welcome to It's a crime i'm linda and today we're going to be talking about a cold case that's been
unsolved for the last nine years it's about a 36 year old woman named jolene cote who played soccer
one night in a tournament her team won she spent a little bit of time celebrating with her team
and then on the way home she decided to stop at a walmart to do some shopping
this was the last time that she was seen alive authorities ruled it as a homicide
it is a bit of a peculiar case and authorities have recently stated that it is
solvable but before i get into it if you'd like to be part of the it's a crime community
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please share this video out where you can this crime still is unsolved now let's get into it
here is jolene cote she's from a small town called spruce grove alberta in canada
she's a mother of two children who at the time were four and six years old when she died her
children were her world she was also a wife at the time to a man named mike cote jolene was a grade
nine teacher at a local high school and well loved by everyone she was found deceased on october 13
2011. the town she lived in spruce grove alberta is a small town with a population of 26
171 people in 2011. jolene lived with her family on an acreage with not many neighbors now let's
get into the timeline on wednesday october 12 2011 at 6 57 pm jolene attended an indoor soccer
game to play in a tournament with her team called the spruce grove saints it was at a place called
the edmonton soccer association west center the soccer center is approximately 20 minutes from
spruce grove the team won gold that night went upstairs in the center and celebrated by eating
some cake with their teammates her teammate said that jolene was in her usual good mood
one team member said she was up there smiling and laughing and we were all on a bit of a high
now in an interview that i found that was dated october 2013 which is two years after jolene's
death her husband mike cote said he was planning on joining jolene that night but decided not to
because it was late and their four-year-old was cranky he said he told his wife to wake him if she
felt like celebrating and he stated he later fell asleep reading to their two children in jolene and
mike's bed here's what the article reads cote says he'd planned to go to the soccer game but decided
not to because it was late and their four-year-old daughter was cranky instead he says he told his
wife to wake him if she felt like celebrating and later he fell asleep reading to their children in
the couple's bed i said i love you good luck he says that was the last time i talked to her
now at 9 50 p.m on wednesday night jolene left the soccer center and stopped at walmart
on stoney plain road to do some shopping before heading home in one article it states that she
was buying christmas presents for her son and daughter now it just takes under 10 minutes to
drive to that walmart from the soccer center so if she traveled straight there she would have
arrived at around 10 p.m now in the surveillance cameras you can see jolene enter the walmart there
is a person blacked out in the footage and in my research it stated that it was a walmart greeter
jolene then buys a few items according to the articles and she leaves the store with a cart full
of groceries says another article here you can see her leaving the store with a full cart at 10 38 pm
this is the last place she was seen alive now when i first saw this surveillance video i didn't think
it was too odd when she was first walking in but then when she was walking out i did find it a
little bit strange the greeter gets up quickly and kind of follows her almost out and then the
footage stops so you can't see if he actually or this person actually walked her out or just
was you know chatting i'm not saying it's anything nefarious going on but it is a little close if it
was a greeter i found that was interesting but perhaps she knew that person from maybe shopping
there often just something i noticed something to note authorities noted that jolene wasn't followed
home that night so then jolene loads up her vehicle with her items and drives home in her 2002
silver jeep liberty now to get to spruce grove is approximately 20 minutes the news reports those
say she lived on an acreage and i found where she lived and it's a 12 minute drive from the walmart
and when i look at the maps you can see how spread out the neighbors are and this is the latest map
keeping in mind her murder occurred nine years ago so it's the most updated map so we will say
she arrives at her house at around the 11 p.m mark by the time she loaded up her vehicle from
walmart put the card away and if she didn't stop anywhere else here are some shots of her house you
can see it's a rural area now the next morning on thursday october 13th mike cote wakes up he sees
that jolene isn't in the bed and is surprised by that because he says she usually carries the
kids back to their own beds at night he says he thought at first that maybe she was up marking
students work or cleaning he said he didn't know anything was wrong until he went outside
and found jolene in the grass mike states that he then brought her into the house and around six
a.m mike cote makes the call to 9-1-1 now in his interview he states i've never felt skin that cold
i didn't know what to do how to protect her i brought her in and i put a blanket on her i put
a towel on her head she had a big gash on her head then at 6 20 a.m police and medics arrive on scene
jolene cote was pronounced dead now the medical examiner determined that jolene was a victim of
homicide the staff sergeant told ctv news that jolene cote's blood was found outside and inside
the residence he says we do believe that the murder happened outdoors now what would be
interesting to know is the time the medical examiner estimates uh the time of jolene's
death was it at 11 pm at night right when she arrived at the home or was it in the early
morning hours i would be very curious to know now the things that she bought that night before were
still in her jeep and her purse and her cell phone were in plain view and not disturbed or taken
the staff sergeant states there were other valuable items such as her purse and her cell
phone that were in plain view and those weren't disturbed or taken and so we don't believe that
it was a robbery or a theft interrupted now one of the things that were reported missing
were jolene's wedding and engagement rings and a diamond pendant that mike her husband
gave her on their 10-year wedding anniversary suggesting a robbery however in the most recent
interview the authorities have determined it wasn't the case jolene was playing soccer that
night and she wasn't wearing her jewelry they also added that the evidence outside of the home didn't
support the theory of a robbery interestingly they did also note that the jewelry is still missing
now also in that recent interview it was said that they're still looking for some items that
are related and are outstanding but they said they can't speak about it and authorities also
determined that jolene wasn't followed like i mentioned earlier and they don't believe
that she was randomly attacked so investigators then started looking for someone with a grudge
but the staff sergeant said what they found is that there are no former students associates
anyone who would have anything but very glowing positive things to say about jolene and jolene's
death was ruled a homicide but the cause of death has never been released the authorities are saying
the cause of death is being withheld by the police to keep the integrity of the investigation and
the rcmp said in a news release the investigation to date indicates that
whoever attacked jolene cote was someone who had the intention to seriously harm or kill her
the evidence obtained by police does not support the idea that jolene cote interrupted someone in
the midst of committing a robbery or theft at a residence and the authorities searched the cote
home and property for days mike cote said this in his interview they went through my bank accounts
computers phones you feel absolutely violated and the only thing i can tell myself is they're
doing their job and that's the only thing that gets me from not getting too angry with them
now by the third day on saturday october 15 2011 parkland search and rescue was
also involved the search team walked side by side as they combed the property and a plane
was also used to help in the search then by friday october 21st there was around a thousand people
that gathered for jolene's funeral at the west edmonton church including her husband michael
her son and her daughter and her uncle said jolene cote's legacy will be that she made
everyone around her a better person and one of the superintendents of the parkland school division
said she's a wonderful wonderful teacher who is deeply respected and loved and will be missed
then two weeks later on wednesday october 26 2011 jolene cote's mother her two sisters
made a plea to the public begging anyone with information to come forward to the rcmp by october
29 2011 they searched a body of water near their home and it was stated this was actually for the
second time it's actually behind their home and in an article it states although it was clear
they found something police did not elaborate and sergeant patrick webb says in this type of search
we find all kinds of items but whether it's anything of value or has any connection to the
investigation is something to be determined later on and in 2016 five years later they actually went
back to the lake and did another search for two days authorities stated it's always difficult to
search water area depending on the bottom of it so we want to make sure we haven't missed
something or see if there's something there that can be found with a more thorough search so we're
going to spend a bit more time and see if there's anything there so the authorities have ruled it
out as a robbery or theft they also believe this wasn't any sort of random attack they said it's
not a random interrupted crime in progress this was a targeted event now it also was said there
is a misconception in the public that jolene was murdered because she came home and interrupted
a crime in progress that is not the case and very inaccurate it was also said that this was
a very highly emotional crime we don't believe that the the crime that was committed is by
a cold-blooded killer the information at the scene the evidence is seen suggests to us
that this was a highly emotional crime and that there's some emotional link and that emotion
doesn't go away it's going to bear on the person who's committed the crime for the rest of their
life now mike cote has not been ruled out as a suspect in this investigation and when he was
interviewed here's what he had to say about being looked at as a suspect he says he knows police has
considered him a suspect right from day one he says that's the first thing the police told me
i feel sick thinking about it i can't let it bother me the people who are close to me and
know me know the kind of relationship we had and when he was asked what he thought about those who
may think he killed his wife he said if they're thinking that they already have made their mind up
that's fine they don't know me and they don't know my family people are going to think what they want
now mike cote was in a relationship in 2013 and has married the woman and is now living in mexico
with his two children and her family mike has also declined a polygraph the authorities said that
they would like to talk to mike again they said it's been a couple of years since they've spoken
to him now in the recent interview the staff sergeant made a very interesting point about
the polygraph have a look you've been able to say that mike cote has not been ruled out as a suspect
i know you can't call him publicly a suspect can you tell us if the rcmp have suspects in this case
i think the the investigation is incomplete and so we keep a very open mind to what new
information will come to us in relation to mr cote he's provided us with a version of the events
and that answers many of the questions that we have but not all of them
we would encourage mr cote and we've talked to him about doing a polygraph examination for us and
that is something that would give us a high level of confidence that that he's not involved with our
polygraph examinations they're commonly called lie detectors we would really prefer and if you talk
to an experienced polygraph operator they'll tell you that a polygraph is a truth verifier
it's not a lie detector and mr cote has told us that he's not involved in that he's telling the
truth and we would like to use that tool that we often use to verify that truth
with mr cote if he was willing to do that that would then give us that high level of confidence
that he's not involved and then we can move on has he suggested that he's not willing to take a
polygraph we have brought that up with him and and it is a person's right it is a voluntary
process and at this point he's expressed to us that he's not comfortable with that and and we
understand that when you talk about the polygraph and people's impression that it's a lie detector
we do have people sit down with an experienced polygraph operator and they will explain this
process and we find that in most cases when a person sits down with the polygraph operator
they understand that an innocent person has nothing to fear from a polygraph test that if
they're telling the truth the polygraph test will verify that truth and will be confident to move
on um and so that would be another thing that we would be interested in exploring with mr cote is
having him sit down with that polygraph operator and really fully understand
what we're trying to get to with a truth of verification for him now there were documents
from a court case involving jolene's life insurance payouts and they include an rcmp
letter to the court in june of 2014 indicating that mike has not been eliminated as a suspect
in jolene's homicide and the last paragraph states at this point in the investigation we
have not been able to eliminate michael cote as being responsible for the murder of jolene cote
as this is an ongoing investigation i am not able to reveal any further details
and the staff sergeant told ctv news that that still has not changed he says there's additional
questions and additional information that we would like to pursue with mike cote and the
rcmp say mike cooperated with the investigation initially but that he has since moved to mexico
with the couple's two children has remarried and is no longer in contact with investigators
now what's interesting is in that recent interview with the staff sergeant he talks about the passage
of time in cases and he starts talking about people changing their minds and how they feel
have a look um in the first instance someone who's been told or someone who actually knows
information do you believe that person exists do you believe that person is out there yes i do i
believe that there it's very difficult for someone who has committed a crime like this to keep that
to themselves especially for an extended period of time it will always be a burden on that person
we don't believe that the the crime that was committed is by a cold-blooded killer
the information at the scene the evidence is seen suggests to us that this was a highly emotional
crime and that there's some emotional link and that emotion doesn't go away it's going to bear
on the person who's committed the crime for the rest of their life there are still outstanding
items to be found in this case and authorities are hoping to find them and have more pieces to fit
into the puzzle if anyone has information about jolene's murder there to call crime stoppers at
seven 1-800-222-8477 or one eight hundred two two two tips or rcmp stony plain detachment at
seven eight zero nine six eight seven two six seven the tips can also be submitted online at
c crimestoppers.ab.ca i will have the phone numbers and the link in the description below
this video there is also a fifty thousand dollar reward for information leading to the conviction
of the person or people responsible for jolene's murder the family has recently been considering
increasing the reward amount from the articles that i've read jolene was so very loved and
deserves justice her sister describes the pain saying it's like having open heart surgery and not
getting stitched up afterwards it's just always a raw wound that's there and the family says we will
always be there for her children there have been memorial walks and memorial tournaments in honor
of jolene and her sister says jolene doesn't have a voice anymore so they're her voice let's have a
chitchat below let me know what your thoughts are on this case there's some very peculiar things
going on let me know in the comments also let me know if you like that i am starting to cover cold
cases i know it's been requested quite often and so i'm diving in please subscribe if you haven't
done so already please like and please share thank you so much for watching see you soon