Suspicion | The Billionaire Murders: The hunt for the killers of Honey and Barry Sherman - S1 Death in a Small Town | E2 Suspicion

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

Detectives zero in on parents Rose-Anne and Kent McLellan, while their son clings to life. While their every action is called into question, police conduct unauthorized searches and interview Nathaniel’s three brothers in a basement room. Audio sources: Toronto Star, CTV News London

The following content contains discussions of child injury and death, including frank discussions and displays of emotion surrounding that loss. Lister discretion is advised. From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan, and this is Death in a Small Town, Episode 2, Suspicion. The human skull is made up of 22 bones, 8 cranial and 14 facial. Think of our skulls as a container that protects and holds the brain, easily the most important part of our body as it controls everything we do.

How we talk, learn, walk, breathe, eat, everything. The skull is a strong container, but it can only take so much. So clearly, you know, then it became quite sick, you know, right after that, especially the story that we were given to us. The story often felt like, hey, nobody, because when you hear a story in that scenario, getting information is probably not the most important thing at that time. He often said, hey nobody, because when you hear a story in that scenario, getting information is probably not the most important thing at that time. Most important thing is to do your best. You can try to stabilize, try to assassinate, try to get a manage.

The recording here isn't great, but what the doctor is saying is that Nathaniel came to them quite sick. How it happened, that was not their initial focus, keeping the 15-month-old live was. In our first episode, you heard how Nathaniel's babysitter, Megan Van Hoof, called Rosanne, Nathaniel's mum, and told her the 15-month-old boy was unwell. Rosanne rushed to get Nathaniel, took him to the local hospital in Strathroy. His condition critical, doctors there quickly transferred him down the road to the much better equipped London hospital.

He wasn't quite sick. He had a severe trauma to his head and what looked like, based on the CT scan, skull fracture and hemorrhage in the different part of the brain. And then that happened, the pressure in the brain had very high. So you try to monitor the pressure number one and manage the pressure. Because there are some suggestions that if you manage the pressure, maybe you will make a difference. These conversations with several doctors were recorded by Roseanne. You can hear her sob as she hears the news about her son's condition.

Roseanne made these recordings surreptitiously. We'll get to why later. Here's another one of the doctors. To be perfect, we frank. The injuries were so widespread on the MRI, involving so many parts of the brain. Surface of the brain, we've heard the brain, brainstem. If it was so extensive, I'm going to be just, that it was, that it's hard to know what was for a second. I bring it up and be gentle. I saw the herbs on the MRI,

a midbrain, a hippocampus, a deep brain matter, that to me, say a lack of oxygen, as one of the main mechanisms, I'm not sure if it was shaking first, lack of oxygen first, but I only bring it up to say that to me that's still the situation of non-accidental trauma. The London doctors and the Strathroid police had a mystery on their hands. Nathaniel remained unconscious, hooked up to life support, parents by his side.

Other than a small bruise forming on his front left temple, there was no indication of an injury. The results of both the MRI and a CT scan came in. Though there was no visible mark under the boy's wispy blonde hair, the scan had revealed a nine centimeter vertical crack in the back of his skull. The scans also found evidence of whiplash, stretched ligaments in his neck, which could be an indication the young boy had been shaken.

In the PCCU, the pediatric critical care unit, Canton Roseanne's sad, crushed, surrounded by family members who raced to the hospital from all over the province as soon as they heard the news. Roseanne's father, Richard, was at home with his second wife, Veronica, when they got the call. Richard's first wife, Roseanne's mother, died in 2010 following early onset of Alzheimer's. We were both home. Veronica and I were both home in the phone rang and it was Kent on the phone and he told Veronica that something bad had happened and she couldn't believe it. She said, is this Kent?

Is this really you? And it was and he said, you got to come. Miss Anulus is hurt bad. They were in the hospital in Strathroid, and then of course just as we're leaving Judy call and said, well they left the hospital, they're going to London. So then you know what's bad. I'm going to the car and we drove to London. Meanwhile at the McClellan Home in Park Hill, a rural community 30 minutes drive west of

London. Kathy Webster was tidying and worrying, hoping to hear positive news from the hospital. Kathy lives across in the McClellans, the last two houses on a dead end road. It was late Wednesday afternoon, the day after whatever happened to Nathaniel happened. The McClellans, with four boys, had a cobbled together childcare routine that will be familiar to most working parents. The three older boys, Gabe, Luke, and Noah, were school age. Nathaniel, the youngest, was looked after by Kathy on Mondays and Wednesdays, and other

neighbor on Fridays, and in a new arrangement, Megan Van Hoof on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today, with no Nathaniel to chase after, Kathy cleaned. Nobody had been home the night before, so there were breakfast dishes to wash, a high-chair to wipe, laundry to do. Roseanne knows too. Roseanne is not a housekeeper. And I don't blame her. She's got all these boys running around and they're not needing tidy. Like the house isn't dirty. It's just not needing tidy. It looks like her king goes through it. Wednesdays isn't as bad as Monday's because I was there Monday. I'm only gone one day and I'm there again Wednesday. It's like ground home day when you go. Nothing

changes. It looks the same as when it did the day before. When Kent was little, Kathy had been his babysitter in the same house. She loved all the McClellan boys, but Nathaniel was her favorite. Kathy is petite with dark hair pulled back in a low ponytail, just striking blue eyes. He wasn't quite like the other boys. He didn't like his nap time. He had to tire him out to nap him. He was the most loving and he was just a real cute. He was like a little monkey. He was the type that when you picked him up his arms were around your neck. His legs were wrapped around you. That's what I'd call him, the little monkey.

He just clung to you and then he, he, he, he lanes head in your shoulder. He's just very cute. He, he, he wasn't interested in the toys. He wanted to learn how to make the stuff work. He had no fear. It's a lot of work because he had to be on him all the time. He walked from here, we'd go all the way to Grandda's house. Like that's a quarter of a mile.

He would climb right up on the counter if you let him. He was very inquisitive. If he saw something, he wanted to investigate. All Kathy had heard was that something had happened at the babysitters, and it did not look good. The Nathaniel might not make it. She was just finishing up for the day. When a police cruiser rumbled down the road and turned into the McClellan driveway. Police officers came to the door and told Kathy she had to leave. She remembers at least one was in uniform and she never saw a search warrant. Kathy went home. Grandpa Wayne, that's Kent's dad, picks up the story.

He and his wife, Judy, live in a house across an open field, and they were looking after the other three of a Klellen boys. The car was in the yard down there. Shrathrui, police car. So I jumped in the forer wheel and went down. And I would not be able to recognize the officer. But he was a young guy and he said, well, we're just checking some things out. And I was very naive. I never dealt with the police. Okay, they're good guys. I didn't know what they're checking out, but that's fine.

How many other cars were there? Just the one car. Yeah, okay. And you're not quite sure if it's a mark to run mark. No, I'm not. Because even if it was on mark, I would still have gone down as neighborhood watch. And I know I was getting near four o'clock because I came home to get the boys off the bus. Two hours later, Judy sent Wayne back. The boys needed clothes for school. But an officer told Wayne he still couldn't go inside. When they finally left, Wayne called Kathy. It was pitch dark by then, and they had to use flashlights and walk carefully.

The McClellums were building an addition to the home and the foundations had just gone in. It was a bit of a construction minefield. As Kathy helped Wayne select clothes, they tried to make sense of the police visit. Why were they so interested in Rosanne and Kent, given that Nathaniel collapsed at the sitters? Meanwhile, the news from London was not good. Nathaniel was still unconscious. A room for the family was made available at the Ronald McDonald House, but Roseanne and Kent did not want to leave Nathaniel's bedside.

We'll be right back. The next day, Thursday, please were back at the McClellins, the second search of their house, still no search warrant, but Strathroid police maintained they had Ken's permission to search the place and do what they were about to do. Interviewed their children. That's when the police showed up at four o'clock here, two officers and a children's aide woman. I don't remember the officers last name, but the guy that stayed with us was Jeel's. Wayne is in his early 70s. Whisper White hair,

deep smile lines, looks a little like the late actor Ed Asner. He's worn many hats over the years. Football referee at $20 a game, pig farmer, planted cash crops, owned an appliance repair business, and a 150 seat restaurant. He and Judy, he calls Judy a city girl because she's from London, raised two boys, Kent and Craig, and what is now Rosanna and Kent's house. There's a giant solar panel beside the house Wayne and Judy built, a remnant of a government program that Wayne says with a wink was a better deal for him than the government. Wayne and Judy had no warning the police were coming. Judy had just cooked a big dinner spaghetti. Detective Sergeant Jill Phylian explained that

they would interview Wayne and Judy separately in a room off the kitchen. And the other detective, Chris Haskid, and a children's aid worker would interview each of the boys separately down in the basement. We went in there away from Judy. And he asked me all sorts of questions about how things were down there. And if there was any history of being rough with the kids and all that, it's absolutely not. And was there ever anything amiss? No, everything's fine." The questions police were asking Kent's father and Kent himself earlier that week indicated

police had suspicions about the McClellans that Nathaniel had been injured on their watch and even that they stood to gain financially from this horrible situation. This is Kent a year and a half later, recalling how Strathroid Detective Jill Phillyon ended the interview at the London hospital, while Nathaniel was steps away in critical condition. And then he said, do you have a life insurance policy on your side? And I said, no. Oh yeah, he has to find a formula and which I do. I don't know if I told him, but pretty sure I would have said I can't say it, but it would have been obvious that he would never have been on the formula driving on a formula.

We are not parents like that. The kids do not get on the formula. Detective Filion asked Wayne how often he saw the kids. Wayne said daily. He had a particular connection with Nathaniel, whose middle name was Wayne. Even though Nathaniel had only been walking a couple of months, they would often kick a soccer ball around in the side yard. Just a few days ago, the family had celebrated Wayne's 70th birthday at a local banquet hall,

and Wayne said it was simply a wonderful day for him and for his grandson. He was in his glory because everybody fond over him. He was so cute and he was running around there and he was with Grandpa a lot. When I gave my speech, thanking everybody and so on and so forth, he was in my arms. I was holding him. It was just a good day." The other detective, Hasket, and the children's aid worker called up from the basement.

They were ready. A video recorder on a tripod was set up. The oldest McClellan boy, Gabe, he was 10, was called down. Years later, it still bothers Wayne, the police interviewed boys who were 10, 8, and 6 without a family member present. As Gabe headed downstairs, Detective Philly and pulled up a chair at the table in Judy. Well, she served him a big bowl of spaghetti. Judy was recovering from a massive stroke three years before, but steadily improving.

I was very naive and very trusting of the police at the time, as I had never had any dealings with the police, except one time when Arcona Blinds was robbed and the guy can end it, said, well, I will never find anything, and that was it. The McClellan boys look and behave as if they walked out of a 1950s television sitcom, or maybe an episode of Little House on the Prairie. Roseanne gives them short, smart-looking haircuts. They're all good students and athletes. Hockey, track, you name it.

The boys are allowed one hour of gaming on the weekend. They all have to do chores. Gabe wants to be an architect, Luke can engineer, and Noah a farmer. Detective Hasket asks some background questions, then he took each of the boys through their day. Police refused to release the audio of these interviews by the way, so I had to ask the boys to reconstruct them to the best of their abilities. I also had the police notes of these interviews. It starts with the morning, just a few hours before Nathaniel was rushed to hospital.

So we woke up in the morning, and I came down and said, hi, and we had oatmeal. And then we got ready for school, and then we went out that door. And I said, bye, and then he waved inside goodbye. It was like a really good tone. And he was really, really excited. Like, when I went outside, he ran to the window

and was like, I'm really, really happy. I asked the boys what it was like being interviewed by the police. This is Gabe. They tried to make us not feel scared, but they kind of did. They tried to say it was like a normal hockey interview, but it isn't because you're with a police friend.

Police would ask each boy to tell them about the incidents where Nathaniel could have been hurt. You'll hear me a bit in these interviews. I explained to the boys, I wanted to be careful not to lead them. I just wanted their recollections. Gabe, the eldest, he went first. I think that they asked me what was one thing that he climbed on and that like, what was he like in the morning? And how, and if we were at home, or if we were at home or at school, all of the kind of scared me, but I don't know what I said.

Luke, the middle boy was next. I was in all that scared. I was kind of scared. Noah, just six at the time, had the clearest recollection. They asked if he climbed on anything and what, what, when did it happen on the butt? It happened that it happened that house because he was getting babysitted.

And then I think that was his first time being babysitted. No, it wasn't. It was his first year. Oh, his first year being babysitted. I remember, he, I said that he climbed on the table because he was watching everybody climb onto the chair. But we never made it up. We never made it up.

Oh, he never made it up. He could get onto the chair like he would put his foot and then he would sit down and then he'd try to get up. But we'd always be with him since we never let him out of sight. Why do you think they were asking about the climbing and the table and stuff? I think that I was to see if something before had caused his reaction later if he had just bumped it. The notes of Detective Hasket, complete with quotes, fill in some of the details of the

interviews with the boys. Keep in mind they were 10, 8, and 6 at the time. When I spoke to them, two years later, they did not have a complete recollection of what they had said. And given that their little brother was in the hospital fighting for his life, they can be forgiven, I think, for having less than perfect memories. According to the police notes, Luke told the detective he did not know how Nathaniel cracked his skull. But he said it happened at the babysitters. Remember, Gabe, Luke and Noah were all at school that Tuesday. It was only Nathaniel who was at the babysitters.

Luke was asked if Nathaniel liked to climb. Luke told the officer that Nathaniel knows how to climb onto the table. He did it last week, on the weekend. Mum got him off the table. Noah, six, told two stories, according to the detective's notes. First, that Nathaniel fell in hard cement to the babysitters and fell in cracked his skull. Second, that a long time ago Nathaniel fell back on the wood floor and hit his head. Noah would later complain to his parents, and to me, that the detective was pushing him to say Nathaniel fell and injured himself at home. In the notes, the two younger boys, Luke and Noah, said the information they related to

police about the injury came from their grandparents, and Noah added the detail that Grandpa Wayne received his information from Rosanne. The police interview is over. The two detectives and the children's aid worker left. Just as Wayne and Judy were getting the boys ready for bed, the news came. Got a phone call from Camp. And Nathaniel's not going to make make it and bring the boys in. So we heightale it right into London. What we get to the, um, sick children, or the hospital there, and we park the car and we take the boys in and then the boys go with mom and dad. And, um, due to I are out in the hallway,

I've been in the waiting room. Rosanne's cousin Pam was there and their sister, Jillanne. And, they took the boys in to see Nathaniel and then, Dune and I went in. I took the bite and the thing, and then, two to nine went in. I said goodbye to the venue. And then we stayed for a while and then brought the boys home.

And had a big cry. Put in the bed. Put in the bed. And, dude, you know, eventually went to bed. Don't remember sleeping all night. Then off my grandson. I never want to live my children, and I would live my grandson. It's not a right. In the hospital, down the hall from where Nathaniel had just been removed from life support,

detectives were speaking to doctors and nurses. A nurse who sat with Roseanne and Kent told police she found it odd that none of the family were overly curious at how Nathaniel could have been injured. Another nurse told police she saw Roseanne, a defiled Catholic, kneeling and praying in the hospital waiting room, which the nurse thought was unusual. And a senior doctor, the resident expert in child abuse, passed on comments that made it to police, informing them that ICU staff in the hospital found Roseanne's behavior to be bizarre.

When the injury or injuries had occurred was unknown, and that mystery would become a matter of intense scrutiny in the days to come. Next time on Death in a small town, what does Stathorite Police Department has put them through? They were determined that Kent and Ravan were going to be found guilty. I mean she was very distraught. You know, she was showering him with kisses, and I love you. Come back to us, you know, like, but I also remember thinking, too, how do you behave when your child is on life support, and it doesn't look like he's going to make it? I thought she was doing remarkably well, because all the things considered. This woman judged us in our darkest hour. No, no, no.

Devon A Small Town was researched, written, and narrated by me, Kevin Donovan, and produced by Radyo Mooder, JP Fozzo, and Sean Patendon. Additional production was done by Andrea McDonald, Kelsey Wilson, and Brian Bradley. Photography by Lucas O'Leniac, music and sound design for the series created by Sean Patendon. From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan, and this is Death in a Small Town. you