The Dateline episode “The House on Pitch Pine Crescent” investigates the deaths of Caleb Harrison, 40, and his parents Bill Harrison, 65, and Bridget Harrison, 62. All three family members were killed over a five year span and all three died in their family home on Pitch Pine Crescent, a leafy street in the suburbs of Mississauga, Canada, near Toronto. It was not some freakish coincidence.
In 2005, Caleb was convicted of domestic assault against his then-wife Melissa Merritt, mother of his two children. The couple split. One month after the assault charges, Caleb drove a car while intoxicated and hit a taxi with four teenage passengers. The cab driver was killed. Caleb received a sentence of 18 months. A court allowed Caleb’s parents, Bill and Bridget, to take over Caleb’s share of custody of his two children with Merritt. While Caleb was in jail, in 2009, his father Bill was found dead in his home. The cause of death was not determined. Shortly after Bill’s death, Merritt disappeared with her two children. When she returned, she was charged with parental abduction.
In 2010, while staying at his grandmother’s house, Caleb’s 8-year-old son found Bridget Harrison dead in the house. At the time, Merritt was living with her common-law husband Christopher Fattore and their four children. In 2013, Caleb Harrison was found dead in the Harrison home on Pitch Pine Crescent.
Fattore confessed to killing Caleb Harrison accidentally. He said he went to the Harrison house to “rough him up and maybe put him in the hospital.” Fattore and Merritt were jointly charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Caleb and his mother Bridget. Fattore alone was charged with the second-degree murder of Bill Harrison. Both pleaded not guilty to all charges.
According to Fattore’s attorney, Daisy McCabe-Lokos, Fattore initially confessed to killing Caleb and Bridget after his wife was arrested and their children were put in children’s aid. McCabe-Lokos says Fattore felt he had to “man up” to right the wrong predicament and “to let Melissa be a mom.” In January 2018, both Merritt and Fattore were found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Caleb Harrison. (Fattore hit him in the chest with a baseball bat and then put him in a chokehold.) Fattore was also found guilt of murdering Bridget Harrison, and not guilty of murdering Bill Harrison.
Dateline airs Fridays at 9pm on NBC.
