Podcast News·TRANSCRIPTS

MISSING & MURDERED SEASON 2- FINDING CLEO: Transcripts | Listen

Where is Cleo? Taken by child welfare workers in the 1970’s and adopted in the U.S., the young Cree girl’s family believes she was raped and murdered while hitchhiking back home to Saskatchewan. CBC news investigative reporter Connie Walker joins the search to find out what really happened to Cleo.

Find all episodes and Transcripts & follow the show

Finding Cleo Transcripts written in white on brown background with a picture of a child in sepia tones.
Finding Cleo Transcripts image (Ben Shannon)

Where is Cleo? Taken by child welfare workers in the 1970's and adopted in the U.S., the young Cree girl's family believes she was raped and murdered while hitchhiking back home to Saskatchewan. CBC news investigative reporter Connie Walker joins the search to find out what really happened to Cleo.


Episodes

Episode 1: 

Connie responds to Christine's plea for help finding her eldest sister, Cleo. The only proof of Cleo's existence though is a tiny, undated school photo. A clue soon emerges which will take Christine's search in unexpected directions.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 2: 

Christine gets a tip that helps geographically narrow the search for Cleo, and Connie visits another sister, April, to see what she may remember. Scouring old photos and documents, they stumble on a key reference to Cleo in April's adoption records.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 3: 

Connie meets Cleo's older brother, Johnny, in Pennsylvania, where he was adopted. He's haunted by the memory of saying goodbye to Cleo and longs to fulfill a promise to find her. A late night internet search reveals he may be close.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 4: 

The search for Cleo leads Connie to investigate a headstone belonging to a 13-year-old girl who died in 1978. The cemetery is more than 20 hours away from Arkansas, where Cleo's family has long believed she was killed.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 5: 

As Connie shares some shocking news with Cleo's siblings, the truth about what happened to her remains just out of reach. Police may have answers but can't share them yet. It's time to visit the one person who's bound to know more.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 6: 

A brief encounter with someone who knew Cleo perhaps better than anyone else just before her death reveals crucial details. Connecting new facts about her life leads the investigation to a world far from where Cleo died, back to Little Pine First Nation.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 7: 

Connie's chance meeting with the father who Cleo never knew is followed by new revelations about the Semaganis children's biological mother, Lillian. A picture begins to emerge about why her children were taken, and when she joined the fight to stop the adoption of more Indigenous children into white homes.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 8: 

Digging through archives in Saskatchewan, Connie makes a shocking discovery. As she investigates the controversial Adopt Indian Metis program which Cleo and her siblings were a part of, the man who started the program agrees to speak with her about its controversial origins, and legacy.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 9: 

Christine travels to Pennsylvania for an emotional reunion with her brother, Johnny, who she hasn't seen since she was a baby. Determined to get more answers about the days and weeks leading up to her sister's death, Christine finally gets a copy of Cleo's death certificate. That, and other documents begin to shed light on the truth she's been seeking for decades.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Episode 10: 

Even though it was supposed to have been destroyed in 1983, the police file documenting the investigation into Cleo's death still exists and it contains more detail than Christine ever imagined learning about the last days, hours and even minutes of Cleo's short life.

Access the transcript for this episode here.

 

Follow MISSING & MURDERED: FINDING CLEO