It was supposed to be a safe, affordable home for Ontarians with nowhere else to go. But inside, it was horrifying.
It was a house without walls.
There was no lock on the door.
The walls were crumbling.
It was a house that was supposed to be safe, affordable and permanent.
But what the owners of this house — the family of Michael Smith — made of it was more disturbing than the empty space.
Within the walls of this house, their son and five other men were held hostage for more than year, tortured and left to freeze to death.
It was a house that was supposed to be safe, affordable and permanent.
The family of Michael Smith was accused of breaking into the house of a man they knew was suffering from dementia. (Ontario Provincial Police/Facebook)
But that wasn’t the only trauma. Smith and his family also faced an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — because it appears they had broken into the home.
The family said they had no idea that the property was even under the care of the Mounted Police, they simply paid someone to care for it.
But they learned the hard way.
The Smith family found out the house was a target of the RCMP when they saw a photo in the news.
“There were a lot of very sick people in there and the RCMP was very interested in the fact that the RCMP was in the house,” said Smith’s sister, Melissa Smith.
The property had been listed for sale for $185,000. But the Smith family was told by police that they would have to forfeit the $15,000 insurance policy that held the house in good-standing — which meant the insurance company wouldn’t pay out, even after the home was destroyed.
The Smith family was also forced to forfeit the $15,000 insurance policy they had paid in. (Melissa Smith/Facebook)
The family says they were told they could not go on living in the home and had to leave — but they have since been forced to move by the city to another house.
The house was supposed to be a safe, affordable home for Ontarians with nowhere else to go.
But there are still many questions about why this house became a target for law enforcement that were answered.
The Smith family says they have been told they will be forced to forfeit the $15,000 insurance policy if
