What Happened to Holly Bartlett
Premieres Thursday, March 28, 10pm on AMI-TV
Holly Bartlett’s death was declared an accident shortly after she passed away in March 2010. And again, after an independent review of the case in 2014. But the story doesn’t end there.
Bartlett, who was 31 years old, had been blind since she was 13. She was a dancer, an equestrian and a volunteer. She was also a graduate student at Dalhousie University. After a night out with friends and classmates, Bartlett was found early in the morning on March 27, 2010, unconscious and injured under the MacKay Bridge. She died in the hospital the next day.
For years, Bartlett’s family and friends have insisted the narrative from police—that she simply fell because she was drunk and disoriented—does not line up with who Bartlett was. Given her independence and orientation skills, they say, it just isn’t logical. (Tim Bousquet first brought Holly’s story to light in the December 12, 2013 issue of The Coast.) What Happened to Holly Bartlett, a new docuseries from Accessible Media Inc. (AMI), re-examines the case and tackles alternative theories about how she ended up under the bridge that night.
“No one believes what the police concluded,” says executive producer Johanna Eliot. “And she was also such a vivacious character in Halifax. Everybody knew her—whether they knew her personally, they knew her to see her. I think that all resonates, no matter who you are, in what city—the mystery.”
Eliot, also the president of Ocean Entertainment, says the story has been on Ocean’s radar for a few years. One of the first steps was to contact Bartlett’s family to get their blessing, and they were on board almost immediately. “We don’t tell the story in a sensational way,” she says. “It is based on reality and facts, we don’t exploit people or families.”
The six-part series is hosted by Peter Parsons, a former orientation and mobility specialist who knew Bartlett. He helped form the Justice for Holly group several years ago. “Drunk, blind girl—case closed. That was pretty much how it went,” says Parsons, echoing his words from episode one. “Holly shouldn’t be remembered that way. She was such an amazing person, such an inspirational person. She lived life to the fullest and had so much to offer.”
One of the most striking moments in that first episode follows Parsons as he retraces Bartlett’s supposed steps: The path police said she took on the night of the fall. “It was frustrating, for one thing, because I was retracing steps that was a police theory that I thought didn’t make any sense,” says Parsons. “It wouldn’t make sense for somebody with average [orientation] skills, but Holly had expert-level skills.”
Parsons points out the police didn’t learn how a blind person generally travels, let alone how Bartlett travelled personally. “There’s an actual profession called ‘orientation and mobility,’ and [the police] are chalking it up to disorientation,” he says. “Well, a really important factor would be to learn how a blind person is oriented. I think it’s really important that Holly’s story gets told properly.”
Premiering March 28, What Happened to Holly Bartlett will air Thursdays at 10pm on AMI-tv, with streaming available on AMI.ca after they’ve been broadcast. A companion podcast of the same name, hosted by Maggie Rahr, will release concurrent episodes. The podcast episodes are longer, providing a deeper dive into details of the case.
“We’re hoping that we will be able to solve this mystery,” says Eliot, “because more information will be out there and maybe somebody will say something.”
Related Stories
Holly Bartlett’s unlikely journey
This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 3, 2019.
I didn’t know anything about this. But I feel for the family. It really is true though that the police in NS are pretty incompetent. I just wish people knew the extent of how bad.
To illistrate this point, let me share with you a story.
Years ago, a girl, barely 18 years of age named Robyn Brown died in Bridgewater after being kidnapped for months. The police did absolutely NOTHING. They failed to declare it a kidnapping(despite alarms all over the windows and doors, obvious drugging into submission, and a bank officials willingness to testify that she had been dragged around by him and was visibly terrified) and lied to her family that there was nothing they could do to rescue her.
What happened is, that her and her boyfriend entered the perpetrators apartment, and neither of them came out alive.
Her boyfriend died the first night from an overdose of prescription pills(held by the the perpetrator and owner of the apartment) and Robyn died 6 months later after being, raped, drugged to the point where she had no free will; and forced to call her mother every day for months trying to get money. At the end of it all- he overdosed her too. And purposefully waited until she was braindead to call the police.
He showed up at the hospital to take her off life support and to claim the body, but was only a couple weeks short of being legally allowed to claim it. He had planned to cremate it to get rid of evidence. And when he found out he couldn’t- he flew into a rage before being forced to leave the hospital, while her family was in horror.
Bloated beyond recognition, her family eventually took her off life support. And the autopsy confirmed that there was no way she had taken that much drug herself- it was continuously injected into her after she fell unconscious.
There were apparently several other girls this happened to as well. And to my knowledge, only one survived. And she was too terrified to testify.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of a kidnapping and double murder; the Bridgewater police shut down the case and ruled out murder in both cases. A total dismissal. And this apparent serial murderer keeps getting out of prison by feigning a heart condition. But worry not! He was eventually arrested for purposefully hitting an old woman with his car… and then let back into the public! Great!!(sarcasm)
Now earlier 2018 or late 2017; that very same police chief in charge of her case; was arrested for multiple cases of sexual assault and child sexual assault. Hmm.
All I can say is- there needs to be justice for a lot of dismissed murder crimes in Nova Scotia.
For all victims of dismissed crime; like Holly Bartlett, Robyn Brown and Joshua Ballard.
-Signed, someone who knows the family of Robyn Brown.
(For more info on the case; you can see what Joshua’s parents wrote about it here and it’s totally messed up: https://gpdots.com/2014/06/15/joshua-ballards-story/ )