Colgan told a number of people about his presence during the abduction and murder. In November 1971, very shortly after the murder, he told Catherine Dick of his involvement and mentioned the names of Houghton and Manger. Colgan said that a fourth man was involved but Dick did not remember his name. It was Dick who in May 1972 sent the anonymous letter to police which first gave them the names of three of the participants. In the spring or summer of 1972, Colgan told a young woman, who preferred not to be named when testifying before us, that he and some others "picked up that squaw at the Cumberland Block" and had taken her out to the lake for a "gang bang." There, he told this informant, Johnston had stabbed the victim with a screwdriver.
In September 1972, when questioned by Corporal Duncan, Colgan admitted that he had been at the scene but said he had done nothing.
Colgan obviously had told his father something by September 1972 since Bud Colgan admitted to Cpl. Denys Stewart and Cpl. Charles Koppang at that time that his son knew what had happened but, in Stewart’s words, had "not laid a hand on the girl."
Before Colgan’s marriage in 1973, his mother insisted that he tell his prospective wife of his involvement in Osborne’s murder. In 1976, Arlene Demmings, who was by then separated from Colgan, told the police that during their three-and-a-half-year marriage, he often spoke of the murder when he was drunk.
In the summer of 1977 or 1978, Colgan discussed the murder with Sheriff Gerald Wilson. The two had met at the Legion clubroom and later went outside to Wilson’s camper for a drink. Colgan was upset because a man whom he assumed was a police officer had been sending Screwdriver drinks over to his table. During their conversation Colgan gave Wilson details of the abduction of Betty Osborne and confirmed the identity of the other men in the car when she was picked up.
In 1978 or 1979 Colgan also told Kathy Phillips, a civilian employee of the RCMP, about the murder and that he had been in the car. Moorlag, who retained an interest in the file following his first work on it in 1972, told us that there were other informants who had heard admissions from Colgan but who would not agree to testify in court.
As far as we are able to determine, in all these statements, Colgan claimed that although he was there, he had done nothing. Annette Veito gave a statement to the police in which she said that on December 1, 1984, Colgan said to her, "I can tell you exactly what time she died and where." Veito told the police that Colgan added that he, Houghton, Manger and Johnston had picked up Osborne at the Cumberland Block near the Legion. She told the police, "He told me that they had killed her at the airport and then went to the pump house." Manger, he told her, was passed out in the back at the time. In this statement too, Colgan suggested that he remained in the car while the murder took place. Veito told the police that Colgan said, "Dwayne came back for the screwdriver."
Veito did not testify on this point at the preliminary hearing and did not testify at all during the trial. It seems that her reliability was suspect due to inconsistencies in her recollection. She remembered being stopped by a car and talking to the occupants on the evening of the murder around the same time as Brian Johnson saw them. She, however, believed that it was Colgan’s brother, Rick, driving his own car with Houghton, Manger and Johnston as the occupants. Clearly, she was mistaken on several points regarding the car and who was in it. It was Colgan’s father’s car that Lee Colgan was driving with Houghton and Manger as passengers. None of Colgan’s admissions implicates him directly in Osborne’s murder. His statement to Veito strongly suggests that he knows much more than he has admitted, but it does not contain an admission that he participated in the murder.
Colgan was charged with murder on October 3, 1986, but did not stand trial. Just before he was scheduled to appear at his preliminary hearing to determine if the case should come to trial, Colgan sought, and was granted, immunity against prosecution for "any offence in any way related to the murder," in return for his testimony at the trial of Houghton and Johnston. Until his immunity and subsequent statement, Colgan did not admit circumstances that might have led to charges relating to the abduction of Osborne and the manner in which she was treated in the car. Colgan’s only earlier admission was that "he was there."

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