A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier [Part II]

I first wrote about A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier in my January first Monday post (if you missed it, you can find it here). Since that time, my co-author, Amanda Capper, and I have continued our research. Much of that research is about the police investigation, the events leading up to the trial, the trial, the verdict, and for lack of a better term, the cast of characters.

Here’s the thing. Much of what we discover, while interesting (at least to us) won’t be relevant to the book, and has nothing to do with Helen Grier. We learned, for example, that the Crown Attorney (Canada’s version of District Attorney) went back to the scene of the crime two-and-a-half months after the initial investigation. And given the remoteness of the hunt camp in Northern Ontario, the only way to access it in mid- to late-January was to fly in.

Okay, so that part is relevant. But the former journalist in me can’t leave it at that. I contacted the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre in Sault Ste. Marie (known as “the Soo,” where I live), gave the curator the approximate date of the flight and the known passengers (Crown Attorney John O’Flynn and Ontario Provincial Police Constable Thomas Crawford) and moved on to the next rabbit hole.

George H. R. Phillips

Here’s what the Bushplane museum came back with:

• An invoice in the amount of $17.50, issued by the Provincial Air Service in January 1938, and paid by the Department of the Ontario Attorney General.
• A flight manifest logging a 100-mile round trip flight from Sault Ste. Marie to Long Lake.
• The plane was piloted by George H. R. Phillips.
• Passengers were listed as Crown Attorney and Prov. Police.

All relevant enough to include in the book. But what about the history of the Ontario Provincial Air Service? The backstory on the pilot? I couldn’t resist digging deeper.

I learned that George Hector Reid Phillips was a legend in the Ontario Provincial Air Service and one of the most active pilots in the Forest Protection Division.

I also learned that the Buhl Airsedan used, registration CF-OAT, crash landed into Haw Lake on June 22, 1940, while transporting two-and-a-half-year-old Hope Matvenko from the Wawa area north of the Soo, to the Sault Ste. Marie Hospital. The pilot, doctor, and another passenger were found alive five days later, able to swim ashore, though without food or shelter. The child, who was suffering from a skull injury from a car accident, was unable to swim and drowned. The plane was left behind to rot.

Which of course led us to…

A visit to the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre:

Where we took loads of pix, copious notes, and learned lots, including this tidbit of information: The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre is the only museum in Canada dedicated to bushplanes, and visitors come from far and wide. And here it is, right in my own backyard.

The research continues…

L to R: Curator Mary Collier, Co-author Amanda Capper, co-author Judy Penz Sheluk

Parts of the CF-OAT’S wreckage are on display at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre

Judy Penz Sheluk is the multiple award-winning author of seven bestselling mystery novels, two books on publishing, and several short stories. She is also the editor/publisher of five Superior Shores Anthologies, including the 2025 Derringer- and Silver Falchion- nominated Larceny & Last Chances, and the 2026 Derringer-nominated Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com

About A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier

On October 28, 1937, Helen Grier’s body was discovered by her married lover, Vernon Spencer, at a hunt camp in Algoma, Ontario. Amanda Capper & Judy Penz Sheluk are on the case. Did Spencer, a wealthy Michigan dairy farmer and former professional baseball player, get away with murder? You be the judge. Book Launch: Oct. 28, 2026. Follow A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier on Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky. New posts daily.