In 1975, 24-year-old Edward Chadwick, often referred to as Teddy by his friends and family, died while spending time with his friends in a small city of south western Ontario, Canada.
I’m going into this city searching for answers, while all those involved are still here to tell their story. This next few series of episodes will follow my quest to find answers for Edward’s loved ones.
Trying to find the truth hidden behind rumours, fading memories, finger pointing, and half truths is something that pulls you in and sometimes hard to separate from. There have been upheavals, or ups and downs in the 45 years since Teddy died and yet his loved ones still don’t have an answer. Time is no longer on our side. A little while ago I was approached anonymously through social media to look into and cover this case. So that’s what I am doing and hopefully it will bring some sort of answer for his friends and family.
I had no knowledge of this case going into this venture, so the very first thing I did was visit the local newspaper archives to see what was there. Sadly, there wasn’t much at all written in 1975, only two small blurbs. The Brantford Expositor ‘s Saturday June 28, 1975 newspaper published a photo of the police and firefighters carrying the body of a man taken from the river. The article indicates that two teenage boys reported to the police, shortly after 2pm on Friday, July 27th that they saw a person floating in the water. The police had speculated that he died earlier that day.
Ted’s nose was bloody and the autopsy confirmed that his cause of death was drowning. One of his shoes and a brown shirt was found beneath the cement embankment under the Lorne Bridge. The police had speculated at the time that he had died while swimming, but offered no explanation for the bloody nose and missing shoe.
The next step I took was to visit the area where he was on that Friday and where ultimately his body was found by those 2 teenage boys.
Transcript from Audio/Video:
“Today I’m going to be going out. It’s raining in the city of Brantford today. I’ll be driving out that way and taking a look a little bit more around that Lorne Bridge and the old train bridge that’s a walkway, I think it’s closed down, I’m not sure. However, it’s under that area that a lot of people in 1975 hun out, drank, and possibly did recreational drugs. It was a certain type of individual, that I am told, often got into fights, known by police, and this is the area that I am goin to try to look a little more closely today. I’ll take some photographs, I’ll take a little video this time and hopefully you’ll see what I see. It’s very interesting because right around the Grand River is absolutely beautiful and yet there are certain aspects to it that are grimy. It’s a real melting pot of beauty and grime, is how I would describe it. But, I’ll let you decide for yourselves. We are going to take a look and see if there are still the same types of individuals in that location.”
https://truecrimerealtimepod.com/2019/09/15/1975-bad-boy-hangout-spot/
In this next clip I’ve arrived on location:
“This walking bridge here, which is close to the area where certain young males back in 1975 would hang out and drink at any hours of the day, I guess. Currently this walking bridge is closed.”
“Brantford has many walking trails around the area, and this is just one part of them. As you can see in this garbage can not much has changed in 45 years because we have evidence of drinking.”
“I am going to go down this trail, and the reason I am recording is because there are some people tenting down here and I don’t know if they are living here or not, but we are going to find out.”
“This is the area that was described to me as the general location where people hung out in 1975 (including Ted Chadwick).”
GG “Hello”
Random Camper: ‘How are you doing?”
GG: “Good. How about you?”
Random Camper: “Good, do you have the time?”
GG: “It’s 2:16 PM. Do you mind if I record down here? “
Random Camper: “As long as my wife isn’t in it, no problem”
GG: “I’m doing a documentary series on a death that happened in 1975 and this was the location, so I am just doing a video and a talk through.”
Random Camper: “Don’t let her know *gestures towards wife* She has a thing with the paranormal.”
GG: “His girlfriend at the time asked me to do a piece on it, a media piece, so that’s what I am here doing.”
Random Camper: “It’s really peaceful down here.”
GG: “Back in 1975 this was the hang spot or a lot of young guys.”
Random Camper: “They call those things the Titty Rocks for some reason.”
GG: “Oh, well, Maybe that’s why!”
To Be Continued in Blog Format in Chapter 2.
True Crime Real Time Podcast 