One of Canada’s unsolved mass murders happened just 40 minutes west of 100 Mile House on July 8, 1965. However, despite the time that has passed the case has gathered some renewed interest from the general public after the CBC announced they will be releasing a two-part television series on The National hosted by Ian Hanomansing.
“In 1965, there was the CP (Canadian Pacific) Air Flight 21 crash 40 minutes of 100 Mile House and all 52 people on board died and it was later determined that a bomb had been placed on the plane and blown up. There were extensive RCMP, coroners, CP Air, Ministry of Transportation investigations over the next few years and they could never solve it entirely,” said Didi Henderson, the daughter of Wallace Brooks Emo, a Flight 21 passenger.
Henderson said Hanomansing reached out to her and some other people closely connected with the case last spring, shortly after he heard about the case. He started investigating it for the television documentary for The National as well as a six-part podcast series for the second season of Uncover.
Uncover is also a CBC product. The final episode of the series will be released on Dec. 11. It is co-hosted by Johanna Wagstaffe.
“I initially agreed to work with CBC because I knew I would never have the time to devote to all the filing for the Freedom of Information acts and they [the CBC research team] have been able to talk to explosive experts and forensic psychologists and etc. They’ve got some weight behind on what doors they can open so I thought if nothing else for posterity – One of the things Ian said was he never heard of this story before and he felt that it was an important story to be recorded; apart from the fact that he was interested in getting close to the truth of who did it,” said Henderson.
The RCMP investigation initially reported it had four suspects, all aboard the plane. However, the CBC team handling their own investigation proposed the theory of the “fifth man” in Uncover and the upcoming documentary on The National.
The two-part investigative series on CP Air Flight 21 will be on at 6 p.m. on Dec. 10 and 11 on CBC, followed by a re-airing at 8 p.m.
