS UP]
[DAVID SWEET]: I was able to look at Rob
and tell him he wasn't going home that day.
That was gonna go to jail.
And it didn't require him to confess anything to us.
So that was satisfying.
[JOURNALIST]: 24-year-old, Robert David Reitmeier
and 26-year-old Tyler William Sturrup
were arrested yesterday. Police say the arrests
are the result of an extensive investigation involving...
[DAVID SWEET]: Rob was charged later that day.
The second-degree murder of Mark Mariani...
as was Tyler.
But we never did hear from Rob. His reasons behind the attack.
[JOURNALIST]: Robert Reitmeier remained silent and emotionless today
as he sat in the prisoner's box,
even as the gruesome crime scee video was played for the court.
It shows Mark Mariani's lifeless brutalized body
lying in a pool of blood.
For Mark Mariani's family,
the last three years has been full of grief.
We just still don't know why.
We want answers why Mark had to die that day.
[DAVID SWEET]: There is not one reason
for why Mark Mariani was murdered that night.
Except that Rob and Tyler wanted to.
That's it. Sick.
The day after Rob and Tyler were arrested, Zoe gave birth.
So this is what you hoped for? When you came to Canada?
End up in a shit-smeared apartment
with an abusive murderer?
I saw the tapes. I saw how he scared you.
But he's not gonna hurt you now.
So there's nothing stopping you from doing the right thing.
My lawyer told me not to say anything.
We know you were there. Maybe you were trying to stop them.
[DAVID SWEET]: Tyler told us Zoe tried to interrupt
or stop the killing.
Her role was clarified to us by Tyler. Rob wouldn't do it.
He risked putting her in jeopardy of going to jail,
for his own self-interest.
So why don't you just... just tell us what happened?
At the very least, the very least,
just give that poor man's family some peace.
[DAVID SWEET]: Zoe was deported back to her home country
and the baby was apprehended by our Child Family Services
and placed into a home where the child could be safe.
I don't think that policing is about the fancy things
that you wear on your belt.
I believe that the police are servants to the community.
I believe that everybody joins policing with this idea
that we love people and we're there to help people.
I truly believe that.
The Mariani family will be lifelong friends for me.
And um, I think they feel the same way.
- Sync and corrections by ByDem - - www.addic7ed.com -