In honor of May being National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Month, Brit sits down with Red River Métis woman and survivor Fallon Farinacci to hear her story—and how a series of tragic events set her on a path toward tremendous advocacy and change for her community.Fallon’s Celebrate Indigenous Resilience GoFundMe can be viewed at this link. All proceeds go to the Abbey House and Manitoba Metis Federation St. Eustache Local. If you or someone you know is a victim of stalking, you can reach out to the VictimConnect Resource Center by phone or text at 1-855-484-2846, or you can chat online at victimconnect.org. It’s important for you or anyone you know who is thinking about suicide to be aware that emotional support can be reached by calling or texting the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.If you’re looking for ways you can join us in the fight for justice for MMIWG2S and MMIP, please check out the organizations below:National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and GirlsNational Indigenous Women’s Resource CenterNative Women’s Association of CanadaOntario Federation of Friendship CentresNative Hope Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/survived-fallon-farinacci/Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit crimejunkie.app/library/ to view the current membership options and policies.The Crime Junkie Merch Store is NOW OPEN! Shop the exclusive Life Rule #10 Tour collection before it’s gone for good! Don’t miss your chance - visit the store now! Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllcCrime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Chapter 1: Who is Fallon Farinacci and why is she important?
Hi Crime Junkies, it's Britt, and it's just me for right now, but not for long, so let me fill you in. A few months ago, our team was working on a case involving a girl who, along with her siblings, survived a home invasion in 1993 in which a man broke in and killed both of their parents.
That girl was Fallon Farinacci, and she is now a dedicated advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous people working to bring awareness, justice, and policy changes to address the crisis affecting Indigenous communities. And so in honor of May being National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Month, we thought this was an important story to share. But it's her story.
So who better to tell it than herself? Today, I've invited Fallon to the Crime Junkie Clubhouse so we can hear directly from her. Now, before we jump in, I will tell you right up here at the top that we will not be naming Fallon's parents killer throughout the episode. For your reference, his name is Andre Ducharme, but as I'm sure you can understand, Fallon prefers not to use his name.
She only refers to him as her mom's stalker or the stalker. And out of respect, I'll be doing the same. All right, enough of me. This is the story of Fallon Farinacci. Fallon, welcome to the Crime Junkie Clubhouse. We are so thankful you are here. You came all the way from Canada to be with us here in Indiana, and that's just incredible.
I am so grateful to be here and to be able to come here to tell my story and share it with all of you.
Yeah. So let's start with a little bit about you. Take us to your background, your childhood. Tell us about your culture.
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Chapter 2: What is Fallon's cultural background?
Yeah. So I'm Red River Métis. I grew up in rural Manitoba, a tiny, predominantly Métis community just outside of Winnipeg. And so for those who don't necessarily know what Métis is, a long story short is... I am Indigenous, and so was my father. He grew up really proud to be Indigenous, and so he instilled that in me at a young age.
There wasn't really any kind of difference from my everyday life to culture, traditions, or community. It was just all, it was life. Yeah, it was all a part of it. I always explain to people it happened around the kitchen table, you know.
It sounds like a really beautiful way to grow up. Really, really tight family, really close and happy. Yeah. But we're here today for a specific reason. And I think now is like a really good time to kind of turn into that. Can you take me to everything that kind of happened?
Chapter 3: What led to the tragic events in Fallon's life?
Yeah, absolutely. So in November of 1992, this man who we knew, he was a community member. Yeah. He threatened my mother's life. Leading up to that, he started crossing boundaries. And boundaries in the sense of, like, just making you feel uncomfortable wasn't usual behavior. There wasn't anything specific. And then this really kind of crossed the last boundary.
And he called our family home and he... He had asked my mom where his birthday cake was. He had found out that my mother had went to a co-worker's birthday party and my mom never made him a cake. So that is really what kind of made her feel uncomfortable to get off the phone right away. And so she said to him, I threw it in the garbage. I have to go. I have the kids bingo and hung up.
We had a community bingo. As I said, it was like a really tight knit community. So he called back and he threatened my mom and he said that she wouldn't live to see her next birthday and that he wouldn't live to see his. So she took it really seriously. They called the RCMP, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and they brought him before a judge that evening.
And they failed, though, to tell the judge that my mother and father had told the RCMP that she was concerned that they had, that he had, sorry, a .22 caliber rifle. Hmm. So there was no seizure of weapons. There was no search of his home, anything like that. And he was released.
And then in December, you know, my mom continued to hear from community members that he was continuing to want to take my mother and my father's lives. And so from there, my mom wrote the RCMPL letter. And in that letter, she stated that, again, she was concerned about this .22 caliber, but also a handgun. The letter was never filed. And so it wasn't brought before a judge or anything like that.
And now we're in January of 1993. And my family's case landed on the desk of a family crown attorney.
Which it's like family crown would be like family court here in the States. Yes. So like custody and stuff like that. That's... Not the situation at all.
Not at all. No, this was criminal. He had threatened their lives. So along this case, we heard a lot of like errors, you know, human error. And so this was one of those human errors. But for some reason, this Crown picked it up and then felt it was appropriate to have a mediation.
Which, again, like in family court would make sense. Like you have mediations as like a means to an end. But that's, again, not the case here.
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Chapter 4: How did the authorities fail the Farinacci family?
In a lot of cases. Yeah. And I had asked my dad's best friend, Ken Bowden. I had said to him, even from my dad's perspective, was my dad really scared? And he said, yeah, absolutely. He could hear it in his voice that he was scared. And so... Because of this, my mom had decided she was absolutely not going through this with mediation. Yeah.
I mean, she was already scared, but this was just catapulting it. And so from there, they didn't show up for the mediation. There was supposed to be a mediation on January 26th. So he was released back out into the public again. And he came to our family home on January 27th and he knocked on the door. My older brother was awake. It was just after midnight.
Myself, my younger sibling, my parents, we were all sleeping. And when my brother answered the door, he was standing on the other side of the door with the same 22 caliber rifle that they had warned the police about. Yeah. And he instructed my brother to go downstairs into our family home. And he tied up my brother. And I would say he verbally tortured him.
He talked about killing my parents and how he couldn't live without my mother. And so my brother had to endure that for a number of hours before he finally told my brother that he was going to go upstairs. And he used the words, do the deed again. to go kill my parents.
My older brother had to write a suicide note, I guess, in a way for this man, just instructing him to tell his family, his friends, that he was sorry for what he was doing. And then around 2.30 in the morning, he went upstairs in our family home. And that's when my brother heard the gunshot. Before that, he had heard my dad yell some things in French because it was a French Métis community.
So he had yelled some things. My brother didn't speak French, so he didn't know what they were saying to each other. And then he did shoot and kill my father. I'm assuming that that's the sound that woke myself and my younger brother up at that time.
Mm-hmm.
And so the way our bedroom was, it's just like a regular bungalow. So I was at the top of the hallway and my parents and my brother's room were side by side. And so when I woke up, I immediately tried to go into my parents' bedroom because I didn't know what was going on. And I was nine at the time.
And so I'm trying to push the door open, but there's clearly someone on the other side of the door. And so I give up at that point. But I don't know what it was. Something told me that it was an emergency to go call 911. I don't have any recollection of something being said, you know, that made me feel in danger. It just felt like I'm looking at my younger brother.
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Chapter 5: What impact did the home invasion have on the Farinacci children?
So my older brother, Carson, was 17. And then my younger brother, Clinton, at the time was five. Okay. And you were nine. And I was nine, yes. And so I went to call for help, but I accidentally dialed the wrong number. And so then I could see a dark shadow coming running towards me. So I dropped the phone and I run into the basement and hide at this point.
And eventually my mom, the stalker, and my younger brother all come downstairs. And that's when my younger brother finds me. And he tries to pull me out and I'm like begging him not to. It was terrifying because at the same time he's screaming and yelling because he can't find my brother. Mm-hmm. But he had escaped at 2.30 when the gunshot went off.
He thankfully was able to get out of the basement window and he ran to my parents' best friend's home and my childhood best friend's parents' home. And they called 911 at, well, it's a seven-digit number. Forgive me at the time. And the rural community, it was not 911 times. And so they called for help. And they stated, you know, he has entered our home.
And my brother said, you know, my parents are in court with him right now. And he has a gun. They heard a gunshot go off and that us kids were being held in the house. Not that we're being held hostage, but we're in the house.
But you guys are still there.
And so the way the chain of command goes, that 911 dispatcher would let the officers know who were on duty at the nearby police station. So that's about 45 minutes from my community. But that police station closes at 2 a.m.
And this is happening after 2.30.
Yes. So they would call the constable on duty and let him know. And then he would then give, you know, further instructions. So they did. They called him. And he said, go out to the Paul residence and see if you can get him to come out and talk to him.
As if he's a rational person right now.
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Chapter 6: How did the situation unfold on the night of the tragedy?
Keeping an eye on the situation he's responsible for. Yeah, he accidentally fell back asleep. I can't imagine having that position and doing that, like having such disregard for the situation. Yes.
And also, one thing I didn't tell you was that the stalker had 13 prior convictions and the RCMP station, the same one, fought bail for this man in 1990 saying he should not be released, that he was a danger to the community. Okay. Yeah. Yes. So by time he's in the basement with us kids and my mom. And at this time, he's losing his mind. So he's upset.
He looks at my mom and he tells my mom she's going to have to pick whether it's myself or my younger brother that dies next if we can't find my older brother. Who isn't in the house at all anymore. Not at all. And my mom doesn't know. And so we looked in all and all of the places. I mean, it's a tiny little basement and it was all open and a rec room.
And so eventually my mom wanted to separate him from us because he threatens our life. And she gave me a hug. We're sitting on the stairs and she hugged me and said, I'm going to go upstairs with him. You stay down here and call for help. So they went upstairs and we stayed downstairs and I went to pick up the phone and it wasn't even up on the telephone like this little stand that she had.
It was on the floor. It had been ripped out of the wall, the cord. Hmm. And I don't know. I mean, obviously, I can't have regrets now. But that is one thing that sticks out in my mind is I wish I had just plugged it back in because it wasn't like rip broken. It was just I thought I would get electrocuted if I plugged it in.
You were a kid.
I know. And I do try to give myself that grace when I think back. So we stayed in the basement and eventually we fall asleep. So my mom's upstairs for two hours with this man. And so at 5.30, there's two officers outside of our home. Just like, hey, come out. Yeah. So they do make contact with my mom. It must have been right after she went upstairs. They call the house and my mom answers.
And she answers one-sided questions. Are you okay? Are you hurt? A lot of the answers she gives, though, are maybe, I don't know, because she's just... She's trying to protect herself. Yeah. But he doesn't stop her from being on the phone. That's like the whole part I never really understood.
I think it's just, I think of, he had been drinking and he was doing drugs before coming to our house from what witnesses had seen him before earlier in the day. He went and he drank a bottle of sherry. Yeah, it's just one of those things that I guess repulse maybe is a word for me, you know, like with my mom's name being sherry. Yeah. Yeah.
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Chapter 7: What were the immediate aftermath and reflections on the events?
And then later that night, the RCMP came and I gave my statement. And it was actually, I only realized this probably in the last couple of years. You know how authority figures can do a great job at making us question ourselves? Mm-hmm. I gave my statement, and I told the RCMP officer, and this is when my mom said, why do you have to shoot me? You already shot me in the eye.
He said, your mother wasn't shot in the eye. And I said, well, she said, why do you have to shoot me? You shot me in the eye. And he said, she never said that, so I don't know why you're saying she said that. Yeah. Like he looked at me like I remember thinking like that genuinely is probably a moment where I like began questioning my own thoughts, my own memory.
Yeah. I was gonna say if some like if I was in that situation now as an adult, I'd be like, wait, maybe I would even question myself. And you were nine. Yeah.
Yeah. And I think that's like often, you know, where does imposter syndrome come from? Right. Right. And I think that that's probably a moment that was the beginning.
Really formative. Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
And what stands out to me in all of this is you talked earlier about like human error. This wasn't one human error two months before this happened. This wasn't one human error the night that it happened. This was error upon error upon misstep upon misstep the entire way through.
Yeah. We have this officer questioning what I know I heard. As a child. As a child. Like, yes, she said arm, but I'm listening to her behind a door. Yeah. So we have that. We go back to the initial, those two officers taking my mother's statement, failing to tell the judge about the rifle that she's concerned about.
How about we go back to even 1990 where they let him out and they say that he's... He's no threat to society.
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