Season 1 | Episode 5: Stranger Calling

Detective Rod Piukkala faces a gruesome crime scene, a bomb threat, and a killer threatening to strike again. The victim's family helps change Canadian parole laws forever.

Episode preview

Stranger Calling - first look

7 years ago

Duration 2:06

Detective Rod Piukkala faces a gruesome crime scene, a bomb threat, and a killer threatening to strike again.

What made this case unique?

• The Prioriello family were active in advocating for sentencing reform, to reduce the frequency of parole hearings from two years to five. In 2015, they succeeded in getting Bill C-479 passed, forever changing parole hearings for violent offenders from 2 to 5 years.
• This case marks the first time in Canadian history that latent prints were pulled directly off the skin of a victim, using a groundbreaking new technique.1

1 Geberth, Vernon J., Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques, Fourth Edition (Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigations) - ISBN 0849333032 - p.711

About the detective

Retired Detective Sergeant Rod Piukkala served for 34 years at the Peel Regional Police with over ten years in the Homicide Unit; Oxford Community Police where he was the Chief of Police, and the Durham Regional Police. In 2006 he was awarded the Member of Merit (M.O.M.), Police Order of Merit. He retired in 2006 as Deputy Chief of Police in Durham Region.

Cast