A lovely home, gorgeous children, and an outdoorsy lifestyle: Ashley and James Schwalm seemed to have it all, but their marriage was not what it appeared. After both having affairs, things take a dark turn. Luc Rinaldi deftly guides us through this tragic story.
He drove a little farther, pulled over to the shoulder and got out of his car. The stench of gasoline and burning rubber filled his nostrils as he walked to the left edge of the roadway and peered over the guardrails. There, in a ditch several metres below the road, was an SUV engulfed in flames. He called 911, and by dawn, Arrowhead Road was blocked off and crawling with emergency responders. Firefighters had tamed the blaze, and now OPP officers were inspecting the crash site. The vehicle, a blackened Mitsubishi Outlander, was wedged into the Canadian Shield. Inside, investigators discovered a ghastly sight: a charred human corpse curled up in the passenger-side footwell.
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Eric McHenry, Michael W. Clune, Patrick Galbraith, Jay Miller, and Harley Rustad.
The Great French Fry Mystery
“When an A&W takeout bag appeared on my neighbour’s porch in the middle of the night—followed by another, then another—I became obsessed with solving a fast food whodunit that was as baffling as it was beguiling.”
Becoming El Jefe
“Before Ryan Wedding landed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list as a high-level associate of El Chapo, he was a bright-eyed kid from Thunder Bay. The inside story of how an Olympic snowboarding prodigy became one of the world’s most dangerous and powerful drug lords.”
