(UPDATE)Disappearance of Fort Nelson woman featured on true crime podcast

Update, 3:15 p.m., Wednesday, June 10th: This story has been updated to include comments from a host of the True North True Crime Podcast

FORT NELSON, B.C. —FORT NELSON, B.C. — The disappearance of a Fort Nelson Indigenous woman from two years ago is the focus of an upcoming episode of a true crime podcast.

Karen Tessier was 57 years old when she was last seen in the community in July 2024. Without a trace, she vanished. Her vehicle was found in the community days later, with no trace of her.

The North District RCMP Major Crimes unit treated the disappearance as highly suspicious, and FNFN has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to what happened to Tessier.

Husband and wife Graeme and Caitlin Duffy launched the True North True Crime podcast in 2020, with backgrounds in film and television. According to Graeme, the podcast has reached ten million downloads in six years.

In an interview with Energeticcity.ca, he said the podcast is “victim-centred” with the majority of episodes involving victims’ families.

“What we do is we try to work directly with families to help them, to raise awareness of whatever that might be for them,” said Graeme. “Whether it’s searches, GoFundMes [or] petitions.”

“Whatever they need as a call to action is really the direction of the podcast.”

With new episodes released bi-weekly, this week’s focus is on Fort Nelson First Nation (FNFN) resident Karen Tessier’s disappearance.

The Duffys became familiar with the Tessier story through social media posts.

“[Tessier’s] story is one that Caitlin and I had seen on Facebook a lot,” said Graeme. “That is where you’re going to find a lot of information when people are seeking help. “We started seeing Karen’s poster being shared quite a bit.”

Graeme says the Duffys do not approach grieving families to speak on episodes. The reason for this is due to the complex trauma associated with cold case victims and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

He said members of both FNFN and Fort Nelson contacted them about Tessier’s story.  As a result, they were able to contact Tessier’s mother, Elizabeth.

Graeme describes the conversation during the 45-minute episode as “heartbreaking.”

In telling the story, Graeme told Energeticcity.ca that, while most true crime programming is “exploitative,” both he and his wife see value in spotlighting victims’ rather than the culprit, particularly in cases of MMIWG.

“What we want to do is we want to help to give a voice to victims’ families,” said Graeme. “We especially feel that it’s important to tell the stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous people.”

“We tell Canadian stories, and we would be remiss in our mission if we were not including those stories.”

The episode featuring Karen Tessier will be released on Thursday, June 11th. True North, True Crime is available on all leading podcast platforms.