The Disturbing Case of Douglas Garland

[Music] hey you and welcome my name is mike and in this whole video we're going to alberta people get given out to me for lumping all of canada in as one so there you go hope you're happy in this one we're going to roll pal cal gary and to the year 2014 if you can believe that douglas garland was a man with a plan a plan which he derived from a grudge he had and it's just uh oh man a lot of you actually suggested uh this old case to me which it which is tickety-boo so let's give it a go it's a house in the south west of calgary in the park hill neighborhood that this all began well you know it had actually been a bubbling for a while unbeknownst to most but this is when we'll begin jennifer o'brien a busy mother with three young lads was popping by that address on the monday morning of june 30th her parents alvin and kathy likness lived there and jennifer's five-year-old son nathan who adored his grandparents had just spent the night with them in the house jennifer and her four siblings grew up in when she arrived the door was open she walked in carrying her her young baby in her arms and she could instantly tell something was wrong there was a certain smell but the real giveaway was blood lots of blood everywhere the beds the walls floor cabinets but with all that there were no bodies instead drag marks and alvin kathy and young natan were nowhere to be found jennifer immediately called her husband telling him that you know somebody killed her son and parents and had taken the bodies with them wherever they went she then called the police who the first thing they said to jennifer was get inside your car lock the door when they arrived the palestinian immediately began searching every every nook and cranny in the house hoping that nathan you know maybe he had seen something and hidden he would be small enough but after searching everywhere in the house nada it was clear that alvin kathy and nathan had most likely been taken somewhere they found on the side door a lock which had been tampered with seems how whoever did this well they popped in that way no dna or evidence relating to the perpetrator was found in fact they discovered deadly squat at the house at this stage the blood matched that of all three people who were known to have been in the house and a tooth was discovered which may have belonged to alvin a missing person's investigation began an amber alert was issued for missing nathan this uh no [ __ ] sherlock was pretty quickly just about everywhere out of that incredible story in calgary the one the whole country is watching the disappearance of a five-year-old boy and his grandparents you are our superhero right now and we're going to bring you home very soon the father of missing five-year-old nathan o'brien breaking down as the entire family pleads for help locating their son and the child's missing maternal grandparents 66-year-old alvin lichtness and his 53-year-old wife kathy the best people that can be with you other than us is your grandparents amber alert was issued monday after nathan's mother went to pick him up at his grandparents calgary home and found the trio was gone there are signs they did not leave their home voluntarily police insist they still have hope that all three will be found alive tips came pouring in soaking them up and the police got loads of videos and cctv from nearby homes and businesses folks were pitching in to try and you know help solve such a horrific horrific crime but nobody actually knew anything and there were a lot of people to speak with uh though actually so it's believed that the crime happened on sunday night but on the saturday and sunday you know that weekend alvin and kathy had held like an estate sale they were selling off all their stuff as they were moving out of calgary so it could have been you know something to do with that someone just waltzed in having a goo maybe they came back later that night seems like it could be something dozens who are at the liknesses weekend estate sale responded to investigators request to stop by the community center with photos of their purchases for days police have been pouring through this home we can now confirm that a violent crime occurred in that residence based on the evidence i would say that uh somebody would be in medical distress see jennifer had actually been there that night with her baby and was gonna go stay in her parents house with nathan but by about quarter to 11 p.m her baby just wouldn't settle so she left her parents scaff nathan stayed and then a couple of hours later seems somebody broke in and [Music] it was four days later that the police released their first lead to the public it was a green truck a late 80s possibly early 90s ford f-150 and it had been on the street outside the house tonight well what happened happened we begin with breaking news and a possible new lead in the search for missing five-year-old nathan o'brien and his grandparents police releasing photos of this truck that they're looking for they're looking to identify the truck and the driver of the vehicle who they say may have information about the three missing and nathan and his grandparents now releasing that image turned out to be a very smart move because not long after the authorities they got a call saying yep i know that truck in fact i'm looking at the bloody maybe literally bloody thing right now that truck belonged to her very own brother the person who called was the sister of that brother and her name was paddy garland her brother's name was douglas scarland she was looking at that forward f-150 because she was staying at her parents house where her brother lived see she had come from her home about three hours away with her partner alan luckness and alan luckness who was trying to find his parents and his nephew douglas was taken in for questioning by the police he wasn't saying anything and a search was quickly undertaken on the 40-acre property where the garlands lived this was their strongest lead yet and out here in the countryside well it's the perfect place to hide somebody the police were hoping someone might still be alive you know they had been kidnapped but ultimately no one was found but some things were a duffel bag inside handcuffs knife club role playing i don't think so and so they kept searching the farm [Music] it is hot exhausting and frustrating work a fourth day of scouring fields for anything big or small we do know police are holding douglas garland whose parents own land near where today's search took place there's no indication otherwise so we are hopeful that we will find them alive one thing they did find was a burning barrel inside looked like nothing but ash over 300 officers would get involved in the search combing through nearby fields and wetlands the farm was an air tree 30 minutes north of calgary so everything in between was turned over in the meantime though douglas was click arrested not on you know murder or anything like that not yet though he was certainly you know in the crosshairs no he was arrested on identity theft charges officers spent yesterday searching a garbage dump nor northwest of calgary douglas garland who was named by police as a person of interest appeared in court on charges connected to the to an unrelated case 54 year old who has ties to bc remains in custody he is due back in court tomorrow yes he had assumed the identity of a fella named matthew hartley who died 30 years prior douglas actually had quite the backstory but uh we'll get to that point is that on the 7th of july one week after the well we can assume murders with that amount of blood he was arrested on the 11th however he was released on 750 bail now uh i don't know much about bail in alberta shockingly but uh spoiler alert douglas garland had had quite a quite a number of prior convictions so 750 dollars seems quite low especially as he's like you know your number one bozo so i think and i could be i could be completely wrong on this right but i think they set the bale so low so that he would get out and then the police would follow him and see what he did and where he went after all after all you know the chances of you know alvin kathy and nathan being still alive was very very low especially after that amount of blood was found in a house but if he did have them somewhere he would probably go there so when they released him they were like all right doug d back you listen here you listen to me you better pinky promise that you're not gonna go back to that farm in airdrie rice if he went back he'd be up [ __ ] creek and he said yep i'm not gonna go back there i'll go to a motel or something just layla be good did he no of course he didn't instead he tried to sneak back onto the farm crawling through like the bushes and [ __ ] roll the clip [Music] as usual this is a one-man infiltration mission i can't just knock on the door and ask them to let me in make sure nobody sees you got it okay i'm ready to go was filmed by predator a helicopter at about half one in the a.m it was later that day that douglas was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder at approximately 1 30 a.m today officers arrested a man in the erdery area he is currently in custody and charges of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder are pending the amber alert in relation to this file has been discontinued however the bodies of the three victims have not been found and we continue to ask people to come forward with any information they may have see they had since found a lot more during their searches of the garland property and it didn't look good for doug but i guess that means it did look good for the rest of humanity and also dogs charlie too [Music] inside that burn barrel under the ash they found bits of bone teeth and a pair of glasses they were unable to determine who owned the glasses but it was but it was either alvin or kathy [Music] a computer hard drive was critical it was filled with um well murdery [ __ ] a book titled how to kill without joy the complete how to kill book oh man what a title the death dealer's manual an autopsy book photos of people in adult diapers yeah he was obsessed he had a fetish for people in adult diapers don't know about that now lots of pictures of dead and dismembered and some pretty dark and disturbing pornos on his google history stuff like most painful torture human dissection bone grinder blood removal solution and information on how to crack the lock that was found well cracked at the scene in the house knives gun parts shackles some in child size more adult diapers teeth fragments bits of bone blood-stained footprints that matched those found at the crime scene wigs 89 pairs of both men and women's shoes a straightjacket and meat hooks on which was dna of all tree victims but uh the crowning piece of evidence right when this would go to trial it was something that came from the heavens literally [Music] at half 9 a.m on the 1st of july the day after the scene at the house was discovered a surveyor's plane was flying over airdrie snapping away pics of the town and surrounding countryside it would take a picture every three seconds and one of the photos was directly over the garland farm it showed tree bodies lying face down on the ground near sheds two were big enough to be adults naked with a cloth over their waist they appeared to have been decapitated the turd was smaller a child's eyes and lying to the side when the plane flew over again a day later they were gone so why did this happen well there's no good reason but i'll give you dogs see alvin luckness was a businessman and he was doing said business with douglas alvin was an inventor and was in oil and gas exploration and he hired doug to work on a pump to separate oil and water to do some wiring for it this was back in 2006. the relationship between douglas and alvin came to an end in early 2007 when douglas just stopped answering calls then alvin patented the pump which douglas worked on now he patented it he never made any money off it so it's not like douglas was like cheated out of millions here or anything i think it was kind of just like credit but that rubbed douglas really the wrong way and this would no way it douglas for years and uh also remember though you know douglas's sister paddy was married to alan alvin's son so he's probably like constantly reminded of it but yeah doug had previously been kicked out of college well medical school actually for cheating this was after he had a mental breakdown he had been arrested numerous times on weapons violations and assault but nothing ever came of it when he was 33 he was arrested for running a meth lab at his farm and so he fled to british columbia and that's where he stole the identity of matthew hartley a 14 year old boy that had been killed 12 years previous in a car crash so he lived in vancouver under the name matthew hartley for seven whole years he worked at a lab but after he was fired he collected unemployment under the dead boy's name he was later caught and spent six months in jail but he was diagnosed as mentally ill and so in the early morning hours of june 30th he broke into the likness home attacked attacked alvin kathy and nathan dragged them into his truck it's believed they would have been alive when he took them and that's it what he did after that probably quite disturbing but um but nobody knows the bodies were never found ever they were likely burnt but um only douglas really knows douglas garland goes on trial this happens today in calgary he's of course the man charged with the murders of five-year-old nathan o'brien and his grandparents alvin and kathy lichnis the three disappeared back in june 2014 but their bodies have never been found the trial began in january 2017. the second degree murder charge was upped to first degree for killing nathan douglas pled not guilty and showed no emotion at all throughout the trial douglas garland was a lonely man with few friends that's the picture his parents painted today as they took the witness stand on day two of his court of queen's bench trial garland had planned the killing of the likenesses for several years over a grudge he had against litnis alvin lignus for a business deal that had gone wrong there's no evidence forensic or scientific that puts douglas garland in the home of the three people he's accused of killing those are the words of his defense lawyer kim ross who in final arguments today suggested that without that evidence garland should be acquitted of three counts of first-degree murder on february 16 2017 douglas was found guilty on tree counts of first degree murder he was sentenced to life without parole for the maximum of 75 years theoretically douglas garland would be 129 years old before he can apply for parole justice david gates called garland's crimes a case of cunning cruel abduction torture and murder it's been pivotal it's been brutal it's been difficult i think people are going to feel some sense of relief in the outcome now but it's a story that's going to stick with calgarians for a long time yet in her victim impact statement jennifer o'brien who lost parents and a son said i take comfort in knowing that douglas garland will be locked up for life but she told the court sometimes i'm angry other days i just cry all day it is particularly hard watching nathan's friends grow she said knowing i will never watch my son grow or score the winning goal he has since appealed which went over about as well as a turd and a punch bowl not a wasn't a popular one overall the crown says the defense is cherry picking pieces of evidence misrepresenting it and ignoring the wider scope of the investigation and there you have it one of the most disturbing cases i've covered lately i think for sure harrowing in every way such a brutal attack you know on on three innocent people one of whom was a five-year-old boy for a grudge that happened seven years previous over kind of nothing since then the nathan o'brien children's foundation has been set up in his memory which would you love to see to end i should point out uh that on the day douglas was convicted when he was brought to to prison he was attacked by several inmates quote it's alleged several men assaulted the 57 year old man causing serious injuries garland himself looked much the same in court but hunched over and having trouble to walk as it has also been reported he's been assaulted in prison multiple times since his 2017 conviction which you also love to see thank you so much for watching i really appreciate it i'll see you as always sure real soon in the next one till then take care of yourselves [Music] you

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 1,236,516

Rating: 4.9274616 out of 5

Keywords: that chapter, douglas garland, nathan o'brien, alvin and kathy liknes

Id: 6tsAu_GjM3Q

Length: 21min 37sec (1297 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 02 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/BabyStace]

I’m surprised I’ve never heard of this case. Great video.

[u/maw198]

Just watched this. Really really got to me this one. Absolute piece of shit.

[u/Georg13V]

The ones with (seemingly) no motive fuck me up the most :(

[u/kween_of_the_kitties]

Givin this a gooo over dinner. Can’t wait. I look forward to Mike’s videos every week 🖤

[u/pvb57]

Great video, I remember it well, but didn't know about all the blood in the house or how low that bail was set. DG is a piece of sh!te and even 75 years is too short.

[u/Jeditard]

A real sadist this one!

[u/Newstargirl]

This is a horrific case that happened in my city. Garland is an absolutely disgusting individual .

[u/LighterTheif]

So messed up

[u/diedielavinia]

Mike outdid himself with this one; I watched it last night and it’s been weighing on my mind since. Precious little Nathan’s smile will haunt me forever. What he must have went through...

This man is evil personified.