Author casts net to solve B.C. 56-year ‘Free Willy’ orca mystery

The plot of the ’90s feel-good movie Free Willy, about a young boy who helps a captive orca escape back into the wild, might sound far-fetched; but as the saying goes, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
Greater Victoria has its own ‘Free Willy’ tale — a coastal mystery shrouded in the fog for more than five decades.
In 1970, five killer whales were captured in Metchosin’s Pedder Bay. Months later, two of them escaped, their getaway made possible by a person &