The 519 Podcast

Sonya Cywink was last seen alive on August 26, 1994, in Old East London. Four days later, her body was found at Southwold Earthworks National Historic Site of Canada in Elgin County.

In the 30 years since her murder, no one has been arrested. 

On this episode of The 519 Podcast, we look into Sonya’s murder and follow the work of her sister, Meggie Cywink, and original investigator Chris Gheysen in their pursuit of solving the case. 

Hosted by Scott Kitching

Written and Produced by Patrick Magermans

Neil McDougall had been married for less than six months when he went missing in October of 1985.

38 years later, his wife Mary Ellen is still looking for answers - even as police have offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

This episode of the 519 Podcast examines his disappearance from Ayton and who may know something about what happened to Neil.

Where were you that day? Were you driving when the lights went out? Trapped inside an elevator? Camping and completely unaware?

At 4:11 pm on August 14, 2003, approximately 55 million North Americans found themselves without power.

The widespread outage stretched across parts of Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.

On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we look back at “The Great Northeast Blackout - 20 years later” 

The town of Amherstburg has been around for over 200 years. And as we’ve learned in previous episodes, many places with a long and deep history are also entrenched in paranormal activities. Amherstburg is not immune. 

We’ve explored the ghost stories of Texas Road and the Park House Museum located on Dalhousie Street. But just a few houses down from the Park House Museum is another haunted house. 

On this episode of The3 519 Podcast, we learn more about the spooky happenings within the Gordon House - home to tourism Amherstburg and potentially a few residential ghosts. 

This episode is hosted by Hayley Cheng. 

It’s always fascinating learning about your family’s history. Did your Grandpa fight in a war? Or did your great-aunt Jess invent the shoe umbrella? The good part is you can easily just ask them, or ask your parents who have heard the stories at every family dinner growing up. 

But that’s not the case for many people. Around 1,700 children are adopted each year in Canada. Although many still grow up in a loving home with their adoptive parents, they may still question who their birth parents are, why were they given up for adoption, and what their lives would’ve looked like if they had not been adopted. 

In this episode of the 519 Podcast, we speak with Colleen O’Grady Johnson, an adoption search angel originally from Woodstock who reconnected 825 families over the last 18 years. 

More than a million Canadian men and women contributed to the war effort during the 1940s. Most of them were given full recognition for their efforts. But some stories, like the Farmerettes, fell by the wayside. This was also the case for the thousands of men and women who worked on radar technology, which changed the course of the war. What these men and women researched, built, and worked on was classified. They were sworn to secrecy until the early 90s, when their life stories and hard work were slowly and finally brought to light. 

In this episode of the 519 Podcast, we talk about the development of radar technology in Southwestern Ontario and the impact it had on the Second World War. 

This is The Secrets of Radar and the Second World War. 

In 1879, Dr. Thomas Niell Cream was suspected in the suspicious death of Catharine Gardener in London, Ontario. What officials didn’t know was that Dr. Cream was known as the Lambeth Poisoner, responsible for 10 more deaths across the globe.

On this episode of the ‘519 Podcast’, we look at the Victorian serial killer Thomas Niell Cream and discuss his life in Ontario. 

It’s not as rare as it once was to take a look inside the mind of a serial killer. But, the media seems to only cover a select few, like the Dahmers and Bundys of the world. But, what about the lesser known killers? What about the ones born in our backyards?

On this episode of the ‘519 Podcast’, we listen to the jarring confession tapes of serial killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer, who killed 8 seniors during her time working in nursing homes. 

If you visit a place that people tell you is haunted, you mightbuild the experience up in your mind. But, usually, when you arrive it’s a big letdown.

That’s because paranormal happenings are rarely predictable, and the same things never seem to happen twice. You might feel a chill that raises the hair on the back of your neck, or hear the creaking of old floorboards and the grumbling of old pipes. But only now and then, does someone claim to have seen a ghost, and rarely is that ghost ever caught on camera. Ghost sounds being captured are few and far in between, and objects moving on their own are not often seen either. 

However, these things all happen in the oldest building in Essex County. At the Park House Museum, you can count on it, in fact. 

On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we look at the Haunting of the Park House Museum

There are few things we take for granted more than our drinking water. 

When we want water, we turn on the tap, and there it is. And, by and large, we trust that the water coming out of our tap is clean and safe for us to use. We’re completely dependent on that water as we use it for everything in our lives, from brushing our teeth, to bathing, to cooking with it, and obviously to drink it.

But, what happens when something goes wrong? What happens when that water becomes tainted?

On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we take a look at how an entire town’s water supply became so dangerous that it led to severe illness and death.