Suspicion | The Billionaire Murders: The hunt for the killers of Honey and Barry Sherman - S1 Death in a Small Town | E4 The Daycare

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

As the tunnel vision of police and doctors narrows even further, we investigate. The daycare operator’s media posts and interviews with locals help fill in some of the blanks in Nathaniel’s story, while a court victory provides access to previously secret police notes. 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. Listener discretion is advised. From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan, and this is Death in a Small Town, Episode 4, The Daycare. I grew up in a town a half hour drive from where the McClellans live. The first time I went to interview them I was pleasantly surprised to come across Camp Silvan, just up the road. I was a boy scout and we froze our butts winter camping out there when I was a kid. This is Farm Country, a criss-cross of fields broken up by bush and rivers.

This part of southwestern Ontario was nestled in between two of the great lakes, Huron and Erie. To get to Rosanne and Kent's house, you drive west of London, a city of 400,000. Park Hill, their closest town, has some fine old Victorian buildings, remnants of when it was a mill town in the 1800s. The McClellan's live at the end of a dead end road that cuts through green rows of corn. It's a hot day, and the brown tassels on the cob shimmer in the heat. And everywhere I look, I see wind turbines turning lazily. They look to me like some advancing mechanical army from the war of the worlds. The McClellan house is across from Kathy Websters, the family friend who babysits and does housekeeping for them.

I pull into McClellan's driveway. Kent's white, Kia's soul, work fan is there, and Rose Ann's Yukon truck. I see some kids' bikes and a garage that looks like it was recently built. Oh, you want more of a time? No, that's absolutely perfect. It's Kevin Donovan talking to Kent and Roseanne. Is it Dr. Johnson McClellan? A sister-in-law of the McClellan's put me onto this story, a year and a bit after Nathaniel

died. My tips to her, Diane. She's the wife of Kent's older brother Craig. I used to coach Diane and Craig's daughter in soccer. As an investigative reporter, I get a lot of tips, and you have to check them all out. I liken it to being a firefighter. When the alarm goes off, you have to respond.

Most times, it's not a fire, or in my case, a story. But if it is a story, the hope, my hope, is that we can make a difference. My goal that first meeting with the McClellins was to get them to take me through that first day. I'm looking for any clue as to what landed a thangal in the hospital with a 9cm fracture in the back of his head. I'm just not confident the police have done the best job on this case.

We sit at the kitchen table. Between us, under a clear plastic tableclothoth our pencil crayon memories drawn by Nate's brothers They're similar to the pictures the boys tucked inside his casket You're going to hear both Canton Rose and speaking as we go along. I'm going to bring in some of the information. I gleaned from the police notes I'll start. I woke up in the morning and Nate was you know saying that he was awake or hollering names awake. So I go older and I picked him up. We had a routine that I come down stairs and I, oh, no, sorry, I had a routine, I would come over and I would put him in to the

bed with Rosanne. And so I put him down with Rosanne and he would put them into the bed with Roseanne. And so I put them down with Roseanne and he would grab her hair or something like that just while I got dressed. So then I bring them downstairs and I had a routine that I put them in there, put them in the high chair, giving them some Cheerios and stuff like that and then I make oatmeal. I make a lot of oatmeal for all the boys and whole family. What time is this? So normally we'd aim for 6.30. But that morning we were a little later. There had cancer grandfather or cancer dad had had a big party on the Saturday night. And then on Sunday, Craig and Dayam were down. So it was busy busy busy. And then on, you know,

so everybody we were all kind of like it was it had been a busy weekend. And all that was Tuesday, we still were all a little tired. So I think it was around seven. I brought him down here. We were eating our oatmeal and he ate all of his oatmeal and he ate any one and more and he ate a majority of mine. This is the same story the police got when they did their first interview. I know that because months later I went to court and got an order on sealing the notes made by the investigating detectives, contained in search warrant requests for the parents' home. That morning at the McClellins was, by all accounts, a normal morning.

This will become important when I start looking at the pathology and neuropathology reports on Nathaniel, and hearing from the doctors who treated him. Nathaniel was in fine form that Tuesday. Kent was the first to leave. He had a busy day of calls, including a furnace installation in Strathroy. Then I went and got ready for work. Came back and said, you know, say goodbye,

and then I left for work and never heard another thing until 10 after 12. The older boys, Gabe Luke and Noah came downstairs, ate their breakfast, then raced to brush their teeth and gather their homework. Rosanne handed them their lunches and they ran out the door to catch the school bus, backpacks banging against their backs. Here's Gabe Luke and Noah giving their recollections. Here's Gabe Luke and Noah giving their recollections. So we woke up and the morning 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 and said 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 I was like, I'm, really excited. Like, when I went outside, he ran to the window and was like, really, really happy. So I woke up, and I went downstairs, so I said, oh, can I be so sincere? And she's like, no, we can't. We were gonna have some oatmeal today.

And so I had oatmeal. I said, goodbye. And then I went out back door. With the older boys off to the bus, Rosanne took Nathaniel out of his high chair, I said goodbye and then I went out back door. With the older boys off to the bus, Rosanne took Nathaniel out of his high chair, wiped his face, changed his diaper, got him dressed, and set him on the floor. The red mark in the center of his forehead from the door bump the previous night was barely noticeable.

Nathaniel had lots of energy, loved to climb up on chairs, anything. He'd been an early walker. Rosanne and Kathy Webster both told me you had to watch him like a hawk. When I said him on the floor, he picked up one of my shoes and tore around the house with it. And I had to like, you know,

follow behind and climb my shoe. The night before, Rosanne had given the older boys haircuts. It was picture day Tuesday. And Nathaniel scooped up the cut hair and tossed it in the air laughing. Now, the clock edging closer to 8 a.m., Rosanne looked in a mirror and did her best to tame her own mound of dark curls.

Then she put Nathaniel in his car seat, buckled him in for the 25-minute drive to Megan Vanhoose, daycare, and Strathroy. Rosanne was running a bit late. Megan and her husband, Brian, a truck driver, live on head street, a busy road in Strathoroy. Shit quitter job is a bank teller over a year ago and gone into the daycare business. They have two kids of their own, one in school, one in preschool. Their house is a comfortable ranch-style home with a wide driveway, a large front yard, and an even bigger back yard.

There are two wooden climbing structures in the back, one that kids in the neighborhood style home with a wide driveway, a large front yard and an even bigger back yard. There are two wooden climbing structures in the back, one that kids in the neighborhood call a tree house. That one is a two-story, shingle-roof platform. The other is a wooden climbing gym. Megan's is not a licensed daycare. Spots for children and licensed daycares with specially trained staff, they're hard to come by.

Andro Ontario law, anyone can run a daycare with a little license, provided they keep it to five or fewer children. And just because a daycare is not licensed does not mean it gives poor care. Here's a small window into what Roseanne did to find someone to take care of Nathaniel, Tuesdays and Thursdays. She began with a parent at North Meadows, who she knew and liked. So, we had a babysitter who we really liked in Strathorai, but she didn't have room.

She, there's this like Facebook thing in Strathorai and you can post to other babysitters. And so she had kind of posted a Megan, had responded to her. And so she didn't really know Megan, but you know, she let me know that this woman had room. So, Jody didn't have room. And so, Jody, who was the baby said, are posted.

There's a nice family that's looking. This is what they're looking for. Is there anyone? I had the same time was looking on Kajiji because that's where you kind of go. And I found a woman in our corner, but she didn't have room. There was a friend of mine, Stacey. Her son was finishing, so I was hopeful. And there's another person in our corner but she didn't have room. There was a friend of mine, Stacey, her

son was finishing so I was hopeful and there's another person in our corner. She was having babies so that wasn't gonna work. Anyways we ended up finding Megan Akichiji and Jody had also had been in contact a little bit with Megan so I emailed her and she said I could come the next day if I wanted to see so I went the next day like at nine and her house was clean and you know everything looked in order and I went to school after I saw her to ask around and her son was only in kindergarten but no one had anything bad to say. Rosanne pulled into Megan's driveway.

Her wheels making a rippling sound on the interlocking brick. She got Nathaniel out of the car seat and carried him up to Megan's door. Nathaniel was not pleased to be dropped off which Roseanne said was a norm when it was any sitter other than Kathy Webster. She and Megan had a brief friendly chat and Roseanne handed over Nathaniel and his diaper bag. So I left him and he was crying. But that's how it was every time. And I went to school. And when I would take Nathaniel, although he would cry when I dropped him off, all my

other children cried at the other babysitters too, so that didn't raise any big, great flags. But also when I dropped him off, she said to me one day, you know, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my favorite days because, you know, I love babies. This is, you know, this is really nice. That Tuesday morning in late October was just the 15th time Roseanne had left Nathaniel at Megan's. Some of the kids Megan looked after her school age and she had them both before and after school.

That meant that Megan was frequently around North Meadows that pick up and drop off and Roseanne recalls looking out the classroom window from time to time, seeing Megan with Nathaniel and everything looked fine. Rosanne's one concern was diaper rash. Nathaniel always had one after being at Megan's. He had very bad diaper rush. And so he had never had a bad diaper rash. None of my children had never had a diaper rash like that.

And I had taken him to the hospital or to the doctors, the walking clinic. About September 18th, I have the exact date. It was the weekend of the fall fair because the dead rush just seemed to get worse every time he was there. After the drop off that morning, Roseanne headed to school just 450 meters away. Roseanne loved being a teacher and more than ever, this school year, everything was clicking, both work and home life. When she and Kent were married, they made a plan to have five children. Rosanne came from a big family. Kent has one sibling.

They both like the idea of a busy house. Nathaniel was the fourth, and Rosanne was three months pregnant with their fifth. I was pumped, I was pregnant, I was happy, my principal was amazing, my class was great. A word about Megan Van Hoef and the timeline in this episode. I wish we could have her voice describing in her own words what happened after Nathaniel was dropped at her home. I've tried for years to have a sit-down interview. We've spoken a few times in the phone and once at her house, but she said she couldn't

talk to me in detail. Here's one of our calls. Hello. Hello, Megan of our calls. Hello. Hello, it's Megan there, please. Megan? Megan, my name is Kevin Donovan, and I'm a reporter with the Toronto Star. How are you doing today? I'm fine. How are you? Not too bad. I, uh, it's probably a bit of a shock to have a reporter call yet of the blue. I've been looking into the case of that said situation involving a vaniel who died about two years ago.

Right. And I'm, this is nothing for a immediate future publication, but I was wondering if I'd be able to talk to you about it. What happened? I don't know what to say. I don't know if I should contact my lawyer. I really have no idea. I don't know... I don't know what to say, honestly. It's kind of out of the blue that someone would be contacting me because I haven't heard anything about it in months and months and months. On a second try a couple months later I reach Megan up in Collingwood. She was at a scrapbooking party with her girlfriends. Do you think we could talk? I'd have to check with my lawyer. That's I understand that that's what you said a couple of months ago and I was waiting to hear back from you.

Well, he hasn't thought it was a great idea, so I can discuss it with him again. I need to call him here anyway, so I can, it's probably going to be no, though. If there's some way you can just tell me a little bit about what your side of the story is, because I actually don't know what your side is. I seem to know everybody's side, but Megan's side. What do you need my side of the story? I just don't understand why the media needs to be involved, that's all. Well, when instance happen in our communities, so when there's a death and it's not explained, it's not unusual for the media to do stories. A third try, this time I knocked on her door on Head Street. The audio is not great here.

Hi, I'm Megan. Kevin Donovan. we've talked a few times on the phone. Any thoughts if we can have an interview? No. You haven't had a thought or are you? No, we're not. I'm not talking to anybody. I'm just like, can you just tell me why? I mean, I, it's an advice to you by my lawyer.

OK. This is Glenn Donovan. Yeah. Because I made an attempt to talk to him as well. I think, you know, I don't know if he passed that on to you. Mm-hmm. And so, was there any point in me trying to talk to him? He said he was calling you.

I don't know what he did. Okay, he didn't. Like, I'm sure this is a very difficult thing. Mm-hmm. But, I think it is a real public interest in knowing what happened to this child. I mean, a child died. I'd like to know what happened to the child, too. We'll be right back. To attempt to provide Megan's side of the story, I'm going to use notes from an interview

she gave to TechTos. I would have preferred hearing the days of Ants straight from Megan, but it's her right not to talk. The police notes are contained in affidavits prepared by the detectives to convince a judge to issue search warrants, giving them the legal right to enter both the McClellan and Van Hooth Holmes and to look at their cellphones and computers. Megan told police that Rosanne was running late that morning, arriving at her home around 8.30.

She told the detective, Nathaniel was normal looking, though he seemed a little grouchy. Just before 9am, Megan said she gathered up all the children. I've not been able to determine how many she was caring for that day, and headed in the direction of North Meadow's school. That's where Roseanne teaches, and where Megan's son and other children attend school. She dropped off the school-age kids, then dropped her daughter at the preschool adjacent to North Meadows, Nathaniel, and another toddler

rode in a red wagon for the trip. I spoke to Emily Hendrix who runs Emily's preschool. She confirmed that she saw Megan and Nathaniel that morning. I run a nursery school. It's from 9 to 11, 45. So that day, the Tuesday, Megan came in. She had come in before with other kids once now out, but she'd also bring the family in once in a while. And I

would hold him while she helped her daughter take her, because it was October. So it must have been cold because help her take her boots and step off. And then so that day day, I don't recall anything unusual at all. Megan told police she went home, with Nathaniel and the other toddler in the wagon. At around 9.15 a.m., Megan said she got juice and snack and went downstairs to play with the two toddlers. Her basement has carpeted stairs to go down to a carpeted basement. Megan told police, Nathaniel was showing signs he was very tired, but wouldn't go for a nap.

She said she tried to put him down for a nap, but he screamed again, and eventually she settled him on the couch for a 30-45 minute nap. I've got the police notes in front of me. The detective, quoting Megan, says, unusual for Nate, usually very happy. Went back out to playroom. He was showing signs of being tired, falling asleep, standing up. Try to get him to put him down for nap.

He screamed again, brought him back out to playroom. She said at one point in the morning, Nathaniel kicked and screamed and threw himself on the floor. Behavior she had never seen. Megan also said that at some point in the morning, Nathaniel kicked and screamed and threw himself on the floor. Behavior she had never seen. Megan also said that at some point in the morning, her cat scratched the side of Nathaniel's face. Without speaking to Megan, having a real conversation, there's no way for me to know what went

on during the three hours she was caring for Nathaniel. I asked Megan, was it possible that she took the kids outside and the Daniel who loved to climb scrambled up into the play structure and fell? She said no, they never went outside. I had a look at Megan's social media post for the morning to see if there were any clues. In addition to the home daycare, Megan had a small business that sold electronics sent diffuser supplies and a plastic wrap business that BOSIC can help people lose weight. I asked her if she was distracted by her business that morning. She said no.

Megan had six social media posts on Instagram or Facebook while operating her home daycare that morning, ranging from business related to silly comments. 728 AM. Megan Posts an ad, asking for three product testers to try our products. 836 AM. Megan Posts an ad for a diffuser starter bundle at a cost of $253.

1012 AM. Megan Posts. A poem for mornings. Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. Everyone shut up. Coffee. 10.55am. Megan Posts an ad for her weight loss wraps, includes a photo of a woman who has used the

wrap and claims to have lost weight. 11.09am. Megan responded to a Facebook discussion about where a friend should have dinner. Her husband Brian, who's on the chat, suggests suggests the beef baron, LOL, at that time, beef baron was a London Ontario strip club and it's now an antique market. Megan replies, what kind of food do they serve, Brian Van Hoef?

1110 AM, Megan Poston ad for a facial cleanser. At 11.30 AM, according to the police notes, Megan gets Nathaniel and the other little boy ready for the trek back to Emily's preschool. The two and a half year old walks up the carpeted stairs on his own, and she carries Nathaniel. Megan takes them to the garage to put their shoes on, and she said at that point, Nathaniel collapses on the landing, slumping to one side as he falls. Megan stressed the detective, Nathaniel did not fall down the three steps from the landing

to the concrete garage floor. She says she never got a shoeser coat on. When she looked down at Nathaniel on the landing, he was lethargic, out of it, he was breathing, almost like he was sleeping. She told the detective, she didn't notice a bruise on his head until after he collapsed. This is the only mention of a bruise in the notes of Megan's interview, and the specific location of the bruise is not mentioned. Megan told police she called the school and asked for Roseanne. That call came in at 11.50am, 20 minutes after Megan says Nathaniel collapsed.

We go back to my classroom, kids are coming in in and my principal came and said, uh, the baby sitter's on the line. It's an emergency, you have to call her, here's the number. North Meadows School has a different routine than most, called a balance schedule. Three academic periods separated by two long breaks. Principal Scott Askey told police he was certain the call from Megan came in at 11.50am. At that time, Rosanne's class was just coming back from the morning break. They had a guest speaker from Public Health who was going to talk to the students about dental

hygiene. Rosanne picks up a hall phone and dials Megan's number. I got on the phone and she said, you know, when Daniels fall in, then he can't hold his head up and he's falling asleep. But I couldn't hear him in the background. So I thought, you know, he'd fall in and she'd suit. Like he was okay. And he was very cuddly little guy.

Like he just snuggled in. So I thought he just, you know, the word he had fallen and she sued them and he's just snuggled in. I never dawned on me. What she, what, I didn't know. So I said, okay, I'll come and get him and I'll take him to the hospital. And she said, do you want me to come there, bring him to.

And I said, well, yeah, that's gonna be great because I have to get out of the school. I have a classroom full of kids and, you know, that's, that would be good. And at one point she said, oh, Nathaniel. A supply teacher took over. Rosanne grabbed her purse and car keys and sprinted out the door to a Yukon.

I went out into the truck and I drove out of the parking lot. And when I drove out of the parking lot, she had turned the corner onto the street that my school was on. And she was pulling an empty red wagon, and she was holding Nathaniel, and his face was in and facing in. And he was stiff.

I couldn't tell that when I looked at her, but like he was, he was not, like, he was just hanging, didn't, I don't know. I understand. Okay. And there was a toddler in front, toddling in front of her. And I pulled off to the side of the road, and I grabbed the car seat, and I ran around, and I scooped him from her, and he was stiff. And I put him in the car seat, and I couldn't buckle him in,

because I couldn't move his arms were stiff. So I just took the car seat, put it in the car, and drove to the hospital, which is three kilometers away. At the time, Rosanne did not own a cell phone. She floored it to the hospital, blew through stop signs, made it there in four minutes. I asked Rosanne to try and recall Megan's demeanor, anything she said, and what she observed

when she looked at Nathaniel. She kept repeating she was sorry, she was sorry. He was stiff, everything was stiff, like straight, his eyes were not open. So when I looked at him, I said, oh, wait, what, you know, what, no, Nate. And I could see this red scratch on the top of his ear that wasn't there when I dropped him off.

The red scratch, Rosanne noticed, was actually a cluster of three abrasions on the skin around Nathaniel's left ear. One at the top, one at the bottom, one at the back, each just a few centimeters from the ear. The pathology report done on Nathaniel refers to two of these scratches as curved linear abrasions. The other one is straight. It was one of many findings the McClellans felt police ignored. Frustrated with how the investigation was progressing, Kent went to see the Strathroid officer who at the time was leading the probe, Jill Filion.

He's the one who interviewed Kent to the hospital and asked if they had a life insurance policy on Nathaniel or owned an ATV. Kent asked Filion if he had considered laying a charge against Megan, the babysitter, because she didn't call 911 when Nathaniel collapsed, and there was a delay in getting help. And he looked at me and he said, if we charge her with that, then we could charge your wife with the same charge based on the time that she got the phone call and she got into the hospital. The eye took time from the time Megan called me

till the time I got in a faint of the hospital, but I was criminally negligent. How much time did you take? 10 minutes? Well, I've been up to do. I almost fell over when he said that too, because I thought that that's preposterous. Like, please tell me you're not actually serious.

While Megan would not agree to be interviewed by me, I do have a recording of her describing the events of the morning. It was made by Kent, who knocked on Megan's door about a year after Nathaniel died. Kent says he was desperate for information, something, anything, and hoped Megan could fill in the blanks. Megan did not know she was being recorded. Later, Kent gave the audio file to police and to me.

I don't really have much to say other than he was a fantastic day and he lost, like, as infected. But when I was getting ready to go back up in preschool, I even texted my girlfriend that day and said, if she was never like, The conversation just 10 minutes long takes place on Megan's front doorstep. Can't ask. Where did Nathaniel collapse? Megan says it was on the landing in her garage. We have my gun. Platform and three stairs and he just was taking the pouch.

You're getting ready to walk down to the I had to come with me and open the door and walk down and I turned ready to walk down to the edge of the home with me and open the door and I turned around to get behind you just like you fainted like you I said he lapsed when it was just like he went to the floor and the only reason I didn't call

number one because he was looking at me and he was really just like he passed out I've fated before myself and come back to you and it was just like that. Like I call those and right away. As Kent turns to leave, emotions get the better of him. We just just want to know what happened to him.

He dropped out of a perfectly good healthy boy and died. You don't just die. You know, you don't just die." We're now back to where our story began. If you recall, Al Azaveto, who lives in the area, he was on his way home for lunch with pizza for him and his wife. Here's what Al told me he saw just before noon. You heard this in the first episode, but I think it's worth circling back. The adult, I believe in question here is Megan Vanhoof was pulling a wagon.

There was something in the wagon like I want to say a knapsack or a bag, and there was a child in her left arm, and she was holding this child. The child was facing away from her so forward and was drooped forward. Like as if you buckled, her arm was not quite underneath the armpits, but we're up that high, and the child was adduped over it, so the face of the child, they could not see. But the child was facing or looking towards the sidewalk that they were walking on. I remember that vividly, because I thought, wow, how come that, knowing that she's a daycare provider, how is that child being held like that? And why isn't it in the wagon?

It's a remarkably similar account. The only difference being that Roseanne said Nathaniel was facing inward towards Megan, and Al said the little boy was facing forward. The police, by the way, they never talked to Al. It's clear that the police went pretty hard at Roseanne and Kent. Three searches of the house, inside and outside, one official, two unofficial, the unofficial searches in the first two days, two interviews which Roseanne calls interrogations, and both took lie detector tests and both passed. But what about Megan? She was interviewed twice, but she refused a lie detector test. As to her house, the search warrant police obtained

only authorized detectives to look inside, and as far as I can tell, they only went there once and not immediately. That's one question Megan did answer when I had her on the telephone. No one has been to my house other than forensics, so no. Okay, so there's no nobody did they have a search warrant? No. Okay, so just forensics? Not that I'm aware. Like I said, the only people that have come into my house are forensics,

taking pictures and video of my house. That's it. And just it was that like the day of a couple of days after, just so I can put it in my timeline. That was... Probably two weeks after. The accident just because it was after its funeral. So I believe it was and it was a Tuesday. So I think it's probably

And it was a Tuesday, so I think it's probably two weeks to the day of the accident. That means police did not examine, at least not officially, the two play structures outside. I've had a look at them, a neighbor let me look over his fence, and my colleague, photographer Lucas Aleniac, took photos. The play structures, to me, they look rickety. In Rosanne's interview with the police, she tells them that during the frantic exchange on Head Street, when she picked up Nathaniel, Megan told her she had put Nathaniel outside with the girls before school.

I asked Megan about that. Is there any chance that the child was left untended and was maybe out in the back at the play structure. I asked Megan about these possibilities because two people I interviewed raised concerns about Megan's supervision of children. One Strathroid woman told me she pulled her child from Megan's home daycare, or for supervision concerns. Cooper, can I ask you what did you dress as Halloween last night?

Um, a dying experience. strange, a strange, a wax. Teresa Lovett is a registered massage therapist in Strathroid. Her husband works full-time, she works part-time, and like Rosanne, she only needed someone to look after her son Cooper for a few days a week. Cost was also an issue. Megan charges roughly $30 a day, less than a regulated daycare. I knew her from town. So, I mean, that's a small town. She made in charges roughly $30 a day less than a regulated daycare. I knew her from town.

So, I mean, it's a small town. Yeah. So, I knew her from town. And so, yeah, she agreed to take them on. She was just starting at the time. We did a tour of the house and she showed me around. She showed me all the babygames she had that were going to be installed. Nothing was ever installed. The entire time he was there, oh no thank you.

They played mostly in the basement. She had a finished basement and the toy room was down there. So they played mostly down there and stuff, but lunch and stuff upstairs, but she had babygates for the top of the stairs and the bottom of the stairs, that she showed me because she had them for when her kids were little, but they were uninstalled. She said they were going to be put back in. They never were. Teresa said Cooper started going to Megan's in 2014, the year before Nathaniel. She said Cooper was not fond of going there. He cried from the minute I dropped him off to the minute I picked him up. And he wasn't

there very long. She used to try and convince me to leave him there for the whole day. Getting Cooper to go was an ordeal. He would scream all the way and he knew that I could go different ways and he would be fine. If I went a different way, he would be fine, but she's gotten that stone in her laneway. So when you pull up, he would know the second we pulled in and he would like instantly start to cry

as soon as we hit her anyway. One year into his time with Megan, Theresa finished work early in the afternoon and drove over to Megan's to pick up Cooper. I went to pick him up one day and it wasn't anything to do with Cooper. He was inside with Megan, she was changing his diaper and all the rest of the kids were out playing in her front yard, including one little boy who had. So this was right before school got out because I ended up letting my daughter watch him for the summer. So this was the week, the last week of school.

It was the Thursday or Friday or whatever. I went to pick him up and choose inside with Cooper and all the rest of the kids were outside. One of them had just had his second birthday and I was like, Ford, that he was outside in the front yard playing by himself with the other kids who were biking up and down the sidewalk and then into the neighbor's driveway and it's back. It's a busy, busy, busy, busy, busy period. Yeah, and I mean if my two-year-old was out front of the house, he'd been

on that road so quick, because anything could happen to those kids. Somebody should come and take them, they could get in. Har like there's so many, so many things that could have happened, and it only takes a second. That day, Teresa took Cooper home and never brought him back. She said she was too upset to tell Megan why.

The experience left her concerned that her son's time there had negatively affected him. She said her son was an early talker, but during his year at Megan's, his speech suffered. That's back on track now. Teresa's allegations are referenced in a civil suit that McClellan's launched against the Van Hoes. None of the allegations have been tested in court. The McClellan's alleged that Teresa removed her own child from the care of Megan Van Hoes due to obvious negligence and criticized the police for not interviewing Teresa for two years. The Van Hoof's and their reply to the McClellan lawsuit state that babygates were installed at the top and bottom of the basement stairs.

The Van Hoof's also state the Teresa removed her child because she wanted a different schedule for snacks and naps than that said the vanhoove household. When Nathaniel died, it was just a few months after Teresa pulled her son out of Megan's care. She didn't know the McClellins at the time, only connected later with Rosanne after Nathaniel died. I feel bad I couldn't have stopped something from happening. Another strapped Roy woman I spoke to, Amanda Starling,

lives nearby and said she knew of someone who had a child in Megan's care. Amanda is a parent who has children at North Meadow School where Roseanne teaches. I knew prior to the Nathaniel case that Megan was a daycare provider. And I had a friend that had a friend with a child in her care. And I had seen the kids left unattended out on her front yard. And she lives on a very busy street, which

was alarming to me. So I had informed my friends so she could tell her friend that the children were left unattended because I live so close I'm on head street often too. So just out and about my daily errands and whatever I would drive by and see the children unattended on the front yard. How many times do you think? There was definitely twice for, that I seen them. Just paint me a picture of the scene ages of kids where they are.

There was four children, all little. Like they had to have been between the ages of one and three, three and a half at most. And just playing out there, like there was a couple balls and a few little toys or whatever, they were just running around doing their own thing, unintended. Amanda asked her friend to pass on the information to the woman whose child was in Megan's care. And when the friend asked Megan, like I was told, you know, the kids were left unattended on the front yard today, and I'm concerned. Megan had told her she just ran in the house for a moment to use the bathroom.

She wasn't gone long at all. I asked Megan about the observations of the two women, and she denied the incidents occurred. In the Vanhoves' reply to allegations contained in the civil suit from Roseanne and Kent, that she did not properly look after Nathaniel. The Vanhoves state that, at no time, was Nathaniel out of Megan's sight. The police notes contained in the search warrant material show that a detective did speak to one woman who normally had three children in Megan's home daycare, but only one child the day Nathaniel went to hospital. That's a toddler Al Azaveto saw running along the sidewalk.

Sarah McGilvery, the mom, told the detective she has no concerns with the care Megan is providing. She's had her children have fun in Megan's, often playing outside, but sometimes down in the rec room in the basement. One final note, this one about the police interview of Megan. In police interviews contained in search warrant documents, information is often included, but with no explanation as to why it's there. That's a situation with the opening line in the police summary of Megan's interview. It reads, Megan states she has not been drinking or taking drugs recently.

In the many hundreds of pages of search warrant documents related to Nathaniel's case, the question about drinking or taking drugs is not raised in any other police interview, including those of Nathaniel's parents, his grandparents, Kathy Webster, or another woman who helped with Nathaniel's child care. Megan did not respond to a question from the star regarding drinking or drug use. That day, the Tuesday, ended with an Nathaniel in hospital on life support and the start of the police investigation. According to the police notes, after she handed over Nathaniel, Megan texted a woman,

Jennifer Waters, a friend from when they both worked as bank tellers. Sometimes Megan picked up Jennifer's kids after school. Megan tells Jennifer, Nate fell over, he just collapsed. Later in the day, Megan texts Jennifer again, cops are involved, and they will be contacting my parents. She means the parents of children she looks after. Megan's text to her friend concludes, last I heard he's in critical condition, and my day just got real bad.

There's no way it could have happened here. I was with him all morning and never took my eyes off him. Next time, on death in a small town. The police have told me that you stated that my behavior was abnormal. And CIS has told me that you stated that my interactions with staff in the PCCU was bizarre. It was because I want to know what went wrong. I don't understand. My son was alive and he was healthy. And he was happy. And then he was dead. And nobody has answers and everyone, nothing they say makes sense to me. And so I did.

Death in a small town was researched, written and narrated by me, Kevin Donovan, Did you? Meleniac, music and sound design for the series created by Sean Pattenden. From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan, and this is Death in a Small Town.