Listen: Crime Beat Podcast – The Story of Kelly Cook, the backup babysitter (Part 2)

It was a different time. Technology hadn’t taken over individual lives yet. There were no cell phones, no video game players, and no internet for the average person. It was a slower time and the world seemed safer. Especially if you lived in a rural community.

That’s why, when a stranger started calling teenaged girls in a small town east of Calgary, no one really thought they should be overly concerned. Someone thought maybe they knew someone who knew the man. His name sounded familiar in the area. That was good enough in 1981 in Standard, Alberta. That was the way things were, and that opened up an opportunity for a man with a sinister plan.

A man calling himself Bill Christensen tracked down a teenaged babysitter, and picked her up. That was the last time her family saw her alive. Her body was discovered many weeks later. Her killer who breezed into her life in such an unsuspecting manner, disappeared just as easily. The case has never been solved. Police and society as a whole at that time, just weren’t ready for something like this. So 38 years later, the man who killed Kelly Cook is still out there.

So is his original, intended victim. Bill Christensen’s first choice for babysitter wasn’t available the night he was looking. She talked to him on the phone and suggested some other girls she knew were babysitters… including the girl who would lose her life.

In this episode of the Global News podcast Crime Beat, crime reporter Nancy Hixt shares details of this unsolved crime that have never been reported.

Police continue to investigate the case but are still waiting for the tip they need to solve it.

If you know anything that can help police as they investigate Kelly’s homicide, call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.

If you enjoy Crime Beat, please take a minute to rate it on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts, tell us what you think and share the show with your friends.

Contact:

Twitter: @nancyhixt

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyHixtCrimeBeat/

Email: [email protected]

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Duane Rolheiser

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Alberta announces next phase of COVID vaccinations, doses for about 437,000 residents

Published on March 4, 2021

The Canadian Press

EDMONTON — Alberta’s health minister says 437,000 people can soon begin booking appointments for the next round of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Tyler Shandro says those aged 65 to 74 and First Nations, Inuit and Metis people aged 50-plus can begin booking March 15.

The province has been able to accelerate vaccinations due to a third one being approved by Health Canada, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Shandro says the first 58,000 doses of AstraZeneca will available starting March 10.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has said while AstraZeneca is just as effective as the others, due to incomplete data it recommends it not be given to those over 64.

Shandro says for that reason, the AstraZeneca vaccine will be offered to adults 50 to 64 who don’t have a severe chronic illness.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Alberta

Parkland blames pandemic as Q4 profits and revenue slide on lower fuel sales

Published on March 4, 2021

The Canadian Press

CALGARY — Parkland Corp. is reporting lower fourth-quarter earnings and revenue as affects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns continue to erode fuel sales.

The Calgary-based convenience store operator and fuel retailer says it had net earnings of $53 million in the last three months of 2020 on revenue of $3.47 billion, down from $176 million on revenue of $4.78 billion in the same period of 2019.

It says it sold 5.4 billion litres of fuel and petroleum products in the fourth quarter, a decrease of seven per cent compared with the year-earlier period.

It says lower volumes were offset by strong per unit fuel profit margins in Canada and in its international operations, as well as robust company convenience store same-store sales growth in Canada of around eight per cent and a healthy 90 per cent utilization of its Burnaby, B.C., refinery.

Parkland says it will hike its dividend by two per cent, its ninth consecutive annual increase.

The company says it plans growth capital spending of between $175 million and $275 million in 2021, along with between $225 million and $275 million in maintenance capital spending, including about $40 million of work deferred from 2020.

“In 2021, we will strengthen our customer offerings and continue our organic growth initiatives, advance our disciplined acquisition strategy and deepen our commitment to providing customers with low-carbon fuel choices as part of our broader sustainability efforts,” said CEO Bob Espey.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:PKI)

The Canadian Press