It all started with an email to The Fifth Estate.
Jennifer Hillier-Penney’s family was distraught.
Desperate.
And in need of help.
Jennifer was 38.
The mother of two teenage girls. On Nov. 30, 2016, she disappeared without a trace from her home in the remote community of St. Anthony, on the northwestern tip of Newfoundland. Her family felt abandoned by the RCMP, who were leading the investigation into her disappearance.
So, in 2018, more than a year after her disappearance, we joined the hunt trying to find Jennifer. We had few clues.
But as we spoke to Jennifer’s friends and family, bit by bit, an image of her disappearance began to appear. Jennifer wanted to end her unhappy marriage to local fisherman Dean Penney. But her husband asked a favour — come back to the house they had once shared to mind their 15-year-old daughter while he was away duck hunting.
Jennifer agreed. Our investigation was driven by Jennifer’s eldest daughter, Marina, who is convinced her father killed Jennifer.
Our investigation also features two surprising and revealing interviews with Dean Penney. In December 2023, just days before Christmas, the RCMP arrested him and charged him with first-degree murder in connection with Jennifer’s death.
He has not entered a plea. This was seven years after Jennifer disappeared.
Her body has not been found. With a new interview with Jennifer’s determined and defiant daughter, Marina, we update our original story and ask: Why did it take so long for the RCMP to make an arrest?
And with the next court appearance set for this fall, we ask: How will a family tormented by such a profound and unhealed tragedy ever find closure? Watch “Finding Jennifer” on YouTube right now or on CBC Gem. Mark Kelley Host, Finding Jennifer | 
