Denis Ratté & Wendy Ratté : The Vanishing - the fifth estate
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- Опубликовано: 12 авг 2016
- For Anna Ratté, growing up just outside Prince George, British Columbia was an idyllic childhood. Her parents were an unusual couple - her father, Denis Ratté, was a rough-hewn French Canadian labourer while her mother Wendy was a free spirit from a well-to-do New England family - but they made a loving, stable home for their two children, Anna and Gabriel.
But on August 18, 1997, that family was torn apart when Wendy Ratté suddenly vanished. Days and then months passed, with no word from her. Seventeen-year-old Anna Ratté began a long, difficult search for answers, and she learned more about her mother's secret past. It seemed Wendy had left her own family as a teenager, lived in the New Hampshire woods, and wrote indecipherable letters signed 'Shanna' - a wild, spiritual personality who would become her alter ego. Anna had to face the question: was Wendy dead, or had her mother simply decided to leave her family?
It was years before Anna began to suspect that her father Denis was not telling her everything he knew. In 2008, the RCMP took another look at Wendy's case, and launched an undercover sting to convince Denis - now eating at soup kitchens - that he could join a gang and get rich, as long as he came clean about his past crimes.
What happened next would shatter Anna's world and send a man to prison. the fifth estate has obtained police video from that trial that will be broadcast for the first time in The Vanishing.
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About the fifth estate : For four decades the fifth estate has been Canada's premier investigative documentary program. Hosts Bob McKeown, Gillian Findlay and Mark Kelley continue a tradition of provocative and fearless journalism. the fifth estate brings in-depth investigations that matter to Canadians - delivering a dazzling parade of political leaders, controversial characters and ordinary people whose lives were touched by triumph or tragedy.
My dad's aunt disappeared like this. She left eastern Washington after visiting friends -- she called before she left to say she was on her way home -- but she never arrived in Seattle. Nothing was ever found. No car. No body. Nothing. Nothing is hard for family to take. This is so sad.
Oh my gosh I’m sorry. She might have become the victim of one of the serial killers in Wa and Or. so sorry!
@@lowrider81hd well that was certainly an uplifting thought. Jeez man....
@@HerculesRockefellerESQ Sorry… but it’s a possibility… 😔
If a car is still missing, very well could be in a body of water. I hope they retraced her route and sent divers in.
Sorry to hear that.Contact adventures with purpose they can search water and see if her car crashed into it.Goodluck to your family.
This episode raised more questions then anything we need a part 2 interviewing the brother and other people
@huntersutton1485. I so agree. 💯
I never argued with my ex husband and neighbours were stunned that we were divorcing. Quiet families mean nothing. Quiet people trust less.
My ex-wife and I were the same. Friends and dated in high school, married a few years after high school. Never an argument. Only after divorcing did I realise that also meant that we were not communicating about very important things. Hindsight really is 20/20
When my uncle left my aunt my aunt confided in my mother that in the 10 years they were together they never argued. My mother commented about how odd that was. I was a child so I didn't get it. I thought not arguing would be a good thing. I guess not.
You can not tell either way and there is no point trying other than to accept that you truely cannot know what goes on behind closed doors.... end of!
in divorce situations nobody knows what's going on behind close doors.
How very sad that this young lady spent all those years trying to find out about her mom. It’s very worrying that her aunt and family don’t believe he did it.
Her sister and mother don’t seem very nice. No wonder she left.
For being a rather strange couple, they certainly produced an intelligent, articulate, mature daughter.
true, though she made a shocker choice for a husband
frank death her husband is older. That's all. my husband is somewhat older than me as well. It doesn't speak to what kind of match it is.
your missing the point
ewwwwww she deserve's him lmao she's not very attractive either ( daughter and her husband)
Jesse Belanger Wow, surprised to hear that--I thought she was very pretty.
Totally in awe of Anna...what a beautiful soul...onwards and upwards and wishing her a blessed future
4:25 4:27 4:27 4:28
Leaving your family and abandoning your children are vastly different things.
Damned straight! I was angry on Wendy's behalf
Yes, I am too. I thought with a sister like her no wonder she left at 17.
If she actually had a mental illness that would cause psychosis, it’s not.
The daughter seems to be a genuine beautiful soul. May she find a inner peace and happiness. I can’t wrap my head around how difficult it is when your dad kills your mom. Because once you loved both 😞
Their daughter is sooo eloquent, stable and likable. Given the circumstances is amazing
I had a class at university with her son. Brief interaction but very nice and smart guy.
How do u know she's stable?
The daughter first said that her parents never fought. Then she said they never fought infront of the kids and finally she said that her mother was furious with her father because of the gambling etc. How can they be a match made in heaven?!
Match made in heaven is an overused saying but fighting about money is common
My deepest condolences !!! Losing you mother at any age is hard enough but to find out that your own father did it is heartbreaking.!!!!
"They had raised two attractive and intelligent children" - I really struggle to understand the obsession within these programs of referring to people's appearance 🤷
It's the world we live in, no matter how pc the world tries to get some things will always remain.
@lightsouthaha it goes well with the tendency to describe victims as "she was pretty, she was popular, she didn't deserve this"
you know, because ugly loners deserve to be victimized.
Deigh Oakes
I guess it sounds better than “two VERY AVERAGE looking children, one with none of smarts the good Lord gave him and the other with a personality of a wet washcloth”
Attraction is a biological reaction to someone who is perceived as healthy. A person who weighs 80lbs is no more attractive than someone who weighs 300lbs because neither is healthy. Healthy parents = healthy offspring = survival of the species. You're not changing science.
Diabetes and heart disease is not attractive. Bullemia and malnutrition is not attractive. And it shouldn't be.
I say this as someone 100lb overweight. I want to be healthy, not lied to.
@@olefaithfulloyalstar692 We're being brainwashed to pretend weight doesn't matter. Not the other way around.
What happened in Wendy's childhood and/or teens? Alternate personalities (or rather identities) don't come from nowhere. They develop as the mind's attempt to cope with extreme and prolonged trauma. I think there's more going on with Wendy's family...
(Also that's definitely not bipolar disorder wtf. Bipolar is a mood disorder, it has nothing to do with personalities or identities. The thing you're looking for is Dissociative Identity Disorder.)
i would argue that DID doesn't come from nowhere...as a first hand witness of someone who has it, my personal belief is that the "trauma" that so often is considered the trigger for a case of DID is usually just as hallucinated as the other fantasies DID sufferers endure. Its a mental health problem that is based around fantasy, delusion and hallucination. Those factors need to be highly scrutinized.
I reckon she had borderline personality disorder
The symptoms of craziness could disappear during stable times ie the kid raising,
she has an enabler , the silly hubby, the hysterical episodes he alone had to calm her, poor kids witnessing
She didn’t have any repeated hospitalisations, once she grew up , no seasonal / other triggers
He had a gambling addiction
Not much hope for that marriage
I couldn't agree more. DEFINITELY NOT bipolar.. Living with D.I.D. is NO cakewalk.. in fact, it can be very painful, difficult, full of guilt, grief and sadness. You constantly feel "out of control", and if you don't accept your "other(s)" (depending per person how many you have) it/they can wreak havoc on your life.
The word salad she's writing in her letters actually is a big sign of schizophrenia. "Dual personalities" can also come from schizophrenia, although it isn't usually defined as two separate people, they usually feel as if they are living inside of their original person and they kind of share a headspace. But she never seemed to get any help or therapy to determine what her mental illness actually was. Whatever caused her illness I'm nearly 100% sure that it came from childhood trauma that was never dealt with. Most children don't try to run away from their families and live in the woods.
in fact alternate personalities have yet to be proven at all
I feel so bad for Anna, the daughter, she lost both parents and what a brave woman. She is a really honest and brave, my heart breaks for her.
Nice boss at the Mill where the husband was employed, disputing his workmen’s comp claim; “well there were no witnesses and back injuries you can’t prove”. How utterly sad for someone who wanted to work.
But back injuries can be proven..... No witnesses??? That's ridiculous. Wonder if that would happen nowadays?? Hindsight, guess maybe he should've just laid there on the ground till someone came along to help??
I just realized they didn't say "a back injury can't be proven", he said it "was hard to detect". Now that I can understand cuz some back injuries are hard to determine. I don't mean he didn't have one, just maybe it was difficult to actually say.
@@nikkib5753 It happened at my work. A woman faked falling, claimed a back injury and workman's comp sent us copies of her medical care for years afterward and she was taking opiods for years and collecting $. PS, she was a heroin addict before she staged the accident.
@@MasterofScrutiny wow. Incredibly unbelievable. I sure hope your company hired one of those places that follows the individual and proves they don't have an injury. That is NOT ok, what she did. That infuriates me.
@@nikkib5753 I wrote to them and explained that it was fraud, and they ignored me, but if you think about it, it's a symbiotic relationship between workman's comp, the doctors who get paid by the state, and the claimants. None exist without the other.
The whole idea of using a confession obtained during a "Mr Big sting" as evidence to convict that person is completely ridiculous. I could understand if cops employed this ruse as a strategy to try and trick a criminal into handing them evidence of their guilt, and then using that evidence in court - but using the confession just seems moronic to me. This type of sting isn't ONLY going to work on guilty people if you merely go off confession alone, it is going to work equally well for desperate people, like drug addicts with no job and no real way to earn money. To me if he gave a full confession and gave them all the details, it seems suspicious that they didn't manage to find any evidence whatsoever to support that confession. Surely that indicates that at the very least he is being dishonest about the details,, if not his guilt in the crime. Yet somehow that confession sent him away. I can tell you if I was on the jury it wouldn't have.
I think the only people who would fall for the "Mr Big" sting are people who're mentally compromised in some way. No ordinary person in their right mind is going to believe that a criminal kingpin is going to pay them a lot of money.
She is absolutely beautiful. This is a very heartbreaking documentary, but all throughout, the daughters beauty shines through. Inside and out, what a gorgeous human being. I hope she finds the peace she deserves.
I fall in love with Canada every time I see it. As an American, it seems slightly more friendly and idyllic.
Bradley Allen: I agree with you. I remember making a similar observation when I watched a two-hour Dateline rerun about the same case a few months ago (that episode, entitled Deception, originally aired in 2013). In fact, I was equally impressed with Anna's brother, Gabriel. They are both extremely well-adjusted despite the somewhat dysfunctional environment in which they were raised. Although I like The Fifth Estate (except when the program is blatantly political, as it was before and after the US elections of 2016), I think that the Dateline version was more even-handed.
I was thinking how did two pretty nasty looking people have such a pretty daughter. Real natural beauty.
I love my country and province! But Prince George is the crime capital of b.c. nowhere near the size of Vancouver but still rivals them in crime..nasty little city that stinks from the pulp mill. They say it's the smell of money.
I lived on the heart highway not far from where they think she was dumped. I'm not surprised they didn't find a body. Thick brambly under brush, swamp.. bears, coyotes..wolves. It was hard exploring our back 40. Which backed onto crown land. Hectare upon 100s of Hectares (metric) of just forest. Working in forestry and mapping I always wondered if we'd find a body, many many women are missing from the highway of tears. A result of B.c.s serial killer.
The grass is not greener over there. I wouldn't live there.
cruisepaige the daughter looks exactly like her mother. ???????
I swear if I see one more advertisement for that body shaper.... I am going to ....I am going to order it. Lol
🤣🤣🤣👌🏼👌🏼
I need one too!! Greetings from faraway Norway 🤗♥💜💙💛💚
Ok Tom
HAHAHAHAAAAAAA
You dont need it...❤
Learning to read would've been the first thing as soon as he was hurt on the job. This is so sad. I want to hug her so bad, what an amazing young woman.
I thought the same.
WTF? WHY didn't Wendy begin to teach him how to read and write in English while SHE' WAS STUDYING TO BECOME A TEACHER. That was almost 20 years before while Denis was still a miner in Uranium City, SASKATCHEWAN??
If she couldn't teach her husband to improve his English language conversational skills, what business did Wendy have dreaming of being an effective professional educator???
@@markpimlott2879Maybe he was resistant thru embarrassment or thought he'd done ok without the skill anyway.
i love the fifth estate
frank death me too
frank death straight up u no I love the fifth estate mate can contemplate life without it so please don’t bite it. OHHHHHHH STRAIGHT RAW RHYMING. LIKE u dunno SoN. 🐕
its the only show that is good on the cbc. Probably the only show ever lol
Me too. Mark Kelley is my fave.
Bobs voice is everything! Puts me to sleeeeeep!
I think the daughter also refuses to accept some things about her mom, her parents, and their relationship even if he did murder her mother. She presents her mother as an angel and this was not the case.
Right
What I got from this presentation is that Ratte's guilt is not conclusive.
Cases involving mental illness are so difficult to unravel because the family members usually have some amount of denial or shame. I think that some are afraid of talking about their loved ones' mental illnesses too because they think it is a slander. Being realistic about mental illness, but without judgement, would make many of these types of situations clearer, imo.
Yes, wht did she leave them as a teenager? They played their role
100%
I just want an episode where a guy confesses to killing his wife but then suddenly she returns to prove that he is innocent.
Has that ever happened???
Jeannee Waseck No :-( Because the police would only torture a confession out of you if they knew the wife didn't just run away.
Jurij Fedorov Give it time. This woman will reappear. She ran off. So obvious.
I think you'll have a long wait. Sadly it's all too common that he's the one that did it. In this case I'm not entirely sure, however. I suspect that the truth lies somewhere else.
something similar has happened. Think it was someone on trial for murdering a young girl and she turned up in the court at last minute and claimed she was abducted but it became convoluted and she may have went willingly or something. But the guy on trial had nothing to do with it.
I would like to know what happened to the other child. And what the other child believes.
Their son believes his father is innocent. Because of this the siblings have a strained relationship. From other interviews I gather that they have never been able to get past this tragedy.
@@frankie1012 I was thinking that's what happened. I do believe the daughter is in the right on this one. Without a doubt. And if that father had one ounce of anything good left in him, he would be honest with his son and let these siblings have a relationship, since now both of their parents are taken away from them. They need each other.
they ate the other child with barbecuesauce
@@olefaithfulloyalstar692 srry i didnt ment to be rude altough i always learned you can make jokes about everything if you know its a joke .greetz from belgium to ( where ever your located)?:D
@@kennyclauw9713 you spelled "maple syrup" wrong...
Someone enlighten me, because I just don’t get it. They coerce him into confessing to a murder which they have no proof even occurred, he shows them where he supposedly disposed of the body, but they don’t even bother to look for it ( there would still likely be some traces), she had a history of mental illness and just disappearing, and somehow this was enough to convict him? How? What kind of kangaroo court system do they have there?
Also, I keep seeing comments about how the daughter would know, since they were her parents. Really? The same daughter that said they never fought, then described a huge fight? The same one that spoke about them as a nice normal family, but forgot to mention the mothers alter ego and the seances? The same daughter that is so desperate to believe her mother wouldn’t abandon her that she would rather her father murdered her? The daughter seems way off to me. The sister and sister-in-law that are so maligned in this comment section seem far more unbiased and reasonable to me. They at least seem to recognize what “normal” is.
I don’t know whether he did it, but I couldn’t sit on a jury and convict him on what I’ve heard. I don’t believe any reasonable person could.
This is why. It's one thing to claim, well I just wanted to impress the mob boss, after the fact. He found out that he was in a sting operation. He goes to the police station and confesses to murder to a cop on video. Ok. So no excuse there of wanting to impress a mob boss. So that didn't work so he tries for the, self defense plea. He says, I had to kill her to save my 17 year old daughter from getting raped by her altered ego, Shawna. Really? while she was peacefully gardening in her back yard? So, yes, he did it. He's just lying and using every angle to try and get away with it. Oh and he giggled when he told the cops where he disposed of her body. He was happy at the memory of it.
Exact feelings
I agree, I don’t think we can say he did it or didn’t
Erin Elizabeth Cranford, Some comments on here can't tell if he did it or not. I suggest you guys rewatch it. Pay attention to when he tells the cops where the body is at. He starts to giggle at the memory of what he did. If you were faking to the cops would you accidentally giggle? I don't think so .
Bonnie Lee
He was starving and homeless, he was trying to get a job with criminals . That doesn’t prove anything. Also we all know people act differently , it can seem strange to you but it doesn’t mean he killed her .
"Not knowing" is always worse than "knowing the worst."
ALWAYS WORSE!!! The mind has a way of envisioning the worst in times of trouble!!!
Yea I'm gonna disagree with that.
Knowing a loved one was brutally beaten, raped, tortured and slowly murdered is far worse than wondering if they're living somewhere else and just left you.
Totally agree. My boyfriend was missing for one week and found dead. We don’t know what happened to him. And not knowing is for worse.
@@ClickClack_Bam Yes, if they have only left. However, in other situations, the not knowing is far worse, as the mind has a way of envisioning the worst in times of crisis.
@@xlnuniex I am so very sorry about your boyfriend. 🙏😥
Poor Anna, what a beautiful lady with so much courage having to face this tragedy.
"...because nobody witnessed it." I wonder what would have happened if he had got his disability. Insurance companies suck.
Some of those women found on the highway of tears were never identified just maybe she is a Jane doe somewhere
Jordan spencer Sort of seems that way doesn’t it..poor woman
I LOVE this program. It is so thorough and the writing and directing and camera work is top notch! One of the best programs in this genre out there. Sad we have to have programs like this at all, but that we do, I'm so glad we haveThe Fifth Estate. They are also so respectful of the families of the victims. Just so well and beautifully put together. Thanks all who work so hard to create this program and maintain the integrity of each and every case. Just an awesome program. Bravo !
I’m in the US and The Fifth Estate is one of my favorite shows. So well done and I love the narrator.
The young lady is so eloquent and genuine. My heart goes out ❤to her
If this lady pops up ALOT of folks are gonna feel not so fresh
It all started to unravel when he hurt himself at work and was basically thrown out on the streets. Non of this would had unfolded if he had been compensated. Sad story.
I have so much respect for Anna she is a beautiful and wonderful daughter who lost both her parents God Bless her
When he said he saved his daughter from sexual assault from her own mother my mind jumped right back to something her daughter said about her mother talking to her about a sexual affair with another women the daughter said her mother felt betrayed by men now i got this wierd feeling why was she discussing it with her daughter who even said maybe she left with another man or woman maybe and its just something i feel in the pit of my stomach was her mother just confideing about an affair with a women or was she or her other self actually prepping her daughter to see how she would react if she made sexual suggestions or more to her own daughter
The father after all is said and done says at least i saved my daughter but didnt say at least i saved my kids.Just the daughter.Makes me really wonder.
This sentence is interesting but very hard to understand. Please try using some punctuation next time.
Dizzie trying to read run on run on run on sentences that stopped me from reading run on run on run on ......
Irene Duke runonrunonrunonandrunonthenrunonagainrunonLMNOPQRST7$
carrie harrell -he was reaching for some crazy reason to
excuse killing her.
roflmao! needed the laugh headntheclouds!
Where is the son in all this? By that I mean what are his opinions ? I'm not sure what to think ....In any case, very sad....
I was wondering this too - and, how old was the son at the time of her disappearance? Could he have possibly done something to her and than his father helped cover it up? Who knows, there's just too many unanswered questions to have put this guy away based off a faulty confession. Given what he had been living through since his wife "vanished" (drugs, illiterate, job loss, gambling problems, eating at soup kitchens, etc.) I'd think he'd say anything to appear more than what he was so he could join the mob and/or have an actual place to stay with guaranteed food and a bed to sleep in every night.
Hopefully he is getting on with his life, the whole thing is a S*&( Show.
The son, her brother, believes his dad is innocent. He was on another crime show (Tru TV), he resented his sister for not giving their dad a break.
lmfaolmfao
Leaving you're family is one thing but a Mother leaving her children is quite another.
I know it's hard to believe , no one I know could ever do this even play with the thought! Untill I met my Husband 25 yrs ago, his Mom not only left but abandoned his Father, and 5 kids all alone. They struggled the kids were very young, my brother in law only 1 1/2 was the youngest the kids were 1 1/2- 9 yrs old my husband was only 7 at the time. He doesn't remember much just his mom sitting on the floor knees drawn up and rocking and crying a lot.
Luckily my Father in law was a strong hard working man who did everything he could to support all of them . His Aunt took in all the children but the oldest, he stayed with his dad ,and slowly the kids went back home once he felt they were old enough as he was always at work to be home without supervision most around 12 yrs old.
So unfortunately it does happen the kicker, found her years later living in a slum ( was living way way worse than she had or would have been) and had even had 2 more children and was with another man .
Karen Miller Mothers leave all the time. People just don’t talk about it much.
fathers are free to leave all the time, though, right?
True. I haven’t had contact with my parents or sibling for over a decade, but I couldn’t leave my kids.
Erika SCWTA Never, nobody said that. Why do you think “deadbeat dad” is an incredibly common term?
She was 22, and she married her long time companion? How many years where together? She was a child!
At the time high school sweethearts getting married was huge. You have to apply the times they married in not what you think should be done.
the one and only she really sold herself short. What will she do when he’s dead? He was old already so she’ll be a window in about 15-20 years or caring for him, not able to work full time.
@@ALsCatHouse They're talking about the daughter, not the parents. This wasn't too long ago. And the guy she married was 16 years older, so they were not high school sweethearts. Her having a "long time companion" at 22 when she's only been an adult for a few years and he's that much older is actually genuinely concerning.
💰💰💰
megan l no kidding. I thought that was her father at first for some reason in the wedding videos, I was like wow he put on some weight... but nah. She’s obviously got daddy issues, though. Maybe not surprising.
Now this one was really interesting. I would like to know when the most recent occurrence of the Shana personality having taken over Wendy was. Had it been years or was this ongoing? What did they ask Denis on the polygraph he passed? How extensive was the RCMP’s search for Wendy’s remains (they did tell Anna they were strapped for resources for years)? What does Anna think about the fact that if this happened in the manner Denis confessed, she was in the house and didn’t notice a loud bang? What does Anna have to say about her mother’s Shana personality? Taking into account only what we know, I can’t say Denis killed Wendy, certainly not in the manner he confessed. In fact, were I on that sting I would have told Denis we need you take us to the exact location where you put her because we need to see if we can find something that the police might use against you that might come back on us and I would have told him if we can’t find anything the deal was off - so we’d better find something (the gun, the tarp, bones, something). This was clearly entrapment, the guy was eating at soup kitchens, desperate, and would have said anything to make himself look like a badass to make a few bucks. After he realized he’d been fooled, it is no surprise he confessed again at the police station. He was homeless, just got played, and at this point prison is a better deal than anything else that is likely to ever again be on the table for him. Then on the basis of the two confessions and absolutely nothing else, they jammed Denis up big time. Anna was an an admitted daddy’s girl, I would say that if she felt he knew more than what he said, she might be right there (still need evidence). However, if Denis did murder Wendy, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in the manner he said. The guy was a gambler and to me that means he wasn’t a simpleton, you have to have certain qualities to be even passable at that for any length of time and he was a confirmed gambler who had some small success - desperate and illiterate, but not a dummy. If he did murder Wendy, I’d say he did it in a different way than he confessed, though he may have used some similar details to the actual murder so as not to overplay his hand. Denis’s confessions include no empirical evidence. As hard as it is to believe that Wendy left her kids, and as rarely as it happens, it is just as likely to me that Wendy had a psychotic break and left or perhaps even that harm befell her from some other avenue. A number of people have asked where her brother was in all this, and he very likely has just moved on, put this in a box in his heart and mind, and is happy to not have to think about it everyday. This is an interesting case with a number of unanswered questions.
@Ed Sanchez, you thoughts make complete sense to me, and I find myself agreeing with you. ❤️
I totally agree, the cops entrapped him all the way , I didn't even thought it was legal in canada but apparently our beautiful country has some really ugly sides
Wholeheartedly agree!!!
You know polygraphs doesn't work, right??!
I might be wrong but i think she knows more than she is telling us
The fifth estate is awesome content..going back 40 years one of my favorites stories is" just another missing kid"
He couldn't read or write and having trouble getting a job and then someone comes along offering you a job that is with a dangerous crime family....jeeze what else would he have said. Most people I know would say things to make themselves look more dangerous. That was ridiculous. He might even be happy in jail because there's meals and a bed he knows will be there so can see why lying to police would give him a place to go. Sad.
Jennifer Swan exactly wht I was thinking as well...very sad.
Being illiterate DOES NOT equal confessing to murder. He absolutely did it. There are a lot of other things he could have said "to appear dangerous". Confessing to a murder wouldn't be a go to choice unless you.....committed a murder. When combined with all the other information, he absolutely is responsible for this woman's disappearance.
@@nikkib5753 though I disagree with the first half I think the fact he got so specific with the details of how she died, were it happened and what he did with the body and gun (not to mention he laughed at the though of getting away with hiding the weapon) he is guilty.
@@nikkib5753 with that said I think it was also premeditated due to his wife's own crazy actions as shauna. Normal people don't do that. So I think something just as bad was also averted there though it doesn't change the fact he killed his wife.
@@Ghost7065 I agree with EVERYTHING you said! Well said, too! Thanks! ❤
Mother had dissociative disorder. Sometimes the after effects of serious abuse. What went on that she left her family so young? Multiple personalities are a sign of this.
True. But it was also part of the new age movement from 70’s up to today. The ‘Channelling’ of spirits - like the Seth books in the 70s or 80s and the woman who ‘channels’ Abraham Ester Hicks. Maybe that was part of her exploration of spirituality? Honestly I wouldn’t believe her sister or husband. Her daughter however is beautiful and intelligent. I get a feeling she takes after her mother.
The woman is a teacher, and didn''t help her husband learn to read or write? Lmao that's incomprehensible.
roleat he may not have been able to learn. my husband had severe learning disabilities that were never addressed as a kid. i tried to tutor him to get his ged but it just didn't compute. and there isn't remedial help available for guys in their 40s
filigree
Thanks for sharing that. I was unaware of the resource deficit for older men. Seems like an opportunity to help a (potentially) large number of them if we could create programs to suit their needs.
If a person makes it to adulthood without learning literacy, it is extremely difficult to "undo" the difficulties that led him/her there. She may not have been trained as a special education teacher or reading specialist, and even if she did try (which I believe she likely did), he may have simply been unable to learn.
Josi Craig
Unless you have a brain injury it can be done.
Kittykitty Katt That is a generalization of all men.
..the one thing that convinced me he did it was when he described the one, small bullet and seemed amazed that she fell down straight away from it.. that was real. He did it. 😣 Very sad for them, I send my love❤️🙏
Anna looks so much like her mom. The only thing I have to say is beware of the couple that never fights.
Anna is way out of her husbands league.
You're prolly the cause of all your relationship fights. It's actually normal to not fight. FYI.
Wow i think you need a good relationship.
You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Great advice, moron.
My husband and I don't fight. We actually talk to each other when things bother us because we're mature adults. I left an abusive ex and hated the fighting. I'm so glad I'm with someone who treats me with respect. I treat him with respect too.
This just doesn't seem right. For one thing, was the mother declared dead when the father was charged? If so, was there any insurance? To whom did that go? Also, where was the brother? This type of entrapment would work very well with the feeble-minded or unsophisticated, but without other corroborating evidence, I'm not sure it should be sufficient to convict someone.
There's a certain time when the missing can be declared dead. I believe it's 7 years. If there was insurance involved I'm sure they would've said because that's one of the first things police look for. I think he just got tired of her craziness.
Denise Ellen Savage Maybe. But that's far from reasonable doubt. I don't think entrapment is a legitimate method of securing evidence, on its own. There was zero physical evidence to corroborate it. This man was bilingual, apparently, but not literate in either language. Who knows what he might have been thinking when talking to a couple guys he thought were criminals? Without any evidence to back it up, this is wrong. I'd still like to know who, if anyone, benefitted from insurance.
They took his confession seriously no matter how it was obtained. There should be more evidence but people have been convicted on less, sadly.
I don't think a drifter going from job to job and who had a gambling problem would have taken out insurance though. Insurance premiums are expensive and if you miss a couple of payments the contract is void.
Niecie Savage But could/should this be viewed as a "confession," in the absence of corroborating evidence. He was manipulated into providing a story, but I'm sure he didn't view it as a confession upon uttering it. He was telling "Mr Big" what he wanted to hear. Someone more intelligent may not have allowed themselves to be manipulated in this way, whether they had committed the crime, or not.
There's also something suspicious about the timing and the daughter's marriage. It's almost certain the victim would have had insurance, and if her father had not been charged and convicted of her murder, he surely would have been the beneficiary. And where's the brother? There are just some nagging questions here. I'm not convinced.
There may be more to the story than they can provide in the show. I didn't hear about this case before but there's probably more online about it.
I got the impression the father was very cold hearted speaking about the murder, if what he said was true. The daughter I think was featured more because she was more involved with the police and the older sibling. I'm not convinced there was any insurance. I'm about the mother's age and I've never had life insurance.
What an incredibly strong young woman 💕
I am 52 and grateful that I no longer have to break my back for a living . If I had to rely on it , I would be homeless . Who hires a 52 year old for physical labor ?
Conviction without a body and no other physical evidence that points her father was the killer or was the mother really is dead. The daughter believes her father was the killer after the wedding when she realize her father wasnt thrilled with the marriagenand her choice of husband. i dont think this case is not strong enough to convict him as a murderer atleast in my perspective. There wasnt even a circumstancial evidence supporting the case.
I assume there was a search for her when she went missing yet no body was found at that time. They also didn't really say where he put her body. And i noticed that the daughter didn't speak of Shawna, I wonder why.
Why didn't they check out the swamp where the husband admitted to dumping the body? A body found there = murder by her husband?
I couldn't have imagined he would do that....
Agreed. I think the poor guy was bamboozled
Seeing that van at Tim Horton's would have excited me so. I would have ran into that store assuming she's in there. I would have been really upset that she was not in there. That's when my heart would have dropped away from hope.
The fifth estate is the best documentary channel
Lifting Lifer 75 good journalism
I'm not convinced he killed her. I could easily be convinced that when Wendy decided to stay with Denis, "Shanna" emerged and took over, and left. Is there a woman named Shanna working as a cashier in a Seattle grocery store somewhere?
A common housewife! Seriously
@Ew, David! Whatever
That annoyed me too. Poorly chosen word. Average or every day or normal would have conveyed his meaning without the offence.
Thank you for up load v great stuff keep up the good work all kudos to you )) from Rachel Bideford Devon UK )) where the fields our green the grass is greener lol ))
Why is that offensive? Why would a synonym be better?
He's saying, on the outside, she appeared as any other commonly seen housewife.
you must be a common housewife. Calm down.
it is obvious that the daughter, as with most people really do not know or understand the full extent of the "Mr. Big Sting" and it is so much more then what they show on this video. It is so controversial that some courts in Canada will through out any case involving it, because it would have us all confessing to crimes we did not commit and it preys on the weak and down and out people. The daughter is to immature to understand what they did to her father, but then again she married a big 38 year old mane when she was still a kid in diapers.See other videos of Canadian" Mr. Big Sting" operations and you will come to the same conclusion, there are many and they are all prey on the weak and down and individual. They are an absolute disgust to the Canadian legal system!!
*Throw
But then he confessed also at the police station....
Agreed! The “ mr big stings” are a joke.
Chicks with Daddy issues always get with older guys.
it can sometimes be extremely effective. that's how australian police finally solved the Daniel Morcombe case.
“Nobody comes up with something that abhorrent”
My dude have you seen TV? Have you heard of crime novels? Making up this stuff is common.
35:16 "Constable, would you care to make a statement for the press?"
"Yes! Wait! Let me put on my silly hat first! But I'll talk all serious. Okay?"
I think this daughter will take any explanation other than her mother left her. That man has no education it would b simple for educated cops to get him to confess to about anything. And her reasoning why she thinks her dad is guilty of something is his not wanting to talk about the day she disappeared n the he was emotional and defensive ....any dad would be if there daughter kept going over n over it making him feel like she didnt at very least believe him and at worst had something to do with it
Kimberly Worthing I think you are so write in what you wrote, the daughter don’t want to believe the mother couldn’t take anymore and in order to be happy she needed to leave her husband, and kids behind.
And she’s saying, she will be at the parole hearing, I do hope she finds what she wants for once, and that she didn’t put an inocente men in jail.
She has children of her own, and if she’s wrong God won’t let it go unpunished.
It’s sad for everyone involved really.
But you definitely wrote what I thought was right,
most people is fast at condemning, we have to be neutral sometimes, for the sake of innocent until proven guilty.
I would have my doubts if the van left town. The story with her dropping him off downtown and her parking downtown and then vanishing doesn’t add up. He did it.
@Kimberly Worthing YES!!! Thank you! I completely agree!!!
@@roblockhart8410 I am with you on that, too. He is as guilty as they come.
You must clearly be forgetting the part about HIM continuously having DIFFERENT stories about it. If I were faced with this situation, that would be concerning to me if my dad was telling me multiple stories as well. (I'm sure MANY others would agree). An innocent person DOES NOT have changing stories, so he definitely got defensive after being asked BUT it wasn't cuz of how many times he was asked. It was because he was involved & had something to hide. Also, this is a girl who knows her mom wouldn't walk away from her or her brother, NOT one who refuses to think it. She was 17 at the time, NOT a young little girl. And it is NOT a coincidence she goes riding around with her dad to find her mom and he just happens to pull into a restaurant and her vehicle is right there?? NO WAY! He knew exactly where to find that vehicle cuz HE put it there. It's such a shame. This is a classic circumstantial case but then came the "confessions", not once but twice! But had he not, it was definitely prosecutable as a circumstantial case without a confession or body and I think that would have happened at some point anyway.
A superficial observation, but the daughter looks just like her mom.
Why is a fact superficial?? Or has political correctness taking over your mind.
@@thecatatemyhomework I think they just mean that it's not a deep observation about anything important, not that it's an offensive one.
her mother look Chinese and her daughter just like a white woman..
Canada LOVES to use the Mr. Big entrapment! Pretty sure it’s not allowed in the US but I’ve seen it used many times on shows solving crimes in Canada.
Okay, if he thought he was meeting gangsters who might hire him, he might just be upselling his dangerousness, to make himself seem tough enough to run with them. He certainly doesn't seem like the batter to death and leave out in the woods kind. He seems more like an unlettered simpleton who thought bragging to some 'gangsters' would be his chance at some money what with the educated, breadwinning wife gone.
Very good point Pallavi.
I couldn't agree more! They took advantage of his lack of education and intellect. It's sad.
He doesn't read or write English..his 2nd language. Simpleton? I think not.
@Muriel Lucas I guess you missed the part of him being in the casino's regularly, losing thousands of dollars and borrowing money under false pretnses just to play poker.
Pallavi Sanyal
Educated, not so much to me. Why didn’t she teach her own husband how to read and write?
C´est dommage! Anna is so intelligent and mature. I wish her the best in life.
The "Mr. Big" police sting method is a repulsive thing. And people of limited mental abilities are at the greatest risk of being manipulated into false confessions. One thing that makes me wonder whether Denis Ratte is really guilty is that his wife's sister thinks he is innocent.
I agree Tina. I really liked his sis.( She's Denis' sister,) and she brings up an excellent point as to why he wouldn't have done this.
@@shirleysue228 To my mind he was a self-destructive man (for whatever reasons), and the idea that he had everything to lose from killing her likely didn't matter to him. Speculating.
MrOrtloff it’s called rage, heat of the moment,
and then you’ve got a body to deal with
He had impulse issues , he was a gambler
Nothing but respect for the daughter Anna...
This is one weird family
The daughter is a bit strange. I think she is in denial about some very strange behaviour that the parents practiced and the daughter is flooding her memories with what she is picking and choosing the few interactions as a family that she considers "normal."
Why did she not mention anything about the Shanna person?
Exactly! Everyone in the comments banging on about how amazing and ‘eloquent’ the daughter is but, I dunno…something off with her also.
"He was evasive... emotional..." Maybe the fact that his own child is insinuating that he killed their mother... you don't think that hurts? I don't want to think he did it.. and I stand by my previous comment.. mostly anyway.. She IS gullible (daughter). After years of no leads- she then blames her father. Probably the best way to sum it up, is to say, for lack of any other avenue- she decides NOW her father is a viable suspect.
Try this: look at his behavior.. and imagine that she had left on her own accord as a choice and it was public knowledge. His actions would likely be the same.
I'm so... shocked- and angry- by how she turned on her father... For her to "decide", "and this is where he starts lying.." Oh, you mean- he wasn't this whole time? You mean to tell me that it doesn't sound SO incredulous- that he couldn't have been telling people what they wanted to hear? I would caution anyone within that girl's family to not get close, don't trust her.. especially her husband.. why? Look at how she turned on her own father. smh.
I don't believe her mother is dead.. I FIRMLY believe "Shauna" took over.. being a person with D.I.D myself, I know all too well how EASY it is for "someone else" to take control, and you aren't even aware of it. It could be minutes.. hours.. days/months/years... and when you finally come-to, you have NO memory of what happened. Yeah- it's as terrifying as it sounds.
I think he said whatever he could to make himself look "dangerous", and get a job that would undoubtedly make him a decent living. Those police officers totally set him up.. in such a blatant way. I genuinely think his daughter needs SERIOUS counseling.
I think she may have inherited some of her Mom’s mental issues.
Basically thinking the same and I also couldn't help but notice how the daughter comes across...
A desperate man looking for work and a means to make money to get drugs and alcohol, would say just about anything to impress the thugs that he thought he was going to work for. Gotta sound like a badass if you're gonna work with the big boys. It's sad, but at least now Dennis has a roof over his head every day and secured meals.
I agree with you.
Don’t make sense
In the woods, where Denis Ratté said he threw the body of his wife, there should still be the plastic tarp. No mention of the tarp. Yet now Denis is in prison, fed and sheltered. Maybe that is what he wanted as he continue "confessing" at the police station. What a bizarre story!
The marriage was low percentage and high risk for Wendy. At the time she met him he was young and decent looking and had a fairly decent job, but could not read or write. Hard to understand why she didn't teach him unless he refused. While there can never be 100% certainty that he killed her, we have to be honest and figure that he did. No one else would have had a motive and would also have had to bury her someplace out of the way like the husband said he did. At least in prison he will get 3 meals a day and have a roof over his head and at his age that is probably all that he really requires.
hope YOU are in prison in YOUR older years. see how you like it.
She was coming out of a bad relationship and he saved her. That's also why.
Usually, not being able to read is the product of a learning disability.
Unless you learn to read and write as a child it is very difficult to learn as an adult…much perseverance is needed…adult literacy tutor here…
Strange, evasive and even emotional? Oh goodness his wife is gone, give the guy some space to deal with it and on top of that your daughter suspects you. Sad, very sad.
Regardless of the police setup to get the confession, entrapment or no, he then confessed again after he was arrested. Kinda hard to argue with that, the video of him sitting in that room with the one female investigator who wasn't yelling at him or berating him.
The said thing is most of the girls who go missing on the highway of tears are native! Even tho the fifth estate is one of very few ppl who actually do journalism today they shouldn't of missed that detail! Which they most likely did on purpose because a lot of cops out there are very racist to the native Canadians out there! That's why most of the cases on the highway of tears go unsolved because the police care less about the case cause there Indian!
@@TylerSane5 specifying that wasnt relevant to the story. Also not all the cops are racist, but you're right there is a problem that that factors into, as well as budgeting, remoteness and lack of patrolling due to size, lack of adaquate buses, people choosing to hitchhike on a known dangerous road. Etc etc. Many factors. Replace all the cops with the brightest of paragons and you'd have the same problems cause it doesnt address the main causes, simply the resolution.
I think it's entirely possible Denis was lying to "Big Man" to get the gig.
I had that thought too. English is his 2nd language and on top of that he cant read or write. Just lots of questions.
He had no reason to continue the lie to the police and his inability to tell his daughter a consistent story stands in marked contrast to his later consistency when he can only have been telling the truth.
I dont see how there would b absolutely nothing left of the body....besides the scepticism i have for these " mr big" n other undercover stings they have were ppl may just tell them what they think they want to hear.....
He confesses to killing his wife while at the beginning they say Anna is home when they leave to go run errands in BC. Anna forgets she was home in a remote area and her Dad tells ‘gangsters’ he shot her and disposed of his wife, then left alone to leave the van in town? How? She would have heard the shot or at least realized something when all that supposedly occurred. Weird. I do not believe any of that.
Listen, it was a .22 you probably could get away with something like that. Sad very Sad😔
EXACTLY what I was thinking too!!!!
Yes these dynamics, where Anna has been during her mom's alleged murder and how many cars the family had at that point, has me completely confused as well.
But I've forgotten about all these things again, till I read this comment.
& While I certainly can imagine, Anna might've not heard a single gun shot (maybe bc she's been asleep, or gun shots were generally not that uncommon in a rural area) ... I'm having troubles to imagine, she didn't notice her mom getting wrapped into a tarp in their backyard (near the ducks) and getting stored somewhere.
Till he'd had an opportunity to put her body into the swamp.
Usually kids are curious in situations, which are out of the normal routine...
& How did Wendy drop him off, I can't really put my finger on that. (?)
No witnesses saw him being dropped off by her during daytime and then he called home to ask Anna, if her mom was there.
Wth?
That's exactly, why I've the feeling, I've heard only ~25% of the real story here.
There's too much weight put on the "mentally unstable" part of the breadwinner; jmo though.
@@Anita-k YES!!!! That Anna just feels wrong to me as if she is lying. I got a nasty vibe from her.
@@TonyaB005
Can't say I'm 100% sure, she's lying intentionally though - she seems to belief in her own story - maybe she doesn't even know herself?
At least that was my main impression.
Unfortunately the timeline of the day of the so called "crime" in this documentary has so many holes and inconsistencies...
Idk what to think about all of these discrepancies.
I am a little surprised Ratte didn't suspect a setup when his new "gangster" buddies began asking for the kinds of extremely specific details typically sought by police interrogators.
Dennis Fritz he's not the most savvy guy
***** Yes, I think you are right. People in desperate straights are much more vulnerable.
exactly. that undercover guy wasnt being being "undercover"
I think he was "a simple man" and taken advantage of. Also probably overwhelmed by the way his own daughter formulated the questions she wanted answers to, which is why he was frustrated and told her to "go ask the police", because he'd had to tell it to them over and over already and just didn't know how to put her mind to rest.
Dennis Fritz
Exactly what I thought. The undercover guy was so OBVIOUS when he started in on the questions...jeezzzz, come ON!
Shanna took over full time and left
Multiple personality disorder, demonic possession etc makes for an awful scenario for any family
Julz XD how do people.get possessed ? any input jw but yeah true true
Not demonic possession,total mental health issues,to the nth degree.But unstable and mentally ill found each other in a terrible mix.
I never saw my parents fight, either. My mother was too psycho to argue with.
Sorry
Hope you escaped safely ❤
@@gordonaliasme1104 Thank you! I figured it all out when I was about 65. The seven years since then has been amazing...
My heart reaches out to the daughter.
I'll tell you what, education can't give you the compassion and understanding this man had for his wife
I can't believe someone could be convicted solely on the evidence presented here. Confessions obtained in this way should only be used to verify hard evidence but as offered here with nothing else it should be regarded as virtually worthless, in my opinion.
The guy confessed twice. Did you not see the confession with the French-speaking police officer? That was no "Mr. Big" sting.
@@janda5816 He admitted to killing his wife to the RCMP agent and told him where the body was so that he could prove his bona fides to this Mr. Big. Guess what, no body. This type of evidence relied on the police finding some evidence of a body. This guy is a born liar and lied himself all the way to jail. Hooray. But is he guilty beyond doubt? Not from the info from this video.
I think the swcond confession also obscured wome facts... the way I see it, as the spouse of someone with a mental condition and alternate personality who dabbles in the occult, you learn to obfuscate a fair few things. I think it scared him but he also loved her so it must have been such pressure on him. The imbalance within the relationship caused a rift that this couple wasn't equipped to close. Whatever happened here, I don't think we heard the whole truth.
The man consented to do a polygraph early on...and passed it. I think the reporter shared the daughters concerns about her father with the police which is why they re-opened the case. Cops get promoted if they solve these type cases...now the daughter is so far into blaming the father its difficult to back out. Sad. Did the cops look for a corpse and not find one after the sting? Hard to believe they didn't search for one... PS: I agree with her mothers sister...
Polygraphs are hokum so passing one doesn't mean anything.
Finally and episode I haven''t seen. Thanks for the upload.
One possibility, Denis wanted to go to prison for the security factor: free food, a bed, easy routine, health care, no bills to pay etc. Some people do do this on purpose. With or without a murder. It's not the most sensible thing to do to confess to murder when charged if it's not true, but he wouldn't be the first to be so dumb.
I would want a full statement analysis of his confessions to be done by Peter Hyatt.
hmmm exactly what happen. I watch one movie when a man went to the police to say he killed someone which he never did. He just want to have free food and house over his head bcos he was homeless. Later the killer was found with lots of evidence
Anna has my admiration, she’s really quite special!
i so hope that the daughter and son can recover from the enormous tragedy of this . unbelievable what life hands you sometimes
NO GIRL YOUR MOTHER LEFT YOU!!!!!!!!!ACCEPT IT IF YOU ARE A NORMAL PERSON!!!!
Left her where? The woman isn't wealthy in any way, isn't exactly a genius and is blatantly mentally ill and not medicated for it. How far and deep do you think she's going to get? You people have no idea how hard it is to just take off one day still alive and never be found.
You arrested a 56 yr old man who had spent 10 yrs on the street spiraling in drugs who cannot get any footing and employment. You offered him a job and some future. So he gives EVERY over the top way he could kill. Smh
Remarkably balanced, compassionate and eloquent daughter.
Side note I kind of found it funny that the mill boss was named Allan Miller
Leaving your family as a teen doesn't mean that you're able to walk away from your family especially when you have a child as an older person. Sounds like her family never really healed over her running away as a teenager, and that's so sad.
Actually it does & can happen especially if you suffer from mental disorder.
Yeah, these entrapment scenarios are wrong and should never be used to force a confession because If a crime family was going to take me into their fold protect me and pay me, I would confess to doing things I couldn't have done and I could make it very convincing and from the outside you would be abel to verfy the details givin in this confession story.
KoolBreeze420 he confesses twice. Once to the fake criminal and then. Says he shot her in the head to the police. He did it. Or wouldn’t say he did twice to two different people. And then says he did it cause he was scared for his daughter’s safety
@@adambk420 he killed Shanna not Wendy
Shanna wasn’t real so I guess he killed no one.
KoolBreeze420 ...I agree!!! These entrapment scenarios are wrong, and should not be allowed as valid evidence in court.
@@adambk420 I'm not sure. He had resentment but he seems to have social and intellectual difficulties. He could be easily coerced
It's a sad story. Unlike Crime shows where the murderer breaks down and confesses, sometimes confessions are not what they seem. They do not bring closure but more questions. As to the letters, the page I could make out sounds like there was something going on in Mrs. Ratée even before she was married to her husband. I can just imagine what the family had to deal with in an undiagnosed woman who had created an aggressive and possibly sexualized persona around her kids. What happened to the other child? Whose idea was it to play the parents' song at the wedding?
Where is the brother all this time? The daughter is very involved with this program but I haven’t heard about the younger brother.
Excellent journalism on the fifth estate
It took me much longer than it should've to realize what "The RCMP" means.
EmileeArsenic what dose it mean?
A b ë ê R عبير royal canadian mounted police.
I mean.. I think...🤔😬🙃
Lol
@@commonsense571 lol... when in doubt....Google 😀
Anna comes across as a very well balanced and beautiful person. I hope the children go on well in their life.
What a well spoken lady. Such an intelligent person too.
I am an American, born and raised in the USA; still do and always have. I'm familiar with the courts here, not only by living here, but from serving on a jury that unanimously convicted a violent offender. I disagree that an American court would have come to a different conclusion than this Canadian court.
I also know about northern wilderness having lived in northwestern Maine for 2 years on assignment by my employer.
First, bears have a strong sense of smell. I doubt a body left in the woods lasted longer than a month. The bones and tarp would have also carry a human odor strong enough to be carried long distances by hungry wildlife.
Anyway, he wasn't trying to become a millionaire gangster by confessing to the RCMP. While it's true that "no body" murder prosecutions are challenging, multiple matching confessions would unanimously convict a defendant in the USA too.
I understand that the sister wants to believe her sister isn't deceased. However, I strongly feel the Canadian courts served an accurate, fair and just verdict.