The murder of Louise Ellis by Brett Morgan is featured in the latest episode of The Case That Haunts Me on Investigation Discovery.
In the early 1990s, Ellis—a freelance writer for the Canada Post annual yearbook—was working on a novel about an inmate and attended a Supreme Court hearing to gather information. While there, she met Morgan—who was incarcerated on robbery and fraud charges—and later fell in love.
Although Morgan had a criminal past that involved the strangulation death of a prostitute, Ellis, 46, helped him get out of prison early. When he was released, they began a romantic relationship in 1994 and moved in together.
About a year later, on April 22, 1995, Ellis vanished without a trace after leaving her home in Old Ottawa South home in Canada. Two days later, a friend found her abandoned vehicle parked on the side of the road in Chelsea, Quebec.
When Morgan went to the media and pleaded with the public to help him search for Ellis, a woman named Marie Parent, a private investigator in-training, went undercover to help solve the case.
As the weeks went by, Parent was able to gain Morgan’s trust. In July 1995, he told her that he killed Ellis and led her to a wooded near Masham, Quebec, where he dumped her remains.
Ellis’ badly decomposed body was found near her ex-boyfriend’s home. Morgan told Parent that he placed her there so that he could frame Ellis’ ex-boyfriend.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelAfterward, Morgan went to the police station and confessed. He was then taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder.
In 1997, he was convicted on circumstantial evidence and was sentenced to life in prison. He would have been eligible for parole after 25 years.
Morgan passed away in 1998 of Hepatitis C.
The Case That Haunts Me — Second Chance, airs at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.