[ ♪♪ ] [boat motor running] >> I don't wanna to swim in the lake. >> It almost makes my hair stand on end, to be honest with you, just to think someone was dumped back here. >> It's shallow, it's muddy, it's weedy. You could make somebody disappear pretty easy, right? [ ♪♪ ] >> We heard so many stories. Everybody's got a story. Why are the old people still missing? >> Somebody somewhere knows something. >> That's the Muskoka mystery, and everyone has their version on what happened. >> Announcer: On this edition of The Fifth Estate, Bob McKeown investigates the unexplained disappearance of four senior citizens and what clues lie inside the police files kept secret for almost 20 years. >> I think you know that the Ontario Provincial Police has been investigating you over the years. [ ♪♪ ] >> Bob: The Muskoka region north of Toronto is known for its natural beauty, often lavish cottage homes and outdoor fun in the sun. But shrouded by these lakes and forests, Muskoka has a darker side. A mystery revolving around one local family that reverberates here to this day. This is that family, the Laans, spelled L-double-A-N. The siblings attended high school in Huntsville, Ontario and played sports there. And as the generations gathered for this wedding, they appeared to be one big, happy, familial unit. One of the Laan brothers, Paul, was getting married. According to a family blog, God had brought him and his future wife together. The Laans have always professed to be a God-fearing group, sharing their faith online with postings like this one. "We are too weak because we are sinners and we cannot fight the devil." "We need to pray to God for help in our lives." But as you will see, that mention of sin and the devil would prove ironic for four members of the Laan family. Though outwardly, Christianity seemed an important part of their lives. >> I met Kathrine Laan for the first time in 1992. >> Bob: Alice Peddie first encountered Kathrine at the Muskoka Christian school where Alice was a teacher and Kathrine volunteered as school treasurer. Both had kids who were students there. >> We just had a lot of interaction at school, back and forth, and a lot of interaction because I'd pick up Jimmy, I'd drop off Maryka, I'd pick up Maryka so, um, I'd say we were friends. >> Bob: It's about the same time that some of the Laans, Kathrine, her brothers Paul, Walter and David and their uncle, Ron Allen got involved in a new family business. They set up three retirement facilities in the woods outside Huntsville, including this one on the shores of Siding Lake, their brochures touted attractive, affordable rooms in a cozy home-like atmosphere with on-site nurses and dieticians and activities like bowling and woodwork. The Laans made their pitch to less-fortunate senior citizens, especially Christians, claiming to be doing God's work. Were you aware of the retirement home? >> Yes. >> Bob: What did you know about that? >> Yes, she would go to Toronto and find people who had no connection to any other people really and she would entice them and say, you know, I have a nice retirement home up north and it's a beautiful place. >> Bob: For the elderly and infirm with little or no family support, the offer must have been like a dream come true. Invited to live in the idyllic Muskoka region with room, board and care for a price they could actually afford on their government cheques. It all appeared to be perfect. But not for long. >> It's unreal that one family can have so many criminals. >> Bob: Geoff Vander Kloet is a contractor in Muskoka who first heard whispers about the Laans' past from long-time residents of the community. >> I knew an old guy in the neighbourhood who talked about them when they were kids, they played baseball and they were always-- were always finding a way to cheat the system. >> Bob: But cheating in the local amateur baseball league would turn out to be the least of their problems. The oldest Laan brother, David, had a criminal record for breaking and entering and theft. His younger brother, Walter Laan's record began at the age of 18 with property offenses, breaking and entering, fraud, even impersonating a police officer. And by 25, their sister Kathrine Laan had been to jail for drugs, theft and extortion, but by the mid-'90s, a mother and a church-goer, that all seemed to be in her past. And it might have stayed that way if not for a twist of fate at the Muskoka Christian school where contractor Geoff Vander Kloet, a board member there, became suspicious of how volunteer treasurer Kathrine Laan was handling the school's money. >> She never had any reports for anyone. She was supposed to have a financial reports, she didn't show up for board meetings. Finally at a meeting, I was just like doesn't anybody smell a rat, probably six weeks or so later, got a phone call to meet in Huntsville, we found out that she was stealing from the school. >> Bob: Indeed, Kathrine Laan would eventually be arrested, charged and convicted of stealing about $30,000 from Muskoka Christian school. Teacher and friend, Alice Peddie. >> I think the first word that comes to mind was betrayed. Like I'm a very trusting person, and I felt betrayed professionally at the school and betrayed as a friend. She professed to be a Christian, and to do this when you profess to be a Christian is so un-Christian. >> Bob: But it would be those retirement homes that really got people in Muskoka talking. When Geoff Vander Kloet got a firsthand glimpse of what was going on inside the Laans' facilities. >> I was taken back by the condition of the place and the conditions that they had to live in. In the room next was an old man just laying in bed, he was just laying there moaning and groaning, it just seemed very strange to me that this man would just be in an open room moaning and groaning, and thought to myself, boy, if my grandfather was here, he'd be going in the truck with me right now. >> Bob: The Laans boasted about a staff dietician. But police would later report residents might receive meals of Kraft dinner three times a day. They say they discovered 11 elderly people crammed into a four-bedroom house, with mattresses on the floor. Ralph Grant, Doogie as he was known to friends, was one of them. >> He was fast and furious, for want of a word. He was always seemed to be on the go. >> Bob: In his younger years, Doogie was a man about town in the automotive parts business. But his nephew Howard Grant says by his late 60s, he'd fallen on hard times. He was told by police that Doogie was one of those recruited by the Laan family while living in a homeless shelter in downtown Toronto. >> I think he was taken advantage, myself. I think if somebody promised you a nice, quiet life for half the price, you know, it's kind of a holding up a lollipop to a child, you know, like, you know, it turned out to be a horror show. >> Bob: Soon, there would be more questions, especially about what the Laans were doing with their residents' money. And then the Muskoka mystery would deepen when, one by one, elderly people living with the Laans began to disappear. Starting with the woman known locally as the cat lady. [ ♪♪ ] [ ♪♪ ] >> Bob: In the mid-1990s, a number of so-called Christian retirement homes began operating in the dense woods of Muskoka region near Huntsville, Ontario. With idyllic names like Fern Glen Manor and Cedar Pines. They were owned by members of one local family, the Laans, with a clientele of lonely, elderly people promised affordable home-like care. If that sounded too good to be true, it was. That elder care business and the family behind it were about to attract the attention of an up and coming young detective with the Ontario Provincial Police. In 1998, Erin Burke was assigned what seemed a routine missing persons case. At the time, she had no idea where it all would lead. >> I was assigned to investigate a possible missing female by the name of Joan Lawrence. >> Bob: The OPP would not allow Erin Burke to talk to us so we've dramatized her investigation. The words you hear are spoken by an actor, but they're taken directly from police documents that detail detective Burke's inquiry into the disappearance of Joan Lawrence. >> She's an elderly woman who was also known in the town of Huntsville as the cat lady. >> Bob: Known as the cat lady because on any given day, Joan Lawrence could be seen walking the 13 kilometres from the Laan property into town to buy food for the dozens of cats she kept. Joan Lawrence lived here, not in the main residence, but right behind it in a tiny garden shed. >> It has no insulation, no running water, little or no heat, even in the depths of winter and a door that wouldn't close. It's just 8 x 10, which she shared with 30 of her cats. Detective Burke learned that for this hovel, Joan Lawrence paid the Laans around $700 a month. Almost all the money she had to support herself. >> There was no other place, she was trapped. She had no place to go. That was it. >> Bob: Unlike most in Muskoka, Linda Charbonneau got to know the real Joan Lawrence. Every day, she would come to the grocery store where Linda worked for free coffee and friendship. That's how Linda learned why Joan was paying the Laans so much for that falling-down shed. >> Her cats meant so much to her that she put up with living in those living conditions for the sake of keeping her beloved pets, her family. >> Bob: But Joan Lawrence wasn't always the Muskoka cat lady. It took some digging, but we were able to find out about her past. Born in Ottawa in 1921, by her 20s, she worked as a copywriter for a Toronto newspaper. No small feat for a woman in the 1940s. What's more, she was a published poet. >> The window of the florist shop was gay with flowers in an orderly array. Happy that it had seen the great outside, the little flowers smiled at me and died. >> Bob: "The Little White Rose" was printed in the "Toronto Star" in 1941, though it seems to foreshadow the troubles that lay ahead for the 70-something Joan. >> I don't want to say it this way, but that she was somebody at one time, she was somebody. And now she was just the cat lady. >> Bob: But according to police reports, in the fall of 1998, the cat lady disappeared. And when she was officially declared a missing person, OPP detective constable Erin Burke got the case. >> Our source informed us that he had not seen her for at least three weeks, which was highly unusual. >> Bob: Burke says those closest to Joan Lawrence said she was last seen around the beginning of October. And according to Erin Burke, she also learned that when Lawrence disappeared, she had been complaining about her missing tax refund, a seemingly minor matter that would turn out to be anything but. Her friend Linda Charbonneau says Joan was desperate to find the refund cheque she was expecting. Nearly $750, a fortune to the cat lady. >> Yeah, she just asked me if I got my income tax back. >> Right. >> And I went, yeah, I got it like a month ago or a long time ago. I said why? She goes, "Well, I filed, I filed a while ago, and I just never got my cheque," and I said, "Oh, I guess you better look into that." So she goes, "I'm going to look into that." >> Bob: Linda says she understood what Joan intended to do was to confront her landlords about that missing tax cheque. Because the Laans sometimes picked up her mail, she suspected they might have had something to do with it. And did you hear back about what she found? >> No, I didn't-- I don't think I remember seeing her after that. >> Bob: Literally, that was the last time you may have seen her. >> I think so, yeah. >> Bob: What's more, detective Burke reported that the missing tax refund cheque had already been cashed. Endorsed with a signature that was not Joan Lawrence's. So who did sign the cheque and where was the money? And where was Joan? With money now a possible motive, Burke believed her missing persons case had become a homicide investigation. >> I don't believe that Lawrence moved off of the property. Her body may be buried on the property. >> Bob: The search of that Laan property began in the area around Joan Lawrence's shed. However, no remains were found. But if Burke's search of the land and woods didn't produce a body, what about the murky Muskoka waters, she wondered. [ ♪♪ ] >> Due to the fact that the Laan property is located on Siding Lake, it's possible that Lawrence's deceased body is located in this lake. >> Bob: But in the ink-like depths of Siding Lake, what started as a four-day search became two tedious weeks of combing the muddy, weedy bottom looking for Lawrence. Again, in the end, police turned up nothing. And then the years began to pass. Still no body. Still no case. It has now been two decades since Joan Lawrence vanished from that Laan property outside Huntsville. Searches would continue on and off, ultimately Erin Burke would be transferred away from Muskoka. Then she left the OPP. The case still unresolved. Today, almost 20 years later, the Ontario Provincial Police still insist the investigation remains open. Though they refused all of our requests for an interview. >> And then it even says that they're looking for her deceased remains. >> Bob: So earlier this summer, The Fifth Estate teamed up with the Walrus Magazine and went to court asking for access to police files that have been sealed for decades. >> In the very beginning, they were looking for-- they were looking at a cheque. >> Bob: We got almost 500 pages of previously-secret documents. For the first time, it's now possible for our editorial team to piece together the OPP investigation from years ago. What the police believe happened, and who they think was responsible. >> Is there any indication whose signature it is? Do you see that anywhere? >> I think there's a lot of inference about whose signature it might be, but I don't think we actually see the name. >> Bob: Call it inference or following the money but by digging deeper into Joan Lawrence's finances, detective Burke reported finding something she believed could unlock the case. >> I telephoned the Toronto Dominion Bank. She confirmed that Lawrence had an account there and added that it was a joint account. >> Bob: It was the beginning of a money trail that would lead back to the Laan family. When Burke said she learned that for some reason Joan Lawrence had a joint bank account with none other than her landlord, David Laan. Police say they also found out that often when Joan Lawrence made a withdrawal when her monthly cheque came in, she immediately handed the money to a man waiting outside the bank. Lawrence's friend Linda Charbonneau recalls seeing that person, too. >> And there was one time that I saw her at the front of the store where the cashiers are with his hand out and her just-- just-- just piling his hand up with money and when he got his stash, which looked like a large amount, he turned his back and just walked out the door and just left her there. >> Bob: And according to Erin Burke's report, a number of local residents said they frequently saw David Laan with Joan Lawrence. And another name kept coming up. The Laans' uncle, Ron Allen. >> It has been determined from several witness interviews that Allen had a great deal of contact with Lawrence. Allen also picked up her mail or would drive her to pick up her mail. He drove her to the food bank. He drove her to pick up her cat food. And he would drive her to the bank to get her money. >> Bob: And here's what police found really surprising. David Laan was Joan Lawrence's landlord, he had access to her bank account. He and his uncle Ron Allen gave her rides to town and saw her virtually every day. But when the cat lady disappeared from their property, none of the Laans ever reported her missing. It was after that when Erin Burke spoke with David Laan several times, police documents show he claimed he didn't know where Joan Lawrence was but then gave varying versions of what had happened. First saying she was afraid of the police and in hiding. But police say his story then changed. She had gone to New York to see a wealthy friend. She was visiting Vancouver. She was on vacation in Hawaii, all hard to believe of someone with barely enough money to feed her cats. >> We're right in the area where she disappeared from, and it's a pretty remote area. >> Bob: Ron House is former mayor of Huntsville, Ontario. He recalls a strange interaction he had with David Laan's brother, Walter, after the cat lady went missing. >> He was programing me. >> Bob: What do you mean? >> Well, he was trying to make sure that I-- that I knew that they had been very good to Joan Lawrence and that she just-- she just disappeared. They had, if my memory is correct, he was making me very well aware that they had taken her in and that they were the good people and she all of a sudden disappeared. And they had no idea what happened to her. >> Bob: But the documents show detectives were sceptical about that and Erin Burke reported she found another key clue in Joan Lawrence's bank records for that joint account she shared with her landlord, David Laan. >> The last activity on the account was at the Canadian Tire store in Bracebridge. >> Bob: Police found that last activity suspicious because it was done by bank card. But no card had ever been issued to Joan Lawrence. Police say the only card on that account was issued in the name of David Laan. And here's the thing, Joan's friends said they hadn't seen her since the beginning of October but police report that throughout October to mid-November, that bank card in David Laan's name was used at least six times. This is David Laan today in Toronto. He's been publicly silent about the case for nearly 20 years. But questions about what happened still follow him. There may be a legitimate reason for him to have had access to the bank account of one of his elderly residents, to help manage her money or pay her rent. But wouldn't he also be likely to know where she went or at least to have reported her missing? But then the police investigation would dramatically expand when they discovered that three other senior citizens had also gone missing from Laan retirement homes. Along with their money. >> Bob: The search for the missing cat lady, Joan Lawrence, would go on for years. 1998. 1999. 2000. But no body was found, and as far as we know, no murder weapon or surprise witnesses. But as the Ontario Provincial Police investigation unfolded, detective Erin Burke would come upon a startling fact. Joan Lawrence was not the only one who disappeared from retirement homes run by the Laan family. Incredibly, she discovered three other senior citizens were missing as well. 70-something John Crofts, a shoe salesman from Toronto. Irish-born farmworker, John Semple, in his early 90s. And Ralph Grant, 70 years old, from Nova Scotia, known as Doogie. And when they disappeared, the Laans never reported them missing. [ ♪♪ ] >> Bob: And there was something else. As detectives dug deeper into the finances of those three men, they realized members of the Laan family had been stealing tens of thousands of dollars a year in Canada and old age pension money. In all, almost $100,000 worth. Eventually, Kathrine Laan would be convicted and court records indicate she got a nine-month conditional sentence. Her brothers Paul and Walter pled guilty to numerous counts of theft and fraud for which they got conditional sentences, probation, and orders to repay tens of thousands of dollars. But though convicted, none of the Laan family members spent any time behind bars for stealing that money. As for the eldest brother, David Laan, his theft charges were withdrawn, no explanation publicly given. And two decades after those four senior citizens disappeared, no one has ever been charged. >> I've heard, yeah, a number of different explanations. >> Bob: As our editorial team scoured the police documents, the question was why have there never been charges? Muskoka writer Zander Sherman has followed this case for years. >> It's hard to say conclusively that someone has been murdered when you don't have a body but the people have never shown up anywhere, they never boarded a bus, they never checked into a shelter, they've never gone back to the family. >> Never used their OHIP cards. >> Mmm-hmm. >> Their health cards. >> Mmm-hmm, yeah. >> They vanished. [ ♪♪ ] >> Bob: So how did four elderly people simply vanish from the Muskoka bush, especially given their close ties, financially and otherwise, to the Laans? [ ♪♪ ] >> Well, I think there was a number of suspicions around town. I think their business dealings certainly had people wondering what was going on. >> Bob: As Huntsville mayor at the time, Ron House received regular briefings on the case from the OPP. >> If there was fraudulent activity regarding their bank accounts and their pension cheques and whatever, it would appear to a lot of people, including myself, that there obviously was a game plan. And part of that game plan had to be for the disappearance of the individuals. >> Bob: Ron House believes another part of that plan was the isolated setting of those retirement houses. >> In a remote location like this, somewhat remote location, where they bring the residents here, they would not, then, know how to leave here and not have the capability, whether it was physically, mentally or financially, to leave. [ ♪♪ ] >> Did you know about the story of Joan Lawrence when you first arrived? >> No, I didn't. >> Bob: Today, Tim Harrow lives in the house on Siding Lake that was once Laan property. Now ground zero for the Muskoka mystery. >> Just so many rumours around town that bodies were missing on the property and the thing is you live where there's missing bodies and that's where Joan the cat lady lives, so we started researching into who's Joan, who's the cat lady, what does all that mean? >> Bob: What it means now, for Tim Harrow and others in the area, is unanswered questions about what many here are convinced is a multiple murder. >> I don't want to swim in the lake, first response is I don't want to swim in the lake till I know where they are. >> Yeah. >> And also the question of why. >> Bob: Susan Peleikis and her husband Scott have also lived on the lake. They say this case has cast a pall over the area so that a backyard discovery can seem sinister. That's when Susan found a set of false teeth in her garden. >> So I dug them up here, I turned them over, and found the false teeth kind of impacted in the clay mud. I right away told Scott about it. I phoned my mom about it. And for a couple of days, the teeth just remained there because I was not sure if I wanted to get involved and then my mom kept convincing me there's no closure for these seniors so you got to get involved. >> Bob: The police came and got the teeth but since then, she's heard nothing. The same official silence about this case that's continued for almost two decades. >> I just think that the people who done this to the seniors, I don't think that they're all thinking with a level head and I think that there's a concern of fear with the people you're dealing with. >> Whether they're still in the area, whether they're not, we don't know. >> We don't know, yeah, yeah, if someone's getting away with murders times four and that's a very uneasy feeling. >> Bob: But if those four elderly people were indeed murdered, what happened to their bodies? Local contractor and outdoorsman Geoff van der Kloet says in the wilds of Muskoka, the possibilities are endless. >> It almost makes my hair stand on end to be honest with you just to think that someone is dumped back here and no one's found them and, you know, I think of the families that they're missing from, and you just think how terrible is this and, yeah, just driving through there, I'll never think of this spot the same. >> Bob: And again, to this day, they have never been found. Not John Crofts or John Semple. Joan Lawrence or Doogie Grant. Today, Grant's nephew Howard has no doubt that foul play was involved. >> I think it's obvious. Myself, I would think either Doogie passed away natural causes and they disposed of the body or he was helped. That's my-- >> Bob: You say he was helped, he was killed? >> Yep. >> Bob: But what about the classic elements of a crime? Means, motive, opportunity. You might understand how the circumstantial aspects here could be persuasive to some. [ ♪♪ ] >> Bob: In fact, after several months of her investigation for the OPP, detective Erin Burke apparently was persuaded. In the police applications to search the lake at the Laan property, Burke swore a statement in which she explicitly states she believes the disappearance of 77-year-old Joan Lawrence was first-degree murder. And while many of the details in the documents we obtained were blacked out, in that search warrant application, two important names are right there in black and white. Who did Erin Burke identify as the suspects in Lawrence's homicide? Her landlord David Laan and his uncle Ron Allen. But that was as far as it went. No charges would ever be laid in the disappearance of Joan Lawrence or any of the elderly men. So 20 years later, where are the members of the Laan family today? This is a Facebook photo of Kathrine Laan from a few years ago. We've found over a dozen different addresses for her in Canada and the U.S., from Ontario to Washington, Oregon, Florida, and Tennessee. She's also recently been seen back in Muskoka in the town of Bracebridge. If her whereabouts are uncertain, it seems she may prefer it that way. As for Paul Laan, he teaches English at a Christian university in South Korea, with posts about exotic travel on a family blog. >> Paul! >> What are you doing? >> Look at me for a second, sweetie. You're on video. >> Wow. Hi. >> Bob: Today, Walter Laan is in Toronto, recently released after an 11-year prison term unrelated to the Muskoka mystery. When the retirement homes went under, he continued his life of crime, invading the houses of elderly people and robbing them using a knife or a gun. He's now a freelance repairman with an ad online advertising a senior citizen discount. And what about eldest brother David Laan, and Laan uncle Ron Allen whom the OPP named as the suspects in the first-degree murder of Joan Lawrence? Well, Ron Allen has apparently moved away from Muskoka. He's never responded to our requests for comment. But we located David Laan in Toronto where he does plumbing and heating jobs along with his brother. We caught up with them recently when he stopped for coffee on the way to work. >> Mr Laan, hi, I'm Bob McKeown from The Fifth Estate at CBC News. We would like to talk to you about Joan Lawrence and the others who disappeared. I think you know that the Ontario Provincial Police have been investigating you over the years. They believe Joan Lawrence was the victim of a first-degree murder. And they believe you and your uncle, Ron Allen, are the suspects. >> Bob: When we asked, David Laan had not a word about what happened to the four elderly people who went missing. No explanation, not even a denial. >> You never reported them missing. Mr Laan respectfully declines our request for an interview. [ ♪♪ ] >> Bob: The Muskoka mystery began with the disappearance of the cat lady. To this day, those who knew her best insist she would never have simply walked away of her own accord as the Laans claim she did. Because she would never have abandoned her cats. Weeks later, when police searched the Laan property, there was a chilling scene. No sign of Joan Lawrence. But what they found were the remains of a number of cats who had been shot. We can't know who pulled the trigger. To Joan's friend Linda, it's a final mystery in the story of the cat lady. >> I asked the police, and they said it's an on-going investigation, they couldn't tell me what happened to the cats. >> Well, at least some of them, I don't know the exact number, were found with bullets. >> God. She would have died for her cats but maybe that's what happened. Oh, she wouldn't leave her cats. >> Bob: 20 years, four people gone, no one held accountable. Ontario cottage country still haunted by the Muskoka mystery. [ ♪♪ ]
