The Crime Tapes: The Michael White investigation

CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk takes a look back at the case of Liana White, who went missing in July 2005, and why police began investigating her husband.

On an early July morning in 2005, a pregnant mother named Liana White didn’t show up to work at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

Her husband believed he was the last person to see her alive, and eventually police came to the same conclusion.

In our new series, The Crime Tapes, CTV News Edmonton’s David Ewasuk looks back at the Michael White investigation.

Watch Part 1 at the top of this article.

July 12, 2005

We were driving to a different story when a call over the police scanner sent us off in a new direction. In north Edmonton, police discovered an abandoned vehicle in an otherwise empty gravel parking lot behind the Castle Downs Family YMCA.

Watch the TV story from that day:

By the next day, the woman’s husband, Michael White, was publicly involved. We could see him walking back and forth between his house and various police vehicles.

When we approached him to introduce ourselves and offer condolences, he invited us inside to record a plea to his wife.

He appeared for just 34 seconds, but it was enough to shape the next phase of this investigation — because police were keenly watching.

Watch the first conversation with Michael White:

That brief interaction with CTV News was the first time White had spoken to the media, but it sure wouldn’t be his last.

In Part 2 of The Crime Scene Tapes on Tuesday, we’ll see the husband of the missing mother tell the media that it’s time he started looking for his pregnant wife.