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- [00:00]
A
This is Australian True Crime International with Michelle Laurie. Connie Pruden Gardenetti vanished in 1988, leaving her family searching for answers for decades as suspicion continued to surround her husband. What began as a missing persons case would eventually unravel into a story of manipulation, coercive control, and an alleged cover up that lasted years. Tonight, we look at how the investigation finally broke open and the long road to justice for Connie and her loved ones. Joining us is Kristy Lee from Canadian True Crime. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People of the Kulin Nation and a warning. This episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.
- [00:51]
B
Life is full of distractions like this clarinet solo. But you don't have to put up with distractions in your photos. With distraction removed, Adobe Photoshop can automatically delete unwanted elements like wires and people. We're working on the clarinet. Try it@photoshop.com this crime takes place in April of 1997 in the province of Alberta. It's basically the Texas of Canada.
- [01:19]
A
Oh, what does that mean? Cincindiari. That could mean lots of things. Okay, well, you're from Brisbane, so I mean, is it, put it in Australian terms. Is it the Queensland of.
- [01:31]
B
Well, my husband's actually from Rockhampton, which is the beef capital of Australia. So you could say that, I mean, Calgary is from Alberta. It could be the Rockhampton, but maybe a slightly larger version. But basically it's where it's known for, like, oil and gas. And so the oil and gas stuff is very heavy in terms of politics and all the rest of it in Alberta. And they're often the state that's talking about separating or the province, Sorry, that's talking about separating from the rest of Canada the same way that Texas often does. So I'm not sure any of that stuff goes on in Australia.
- [02:11]
A
Well, it's very masculine vibes. Yeah, it definitely goes on. Queensland has a crack at that every now and then. But the very masculine. Those industries bring a lot of men, don't they? A lot of tough men to town. Yeah. And that affects the culture.
- [02:25]
B
Exactly. Yeah. It's a kind of a country thing. But if you think about the scenery, it's kind of, you know, Montana. Alberta is right above Montana.
- [02:36]
A
Okay.
- [02:37]
B
So it's the same kind of, you know, pine trees, rivers, lakes, creeks, beautiful scenery out there. Beautiful.
- [02:44]
A
Okay.
- [02:45]
B
There are also a lot of different indigenous nations in Alberta, and that will come up a little bit soon. But it's a freezing cold morning this April in 1997, and it's not quite 7:30 in the morning and there's two motorists driving through a rural rolling farmland in an area which is not too far from the city of Edmonton. Now suddenly their eyes are drawn to something by the side of the road and they stop the car to investigate. Lying in an icy snow filled ditch is what looks like a body lying face down and it appears to be a woman who is fully clothed with long blond hair. Now the motorists call the authorities immediately. And in Alberta, the provincial police service is the rcmp, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. What you know of as the Mounties. There are the federal police across the country, but some of our provinces or have them as the police force and that's what they are in Alberta. So when I say rcmp, that, that means the police.
- [03:56]
A
Are they all on horses or are they.
- [03:58]
B
Is this like.
- [03:59]
A
No. Okay, good.
- [04:00]
B
That's kind of a lot, a lot of the kind of mystery and the iconography that they like to promote. But realistically, the rcmp, the mounted police, were first created to control the indigenous population during colonization. So they really tried to rehabilitate their image, you know, with the, you know, the red guy with the hat on top of the horse and stuff. And you know, they were our gallant Mounties. But they're actually, yeah, they've got a sordid history.
- [04:32]
A
I never knew that. I, of course, all the way down here, I only ever knew the iconography I only knew of. You know, I thought this was what Canada was like, super proud of. It was like a really positive aspect of the country's image. I didn't know it had a bit of a dark history.
- [04:48]
B
Well, me either. And it's only through this podcast that I started, you know, really looking into Canadian history and like, because I don't, I didn't know anything about Australian history or Australian indigenous people. I don't know. I mean, I was born in New Zealand, but I went to high school in Australia and I, I just don't remember anything. So it's like at this point I've done so many cases from across Canada and researched all the history. And it's like I know way more about Canadian history and everything that goes on that I ever knew about Australia. And so.
- [05:19]
A
And I think a lot of us think we know a lot about Canada mainly because Canada seems a really simple place. And I don't mean that to be rude, but it just seems like Canadians are super sweet, polite, delightful people. Nothing terrible ever seems to happen in Canada. In fact, it reminds me of New Zealand. It reminds me of my. My image of New Zealand, you know.
- [05:40]
B
Right. Well, I mean, the Canadians would say that about the Australians as well, you know, where like long lost cousins, you know, bro, or whatever, similar culture and stuff. But like you would know there's assholes wherever you go. And, and that includes Canada. And they tend to, you know, recognize or acknowledge that, you know, the international view of them as being, you know, friendly. Sorry. And you know, constantly apologizing that. They kind of chuckle about that because, you know, people are people. Right.
- [06:16]
A
But I certainly don't think of Canadians as violent, although I am aware that there is. There are a lot of cases of missing indigenous women. I know that the, the deaths and the disappearances of indigenous women in the northern states of the US and into Canada is. Is quite an issue, isn't it?
- [06:32]
B
Yeah, it's an ongoing problem. And a couple of years ago, our government, we did a big inquiry into it and our government designated like a truth and reconciliation day and a set of kind of processes and steps which we would try and reconcile with the indigenous. But as with any inquiry, the government actually has to take up the recommendations. And in many cases it's just an ongoing issue. Unfortunately, it's just one of those things.
- [07:07]
A
So that's what I was expecting you to say when you said that some people found the remains of a woman by the side of the road. I was assuming she was indigenous in my limited knowledge of the situation. But you said she was blonde, so does that mean she wasn't?
- [07:20]
B
Well, we'll get to that, but that's a very astute observation there, Michelle. So the first RCMP Mountie members on scene conduct a search of the immediate area to see if there's any clues as to who the woman might be and what might have happened to her. And they spy something caught on a branch in a small grove of trees nearby. It's. It's black and it's a purse or a handbag. And inside is a piece of ID belonging to a Connie Grandinetti, who lives in the city of Edmonton, which is about 30 kilometers southwest of where they are now where the body's been found. And According to her ID, Connie Grandinetti has blonde hair and is 38 years old. Or she was. An autopsy would determine that she'd been shot twice in the back of the head, execution style. But investigators soon see that there's no large pool of blood and it's clear that Connie has been killed Elsewhere. And whoever murdered her has decided to dump her body in this particular spot. Now, it would be determined that Connie had been dead for about five hours by the time her body was discovered that morning, shortly after sunrise. So this meant that it had to have been dumped there after midnight. So sometime in the early hours of, of the morning. And perhaps that's why no one has actually reported her missing yet. A police canine is brought in to search the ground. There's a helicopter doing an overhead search, but there's nothing more of interest in that area. Investigators realize they're going to have to look harder to find the actual crime scene. So they start by issuing a public plea for any information that could help the case. And they're specifically looking for anyone with knowledge about the hours before Connie's death. So between about midnight and 7am and at the same time they release a photo showing a woman with curly blonde hair and brown eyes. But the weeks passed with no news and no new updates about the case. And those weeks soon turned into months. The news that Connie's body had been found in the ditch by the side of the road on a freezing cold morning was really shocking to everyone who knew her and loved her. She was a 38 year old mother of three and she worked as a teacher's aide at a school in Edmonton. She was known as a dedicated family woman and a kind hearted friend. Her maiden name was Connie Pruden and she grew up in Beaver Lake. Cree nation. So she's indigenous. It's located about 220 km northeast of Edmonton. It's a reserve or a reservation. Now, Canada has three distinct indigenous groups. Do you know what they are, Michelle?
- [10:22]
A
No, I don't. I know I recognize the word Cree. I've heard that before. What are the others?
- [10:27]
B
So the first one is the Inuit who are the indigenous peoples who inhabit the Arctic Northern Canada areas. And then there's the Metis who is the result of unions between European fur traders, mostly French and Scottish and first nations women. So there's like a distinct culture there that is like half indigenous, half kind of French and Scottish. So they're a distinct nation. And I actually have an indigenous content consultant, Danielle Parody, and she is Metis. And then there's the first nations who is everybody else who is not Inuit or Metis. And that includes Anishinaabe, Dene, Mi', Kmaq, Ojibwe, Cree and other nations as well. In Canada we have what's known as the 60 scoop, which is, you know, when the white people came and scooped up the indigenous people and put them with white families to, you know, raise them without get rid of their culture and their identity. So that's one of the methods that they used. But well, before that, it started in the late 1800s was the residential school system. So basically they were Catholic church run schools and other religious organizations, but mainly the Catholic church. And they would come in and again scoop up all of the indigenous children and take them to residential schools, which are schools where they would live.
- [11:54]
A
Boarding schools.
- [11:55]
B
Boarding schools, exactly. And the goal was again to eradicate their indigenous culture and their indigenous language. So they weren't allowed to speak anything but English. They were taken away from their families. They were treated horrendously. There was a lot of physical and sexual abuse. They actually performed experiments on the children. They called it food experiments, where they would only give them a certain kind of food and then watch them starve. And it's horrendous, the things that these poor kids were subjected to. The last of these residential schools only closed in 96 and about 150,000 indigenous children were placed in these schools. And they were like overcrowded, underfunded.
- [12:43]
A
It's a recipe for disaster.
- [12:45]
B
Yeah, yeah. Connie's mother, Midge Prudence. So she did grow up woodland Cree on Beaver Lake. Cree Nation. Connie did. Her mother, Midge, was incredibly family focused, but she was a survivor of the residential school system. So she was taken and forced to go to one of of those residential schools. And she struggled with the ongoing effect of her own childhood trauma. But she always felt like it was important to instill in her own children a strong spiritual and physical connection to their people and their culture. And she passed on the knowledge and the ceremonies and the traditions of their ancestors onto her children. But Connie, when she was 17 years old, she was already a single mother with a young son. And then she meets Jeff Grandinetti, who is a 19 year old white man, and they married two years later and they moved to the city of Edmonton. This is in the late 70s. Connie changed her name to Grandinetti and she gave birth to two more sons. And she did want all three of her kids to grow up with the same knowledge of their Cree culture, history and traditions that her own mother had passed on down. But the problem was that her husband was racist. And according to a court document, one of their sons together would later say that his father held blatant racist beliefs that indigenous people were inferior. And I quote, and he didn't allow his children to reveal their Cree identities to anyone. And so the son recounted growing up with A great deal of shame attached to his Cree roots. And that is also why Connie dyed her hair blonde. She was playing down her culture at home and so that no one would, you know, guess or be reminded that she was Indigenous.
- [14:45]
A
Just to hide it, basically.
- [14:47]
B
Exactly, Connie, exactly. But actually at school, where she was a teacher's aide, she was actually an Indigenous liaison, Aiden. So she was. Part of her role was to help the Indigenous students to get back on track. And so that is where she was able to share everything that her mother had passed on about her culture.
- [15:08]
A
What a complicated existence for Connie. So at home, even she's denying her background, her Indigenous background, but her job is to encourage young people to embrace it.
- [15:20]
B
Yeah, it must have been very hard for her. Now, obviously, Connie's marriage to Jeff Grandinetti wasn't an overly happy one. One of their sons together would. Would later recount that he'd witnessed his father being physically abusive to Connie. And then after 16 years of marriage, they separated. And this is in 1994. And a nasty divorce and custody battle was brewing, and Connie was really struggling with all of the overwhelm. So she decided to take Lee from her job to sort it all out. She was eventually awarded custody of their teen boys, and Jeff was ordered to pay her about $1,000 a month in child support. And at first he was making his payments, but then he stopped. And Connie, of course, did not return back to work. She was still on leave and she was not doing very well financially. And she found herself sinking into a hole of overwhelm. And she just, just didn't know how to deal with it. She started using drugs to get some relief from her pain and her stress, and then she started selling small amounts of it to keep herself afloat. So she never actually went back to her job as a teacher's aide. Now, during this period, she also started having issues with Jeff's family. Now, because Connie and her sons were registered under the Indian act of Canada, it meant that they could, they had some tax exemptions if they purchased property and items on the reserve or for use on the reserve. It's part of the special agreement that Indigenous nations have. But Connie had discovered that Jeff's sister had fraudulently used one of her son's registry numbers to avoid paying tax on the purchase of a holiday trailer that was definitely not used on the reserve. Connie was obviously furious, and she reported her sister in law to the Canada Revenue Agency or the ATO for all intents and purposes. So Connie was not very popular with her former in laws and the sister actually reported her to the police for stealing their camper trailer and trying to resell it at a local dealership. Connie ended up being charged with possession of stolen property and fraud, over $5,000 for all of that. And at around the same time, Jeff's sister was also fired from her own job and then charged with embezzling more than 200 grand from her employer. And for all of that, she blamed Connie for it.
- [18:03]
A
How?
- [18:04]
B
Well, because Connie had. Had reported her to the ATO and that she. I don't know, the details are kind of hazy, but.
- [18:13]
A
Oh, so she blamed her within the family. She didn't somehow convince the police that it was Connie's family fault?
- [18:18]
B
Oh, no, no, no, no. Within the family. She was like, if Connie had not reported me to the Canada Revenue Agency, none of this other stuff would have happened. I'd still have my job. I wouldn't have been charged with embezzling. So, yeah, there's a lot of blame put on Connie. Now, In March of 1996, just a few months after she got into the small time drug trade, Connie was caught trying to sell cocaine to an undercover cop. And she wasn't formally arrested or charged at the time, but she decided to start to get her product from a different supplier after that. Now, a couple of weeks later, she and her new boyfriend were surprised at her apartment when two men suddenly broke in. One of the men was Connie's original supplier who pulled out a hunting knife and he held it to her throat. Now, his name is Rick Pappin, and according to the woman he was seeing at the time named Elaine, he was furious. He discovered not only that Connie had switched suppliers, but now she was paying less money for the product and she was continuing to sell it to the same clients in the same areas.
- [19:32]
A
So, so his, his, you know, clients, his, his patch, his turf.
- [19:38]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [19:38]
A
You know what, I just have. I'm astounded at how quickly this is. Has happened to Connie. Within the space of three years, she's gone from being married, unhappily married, but married, mum, schoolteacher, to small time drug dealer and drug user and having, you know, drug dealers crash into her house and hold a knife at her throat. It's incredible how quickly this can happen.
- [20:02]
B
Yeah, absolutely. If you've got your whole husband's family, like, believing that you're the bad guy and, and then you've got these drug dealers on top of it and money
- [20:13]
A
troubles, and I don't think there's a single mother listening who doesn't get it. Absolutely, yeah.
- [20:18]
B
Rick Pappin, this drug old drug dealer, also told his, his girlfriend Elaine that he believed that Connie had ratted him out to the police when she had been caught trying to sell to an undercover cop. So he broke into her apartment, held a knife to her throat, slapped her in the face repeatedly, broke her boyfriend's nose and told Connie she owed him money. And he ordered her to stay away from his customers, stop selling cocaine in town, and then he left with his associate, leaving Connie and her boyfriend really in shock. So she calls the police immediately to report them for, for breaking and entering, an assault, and Rick Pappin and his associate are charged in relation to the break and enter. But Connie hadn't actually told the police anything about him being her former cocaine dealer. She like left that out of it completely. And in fact, Connie had never ratted Rick Pappen out to the police at all.
- [21:21]
A
He might have been a bit paranoid, Christie. He could have been the sort of bloke who was a bit paranoid about things.
- [21:27]
B
Could well be, could well be, yeah, evidently. But this, you know, she, she took the break and enter an assault as a wake up call, and she was suddenly really afraid of Rick Pappin and decided she needed to move house immediately and that she couldn't live like this anymore. So she found a new apartment across town, moved with her sons over there, and she was intent on making a fresh start. She immediately stopped doing drugs, she stopped selling drugs, and by all reports, she never started either of them again. The strength that that must have taken her, I cannot imagine.
- [22:06]
A
Yeah, but, but by this stage, I can feel in the background of the story you're telling, we can, we're racking up enemies here and scary enemies, some of them.
- [22:16]
B
Yep.
- [22:17]
A
Yeah, I can see there's family tension. There's family members who are very angry with her, there's a crazed drug dealer who's very angry with her and is associate. So by the time she's realized and pulled it together and left that lifestyle, she's already got a few enemies, right?
- [22:34]
B
Absolutely, yeah. And she can't. Yeah, she can't keep track of them, I guess. Shortly after Connie found her new apartment, rushed her boys out, moved away, she was suddenly arrested for trying to sell cocaine to that police officer. Now, it had been 10 months since she was caught, so it seems like a lot of time, but I think their motive was for her to be a police informant and she agreed. And she handed them over some details of just random drug dealers in the area, but not Rick Pappin. She was petrified of him and didn't mention a thing about him to the police. So she'd given the information that they wanted some random drug dealers and she was released from custody without charges. Now, Elaine, the woman that Rick Pappin had been seeing, seemed to take the break and enter as a wake up call as well. She was over Rick's cocaine trafficking lifestyle and his propensity for sudden violence. She broke up with him and she got together with another guy shortly after that. And it just so happened that the other guy knew Rick Pappin as well. And a couple of months after that, Rick assaulted Elaine at a bar and her new boyfriend stepped in to defend her. And what actually ended up happening was that both Rick Pappin and the new boyfriend were charged and detained at the Edmonton remand center. Now, when Elaine went to visit her boy boyfriend, he's obviously annoyed at Rick Papin. This is such a tangent. He's obviously annoyed at Rick Papin because Rick Papin tried to assault his girlfriend in front of him and now he ends up in jail for defending her. So the new boyfriend tells Elaine that he believes that Rick Papin was actually a police informant himself and that they, they need to like, do something about it. So together they decide that Connie Grandinetti might be able to help them gather evidence to prove that Rick Pappin, her former drug dealer, is actually a police informant.
- [24:52]
A
Oh my God, what a nightmare. What a nightmare. At any time. But poor Connie, she's trying to go straight. And then these two hatch a plan that involves her. Oh, God.
- [25:02]
B
Yeah, exactly. And I, I don't even think that they. They tell her about this plan. But Rick Pappin was released from lockup on April 7th of 1997. Three days later, Connie Grandinetti was murdered. Oh, and he didn't have a solid alibi for that night either. So let's go back to months after the murder. As far as the public were concerned, the case had gone completely cold. And there'd been an initial flurry of announcements after Connie's body was first found, but nothing for months and months. But then later that year in November, things suddenly change. And out of the blue, the police suddenly announced that they're looking for a man seen with Connie Grandinetti the night before her body was found. At about midnight, the mystery man was reportedly driving an older dark colored half ton truck and they were seen in a neighborhood in East Edmonton. Now, behind the scenes, there were about 20 investigators working around the clock to get to the bottom of what happened and locate whoever was responsible. And they had actually made a number of significant discoveries about other things that happened in the months before Connie's murder. So they learned that Connie had actually hired a lawyer to enforce payment of child support from her ex husband, Jeff Grandinetti. And her lawyer applied to the court for Jeff to have to pay his arrears, which by this point was $12,000 plus his ongoing child support of 1,000 per month that he was missing. Unfortunately, even with the court, they weren't able to reach a settlement and the matter was adjourned for a few months. So that happened in January of 97. The police also discovered that at the end of February, Jeff Grandinetti, that's Connie's ex husband, asked a friend in Calgary to lend him $10,000 and he drove three hours from Edmonton to Calgary to pick up that cash. But there was no paper trail after that. Police didn't know where it went or for what purpose and if it was to pay child support, Connie did not receive any of it. Then in March, police learned some very interesting information from another relative from Connie's ex husband Jeff's side of the family, Corey Grandinetti, Connie's nephew. Now, Geoff had multiple siblings. One was the sister with the camper trailer and embezzlement charges, and another was a brother who worked in the oil field business, which, you know, like we said, is big in Alberta. Corey was the only child of that brother and he would have been about 7 years old when his uncle Jeff married Connie. But now he's 26 and he lives with his parents in Calgary, which as I said, is about three hours drive from Edmonton where Connie lived. He helped his father out on the oil patch and he also worked as a labourer with a paving company. This information came from an associate of his. Apparently Corey told this associate that his uncle Jeff had asked for his help to kill his aunt Connie.
- [28:32]
A
Wow.
- [28:33]
B
So Corey, the nephew indicated to the associate that he had agreed to help and he decided to use an overdose of heroin to kill his aunt. But as you'll remember, Connie had been shot at the back of the head twice. So in early April, which, you know, the week before Connie ended up being murdered, a friend dropped Corey off at a bus depot in Calgary to catch a bus to Edmonton, where Connie lived. And that friend caught a glimpse of a barrel of a gun in Corey's duffel bag. And Corey also mentioned that he had two vials of heroin on him. This date, that Corey caught the bus to Edmonton where Connie was happened to be the exact same date that Connie's child support action against Jeff had been scheduled to proceed in court. But then at the last minute, the hearing was postponed by two more weeks. So the next court date was supposed to have been April 18th and Connie would be dead by then. Now, on the evening of April 9, the following week, after the failed child support action and court date, one of Connie's younger sons saw her leave the apartment at about 8pm and she got into a truck. The son could not see who was driving it, but he noticed it looked similar to the truck his grandfather drove, which is an older dark colored half ton pickup truck truck.
- [30:06]
A
His grandfather on his father's side.
- [30:09]
B
Yes, that's Jeff's father, Jeff Grandinetti's father. Now, Connie's son saw his mother get into that truck at about 8pm not knowing it would be the last time he ever saw her. So police knew about a truck, but it was someone else that tipped them off that it was indeed the grandfather's truck and that Corey Grandinetti was the one driving it. And he hadn't returned to Calgary. He'd actually stayed in Edmonton for the week. The tipster who contacted police also reported that Corey's grandfather had allowed Corey because he said he was going to take the truck to visit his Aunt Diane. But it seems that Corey had lied instead. He picked up his Aunt Connie in front of her Edmonton apartment building. Now, police investigators realized that Corey Grandinetti, Connie's nephew, was now the last known person to see her alive. And just hours later, early the following morning, is when her body was dumped in a ditch after being shot twice in the back of her head. Now, investigators had already interviewed her ex husband, Jeff Grandinetti. They tried to speak with his nephew Corey, but they got nothing they could use against either of them. So at this point, all investigators had were a few pieces of circumstantial evidence pointing towards a possible suspect and a motive. But there was nothing concrete to link any of these pieces of evidence together and certainly nothing that could lead to an arrest or charges. So it was time to bring in Mr. Big. Do you know who Mr. Big is, Michelle?
- [31:58]
A
No. No, I have no idea. Is this One of those Mr. Big stings?
- [32:02]
B
Yeah.
- [32:03]
A
Or is this. Oh, I love these. Oh my God, I love these so much. The most famous one in Australia, of course, netted murderer Daniel Morcom of Daniel Morecambe after all those years. So tell us how this one worked.
- [32:17]
B
Well, did you know that the Mr. Big sting was actually invented in Canada in the early 1990s by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. And this is one of the things that this is a police force known for being tricksters, not overly transparent. So. And did you not also know that the technique is so controversial that it's actually banned in the US in the UK it's. So it's still available in Canada, it can still be used in Australia. But the reason why is that it raises a bunch of ethical issues more than your usual undercover sting. Because in a Mr. Big sting, the police don't just infiltrate an existing gang of criminals, they actually pretend to be the criminal gang themselves. And so they go to extreme lengths to lure the target suspect to join them and participate. And this means that these are big budget operations and they typically unfold over a number of months with this gang of undercover cops acting as a gang of criminals to try and manipulate the situation, moving to the point where they're going to try and get the target to confess to the crime.
- [33:35]
A
And it only works on a certain kind of target. Obviously. It has to be a bloke who they think will would be flattered by the invitation to join a gang, would be flattered by the idea of meeting a Mr. Big and fancies themselves as potentially a great criminal. And so.
- [33:52]
B
Exactly.
- [33:53]
A
They might fall for the whole ruse. And it seems to me like the Garden. Gardenetti family might fit.
- [33:59]
B
Yeah, yeah. So. So that, that, that's actually a reason why it. It's actually so controversial and considered unethical because it can target people who have vulnerabilities. And if someone is incentivized to lie because they're, you know, they don't have. They're not in a good financial situation or they think that they're in, you know, legal trouble or whatever. Can their confession really be trusted?
- [34:29]
A
Well, I think also then it boils down to, you know, when we get into court and the lawyers can fight that out because if they share information that only the killer could have known, then, you know, what are you going to do?
- [34:41]
B
Exactly, Exactly.
- [34:42]
A
And that's, that's down to the court for the judge to decide whether or not the. The information they've shared is credible.
- [34:48]
B
Exactly. Yeah. But there have been a, you know, there are. There are good ways of doing it and bad ways. And I've covered a number of these Mr. Big stings, including a really bad one where really. Yeah, where they really stuffed this guy around and he was a little bit mentally unstable. And so they really took advantage of that. It turned it into this big supreme kind of court case about how what Is the most ethical way for Mr. Big Sting to be conducted. And what's the line between enticing somebody to confess to a crime that they committed and giving them so many inducements and coercive kind of treatment that it has crossed the line and they might be, you know, enticed to falsely confess?
- [35:43]
A
Well, yeah, talk themselves up. I mean there's also a certain kind of bloke who would do that, who will talk himself up and pretend he's committed famous crimes to.
- [35:50]
B
Absolutely, absolutely.
- [35:53]
A
So how did this one work? What was the are we tag? Did they target Corey?
- [35:57]
B
Yeah, so it's weird. They don't. They have more evidence on Corey actually doing it than they do Jeff asking Corey to do it. So they've decided to target Corey and they put together a sting. They call it Project Kilometer. And first it begins with these team of undercover officers basically on a research trip. They're wanting to find everything they can about Corey, his background and any vulnerabilities he might, might have had that could be exploited to motivate him to confess. And there were quite a few. So they learned that 26 year old Corey was in a bit of a dire predicament. He was a heavy cocaine user and because of that he'd recently lost his job, his girlfriend had broken up with him and he had to move back home with his parents in Calgary. So he seems like prime time target for a Mr. Big sting. So it begins with a stage scenario where there's like a fake meet cute, if you will, you know, where one of the undercover officers like innocently bumps into him. Oh hey, you know, how you doing? And oh yeah, great, you know, and they build up a camaraderie and they hit it off and, and, and then you know, Corey wants to hang out with these new guys and their friends. And he soon told that they're all part of a large international criminal enterprise that they're calling the family. And so he's like, he's all in on this. So then he's introduced to other members of the criminal gang, all undercover cops. And they, they're just the friendliest guys, you know, they welcome him in with open arms, full trust, blah blah blah. After another couple of like innocent meet cute type scenarios, they tell Corey that their criminal enterprise is actually moving into Calgary. And they potential in him. They want him to be their key contact in Calgary. And think of, you could make hundreds of dollars doing this. Like you've got to do it. So of course Corey says yes. You know, he's recently hit Rock bottom. So he's brought into the gang and at first he's given like low level tasks to do on jobs that he was told involved money laundering, theft, receiving illegal firearms and, and selling drugs. And they're all basically just kind of theater ad lib sessions, staged scenarios with the undercover officers acting like criminals and they're organizing fake crimes and exchanging fake payments with other fake criminals. And then after each scenario is finished, they're showering Corey with friendship and camaraderie and praise for a job well done. And like, you know, throwing the cash on him of this is why it's, you know, a big budget operation. But this is all just actually prep work. The real sting comes next. But first they have to convince them that the gang is real and they're doing real criminal activities and that he is one of them now in a circle of trust. So they did such a good job that Corey Grant and Grandinetti was never aware or even suspicious that his criminal gang mates were actually undercover cops. I've done a few cases where the suspect kind of starts to get a little suspicious or tweak on, but this guy had no idea. At some point, Corey mentioned to the undercover officers that his aunt had been murdered. And this obviously gave them an in to ask him about it. And they did often. They were constantly asking him questions, but he never spoke about it in any kind of way that implicated himself or suggested he knew something about it. So three months later, Project Kilometer had been going for three months and there'd been no movement, but it was time to crank up the volume. So the police devised a scenario where the fake criminals involved Corey in a discussion about their important contacts in the police department who'd helped them influence investigations in the past. One of them mentioned that he'd been charged with murder. And one of their corrupt cop buddies actually retrieved incriminating photos and relocated a witness and that resulted in the charges being downgraded. Like that is how important these police contacts were to the criminal organization. Now Corey is sitting there receiving this message loud and clear. So with that in place, the police then wanted to throw some motivation out there to get Corey to open up. Now, do you remember that sudden police announcement out of the blue after months of nothing happening, when the case seemed to be turning cold, when they suddenly announced they're looking for a mystery man driving an older dark colored half ton truck he was last seen.
- [40:54]
A
I love these too. I love these moments when, when me too, now. And yeah, you know, when a weird announcement comes out in a lot investigation I always think, oh, I can't wait to find out what this really is.
- [41:05]
B
Right?
- [41:06]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [41:07]
B
Is this real or is this kind of some little strategic thing trying to
- [41:11]
A
give someone a nudge somewhere along the line to do something or say something, Right?
- [41:16]
B
So they've planted the, the piece. They, they're hoping that Corey's going to be scared into thinking that they're onto him. And so now they have to apply the pressure and have it all culminate in this very important meeting where he's motivated to converse. And this is how it all works. This is the Mr. Big part of the sting. So the target is told that it's time to meet with the head of the criminal organization, aka Mr. Big. This is a massive, massive deal. Like, the meeting is hyped up, everyone's going crazy. The target is led to believe that Mr. Big is a tough guy, like someone to be deathly afraid of. But he's also a really reasonable character, just as long as you're being honest with him. And if you get into his inner circle, you are going to be set for life. You just have to be honest. And Mr. Big of his is of course, a very experienced undercover police officer who's tasked with inspiring the right amount of deference and fear to elicit a confession. And it just so happened that five days after that sudden police announcement, Corey was called into his big meeting with the so called head of the criminal gang he believed he was working with. Now, Mr. Big, or the undercover officer playing him, told Corey he'd heard about his Aunt Connie's murder investigation and offered up their police connections to help him out if he needed it. Of course, Mr. Big mentioned the name of the lead investigator and offered a few extra details that only an insider would know to demonstrate to Corey that he was credible, that they had the police contacts that could help. And he told Corey that these contacts could really help steer the investigation away from him and kind of the heat away from their criminal organization. Now, this was obviously intended to play on any anxieties that Corey might have been hiding about his own suspected involvement in the crime. Now, when he inevitably begs his criminal friends for help, the intention is that he's soon informed that first he needs to tell them everything he knows about the crime so that they can figure out how best to help him. And then he can't help you, mate.
- [43:35]
A
We can't help you unless we know.
- [43:37]
B
We want to know everything.
- [43:38]
A
You need to know everything. I don't want any nasty surprises down the road. I want to know Everything, then we can help you.
- [43:45]
B
But that's not actually what happened with that big Mr. Big meeting. Like, Mr. Big did his part and put the pressure on, but Corey Grande Netti just didn't seem that interested. He's like, okay, I've got no involvement. Like, okay, I'll keep it in mind if I ever need your. Your help. So the police decide it's time to turn the situation off up a notch. The following week, they make another announcement. They had been following up on numerous tips that pointed to the identity of the person responsible for murdering con Connie Grandinetti. And they're close to making an arrest. Now, in the days following that announcement, Corey Grandinetti is again called into another meeting with Mr. Big. He's told now that with this second announcement, the organization is now extremely worried that this ongoing murder investigation might actually make Corey a liability for their organization. So if he wanted to stay with the family and take advantage of all the money and the camaraderie and all the benefits on offer, he really does need to come clean with them right now so they can figure out how to deflect it. Apparently, Corey Grandinetti confessed. He said that he was involved in the murder of his Aunt Connie. And they recorded his confession. He then took Mr. Big to the primary location where he killed her before. Before taking her body to the ditch and dumping it.
- [45:18]
A
Wow.
- [45:19]
B
Now, after his Big confession, Corey went for dinner with his organised crime family, but the gig was up. He was arrested afterwards and charged with the first degree murder of his aunt, Connie Grandinetti. And people who knew him were really, really surprised to hear of his arrest, including Connie's own mother, Midge Pruden. She told the media that Corey had always been like her own grandson and she thought the police might have had their wires crossed. He was known to be a regular guy who was always helpful and friendly with a gentle demeanor. Never anything aggression or anything like that related to Corey. And when the RCMP Major Crimes Unit announced news of this arrest, they also stated that the case was not closed, that they were still focusing on additional suspects who might have been involved or who witnessed it. The defence also tried to introduce evidence pointing to an alternative suspect, someone else who may have committed the crime who wasn't Corey Grandinetti. Who do you think that was?
- [46:24]
A
I think that might be our old mate, Rick Pappin, the drug dealer.
- [46:29]
B
You're a smart one, Michelle.
- [46:30]
A
Yes, I'm all over this one. Yeah.
- [46:32]
B
Yeah. So the woman that he was in that relationship with, Elaine, testified that, you know, Rick Papin did believe that Connie had ratted him out to the police. She also testified that Rick hit her and ended up in jail and so did her new boyfriend for coming to her defense. And she testified about how she and her boyfriend planned to get Connie to gather evidence that Rick Pappin was a police informant himself. Now, Corey Grandinetti's defense suggested that all, all of this proved that Rick Pappin somehow found out about this plot to gather evidence. And it may have renewed his anger against Connie Grandinetti, giving him even more motive to murder her. And look, Connie was murdered just three days after Rick Papin was released from lockup. And he didn't even have a solid alibi for that night. But here's the thing. The police knew that Rick Pappin was not a police informant. So even if Connie had agreed to gather evidence, and even if she knew about this, and even if Rick had been tipped off about what Elaine and her new boyfriend were plotting, there was no evidence to gather because Rick Papper knew he wasn't a police informant and so did the police. So this would not have provided enough motive for him to murder Connie.
- [47:58]
A
But was it enough for. To make a, make him sort of part of the reasonable doubt defence? You know, like, I guess you always worry whatever a jury's heard, they might
- [48:09]
B
still consider it's absolutely. But this is. The trial hasn't actually happened yet. This is a pretrial hearing called a voir dire, which is where the judge decides what evidence to admit and not admit. So she's admitted the misdemeanor Mr. Big confession. But with this alternative suspect defense, she, the judge says she finds the whole thing very far fetched, hearsay and speculative. It's insufficient evidence of a link between Rick Pappin and the murder of Connie Grandinetti. So she deems this evidence inadmissible. So it is not presented at trial. And the trial is not allowed to mention anything about any alternative suspect. It's just Corey Grandinetti.
- [48:57]
A
Wow. Okay. That makes a big difference for Corey.
- [49:00]
B
You know, the Mr. Big confession evidence was the big kind of thing at trial. But there were two other key witnesses who testified about details of their relationships with Corey Grandinetti. Now you might remember that someone had tipped off the police that Corey was the man seen driving that, that truck the evening before Connie's body was found. And that same person confirmed that the truck belonged to his grandfather as opposed to what the son said, which was that it just looked like that truck. So it was the grandfather's Truck, and it was Corey driving. So this secret tipster was Corey's ex girlfriend, Cindy. Now, she testified they lived together for more than three years just before Connie's murder, and they were actually engaged to be married. Cindy said that Corey's aunt Connie was his favorite relative, and they were once very close, but they drifted apart about three years before the murder. Right as Jeff and Connie became embroiled in that bitter divorce and custody proceedings,
- [50:06]
A
I guess the whole family turned on her.
- [50:08]
B
Yep, two years after that. So two years after their awful divorce custody battle thing started, Corey told Cindy that he just had a phone conversation with his uncle Jeff, who said that he wanted his ex wife dead. Cindy testified at trial that she and Corey put the conversation down to angry talk. You know, a bitter man venting in the throes of a nasty divorce, and they forgot about it. But the time frame that Cindy gave for this conversation happened to be just after Connie hired a lawyer to help her get Geoff to pay her child support. Now, Cindy told the court that Uncle Jeff raised the subject again later that year around Christmas of 96. Now, this just happened to be after the first date had been set to sort out the child payments issue. And according to Cindy, Corey told her his uncle Jeff asked him how much would it cost to off Connie. And Corey said it would be about $10,000. Now, how would Corey know something like this? Cindy and several other witnesses said that Corey often bragged about having underworld connections that he obviously didn't really have. And this time he actually started talking about possibly contacting a friend in Vancouver to help his uncle, Uncle Jeff with this, you know, hit for $10,000. Now, it's just after this that Jeff had asked that friend in Calgary to lend him $10,000. And he drove three hours to pick up that cash, that cash, and left no paper trail after that. Now, by this point, Cindy testified she had grown very unhappy in her relationship with Corey Grandinetti. They were both users of cocaine, but his use had been escalating to the point where he had r them. He'd spent most of their earnings on it. He'd lost his job, he was broke. He was selling his furniture to try and get money together to prevent losing the house. They lost it. Cindy moved out, and then Corey had to move into the basement of his parents home. But he and Cindy continued to stay in contact. And she testified that just weeks before Connie Grandinetti was murdered, Corey told her that he'd traveled back to the Edmonton home of his grandparents to meet with his uncle. Now, by this point, Jeff Grandinetti had actually remarried and lived at the home of his parents with his new wife, Karen. And Jeff told Corey that he had that $10,000 together and he wanted Connie dead in the next next month. Yeah. Cindy testified that Connie had become very unpopular with multiple members of the Grandinetti fan family. You know, she'd pressed Jeff to pay child support. She'd reported his family members for tax fraud. And whatever happened with the theft of the camper trailer. And then, of course, after Jeff's sister lost her job for embezzling money from her employer, $200,000. And Jeff's family decided that that was somehow Connie's fault as well. Now, Cindy, Corey's fiance, or ex fiance, testified that after this meeting with Jeff, Corey told her that he had decided to do the job himself and he had a plan. By this point, he actually hadn't spoken with his Aunt Connie for several years. The families had fallen out. Connie was no longer. She was the black sheep of the family. Corey didn't even know where she lived. So he told Cindy that he actually found her address from court documents and he was going to use cocaine as a reason to rekindle their relationship. Now, we know that Connie was in recovery and no longer used or sold drugs. But the Grandinetti family believed that she was still selling cocaine. And once Corey got Connie alone with him, he planned to kill her with an overdose of heroin. But Cindy testified she and Corey had a massive argument about his plan to become a murderer for $10,000, and she couldn't even believe that he would even consider it. Corey didn't want to hear about her concerns. A few days later, he caught a bus from Calgary to Edmonton, where Connie was carrying two vials of heroin and a firearm. That same day, of course, was supposed to be Connie's court date with Jeff, which was adjourned for unknown reasons and rescheduled to April 18. Now, at trial, Cindy testified that Connie. That Corey showed up at Connie's apartment in Edmonton and asked her if he could buy some cocaine. But she told him she didn't do or sell drugs anymore. And he asked her if she knew of anybody else that did. But it doesn't appear that he got very far that evening. She had completely removed herself from the circumstances, and whatever his plan was to get her to use drugs clearly wasn't going to work. So Corey left without doing anything. And then a day or so later, he showed up at Cindy's place with a wad of cash. And she would testify at trial that that Jeff's new wife Karen had just given him an advance on the fee for killing Connie. So instead of doing whatever they were supposed to have done with the advance on the fee for killing Connie, Cindy and Corey decided to spend the $2,000 on a cocaine party.
- [56:09]
A
But of course they did. And also I just, I'm thinking about Paul. Connie, she, I'm imagining she was happy to see him, Corey. When you know, they had been close then they hadn't seen each other for years because of all the bullshit with Jeff and his sister. And then to see for her nephew to arrive at the door, I'm sure she thought was nice, a positive.
- [56:30]
B
I know, it's so sad. He's there with like malicious intent.
- [56:35]
A
So they blew the advance on cocaine. Cause of course they did.
- [56:39]
B
And then I guess the following day Cindy regrets and realizes that she's actually afraid of Corey.
- [56:46]
A
Well also she knew what the money was for.
- [56:48]
B
Right?
- [56:48]
A
So she's on one hand saying to him, Corey, it's a terrible thing to do. On the other hand, yeah, I'll spend some of the money with you though.
- [56:55]
B
Right, right. And then, oh, now that I've spent that money with you and the party's over. So they were already, you know, officially broken off, but now she cut things off with him like completely. And just two days later, Connie Grandinetti's body was found in a snow filled ditch just eight days before the rescheduled court date that would have dealt with Jeff's missed child support payments. So Corey said that that night he did pick Connie up from her apartment and he did borrow the truck from his grandfather, but his goal was to find a cocaine supplier. And he said that over the next few hours he waited in the truck while Connie went in the inside a number of local bars and a convenience store looking for cocaine. He testified that as the evening went on, Connie's mood got worse. They decided not to go into the drug business together after all. And he dropped her off at a hotel, he said, and that was the last time he ever saw her. Corey testified he then drove back to his grandparents home and he went to bed at about 1am now the only detail about the confession that he gave to Mr. Big in the undercover sting, either in the court documents or in the news archives, was that Mr. Big had asked Corey what time he hit Connie. And he replied, quote, it happened sometime over the evening from midnight on. Very specific.
- [58:25]
A
But he didn't say what. What do you mean? You know, like he definitely. He answered the question.
- [58:33]
B
Exactly. And he did, he did Take them to the place where he said he killed her, which presumably they were able to verify.
- [58:43]
A
It doesn't seem to be much forensic evidence.
- [58:45]
B
No, there's no mention of like ballistic stuff, you know, the. Yeah, whatever. Where was this gun that he had in the duffel bag? Like what was the forensic examination of the, the bullet or whatever that was it lodged in? I don't know, it's. It's very strange. And so this case is a lot of circumstantial evidence, but that missed a big confession. And certainly if that confession hadn't been admitted, I don't think he would have had much of a chance of, of, you know, the crown of getting a conviction.
- [59:18]
A
I read a great thing not long ago that describes circumstantial evidence as, as threads. Okay. Every bit of evidence is a thread and if you have enough of them, you can make a rope. And this, this feels like one of those cases to me where you can create a pretty strong rope by putting all these threads together.
- [59:36]
B
That's a great way to put it. I've never heard that.
- [59:39]
A
So how did the jury look upon our friend Corey?
- [59:43]
B
Well, they found him guilty of the first degree murder of his aunt Connie. Yep.
- [59:49]
A
Wow. Great. Honestly, like, you know, this is a young man who's done something insane and it's not great that he's gonna spend the rest of his life. He's lost his life. He's lost his life as well. But for Connie's sake, thank God. What about Jeff? What happens when the case hangs on hinges on this idea that he was solicited to commit the crime by another man who's not on trial?
- [60:15]
B
So after sentencing, a police spokesperson announced that again, the case is not closed. They have identified other suspects who are potentially a party to the offense that further charges could be laid. But that was 25 years ago and nothing further has ever happened. You're joking. Yep. So that's so fascinating.
- [60:38]
A
So we have one man convicted of murder on the premise that. Or on the acceptance that he was solicited to commit the crime by another man. Yep. And then they obviously have felt like they've never had the case to prosecute Jeff. The other man.
- [60:55]
B
Yeah.
- [60:56]
A
That's wild.
- [60:57]
B
So for all intents and purposes, it's considered a solved case. You know, the police can like cross it off. But realistically, would Corey have had done that? Like, did he have a personal motive to do that?
- [61:12]
A
Yeah. And obviously the jury believed that. The court believed that he committed the crime at Jeff's behest.
- [61:18]
B
It really is wild. And. Yeah.
- [61:21]
A
And Karen, by the way, I'm bringing Karen into this as well.
- [61:23]
B
Jeff's new wife, Karen should be brought into it.
- [61:26]
A
Yeah, Yeah.
- [61:27]
B
I mean, and for them to just stand back and like, you know.
- [61:31]
A
Yeah.
- [61:32]
B
Like after all that that Corey had agreed to do for whatever reason, I mean, just.
- [61:38]
A
Yeah, they let Corey take all the blame. And the victim is the mother of Jeff's children. He's got children he's got to answer to. He's got teenage boys that he has to somehow be fascinated to know how he's juggled that relationship.
- [61:52]
B
Well, here's a. Here's a. A bit of a clue. One of Connie's sons, the two younger ones that she had with Jeff Grandinetti after sentencing, pointed out that his mother was just one of many missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. And not only has he struggled with losing her, but he did not feel that justice has been done to her, as, quote, my father walks free.
- [62:17]
A
Oh, wow.
- [62:18]
B
Now, this son said that he has no relationship with his father and does not want one. So that's a clue to where things are. But it. It really does seem like the real story of whatever happened to Connie Pruden Grandinetti will never be publicly known.
- [62:40]
A
If you need support after listening to this podcast, you can call Lifeline on 131114 or contact 1-800-Respect on 1-800-737-732 or 1-800-Respect. Indigenous Australians can contact 13Yarn on 139276 or 13yarn.org au. The producers of this podcast recognise the traditional owners of the land on which it's recorded. They pay respect to the Aboriginal elders past, present and those emerging.