Sergeant Ryan Stef speaks to media on Monday, January 13 2020 (Photo: Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Lethbridge Sergeant featured in CBC’s “The Detectives” looking forward to episode premiere

Jan 13, 2020 | 12:25 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – This week’s episode of the CBC series The Detectives focuses on a Lethbridge homicide case – the 2016 murder of Irene Carter.

The 78-year-old’s adopted daughter, Lisa Freihaut, was found guilty of second-degree murder at the conclusion of the case in June of 2018. She received a life sentence.

READ MORE: Lisa Freihaut receives life sentence for killing her mother

Lethbridge Police Sergeant Ryan Stef was a detective on the case at the time and is one of the major players in the episode, titled Out of Lies.

“The researchers at CBC liked the fact that it was a unique case and that it involved a homicide where gambling was the main crux of the motive. Gambling is a huge social problem that doesn’t get a lot of airplay for homicides or major crimes like this. Also, we truly have an innocent victim,” Stef said.

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“The investigation itself was a long-term project and involved a wire, where we had to do a number of stims to get the evidence and get some behaviour and actions out of our accused, as well as people around the case.”

“Stims” refer to a tactic where information is provided to a suspect in an effort to prompt a reaction from them that could lead to evidence for investigators.

One of the strategies undertaken by Stef and investigators was to hold a press conference in April of 2016 where Freihaut pleaded for information on her mother’s killing.

Stef said that a “a huge part of the investigation”.

“We knew that Lisa was a suspect and she volunteered to do this for us and out of that conference we were able to gather evidence [and] information from the public,” he said.

Stef added public tips were used to officers’ advantage.

“I was able to use the public giving me tips that may or may not be 100 percent true, but I could tell Lisa that the public had told me these things so it didn’t look like I was investigating her as deeply as I was. I wanted to have Lisa’s confidence in me, I wanted to keep her talking to me through the whole process and that [news conference] enabled us to do so,” he explained.

Stef said he has yet to see the episode but has been able to see small scenes while in Montreal during the filming process.

While he’s portrayed on screen by actor Sasha Roiz, viewers will still be able to spot the Lethbridge Police Sergeant.

“I’m an interview, so CBC’s interviewing me. They have a lot of questions for me about the vase and there’s some narration. I’ll do some narrating for what’s happening during the scenes that are played by the actors portraying the event and I’m also the person that’s talking,” he said.

“After each scene, you’ll see me explaining a few things and answering some questions.”

Unfortunately, Stef was unable to meet the actor playing him on screen. By the time he arrived to shoot his interviews, Roiz had finished filming and returned to Los Angeles.

He said as a police officer, his first reaction when contacted for the project was that it was a scam. But after doing his research and speaking with fellow officers who had been involved with the show, he knew it was the real deal and all facts being presented were correct.

“It’s truly exciting. I’m very happy that we were able to come to the conclusion we did,” he added, speaking on the case.

“It’s [the case being featured on the show] something that can educate other officers as well as the public – that we work hard and these things…we take to heart and we put our lives aside to make sure we do the right thing and get it done.”

He hopes that officers can learn from the techniques used during the investigation, which will be featured in the episode. He added that the case was a team effort, with around 90 officers from various policing units involved.

The Detectives airs on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service at 7:00 p.m. MST on Thursday, January 16.

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