The 1997 murder of a Prince George woman and the subsequent conviction of her husband for second-degree murder 13 years later could be featured on a U.S. network television show.
Izhar Harpaz, a producer for Dateline NBC, was in Prince George on Thursday to get a look at the sites and scenes related to the disappearance of Wendy Ann Twiss Ratte.
Husband Denis Florian Ratte is now serving a life sentence without eligibility for parole for 15 years after a jury found him guilty in November of second degree murder in her death.
Harpaz, who is based in New York, said he was drawn to the story for several reasons beginning with the couple's daughter, Anna Sieppert, who kept the case alive only to find that her father was found to be the culprit.
"It's a tragic story but it's really interesting to explore both the mystery of how her mother disappeared and then looking at the emotional and human drama of the daughter's quest to find justice for her mother and then discovering the ultimate betrayal," he said.
Harpaz is willing to travel to some far off places in search of a story.
"The stories don't just come upon you in your immediate neck of the woods," he said. "I think there are stories where the elements that they contain are universal and appeal to a wide audience.
"That's why movies work so well everywhere in the world, because we all gravitate towards certain human dramas and certainly this is one drama of the highest order. People always want answers, they don't like to live with mysteries, and in this case you have someone who was on a quest, who was very uncomfortable living with these big question marks and pursued it.
"It's a story worth telling."
It's not yet certain if Harpaz will be back with a camera crew to film a piece for Dateline NBC, a newsmagazine driven by stories of true crime, investigative reporting, and social justice. Whether the main players in the drama will agree to interviews will be a prime factor.
"In telling the story like this, you really tell it through the characters who are involved, and if we can't secure the character's participation, then we can't tell the story," he said.
And even if all the pieces fall into place, Harpaz could not say when it would be broadcast, but that detail is not of significant concern.
"This story will be as valid if you tell it a year from now or two years from now," he said. "It's really about trying to see what kind of access we can get, how people deal with us. It's just in the beginning stages."
On Aug. 18, 1997, Wendy Ann Twiss Ratte, 44 at the time, was reported missing and the family's van was found parked at a supermarket, now Value Village. The case had languished for years but in 2008, Denis, her husband, became the subject of an elaborate undercover operation, known as a "Mr. Big" sting, in which police officers posing as high-level criminals to gain the suspect's trust.
During the trial, the jury watched a video recorded with a concealed camera, where Ratte took the officers to the scene of the shooting, in the back yard of the family's home, and then to a wooded area east of the city where he told them he dumped her body, which has never been found.
