Tania Murrell

All witnesses, purses of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Hey guys, welcome to Primetime Crime. It's Kylie, thank you so much for joining, and we are going to start off with right now in True Crime. Of course, as soon as I released my episode on Friday, news was breaking in regards to the Idaho four case. The home where this horrific, horrific homicide and crime occurred is set to be torn down. Demolition starts on December twenty eighth. Now, there had been talk about leaving it up through the trial. Of course, we know that Brian, being the awful human, he has waved his right to a speedy trial, meaning that the trial was delayed from October second of this year until hopefully sometime next year. So I do know that the defense was in the house over the last couple of days gathering photographic evidence and measurements and all the things that they needed to photograph and gather, and then they are set to demolish the house on December twenty eighth. So I have different thoughts about this. I've talked about it before. I feel like the layout of the house is really important to understanding how a crime like this could have been committed, and the other two residents of the home didn't hear anything because the home layout is really odd. It's a very bizarre type of house. And given the fact that it was a party house, of course, there was a lot of in and out, a lot of people around all the time, and they were all used to that, so that isn't out of the ordinary for a party home. And it's also three floors, so the way that it's set up is just weird and awkward, and I think I feel like a lot of times in a case like this, the jury would want to go and see the home, so I am surprised that they're tearing it down. I do feel like that means that the prosecution has a pretty solid case, at least in my opinion. That way it's sounding because I know that there had been talk of them waiting to demolish the house until after the trial had occurred. But if they are all on board and going ahead with it, then I feel like, hopefully they have everything they need to nail this guy and hopefully send him to prison for the rest of time. But we'll definitely keep you updated on that. It's going to be so weird that the house is going to be demolished. I understand how it's a college town and it's just a memory of all the bad that happened there. It's just so eerie. And the house has been boarded up since all of this happened. There has been round the clock security since this happened in November of last year, and it's just so weird that there's going to be a big empty space where that house once stood, a house that was very popular. People went there forever and ever and ever. It was a party house, it was a college house, and it's going to be really weird to see that gone. And it's going to be it's I mean, it's already so sad and tragic everything that surrounds that house, but I feel like it's just going to be another layer of sad and tragic on top of it. I don't know, but I was really surprised to hear that. And I hope it doesn't come back in the end and be something that bites them in the butt. I don't think it will. I know they have the DNA, they have all of the different forensics, they have four victims. Inside of that home, they were able to hopefully process and analyze and get all of the evidence and the facts that they needed to present this case and prove his guilt. Cross our fingers, it's gonna happen, and hopefully it's gonna happen in twenty twenty four. Next, moving on to a case out of Texas. It is a horrible story about a sixteen year old girl who is named Elizabeth Medina. She was found in her bathtub by her mom and had been stabbed to death. Horrific, horrific crime. So, this particular day, Elizabeth had gotten up, she was supposed to go to cheerleading practice and then she was going to be in a Christmas parade later that day, and somewhere between her mom leaving and her mom coming back to the apartment, somebody took her life. And this person this happened in Edna, Texas, and this person was named Rafael Romiro. He was twenty three and he was arrested this past Saturday and he's been charged with capital murder. They do not if he had any prior connection to Elizabeth before this happened. They did come out and say that he is undocumented in this country and he's here on an expired visa, so ICE has placed a detainer on him. So there's really not a whole lot being said right now. They really haven't even come out and said her official cause of death, even though we do know that she was stabbed because her mom found her in the bathtub, stabbed to death. Literally she just bled out in her own bathtub, which is so sad. She was still in her pjs, so she had gotten up that morning and never even got ready to go to cheerleading practice before this awful, horrible human somehow or another got into her apartment and killed her. I think we are going to start to hear more details. If he knew her, if he didn't, I don't really know what I think about it. They have released his mug shot and there are people out there, especially on the find Rachel Morian facebook page. I did a episode on her previously where we had talked about her being attacked on the mom pod trail, the jogging trail. She was murdered, and they have the DNA of the person who did it, and they believe it's the same guy that attacked someone else elsewhere. A lot of people are saying that this guy looks similar to the person that murdered Rachel and attack this other girl. If it all ends up being the same person, it is going to be one giant I told you so, because, like I said, bad people are going to continue to be bad until they're caught. So it just really goes to show you how important it is to share these cases, especially when they're fresh, for people that are out there just committing these horrible crimes against women. A sixteen year old girl was killed in her own home. If you're not safe at home, where are you safe at? It is very alarming. And I believe that Elizabeth and her mom had moved to Texas from Nebraska about a year and a half ago, so she was still pretty new to Texas and they shared this apartment and her mom goes to work and then her daughter is brutally murdered in her own home. Awful, awful, awful. I will be sure to keep you guys updated on this one. But this one is terrible. And they charge him with capital murder, which I feel like is a really interesting charge. Typically you're going to hear first degree murder, but capital murder is of its own description. So I'm gonna read what the legal definitions are of capital murder are. The victim is a police officer, firefighter, paramedic, or similar public safety professional and was killed while on duty. The victim is killed during the commission of another violent felony such as armed robbery, kidnapping, arson, etc. The victim is tortured, raped, or sexually assaulted, particularly if the victim is a child. Multiple murders are committed, pursue it to one another murder for higher terrorism the murder. The victim is murdered based on race, nationality, origin, or other associated groups. The victim is a witness to a crime. So it's gonna be really interesting to see what was the motive. Was his mission to sexually assault her or rob her and it turned into her losing her life. It's going to be interesting to see why they went with capital murder. It's gonna be very interesting. But I will tell you that a capital murder charge in Texas it's not looking too good for mister Romero. It's really not. Moving on to other news. I'm sure you guys remember when I talked about the potential Lori Valo Junior situation that was happening with a gal named Spring Thibodeaux and her brother, Brooke Hail, who took Spring sun Blaze from Arizona to Idaho, and then they were on their way to Alaska like it was a whole thing he was missing. People were worried that they were on like a Lori Valo type mission. Well, the brother and Spring have both been extradited from Alaska to Arizona on one count of crimes against children and they are both charged with custodial interference after taking Blaze from Arizona to Idaho, and they say it's stemmed from doomsday beliefs. Again more Lori Valo stuff, And both of their mugshots are alarming. They look very sinister and scary, and I wouldn't want to be traveling anywhere with them. So we'll definitely keep you guys updated on that. I'm so glad they got a handle on it before I got out of control, because this was on its way to be the next Lori Valo guarantee it. All right, I think I have rambled enough about right now in your Crime. We're going to go ahead and end it there and go ahead and lead into today's episode. All right, we are jumping into a new episode today, and that is the disappearance of a young girl named Tanya Merle in nineteen eighty three. So this one goes back aways. So Tanya Marie Murrell was born June twentieth of nineteen seventy six to her parents, Vivian and Jack. She had one brother who was a little bit younger. He was five. His name was John, and they lived in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. So Vivian and Jack both worked full time. Vivian was a bakery manager and Jack was a carpenter and he worked doing new home builds, so both of them were very busy, but they were very present parents from everything I've seen, I also have seen them discribe as the type of people that really never met the stranger. They were nice to everybody. They had a lot of friends, and they when they weren't working full time and being parents, they did enjoy the social aspect of life and they would go out sometimes and they were just your normal family living in Canada. Tanya was your normal six year old girl. She was happy, She loved to sing and tap dance, and she was a really good swimmer, so she loved being in the water. She had a deep love for animals and would express that she wanted to be a veterinarian when she got older. The family lived in a bungalow at one O four two six, one hundred and forty fifth Street, and this house has since been torn down, but you know your girls going back on Google street View to see what the house looked like before and what it looks like now. And I don't understand why they teared out such a cute little home and build like this god awful high risy condoish type deal. But I'll post pictures. I love like architecture. I'm looking at older homes and different type of homes. So I'm always going to be that person that goes and searches for the home that's involved in different cases. But I'll post pictures. I digress. So the home that this family lived in was only about a block and a half away from the elementary school that Tanya and John went to, which was called Grosvenor Elementary, and it was very common of them to walk to and from school and also walk home for lunch. That was very normal. That was what they did every day. And despite it being January in Canada, it was very, very cold in Canada. There was a lot of not so great weather. The kids still walk to and from school. It was also a time when you didn't have to fear being a kid, being an adult walking in your own neighborhood that something bad was going to happen to you because it was nineteen eighty three and you really didn't hear of child abductions or children being attacked. It just wasn't as common as, unfortunately it is today. So it was the morning of January twentieth of nineteen eighty three, and around seven thirty in the morning, the family was all at the house getting ready to go for the day. Now, because Vivian and Jack both worked, Vivian's sister, who is named Vera, was going to be staying at the house. She had her child with her, who was a baby, and she was going to be at the house for lunchtime. When Tanya and John came home and they were talking about what they wanted to eat for lunch, and they decided that they wanted to be fixed mac and cheese. So Vera was, you know, preparing to do that. They were all sitting there talking. She remembers Tanya and Vivian talking in the kitchen, and Tanya was upset because her clothes felt too tight and she didn't want to wear what she had on, and Vivian just said, go put on whatever you want, And this particular day, Tanya decided to put on a black Harley Davidson t shirt, a blue and white winter coat with for trim around the collar. She put on her brown boots and headed out to school, and Vivian and Jack ended up also leaving. They went to work. So Tanya and John both made it to school and it was getting to be around lunchtime. So around eleven o'clock that morning, Tanya said bye to her friends that were in grade one with her, and she walked out of the elementary school, which was not uncommon now. Her class got out for lunch about five minutes earlier than John's, so Tanya would typically wait outside for John and then they would walk home together. So John got out of his class and looked for Tanya and didn't see her, so he just decided to walk home on his own. John walks in and Vera is calling out for them, and John says, I'm home, but Tanya's not with me. She wasn't there, and there had been rumblings that Tanya had maybe gone for lunch at another friend's house and that's why she wasn't there waiting for John. So right away, Vera kind of felt like something might not be right, like, we at least need to know where Tanya is because it's extremely cold outside, she's on her lunch break, We at least need to make sure that she's okay. So Vera went ahead and called Vivian at work, and right away, Vivian didn't have a good feeling, and she felt like it was really odd and out of character for Tanya to not go straight home after school. It just wasn't like her or on her lunch break to wander off and do other stuff. So immediately Vivian is very, very worried. She immediately goes home and when she gets home, Vera's out in the streets looking for Tanya, calling her name. And at this point Jack had also been contacted and he instantly also felt like something was wrong. Immediately when he found out that Tanya didn't come home for lunch, he knew something was wrong too. They go ahead and they head over to the school to see if Tanya came back after lunch, and unfortunately she was not there, and nobody at that point said that they had seen her, and nobody had seen her at the school, so right they knew that something majorly wrong was going on with Tanya. So Vivian called the police, and the police came by. So at this point there really wasn't a lot that the officer could do except for get a picture of her and jot down a description of what she was wearing, and they basically just started going door to door. Of course, Vivian and Jack tried to rationalize that maybe she did go to a friend's house and she forgot to tell them. Maybe she's spending the night at a friend's house and didn't tell them. They're very much trying to rationalize the fact that their daughter hasn't come home, because they said that Tanya, even though she was only six years old, she was very prompt and would always tell them what she was going to be doing, if she was going to be doing something that would take her away from the home, to get their permission, and it was just very out of character for her to do this. But they did try very much to remain positive and hoped that Tanya would return, So they spend pretty much all night looking for Tanya. They have no luck. The next day comes and they're hopeful that maybe Tanya will be in class again. She is not in class, and at this point they know for sure their worst fears have been confirmed that something really, really bad has happened to Tanya, and they really don't know where to turn because they don't have anything to go off of. Very very quickly, the media jumped on this and it was everywhere. The parents were everywhere, everybody was on high alert because Tanya was officially missing and nobody knew anything about what had happened to her, so rumors were starting to circulate. So Jack was a Harley Davison guy, and he owned a motorcycle, and him and Vivian also partook in some marijuana use, which really isn't a big deal, but I guess in nineteen eighty three it was so back then. He apparently had owed a drug dealer some money for marijuana, and people thought that maybe it was targeted because of that, and that because Jack owed this person money, that they targeted Tanya. And then of course Vivian was second guessing everything about everything. If she didn't have to work that day, if she had taken them to school, if she had picked them up for lunch. Of course, you're going to try to go through all of the what ifs in your mind to try to figure out how this could have been prevented and how this could have happened. And pretty much the whole town was very afraid, because these were the days when you could let your children go out and ride bikes and walk to and from school and just not be afraid to live in their own town. And this was something that was scary for them because Tanya had disappeared, and it seemed that she had disappeared as she was leaving school. So what happened in between the time that she left school and five minutes later when John discovered that she wasn't there. What could have happened in those five minutes to Tanya that caused all of this uproar and caused her to have potentially been taken by somebody. The police department was given many, many tips, but none of them really turned out to be of any significance. And at this point in time, their ground search was by far the largest in Edmonton's history. There were hundreds and hundreds of blocks that were checked for Tanya, and oddly enough, shortly after Tanya vanished, the family dog also vanished, who was named Harley. And they didn't really give information as to why the dog disappeared, how the dog disappeared, but they didn't say that it was suspected to be related or any type of foul play, but it was definitely something else for the family to have to deal with. Their daughter goes missing, then their dog goes missing shortly after. It's just an interesting timeline of events for sure. I'm now going to play this recording that Vivian and Jack made. Basically at this point, they think that their daughter's been abducted and they're trying to get in touch with with her abductor and try to get a message Aitania. It's kind of hard to make out. It's not like the best quality. It's about two minutes and thirty three seconds long. There is a transcript I will kind of do a read through after. It's really sad to hear Vivian and Jack express their need for their daughter back and their love for their daughter. So we're going to play this and then we're going to talk about some potential theories and go from there. This is a really sad story with a lot of people that were very, very deeply emotionally impacted with Tanya's disappearance, and we're going to talk about that as well. But I'm going to go ahead and play the audio recording now. Remember it is not the best quality. I take no responsibility for the quality it was nineteen eighty three. Here we go, Hi, Tanya, he knows some gangs, moms re fe come home right now, and I know we want to come and we scotcha. I'm gonna tell that you want to come home, To tell you, he knows you want to go through a lot and get it from home. Contruly that we got a little bad and John want to home. You don't know what to do too much to anymore, jus so much. But whoever has you, and please listen, just draw her off. Something's worm. We don't want to see who you are, just thinking my ladies with them. But she does want to come home. She lost her mom, she lost her das her kitten, needs her kittens and miss her her popper or proper. And he listens her too, and she's got to come home, and she wants to come home. And you know she wants to come home. Please think time to come home really well, if you don't, no time there and if you can a woman, see, it means you most care about her. If you care about let her come on please please just looks a little boy just there something through something. Okay, this to whoever if you if you need money or we don't have any money, but we can get money for you if you need that with a bonus and we can help you out more money. It's not as it doesn't even matter. You've got to bring Tanya and we won't keeping the money if you want money. We've got love friends that love Tony and they will even miss and we've been trying so hard to find her and we just don't want her out in the clothes. We just can't have a little road out of the clothes anywhere. We have to have target to act because we just have to and we need her and we need her and I know she wants to come home. Okay again, I know that was probably really hard to hear. I'm gonna go through kind of the transcripts. So Vivian is the one that starts it off and she says, hi, Tanya. We miss you, babe. Mom is waiting for you to come home right now. I know you want to come home. And who's got ya? You got to tell him that you want to come home. Just tell him. He knows you're a good girl and you've got to come home. We got to do ballet and John wants you home. Mom doesn't know what to do anymore. She misses you so much. But whoever has you, just drop her off at someplace warm. We don't want to see who you are. Just bring my baby home. She does want to come home. She loves her mom, she loves her dad, her kittens, her puppers, and she's got to come home. She wants to come home. You know she wants to come home. Please make Tanya come home. And then Jack gets on and says, whoever you are, if you've got my Tanya and you're keeping her warm and safe, that means you must care about her. If you care about her, let her come home. Please please just let our little girl come home. Just take her someplace where somebody can find her. And Vivian gets back. Okay, this is to whoever. If you need money, we don't have any money, but we can get money for you. If you need that, just phone us and we'll help you out borrow money. It doesn't even matter. We've got to bring Tanya home. We'll get you some money if you want money. We've got a lot of friends that love Tanya. We really miss her. We've been trying so hard to find her, and we just don't want her out in the cold. We just can't have our little girl out in the cold anywhere. We have to have Tanya back because we just need her more than you need her. And I know she wants to come home and that has to just break your heart. I'm sure Vivian and Jack are trying to rack their brain trying to figure out who potentially could have her, and you know, they're trying to barter with this person, like we don't have money, but we'll get you money if you want money. There's been really no evidence to prove that whoever took Tanya was like holding her captive, holding her for ransom. But at this point, I think they're just in their minds trying to think, like, what can we do to get this person to fess up to taking Tanya, to having Tanya. We can offer them money and it's really just sad. It's also the dead of winter, so you have to think about is Tanya being kept safe? Is she cold? Is she being fed? All of these things have to go through your mind. And I can't even imagine what Vivian and Jack were going through, What poor little John was going through. He was only five years old when this happened, and it happened literally between five minutes and the time that he emerged from the school. It just has to be so terrifying for all of them. So with all of the searches that happened, they were never able to find anything tracing back to Tanya. They never located anything that she had been wearing that day, or her school books that she was supposed to have with her. There was no witnesses that said anything about her being by the school. Near the school. They did find her safeway bag which was located inside of the school, and there were some kids that attended Grovenor Elementary that said that they saw a girl being chased by a German shepherd, but that story was never substantiated, and of course they don't know if that girl was Tanya or not. And there was a guy who attempted to extort Jack and Vivian for money, and he was eventually charged with that crime and convicted, and he had nothing to do with Tanya's disappearance. He was just using it to try to get money out of them, which is really shady as hell. Don't be that person. So we're going to talk a little bit about some theories and then we're going to talk about kind of more current day things developments in the story. So the first theory is that there was a man who was known to the family and he is the one that abducted Tanya. He was an alcoholic and at the time of this in nineteen eighty three, he was thirty one years old, and he did not have a solid alibi for the day that Tanya went missing. And according to those that knew him and knew the family, he had taken Tanya and her brother alone camping a couple of times around the time of her disappearance, and he had written a poem about a love that could never happen, which is just skevie. We know he's talking about Tanya. That's disgusting. You're thirty one years old, you cannot be attracted to a six year old. You're sick in the head. If that's the case. He's also said to have been pretty violent. There was one particular time he was playing cards with some friends and got mad at one of the guys and smashed a beer bottle over his head in his face. And and there was another time that he was apparently driving the Moral Family station wagon and had randomly while he was driving it just turned off the ignition and the car ended up going into a ditch, which doesn't really make sense as to why he would do that, I don't understand. So shortly after the time that Tanya disappeared, he moved away from Edmonton and he later had a daughter who he named Tanya. What the f is going on with this guy? That's sketchy. So investigators did interrogate him. They interrogated him for eleven hours, and he really didn't deny abducting Tanya. He basically just said, you you ain't got a body. And they gave him a polygraph test, which he it was inconclusive, so he didn't pass. He didn't fail. And polygraphs are neither here nor there. I've seen people who truly do not have souls pass a polygraph test with flying colors even though they were very much involved, so that is why they can't be used in the court of law to determine innocence or guilt. But his was inconclusive, so they did have some evidence that this guy potentially could have been involved, so they did offer him a plea deal of second degree murder. He refused, and he unfortunately never faced any criminal charges in relation to the case because they did believe that they had enough for a murder charge, they did fear that the evidence may not be enough to secure a conviction, which is understandable. So shockingly, not shockingly, this man was also a person of interest in a nineteen seventy nine disappearance of a nine year old named Kevin Reimer, and he went missing after he wandered away from his family's campsite in Elk Island National Park in Alberta, and they did eventually find his body not too far from where he had been last seen. And the person that they questioned in this crime, the same guy worked at the park at the time. So this guy was apparently a child predator allegedly, and it's just too coincidental that he was linked to this one potentially and also maybe linked to Tanya's. It's just weird to me, it's too coincidental. I do not believe in coincidences. I just don't. So despite all of this and the police having their theories about this man, Vivian and Jack both stated that they didn't feel that he was capable of harming Tanya. And there had been people that had warned Vivian and Jack, don't let this person near your kids. He potentially could be dangerous. Vivian and Jack kind of ignore that and did become friends with this guy and let him into their lives. And sounds to me just like a grade A manipulator and somebody who is able to kind of spin themselves in a certain light in order to get what he wanted in my opinion, So years down the road, Vivian did change her opinion of this person and did believe that he was the one that took, abducted, and killed Tanya. So he did move away in nineteen eighty three to Ontario, where we assume he still might be living today. I did hear that he passed away. I don't know how much of a fact that is, because I don't know this man's identity at this point, because in everything I see, he's just referred to as the suspect and the primary suspect. So I don't know is he still living, is he not? We don't really know. I do want to say that after Tanya went missing, John really struggled. He did not want to sleep alone in his room. He was sleeping on a sleeping bag on the living room floor every night, and he did not like going into his bedroom. He was terrified about being alone, didn't want to be by himself in fear that he was going to be taken as well. It is just really scary and really sad that a five year old had to go through this trauma. And the trauma from everything carried over into John's adulthood because his life from the age five above was related to Tanya being missing and trying to find Tanya and his sister being kidnapped. And I can't even imagine the awfulness that he went through. And like I said, it carried over into adult. His adult life, he has been in and out of jail most of his adult life and incarcerated in twenty twelve after a high speed chase where there was an officer who was injured and unfortunately in twenty fifteen, he died of a methadone overdose. This is a really, really sad story. So after Tanya disappeared, they did end up having another child who was named Alicia, and she is the one who is talking about her brother passing away and that the fear of returning to jail is what ended up taking his life. So on January twenty fourth, he found a large amount of methadone that his coworker, I guess, had been taking for a painkiller like post surgery, for a post hip surgery. So he found that and drank it and basically was just trying to numb everything that was going on in his life. And the coworker found him and took him to the hospital and he was basically told if you leave, you're going to die. You need to be here, and John didn't really take it seriously and decided to leave on his own, and this coworker drove him back to the halfway house that he was living in because he didn't want to miss his curfew, because if you miss his curfew, then he would have gone back to jail, which he did not want to do, and he thought that he could just sleep. This off and he would be fine. So there was a lady attendant who was there when John got back, and she had told the city police that John really looked intoxicated or he looked like he was high, and he had signed in and went to his room, and unfortunately, is found dead the next morning. He was thirty seven when he asked away. He had been in and out of prison since his early twenties. He had struggled with drug addiction, and it's just really sad that you can kind of see this being set up. When John was five years old, his sister was abducted allegedly they were never able to find her. He probably, in some way, shape or form, thought it was his fault, and it carried on unto his adulthood where he ended up passing away, ultimately taking his life accidentally. But this was a guy that struggled with so many demons, and you can argue that he was going to turn into this person anyway. But there's also a part of it where you really think, like, what if this man's childhood and everything that he went through at the age of five turned into him becoming this kind of an adult where he couldn't get his life together because he was dealing with so much trauma. It's no surprise to me that the day that he ended up taking this methodone was right around the time that his sister disappeared in nineteen eighty three. I don't believe in coincidences like that, Like, this guy was struggling so hard for so so many years, and it's really unfortunate and sad that there was never anyone that was able to help him get back on track and get his life together. It's really sad, and he unfortunately becomes just another victim in this horrible disappearance of Tanya. There was a second theory in the case that they thought that Tanya was maybe taken by a woman who couldn't have children of her own and wanted a kid. And that's the theory that Tanya's sister, who I talked about earlier, is called she's named Alicia. She believes that Tanya was kidnapped as a child and raised as someone else and has been brainwashed into thinking she is so someone else, kind of like a JC Dugard kind of situation. So the reason that Alicia believes this is because there is a theory that there was this witness who reported seeing a woman dragging a unwilling girl down the sidewalk at one hundred and forty fourth Street near one oh fourth Avenue, which is close to kind of where the area that Tanya was abducted from disappeared from around the time of her disappearance. So potentially this could be the case. Tanya could still be out there living her life as someone who doesn't even know that she was Tanya Moral at one point. I don't know. It's really interesting. So Alisha was born, and unfortunately Jack and Vivian did divorce in the nineties, and it was just the emotional toll of Tanya's disappearance. They both unfortunately developed sub abuse issues, and Vivian passed away in twenty eleven and Jack passed away in two thousand and five. And we talked about John passing away. So the fact that three people, the remaining three people in this family besides Alicia because she was born after the fact, they all died, and they all died from substance abuse because they couldn't bear the thought of what happened to Tanya. It haunted them every single day. I'm sure it is a really sad, tragic story. There is more than just one victim in the story. Vivian, Jack, and John are all victims in the story, and the person that did this has to live with that because they didn't just take away one life, They took away three others. They took away four lives total, and poor Alicia is left with her whole family being gone. She never even got to know her sister because her sister was taken before she was born. But her whole family is gone because this one person, on this day in January of nineteen eighty three, made a choice to take Tanya away from her school, and her body has never been found. There is no proof that she was murdered, although there is people that believe that she was killed. Of course, Alicia believes that she is still alive and has been living under a different identity, has been brainwashed. And I feel like that is possible. I mean, we see it all the time where people are abducted and it's decades later before they're found, and they do have this whole new identity. You just never know. So I do want to talk about in two thousand and eight, in the summer of two thousand and eight, there was a basement that was excavated, and this was about twenty blocks away from where the family had lived in nineteen eighty three. And they basically did this because there was eight tip that the lead detective received from a woman who claimed that she had been a playmate of Tanya, and she was really suspicious because there was a hole in the basement of her family's home and she thought, oh, my god, maybe Tanya is here, kind of thing like they put Tanya here, somebody put Tanya here. But the excavation turned up nothing, and there was nothing found during that. I think she was just maybe trying to rationalize why there was a hole in her family's basement. So, thirty years after Tanya disappeared, there was a former school mate of Tanya's that came forward to say that Tanya had approached her on the day and said that she was going to go to the nearby seven eleven for lunch, and she said that she had some spare money. So the seven eleven was in the opposite direction of the Merle home and according to this woman, and she last saw Tanya walking alone in the southwest direction towards one hundred and forty fourth Street toward Plane Road. At one hundred and forty seventh Street. So this again, thirty years after the fact, she came forward and said, Tanya told me she was going to the seven to eleven. So we don't know, we don't know if this happened. If we don't know, we do not know what happened to Tanya. So this case is still considered the biggest missing child case in Edmonton's history. Investigators currently are at the theory that she was abducted and murdered, and they did say that the area that the Murles lived was back in the day very prevalent for rapists and pedophiles and stuff like that. And they have checked into all of those people that they potentially think could be involved and they do not have anything. Still, their biggest suspect is the unnamed mystery man, who was a family friend who was obviously a creeper. Regardless of what people say or people think, he is a creeper. It just sounds like I wish I could find his identity. I'm going to try and see if I can find anything, but so far I've come up with nothing. So that is the story of Tanya. I'm going to be sharing some pictures of Tanya and let's just share her story because somebody out there knows something. I know that I have quite a bit of Canadian listeners, and I'm going to try to start doing more Canadian cases because i feel like it's important for all of us to share all of these stories, regardless of if you live in the area where this case happened. We never know if Tanya is still out there, if she could be in the United States or elsewhere for that matter, So please share this episode, share the story, share the pictures I'm going to post of Tanya. I'm also going to post an age progress photo of Tanya, and her story matters. She deserves to be found and we deserve to know what happened to her. Unfortunately, most of her family has passed away. Her sister is still living, so if anything, we can get justice for her and bring some closure to Alicia who lives with not knowing what happened to her sister, the sister that she never even got a chance to know. So really really sad story. This one took me through a range of emotions from just everything. It's just a lot. The whole thing was just really really sad. So please share Tanya's story. I appreciate all of you for listening. As always, please subscribe to the podcast, rate the podcast if you're on Spotify or Apple. I really appreciate it. It's starting to push out two more people, which is great in the true crime community. People that like to listen to true crime. It's starting to come up as a suggestion for them, and it's great to me that after I don't know, like nine months, I guess it's been maybe more. I can't do math, but nine months, ten months, whatever it's been since I started this podcast, that it's grown the way it has. All of my listeners, everybody that I get to interact with on the Instagram and Facebook pages, I super appreciate you all for listening. Even if you don't listen and you just like a post every so often or share a post or interact in some way, shape or form, I appreciate you. We are doing the work that I feel like we need to do to get these stories out there and help solve some of these crimes. So thank you, thank you, thank you, and I will see you guys on Friday for a new episode. Bye. Also me again, I forgot to include this in the episode, and I wanted to added on. After Tanya disappeared, Tanya's parents set up the Tanya Meral Missing Children Society, which was the first type of anything of its stature in Canada and it was solely focused on finding missing children focusing on missing children, and the society did dissolve a few years after it was created because Tanya's disappearance just took such a toll on the family, but its legacy is not lost and the case of Tanya going missing resulted in the creation of the first Alberta chapter of Child find and the organization said that the case continues to serve as a reminder to parents to ensure that their children know what to do in the face of danger and how to avoid it. So, if nothing else, Tanya's case did serve as a reminder and lesson for Canada people in Canada to really sit with their kids and talk about what would happen if something somebody were to approach you, what would you do? So it opened up these conversations for parents to have with their children. Unfortunately, it had to happen for that conversation to even come up. But if nothing else, Tanya's family did do some good with what horrible tragedy happened to their family, so I just wanted to include that because I feel like it's important. And again, I will see you guys next week for a new episode. Bye.