Hey guys, it's Bella. Welcome back to my channel. I hope you guys are having the most incredible day. In today's video, we are going to be covering another Mystery Monday case, and we're going to be talking about a solved case. But before we get into it, I want to quickly thank today's sponsor, Audible, for making this video possible.
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They have so many titles across all genres from bestsellers and new releases, wellness, fantasy, romance, and my personal favorite, mysteries and thrillers of course. As an Audible member you'll get to pick one title a month to keep from that entire... plus catalog which includes bestsellers and new releases and they will remain in your catalog so you can go back and listen to that whenever you want you also get full access to their growing selection of included audible originals and podcasts and you can download or stream them as many times as you want so if you guys are interested in trying out audible you can get a 30-day free trial if you go to audible.com bella fiori or if you text bella fiori to 500 500. so i will leave all of the information in the description box down below for you to check out so So today's case was actually recently sold and it takes place in Oshawa, which is a city in Ontario in Canada. And this was actually sold almost by pure luck.
And it is pretty disturbing. Like the main perpetrator in this case gives me the major heebie-jeebies and just grosses me out. So on the 29th of December in 2017, two plumbers were called out to an address at 19 Macmillan Drive, which is basically like right in the heart of downtown Oshawa. And this was the residence of Adam Strong. And he kind of...
kind of rented the lower basement area of this house. And then there were also upstairs tenants living in the house as well. And it was actually the upstairs tenants who called the plumbers because there was some sort of blockage and the drains were getting really backed up and there was this really terrible smell.
And by terrible smell, I mean terrible because even the plumbers were wincing at the smell and this is their job. Like they're used to this. They're used to dealing with blockages and drainage issues and bad smells from toilets and all of that sort of.
of thing and even they were wincing at how bad the smell was. So the plumbers are you know doing their thing they're trying to figure out what's causing the blockage they're trying to unblock it and fix the situation and the downstairs tenant from the basement Adam Strong is just being really overbearing like he's watching every move they make he's sort of pacing around anxiously while they're working and he's watching their every move right and he's asking them a million questions he's asking them what they think the issue might be and how long they might, they think it's going to take for them to fix the issue. And he's just being really overbearing. According to a relative of the landlord of the house, Adam had actually previously tried to fix the problem himself and he'd given it like a right crack.
Apparently he had even removed the toilet to try and fix this blockage. Now, as the plumbers are getting into the nitty gritty of it, they find the blockage and it's this weird pink flesh-like stringy substance and there's hair attached to it. And they pull out like 14 inches of...
of this substance and obviously they're pretty suspicious about what it is because they're taking photos of it, sending it to their boss and asking for advice on what to do and they're also putting all of this substance in a separate bag by itself and obviously, you know, it's sketchy enough that they actually or their boss or I don't know if it was the plumbers or the boss but somebody involved actually ends up calling the police. Police officer Kevin Park is dispatched and the plumbers give him the bag with this flesh-like substance and obviously he's finding it pretty suspicious well and he described it as a fleshy like substance and so they're kind of expecting the worse at this point but hoping for the best you know hoping that maybe this Adam Strong guy just for some reason enjoys flushing meat down the toilet. Officer Park calls for backup because it's a little weird but he goes in and starts kind of questioning the tenants just to see if it's like a misunderstanding like obviously meat down the toilet or something and when he goes down to the basement to question the basement tenant Adam Strong he just straight up says okay gigs up you got me it's a body and if you want to find the rest of the body it's in my freezer sorry just like that so let me take you back a little bit and give some structure to the case i'm going to introduce you to a girl named rory hashe she disappeared in august of 2017. she was known to her close friends and family as hash brown and she was described as being a kind clever child who had a fairly normal upbringing at 13 years old she was an army cadet who was awarded cadet of the year for her regiment although as she grew older she did have some issues she ran into some trouble during her adolescence as most teens.
They just do and Rory began to stray down a dark path after being offered methamphetamine in high school Her mother had sort of lost control over her daughter and even at one point called the Children's Aid Society to report herself And in turn maybe save her daughter. By 2017 she had begun to turn her life around and she was back at school, she had an apartment, she had a boyfriend named Tony, but unfortunately on the 11th of September in 2017 her body was discovered by fishermen in the Oshawa harbour. She was just a 18 years old.
This was obviously devastating for her family because not only did they lose their daughter, but the family actually revealed that Rory may have been pregnant at the time of her death. I just cannot imagine the devastation and my heart just really breaks for her family and everybody who knew Rory. Now back at the house after Adam's admission, the police obviously went and had a look in the freezer and they found a head and neck and on the neck was a tattoo that read alive. which is the same tattoo in the same place that Rory had.
And using forensic analysis, they were able to confirm that the body did belong to 18-year-old Rory Hachet. Upon further analysis of the house, they did find her DNA everywhere. There was DNA of hers on a mattress, and her blood was found all around the house.
Obviously, Adam Strong, who was 45 years old at the time, was arrested. But at this point, he's only charged with improper interference with a dead body. because he hasn't, like, this is the first they've heard of this guy, right?
He's not a murder suspect. He's not connected to an actual murder victim yet, even though a body was found at his house. Because they have no evidence that he actually was involved with a murder, they just kind of had to charge him with something so that they could hold him while they went and searched for more evidence to charge him with something else and kind of got to the bottom of what was going on.
And when they get him into the car to, like, take him to the police station, this guy literally says, I want to... to spill the beans. And he just starts confessing everything to Officer Park.
He's obviously writing everything down that, you know, Adam Strong is confessing. And the craziest part of all of this is if he never started flushing part of Rory's body down the toilet, which is so, I don't even have words. It's just so degrading.
You know, it's such a degrading thing for him to do to flush parts of somebody down a toilet. But if he didn't do that and didn't clog the drains and then the upstairs tenants didn't. get affected by it. He never would have been caught probably because he was not a suspect.
No one was looking at this guy. Nobody really knew who this guy was. And then on top of that, he just starts confessing to everything. So it was almost, you know, just pure luck and pure chance that this discovery was made. Now, when he gets to the police station, police obviously take all of his belongings off him.
And one thing that kind of stood out that was a little strange is he told the police to be really careful with his jewelry because it had taken him a long time to procure it. And what was weird about that is the gold chain that he was wearing actually had three female style engagement rings on it. And this has never sort of been confirmed, but police believe that these may be trophies from his other victims potentially.
After this, he's then taken him for questioning and he's asked by police if the body in the freezer. belong to Rory. So this is the night that he was arrested that this questioning took place, but police aren't actually really allowed to question him any further because his bail hearing is the next morning, they don't have a court order, and he's kind of stopped being helpful anyway.
Like he's kind of, you know, clammed up and closed up. And he also hasn't actually explicitly admitted to murdering anyone by this point either. So his court appearances began on the 10th of January in 2018. And this was kind of like a really big case in Oshkosh.
at the time it kind of blew up and I think it was really shocking for people as well just to think about the fact that somebody that you could live next to or be tenanting the same house as could be doing something so horrific right under your nose and not only that but people who knew Rory and people who were now following the case were just really frustrated that he hadn't been charged with something more. At this point he's still only been charged with improper interference of a dead body. At around the time of his fire court appearance, police also came out to say that they had found more DNA in the house, that they had found the DNA of another woman named Candace Fitzpatrick. It was found on a knife in Adam's kitchen and her blood was also found in the freezer that Rory's body was found in.
Candace was a 19 year old woman from Oshawa who actually went missing in March of 2008, so more than nine years before Adam found himself on the police's radar. Her body had never been found and And she was described by her father as an on and off street kid. Some sources labeled her as someone who struggled with drug addiction.
So I guess she could. be considered vulnerable and Candace would often leave home without acknowledgement for weeks at a time which must have been true because after she went missing in 2008 she wasn't actually reported missing until 2010 and it's all just really heartbreaking honestly. So now they have two young women who have obviously been murdered and have like they have DNA evidence tying these women to Adam Strong and to his apartment.
Now for police to have found this DNA evidence evidence of both of these women now, they had done a really thorough sweep of Adam's apartment, which wasn't easy because of how messy it was. And when I say messy, like it was disgusting. It was foul. There was stuff everywhere. It was like a hoarder's house.
And he had a whole heap of sex toys lying around, BDSM equipment and stuff to restrain people like handcuffs. They also found swords, knives, but there was one thing in particular that sticks out when researching this case. And that is the fact that he had an autopsy table. He had a whole autopsy table at his house.
So this is the kind of guy we're dealing with, which is just crazy to me that he's so obviously overtly bad, disgusting human being, and he's somehow never been on the police's radar before. So obviously this guy is looking really sketchy. So police bring him in for an interrogation because at this point he's still like they still can't charge him with murder and he's still only been charged with the improper interference of a dead body. And so they bring him in for an interrogation which lasts 12 hours and it's obviously recorded as interrogations are.
And so that's where the infamous footage of this interrogation comes from. And it's later used over three days in court because it is it does make the basis for a lot. of the prosecution's case against him. So during the interrogation, Adam tries to use his information about the body to try and leverage police, like basically saying, If you make my life in prison good, make my life in prison easy, then I'll give you all of the information I have about the body. And he said to them, I quote, I just want an allowance and I don't know, internet access.
I don't have anybody who's going to buy me a TV. Pretty quickly, Adam found out that this wasn't going to work, that they weren't going to cut him any slack. They weren't going to let him gain any leverage.
But they did, you know, try to soften him up. And I think the interrogator did a really good job in trying to get him to talk. They actually got him like a...
four-course meal, they got him Wendy's, they got him a cigarette. And watching the interrogation footage is really strange because it doesn't seem like an interrogation. Like Adam seems like he's just kind of chilling, like he's just having a conversation with a close friend rather than being interviewed by a detective. At one point he even shakes the detective's hand like he's, you know, really comfortable with the guy, with the whole situation he's in.
Now I actually couldn't find the entire 12-hour interrogation, but I don't believe he ever admits in this. this interrogation in this entire 12 hours that he actually murdered Rory or Candace. He has a way of admitting things without really admitting things. And this is something that he does all throughout, you know, his interrogations and throughout his court appearances.
For instance, when he was asked about the knife that had Candace's DNA on it, he said, and I quote, that's the procrastination factor that me. All I had to do was boil the knife. DNA doesn't work once it's cooked. He also said, I have all the characteristics of a serial killer, like killing small animals.
He's also very reluctant about answering questions about Candace and about Rory. I mean, he's already admitted to so much of the crime, but there's just particular details that he won't elaborate on. Now, he does admit to flushing Rory's or parts of Rory's body down the toilet, and he goes into great detail about how.
he did this. His demeanor during the interrogation was very nonchalant. I mean, nonchalant for someone who's facing a lot of prison time.
And the reason for this is because he was okay with going to prison in the sense that he didn't really have a lot going for him. He actually told the investigator, I've got nowhere to go, but back to myself. His life just, you know, it wasn't great. He was not doing well financially. He was lonely.
And so the prospect of having a roof put over his head and three meals provided to him a day was really not that bad. And if he managed to score it. internet access and a TV as well, like by trying to hold leverage over the police, which he tried to do at the start, then great. And this man, honestly, it makes me sick to my stomach because not only does he have no remorse, but let me play to you what he said to Rory's parents.
So he was finally subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder to which he pled not guilty. Superior Court Justice Joseph DeLuca, after watching the entire interrogation tape, did deem the interrogation tape admissible and said after watching it that they were satisfied that Mr. Strong had caused the death of Rory in the bedroom. Rory's cause of death was determined to most likely have been due to blunt force trauma due to the severe bruising that they found on her face and her head. There was a bent hammer that was found in Adam's apartment. and it was suggested that this was the murder weapon, although Adam denied this.
There were suggestions that were made that she died from a drug overdose and that Adam was just disposing of the body, and I think this was sort of an attempt to remove the implication that he was- responsible for her death, but the judge was not having this and I agree. The Crown Prosecutor alleged that Adam was directly involved in her death and that constituted first degree murder charge. Now in Canada, for a murder to be considered first degree, it needs to either be premeditated or it needs to involve a police officer or prison worker, or it needs to occur during the commission of another crime such as sexual assault, hijacking, terrorism, kidnapping, that sort of thing.
Now the reasoning behind prosecuting Adam with first-degree murder is because they're saying that this matter occurred during a sexual assault and there were a few reasons behind this first of all he lived alone right like he did have upstairs neighbors in the apartment but he lived alone in the basement there were also traces of semen found on Rory's body and she was wearing a BDSM device which indicates there was some sort of sexual activity before her death and Adam had also dissected her vaginal area like maybe he was trying to cover up from the sexual assault. In the end, Adam Strong was found guilty of first degree murder and held responsible for the killing of Rory Hachet. In the case of Candice, they actually found Adam guilty not for murder but for manslaughter. And I think the reason it was downgraded from murder to manslaughter is because they didn't have Candice's body, so they didn't have any physical evidence to go off. Justice DeLuca sentenced Adam to a concurrent sentence of life in prison to 25 years for murdering Rory and 18 years for the manslaughter of Candace.
He said, and I quote, To be blunt, the chances that Mr. Strong would have twice found himself in need of a chest freezer to store the dismembered body parts of young women who met their deaths innocently is so infinitesimally small. that it suggests the opposite conclusion. The courtroom erupted into applause after the sentence was handed down.
So obviously everyone was happy that this man was finally being held responsible. Adam was labored by the judge as a dangerous predator, and it's speculated by many, including Rory's mother, Shannon, that he hunted these women, that he specifically targeted them because he believed that they were vulnerable. During the trial, the court heard part of the interrogation in which Adam said that he was raped at four years old this trauma, but it ultimately led to his deviant thoughts. And I don't think this is, you know, an excuse or it's not, I don't even think it was used necessarily as part of his defense, but it was definitely a talking point in the media.
And nothing that you go through, I think, justifies the murder of two innocent women. The judge also said that Adam, quote, demonstrated in the clearest way possible that there was no reasonable prospect for rehabilitation. And that statement in this entire case, I think, just really emphasizes that some people in this world are just evil. No matter what anybody did, this man was just fundamentally evil.
And it's crazy to think that if he hadn't flushed flesh down the toilet and clogged his upstairs neighbor's pipes, then he may never have been caught for this. I mean, Candace went missing almost nine years prior to him being caught. And there was no...
inkling that he was responsible. He was not on anyone's radar for that. And again, he wasn't on anyone's radar for the death of Rory until the drains got clogged. No one was suspicious of him.
there were no real leads on either of these women who were missing this was just a seemingly regular guy so obviously it kind of looks like the case was closed that was it he's gone to prison for the murder of these two women and that's kind of case done right but then in february of this year 2022 he actually told a prison guard where candace's remains were and then he escorted police to actually locate her remains. I'm not sure what changed in his brain or why he decided to lead them to this discovery. Maybe, you know, after his sentencing he just decided he had nothing to lose.
Honestly, a guy like this, he probably just wanted some recognition for the crime in the end. It was his little 15 seconds of fame people knew he was after being this lonely kind of nobody guy. Whatever the reason may be, I'm just glad he did it because Candace's family now gets that kind of last little bit of closure, I guess you could say.
There never really is closure. closure in a murder, especially the murder of a loved one, but at least they get to put her to rest and say their goodbyes. Now, in July of this year, actually, police were called back to the apartment where Adam was living before all of this happened, where Rory's body was discovered, and they were called there for a report of suspicious clothing items. Now, I'm not exactly sure what made the clothing items suspicious because the police haven't... you know, revealed a lot of information because it is still an ongoing investigation, but I definitely will make sure to do updates on this case as things come out.
But what it tells me is that police are still looking into this guy and, you know, there may still be other victims out there of Adam Strong. And not to mention, like, thinking back about his jewelry that he had taken a long time to procure, that had what looked like three engagement rings on it. Could they be from other victims? victims. For the time being, that's everything.
That's all of the information I have for this case, but I will definitely make sure to let you guys know if there's any updates, if anything more comes out about the suspicious clothing items that were found in his apartment. I'll definitely be following this case very closely, and I'll let you guys know if anything more happens. All in all, this guy is absolutely disgusting, and I hope he rots in jail for the rest of his life, but that's it for me.
And my heart really goes out to Rory and Candace and their families and their loved ones and their friends because there was so much time in which nobody knew what happened to these girls. There were no leads, there were no suspects, there was no evidence until this guy accidentally clogged his upstairs neighbor's drains and that's how all of this came out by pure chance almost. But that's everything for me, that's it from this case.
I would love to discuss in the comments and talk about what you guys think. Like do you think there are more victims out there because personally... I'm inclined to believe that there is.
This guy had gone under the radar for so many years. No one suspected him. He was not on anybody's watch list.
Even after they made the discovery of Rory's body, they still had no idea that he was responsible for Candace until they found a bit of DNA in his apartment. So to me, that says he could be responsible for who knows how many more murders. And not to mention the rings on the jewelry, on the necklace that he had.
I just feel like that has to mean something, and the police seem to think it means something as well. But like I said, that's it for me today. I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day, and hopefully I will see you in my next video.
Bye, guys.