Adam, Trevor and Mitchell O’Brien

All witnesses purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Hey guys, welcome back to Prime Time Crime. It's Kylie Another right now in True Crime and then we're going to dive into today's episode. So, first thing, the state has officially rested in the Caitlin Armstrong trial. She is the woman who is accused of murdering a fellow cyclist named Moe Wilson in like a jealous kind of situation because she thought that her boyfriend Colin and Mo were a thing because they had had something previously and they had hung out and then she shot and called Mo allegedly at least that's what she's on trial for. So the state has rested. It's been a pretty interesting case. Pretty Lies and alibis my girl Gigi, who I love, love, love, nicest human on the earth. She has been doing trial updates, case updates, going day by day with the trial, going through everything. So if you want a more in depth review of everything, she goes through it every day, go back and check on her on her channel, Pretty Lies and Alibi. She has a YouTube as well as a podcast, so check her out. Ten out of ten recommend also a new case to talk about. It's actually been going on. I just, honestly, if I'm being honest, I haven't followed it, but now I'm following it because things are happening. So there is a guy named Charlie Adelson. He was a dentist and he had been on trial and recently was convicted of plotting and funding the mother of his former brother in law who's named Dan Markle. So Dan was married to Charlie's sister and they had children and they were going through obviously a divorce and custody and there was like a bunch of drama between the two of them. So this happened in twenty fourteen, and they finally were able to bring Charlie to court and he has been charged officially. But there's a lot of other players involved in this. So Charlie is the fourth person who's been convicted in Markle's murder. There is other people that he conspired with his ex girlfriend and she they conspire to hire two different people to travel from South Florida to kill him, and they're all like imprisoned now. But plot twist, and the plot twist you didn't know you needed. They have now arrested Donna Adelson, who is Charlie's mom and obviously the mom of the wife of the guy who was killed. So they arrested her. Now listen to this. They arrested her in the airport. She was in the process of boarding a eight pm one way flight to Vietnam on Monday. So they had found out that her and her husband had bought tickets to Vietnam. They talked to the law enforcement partners and they realized how difficult it was going to be to bring her back if she did escape, so they hauled as to the airport and they arrested her. She's seventy three years old and she was booked in the Turner Gilford Night Correctional Center in Florida, and she is now facing murder, conspiracy, and solicitation charges. It is getting real. Charlie was just convicted of murder one week ago and now this is happening. I've been seeing things about Charlie online, but I didn't really know much about it, just knew that he was found guilty. And now that his mom has been arrested, his seventy three year old mother has been arrested it's getting real, and I am going to be sure to stay on top of this because it's getting real. And that guy Samuel Haskell Junior that I talked about on Monday's episode that allegedly killed his wife and then his wife's parents were missing. He has now been charged with the murder of his wife and the in laws, who as far as I know, they haven't found the in laws yet. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with all of that. But this guy was so dumb. So like I said, he allegedly killed his wife and disposed of her body in these trash bags. Well, he's not very smart because he asked some construction workers if they could dispose of the of the bags for him. The construction workers realize that it wasn't like regular trash that they were disposing of and realized that it was like a body and or parts of a body, and they called the cops. And by the time the cops got to that area, they were already gone like these bags like. They refused to do the job. Of course, called the cops, and then he, in turn, Samuel took them, took the bags and disposed of them, and they caught him on camera. He is not the smartest. He's just not. Like, thank god, criminals are dumb, because stuff like this, you're not going to get away with it. You're just not. There's actual video evidence of him disposing of the of this, plus the construction workers who saw what they saw when they went to dispose of the bags themselves and then realized, uh, oh, we're not getting involved in this and immediately call the cops. Thank god for those smart thinking on their feet construction workers. As far as I know, they haven't found any evidence yet of the parents or found their bodies, but we can only assume that if he killed his wife, that he also killed them and what a horrible human he is. This is a case out of California, so I will be sure to keep you guys updated on all of the happenings regarding this one. Okay, I think that's it for right now in True Crime. We're going to go ahead and lead into today's episode. I do want to say, and I'm only putting this out there because I want to try to actually do it and not just say that I'm going to do it. I'm going to try to take next week off. It's Thanksgiving week I'm going to have family in town. I want to be intentional about the time that I'm spending with my family. And I love researching and I love recording like it really honestly, you guys have no idea how much this podcast has helped me this year. It's helped me stay sane. It has given me something important to focus on, and I love it so so much. But I do want to give myself a week off just to not have to worry about this weekend, like having to record and research and try to like fit everything in because I like to record two episodes like Friday night, Saturday Sunday, so I have everything ready to go for the week. But I am putting it out there that I am taking next week off. So I really appreciate each and every single one of you, everyone that listens. If you are bored next week and you haven't listened to all of my episodes, I have like seventy three episodes, go back and listen, Share with your friends, share with your family, talk about an episode over Thanksgiving dinner. If that's what makes you happy, that's what makes me happy. Truth, I really have to sometimes stop myself from bringing up random unsolved crimes in public settings. That's who I am. But I really appreciate each and every one of you who listens and shares and interacts on social media and comments and likes and any any little thing you do, even if you just download the episode and never hear it. I very very much appreciate you. So I will see you guys officially week after next for some brand new cases. We are going to dive right in. I am working through my ever growing list of unsolved cases but getting there slowly but surely. But I hope you guys enjoy today's episode. All right, guys, we are jumping in today to a new case. And it was actually one that I found while I was searching for information about Cheryl Kenney and it kind of popped up on videos and I got sucked into a rabbit hole on it, and here we are. So today we're going to be talking about the abduction of three boys by their father. This abduction took place in nineteen ninety six in Canada, and we're going to talk about the key players and their ages because that is an important part of the story. So, like I said, this happened in nineteen ninety six. Key player number one, Gary O'Brien. He was forty years old in nineteen ninety six at the time that this took place. His estranged wife Diana, She was thirty nine years old in nineteen ninety six at the time of the boys abduction. And we have their three sons, Adam who was fourteen at the time, Trevor who was eleven, and Mitchell, who was only four years old at the time of his abduction. So, like I said, this story takes place out of Canada, Newfoundland to be exact, and it happened on November ninth of nineteen ninety six, So a little bit of backstory. I don't know super details on things, but Gary and Diana at one point were married, they had three boys, and they had separated, and oddly enough, Gary had stayed in the family home while Diana and her three boys had moved elsewhere. I think they were staying potentially with someone else. I don't know the details, but it seemed like this was maybe kind of a newer kind of situation potentially, but Diana had left taken the boys, and Diana was awarded primary custody, but they did have visitation with their father and they might have already been divorced at that time Gary and Diana, but I'm not one hundred percent sure or if they were in the process of going through a divorce. Either way, they were not together and Diana was the primary parent, and I think it speaks a lot to in my opinion, allegedly who Gary was as a person. Because you stayed in the home and your three kids and your ex wife left, there has to be a reason for that, and the reason probably is that they were trying to get away from him and they didn't have time to fight and deal with trying to get the house. You would want your kids to stay in the house that you have been in, right, That's just a normal thing. But Gary is showing his true colors right off the bat by staying in the home while his three kids and ex wife soon to be ex wife, whatever the case may be, go elsewhere. Gary is just not a good person already off the bat. Gary is not a good person. So November ninth of nineteen ninety six, Adam, Trevor, and Mitchell were all set to go have a visit with Gary at his home, their former home, and that day Mitchell was not feeling well and Diana very much wanted to keep him home. Gary insisted that Mitchell go to the house, so reluctantly Diana let him go, and they were visiting with their dad. At about eight thirty, he called Diana and told her that he is not going to be returning the boys to her, and also said that the house is rigged and if anyone tries to come in, it's going to explode. And he also said something to her. Diana had just turned thirty nine, literally the day before this happened, and he said something to her to the effects of you're going to know what it's like to turn forty without your kids, And she, of course said, let me talk to the boys, and he said later and hug up, and that was that. So at the time, Diana's sister was with her and immediately called the police and told them what was going on, what Gary had said, and thank god that she did this and was quick to think. Diana was obviously so upset and traumatized and probably not in the best of headspaces to really figure out what was going on here. But Diana's sister quickly realized that this was a bad situation called the cops. The cops went to the home, and they discovered that Gary had set up a makeshift bomb. He had used two four hundred pounds pro pain tanks that would have exploded and destroyed both his home and the surrounding homes if anyone had tried to get inside, even as much as to have rung the doorbell, would have caused these bombs to level the house and like homes on either side, and probably even more so. They said that this was a really, really, really dangerous situation that Gary had set up. And when I first heard about it and read about it, it gave me Josh Powell vibes in the biggest way, because that is exactly what Josh Paell did. So Diana thinks that this whole thing was done to kind of create a diversion in order for him to take the boys and get away and escape and they would be left behind to kind of deal with all of this other stuff, and creating the whole bomb situation was just basically a way for him to distract from him kidnapping his boys, because it is a kidnapping. Even though you're they're your children, you do not have custody of them, so you are kidnapping your three sons. So Gary did have a history of violence and suicidal ideations and tendencies and some psychiatric problems, and I don't want to assume that maybe some of these things led to their divorce and separation, but it sounds like if he was and maybe he was abusive towards Diana and that's why she wanted to leave. And honestly, if that is the case, I can't imagine the things that Diana probably went through with Gary, with all of those different things that she eluded that he struggled with and had issues with. Props to her for getting out, and she was doing it to protect her children, And sadly someone like this was still granted unsupervised visits with his kids. It just doesn't make sense to me that the court would have allowed this. But again, it's not perfect. Our legal system is imperfect. The issue of child visitation is imperfect. And this happened back in nineteen ninety six. The same thing happened with Josh Powell, not super long ago. So the system is flawed, and unfortunately, we need to do a better job of protecting the kids at the end of the day, because unfortunately the law is law, and if you like, if Diana were to try to keep the kids from him, then it would come back on her. And that's just not fair because a mother's intuition, I think, is always right. And it's really unfortunate that the kids had to go see their father and that this horrible thing happened where he basically abducted them and they have not been seen or heard from since. So pretty much immediately right after this happened, the boys are missing, Gary is missing, and Gary's nineteen eighty nine to four tempo is also missing, So pretty much right after all of this happens, Diana decides that she's going to move back into the home that her and Gary Wan shared with the boys, and her thought process on this was, I'm going to go back there because if they do come back, this is where they're going to come. And Diane wanted to do anything she could to obviously find her children and get them back, So she moved back into that home, which I'm sure was such a struggle for her because that was the home that she raised her three children in and she had their room, like their rooms were still there, a lot of their stuff was probably still there. It had to have been really really hard for her, but she did it because she wanted to do everything she could to get back in touch with her children, and in her mind, if they're going to come back, and they eventually will come back, this is where they're going to come So she moved back there. So about a year passes by and there is nothing new that is leading Diana to Gary or to her boys. And there is a piece of an engine casing that washes up and the serial number on that engine casing did match up with Gary's car, so it is was Gary's car that was found. So it was found on the shore kind of off of this area where there is a cliff and it's called flat Rock and it was about six a little over six miles from where the boys went missing from from the O'Brien home that they found this. So there's a lot of people that think that Gary just drove the car with himself and the boys off the cliff. It went into the ocean and that was that. And people thought that, you know, this car part being found was an indication that the boys and Gary were no longer alive, but they never found anything else that would link this to a murder. Suicide. They never found any other parts of the car, They never found any bodies or remains or or anything else that would lead them to think that the boys were no longer living. And Diana also when she had talked about when she has talked about Gary, she refers to him as introverted and very resourceful. And I don't know, if you're me, you're going to question everything, especially in a situation like this when Gary just seems like he has such horrific intentions and he goes through all of these things to kidnap his children. I don't think it's a situation where he's just going to end it like that. But I could be wrong, But in my opinion, not everything is as it seems, and you need to question everything. It would be really easy for everyone just to think that Gary committed suicide and took the boys with him, But that's also what a psychopathic person and with very resourceful tendencies would want you to think. He showed his true colors with the whole rigging of the house and the bombs and then the engine randomly showing up. Was it planted just so people would stop looking for the boys, Because that's where my mind goes, and I know that I probably overanalyze everything, but it's who I am. And I feel like if he wanted to complete this mission of having nobody look for him and his children, he would want to fake that they are dead. And Diana agrees to this day. Diana stands by the fact that this was planted by Gary to throw off the tracks of where Gary and the boys were, and I am fully in agreeance with her. I think that Gary is very strategic. He is an asshole. Obviously, we're not gonna tiptoe around the fact that he's not a good person. It's not even alleged. His actions show he's not a good person. And I wouldn't put it past someone like this to do that just to throw off his path and his plans. And Diana agrees. And she was married to him, so she probably knows him better than anyone. So there were a few tips that had come in over the first couple of years after the boys disappeared, and one of them to a police department in thunder Bay, and it was an anonymous tip, and it was a woman that stated that she had recognized the pictures of the brothers and she said that she had babysat for them and knew the nicknames of one of the boys, so of course she reported this anonymously, and they attempted to locate this woman until nineteen ninety nine and they were unsuccessful in locating her. But I think that that was a pretty credible lead and a pretty good indication that the boys were still alive, because it sounds like she had some information that only people that knew the boys would really know, like one of the boys' nicknames. So I feel like this was a pretty credible lead. And this came in in nineteen ninety eight, so that's a whole year after the engine was found at the bottom of the cliff, so very interesting. So I will say Gary's sister does suspect that her brother and her nephews are dead, but Diana stands by the fact that she believes that her sons are still alive and thinks that Gary took them to some type of religious commune kind of off the grid and kind of put them in this environment where they don't have access to technology or much of the outside world at all to even know that their mother was looking for them, and she thinks that the reason that he did this was to attempt to brainwash them, and that is the primary reason why she thinks they have never tried to get in contact with her, because if you look up her name and you look up the boys' names, there are so many articles about this subduction and Diana being very vocal about everything. And there's Facebook page where Diana is directly involved in trying to find her sons, and people are posting different things and she is responding and doing everything she can to try to get in touch with her boys. So if these boys are out there and they have access to technology and they know who their identity is, if they know that they're Adam Trevor and Mitchell O'Brien, and they're able to google themselves, going to see all of this and they're going to realize, oh shit, this is us. So it doesn't really sound like they may have access to that stuff. And I'll tell you some of these religious commune cult kind of things are sketchy af and they first of all, like, in order to belong to something like that, you have to be a very easily brainwashed human and Gary sounds like one of those people that could easily fall into something like this because of all of his issues that he has, but kids don't know any better. So if you take kids to something like this and that's what you surround them with, that's what they're going to believe. If you tell them nobody cares about you, this is your life now, they just become immune to that. Especially little Mitchell. He was only four years old when this happened, so for him, I'm sure his life before this was something that he doesn't even remember. It's just really interesting the psychological role that brainwashing can play, and especially in a situation where you're submerging yourself and your kids in this type of religious thing, there's no telling what that can do to you. And I'm not saying for sure that that's what happened, but that's what Diana believes happened, just because she knows that her kids would try to get in touch with her if they could, if they knew who they were, and if they knew that their mother was looking for them. So it just makes sense that this would have been the route that Gary took. And also going back to him being very resourceful and manipulative, this is a prime example of something that somebody like that would have done. They would go to such great lengths to hide themselves from the world, live off the grid, and summerse themselves in this type of religious, cold type of situation. I a million percent believe it. So next, I'm going to read a letter that Diana wrote to her three boys in twenty seventeen, and this was the twenty one year anniversary of their disappearance, and it is going to probably pull out your heartstrings, So trigger warning for that. Adam, Trevor, and Mitchell twenty one years ago, a Saturday, November ninth, nineteen ninety six, our lives together as mommy and sons were torn apart. We never knew what those last few hours together would end up being our lasting memories of each other. Hustle and bustle as usual on a Saturday morning, Adam and Trevor delivering the morning papers to our neighbors. I recall that morning as if it were this morning. Trevor, you were excited to wear your new Chicago Bulls jacket to show your dad and your friends that day. Adam, you were planning to buy me a birthday card, and you, little Mitch were not feeling well. Mitch. I didn't want you to go with your Dad that day, but your father insisted I have you ready when he arrived. I regret not following my motherly instincts. I am so sorry, doll. Boys. No matter what has been told to you, Please know that not a day goes by that I won't be thinking of you. Not a day ends without me sending up heartfelt prayers to you. Not a moment have I lost hope that we will find each other. With the powerful strength of our love, we will survive this dark period of our lives. We are also incomplete, an empty inside from the separation. Being together will heal us and complete us. Be strong, my angels, and know that your mom loves you with her whole heart and I will until I take my last breath. I need you and you guys need me. Life is short and we never know when our time will will come to leave here forever. Please let me know that you are okay forever in my heart. Mom, xoxoxo. If that doesn't just rip your heart out into a million pieces, I mean, how freaking sad is that? And this poor woman, God bless her like her strength and her ability to carry on and keep the story out there, because that is the most important thing. As we see with all of these cold cases, it is so important to keep the names and the faces out there so that way, hopefully somebody realizes something and says something and they can be solved. So the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created multiple different age progress photos of the boys that they did over the past couple of decades. They most recently did age progress photos in twenty seventeen. And if you want to really feel like this has been a long time since the boys went missing, Adam, who was fourteen when he was kidnapped by his father, would be forty one years old now, Trevor who was eleven, would be thirty eight, and Mitchell, who was only four, would be thirty one years old. A long time has passed since these boys went missing. And I think any person that just thinks kind of I don't want to say logically, but somebody that really doesn't think think is going to say, you know, these boys are dead and they're not out there anymore. But somebody that thinks that Gary is very cunning and manipulative and resourceful, like Diana expressed that he was, is going to think that he took these boys somewhere where they have no contact with the outside world and raise them in such a manner that God knows what he told them about their mother and the rest of their family, and they have grown maybe not even knowing their real identity, maybe they have new names. We have no idea what Gary is capable of, and I feel it's reasonable to think that Gary did something like that with his kids, and it is I mean, it's also fathomable that he did kill them. However, nothing else has ever turned up around the area where the car was found. No other pieces of the car were found, no clothing, no nothing. There's nothing else that is tying them to that area. And you would think that other parts would have come to surface by now, no matter what, but that hasn't happened. So I think Diana wants to hold that hope that her boys are out there, and of course everyone needs to support her in that. And there is a Facebook group where it seems like it's still pretty active. Still people are posting, and I feel like it's important to keep their names out there, their faces out there, because these people obviously have grown up. God knows what they've been through if they are still living, and what they've seen and what they've been told. I personally know of a situation where children were brainwashed by their father against their mother, and it's not a good situation. It happens in real life. It really does happen in real life, and it's sad. So the possibility of something like that happening is not completely out of the question. So although this case did happen in Canada, it very much got international attention and everyone kind of heard about the story when it first happened. There is a fifty thousand dollars reward that has been offered. Gary is still wanted by the authorities for the subduction and god knows what else because he's a horrible person. And as of right now twenty twenty three, this case is still active and open and Diana is forever holding on to hope that her boys are still out there. She also has uploaded her DNA to at least ancestry dot com, which I did my DNA on ancestry last year, and it is the coolest thing to see, like relatives pop up. Even if you share just like two percent DNA, it pops up that you are loosely related to this person and a lot of police departments are using this kind of technology to help connect different people to like Jane or John does or again in like a Gilgo Beach situation, connect a potential murder to like the family tree to try to figure out who this person is. It's really interesting the way it's being used. So I think Diana uploading her DNA to something like this is such a good idea, and it could be that missing link where God knows, if one day one of the boys does something like this, it is automatically going to link them as mother and son together. So I think that's a really cool way for a lot of people who do have these horrible things happen in their lives to try to have a little bit of control over maybe refinding that mis and connection in their family with that DNA. So that is the story. It is still open. I'm going to be linking all of the sources I use for this episode, and of course I'll also link the Facebook page that Diana has where the main focus is finding the boys. I'm going to share the age progress photos and the photos of what the boys look like when they were taken. I'll share photos of Gary, even though he sucks, and I don't want to give him any any anything because he's the worst. We still have to because if he is still out there, he would be sixty seven years old, and God knows the things that he's done since the time that he took his boys. Also, I want to touch on earlier in the episode when I talked about how Gary said, you're going to know what it's like to turn forty without your boys. It makes me think that probably the year before, when Gary was thirty nine getting ready to turn forty, he maybe wasn't allowed to see his children, probably because he's an abusive asshole, allegedly in my opinion, and that was kind of his way to get back at Diana. You're going to know what it's like to turn forty without your sons, just being the ass that he is, thinking that he can just make those decisions. And at the end of the day, like I said, we don't have to pretend that Gary is a good guy. He's not a good guy regardless of anything. His actions show that he has zero value for human life. He doesn't value his children, he has zero respect for his ex wife, who is the mother of his kids, and he doesn't have respect for his kids. Because he's a piece of shit. So we're not even going to sugarcoat it. Gary is not a good person, and if Gary is out there, I hope every day is a struggle for him, and every day he has to think about what a horrible human he is because he is. So with all of that being said, let's circle it back around Adam Trevor Mitchell. If they are out there, let's keep their names out there, let's keep their faces out there. I will share all the age progress photos on my Instagram and my Facebook pages, and let's keep this story out there. I do believe that if they are out there, they're probably not in Canada anymore. I don't know where he potentially could have taken them, But if they are out there, they are probably being well hid in a community where they don't have a lot of access to technology or they don't know who they are anymore, which is really really sad to think about. So share this episode, share the story, Let's spread the word, and go join the Facebook group that I will link below in the show notes so we can all be on the lookout for these four people and bring the boys home to Diana, because I'm sure that's all she wants in life is to be reunited with her sons, and if she feels that they're alive and out there, Like I said, motherly instincts are really strong. I think that she probably knows deep down that they're out there, and we're gonna believe her. At least I'm gonna believe her. So thank you guys for listening. I appreciate you all so so much. Share this episode, be sure to rate the podcast and check out my Instagram, Facebook pages, and I will see you guys later for a new episode. Bye, guys. I have to add this on because I kept researching a little bit. Sure I finished the episode because I was trying to find the O'Brien home and all of that, and I stumbled upon a family tree that was put together by I think it's a cousin of Gary named Shelley O'Brien, and it's so bizarre. It was put together in two thousand and seven, so it's a while ago, but also a while after the boys were abducted. And there's a angel Fire website that she has put this family tree together on and it's all about, you know, the O'Brien family, and like different members of her family and Gary O'Brien in Torbay, Newfoundland living Diana Boland, who is the ex wife She's now named Diana Saunders living Outer Cove, Newfoundland, and that they are separated, Adam O'Brien living, Trevor O'Brien living, Mitchell O'Brien living. Interesting. This website was made a whole eleven years after the boys were taken and Gary disappeared, so it could mean nothing, but I feel like Shelley has a lot of information that she potentially could be gatekeeping and keeping to herself, and I think that's a really interesting thing to look into. She started this family tree in two thousand and three and last updated it in two thousand and seven. And the whole reason I came across this page in the first place was because I was trying to search for the address and I saw that somebody had posted the street that they lived on and that they lived down the street from this elementary school. So I was looking at the elementary school, and then I was on street view just going down the street and I came across a house that was on the corner and I was like, well, maybe this is the house. So I search for the address which came up with Shelley O'Brien, and it came up with this whole family tree, so a little bit too coincidental for me that Shelley is living in the home that potentially Gary used to live in. I don't know. I think it's a lot. It's confusing. I'm more confused now than ever. This family tree is interesting to me and last updated in two thousand and seven. I have to do more research on this. I will definitely update you guys if I find any more out. But I just had to add this on to the last little tad bit of the episode because it's not information that I felt like I could keep to myself. And I think it's really interesting to note that she has all of these people listed on here and they're all listed as living. What does Shelley know that we don't know? Just putting it out there, all right, Officially ending the episode, Thank you guys for listening, and I will see you all air. Bye.