Sudden Death
The Binge Crimes: What Happened to the Harrisons?
In April 2009, Bridget Harrison returns home to find her husband Bill dead in their locked bathroom, ruled a natural death by police. However, inconsistencies in the scene—such as all lights being off and the door
Key takeaways
- The death of Bill Harrison was initially ruled natural, but multiple inconsistencies—locked bathroom door, no lights on, lack of struggle—suggest foul play.
- Three sudden deaths in the same house within five years point to a pattern rather than coincidence.
Main topics
- Unexplained deaths in a single household
- Suspicious circumstances surrounding natural death rulings
Notable quotes
"Some evil thing happened here. Three people die in a quiet suburb in Mississauga, Canada. It's not a coincidence."
"The worst investigative mess I've ever encountered."
Conclusion
The episode sets up a larger narrative of systemic failure and hidden danger within the Harrison family home, suggesting that
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:02) Some evil thing happened here. Three people die in a quiet suburb in Mississauga, Canada. It's not a coincidence. One after the other. In the same house. Is this bad luck? Or something more sinister? The worst investigative mess I've ever encountered. A long simmering, what took you so fucking long to get here? From Sony Music Entertainment, this is What Happened to the Harrisons. I'm Amy Dempsey-Raven. What Happened to the Harrisons is available now on The Binge. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes, all at once, ad-free. Speaker 1 (1:00) Listen to every episode of What Happened to the Harrisons ad-free right now when you subscribe to The Binge. You'll hear the entire series before anyone else, get exclusive bonus episodes, and unlock more than 60 other true crime podcasts. Just head to The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and tap subscribe, or visit getthebinge.com to listen wherever you are. Speaker 1 (1:51) It's after dark on April 16, 2009, and Bridget Harrison has just arrived home from a meeting. Bridget is 62, a slight woman with green eyes and a graying pixie cut. She works a lot in education, and her husband Bill usually has dinner ready when she gets home. Okay, is your husband awake? No, he's not. Is he able to speak for you? No, he's not. Bridget and Bill have been together since they were teens. People say they operate in tandem, like two parts of the same person. Bridget is passionate and intense. Bill is calm. He keeps her grounded. Is he breathing normally? I don't know. I just opened the door and found him here. That night, she expects to find Bill waiting for her. She came home and the door was, the lights, there were no lights on in the house or outside. Speaker 1 (2:57) Right away, Bridget knows. Something is wrong. She gets out of her car. She walks across the stone pathway to the front door of the house where they've lived for 35 years. It's a beautiful place, an elegant mid-century home with a dramatic roofline that slopes downward from a high peak. Bridget opens the front door and steps inside. The foyer is dim. The only sound is the low hum of the television in the living room. On the coffee table, she sees a half-eaten takeout meal from the Portuguese restaurant around the corner. She started calling his name and she went and looked everywhere. Bill doesn't answer. Speaker 1 (3:51) Back on the main floor, something catches her eye. The door to the small bathroom just off the foyer is closed. She tries the knob. It won't open. She had to go and get something to unlock the door. She works a piece of wire into the lock. It clicks, and the door opens. Inside, Bill is lying motionless on the floor. I realized it was too late. He was stiff and pushed into the corner next to the toilet. On the 911 call, you can hear Bridget struggling to move him. He's a tall, athletic man, and it's a small room. His body feels rigid. He's not breathing. Okay. I can tell. He's not breathing? He's not breathing. Okay. Oh, my God. Speaker 1 (4:57) Police and paramedics arrive, and they confirm what Bridget already knows. Her husband of 40 years is gone. Bill's sister, Elizabeth Gallant, was at home that night when Bridget called. She said, are you sitting down? And I said, no. And she said, well, maybe you should. And I said, why? And she said, well, Bill's dead. Like, I didn't accept it right away. I just thought, oh, something's wrong. Liz is a retired labor and delivery nurse, so she's good in a crisis. She calmly got in her car and drove the familiar 10-minute route to Pitch Pine. Her brother's place was a second home to Liz and her daughter. And now it was wrapped in police tape. Speaker 1 (5:55) I saw the police cars, the ambulance, everything was there. The police let Liz into the house and Bridget took her to see Bill. He was on the far side of the toilet. The wall's here, the toilet's here, he was right between it. Almost right away, police and the coroner call this a natural death. Likely a heart issue. Bill was 64. Police found no signs of forced entry or a struggle. He was found home alone with no obvious traumatic injury, like a gunshot or a stab wound. Police see this kind of thing all the time, and often, it is a natural death. But in this case, certain things didn't add up. Speaker 1 (6:42) Why would a man home alone lock the bathroom door? Why were all the lights out? And how does a fit and active guy like Bill, a man who looked like he had decades left, suddenly drop dead? As Liz watched the paramedics wheel her brother's body out on a stretcher, she couldn't shake the feeling that the police were missing something. They brought him out into the living room area where we were standing and I remember saying to him, Bill, we'll find out what happened here. We don't know, but I'll find out. I promise you, I'll find out. Liz wasn't the only one who had come to question the conclusion that this was a heart issue. That cause of death that was given was nonsense. Speaker 1 (7:38) This incident, Bill's tragic death, was only the beginning of something much darker. I started covering this story years later as a journalist for the Toronto Star. But not because of Bill. I came to Pitch Pine Crescent after police were called to investigate another sudden death at the Harrison residence. And this death was the third in less than five years. Three sudden deaths in one house. Was this an unfortunate run of bad luck or something more sinister? The worst investigative mess I've ever encountered. The long simmering, what took you so fucking long to get here. Why do I have this gut feeling that something is not right? I understand we've got a haunted house in this region. Some evil thing happened here. You're in a world of shit. This wasn't ghosts and goblins, okay? These were murders. Speaker 1 (8:42) As I dug into the case, it became clear that this was more than a coincidence. It wasn't just the three deaths. There had been a car crash, a mysterious house fire, a string of reported home invasions, and a missing persons investigation, all tied to the same people. I would come to see that this story wasn't just a family tragedy. It was something much bigger and more troubling. What happened on Pitch Pine Crescent was an unbelievable failure. The family, all along, suspected something was terribly wrong. But no one figured it out until it was too late. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is What