His favorite thing was to control people with words and threats and without actually hitting them but scaring them you know what kind of things would he would he say well just demand where you’ve been and tell you if I brought you into the world I’ll take you out of it [ __ ] like
That right threat the old man always liked to know everything about everything every word that was said to whoever you talked to at school on the bus everywhere between the time he seen you last till the time you showed up again needed and demanded and know everything he’d sit there and
Scream at you and holler until you told him everything violent mean we’ve talked about how abusive miles nasland was to his wife but it was going on with his sons too there was severe physical violence like this time Wes ran his track into the ditch got home told the father what
Happened he proceeded to scream at me and then within I three sentences of screaming grabbed me by the neck drug me outside picked me up on the by the neck in the back of the head and smash my head into the windshield till you could fit my head through it from the outside
In because I ran into a ditch that was just one instance lots more same [ __ ] different pile different Day I also interviewed Helen’s youngest son Neil nasland he didn’t want me to use his voice but he described his childhood as hell as prison as being like growing up in a science lab part of an experiment to see how much work you could get from people and how much you could mistreat
Them he said he was punched in the face by his father for the first time when he was 5 years old and he remembered the time his mother tried to leave he said he remembered her being choked and dragged into the bedroom then choked again until her skin was
Blue every day was a war Neil told me I’ve been fighting for my life every day of my life my entire life it’s important to think about what this does to a person to a child to three children as Neil said it makes it really hard to have pity on anybody in this
Life remember that when when you hear about what happened later when you hear about the things they did and the decisions they made remember that when you hear about how miles’s hulking body ended up crammed into a box and dropped to the bottom of a deep and murky
Pond hold me close into the night while we stay up one last time never knew we were living in the Beautiful World I’m Janna Pruden and this is in her defense from the Globe and Mail episode three all hell breaks Loose the Beautiful World I’m meaner than he was you might you don’t think so but I’m a lot meaner than he was colder you don’t grow up getting abused and have remorse if they know what I mean that is how that works I don’t be mean but I am meaner don’t act like that doesn’t mean
I’m not though just means I can be if I have to be so if he would point a gun at you cuz he was your irritated at something you said or did and maybe there were bullets in that gy maybe there weren’t but you didn’t you never knew if he was going to
Pull a trigger and shoot you or not put that way you didn’t know all time you’d be wondering is he going to shoot me or not some at one point you just don’t give a [ __ ] anymore if he does or not it’s just bother you
Anymore let me tell you a bit more about Wes at the time he got the call from his brothers that his father was missing Wes was 26 years old he was the only one of the three brothers who didn’t still live at home with Miles and
Helen Neil left at one point but moved back to try to protect his mother Wes left the farm and his teens as soon as he could Helen had urged him to go to save himself I met Wes one evening in leuk a small City just outside
Edmonton Wes is a busy man he and his common-law wife have six kids and he works as much as he possibly can sometimes he goes months without a day off here’s how Wes describes growing up go to school work eat supper 10:00 one meal a day maybe have a sandwich in your lunch
If you want but there’s no supper at 6:00 there’s no breakfast in the morning it’s get to wake up at 700 in the morning get on the bus get off the bus at 5:00 go outside and do CHS and farm [ __ ] until 10:00 or later sometimes midnight 1:00 in the
Morning as you get older and 12 13 14 years old then you’re expected to work all night and not go to school and work all day hence why now I only sleep 3 or 4 hours a night and I’m wor workaholic and I love working cuz that’s all I do well not all
He also really likes to drink how much can you drink in a shot hard liquor not very much I’ll sit down with you 40 and we’ll throw the Caps away one for you one for me a 40 for each one of us and I we’ll throw both caps away mine will be
Dry when I stand up yeah some Constitution you’ve got there you want to hear about Constitution what do you think that is at this point in the conversation Wes stood up and showed me an enormous bulge in his pants it was a bit of a weird moment I’m not that well
Owed I have no idea that is what a bilateral hernia surgery looks like when it ruptures through your muscles of of your gut oh God and fills your scoll them with your intestine oh God that’s how big it is now Wes that’s been 11 years miles
Didn’t cause this injury but I think it is part of the way he had them all living enduring great pain without seeking help from outside as you can imagine this is really painful for Wes but he’s never gotten another surgery to fix it because he doesn’t like doctors like dentists
Either I’ll pull my own damn teeth if I know wi tooth is a problem I pair of Vice cpts I’ll snap it off pull it out whatever I need he also doesn’t like police lawyers or people like me cuz there’s been many many reporters that I have told to turn around find whatever
Hole you heard about me and crawl back into the dark deep [ __ ] place MH in other words I’m not telling you [ __ ] and [ __ ] right off yeah Mom asked me to talk to you so I talk to you Wes doesn’t like people who ask too many questions and he doesn’t trust
People who supposedly want to help life with Miles taught them all to be on guard to be always watching for tricks and traps so when Wes got that phone call from his brothers he didn’t trust it hung up the phone going huh that’s weird didn’t expect that I don’t know something [ __ ] up
Going then I’m a family member you know what I mean you don’t live that life and then hear that and go oh my God he killed himself it’s like oh yeah killed himself huh jeez oh [ __ ] I mean that that’s too bad somebody’s listening probably huh yeah geez well do you need help
Looking for him yeah he probably didn’t kill himself but I don’t care to know what did happen so he killed himself that’ll work which is just fine by me cuz it wasn’t too long before that where I stood in holding hotel in the middle of the bar full of people with a
7 m Ram mag locked and loaded with One in the Chamber pointed about 4 inches from his [ __ ] forehead telling him either you do it or I’m going to again you probably rather I didn’t like him very much me and him didn’t have a talk [ __ ] loving relationship put it that
Way you wanted to kill him well why wouldn’t I of course I wanted to kill him I dreamt about the day when I finally got the put one his head when i’ had enough and done it this sounds like you were you were pretty close you had a gun to his head
Well I could have shot him I could have shot him a lot of times I could have taken all those trucks when it used to drag me along to the bar caged me to go into the holding with them I could have taken that truck and I
Could have drove it into any number of them power poles any number one of those approaches and put him right through the [ __ ] wind shield I could have killed him any number of a thousand [ __ ] times s a year if I really wanted to why didn’t you didn’t make me mad enough Yet I guess what I’m asking is was there a point when you understood that your mother had shot your father oh yeah it doesn’t take long I’m not stupid everybody knows [Applause] but what did you think about that what the hegu dead that she had shot him good
Job Ma I want a drink let’s go getting drunk congratulations very happy she doesn’t seem like she felt happy about it at the time she seems like she was quite upset when you get abused in that sense you don’t have an emotion it’s actually a real emotion of your
Own stop getting abused and tortured mentally and physically on a daily basis after maybe a decade maybe you can think that one of the feelings that you feel you that you’re feeling right then is actually a real feeling look at me I have no problem with the thought of killing human
Beings yet it tears the [ __ ] hell out of me to have to shoot a horse I’ll be drunk for three [ __ ] days if I have to shoot a horse but if I went to war I could kill a thousand goddamn people an hour it wouldn’t bother me a [ __ ] bit
Mental abuse and torture and [ __ ] changes your brain even the dog that gets abused still loves the person abuses it still come back to it they don’t know no different same thing with people you grow up getting abused you spend your whole life getting abused tortured mentally physically beaten [ __ ] smacked around belts
Threats all the rest of it it just kind of changes how you perceive [ __ ] and when you’re being treated that way you don’t have rational feelings that are accurate for all you [ __ ] know sadness could be love and love could be anger and anger could be [ __ ]
Hate you have no clue it’s like you’re colorblind for feelings Wes wasn’t at the farm when miles got shot there’s no doubt about that but after that phone call he did get involved well I don’t know what do you mean by involved my understanding is you Helped getting rid of things not bodies just like I told the cops I never seen a dead body the whole time but disposing of the of the car oh yeah buried a car since when was that illegal though it’s true I didn’t find no laws in Google that said it was illegal to
Bury your family member’s car with their knowledge wasn’t reported stolen I didn’t steal it The family reported miles missing the next day September 6th 2011 Helen and her sons repeated the story they’d initially given to Wes miles left in the afternoon in his gold Chevy Cavalier going to cut hay on some land they rented they said he took his gun but left his
Wallet I asked the RCMP for the missing person’s report that was filed or audio of the call to police but they wouldn’t give it to me we do have a transcript of Daryl nasan’s follow-up statement to a police officer in the fall of 2012 a full year after miles
Disappeared the circumstances the family described clearly hint at suicide but Daryl gave the police another potential lead he told them about that time miles got assaulted at Lawrence and Patty’s bar in Holden and what he called the gang from the city that had beaten miles up darl gave the
Guys names to the police and said miles had often talked about getting even with them sewing the idea they could have been involved in his disappearance as Daryl told the police I would point the finger straight at those guys that tried to kill him the first time the RCMP refused repeated requests
For interviews about this case so we don’t know much about their efforts to find miles what we do know is that no one I talked to around Holden really seemed to care he was gone like corene did you care no I thought was the best thing on Earth for her it’s about time
She could live her own life and Sharon you know what I I don’t I don’t think I really thought about it much when he went missing I knew he wasn’t missing 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
Um and so I I honestly did not know how bad it was or I guess I never even gave it much thought until she was arrested I also went to see G Turnbull Helen’s boss at A1 Rentals he’s an important guy in Cameros it feels like
He owns or is connected to every second business in town his phone is always ringing he bought some of miles and Helen’s land and he keeps some of his own Longhorn cattle there now he is a good and loyal friend to Helen and he knew her as well as anybody in those
Days he wasn’t buying the story either I remember that uh she didn’t come in to work and uh said that Miles had went uh he went out he and the boys and her went to town which I knew doesn’t happen but okay that’s your story so we’ll listen
To that so in about I don’t know how many days after that she came back to work and of course miles has gone missing the car has gone to so you know went on for 6 years before she was arrested I believe somewhere in that neighborhood did you um did you have any
Thoughts on that on that story oh yeah absolutely what did you think oh I I definit I knew there was something happened right but he always threatened he was going to go drive to McMurray and and he was always threaten you to kill himself okay right and he always told
People even workers that he knows a spot where he can just drive into the mus and the vehicle will be gone he’ll be gone so that was kind of my mind did that happen right cuz the vehicle’s gone you know T but uh you
Know yeah I I I had it in my mind something was like what did happen like did happen but couldn’t believe that happened right because because Helen was not that type of person okay like she was the most forgiving hardworking thoughtful give you the shirt off her back
Uh you know uh I can’t I can’t even imagine what it would it take to pressure her into finally do something right like so many other people in Helen’s life GE suspected something from the start but he wasn’t asking too many questions and then a couple years years
Later a rumor started going around that miles’s body had been found outside Town G told Helen well I so I shared that with her in her face she that [ __ ] isn’t possible you know like like this right well no cuz she knew exactly where he was
Right and that’s that’s the first time I really seen in her face this you know you know she knew where he was and you you saw that and you understood that at that moment oh yeah I knew that like but I never said nothing to anybody right
Like I kept that my my wife I never said word to about it because just the way I am I won’t say start rumors or say bad things about people or or or whatever because what’s it going to gain whatever she did she did or whatever happened happened we don’t know
That we didn’t know that till cuz I did not know till the only thing I did know she was running my way a tpoon store when all this happened and my backo went to the farm one my cuz I have a rental company they W rentals and it’s out at the farm what
You need you need my back for oh you’ve got sewer problems well that’s when they dug off they dug use my ho to dig the bury the car but that’s all after the fact you figure all this out Right for 6 years Helen and her sons live Liv with the secret of what really happened to miles at the time after it happened did you did you think about what would happen if you just called the RCMP and said I did this I’ve been abused for the
Past 30 years or more yeah I thought about it like I I think deep down I I knew that was a like of course I was just in a State of shock but the down I knew that was the right thing to do but then again I was uh back in
The position of a of great fear like it was are they going to believe me and I I’ve been I’ve been a prisoner in my own home in a life of hell for how long I really don’t want to go to prison for the rest of my life
I I’ve been there I just come out of it she thought she’d been hiding the abuse and she didn’t think the police would believe her I mean it’s just kind of my word of course he wasn’t there to have another word but I mean there was it’s not like there
Was repeated calls of the police being called for violence or trips to the hospital I I didn’t go I covered up everything it was always an excuse or reason other than that like nobody nobody had any proof of knowing what went on so how are the
Police you know how could I ever I didn’t think I’d ever be able to convince the police it was an easier life but still not an easy one guilt and worry nagged at Helen she had nightmares about miles shooting the kids and then turning the gun on her even when she was
Awake it sometimes felt like miles was still there it’s almost like I felt I was being haunted by him he was still watching me and I don’t know it was really difficult when Helen felt bad she tried to tell herself if it hadn’t been miles who died it could have been three or
Four people dead it was a relief that the boys were safe and that they were moving on Wes had kids but Neil had never been allowed to have a relationship or a job and now he had a girlfriend and a baby what was it like to have even if
You were dealing with these emotions about what had happened but to to suddenly have freedom um and and to not be fearing that kind of fearing him inside your home what was that like it was weird like it was but it was hard to get used to but at the same time it
Was like there was this huge weight that had been lifted like a a door opened but Helen hated lying to the people she cared about she was drinking a lot and sometimes she’d get angry at the RCMP for not trying harder to find miles she even filed a complaint against them
I’m not sure why she did that except that maybe she wanted the truth to come out maybe it’s not nice to say this but it was it’s almost like nobody cared like was like a missing person that nobody missed Helen got a horse and started racing with corene again and there were
Some good times but even though miles was gone she still wasn’t free Helen kept busy working 6 days a week at A1 Rentals rodeoing with corene spending time with her horses and her dogs and two new kittens she named star and Jewel so you’re in a a good a good happy safe place at that point MH and then yeah then all hell workers
Again it’s like the the can opened Up on a hot day in September 2017 Helen looked up from her work at A1 and saw two men walking toward her so we had the back door of the building was open where I was working and happened to be at the back CU we just had a shipment come in
Of something and I was looking for something for a customer in the order and these two strangers come walk up they had no idea at that time who they were until they just more or less pushed me aside and showed their Badges and the first thought that come to my mind was
What the darl do now what the darl get into now I mean it’s not a not a secret that he was involved with drugs and with the wrong people so I just my first assumption that come to mind was something had happened to him or he’ done something again that was he
Was in trouble for and they were looking for him I think I come right out and asked them I said what did Daryl do are you looking for Daryl or what’s what happened and they wouldn’t tell me an answer they just kind of brushed me off with you need to
Come to the car so we can go over some information and at that yeah I they wanted me to get in the car but I wouldn’t I I sat down in there but I wouldn’t have close the door I left one foot out I was just I was par I was just
Terrified I was paranoid it’s like are you kidding me I am not getting in this car and he just closing the door with you like what the hell’s going on I still at that point had no idea what they were what was happening but this time it wasn’t about Daryl it was about
Miles on the next episode of in her defense I think you did what you had to do because it was necessary it was an escape the suffering had to end you have given me zero no indication that being a physically abused person or battered wife is the issue here
Zero well you can’t charge two people with Murder yeah we can I won’t let them take the Blame in her defense is made by casha mahovich and me Janna Pruden Amber Bracken did our field recording take another look at our show art I think it’s so powerful it’s by Katherine Lamb with art Direction by Ming Wong the silhouette is inspired by a picture of Helen with the
Actual Barn from the nasland Farm Angela Penza is our executive editor special thanks to head of visual journalism Matt frer and head of editing Ian bov our theme song is The Fighter by Jen Grant Arrangements by David Crosby in her defense is recorded at mchan University by Sheena Roser Emily
Rubita and Sasha stoich David Crosby mixed this episode I would love to hear your thoughts on the show so far you can email me at J PDN at globeandmail.com to learn more about this podcast and domestic viol vience in Canada go to tgam m.ca in her defense that’s defense with a
C while you’re there you can sign up for our newsletter where I’ll send you photos behind the scenes content and updates if you’re experiencing domestic 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 glob andma docomo deal take care and thank you for Listening
Wes Naslund talks about growing up with his father. Miles Naslund is reported missing, but no one seems to care he’s gone. Helen and her family live with a haunting secret. One day in 2017, almost exactly six years after Miles was reported missing, two men show up at Helen’s work.
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