West nasland was sleeping when he got a phone call from the farm it was September 2011 the Monday of the labor dayong weekend his brother Daryl was on the phone at first but Daryl couldn’t seem to get the words out so their younger brother Neil got on the line he
Goes I think uh we don’t know where the father is he he went to cut hay this morning his gun is gone and his wallet’s here and the car is gone we don’t know where he is oh what do you think happened I think obviously you think she killed himself
Right what else does anyone going to think Miles talked about killing himself a lot but Wes knew his family and he knew his father he wasn’t buying it and then when did you realize that there was more to the story than that Pro probably about the time I hung up the Phone as a reporter I’ve seen how quickly something horrible can happen how lives can change forever in an instant a car veers from its Lane a spark catches but in some cases you can see a tragedy coming far in the distance for years even decades people
Are moving toward it and yet no one seems to know how to change course or stop it I’ve written a version of this story far too many times an abusive man his violence escalating sometimes one person dies usually his wife or girlfriend sometimes a lot of people do children relatives neighbors
Police this is what seems to have been happening with Miles nasin and his family everyone on the farm knew for a long time that something bad would happen it was just a matter of who it would happen to and how bad it was going to
Be did you ever think or worry that he was going to kill your mother lots of times I always wondered who he was going to kill if anybody even when I was young I had a pretty old open thought to things I don’t remember thinking worried about oh he’s going to kill
Mom could be anyone in the house could be himself the family reported miles missing but I’m going to tell you right now he wasn’t missing he was dead and his wife Helen would eventually go to prison for killing him this is Helen’s story I have to warn you that this story is
About violence and death and it’s not always easy to listen to there’s descriptions of attempted suicide of abuse of people and animals but it’s also a story of survival of the way people can come together to help each other when systems fail oh my try but I fought too many times see and
You in the scenes I’m Janna Pruden I’m a reporter at the Globe and Mail and I’ve been covering court and crime on the Prairies for about 25 years I first heard about Helen’s case on the local news the day she was sentenced she got 18 years in
Prison for killing miles a man who had violently abused her for three decades honestly I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I wasn’t the only one people across the country were outraged it seemed so unfair that she was going to prison after enduring a lifetime of abuse I had covered so many
Other cases where men got far less time for killing women who had never hurt them at all I wanted to know why Helen paid so high a price the G of Soul a home on the fire we have given up so far in the beautiful in the beauti oh the Beautiful I wanted to understand exactly what happened on the nasland farm that night and the days and months and years that came before it and I wanted to think about what could have been different this is in her defense a podcast from The Newsroom of the Globe
And Mail you’re listening to episode 1 the ticking time Bomb All right so we’re in Holden M Holden looks a lot like lar the town that I started reporting in um you know we’re just pulling into the one Street in town I went to Holden for the first time in the spring with my colleague Amber Bracken
Street lots of big fluffy clouds in the sky probably exactly what you would think about small town Alberta I think oh thrift store it’s open Country Kitchen restaurant cute definitely looks like a little little Western some of these buildings have a classic old west look and uh there we
Are at the end of town so that was Holden Holden has a population of about 350 people it’s just over an hour outside Edmonton where I live it’s a farming Community a place where everybody knows everybody else it’s also the closest town to the nasin farm and
The closest bar here’s the Holden Hotel on the left like a small we were there to meet Lawrence weppler and Patricia Hogue who own the Holden hotel and Patty’s place the restaurant and bar inside the bar is plain just a room with some tables and chairs and a loudly buzzing beer fridge
Uh-oh there’s also a painting of a beerstein with the silhouette of a cowboy riding a bucking br inside it’s pretty much a twers show so Patty made sure we had coffee and we talked in between customers in the restaurant and people stopping in to buy beer Lawrence and Patty bought the hotel
In 2002 and met miles in hell in nasin right away no within a week or so of being here we met them they started coming and uh the four of us hit it off really well okay even though the two couples got along well Lawrence and Patty could see that something was going
On and other people in town could see it too Well you certainly knew there was something going on with the boys I mean the way they acted I mean West was the oldest one and uh like I said if Wes came into was in the bar and Miles
Walked through that door he was gone he was gone so fast he was just and Neil to Neil and Miles they fought steady they fought all the time they wouldn’t get together at all if it was like throwing gasoline on of fire they just ate aart
One night there was three guys coming in from a neighboring Community one guy L into me you still hanging around with that son of a [ __ ] what what are you talking about that nein you still hanging around with him well why wouldn’t I he’s an [ __ ] he treats Helen like
[ __ ] he beats on her and oh man what he told it was bad he knew hell I’m more I but he really tore into me and told me all about oh he’s such a jerk and so on and so forth and if the her and the kids
Don’t do what they’re told he holds a gun to their head he had a handgun that’s what this man told you that day yes yes Lawrence saw miles’s control over Helen firsthand when they went to the farm for dinner one day this was the first I’d really seen
Anything I walked into that building and he’s sitting there in a recliner and I walked in and I said uh thought you were working on the equipment yeah how’s it going up there Helen her and the youngest one were up there working on the combine oh yeah I need another
Drink and she was expected to jump down and mix it for him right now there were occasions after that she’d come in and you could see there was bruising around the eyes and so on and so forth but in public I mean he was a perfect gentleman behind closed doors look
Out maybe you’ve known a family like the nasin there’s stories that go around things you notice about the people who live in your town but even if you know something is going on and this can be true in a small town or in a big city a workplace it’s
Hard to know what to do what if you say something and people get mad at you what if you somehow make it worse I mean we knew there was problems there but what do you do about it I mean she couldn’t even do anything about it I
Mean bits and pieces we heard uh she wouldn’t even try to run away because he knew he’d hunt her down and then there’d be big trouble I mean he would beat her so bad and be and I mean she knew that and we knew that so things were never reported that
Was the bad part it was never reported to the police but you know many many many people knew what was going on but nothing was said she she did it all like honestly they would not survived without Helen coren CLA worked at the Holden Hotel she and her husband were neighbors
Of the nasin and for a Time friends he would normally be getting up about that time at 10:00 and he’d sit in his little Lazy Boy chair and she’d grab his water cuz normally he’d been drinking or doing something overnight or he doesn’t get up in the morning and I
Know there’s the one time I remember uh that she was uh she changed the oil in the tractors and the combine and the trucks and all that and he uh I says how come she’s doing that and he says well just in case I’m not here one day that I
Don’t I don’t so 10:00 is pretty late for a farmer to wake up she used to pack her kids up and she had they had 10 and some chickens and cows cing and she’ pack the kids up either slay them out or carry them outside while she did chores
Or check things while he’s still in bed and stuff he was just lazy do you remember what you thought about that at the time I just thought he was a useless thing that’s seriously corleen and her husband used to go over for coffee every day in the early years they were the closest
Neighbors and their kids were around the same age corleen liked Helen a lot but at some point she stopped going over to visit there was a while that I quit talk going to them because I didn’t really like the way the kids were being brought
Up cuz I’d offered to take the kids to baseball and stuff like that and he would never let them do that kind of stuff and the kids were getting bad and so I didn’t want my son associated with that then my daughter was a little younger and stuff so and she wasn’t
Going to associate with that so there was a few years that I never even had much to do with them because of it but their kids like would kick each other in there like very abusive to each other like down here kill each other on the
Way to the buses you could see sometimes if we happen to drive by or even when they’re little like but probably came because they seen what was going on I guess and thought it was all right and did you in that time did you have any concerns about like so you saw
See as lazy never seen him hit her or anything like that seriously but I just I just thought he was extremely lazy that why does she had to do everything all the time right mhm M did you ever see him or get a sense of him being
Like you know kind of sharp with her or like swearing at her he was yeah he’s always hollering and stuff like that definitely you could hear it from my house some days right you could hear the yelling from your house oh yeah not sure if it was a
Kid sometimes or but yeah you could know you could hear the yelling from him I was half a mile just across the bush and did you ever I mean you’ve already described yourself as someone who kind of I I stick to myself I’m not really an outspoken person honestly that this
Is making me very uncomfortable yeah so so you did you ever think and I went through a lot of stuff myself so it was I should have left my husband 20 years ago before so I stayed for the kids and stuff but you had your own things happening
Y okay so um how many kids in your family there was eight eight okay and where is Helen in that order she’s the baby the baby okay and where are you in that order just older than Helen okay the second baby sure the two afterthoughts or the knew that shouldn’t
Have happened this is Sharon heslop Helen’s sister she also had some opinions about miles and the way he treated his wife and kids he was a brard he’d seen it all done it all knew it all and yet I always thought he he was just a lazy piece of crap like he like
And you know he was friendly enough he could he could be a friendly nice guy and and I’m quite sure there was lots of neighbors and people that thought he was the best guy in the world he’d help anybody but that isn’t what he was like at home I don’t
Think he was no threat to me so I I if he said something I didn’t like I just told him I told him off and it never went any farther than that but you know thinking back I’m not sure how much he paid for that and and she’s never said
Right but I’m going to bet there was some retaliation at times and what what did you see in Helen at that point how was she in those years very down like a um so she never really laughed she didn’t she didn’t talk much it was like she only talked when she was
Asked a question miles like thought he could tell me what to do also and I remember once telling him I just left 16 years of somebody telling me what to do and he wasn’t telling me I’d do what I wanted to do and and Howen I think
And I don’t know why I didn’t see it but I I honestly didn’t her uh very submissiveness but again she was in that situation and I don’t know I didn’t even pick up on it and openly I they he never did anything to Helen when I was there yeah which again they
Don’t what was it like for for you to leave your relationship Um well I I had been planning like not going to say we left blindly um so had something set up and and then the one day he went off in a rage in the afternoon to town and I phoned a friend and she brought one of her kids in a truck and I
Had a truck and and we we loaded our literally our clothes and the cat and the birds and the fish and and we left and we stayed with a friend we basically hid with a friend for a couple weeks till the place I had rented was available and and we
Hid he didn’t know he knew where I worked he knew where the kids went to school but there was restraining Ord and there was he wasn’t allowed in the school so it was a scary time too but it we had people that helped us when you left your relationship did
You worry about about what would happen did you were you afraid of him yes that’s why he they didn’t know he didn’t know where I lived where we lived and even at the the court hearings and such he would be detained in the courthouse by an RCMP until so that I
Had a 10 15 minute Head Start leaving town that must have been really terrifying again I Had an incredible lawyer and and good good people around us and so we were lucky so I understand how Helen I don’t know if she had the the friendships maybe that I did or the network of people even after escaping her own bad marriage Sharon didn’t see the full
Extent of what was going on with Helen and miles but she sensed enough to want to help I think at one point I I had seen her or something and and I said if you ever want help to get out or something you just have to
Say but I know that you can’t help somebody that doesn’t want to they have to do it first yeah but I honestly I don’t think she thought she would be safe would ever be safe having known him even you know in the the way that you did and seen his
Personality and knowing Helen do you think she could have gotten away and been safe no I don’t think he would ever stopped looking for her or trying to drag her back or or choke the life out of her like I had a few months after the girls and I left
The one of the little girls that went to school with my girls her mom was choked to death by the ex-husband in front of the little girl we don’t always talk about it but domestic violence is common domestic violence incidents make up a quarter of all violent crimes reported to police in
Canada and an 80% of the cases involving intimate Partners the victims are women and girls women in rural areas and specifically women in the Prairie Provinces are at increased risk of both violence and homicide by their Partners the threat against indigenous women and girls is even higher up until the day miles nasland
Was reported missing no one in his house ever called the police the vast majority of domestic violence never gets reported that means you know someone who is living or has lived with domestic violence maybe that person is You let’s go back to Holden back to the bar picture miles with a meshback trucker hat and a snap button western shirt walking through the door what do you look like uh well dressed always um he was a big fell well he was about 5’10 but heavy set always very talkative very
Outgoing miles’s drink was rum and Diet Pepsi in the years before he disappeared he was at the bar every weekend it was nothing for Lawrence and Patty to see him toss back 10 or 12 drinks then take a bottle home for the most part he got along okay
With people at the bar except for one night there are few versions of how it all started after hearing about M’s temper it’s hard for me to imagine him approaching that situation with a cool head but here’s how Lawrence saw it in my opinion the way he handled it was was
Good at U miles at a brand new pickup truck he parked it over beside the neighboring office so with me on the street you know and this crazy young bugger here in town came into the parking lot and was gravel and he did three spin arounds with the
Car and sprayed the new truck with rocks well that would piss me off too and Miles didn’t hit him he didn’t do a damn thing he just backed him up against the wall and he said look what the hell’s the matter with you he stood
The new truck out there why did you do that but there was people that didn’t like mil and that’s why he did it but that’s where we stopped right there nothing more we said and the kid left and I don’t know if it was a weekend after
That Miles walked out the door at quitting time and we were closing the bar down and I heard a ruckus outside and we ran out and uh there was half a dozen guys over there with irons and everything else just beaten the Supreme hell out of miles they really beat him
Up back what about that you got a rock in the hge and didn’t say that’s Patty hog Lawrence’s wife and the Patty of Patty’s Place didn’t say word I go to split it open didn’t say a word to me well what’s to say so you run out to help like what
When you w walk out the door what do you see is that there’s like a just around the corner of the building miles was down on the ground and they were just wailing on him kicking and beating on them with irons and uh I jumped in I took two of
The guys out Daryl to grabb a couple guys got them out of there in the meantime I got hit with a tire iron split my head open but but we broke it up and uh and didn’t tell Patty about it no I was busy doing
The tail in the liquor store and then I come out and I said where the hell is everybody to the girl that was working with me and she said all the cops are coming there’s a big fight outside I said where the hell is Lawrence it was just it was well that’s
Scary on there I was all pre-arranged I mean they felt miles needed to be taught a lesson miles got a serious head injury that night it seemed to make him even worse by the summer of 2011 Lawrence and Patty could sense things were reaching a Breaking Point the last days shall we
Say uh miles was pretty severe diabetic he wasn’t feeling good he went to the doctor did a through examination the doctor was going to put him on insulin then he noticed marks on his face skin cancer so he unloaded all this on him on one
Day and what we heard and we heard this from Helen uh he got out of the doctor’s office he was supposed to go pick up the insulin then go back and they’d show him how to administer it and he never did go to the Ary but Helen was at work and he phoned
Her at work and he just screaming like he blamed her for Everything even before that Miles and Helen were barely holding it together Helen was working a day job in town to help pay the bills then working well into the night trying to bring in the crops Harvest is the most stressful time on the farm the time when all your work
For the whole year pays off or com comes to nothing and for miles and Helen everything was on the line uh part of the part I missed too was uh was bankruptcy it wasn’t her fault it was his stupidity anyway he screamed and yelled at her on the phone and he said you’re
All going to pay when I get home and that was the night that happen and he was drunk Furious what happened at home I don’t know but that’s the night it Ended I remember the first domestic homicide I ever covered I was just a couple of years into my career working at a small paper in the city of Medicine Hat it was January 2001 the victim’s name was Candi Benet she was a mother of three found dead at
An old Drive-In by a trucker who pulled over to eat she was naked wrapped in garbage bags Candi had left her husband Rocky just over a year earlier he showed up at her house with a backpack full of rope duct tape a razor and a blindfold he went into her bedroom where
She was sleeping tied her up and eventually strangled her to death in the bathtub I learned covering another domestic homicide that it takes at least 2 minutes of continuous choking to kill someone in that case the prosecutor let the jury sit in the quiet for 2 minutes to show how long that really
Is that was just 5 Seconds I’ve covered so many domestic homicides since then far too many to count but Helen story is different she survived domestic violence and then she went to prison I wondered what other endings there could have been to her story other ways she could have escaped the
Abuse what does Justice look like when the victim becomes the accused how does a woman like Helen ever get free I wrote to Helen in prison and asked whether she would talk me a year and a half later she was Ready this has been the first episode of in her defense a podcast from the Globe and Mail episode 2 is available right now coming this season I wouldn’t even want to try and go back and count the number of times that I’ve had a gun to my head
And to actually hear that click and I’ll never forget that that sound I didn’t know what had happened but he wasn’t missing because he wouldn’t have done that there’s no control in Walking Away what did you think about that what the he was dead that she had shot him
Good job ma want a drink let’s go getting drunk you have given me zero no indication that being a physically abused person or battered wife is the issue here zero Helen what we’re really interested in is who who shot miles yes and that responsibility belongs to one person and who’s that
Person Helen we know more of the truth and uh Helen didn’t kill anybody she covered for somebody else at my age of first degree murder charges are deance In her defense is made by casha mahovich and me Janna Pruden field recording by Amber Bracken our executive editor is Angela Penza special thanks to head of visual journalism Matt frer and head of editing Yin bokov our theme song is The Fighter by Jen Grant in her defense is
Recorded at mchan University by Sheena Roser Sasha stoich and Emily rubita Sheena Roser and David Crosby mixed this episode thanks to Rachel Levy McLaughlin for mixing the trailer We Believe Helen’s story is really important and we want as many people as possible to hear it and think about the effects of
Domestic violence please subscribe to in her defense in your podcast app help us by reviewing the show on Apple podcast or share the show with a friend seriously text a link right now have a listening party put it on threads go on blue sky or whatever go on Tik Tok it
Really helps you can email me at jprd globan mail.com to learn more about this podcast and intimate partner violence in Canada go to tgam m.ca in her defense that’s defense with a C you can also sign up for our newsletter there where I’ll send you photos exclusive behind the scenes
Content and updates about this podcast thanks to Karen on for setting all that up if you’re experiencing intimate partner violence and want to talk to someone you can find resources and your nearest shelter at shelters safe.com mail our listeners get a special discount on new subscriptions at www.g globama mail.com
/p podcast deal you can find all these links in the show notes take care and thank you for Listening
Wes Naslund gets a phone call from his brothers at the farm. Friends and family describe the domestic abuse they suspect was going on in the Naslund house. A fight at the bar leaves Miles seriously injured, and things at the farm reach a breaking point.
Learn more about this podcast and domestic violence in Canada, or sign up for our newsletter at
E-mail the reporter, Jana Pruden, at [email protected]
If you’re experiencing domestic violence and want to talk to someone, you can find resources and your nearest shelter at sheltersafe.ca
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Our theme song is The Fighter, by Jenn Grant.
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