I listened to my grandfather talk to a serial killer. I’ll never see grief the same way [Video]

This First Person column is the experience of Nathaniel Frum, co-host of CBC Podcasts’ Uncover: Calls From a Killer. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ. 

For the past six years, I’ve been working on a story. 

It began in 2019 when I requested and received dusty boxes from Canada’s national archives. Inside were newspaper clippings, police files, legal documents, photographs and dozens of cassette tapes.  

At the time, I was a struggling screenwriter hoping to pick up a story my grandfather had worked on but never finished. What I didn’t know was that unsealing these boxes would change my life. It would reconnect me to my late grandfather, bring me a deep and unexpected friendship, and force me to confront the raw, devastating weight of loss — both my own and that of others.

I picked the dustiest tape from the bottom of one of the boxes …