Tonight we’re talking about the mysterious case of the Harrison Family. This case will be told differently than our normal format and the fun part is that it’s gonna be a two – parter!
But first, I’m gonna give you my weekly reminder to listen to our last episode – the Case of Valerie Rosario. This case was a short case, because I did it myself while Char was moving. This case was of a woman who met a stranger from Instagram and what happened after he came over to her house. You’ve GOT to listen to it. It’s only 20 mins long. It’s called Instagram Nightmare and it’s episode 51.
And in our exclusive community we have a bonus episode of a getting to know the hosts. Char and I answer questions that are supposed to be deep and get to the heart of who we are. So far, we’re hearing rave reviews about it. If you want to get to know us better then head on over our exclusive community in Patreon at www.patreon.com/loveandmurder and join us there. Later on, I’ll tell you more about what you get from joining this community.
Now on to the case
On April 16, 2009, an otherwise healthy 64 year old man was found dead inside his home at 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent, Mississauga in Ontario Canada. He was found inside of his bathroom, with signs of a potential crime; the man had a fractured sternum and markings on his neck. Regardless of this police reported that the man had died of a heart arrhythmia – an irregular heartbeat and could cause death from a sudden interruption of a regular heartbeat. The only other problem with this documentation is that the man had no history of heart problems.
This is the beginning of a very peculiar case.
Bridget Harrison was born in London, Ontario Canada in 1946. She had an adventurous personality and when she was 16, she got an apprenticeship at Stratford’s performing arts theatre. While working there, she met a stage hand named…
William Harrison, or Bill as he was known, was born in 1944 in Stratford. He was described as handsome and athletic who loved racing cars and listening to Jazz. Wow that’s on two different sides of the spectrum. He actually loved jazz because he grew up in a household of musicians. And, fun fact, his great-grandparents escaped slavery in VA, in 1837 made their way to Canada using the Underground Railroad and launched a business called Harrison’s Beauty Parlour which Bill’s father still ran when he was born in 1944. Isn’t that crazy! Now, when Bill met Bridget, he was working in the costume department of one of her plays at Stratford’s performing arts theatre.
Anyway, Bill and Bridget got together and ended up getting married in 1969. They then moved to Mississauga into a 6 bedroom home. After their move, Bridget decided to get employment as a teacher and was quickly promoted to principal. She then began serving on the school board.
Bill got a job as an executive for the company, Sobeys. He also volunteered helping children and as a baseball coach.
They decided to adopt to expand their family and brought their first child, a 6 month old boy who they named Caleb, home in 1973.
Caleb had Tourette’s syndrome and struggled in school and was also bullied due to his Tourette’s. For those who don’t know, according to tourettes.org, “Tourette Syndrome is one type of Tic Disorder. Tics are involuntary, repetitive movements and vocalizations. They are the primary symptoms of a group of childhood-onset neurological conditions known collectively as Tic Disorders.”
Caleb was fun to be around and witty, but he was also challenging in school; which I could understand due to everything he was going through. His mother, being a principal, expected him to do well in school. All mom-teachers are like that with their kids. 2 of my aunts are teachers and they are tough on their kids like that. Although Caleb loved Bridget, and vice-versa, their personalities often clashed, however; Bill – the peacekeeper, was always there to come between them. Bill had a really calm character and he was not known to lose his temper. Yea, this is what people who have similar, hot personalities need between them.
After highschool, Caleb went straight into the working world. He got a job in shipping and receiving at a store called My Favourite Doll.
In 2000, when Caleb was 27 he met a 19 year old woman who worked the front desk of his job. Her name was…
Melissa Merritt was born in 1981. She grew up in a law enforcement family since her father was a police officer in Toronto (and when her brother grew up he went into the same profession). As a young lady, she was described as a girl-next-door, animal lover type of person. She dreamed of having a family – of the whole house with a white picket fence and 2.5 kids. What’s the .5 in that equation? I’ve always wondered that. Anyway, Melissa had had an ovary removed because of a medical condition and wanted to have children as soon as possible.
Months after Melissa and Caleb met, they were expecting a child and by the spring of 2003, they’d been married with 2 children and a house in Georgetown, which was only 30 minutes away from their childhood homes.
At first the relationship was great, but over time they started fighting over money (that’ll always do it). After that, the arguments turned to married life, responsibilities, lies, and apparently Caleb had taken up drinking.
Remember that I said part of the problem was lying? Well, in the spring of 2004, Melissa told their family and friends that she had ovarian cancer. “I admit to embellishing a health problem and causing concern for my and (Caleb’s) family. I was being treated for a cyst and I embellished the situation which resulted in my and (Caleb’s) family fearing that I had cancer.”
Even her telling Caleb that she’d lost an ovary came into question; she later denied saying that she’d lost an ovary. I wonder what that’s all about – the random lying. Attention?
In June of 2005, Melissa called the police on Caleb. She reported that he had attacked her, saying that he “put me in a headlock and hit me repeatedly in the head.” Caleb said, “I protected myself after the respondent attacked me, gouging and scratching.”
Caleb was arrested and charged with domestic assault.
I’m kind of keen on believing Caleb as one person is a consistent lyer and the other isn’t.
Needless to say, after this, the relationship ended and Caleb moved back in with his parents. Melissa stayed in Georgetown and kept the children from Caleb.
A month after this, Caleb got into an accident because he was driving drunk and ran into a taxi – head on – killed the driver and injuring 4 of the paswngers. Of course he was arrested and charged with drunkk driving causing death. However, he was released on bail on the condition that he lived with his parents. Wait! What?!
Instead of going straight to trial for murder and drunk driving, nothing happened – for MONTHS. His defense lawyer was unavailable, then the judge got sick, so the trial was delayed for a YEAR. When second trial date came up, his attorney was “unavailable” again. What the hell is going on!? Then when the trial FINALLY started, the court (called the Crown in Canada) realized that they hadn’t sent out the summons to many witnesses, so they had to delay the trial again. I mean….I’m just….like wow. I can’t make this incompetence up! Finally, after three years, Caleb’s lawyer filed a motion that his Charter right to a speedy trial had been violated and he stated that the case be dropped. For those who are not Canadian and who are wondering, “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms sets out those rights and freedoms that Canadians believe are necessary in a free and democratic society. The Charter is one part of the Canadian Constitution.” This motion was dismissed. Man! I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was granted.
Caleb’s ex-wife used this drunk driving as proof that he wasn’t cut out to be a father and held the children even closer to her and further away from him.
A couple of weeks later, police arrived at Caleb’s parent’s house questioning him about a home invasion that Melissa had called in. She said she’d been attacked in her backyard, but when they saw that Caleb was injured – due to his crash – they realized that he couldn’t have done anything. He was actually on crutches and had problems walking.
That didn’t stop Melissa though, she kept reporting several home invasion but no charges were ever filed. In fact, in family court, Caleb testified that Melissa “deliberately misled” cops “in her continued attempts to implicate me in acts of abuse” to “create suspicion about me.” One officer from the Halton police force came forward and said, “I am 100% convinced she was making up the whole story.”
In October 2005, Calab was granted shared custody with Tuesdays, Thursdays, and rotating weekends with his children. The only stipulations was that he stuck to the terms of his bail AND he had to live with his parents.
In the meantime, Melissa kept filing complaints against Caleb and now his parents. She filed with the Children’s Aid Society and the police. She would allege that Caleb mistreated the children, that his parents neglected her daughter, and that she had to accommodate both Caleb’s and his parent’s work schedule. She also said that Caleb would just dump the kids on his parents and not care for them. She actually filed 5 claims throughout a 2 year period. Although she kept filing these complaints, nothing came of them because really nothing could be proven. It was getting so ridiculous that the judge presiding over the case told Caleb and Melissa that they should only speak to each other through writing and try to keep things civil. Now you know it has to be bad for a judge to say that. Like, “yall are acting like kids so I’m gonna treat you like kids.” However, all this did was make Melissa an exceptional writer. I don’t mean she wrote great letters; no, I mean she wrote long letters – LOTS of long letters, complaining about EVERYTHING when it came to Caleb and his parents. She absolutely didn’t like that Caleb’s parents were involved in raising her kids – or even that Caleb got to see them. After some time, she began accusing Bridgette (remember that’s Caleb’s mom) of writing Caleb’s letters for him. I wonder what made her think this.
While all of this was going on, both Caleb and Melissa found time for love. No, not for each other – don’t be ridiculous. They both began relationships with people they’d met online. Caleb had started dating, and fallen in love with Corinda McEwen – a single mother of two. Corinda fell in love with Caleb because, according to her, he was a great father. He was tender, attentive, and would always make time to speak with his children. A completely different story than what Melissa reported.
Speaking of Melissa, now 24, she’d started her own relationship with a 28 year old, six foot four, linebacker type, part-time security guard she’d met online; a guy named Chrisopher Fattore. Christopher had been raised in an Italian neighborhood in northern Toronto and, after graduating highschool, went right into the workforce. He worked as a bouncer, a security guard like I said, a Hooters kitchen manager, and a handyman. At one point in time, he went to beauty school, but decided it wasn’t for him and dropped out. He had his motto for life tattooed on his left arm, from his elbow to wrist, “Only the strong survive.” Oh boy! Is he as macho as macho can be?
Melissa loved how he was with her and the children; protective, loving, and attentive. The icing on the cake for Melissa was that Christopher hated Caleb as well.
Now, Melissa and Caleb had never actually divorced, but that didn’t stop Melissa from getting “married.” Christopher had proposed to her on his 29th birthday in October of 2006 and began planning a spring wedding. Well, closer to the wedding time is when she claims that she realized that she wasn’t actually divorced from Caleb, “I made a mistake when I thought that after two years of separation that you were automatically divorced. ” What?! Where did you just get that from?! Like I said, that realization still didn’t stop her. Her and Christopher performed a ceremony and called themselves married.
Christopher and Melissa went on to have 4 children together over the next 5 years. Both of them never kept a job and didn’t know how to manage money so they were more often than not on government assistance and asking their families for money.
Instead of going out and looking for work, Christopher spent his time making a Facebook page that posted and reached out to people about Caleb. He wanted Caleb to get the harshest sentence possible for his drunk driving charge. He made a petition and worked to get 100,000 signatures towards his goal. At one point, he’d posted Caleb’s picture and said, “This is Caleb Harrison, the dick that killed someone drinking and driving. He’s, unfortunately, also my wife’s ex-husband. This man has gotten away with too much already in his life. It can’t keep happening.”
My thing is – how do you know? You literally just came in the picture about a year ago and you feel like you already know this man’s entire life? You know, I don’t like people like that.
Anyway, one day in December 2008, Melissa accused one of Caleb’s parents of slapping their son and then stopped bringing the kids around – or allowing them to be picked up by Caleb. However, on December 22nd, a judge stepped in to remind her that she couldn’t make this move without permission. He called Melissa’s claims “unsubstantiated” and upheld the shared custody and added a clause that the police be notified if Caleb and his parents were denied access to the kids again. Melissa argued that she was keeping her children safe from a violent man and his enablers, but the order was withheld because there was no proof of these allegations. Actually, at one point, the Superior Court judge made a statement that said, “After one claim, investigators concluded that the children had been coached by Ms. Merritt.”
On March 9, 2009, Caleb ended up being convicted of one count of imparied driving causing death and also three counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm. He was sentenced to 18 months at in Maplehurst Correctional Complex, in Milton, Ontario.
While Caleb was gone, Bridget and Bill filed a motion to transfer his custody rights from him to them – only for the time frame that he was locked away. In less than two weeks, the motion was granted, with the judge saying, “It is important and in the best interests of the children to maintain the environment they are used to.” So that was a win for the Harrisons as they knew if they didn’t have this motion, they would have never seen their grandchildren.
On April 16, 2009, Bridget came home from a school board meeting. She pulled into the driveway at 9pm and went into the house. Instead of hearing noise, it was quiet. She called out for Bill but got no response. She walked around and saw his half eaten dinner on the coffee table in the living room, but no Bill. She walked upstairs and checked her bedroom to see if maybe he’d gone to bed, but he wasn’t there either. She went back downstairs and walked around calling Bill’s name, with no answer. She came to the downstairs bathroom and saw the door was closed. She tried the handle but it was locked. Bridget, being the bad ass she is, took a hair pin and picked the lock and found something she dreaded. Bill was sitting, slumped over, on the bathroom floor.
She called 911
The 911 operator asked her to check Bill’s vitals, but by that time he was cold and stiff and she was having problems moving the body. At this point she told the operator that she could tell that her husband wasn’t breathing and when paramedics arrived, they confirmed that Bill was, in fact, dead.
When police questioned her, she told them that it was not usual that the bathroom door was locked. He was in the house by himself and he wouldn’t have locked the door in this situation. She also told them that all of the lights were off in the house when she arrived.
According to a Peel police directive, “police must vigorously investigate all sudden deaths with a view to establishing the cause and circumstances, and where culpability can be established, to apprehend and charge those responsible.” The first step in doing this is to call a coroner.
Dr. Reuven Jhirad, the police coroner, arrived at the residence at 10:50pm an hour and 50 mins after Bridgette found Bill. He examined the body and notated abrasions on the neck; thin, red marks appeared across the throat and had officers take pictures of the markings. The Dr. then documented that these marks may have been due to the victim’s necklace.”
They also observed that Bill’s wedding ring and necklace were gone, that he had a Swiss Army knife out and had brought his blood pressure medicine and pain medicine with him into the bathroom. One of the officers took a note which said, “Sudden death, doesn’t appear to be any foul play.”
The death was ruled as natural causes with investigators explaining that, although it was sudden and unexplained, these kinds of deaths are not unnatural. According to them, in a person’s final moment, people usually have an urge to use the bathroom, and this makes it a common place to die. Uuummmm……. They reported that, “The death appears to be natural. The coroner had no further concerns regarding further police investigation.” Wow. Open and shut case Johnson. Get your hat! It’s steak night at Golden Corral. Sorry for your loss ma’am. Come on Johnson! Last one to the car is a rotten egg! – Like this is what I’m picturing. A three stoogies moment.
The coroner corroborated the police’s conclusion reporting, “The scene was reviewed with the police who felt there were no concerns.”
Thankfully, according to regulation, because there was no clear cause of death, an autopsy was ordered.
In Ontario, autopsies were performed pathologists and forensic pathologists, not by the coroner.
What’s the difference between a forensic pathologist and a pathologist?
Pathologists study the living; they are experts in the study of diseases.
Forensic pathologists study the dead; they are experts in injury and disease.
Their findings helps the coroner determine the cause and the manner of death of a victim; is it a natural death, accidental, suicidal, murder or something that can’t be determined.
Dr. Timothy Feltis did the examination and found no evidence of a natural death, “No definitive anatomical or toxicological cause of death.” Well what did Dr. Feltis find then? Well he found that there were a bunch of injuries including a large scalp bruise, the bruising and cuts on the neck, and a fractured sternum.
Later, during the investigation, the coroner confirmed to the pathologist that Bill was wearing a thin gold chain which was what probably caused the abrasions on Bill’s neck AND this information was in his report. Dr. Feltis also asked if there was something in the house that could have been the cause of the broken sternum. The coroner told him that there was a sharp corner that Bill might have fallen on, the corner of the bathroom vanity, which is what could have caused it.
The only problem with all this investigation, questioning, and documentation is that none of it was actually shared between the departments. The pathologist was never shown the police photos from the scene, which is supposed to be standard freaking procedure. The pathologist shouldn’t be guessing or trying to figure out where cuts, bruises, and abrasions came from because they should have pictures of the crime scene.
So, at the end of Dr. Feltis’ investigation, he concluded that the abrasions to the body could have happened during “a sudden collapse as the result of an acute cardiac arrhythmia, with a fall striking the head and chest.” Not necessarily in that order, but that’s what he reported happened. In the report, he wrote that the cause of death was “acute cardiac arrhythmia.”
OK. Were yall able to follow all of that? Bill was found dead in his bathroom. All of the lights were off in the house, his dinner was half eaten on the living room table, his body’s found dead in a locked bathroom, his gold chain and wedding ring were gone, there were injuries all over his body including a broken sternum and the investigators said “natural circumstances. Case close. Another job well done Johnson!”
So THAT happened
Let’s go back to the family and see what’s going on over there.
On April 18, Bridgette couldn’t find the children; they weren’t in the house and for a split second she panicked. After that second passed, she realized where the kids were and called the police. A few days later, it was discovered that Christopher had taken the kids; just as she feared.
Melissa, of course, was unhappy with the custody arrangement so they decided to get the kids and move out of Mississauga.
Of course Brridgette went to the police, pleading with them. They knew where the kids were and she had documentation stating that the kids were supposed to be with her, but police stated that they couldn’t do anything without an UPDATED court order. WHAT?
Bridgette went to court, but of course, it took time before she could appear before a judge. It wasn’t until April 23 – five days later – that she was able to get an order of temporary sole custody. NOW the police were able to move forward and issued a warrant for Christopher.
OMGod, this entire thing is a gigantic circus! What is wrong with the police in this case?
Although she finally had this piece of paper, the cops had to find the children first. Maybe, if they had begun their search immediately, this wouldn’t have been the problem. For months, Melissa and Chrisotpher had the children; driving them across the country, trying to keep ahead of the cops. Keep in mind, at this time, Melissa was pregnant with her fifth kid. They drove from Ontario to Calgary – roughly 2120 miles, then when they realized they couldn’t afford the rent in Calgary, they moved to Nova Scotia – a 50 hour drive.
Not long after they settled in Nova Scotia, police received a tip of their whereabouts. How you ask? Well, all this time, Melissa and Christopher were going by alias. However, I think Christopher forgot the pls because he turned in a rent check with his real name on it. Idiot!
On November 27,2009 Melissa was found, arrested, charged with parental abduction, and returned to Ontario. She was released on bail with a condition that she not have unsupervised contact with both kids or leave the house without authorization.
Later, Caleb was released early due to good behavior. Caleb was home, the kids were home, and life went back to some semblance of normal.
On April 10, Melissa and Christopher violated the court order and drove over to Bridgette’s house. Melissa stayed in the car which was parked further down the street and Christopher went to the door and knocked. When Bridget answered the door, he handed a letter and pictures over to her. He told Bridget that he came to take the kids to school. As this as happening, Caleb came home with the children, saw Melissa sitting in the van and told his mother when he pulled up. This prompted Bridget to call the police and Melissa was arrested and charged with a breach of bail. Officers put her in jail for three days.
On April 21, the day before Melissa’s abduction hearing, Caleb and Melissa’s 8 year old son came home from school on his bike. He put his bike up, opened the front door and saw his grandmother laying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.
And that is the end of part 1 of the Harrison Family Murders.
Let us know what you think of part 1 in the comments below. Also, control yourselves people and don’t look up this case. Let Char and I entertain you! Wait for the conclusion next week.
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