 It was just minutes past midnight on March 23rd, 2015. Brittany Gargle and her best friend Cheyenne Antoine posed for a photo together to commemorate a much-needed night out after months of hectic studying for school. But what was expected to be a fun night out on the town turned into something much worse. Just hours after this photo was snapped, tragedy would strike and one of the girls would never make it home. The crime would send police on a three-year hunt for justice, and when detectives finally tracked down their main suspect, it wasn't someone that anyone would have expected. This is the tragic story of Brittany Gargle. Brittany Gargle was just 18 years old when this case took place, back in the spring months of 2015. Brittany was born to her mother, Suzanne, and her father, Everett, back in 1996 in Saskatoon, located in Saskatchewan, Canada. It doesn't seem like Brittany's parents stayed together throughout her childhood, and while she maintained a good relationship with them both, Brittany certainly seems to have been closest with her mother, Suzanne. Growing up in Saskatoon, Brittany seems to have had a pretty solid upbringing. Her mother certainly had a good head on her shoulders, and Saskatoon isn't all around great place to live and raise a family. Being one of the safest cities in Canada, there isn't too much to complain about. The town has all sorts of beautiful nature trails and scenery, but it also has a very lively nightlife, filled with restaurants and all sorts of attractions to keep locals and tourists busy and entertained. For Brittany and her family, Saskatoon seems to have had everything they could have ever hoped for, great people, great amenities, and even greater friends. For Brittany, it was her friends that she cared about more than anything. See, Brittany was known for being a pretty outgoing young girl. Throughout her high school years, she'd done very well for herself. She got pretty solid grades, never got into much trouble, and she had several close friends that she felt she could depend on. Considering she was 18 years old when this story takes place, it's rather obvious that Brittany was getting pretty excited for her school year to come to a close. As that meant that she'd be heading off to university to get her degree in business, something that she'd been looking forward to for years. Unlike many of the other young adults her age who were just focused on getting into college to drink and party and get it to who knows what, Brittany was very goal-oriented, hyper-focused, and was known for being a critical thinker. Brittany had plans of getting her business degree so that she could begin managing and maybe even own a couple hotels one day. To help make these dreams a reality, Brittany had begun working multiple jobs so that she could stockpile all the money she would need to both fund her education as well as get a head start on life when she did eventually get her degree. One of her main jobs was at a local pizzeria and it was a job that she took surprisingly seriously. Her mother recalls her as being incredibly driven and others who knew her made sure to mention that she was an expert at balancing school, work and her whole life. She even held a job at a local German cultural center when she wasn't busy tossing pizzas. If Brittany was anything at all, she was dedicated. This girl had the willpower of an ox and would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. But while she was super hardworking and career focused, she always made time to hang out with friends. Her closest friend was a young woman named Cheyenne Antoine. The two were about the same age and had been friends for several years, first meeting when they were in ninth grade together. Unfortunately Cheyenne's upbringing was in a stark contrast to Brittany's. While the two certainly had some common ground and had plenty of similar interests, those just weren't as easy for Cheyenne as they may have been for Brittany. See from the outset Cheyenne had a hard time in life. She was known for having a seriously rough childhood and her parents are considered to have been victims of Canada's boarding school system. Now Canada's colorful history with boarding schools and foster care, it's not something I'm incredibly familiar with but I've certainly heard some stories. To put it plainly, it's not a system you want to be a part of and Canada is notorious for its mistreatment of individuals who end up in these systems at least in years past. For Cheyenne, her parents were both forced into the system involuntarily and they paid a hefty price for it. The years of torment and mental as well as physical abuse that they endured left a lasting impact on their lives. An impact that would trickle down to their offspring, leaving them hurt and vulnerable as well. It's been reported that Cheyenne lost both of her parents at a very young age. Due to the abuse that her parents endured in these systems, they both fell deeply into addiction and less than desirable lifestyles. This internment that Cheyenne was doomed to suffer the same fate being plunged into the exact same system that completely consumed her parents. Life was never easy for Cheyenne. It seemed everywhere she turned, things just got worse. But when Cheyenne decided to try to forge a relationship with her mother after being separated from her for years, well she would discover a new kind of low, unlike anything she could have imagined. I cannot overstate the devastating impact that addiction can have on your life. We all know this and far too many people have experienced it firsthand. Cheyenne was one of these people. It was her mother's addiction that ultimately landed Cheyenne in foster care after she was pulled from her family for fear of her safety. But as the years passed by, Cheyenne always tried to maintain contact with her mother albeit from a safe distance. But as she became a teenager, her longing to have a bond with her mother grew stronger and stronger. She had reached out to her mother countless times but truth be told, her mom just couldn't have cared less. Her mother was so concerned with fueling her addiction that it was as if Cheyenne didn't even exist. I feel it's important to recognize that Cheyenne's mother was just as much a victim as Cheyenne was. The years of abuse, the crippling addiction, you name it. But we also have to acknowledge that her mother was a grown adult, capable of making her own decisions. But she made the wrong ones time and time again and Cheyenne paid for it. After being forced into foster care, Cheyenne was abused both physically and mentally, just like her parents. The only difference is that Cheyenne took steps to better herself and try to heal from her current and previous trauma. Her parents were not afforded the same luxuries. But all of these reached a peak when Cheyenne was just 15 years old. Her mother finally lost her battle with addiction and passed away, leaving Cheyenne for the most part to face the world alone. Unfortunately, if the situation wasn't already bad enough, the loss of her mother left her feeling as though she had nowhere else to turn, other than to the same vices that her mother had. Before long, Cheyenne had become involved with some rather shady people and it only took a matter of months before she too fell into the trap of addiction. But Cheyenne had one saving grace that her mother didn't have, Brittany. It was around this time that Cheyenne and Brittany's relationship had really begun to blossom. For Cheyenne, all she wanted was for a friend to have her back and just listen and be there for her. Brittany also wanted nothing more. The two hit it off like you wouldn't believe and before long they were inseparable. This brings us to March of 2015. The two had been studying incredibly hard for their end of year exams and more than anything they each just wanted to spend a night out in the town and unwind for a bit. We don't really know what the two had planned for that night, but in the evening of March 23rd, 2015, the two agreed to meet up and they snapped a few photos to share to social media. These photos were taken just moments before they headed off into the night, and neither of them knowing that for one of them, this night would be their last. It was around midnight on March 24th that Brittany and Cheyenne headed towards a family friend's home, a woman named Atasha's story. Atasha says that the girls stopped by her home on their way out and asked to borrow some money for gas. Atasha was happy to oblige and she even took things a step further, telling the girls that if they needed anything at all that evening, just call her and she would show up. She offered to pick them up wherever they were no matter what time of night it was. Brittany thanked her with a hug and the two friends set off. According to investigators, we don't know exactly where the two went right after this, but we know that they shared the aforementioned photo on social media at exactly 12.02 AM on March 24th. This would be the last time anyone heard from Brittany as all contact after this post ceased. She never responded to any phone calls. Social media comments, nothing. Just six hours later, at exactly 6.02 AM, a driver was traveling down a remote road on the outskirts of Saskatoon when he spotted something off to the side of the road. As the driver passed by, he was a bit shocked. He had to do a double take. As he was riding along, he could have sworn he saw the body of a young woman lying just off the side of the road. He turned the car around and went back to get a better look, knowing good and well he couldn't have seen what he just thought he saw, but he did. As he returned to the location, the realization quickly washed over him and he just stumbled across a crime scene. Not knowing what state the young woman was in, he rushed to her aid but quickly realized she was cold to the touch. The woman was missing her shoes and all attempts to bring her back to life failed. Police were quickly dispatched to the scene of the crime but by the time they arrived, there was nothing they could do except collect evidence and begin an investigation. According to police officers were at the scene. They immediately suspected foul play. Something about the scene of the crime, it just, it didn't feel right. And to top this off, they began investigating the woman's body a bit more closely and found obvious signs of bruising around her neck that were consistent with the crime. When they started collecting clues and evidence from the scene of the crime, detectives gathered up a leather jacket, a woman's watch, as well as a very unique belt, all of which had just been abandoned at the scene. The only real problem is that at this point, officers had no idea who this young woman even was. To try to track down her identity, they took photos of several of her tattoos, including a group of stars and a lion's head, posting these images into the local media, hoping someone could shed some light on this poor girl's identity. Fortunately, it didn't take officers long at all to make a positive identification. That morning, Atasha's story had been watching the news and what she saw, nothing could have prepared her for. As she sat on her couch, mindlessly watching early morning television, the images of the tattoos popped up on screen and Atasha's job hit the floor. She was so overwhelmed with the motion that she didn't even know what to do with herself. She immediately recognized the tattoos as belonging to Brittany. But how? She'd just been there a few hours before. She was in a great mood and made sure to tell Brittany if she ever needed anything to call. So how could this have happened? Atasha did the only thing she knew to do and she called the police. After a very brief discussion, the body that officers had found earlier that morning was positively identified as belonging to Brittany Gargle. Once investigators discovered the identity of Brittany, they sprang into action to try to piece together what had taken place that night before. They started their search on social media and that's when they came across the photo that Brittany had taken with Cheyenne the night before. Interestingly, just a short while before police found this photo, they noticed that Cheyenne had posted to Brittany's Facebook wall, asking, quote, Where are you? Haven't heard from you. Hope you made it home safe. Police knew that this meant the two had certainly been together on the night that Brittany had been attacked. So they began their investigation with Cheyenne. Police paid her a visit and asked for a rundown regarding what had taken place that night. As far as the night out in Saskatoon goes, things were pretty typical. The only strange thing was Cheyenne revealed that the girls had been bar hopping all night. But I'm not sure how they managed to do this because they were both under age at the time. But anyway, they somehow managed to gain access to multiple bars in the area, starting their adventure around midnight and ending it sometime around 4 a.m. When they were invited to a local house party by an unidentified man who they believed to be in his 30s. What happened after this house party is a bit of a blur. According to Cheyenne, she and Brittany went their separate ways a short while after 4 a.m., with Cheyenne being dropped off at an assisted living facility so that she could visit her uncle. When police spoke with the uncle, he corroborated the story and said that he and Cheyenne had in fact visited at around 4 a.m. that morning. But where was Brittany? It would take a few days before detectives made any further progress in the case. They sent Brittany's remains off for a forensic analysis. And when the results came in, they were a bit surprised. Brittany had lost her life after being strangled with a black belt, the same belt that was found abandoned at the scene of the crime. If this attack had been deliberate and police believed it had been, why would the criminal have ditched the evidence at the scene of the crime? That just seems careless. For the investigating officers, they hoped that this meant the case would be open and shut. They now knew what happened. They knew what weapon had been used. Now all they needed to do was tie the weapon to the criminal. This was when even better news came in when the belt was sent in for analysis. They found two profiles of DNA left behind on it, one matched Brittany and the other presumably would be a match to the criminal. It was as if all the pieces of the puzzle were just falling together perfectly. But all was not as it seemed. See, it was at this point in the investigation that officers began to realize something wasn't right. They'd taken statements from several people who had spotted both Brittany and Cheyenne that evening, but their stories just weren't lining up. Cheyenne claimed that the girls had begun their evening at a bar called the Manchester Brew Pub, then also claimed that their time together ended at the Colonial Pub and Grill, with this being around the time the two girls went their separate ways. Rather obviously, police headed off to these two bars to try to figure out what the girls had done afterward and determine if anybody may have spotted the two that evening. Well, when they began their search at the Manchester Brew Pub, everything was in order. They didn't really find any information that was particularly useful, but they did confirm that the girls had been there that evening at the time that Cheyenne said they were. But when detectives made their way to the Colonial Pub and Grill, that's when things started to get fishy. According to senior crown prosecutor Robin Ritter, it didn't take him long at all to realize that the girls had tripped to the Colonial, it didn't happen. After this revelation came to light, Detective Ritter was hot on the trail of Cheyenne. Every aspect of the story and the investigation up until this point hinged on facts that Cheyenne had shared with detectives. But they quickly began to realize that Cheyenne clearly wasn't being entirely truthful with them. If she was willing to lie about what bars that you had been to that night, what else was she lying about? Police decided to approach the case from a different angle. They decided to pay a visit to Cheyenne's uncle, the one who was in the assisted living facility. When they began pressing him about what had taken place that night, they quickly began to realize that he didn't know much at all about the evening that Brittany vanished. In fact, it only took them a few minutes to realize that the chain of events he'd reported to officers before simply didn't happen. In the end, he confessed that he had given false testimony to officers, admitting that he did so to protect his niece. But with this in mind, what really happened that night? Well, according to the uncle, Cheyenne had approached him that evening and asked him to lie for her to help cover her tracks. Cheyenne admitted that she and Brittany had gotten involved with a bad group of guys that night and ended up following two men to a motel that evening after the men had promised the girls access to certain substances and alcohol. Cheyenne reportedly told her uncle that the four of them had gotten into an argument about these substances with Cheyenne leaving in the middle of the argument to use the bathroom. She claims that when she came back, Brittany was lying lifeless on the motel bed. Shocked and confused at this rapid change of events, Cheyenne began to freak out, but the men threatened her with a weapon and demanded that she help them cover up the crime. Cheyenne seemed to be pretty shaken up by this encounter, but rather strangely, investigators very quickly learned that this entire story was a fabrication as well. Literally none of it happened. They could find no evidence of such an event taking place at the motel, nor any evidence that the girls had ever been to that motel that night, much less with the company of two grown men. Well, about five weeks passed by after this. Cheyenne, in the meantime, had been arrested for shoplifting and was now being held in a local jail while she was awaiting her trial. Detectives decided that they would pay her a visit in jail and see if she'd finally be willing to tell them the truth. She wasn't. In fact, when police pressed her about the night of Brittany's passing, she refused to tell them a single thing, not one word. But actually, this was all the prosecutors needed to hear, because it was now clear they were on the right track. Police may not have had much evidence to go on, but now knowing that Cheyenne certainly knew more than she was letting on, they decided to keep tabs on her and watch her from a distance, hoping that at some point she would slip up and make a mistake that might just shed new light on their investigation. And as fate would have it, they were right. One day, totally out of the blue, Brittany's family received a phone call from Cheyenne's aunt. According to the aunt, Cheyenne had come over to her house that evening that Brittany had disappeared and it was clear she was pretty drunk, upset and panicking. She couldn't really make sense of what Cheyenne was saying, but she mentioned something about strangling her friend and even mentioned the name Brittany. Obviously, Brittany's family turned this information over to the police and Cheyenne's aunt was more than happy to share her story with investigators. But despite this, Cheyenne was still unwilling to cooperate. She denied knowing anything about her friend's passing. And just six months later, Cheyenne even took to social media to make a post in remembrance of Brittany, saying, quote, I miss you so much. You came and visited me in my dream last night. You were way too young to go. It would be another two years before the case would see any more progress. But one final piece of evidence that investigators collected blew the entire case wide open. And as it would turn out, it had been staring them in the face all along. While Cheyenne had been dodging police time and time again over the last two years, investigators finally stumbled across an incredibly damning piece of evidence that had up until now been completely overlooked. It was 2017 when Detective Ritter said that his team had a, quote, aha moment. As they were reviewing old photos from the early days of the investigation, they noticed something very, very interesting. If you remember, just before the two girls headed off for their night out, they posted a photo to Facebook. May also remember that when police showed up at the scene of the crime, they found a leather jacket, a woman's watch and a black braided belt. Take a look at this photo. Now take a closer look at that belt. Somehow for nearly three years, police had a photo of Cheyenne wearing the very belt that she used to claim the life of her best friend, and they totally missed it. Now, don't think I'm blaming them for this. I'm certainly not. But it's so crazy that something like this went unnoticed for all this time. This image finally blew the case wide open. And it was a piece of evidence that police had in their possession this entire time. I mean, heck, the photo had even been posted publicly on social media this whole time too. And not one single person noticed the belt. If you remember, police had already collected an unknown DNA profile from that belt years earlier. But now when they compared it to Cheyenne, they finally found their match. Cheyenne was without a doubt responsible. But the bigger question here is why the two girls were best friends. They were clearly on good terms. So what could have led to a simple night out ending in such a heartbreaking tragedy? Well, now that she'd been caught red handed, Cheyenne was finally willing to talk. Cheyenne finally admitted that she and Brittany had attended a house party that night, where they were given access to alcohol and various illegal substances. She says that the two were heavily under the influence all night and her last memory with Brittany was at around 4 30 a.m. when they visited a local McDonald's. She remembered that at some point around this time, the two had argued, but she had no idea what they were arguing about. It was all a blur. Cheyenne claims that just moments after this, she blacked out and has no memory of the rest of the evening, though she did admit that she woke up several hours later knowing something had gone horribly wrong, but she didn't know what it may have been. By all accounts, Cheyenne claimed the life of her best friend didn't just forgot about it. Detective Ritter spoke about the crime and says that one of the most frustrating things about the investigation is that Cheyenne never really admitted to anything and they have no further evidence to prove whether this was all just a tragic accident or something much more sinister. Cheyenne to this day has never opened up about what happened to Brittany. And I think we have to accept the possibility that truth be told, she may really not know what happened. While I hate to entertain the thought of it, it's truly possible that this was all some sort of drunken substance induced mistake. But we do still have to understand and accept Cheyenne made a choice to put herself and her best friend in a dangerous situation that night by partaking in illegal substances. While she may or may not have been in control when the crime unfolded, one thing is for sure, she was entirely in control when she took that first dose and her poor decisions led to her best friend losing her life. In the end, prosecutors wanted to pursue second degree charges against Cheyenne, but these charges just wouldn't stick. This prompted them to work out a deal with Cheyenne in which she pleaded guilty to much lesser charges of manslaughter. Cheyenne was obviously convicted and she was sentenced to seven years in prison and she'll be eligible for parole this year. I feel like Brittany's stepmother said it best when she spoke about the tragedy that unfolded that evening, saying, quote, Brittany was a wonderful person whose life was cut short. It's not fair. It's just not fair. Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of True Crime Stories. If you enjoyed this video, check out this other interesting case I covered and don't forget to subscribe. It's totally free and keeps you up to date with all of my future videos. You can also click that join button below to help support the channel and see new videos long before everyone else does. But my name is Ty Nott and I'll catch you guys in the next one.