Transcript of S9 E4: ‘Til The Day I Die

For years, millions of people tuned in to watch Ruby Franky raise her six children on YouTube. Then this happened.

I'm on the address of your emergency.

Okay.

Tell me exactly what's happened.

I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help.

I'm Kathleen Goldtar, and this week on Crime Story, The Downfall of Ruby Franky and what really happened when the camera turned off. Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a CBC podcast. The following episode contains difficult subject matter, including references to sexual assault. Please take care. Okay, so Maryanne, tell me everything.

Last night, we had an officer appear at our door at 11:30 at night and asked us to get in touch with Detective Gilpen, then called her, and she let me know that Anthony Wringle had been arrested and charged with murder of my daughter.

Maryanne says police haven't told her much more about this the second time Ringle's been arrested for Christie's murder. The first time was almost 10 years earlier, and the charges were stayed, and the case went nowhere. It's been nine months since my CBC doc, aird, Wringle is now 44 years old.

Christine Heron would have been now 34 years of age.

The OPP press conference at the Waukerton Police Station, filled with media, family, and people from the area.

There is no happy ending to this investigation for Maryanne Christine's mom. I know that this has been a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows for the family since it began over 19 years ago. It is my hope-Detective Inspector Christine Gilpen.

Gilpen had given me very little information during my own investigation, and she's certainly not revealing a lot now either. So what's changed that's allowed police to re-arrest Ringle?

I was going to ask, and this is no disrespect to the family, but I have to ask, have you found Christine?

I can't discuss the evidence that we have discovered, and I don't want to cause any problems with the court process. So I'm unable to provide you with that information at this time.

Police never found Christine on any of their searches after Wringle's confession, and several mistakes that the court determined were made by OPP investigator Mark Wright caused the Crown to stay the charges against Wringle. Detective Inspector Gilpen messaged me after my CBC documentary, aird saying, So you know, I, we had nothing to do with what Mark Wright did. That was just him.

There has been a certain level of frustration with the length of this, and some directed at the OPP and police that had handled before this.

With no real answers forthcoming from police, the reporters press in on Maryanne, who is seated off to the side at the back of the room. We'll take questions and answers. One of them asks Maryanne how she feels after hearing the OPP announcement. On what you just heard.

I'm just glad that it's finally gotten to this point where they've been able to arrest him again for her murder. We're very thankful for that, and hopefully, justice will be had.

The word closure comes out quite a bit.

I mean, that- There is no such thing as closure. No.

The word closure is one that most of the victims' families I've worked with despise. Here, reporters are forcing the question before Maryanne knows anything. What happened with Wringle? And will any of it lead to us actually knowing what happened to Chrissy on May 18, 1993? I'm David Riddgen, and this is Someone Knows Something Season 9, The Christine Heron Case, episode Episode 4, Till the Day I Die.

I was down in London for a good three months. I'm walking.

What was that, man? Hmm? What happened?

They tried to charge me on attempted murder.

Who what? Attempting murder? Yeah. He's like a barfighter, something like that.

Well, some check went missing, and they tried to pin it on me.

Oh. Attempting murder.

Seventy-five days after my CBC documentary went to air in May 2012, police begin field operations involving Ringle in the same trailer park where I had confronted him.

But it was like a birthright They come in and I haven't even talked to a lawyer yet. This is the reason why he got thrown out of court. Because they did not give me my right.

This police operation proceeded over several months, guided by Detective Inspector Gilpen, and involved a handful of corps officers, undercover men and women whom I shall refer to as UCs.

I phoned a lawyer three times, and the last time I phoned a lawyer, I said to the lawyer, They want me to do something that I don't want to do. After that, they fucking took me somewhere.

And made me do what they wanted to do?

Yeah.

So they didn't find, right?

Yes, they didn't find nothing.

So there's no body.

Yeah. They fucking wasted their time.

How did they charge you with murder? There's no fucking murder? Seriously. How was it murder if there's no proof of murder.

The UCs perform and stage scenarios intended to gain Wringle's trust and get him to talk, posing as down on their luck new arrivals to town. We've excluded the UC's identities and altered their voices under court order. This is the first time that these undercover recordings have ever been made public. It gives us an inside look into the police investigation of Wringle and what led to his arrest for a second time.

You need to restart.

No, no restart.

Ringo and two UCs are sitting on beige couches arranged in an L-shape in a starkly furnished apartment in Chesley, Ontario, trying to get a video game to work.

Maybe you got to shut off this system and reboot it. Put it back in.

It did.

The operation moved to this apartment near the end of October 2012 because the trailer park shut down for winter.

Just unfug everything in.

They are all facing a television across the room that the game displays on. But this TV area also hosts a hidden camera that records everything that goes on in front of it.

Those are there, man. It gets the day off. We're going to Walmart first thing in the morning. Walmart open now?

The room, and it seems the UCs themselves, are rigged with hidden microphones that also record. They call Ringo Dozer because of the way he likes to drive into or over other cars in the game.

That's going to be fun.

This rather empty-looking setting would serve as a launch pad for trying to extract a confession from Ringo.

So did he know you were banging?

A hundred %, yeah. I had to tell him. When this all came to the surface like that, I had to tell him. But that's the thing. He doesn't fucking judge me. He knows, and I told him.

One of the main stories you see's Try to Drive Home to Wringle about themselves involves a landscaper who is enduring a tough divorce and losing everything. The other you see is a friend of the landscaper and presents himself as having been caught in a relationship with an underage girl, a 14-ish year-old that seems to fit Christine's age. The UC involved in this underage relationship gets away with it, the story goes, because the landscaper stands up for him and can be trusted.

He has got a heart of gold. He's got your trust. He's got back always. And you know what? Anytime you ever doubt that, just remember that fucking story I just told you today.

It's all meant to position and present a predicament of sharing shared experience that they hope might stimulate Ringo to open up and confide in them.

I didn't bring this on me. She's the one that came on to me since she was like, How old? Wearing her fancy stuff.

Even if you got a lawyer, your lawyer would go and question her, right? And she said the wrong fucking thing.

But while the story of the UC's affair with a teenage girl gets Ringo somewhat engaged, he says nothing specific to Christine.

That's probably that one at the top where the bull and alley is.

Eight bull or smucker.

Yeah, see?

The UCs constantly shift their reproach, trying to build rapport.

Well, did you have your beer? Mm-hmm.

They develop talking opportunities featuring Coors Light, pizzas, restaurants, pool halls, ice fishing, a strip club, and even exchanging pornography DVDs.

Up here, it was like nothing on her arm. And you could see the bra structure at the back because it went like this. It looked down.

During the operation, Wringle would talk about young women as being objects, objects of his desire.

Not unless you're actually following them. But then you got to make it look like you're not following them.

Wringle would tell the UCs that he knew where many young women lived in the Chesley and Hanover area, that he had followed them and techniques he uses, such as circling back or doing parallels to make sure you don't get caught.

Excuse me, but I got a hurdle in the... Please. You little bitch.

On a trip to a London, Ontario Mall, Ringo spies young women he describes to the UCs as being under 16 years old. One of them in particular, Ringo says, is about 13, wearing a pink sweater and leotard. Ringo wants to show her to the UCs, but he can't find her again, and it frustrates him.

Shouldn't be walking around like that, teasing somebody's cock.

No wonder, parents let her out.

Yeah.

What were you guys thinking?

Right?

But these simpatico trust building scenes still do not bring Ringo any closer to talking specifically about past connection to Christine Heron. In late November, a more direct method is used.

So what is? Oh, what's this?

What is that?

Anybody else coming in? Missing A poster showing a photo of Chrissy and the basics of her disappearance are put up by police operatives around town, one right on the UC's car windshield. Wringle picks it up, but initially turns it so that the UC can't see it.

Anybody else got one of them?

Wringle shows the poster to the UC.

I've seen a kid before. Somebody just go missing her.

Oh, no. She's been gone since 1993.

And they're just fucking looking for her now.

Okay, so...

Ringle throws the poster on the floor of the vehicle.

Maybe the kid ran away and doesn't want to be found.

Two weeks later, the missing Christie poster comes up again.

Here's the thing. Okay, I've seen her pet her one day, and I actually definitely said something to a cop about the picture. That I've seen it and they took it the wrong way.

Right.

And they ended up charging her.

But seeing the picture.

You get it, though? The one that's been gone for 15 years?

That's the one that you went to jail for. This one.

Yeah.

But while the poster gets Wringle talking about generalities, he doesn't make any statements germane to the case. The holidays arrive and the UCs depart.

So I got 19 and Dirty Little Schoolgirls.

Nice. Awesome.

The UCs return after the break. Soon after, Wringle brings over some porn DVDs he proposes that they watch.

I also have a Canadian The UCs try again to encourage Ringo to talk and take him on an ice fishing trip at the end of January, but it comes up empty, too.

Documents show that Ringo's comments about a young teen girl he sees out on the ice make the UCs uncomfortable. At this point, UCs have spent about five months trying to get Ringo to admit to any involvement in Christie's disappearance with no luck. Nothing seems to be working. But then...

Yeah, I picked my own name.

Maybe you have to type your middle name.

That's why I just type your mind What do you mean?

If you would type my name, it's not more than me, man. Oh, yeah, right, no. I know. I know, man.

What were you doing?

An idea is hatched by police that UCs should get onto the Internet with Ringo. Play around entering their names to see if searching them brings anything up. To do this, police create a fake search engine so that the UC's stage name brings up nothing of interest. But when Ringle's name is entered, something specific pops up.

Oh, that's that fucking thing they did on Christine Jury.

My CBC documentary.

Before there was internet fraud and phone scams, there were always swindlers, female swindlers too. Discover the stories of women from the past who not only survived, but flied as conartists and fiefs. How did they use their feminine characteristics to swindle in a world where men made the rules? Join me, Lucy Worsley, historian and author, and my all-female team in Ladies Swindlers, wherever you get your podcasts. What?

Oh, that's the girl?

19 years ago, today, Maryanne Russwurm saw her daughter for the last time.

Russ on your name?

Yes. That's fucking me right there. They did every fucking thing on me.

David Ritgen shows us what happened and confronts the man who once made- How did they make a fucking...

Is this a movie or something? What is it? No.

Surely one of the strangest stories-We're supposed to be-of police bumbling in OPP history. Yeah, but you got to listen to this.

Anthony Wringle and the UC sit on the couches in the fake Chesley apartment watching my documentary, Wringle in a snowmobile jacket and baseball cap, nervously sipping it a beer. But then the documentary abruptly ends. Along with the dummy search engine, police had edited their own much shorter version of my film, and Wringle notices. Christine Heron.

That's the girl. It ended.

That's weird. Is that more than that?

I don't know. Let's find her.

Wringle, who has seen the original doc, wants to watch the 20-minute long version and urges the the UC to find it. So the UC, searching the actual Internet, finds it, linked to a CBC article I wrote about Christie's case. Ringo leans in, and together, he and the UC watch, stopping, starting, and replaying for the next four hours.

That's my neighbor's trailer. Faced with Anthony Ringo. Here's my trailer. This guy, I thought he was a cop. He's not.

Ringo apparently thought I was a cop when I knocked on his trailer door. Did you have a chance to tell your mom before she died that what you say- Remember, I just woke up.

You didn't kill Christine? Yeah. Did you ever tell her that? What the fuck is going on? No.

So she thought you were thinking that you might have murdered her, Pardon?

And he didn't talk about it. No, he didn't talk about it. Nobody talked about it.

Her mother's wondering what happened. She doesn't know either.

My problem.

Ringo watching interacts with the documentary with my voiceover answering, not my problem. And the conversation ends with more questions.

See, he didn't mention- As Ringo watches, his commentary increases.

His statements become focused on Christine, the imagery I shot and the words I'm saying. He's opening up. The UC hits play again. The Hanover Park and Saugine River appear on the screen. River from Hanover's Public Park, one of Christine's favorite places.

See, I don't know. According to the-What the? That was your favorite place.

No. Everyone could have a favorite place, right?

Yeah.

Wringle seems visibly struck by the thought that the little Hanover Park on the Saugine River was one of Christie's favorite places. Then they watched the part of the documentary where I described from documents what Ringo said to police in 2004 about what he did to Christine.

Apparently in or close to a marshy lagoon soon. Not only does the LPP bring Wringle to these locations-I don't understand why they couldn't find it. So I'm really buried.

I don't understand why they couldn't find She wasn't really buried. This is the first time since his 2004 confession that Ringo connects himself directly to Christie's disappearance. The UC seizes on the opportunity as he wonders in questions for Ringo how it is that they couldn't find Chrissy's body.

No. I wonder why, though. How couldn't they have? Which is good for you.

I think it was because of all the floods.

Floods?

Ringo thinks that the flooding at the banks of the Saugin could be a reason for why Christie was not found.

Could I watch her somewhere else? Or could I actually I need to go somewhere else?

Right. Either way, though, that's good for you.

That's what I wanted.

Right? Because Lucy didn't find her.

I couldn't find a fucking shit.

They couldn't find fucking shit. In the hidden video recordings, I can see the UC becoming noticeably excited about the documentary's effect on Ringo as they couch over the laptop sitting on the couches. Once the gate begins to open, Ringo pushes through it, keeps going, and keeps talking.

Keep on going. See what happened. Okay.

This is what is alleged to have happened the day Christine Karen- Wait a minute.

Where is that? Where? That's in the park. It's a talking entry on the river.

Yeah, on her and on the river.

They're not actually showing where we crossed or fucking blah, blah, blah.

Right.

Wait two minutes, walk off the trail and you're right there. They couldn't find a good location. It goes around the bend.

I've never been there, so I don't know, right?

It goes around the bend and it moves that way. So at the end of that tip, that's where we crossed.

Ringle, who says he took police to the right spot back in 2004, seems upset here because I didn't film the exact spot he says he crossed the Saugin River with Chrissy. It keeps him talking.

How did you find her? Was it for touring? Or is it like, Just go on a walk?

The UC asks how Ringo came to meet Christine and uses Ringo's word, touring, or looking for young girls around town. Walking?

Just going to walk?

Yeah. I went for a walk one day, too. Oh, shit. I went for a walk one day, too. Oh, shit. I went for a walk, and then all of a sudden, I bumped into this check.

I just went for a walk, and then all of a sudden, I bumped into this check.

What did you say to her?

I remember her that way.

You remember?

I thought you what they said. They felt me.

Wringle says he said, What's down there? To Chrissy.

What's down there? And what she said?

She didn't take her away, but she didn't come down. No. Like I said, she didn't- Ringo says Chrissy didn't really say anything.

As a 15-year-old girl, alone, being accosted by a 24-year-old man, I think Chrissy would have been afraid to do anything that might provoke a negative reaction.

And I What's the new one?

The UC asks Ringo what made him do it that day.

It's a bit of frustration.

It's a bit of frustration.

It's a bit of frustration.

Did you talk her right away or no? We can say. What did she say?

She didn't say, Oh, oh. Like I said, 14, she'd know.

She should know better. It's not all your fault, right?

No, she didn't seem too happy when she was coming down with a pile. Opportunity to knock.

Opportunity to knock, then you got to answer.

I think it was It was time.

Opportunity knocked. I think it was her time. Hearing Wringle try to justify the brutal events he's describing is difficult to listen to, but the UC presses forward.

So it showed the river earlier. It shows all the current, the ripple there.

Oh, yeah, it's fast.

So how did you guys get across them?

Hanging in the He's fucking pushing. You jumped in after it.

No.

Ringo says he pushed Chrissy into the river and then followed her across.

She went down a little bit. I went across and hit the bank, but left cold and call up to her. To try to keep her from going all the way down.

Right. That was for a while. Was it cold?

Ringo says he has to swim after Christie to keep her from floating downriver, and he pulls her to the opposite bank.

She had her glasses when she got to the other side of him. That's when they're there, right?

When they did reach the water, how come they didn't find that? The glasses.

Ringo says Christie's glasses came off in the water and wonders why they weren't found. From here, more specific details begin to come out about what Ringo thinks, about what Ringle says he did. I've omitted some of the most difficult to hear, but I still urge caution for listeners.

Was it before crossing the river or after?

After.

Was it before crossing the river or after? And Ringo says after.

How do you do it then, right?

I left the river. It wasn't faced. I can't remember if it was faced down or if I flipped her over.

I can't remember if it was face down or I flipped her over.

Is it swampy when you were? Yeah. So you were all like, you were laying in the mud yourself, or did not go to the dry area.

I remember doing whatever and then going.

I remember doing whatever and then going.

I don't want to try to remember.

When this computer is saying one thing, this is the best position is asking me. So when it says that she was drowned- Just say she couldn't fucking move the way I did.

Let's just say she couldn't fucking move the way I did it.

Can you describe it? What's it?

How do you tie a person up without rope?

I don't know. Good question. How do you?

Jacket. I don't know. Their own jacket.

How did you do that? So this is her coat?

Yeah.

Okay. Ringo physically shows the UC how he immobilized Christie using her coat so that it kept her arms from moving.

Oh, yeah. I can't fucking move now. No shit, eh?

When she goes around, I can do anything. I pulled off her pants.

Yeah, right. So what did she... Was she say to them?

She said she wouldn't tell anybody, but then later on, she starts to say it hurt.

She's going to be over. Yeah.

Yeah. Where's the question all that? I'm not telling anybody. I'll let you go and you need to say something.

I let you go and you say something. I'm... And here, Ringo can be seen mouthing the words, I'm fucked. He was afraid Christie would tell people what had happened. The UC eggs on this difficult conversation.

Yeah. It's a decision time right there, right? What to do.

Can I let her go? She's not coming back. But they lied about me drowning her. Because they didn't really drown her. Because drowning, you have to have water. Where I was, it was more muddier. It wasn't more drowning, it was more smothered hurt.

It's hurt? Does it hard? Has it been quick or does it take a long time? How do you do it?

They say you can die in a split second and drown. I think it took a little bit longer.

Ringo tells the UC how he smothered Chrissy in the mud, how it took longer than it seems in the movies to kill someone.

See, that's what they said. I find out what did an unmarked grave. So I was trying to do this spectable thing, burying or not. Even on your fucking open.

Rangel says he returned the next day and covered Christie with sticks, logs, and branches.

Stick, logs, branches. You wouldn't have seen it. No.

There are bears in the woods, and they are human. As I watch the recordings, I'm struck a few times by an overwhelming urge to get away. Panic attack triggered by the unending horror and ease with which Wringle talks about hurting Christie and barbarically taking her life. Sitting with Wringle through all of this must be tough for the UCs. Fleeing my computer, my house, my city is easy, but it doesn't change anything. I still have to get to the end. But I'm happy Wringle is watching the doc and talking, and it's a grounding. The work is doing what it's supposed to do. Upon my return to the keyboard, I open up the transcript and video file to a spot where Ringle is eating popcorn out of a bowl.

You know what I mean? It's God that's going to probably punish me for whatever.

You know what, though? I think God is going to forgive you. We talked about this. Like you said, it's a perfect crime. Now that you did basically the perfect crime. And really, it's pretty well is.

Yeah, okay. So what am I doing now?

That's what I mean. Do you ever think of doing it again? Yeah.

I have, but No.

No.

I think it's my conscience that's trying to stop me from doing that. Your option, you can do that or follow my commitments. So if you do it once and you don't do it again, maybe I can trust you.

Right.

I still have them thoughts, yeah.

Wringle still has the thoughts of doing something again, and yet he has also felt the urge to confess. I am an atheist, but believe in the edict that the truth will set you free. Will the truth set Wringle free? And to do what is the question. So what do you think of that, Maryanne?

I think he's afraid. He's afraid he's going to say the wrong thing.

You heard? You said the wrong thing. Long ago.

It's like she's fucking calling you on. It's like, Oh, yeah.

Towards the end of what are now the early morning hours of continuous documentary watching, A melancholy seems to descend on Ringo himself about what he has done.

So now, let's go ahead and say, I have to apologize, if we ever get that change.

Ringo's wistfulness turns to musings about an afterlife where he might get the chance, he thinks, to speak to Chrissy.

I'm going to ask you the question, for me alone, did you have a better life afterwards or before? I'm going to say, Sorry, what I did. No. Did you have a better life afterwards or before?

To ask that question, hypothetically, of anyone, let alone someone you have horribly murdered, is to me blood boiling. But it also clarifies Ringle's state of mind. This is his version of guilt, no matter how wrong-headed. His version of a mind trying to find a way out of what it knows was a terrible wrong.

It never goes away. It's today's same as it was that day for me.

It's still there.

Just deal with it a different way. Still going to wait patiently, sooner or later. Justice will happen.

I believe that. Maryanne Russwurm says She continues to hold that hope. No, they cut it out. They say that she hopes that I still talk to her.

You're not going to, are you? No.

Why shouldn't?

No, that's in the past, man. Put it this way. This story here, you and me, till the day I die, fucking doesn't leave easily. It's a long time ago, right? Put it behind you.

I never got to forget it.

No, it's fucking... Dude, it's hard to forget.

Too funny as you in my brain.

Yeah.

Ringo says he'll never forget it and that it is too planted in his brain.

The thing is only 20 minutes long, but it's taking us fucking three hours to watch it.

Yeah.

After about seven months of direct contact with Wringle and with their UC recorded confessions, Ontario provincial police re-arrest Wringle and charge him with first-degree murder. The undercover operation is viewed as a huge success, and Wringle is sent to provincial jail to wait his trial. But the outcome of that trial is far from certain. In 2015, when Wringle's second pretrial begins, The defense moves to throw out his confession again, this time not because of police errors, but because of my documentary.

Someone Knows Something is hosted, written, and produced by me, David Ridgeon.

The series is also produced by Katie Swires. Sound design by Evan Kelly. Natalia Ferguson is our transcriber. Emily Canal is our digital producer. Chris Oak is our story editor. Our executive producer is Cecil Fernandez. Tanya Springer is the senior manager, and Arif Nourani is the director of CBC Podcasts. If you want to help new listeners discover the show, Please rate and review wherever you listen. Find us on Facebook by searching Someone Knows Something or on Instagram at cbcpodcasts. You can hear next week's episode now by searching for the CBC podcast's channel on YouTube. If you're looking for more investigations, check out my other series, The Next Call. Conducted almost exclusively through a series of strategic phone calls, each call dictates how I will investigate cases and follow leads. There are three seasons available to binge listen to now. Find The Next Call wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in next week for an all new episode of Someone Knows Something, or you can listen to next week's episode, Ad Free, right now. By subscribing to our True Crime channel on Apple Podcasts. Just click on the link in the show description. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.

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