Welcome to the dark mind Detective.
My name is Mark, and for the last six years I have been
researching some of the darkest, most deprived, horrible cases of
humanity. I spent the last year digging
deep into the trenches, the murky world of Robert Pickton,
and I will be publishing a book in the near future.
I've written my first draft and I was thinking the other day,
and please forgive me, I have a bit of a seasonal allergies so I
sound a little congested so please bear with me.
So I was thinking of why I keep going and over the last week or
so I've had about 3 conversations with Chelsea's
dad, Chelsea Portman, her father Michael Kernam, whom I first
interviewed and and talked to and someone I do consider a
friend. And we talk for always an hour.
Every time we talk. We get along very well and I
like him very much. He is a man of true resilience.
Everything he's been through, you know it.
It inspires me to keep going. And then that's basically the
whole point. Every time I talk to him,
everything comes rushing back. The why, the why.
I started Vancouver true crime now, the dark mind detective,
why I poured 10s of thousands of hours in this work the other
day. I was scrolling down through all
the posts I did on Instagram. Quote 1500 posts because I
delete a lot of the missing people when they're found.
You know I read 15 to 2000 posts, right?
All on things that I believe that the community should be
aware of. I never really monetized
anything. If anything, I've given away
more things than I used to do. Lots of giveaways.
And this never was about me. It's never about credit.
It was something bigger. Let me just be real for a
minute. April is a hard month.
Yesterday was the 5th anniversary where I lost my wife
to tragedy. I lost my wife to a sudden
aneurysm. We have two small children and
the grief doesn't fade, it just changes shape.
The shock never really leaves you and it it wasn't just a
tragedy that scarred me, it was the trauma.
The vultures, the people who circled while I was numb,
stealing from me, picking through my wife's belongings
while I stood frozen and me. And I was just stuck in this
people pleasing mode, thinking if I just keep helping others
maybe the pain will erase. But I'm going to tell you
something. That mindset broke me.
Instagram, which has been my new nemesis lately.
It's a double edged sword. I've met incredible people like
Mike. Solid real souls I'm proud to
call friends, but also face some real human garbage.
The people who mistake kindness for weakness.
People who thinks accessibility means they get the nitpick and
criticize and chip away at you post by post.
And if you follow the podcast, you know I've talked about this
before. Some of you get it.
You're sharp, you're kind, you're here for the right
reasons. But then there's the activist
laying in wait. They don't reach out, They don't
ask questions. They slurk hoping you'll mess up
so they can light you up for clout.
Talking to Mike, it snaps back in the focus.
This is why I keep going and This is why I have to.
And because I got a thick skin, and because I'm resilient and
because I refuse to waste energy on anything.
That doesn't matter what happened to Chelsea, it should
have never happened. And how her family was treated.
Despicable doesn't even cover it.
Let's stop pretending there's a 2 tier system in this country.
Predators like Robert Picton get top tier legal defense victims
and their family. They get silenced, they get
bulldozed, they get forgotten. But I won't forget.
Not Chelsea, not her family, not what they endured.
And from that shared pain came something real.
A connection with Mike, A friendship I don't take for
granted. To Chelsea's family, my door is
always open. There's anything I can do.
I'm here. I'm at your service, and I mean
that. I am sorry for how brutally the
system failed you. I wish you peace, healing and
strength. And most of all, I want you to
know this Chelsea will never be forgotten.
Her life mattered. Her story will keep shining on
the light of injustice to Natasha Harrison, the quem
Manuel Godfredson, to Noel O Soup's loved ones, and all who
carry the weight of unjust grief.
I speak this with a heavy heart from the same rage and sorrow
you feel every day, the kind that doesn't fade because truth
hasn't either. When authorities say nothing
suspicious, what they mean is your child's death didn't matter
enough to investigate. When they claim the case is
still open but offer no answers, what they're really saying is we
hope you'll stop asking. This is not justice.
This is a system that polishes its words while predators Polish
their methods. The same excuses, the same
delays, the same families left screaming into silence.
Chelsea, Tatiana, Noel Quem. Their cases aren't tragedies,
are crimes. Crimes enabled by indifference,
by the lie that monsters like Robert Picton are rare, when in
truth they thrive where the system looks away.
To the mothers, fathers, siblings, communities fighting
for answers, your loved ones deserve more than a press
release. They deserve detectives who will
chase every lead, coroners that will respect their remains, and
the public that refuse to forget.
To the authorities, no amount of performative advocacy erase the
truth. Your failures are why predators
still walk free. If he spent half the energy on
investigations as he do on damage control, fewer families
would bury their children. This is not just grief.
It's fury. And fury doesn't fade.
We will say their names until the world stops looking away
with rage and solidarity. Mark Chelsea Portman was just 24
years old when she vanished from downtown Vancouver in September
2020. A vulnerable young woman with
physical and cognitive impairments, she was last seen
around 1:00 AM near Granville and Davie, then disappeared
without a trace. 18 months later, her skeletal remains were
discovered partially covered by a blanket on the back patio of a
$10 million mansion in one of Canada's wealthiest
neighborhoods. Her skull and fingers were
missing and the case was ruled not suspicious.
Please theory she wandered there and died alone, but evidence
tells another story 1 of concealment, delayed body
placement and a deeply flawed investigation.
Chelsea's family and the public deserves answers.
How does a disabled woman scale an 8 foot fence and vanish into
one of the most secure neighborhoods in Vancouver
without being seen on a single camera?
2 Why was her body found under her blanket with her purse
contents still scattered? Yet the scene wasn't treated as
suspicious? And if she died there, why do
drones photos from months earlier show the patio
completely empty? Noel O Sue was just 14 years old
when she vanished from ABC Group home in May 2021.
A First Nation teen in government care, she was written
off by authorities as a runaway. Her family wasn't even notified.
Nearly a year later, Noel's skeletal remains were discovered
in a locked room in the Vancouver's Downtown Eastside,
along with two other bodies hidden under garbage.
The apartment had already been entered by police months earlier
to remove bodies, but there was two other victims that were
missed. The man connected to the
apartment was in a repeat predator offender labeled a
public danger years earlier. Say that one more time, how did
a child in state care die in the hearts of the Vancouver downtown
Eastside and no one noticed? How do police miss 2 corpses in
an apartment they already searched?
Why was a 14 year old girl placed in a system that couldn't
even tell her family she was missing?
What links does Noel's case? Larger patterns of First Nation
girls disappearing and being forgotten.
Tatiana Harrison, a 20 year old First Nation woman who was last
seen in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in April 2022.
Weeks later, her body was found on a 40 foot yacht in Richmond's
dry dock without pants and only wearing a sweater.
The coroner first claimed she died from a fentanyl overdose,
but months later the cause was quietly changed to stepsis and
the toxicology revealed GHB, the notorious date rape drug in her
system. Despite this, the police de
missed the case as non suspicious.
No sexual assault kit, no real investigation, no answers.
A young woman didn't just walk onto a yacht and died, someone
put her there. How did a woman with no known
access to a yacht end up dead on one with her clothes missing?
Why was her toxicology report change months later after police
said the case was closed? And who was the unknown man seen
with her just before she vanished?
And why wasn't he ever identified?
Quem Manifold Godfrison, a 22 year old woman.
First Nations vanished from Coquitlam in July 2022.
Two days later, her body was found in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside, just one block where Noel O Soup remains were
discovered months earlier. She had no ties to the area, yet
police delayed alerts, downplayed family concern.
Her phone last pinged at the notorious Astoria Hotel, known
for exploitation and trafficking.
No cause of death, no suspects, no answers.
And when her family demanded accountability, silence.
This isn't an isolated tragedy, it's part of a pattern of
systemic failures. Why was Quem's body found near a
known predator zone, yet police call it non suspicious?
How did she end up in one of the most dangerous buildings in the
city without ever being known to frequent the Downtown Eastside?
And why are multiple indigenous women turning up dead within
blocks of each other with no real investigations to the
outside world? Vancouver markets itself as one
of the most livable cities in the world.
Scenic, diverse, eco conscious and progressive.
Canada too it it's sold globally as a beacon of justice and
quality and reconciliation. But beneath the glass condos and
the curated Instagram filters lie a dark underbelly.
A2 tier systems where First Nation girls and racialize women
and the poor are disappearing and being found dead and being
dismissed by law enforcement. The deaths of Chelsea poor man
Noelo Soup, Tatiana Harrison, now Elma Ennan, forms a pattern
too precise to be random, too consistent to be chalked up to
mistakes. The apartment of death on
Heatley Ave. in May 2020. A derelict Vancouver single room
occupancy we know them as Sr. OS single room occupancies
they're cheap little old hotels that dominate the downtown east
side. Four O 5 Heatley Ave.
The decomposing bodies of three people were found.
A man named Jimmy Van Chung Pham, a woman in her 30s named
Elma Elnan, a 14 year old Noel Oh Soup who's been missing for
nearly a year. But here's the twist.
The police had already entered that apartment in February to
remove Fam's body, yet they missed two other corpses, both
whom were literally decomposing under garbage, Enan reported.
A relative to a VPT officer had allegedly died of an overdose.
No full investigation was made public.
Her presence was quietly acknowledged and vanished from
the narrative. No autopsy finding, no police
accountability, no media urgency.
As for Noel, she was in provincial care.
She fled a group earlier and her family wasn't even told she was
missing. And Jimmy Pham, a known predator
with 30 years criminal history, flagged by Canada's border
service as a danger to the public.
Chelsea Portman, 24, found in the backyard of a $10 million
mansion, missing her skull. Police claim not suspicious
circumstances. Tatiana Harrison, 20, found dead
on a dry dock yacht. No pants GHB in this system
ruled an overdose until public pressure forced a revision.
Noello Soup, 14, found in a room she couldn't have had access
alone, ignored for months by both police and social workers.
Alma Ennan, possibly connected to police, simply erased from
the official story. Each case follows the same
rhythm. A vulnerable woman disappears.
A police delay action. The body is discovered under
shocking conditions. The scene is declared as not
suspicious. That a family demands answers.
Silence. This isn't about incompetence
that raise uncomfortable questions of design.
When every step of the system fails in the same way again and
again, do we still call it failure or policy?
After Picton, nothing has changed.
After the horror of the serial killer robber Picton, who who
fed murdered women to pigs and lured victims from the very same
Downtown Eastside neighborhood, Canada launched its $200 million
public inquiry. The goal to reform how police
and social services protect First Nations and vulnerable
women. That was 15 years ago.
Today, not only nothing's changed, it's gotten worse.
Women are still vanishing, bodies are still being dumped,
cases are still closed without answers, and the system
supposedly reformed. They're doing what they've
always did, protecting predators and ignoring the victim.
How does a man with decades of criminal offenses live free and
unchecked while vulnerable women and state care end up dead in
his locked apart a Police Department, enter a death scenes
and miss 2 rotting bodies? And when the pattern is this
consistent, this brazen, how many women have to die before we
admit it is an incompetence? But policy, What Canada export
as progress is a carefully created myth.
The truth lives in Vancouver alleys, abandoned hotels and
locked apartments and luxury backyards.
The truth is written in the names we know and the many we
still don't. Thank you for listening.
In the second part, we'll be going deeper into these cases.
The Dark Mind Detective.