From Nilma North to Cold Case North

Investigating a cold case involving the disappearance and possible murder of two men in the Canadian wilderness was not on Michael Nest’s radar when he first moved to Montreal in 2017.

It was certainly not in his calculations when he was growing up in Nilma North in the 1970s and 80s.

However, tertiary study in Melbourne and New York, a career consulting to the mining industry and success as an author of two critically acclaimed books was the ideal resume for such a project.

Michael grew up near Warragul, living on the family beef farm in Bloomfields Road. He attended Warragul High School from 1979-1984 and much of his family still live in the area.

Michael has led a fascinating life since. After finishing his HSC at Warragul High he completed a bachelor of arts at Melbourne University before working for a time in Canberra in foreign aid. He then went on to study a PhD at New York University - specifically on politics in The Democratic Republic of Congo.

His study has led to him to become an expert and consultant on mining in Africa with a focus on advising organisations on how to manage corruption in the industry. His first book was an insight on a precious metal called Coltan that is fundamental to and in all of our mobile phones and similar devices. The book, named after the metal, explores the politics behind its mining in Africa. Often, mines for Coltan are situated in war torn areas and the conditions and brutality for people in these places are horrific.

The success of this book led to another book set in both the Congo and Australia. Still a Pygmy is a biography co-written by Michael and the subject of the book - Isaac Bacirongo. The book explores how a man from a Pygmy tribe in the Congo went from successful businessman to a prisoner of civil war before becoming a refugee and moving to Australia with his family.

It was his research into the latter book that set the chain in motion for Michael to collaborate on the book investigating the 1967 disappearance and possible murder of two prominent, indigenous Canadians.

While researching Still a Pygmy, Michael was introduced to Deanna Reder, a literary critic and associate professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. When she was growing up, Deanna’s Uncle Frank often spoke to her about the disappearance of two men from the town of La Ronge in Saskatchewan. Frank was a Cree man (one of the indigenous people of Canada) and he often spoke of the mysterious disappearance, his theory that the mining industry was involved and his belief the police investigation was slipshod at best. In his 90s, he urged Deanna to “carry the torch” and investigate the case.

Michael had just moved to Montreal to help care for his partner’s 90-year-old mother when he emailed Deanna to say he was in the country. Deanna knew Michael was in between jobs and it occurred to her that given he had vast experience speaking to indigenous communities as part of his job and the fact he was an author he might be an ideal collaborator on such an investigation and possibly even a book. Together with Deanne’s cousin Eric Belle (a Canadian indigenous leader in his own right) the trio began their investigation into James Brady’s and Absolom “Abbie” Halkett’s disappearance in 1967.

The book, Cold Case North, is the story of how Michael, Deanna and Eric, with the help of the indigenous community, exposed police failure in the original investigation, discovered new clues and testimony, and gathered the pieces of one of the country’s most enduring missing persons puzzles.

James Brady was one of the most famous indigenous activists in Canada. A noted communist, strategist, and intellectual, he led Métis (another of Canada’s indigenous people) and other First Nations people to rebel against government and church oppression. Brady’s success as an activist made people in power uncomfortable and it was evident that he had enemies everywhere.

His main source of income was as a mining prospector. In the northern summer of 1967, while prospecting for uranium in Saskatchewan with fellow activist and prospector Absolom Halkett, both men vanished from their remote lakeside camp. When their campsite was found authorities found half drank cups of tea in their tent and strangely no footprints leading away from the campsite.

The police and volunteers searched for days but no trace was found of the men. The police concluded that their disappearance and probable death was by misadventure saying that they had likely wandered off and got lost. Michael says that locals such as Uncle Frank sneered at such a suggestion saying that the men “had a lifetime of skills that would have made it impossible for them to get lost.”

Going into the project Michael was excited but also weary. What if they found remains of the missing men? How would they deal with it? And on the other hand- what if they found nothing? How would relatives of the men respond to that? The need to be sensitive to this and also to the local Métis people and their customs was of paramount importance. However, Michael said that it was his status as an outsider to Canadian culture that allowed him a freedom to ask questions that a local might not get away with. “I think it was this almost innocence of being from Australia that allowed me to ask questions that others might not.”

Michael, Deanna and Eric’s investigation led them to suspect that the two men had indeed been murdered and that their probable resting place was somewhere on the bottom of the lake near the men’s campsite. Initially thinking that the mining industry could have been involved, Michael and his co-investigators concluded that the prime suspect was in fact an individual from the township of La Ronge where the men lived. Michael said “There is nothing directly to tie the possible murder to mining but no one knows who might have put the suspect up to it.”

Despite the suspect being infamous as a violent person it was difficult to get people to say too much. “Like many cultures, indigenous people in Canada don’t want to speak ill of the dead,” Michael said.

A number of pieces of evidence lead the team to believe that the men were at the bottom of Lower Foster Lake. Chief amongst them was a story of a local fishing guide accidentally snagging a body while on a trip to the lake a couple of years after the men’s disappearance. At the time - La Ronge was a town of less than 3000 people and everyone knew everyone. Michael’s theory is that the man, possibly fearing retribution from the Cold Case team’s prime suspect elected to cut the line. Later on, police questioned the man about the story but he said he saw nothing and they left it at that. Combined with the attitude that the missing men were “stupid” and got lost it is appeared that the police’s investigation was not as thorough as it might have been. “The disappearance of the men was huge news at the time,” said Michael. “Imagine if a prominent indigenous person in Australia like Charlie Perkins went missing. It would be massive news.” Michael says that sadly the police investigation was not as thorough as it should have been and that may have been due to historical biases shaping police behaviour. “Indigenous people make up 4.5 per cent of the Canadian population but are 10 times more likely to be shot and killed by police and proportionately more cases where indigenous people are victims remain unsolved,” he says.

With help from local indigenous people, and with the use of sonar and other technology Michael, Deanna and Eric determined that there were indeed human remains at the bottom of the lake. The cold and dark had preserved the remains to the extent that the underwater cameras could identify that they were, in fact, human. Due to a number of factors including the freezing cold water, the depth of the lake and a lack of cooperation from the police force as well as the high costs of exploration the team have not as yet identified the remains as belonging to James or Abbie. Michael does not have much doubt that they are though. “It wasn’t a fluke that we found this body. We investigated evidence that led to two specific locations.”

Michael thinks that he and his research team have done as much as they can do for now. One of the families is comfortable with the outcome but the other is still seeking answers in some form. He says there is some chance of a new coronial report but for now the equipment needed to explore a remote lake in the subarctic is a very expensive exercise and a slow process.

Despite being under a strict lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak in Canada, Michael is currently working on his “day job” consulting to groups in the mining industry. He is also studying to be a certified fraud examiner which is relevant to his profession.

He and his collaborators would like to produce an audiobook version of Cold Case North and there has even been some very preliminary interest from a Canadian film company about the rights to the book. Michael is keeping measured about this prospect, saying it is “way too early” to get excited!”

Cold Case North is available at amazon.com