CTV W-5's program, Who Killed Theresa about the murder of
Theresa Allore in 1978, Compton Quebec.
Who killed Theresa Allore.. Part 1 of 5
Who killed Theresa Allore.. Part 2 of 5
Who killed Theresa Allore.. Part 3 of 5
Who killed Theresa Allore.. Part 4 of 5
Who killed Theresa Allore.. Part 5 of 5
For more information please visit: www.whokilledtheresa.blogspot.com
Saturday, September 27
RCMP withheld informatin on unsolved files
Cold Cases series is meant to raise profile of Island crimes that have fallen out of spotlight
Rob Shaw, Lindsay Kines
Times Colonist
Monday, September 22, 2008
CREDIT: Family photo
Sherry Anne Wallace and her daughter Gemma in a 1981 family photograph. Wallace was found strangled to death in 1984.
CREDIT: Times Colonist files
Police on Vancouver Island have open files on more than 100 suspicious deaths and missing person cases that date back decades.
More than 100 suspicious deaths, homicides and missing persons cases remain open and unsolved on Vancouver Island.
But, in a move criticized by victims' families and others, the RCMP's Island District has refused to identify the cases or provide a public accounting of what's being done to clear the backlog.
More than three months ago, the Times Colonist requested a list of all unsolved homicides and suspicious missing persons cases on the Island to use as part of a series of stories on cold cases. The idea was to raise the profile of crimes that had slipped from the spotlight and perhaps elicit new information from the public. Police have long acknowledged this is one of the most effective ways of getting new leads.
The RCMP, however, said releasing a list of all 114 unsolved files, some of which date back to 1924, would compromise investigations and upset families.
"The broad scope of your request would identify all files as unsolved homicides, which may or may not be the case," Const. Darren Lagan of Island District's strategic communications office wrote in a July 31 e-mail. "The RCMP investigates all suspicious deaths as homicides, until such time as evidence proves otherwise. Given this fact, there may well be incidents contained in the 114 files, which ultimately, are not homicides. The families, and survivors of the deceased in these matters may be negatively impacted by media reports identifying their loved ones as part of 'unsolved homicide' files."
Lagan said the decision to withhold the list was made after discussions with the investigators as well as Chief Supt. Rick Betker, commanding officer of the Island District. "The RCMP remains committed to these investigations, and the families involved," Lagan said. "Should this response not meet your satisfaction, you may choose to proceed further in ascertaining your requested information via an access to information request."
The Times Colonist made a second attempt a week later, asking for a list of confirmed homicides that remain unsolved, as well as a separate list of all unsolved missing persons cases without indicating which might involve foul play. The RCMP has yet to respond.
Joanne Young, whose daughter Lisa Marie Young vanished from Nanaimo in 2002, found it "incredible" that the RCMP would refuse an opportunity to publicize cold cases and generate tips.
"I just find it unreal that they're not out there to help," she said.
The families are already upset, her husband, Don Young, said. "You don't really get over it anyway," he said. "My opinion would be that most people who are going through this would be happy to see something come up about it."
Ernie Crey, whose sister is among the women who vanished from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside years ago, said the RCMP's tactics remind him of the early police response in that case. Police agencies took months and sometimes years to provide a full accounting of the number of women who had disappeared. Some women were reported missing to Vancouver police, others to RCMP, and a complete list was never compiled until almost four years into the investigation.
"When the police fail to release information about their investigations into the murdered and the missing, they delay the day people with knowledge about each death or disappearance will come forward to disclose potentially vital information," Crey said.
Despite the lack of co-operation from senior RCMP officers, many detachment commanders, municipal police forces, retired police officers and front-line investigators have been more helpful.
The Times Colonist was able to compile a partial list of unsolved cases by calling detachments across the Island, speaking to ex-cops, and pulling old newspaper clippings. The paper will highlight some of those cases in the coming days, and post them to a new Cold Cases website at www.timescolonist.com.
Most of the cases to be featured are files still held by Island detachments. However, RCMP headquarters placed a ban on detachment commanders from speaking to the media about the cases, referring questions to the E Division communications sections or to the Island District Major Crime Unit -- an integrated unit of Mounties and Victoria police officers. The RCMP's unsolved homicide unit in Vancouver also refused interview requests.
Late last week, the RCMP finally lifted the ban, but by then, a number of detachment commanders were unavailable for comment or didn't have time to review the files.
The decision to withhold a comprehensive list of unsolved cases and thwart interviews represents a departure for the RCMP. In the past, the Vancouver major crime section provided the media with lists of unsolved homicides, all of which are reported to the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS), a computer system for spotting possible serial killers and rapists. In some cases, the force provided ViCLAS printouts of cases broken down by occupation of the victim.
The RCMP's national website also highlights a number of B.C.'s unsolved cases. But it's unclear why some cases are featured and not others.
The policy also runs contrary to what happens in other jurisdictions. In the Washington state communities of Spokane and Everett, for instance, newspapers recently worked with police to highlight cold cases in hopes of generating leads.
If you have information that might help solve some of these cases, you can reach Lindsay Kines at 250-381-7890 or lkines@tc.canwest.com and Rob Shaw at 250-380-5350 or rfshaw@tc.canwest.com
- - -
Over the next week, Times Colonist reporters Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines will highlight several unsolved cases of missing or murdered people from the Island, and examine new techniques being used to solve old crimes.
Today: How a young North Vancouver woman ended up strangled to death on the Island 24 years ago.
Tomorrow: The baffling disappearance of Carmen Robinson.
New DNA tests solving old crimes
New DNA tests solving old crimes
Several recent successes due to new technology
Lindsay Kines
Times Colonist
Monday, September 22, 2008
One of the keys to trimming a backlog of cold cases on Vancouver Island may lie with a private forensic lab in Thunder Bay, Ont.
In the past two years alone, Molecular World Inc. has helped crack a number of cases across Canada that read like episodes of CSI.
Using the latest advances in DNA technology, the lab helped police lay charges in a 1984 child murder in Winnipeg, and assisted prosecutors and police in convicting a man for a 1994 double murder in Ontario.
Now, detectives across the country are dusting off bits of evidence they once thought too small or too old for DNA testing and shipping them to Thunder Bay.
"We are getting quite a few," lab director Amarjit Chahal said in a telephone interview.
Previously, investigators relied on regular or "nuclear" DNA testing of blood, semen, saliva or other fluids or tissue to identify suspects in murder cases, Chahal said.
But the process has been refined over the years, so that labs can test much smaller or more degraded exhibits.
Chahal said nuclear DNA testing remains the "gold standard," but scientists can still identify a suspect's profile even in cases where no nuclear DNA is present.
Molecular World, the first accredited lab in Canada to offer the latest methods, can now pull a DNA profile from a single strand of hair that we shed every day, Chahal said.
"Now investigators -- with this newer technology -- they have the opportunity to go back and look for any remaining biological evidence [in the files]," he said. "They can revisit all those cases where nuclear DNA was not possible, like 'shed' hairs, or the nuclear DNA was in small quantity."
The technique, known as mitochondrial DNA testing, was used to obtain a murder conviction in a Canadian court for the first time two years ago.
The case dated back to Sept. 14, 1994, when two men abducted a carpenter from Pickering, Ont., drove him outside the city, and shot him execution-style four times in the head. They then stole his car and headed to Oshawa where they donned masks and robbed a gun shop, killing the shop owner and wounding three others in the process.
The following year, police arrested and charged Ronald Woodcock and Roshan Norouzali on two counts of first-degree murder. They were convicted in 1998, but Woodcock won a new trial in 2003.
By the time the case went to court in 2006, however, DNA evidence had caught up with Woodcock. A number of hairs recovered from the getaway vehicle in 1994 were submitted to Molecular World and the lab linked three strands to Woodcock.
He was convicted and sentenced to six concurrent life terms.
Chahal, who testified at the trial, said the "sensitive" new test increases the likelihood of finding a DNA profile in collected evidence.
"Since we have so many mitochondrial molecules per cell, chances are we will still get it in very old degraded DNA samples," he said.
Molecular World used mitochondrial testing last year to help Winnipeg police crack the murder of 13-year-old Candace Derksen in 1984.
The lab matched hairs found at the scene to the DNA of a man now charged in her death.
And last month the test was used in Alberta to identify human remains found in 2003 as those of a man who was swept away while swimming the Bow River in 1991.
Meanwhile, Chahal said a recent advance may prove even more valuable than mitochondrial DNA testing. The latest technique is the same as nuclear DNA testing, but it can be used on smaller and degraded samples, he said.
"This technology," Chahal said, "is going to be wonderful."
lkines@tc.canwest.com
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
Several recent successes due to new technology
Lindsay Kines
Times Colonist
Monday, September 22, 2008
One of the keys to trimming a backlog of cold cases on Vancouver Island may lie with a private forensic lab in Thunder Bay, Ont.
In the past two years alone, Molecular World Inc. has helped crack a number of cases across Canada that read like episodes of CSI.
Using the latest advances in DNA technology, the lab helped police lay charges in a 1984 child murder in Winnipeg, and assisted prosecutors and police in convicting a man for a 1994 double murder in Ontario.
Now, detectives across the country are dusting off bits of evidence they once thought too small or too old for DNA testing and shipping them to Thunder Bay.
"We are getting quite a few," lab director Amarjit Chahal said in a telephone interview.
Previously, investigators relied on regular or "nuclear" DNA testing of blood, semen, saliva or other fluids or tissue to identify suspects in murder cases, Chahal said.
But the process has been refined over the years, so that labs can test much smaller or more degraded exhibits.
Chahal said nuclear DNA testing remains the "gold standard," but scientists can still identify a suspect's profile even in cases where no nuclear DNA is present.
Molecular World, the first accredited lab in Canada to offer the latest methods, can now pull a DNA profile from a single strand of hair that we shed every day, Chahal said.
"Now investigators -- with this newer technology -- they have the opportunity to go back and look for any remaining biological evidence [in the files]," he said. "They can revisit all those cases where nuclear DNA was not possible, like 'shed' hairs, or the nuclear DNA was in small quantity."
The technique, known as mitochondrial DNA testing, was used to obtain a murder conviction in a Canadian court for the first time two years ago.
The case dated back to Sept. 14, 1994, when two men abducted a carpenter from Pickering, Ont., drove him outside the city, and shot him execution-style four times in the head. They then stole his car and headed to Oshawa where they donned masks and robbed a gun shop, killing the shop owner and wounding three others in the process.
The following year, police arrested and charged Ronald Woodcock and Roshan Norouzali on two counts of first-degree murder. They were convicted in 1998, but Woodcock won a new trial in 2003.
By the time the case went to court in 2006, however, DNA evidence had caught up with Woodcock. A number of hairs recovered from the getaway vehicle in 1994 were submitted to Molecular World and the lab linked three strands to Woodcock.
He was convicted and sentenced to six concurrent life terms.
Chahal, who testified at the trial, said the "sensitive" new test increases the likelihood of finding a DNA profile in collected evidence.
"Since we have so many mitochondrial molecules per cell, chances are we will still get it in very old degraded DNA samples," he said.
Molecular World used mitochondrial testing last year to help Winnipeg police crack the murder of 13-year-old Candace Derksen in 1984.
The lab matched hairs found at the scene to the DNA of a man now charged in her death.
And last month the test was used in Alberta to identify human remains found in 2003 as those of a man who was swept away while swimming the Bow River in 1991.
Meanwhile, Chahal said a recent advance may prove even more valuable than mitochondrial DNA testing. The latest technique is the same as nuclear DNA testing, but it can be used on smaller and degraded samples, he said.
"This technology," Chahal said, "is going to be wonderful."
lkines@tc.canwest.com
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
Cold Case series aims to help solve mysteries
Times Colonist
Times Colonist reporters Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines are highlighting several unsolved cases of missing or murdered people from Vancouver Island, and examining new techniques being used to solve old crimes.
The series includes:
Day 1: Monday: How a young North Vancouver mother of two ended up strangled to death on the Island 24 years ago.
Day 2: Tuesday: The baffling disappearance of 17-year-old Carmen Robinson.
Day 3: Wednesday: How a mysterious call from "Mr. Murdoch" ended in murder.
Day 4: Thursday: Why detectives hope playing cards hold the key to cracking a 20-year-old murder of two Oak Bay High school grads in Washington.
Day 5: Friday: Minutes after his routine physical at CFB Esquimalt, a strapping 17-year-old cadet was found lying near Admirals Road with a severe injury.
Day 6: Saturday: In 1958, Tommy (Babe) Price was dumped in the ocean with a broken neck, and an axe wound to his head. He was just 13.
Have a tip? If you have information that might help solve these cases, you can reach Lindsay Kines at 250-381-7890 or lkines@tc.canwest.com and Rob Shaw at 250-380-5350 or rfshaw@tc.canwest.com.
The Times Colonist
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/features/coldcases/story.html?id=1c4b4722-3a26-4af3-b49f-0f22dada7c13
Times Colonist reporters Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines are highlighting several unsolved cases of missing or murdered people from Vancouver Island, and examining new techniques being used to solve old crimes.
The series includes:
Day 1: Monday: How a young North Vancouver mother of two ended up strangled to death on the Island 24 years ago.
Day 2: Tuesday: The baffling disappearance of 17-year-old Carmen Robinson.
Day 3: Wednesday: How a mysterious call from "Mr. Murdoch" ended in murder.
Day 4: Thursday: Why detectives hope playing cards hold the key to cracking a 20-year-old murder of two Oak Bay High school grads in Washington.
Day 5: Friday: Minutes after his routine physical at CFB Esquimalt, a strapping 17-year-old cadet was found lying near Admirals Road with a severe injury.
Day 6: Saturday: In 1958, Tommy (Babe) Price was dumped in the ocean with a broken neck, and an axe wound to his head. He was just 13.
Have a tip? If you have information that might help solve these cases, you can reach Lindsay Kines at 250-381-7890 or lkines@tc.canwest.com and Rob Shaw at 250-380-5350 or rfshaw@tc.canwest.com.
The Times Colonist
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/features/coldcases/story.html?id=1c4b4722-3a26-4af3-b49f-0f22dada7c13
Axe killinger a 50-year mystery. Campbell River, British Columbia
Axe killing a 50-year mystery
No motive, suspect ever discovered in teen's 1958 death in Campbell River
Rob Shaw
Times Colonist
Saturday, September 27, 2008
CREDIT: Times Colonist files
Headline in Daily Colonist, Feb.6, 1958 asked for the public's help.
Who: Tommy (Babe) Price, 13
What: Homicide -- broken neck and axe wound to back of head
When: Last seen Feb. 2, 1958, leaving a bowling alley in Campbell River
Where: Body found Feb. 3, 1958, floating in the ocean near Campbell River's Argonaut Wharf
Tommy (Babe) Price's watch stopped at 9:26 p.m. on Feb. 2, 1958, and likely so did his life.
Four hours earlier, he'd been leaving his job at a bowling alley in Campbell River. But instead of arriving home to family at the Weiwaikum First Nation, the 13-year-old was found floating in the water the next day with a broken neck and an axe wound in the back of his head.
What happened in the four hours between when Price left work and when his watch stopped -- probably as he was thrown in the water?
The mystery is now 50 years old. The Price case remains one of the oldest unsolved homicides on Vancouver Island, according to a past RCMP Island District unsolved homicides and missing persons report obtained by the Times Colonist.
(The RCMP did not provide a more recent and comprehensive list, saying it would be unfair to the families of the victims.)
A teenager out on a fishing trip found Price's body floating offshore near Campbell River's Argonaut Wharf on Feb. 3, 1958.
At first, police thought he might have fallen into the water. But an examination by a pathologist concluded he was dead before ending up in the ocean.
Someone had broken Price's neck and left a five-centimetre gash in the back of his head, the pathologist found.
"The wound was clean, indicating it had been caused by a sharp instrument, such as an axe," the Victoria Daily Times reported at the time.
Police appealed for help from anyone who had seen Price that night. The teenager set pins at the local bowling alley in an age before machines took over the job.
He was last seen around 5:15 p.m. on Feb. 2, the Times reported. The bowling alley was only a four-minute walk from his home at the Weiwaikum First Nation.
A coroner's jury blamed persons unknown for the death of Price.
Dr. Ross G.D. McNeely told the jury Price's death had been caused by "severe injury at the back of the head and a clean cut about three inches long at the level of the ear, possibly made by a single blow, maybe by an axe or sharp instrument," the Daily Colonist reported.
Thirty-three years later, police decided to take another look at the case.
Campbell River RCMP opened a file on his death in 1991.
Detachment commander Insp. Lyle Gelinas told the Times Colonist his officers recently researched the Price file at the newspaper's request.
However, Gelinas did not return a call for comment yesterday to explain what, if anything, the RCMP discovered in its search.
Price's nephew Larry said it would be nice to get closure on the case after all these years.
Other family members and friends said they'd prefer not to talk about it because the case stirs up too many bad memories.
Rob Shaw can be reached at 250-380-5350 or rfshaw@tc.canwest.com
SPECIAL REPORT: PART SIX OF SIX
During this week, Times Colonist reporters Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines have highlighted several unsolved cases of missing or murdered people from the Island, and examine new techniques being used to solve old crimes.
Monday: How a young North Vancouver mother of two ended up strangled to death on the Island 24 years ago.
Tuesday: The baffling disappearance of 17-year-old Carmen Robinson.
Wednesday: How a mysterious call from "Mr. Murdoch" ended in murder.
Thursday: Why detectives hope playing cards hold the key to cracking a 20-year-old murder of two Oak Bay High school grads in Washington.
Yesterday: Minutes after his routine physical at CFB Esquimalt, a strapping 17-year-old cadet was found lying near Admirals Road with a severe injury.
Today: In 1958, Tommy (Babe) Price was dumped in the ocean with
a broken neck, and an axe wound to his head. He was just 13.
Missed a story? Read the series online at timescolonist.com.
Have a tip? If you have information that might help solve these cases,
you can reach Lindsay Kines at 250-381-7890 or lkines@tc.canwest.com and Rob Shaw at 250-380-5350 or rfshaw@tc.canwest.com.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
Band seeks help in finding missing girls
Band seeks help in finding missing girls
Dave Rogers
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Just days after a group of cross-country marchers called for an inquiry into the disappearance and deaths of more than 3,000 women, an aboriginal band is asking for the public's help to find two Maniwaki girls who disappeared on Sept. 5.
Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg councillor Marlene Carle said yesterday that Maisy Odjick, 16, and Shannon Alexander, 17, left home during the evening after telling Shannon's father they were going out.
Two girls who looked like the pair were spotted in Gatineau last week, but police were not able to locate them.
Kitigan Zibi police notified police forces across Canada
after a search near Maniwaki, about 135 kilometres north of Gatineau, failed to find any trace of the girls.
"What is very out of character for these young women is that they left without their purses or cellphones," Ms. Carle said. "The question of kidnapping has been brought up and that hasn't been ruled out.
"Nobody has asked for a ransom, but this is suspicious because it is not like these women to do this. Maisy was to start school on the Monday after she disappeared."
The band's request for help comes after a group of 500 people completed a journey from Vancouver to Parliament Hill this week to ask the federal government to launch an inquiry into decades of cases of missing women.
The group, Walk4Justice, collected thousands of signatures supporting their demands, which include reopening investigations and requiring more severe punishments for violence against women.
Although many women who disappeared or were murdered are aboriginal, Gladys Radek, who co-organized the walk, said the group's campaign is intended to protect all women.
Kitigan Zibi police chief Gordon McGregor said anyone who sees the missing girls should contact the band police department at 819-449-6000 or a local police department. Chief McGregor said no other teenagers have disappeared from the reserve.
Maisy Odjick is described as about six-feet tall and weighing 119 to 125 pounds. She has short brown hair, a pierced left nostril and two piercings on her lower lip.
Shannon Alexander is five-foot-nine, weighs about 145 pounds and has brown eyes and short, dark-brown hair. She has facial acne, pierced ears and wears a silver necklace with a feather on it.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
Dave Rogers
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Just days after a group of cross-country marchers called for an inquiry into the disappearance and deaths of more than 3,000 women, an aboriginal band is asking for the public's help to find two Maniwaki girls who disappeared on Sept. 5.
Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg councillor Marlene Carle said yesterday that Maisy Odjick, 16, and Shannon Alexander, 17, left home during the evening after telling Shannon's father they were going out.
Two girls who looked like the pair were spotted in Gatineau last week, but police were not able to locate them.
Kitigan Zibi police notified police forces across Canada
after a search near Maniwaki, about 135 kilometres north of Gatineau, failed to find any trace of the girls.
"What is very out of character for these young women is that they left without their purses or cellphones," Ms. Carle said. "The question of kidnapping has been brought up and that hasn't been ruled out.
"Nobody has asked for a ransom, but this is suspicious because it is not like these women to do this. Maisy was to start school on the Monday after she disappeared."
The band's request for help comes after a group of 500 people completed a journey from Vancouver to Parliament Hill this week to ask the federal government to launch an inquiry into decades of cases of missing women.
The group, Walk4Justice, collected thousands of signatures supporting their demands, which include reopening investigations and requiring more severe punishments for violence against women.
Although many women who disappeared or were murdered are aboriginal, Gladys Radek, who co-organized the walk, said the group's campaign is intended to protect all women.
Kitigan Zibi police chief Gordon McGregor said anyone who sees the missing girls should contact the band police department at 819-449-6000 or a local police department. Chief McGregor said no other teenagers have disappeared from the reserve.
Maisy Odjick is described as about six-feet tall and weighing 119 to 125 pounds. She has short brown hair, a pierced left nostril and two piercings on her lower lip.
Shannon Alexander is five-foot-nine, weighs about 145 pounds and has brown eyes and short, dark-brown hair. She has facial acne, pierced ears and wears a silver necklace with a feather on it.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
Investigator looking for missing women clues in Terrace
By Margaret Speirs - Terrace Standard
Published: September 16, 2008 11:00 PM
INTUITION is bringing a private investigator back to the Northwest to scour the area around Terrace for clues into the disappearances and murders of women along the Highway of Tears.
Ray Michalko of Valley Pacific Investigations in Surrey chose to take the suggestions of a couple of psychics, who prefer to be called intuitives, who said he should search here again.
The second psychic told him to look in an area close to where the first psychic told him.
“I find it kind of interesting that two different people would come up with this area,” he said by phone from his office last week.
“Intuitives will be the first to tell you it’s not an exact science, but neither is police work or any other kind of investigations.”
He will spend Sept. 20 with some friends he’s made here looking for what he believes could be human remains or items – the psychics weren’t specific about what he should look for – but he declined to specify the area around Terrace where he will be looking.
“I don’t want to say at this time but it’s close to town,” he said, adding that he didn’t want to name which case he would be investigating while here.
He will also go to Prince George and then to Smithers to follow up on a few leads there.
“I’ve actually got a few leads with regard to Delphine Nikal, not new leads, but leads I haven’t got the chance to check out yet,” he said. “[Nikal] and Ramona Wilson and Roxanne Thiara all have connections in the Smithers area.”
Michalko, a retired police officer, has been investigating the disappearances and murders of women along the Highway of Tears since becoming intrigued with the cases a couple years ago.
Michalko usually notifies police when he’s in the area investigating so if they get any calls regarding suspicious behaviour, they won’t arrest him.
“I’m not sure if I’ll do that or not. I usually do that depending on where I’m working. I haven’t been that popular with them lately. It might be better to sneak into town and out,” he said, laughing.
He still believes someone has the information that will crack these cases wide open.
“I know people know things, it’s just how to convince them to come forward and if they do come forward, will that information help solve cases or get a conviction,” he said.
“I continue to believe that based on the calls I get that people are seriously wanting to help.”
Despite police warnings to back off the cases last year so as not to interfere with the police investigation, Michalko has continued investigating, driven by the theory that someone out there has information about the disappearances and may not want to talk to police but may talk to him.
He hasn’t talked to the families of the missing women, such as Tamara Chipman’s family, lately because he doesn’t want to cause them any grief or interfere with the police investigation.
“Like most people I’m not convinced the [police] investigation is doing that much. I’m not breaking any laws and I don’t intend to,” he said.
When in Prince George, he intends to attend a forum called Stopping the Sexual Exploitation of Children, Youth and Women, which is expected to bring in 300 people from around the north.
Michalko will use that opportunity to meet people who may be able to provide leads or information about the cases.
“I’m more than happy to talk to anyone who wants to talk to me or who doesn’t want to talk to police,” he said.
Find this article at:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/terracestandard/news/28415409.html
© Copyright Black Press. All rights reserved.
Thursday, September 25
Amateur sleuthing reveals a likely murder that remains unsolved
Cold case book puts focus on 1978 murder
Amateur sleuthing reveals a likely murder that remains unsolved
Allison Hanes
Canwest News Service
Thursday, September 25, 2008
TORONTO - When 19-year-old Theresa Allore went missing from school in Quebec's Eastern Townships in November 1978, Champlain College was in disarray.
The campus was bursting at the seams due to record enrolment. Students were housed at dormitories in the countryside where there was limited supervision and infrequent transport to and from classes. Many students, including Theresa, resorted to hitchhiking.
Theresa's disappearance, the subject of an upcoming book by former Vancouver police officer Kim Rossmo, went unnoticed for a week, and in the end, it was her friends who alerted police. School officials of the day did little to support her parents in their search.
Instead, a campus official of the day suggested to Theresa's father her vanishing had something to do with "lesbian tendencies" and that she'd need psychiatric help when she eventually turned up.
During the long winter between Theresa's disappearance and the discovery of her body face-down in a creek on a farm the following spring, Champlain continued to bill her parents for her room and tuition, plus interest.
Theresa's younger brother, John, has been a harsh critic of the cold indifference shown to his sister's fate since going on a quest for closure six years ago. That quest quickly morphed into amateur sleuthing of a likely murder - by a possible serial predator who went undetected - that remains unsolved.
But Allore's pressure on Quebec's big bureaucracy - from the college to the provincial police force and the Justice Department - may have finally turned a corner.
On Thursday, he will attend a ceremony at Champlain Regional College in Lennoxville, Que., as it is now formally called, to announce a $1,000-a-year memorial scholarship in Theresa's name and launch a $20,000 fundraising drive for the endowment.
Allore vows not talk to about the mystery surrounding Theresa's death, nor his ongoing efforts to resolve it.
"In that room it's going to be about Theresa and celebrating her memory," he said.
Allore has other reasons for returning to Quebec this week. He will be talking up the chapter he contributed for a new book, which came about when he was called upon to tell his story to Rossmo, the ex-Vancouver police officer who invented the widely used crime-solving technique called geographic profiling.
Rossmo, now a professor at Texas State University, was the first to sound the alarm about a serial killer stalking sex workers on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside when he was pioneering his methods in British Columbia. But he was dismissed and left town before he was eventually proven right with the conviction of Robert Pickton this year.
Rossmo used statistics to substantiate Allore's theory that a serial killer was stalking Quebec's Eastern Townships in the late 1970s and helped him draw a possible link between Theresa's death and two others: Louise Camirand and Manon Dube.
Rossmo's book, Criminal Investigative Failures, is due out in November and will serve as a manual for how law enforcement can avoid the blind spots and biases that often undermine police work.
Allore said it meant a lot to him to be able to provide the human touch to a very technical text.
"He told me this is like the anchor of the book," he said. "I'm really honoured and really proud of that. This is an academic book. It's not a titillating kind of thing. It's going to be used for research and teaching."
Allore said he is under no illusion Theresa's slaying will be solved imminently.
"I'm at peace with the crime never being solved. I was at peace with that five years ago - the point was to make sure that kind of thing never happened again."
Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Who Killed Theresa
http://whokilledtheresa.blogspot.com/
Ex-cop says he suspected serial killer
http://www.missingpeople.net/vancouver_police_kept_quite_on_possible_serial_killer-june_21,_2001.htm
Interview with John Allore on Missing Pieces
http://missingpiecesshow.homestead.com/MissingPiecesEpisode28Archive.html
Sleuth the Truth
http://blogs.discovery.com/sleuth_truth/
Amateur sleuthing reveals a likely murder that remains unsolved
Allison Hanes
Canwest News Service
Thursday, September 25, 2008
TORONTO - When 19-year-old Theresa Allore went missing from school in Quebec's Eastern Townships in November 1978, Champlain College was in disarray.
The campus was bursting at the seams due to record enrolment. Students were housed at dormitories in the countryside where there was limited supervision and infrequent transport to and from classes. Many students, including Theresa, resorted to hitchhiking.
Theresa's disappearance, the subject of an upcoming book by former Vancouver police officer Kim Rossmo, went unnoticed for a week, and in the end, it was her friends who alerted police. School officials of the day did little to support her parents in their search.
Instead, a campus official of the day suggested to Theresa's father her vanishing had something to do with "lesbian tendencies" and that she'd need psychiatric help when she eventually turned up.
During the long winter between Theresa's disappearance and the discovery of her body face-down in a creek on a farm the following spring, Champlain continued to bill her parents for her room and tuition, plus interest.
Theresa's younger brother, John, has been a harsh critic of the cold indifference shown to his sister's fate since going on a quest for closure six years ago. That quest quickly morphed into amateur sleuthing of a likely murder - by a possible serial predator who went undetected - that remains unsolved.
But Allore's pressure on Quebec's big bureaucracy - from the college to the provincial police force and the Justice Department - may have finally turned a corner.
On Thursday, he will attend a ceremony at Champlain Regional College in Lennoxville, Que., as it is now formally called, to announce a $1,000-a-year memorial scholarship in Theresa's name and launch a $20,000 fundraising drive for the endowment.
Allore vows not talk to about the mystery surrounding Theresa's death, nor his ongoing efforts to resolve it.
"In that room it's going to be about Theresa and celebrating her memory," he said.
Allore has other reasons for returning to Quebec this week. He will be talking up the chapter he contributed for a new book, which came about when he was called upon to tell his story to Rossmo, the ex-Vancouver police officer who invented the widely used crime-solving technique called geographic profiling.
Rossmo, now a professor at Texas State University, was the first to sound the alarm about a serial killer stalking sex workers on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside when he was pioneering his methods in British Columbia. But he was dismissed and left town before he was eventually proven right with the conviction of Robert Pickton this year.
Rossmo used statistics to substantiate Allore's theory that a serial killer was stalking Quebec's Eastern Townships in the late 1970s and helped him draw a possible link between Theresa's death and two others: Louise Camirand and Manon Dube.
Rossmo's book, Criminal Investigative Failures, is due out in November and will serve as a manual for how law enforcement can avoid the blind spots and biases that often undermine police work.
Allore said it meant a lot to him to be able to provide the human touch to a very technical text.
"He told me this is like the anchor of the book," he said. "I'm really honoured and really proud of that. This is an academic book. It's not a titillating kind of thing. It's going to be used for research and teaching."
Allore said he is under no illusion Theresa's slaying will be solved imminently.
"I'm at peace with the crime never being solved. I was at peace with that five years ago - the point was to make sure that kind of thing never happened again."
Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Who Killed Theresa
http://whokilledtheresa.blogspot.com/
Ex-cop says he suspected serial killer
http://www.missingpeople.net/vancouver_police_kept_quite_on_possible_serial_killer-june_21,_2001.htm
Interview with John Allore on Missing Pieces
http://missingpiecesshow.homestead.com/MissingPiecesEpisode28Archive.html
Sleuth the Truth
http://blogs.discovery.com/sleuth_truth/
Wednesday, September 24
1978 murder focus of book on cold cases
Theresa Allore; Serial-killer theory plausible, ex-policeman says
Allison Hanes, National Post Published: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
handout/National Post file photo
When 19-year-old Theresa Allore went missing from school in Quebec's Eastern Townships in November, 1978, Champlain College was in disarray.
The campus was bursting at the seams due to record enrolment. Students were housed at dormitories in the countryside where there was limited supervision and infrequent transport to and from classes. Many students, including Theresa, resorted to hitchhiking.
Theresa's disappearance went unnoticed for a week, and in the end it was her friends who alerted police. School officials of the day did little to support her parents in their search.
Instead, the campus director of the day suggested to Theresa's father her vanishing had something to do with "lesbian tendencies" and that she'd need psychiatric help when she eventually turned up.
During the long winter between Theresa's disappearance and the discovery of her body face-down in a creek on a farm the following spring, Champlain continued to bill her parents for her room and tuition, plus interest.
Theresa's younger brother, John, has been a harsh critic of the cold indifference shown to his sister's fate since going on a quest for closure six years ago. That quest quickly morphed into amateur sleuthing of a likely murder by a possible serial predator who went undetected due to small-town police incompetence -- and remains unsolved.
But Mr. Allore's pressure on Quebec's big bureaucracy -- from the college to the provincial police force and the justice department -- may have finally turned a corner.
Tomorrow he will attend a ceremony at Champlain Regional College in Lennoxville, Que., as it is now formally called, to announce a $1,000-a-year memorial scholarship in Theresa's name and launch a $20,000 fundraising drive for the endowment.
Mr. Allore vows not talk to about the mystery surrounding Theresa's death, nor his ongoing efforts to resolve it.
"In that room it's going to be about Theresa and celebrating her memory," he said.
Mr. Allore has other reasons for returning to Quebec this week. He will be talking up the chapter he contributed for a new book, which came about when he was called upon to tell his story to Kim Rossmo, a former Vancouver police officer who invented the widely used crime-solving technique called geographic profiling.
Mr. Rossmo, now a professor at Texas State University, was the first to sound the alarm about a serial killer stalking sex workers on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside when he was pioneering his methods in B. C. But he was dismissed and left town before he was eventually proven right with the conviction of Robert Pickton.
Mr. Rossmo used statistics to substantiate Mr. Allore's theory that a serial killer was stalking Quebec's Eastern Townships in the late 1970s and helped him draw a possible link between Theresa's death and two others: Louise Camirand and Manon Dube.
Mr. Rossmo book, Criminal Investigative Failures, is due out in November and will serve as a manual for how law enforcement can avoid the blind spots and biases that often undermine police work.
Mr. Allore said it meant a lot to him to be able to provide the human touch to a very technical text.
"He told me this is like the anchor of the book," he said. "I'm really honoured and really proud of that.… This is an academic book. It's not a titillating kind of thing. It's going to be used for research and teaching."
Mr. Allore said he is under no illusion Theresa's slaying will be solved imminently, but he hasn't raised his hopes, either.
"I'm at peace with the crime never being solved. I was at peace with that five years ago -- the point was to make sure that kind of thing never happened again."
ahanes@nationalpost.com
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
John's Website:
Who Killed Theresa
http://whokilledtheresa.blogspot.com/
Interview with John Allore on Missing Pieces
http://missingpiecesshow.homestead.com/MissingPiecesEpisode28Archive.html
Saturday, September 13
Laboucan charged with second murder
Serving life for killing Nina Courtepatte, he now faces charges in death of city prostitute
Steve Lillebuen
The Edmonton Journal
Saturday, September 13, 2008
EDMONTON - Joseph Laboucan, currently serving a life sentence for the April 2005 killing of 13-year-old Nina Courtepatte, has been charged with a second murder.
RCMP charged Laboucan, 23, with second-degree murder Thursday in connection with the death of Edmonton prostitute Ellie May Meyer.
The street-savvy woman was last seen April 1, 2005, two days before Nina was raped and murdered on a golf course outside the city.
Police investigators think Meyer was killed around the time she disappeared, court documents show.
Investigators allege that Laboucan's DNA was found on the murdered woman's body, which was discovered in a field east of Edmonton on May 6, 2005, police revealed in court documents.
Meyer, 33, worked as a prostitute for seven years along 118th Avenue. Like Laboucan, she lived in the Fort St. John, B.C., area as a teenager.
Meyer had two children. One died shortly after birth and her son was given up for adoption. She was bilingual and had dreams of becoming a nurse, her mother, Evanelina, said.
Laboucan was 19 when he was first arrested following the discovery of Nina's body. At the time, he described to police an entirely different attack. During the April 5, 2005, interview, he was adamant that the group beating he described happened on Thursday or Friday, two days before Nina was killed.
He said he ran into old gang associates and they picked up two prostitutes from 118th Avenue. The women were later beaten, he said.
One of them was a mother, Laboucan told police, saying he disapproved of their chosen profession, according to court documents.
"I don't like hookers. I don't agree with hookers," he told police. "I think that anybody should be able to go and find a job. You don't have to go to hooking." Laboucan is serving a life sentence in prison in Prince Albert, Sask. He was convicted in 2007 for abducting Nina from West Edmonton Mall on the promise of a party, then helping a group of mall rats rape and beat the girl to death on a golf course on April 3, 2005.
Requests to interview Laboucan while he was at Edmonton Institution this summer were denied by Ron Boutin, the institution's warden, even though Laboucan has requested an interview in a letter to the Journal.
Laboucan has since been transferred to Prince Albert.
During Laboucan's murder trial, witnesses who were also accused in the case, fingered him as the ringleader of the attack, but he refuted their claims, saying he was the fall guy who was framed for a killing he only witnessed.
"I would never, ever be able to take anybody's life," he told police during an interview. "And I'm telling you that honestly." Laboucan said he suffered from multiple medical problems, including attention deficit disorder, epilepsy and grand mal seizures.
"No one can believe one word that comes out of the mouth of Laboucan," lawyer Peter Royal, who defended one of the co-accused, said during his closing arguments earlier this year.
Laboucan has appealed his 2007 murder conviction, but a verdict from a panel of three judges has not yet been released. He is expected to appear in provincial court next week to answer to the new murder charge.
He is the second man to face charges from the Project Kare task force.
In 2007, Thomas Svekla was charged in the deaths of two women. He was convicted of killing Theresa Innes, 36, but acquitted in the death of Rachel Quinney, 19.
slillebuen@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
Friday, September 12
Walk for Justice passes through Deseronto
Posted By Emma Taylor
Sept 12, 2008
(DESERONTO) The number of murdered and missing First Nations women in Canada, a number that continues to grow, is alarming and must be stopped according to a group of concerned Canadians, who have set out to from Vancouver to Ottawa to have their concerns heard.
The Walk4Justice is being done to honour the memory of murdered and missing women, most of them First Nations, and most who have become victims of the downtown eastside of Vancouver and the Highway of Tears.
Bernie Williams, a member of the Haida Nation from the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, is one of four founding members of the walk, along with Vicky Peters, Nicole Tait, and Gladys Radek.
The group of 14 men, women and children left Vancouver, British Columbia on June 21 on their way to Ottawa with a petition asking for a public inquiry into the staggering number of the missing and dead.
While they are walking for the 3,000 murdered and missing women in Canada, Williams said that number may vary.
“As we go through the territories the numbers are starting to add up," she said.
They are also accounting for the women who were victims of residential schools and who have died.The reaction from non-native people has been very positive, said Williams.
"It has been incredible just for us to know that there is some good support out there for us," she said.
There has only been one safety incident during the walk with – a car accident outside of Edmonton, where a car with two of the head elders inside was hit by another driver. Those involved were not injured and have rejoined the walk.
Coming through the different First Nations territories has been an emotional time for all involved“Our stop at Tyendinaga has been the best because we got to rest for a few days, and they really respected us. It has really been an incredible journey for us," said Williams.
Williams herself is walking for her mother, who she never knew, and her two sisters, who died in the downtown east side of Vancouver.
"My sisters were murdered down there, and I have been a frontline worker for over 20 years trying to bring awareness to people that this is what is happening to our women. When I say our women I mean all women. Every nationality, every community has been affected by this."
Williams said that even if people only walk a short distance with the group it gives the walkers so much hope. With only a week left to reach Ottawa they are getting anxious and homesick she said. It varies each day how much walking is done, and as the group continues on to Kingston, about 51 kilometre journey, Williams said it is just a cake walk compared to what they have walked. The longest walk was 220 kilometres in one day, she said.
"We are really honoured to be part of this community, and for the supporters to come out has just been awesome."
That support was heartfelt and unconditional. Kimberley Maracle, a member of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Nation said.
“We are here to support the men, women and children that are walking for all of us."
The Walk4Justice will take place again over the next four years, and Williams hopes that their efforts will ricochet across Canada, and people will stand up and say enough is enough.
“We need closure for the families and accountability. That's what it's all about."
© 2008 , Osprey Media
http://www.napaneeguide.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1197421
Tuesday, September 9
Oh, the male of the species
Posted By GRAHAME WOODS
September 9, 2008
Three teenaged girls from the Pakistan province of Baluchistan, each in love with the man they wanted to marry, were kidnapped by a group of men, taken to a remote area, and shot. Still alive, they were dragged to a ditch and buried alive under earth and stones. Their crime? They had insulted the honour of their tribe - the male leaders of which oversaw this "justice."
When I read that item in the Globe and Mail last week I was reminded of a statement in a letter to the editor of this paper, written in the same week, which said, in reference to the 1989 massacre at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, when 14 women were shot down in cold blood by Marc Lepine, "The fact is, Marc Lepine does not represent men in any manner. Marc Lepine represents Marc Lepine ..." (Letters, Thursday, Aug. 28, "Susanna Moodie, a role model for both genders.")
I beg to differ -- strongly. Marc Lepine very much represents men who, throughout history, up until this so-called modern day, have brutalized, raped, killed, battered, imposed upon, and, generally, dehumanized women as if it were their god-given right and, often in the name of those various gods man adopted as a vehicle through which to justify his behaviour.
A 16-year-old Iranian girl, a victim of rape, was hanged from a crane for "Crimes against chastity," the Imam decreed, placing the rope around her neck.
The same letter to the editor also referred to the media overwhelmingly portraying men as something dangerous, denigrating them, ridiculing, dehumanizing them. Really?
I suspect the writer was taking a little license there when, in fact, the clinical approach to reporting, by necessity, so often skims over the shocking heart of a story. It is only through the advent of modern journalism, instant news on television, that people have become so aware of the horrors perpetrated by men, had it thrust into their consciousness.
Just say "Rwanda" and what images leap to mind? How about Belsen? Khmer Rouge? Robert Pickton? Clifford Olson?
The problem is, we become inured to the horrific misfortune of others. Block it out, change channels, turn to the Sports section.
Well, perhaps not. A hockey player having his head smashed into the ice, his neck broken.
The Entertainment section, then? Lots of reviews of movies celebrating mayhem and death.
Perhaps Stratford is better. Well, there's a play about a man who kills his mother.
Is it not interesting that we celebrate what we abhor? It's no wonder there is little outrage directed at the unspeakable actions of so many males of the species, actions that, throughout history have been dismissed by the fortunate as nothing to do with them. And I haven't even mentioned the victims of childhood sexual abuse worldwide.
Boadicea, an early queen in Britain, had to watch while Roman soldiers raped her daughters. Pillage and rape, history's constant theme.
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.
And let's not forget those other males around the world, victims of men, sodomized on the altar of Christianity, covered up by male clerics (who don't want women intruding in their fiefdom) and only brought into public consciousness by journalists and film makers, both men and women.
These are the voices that shout out against the 7,000 infanticides a day in India, the 120 rapes a day in South Africa, against the thinking that condoms shouldn't be used to prevent AIDS; that rail against women being treated as the property of
men, controlled by men, until death do them part - so often in a sadistic and violent manner.
Think of the woman in Zimbabwe whose feet and hands were chopped off and then flung into her house and burned alive. Think of her and weep while remembering the 19 women and three children in Ontario murdered by their spouses, or former spouses, in the first 10 months of 2007.
Oh, yes, Marc Lepine very much represents men and let us not ever forget it.
The letter also suggested that one of the reasons men are dehumanized and demonized in the media is because " ... woman have begun to dominate the national media all the way down to Cobourg's local news media, which is largely controlled by women."
The writer also bandies the archaic word "misandry" around as misogyny creeps into his letter.
Better to have looked at the mastheads of both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star first to discover a sea of men in suits, with four out of 17 names listed being women. Canada had, and has, some of the finest women journalists in the world. The late Christina McCall leaps to mind; Marci McDonald, Chantel Herbert, Stephanie Nolan, Christie Blatchford.
It is insulting to suggest their journalism is compromised by male bias, as it is to suggest women journalists and editors locally slant their work to further a hidden, male-denigrating agenda.
We are fortunate to have a vigourous local media that reports what happens in our own backyard and, guess what, many of the stories involve males who kill, males who assault women, males who rape women ...
There is no need for journalists to "slant" their stories, to demonize men. They do it for themselves, day in, day out.
In the first five months of this year the Northumberland Services for Women shelter has had to turn away 30 women and 17 children fleeing abusive relationships -- this in comfortable, relatively affluent Northumberland County.
The shame is that most men, from the beginning of time, have remained and continue to remain silent, turning a blind eye, accepting, rarely speaking out against other males' abhorrent behaviour.
Grahame Woods, a retired mental-health counsellor and Gemini-winning television playwright lives in Cobourg. He can be reached at ggwoods@sympatico.ca
© 2008 , Osprey Media
http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1190636
September 9, 2008
Three teenaged girls from the Pakistan province of Baluchistan, each in love with the man they wanted to marry, were kidnapped by a group of men, taken to a remote area, and shot. Still alive, they were dragged to a ditch and buried alive under earth and stones. Their crime? They had insulted the honour of their tribe - the male leaders of which oversaw this "justice."
When I read that item in the Globe and Mail last week I was reminded of a statement in a letter to the editor of this paper, written in the same week, which said, in reference to the 1989 massacre at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, when 14 women were shot down in cold blood by Marc Lepine, "The fact is, Marc Lepine does not represent men in any manner. Marc Lepine represents Marc Lepine ..." (Letters, Thursday, Aug. 28, "Susanna Moodie, a role model for both genders.")
I beg to differ -- strongly. Marc Lepine very much represents men who, throughout history, up until this so-called modern day, have brutalized, raped, killed, battered, imposed upon, and, generally, dehumanized women as if it were their god-given right and, often in the name of those various gods man adopted as a vehicle through which to justify his behaviour.
A 16-year-old Iranian girl, a victim of rape, was hanged from a crane for "Crimes against chastity," the Imam decreed, placing the rope around her neck.
The same letter to the editor also referred to the media overwhelmingly portraying men as something dangerous, denigrating them, ridiculing, dehumanizing them. Really?
I suspect the writer was taking a little license there when, in fact, the clinical approach to reporting, by necessity, so often skims over the shocking heart of a story. It is only through the advent of modern journalism, instant news on television, that people have become so aware of the horrors perpetrated by men, had it thrust into their consciousness.
Just say "Rwanda" and what images leap to mind? How about Belsen? Khmer Rouge? Robert Pickton? Clifford Olson?
The problem is, we become inured to the horrific misfortune of others. Block it out, change channels, turn to the Sports section.
Well, perhaps not. A hockey player having his head smashed into the ice, his neck broken.
The Entertainment section, then? Lots of reviews of movies celebrating mayhem and death.
Perhaps Stratford is better. Well, there's a play about a man who kills his mother.
Is it not interesting that we celebrate what we abhor? It's no wonder there is little outrage directed at the unspeakable actions of so many males of the species, actions that, throughout history have been dismissed by the fortunate as nothing to do with them. And I haven't even mentioned the victims of childhood sexual abuse worldwide.
Boadicea, an early queen in Britain, had to watch while Roman soldiers raped her daughters. Pillage and rape, history's constant theme.
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.
And let's not forget those other males around the world, victims of men, sodomized on the altar of Christianity, covered up by male clerics (who don't want women intruding in their fiefdom) and only brought into public consciousness by journalists and film makers, both men and women.
These are the voices that shout out against the 7,000 infanticides a day in India, the 120 rapes a day in South Africa, against the thinking that condoms shouldn't be used to prevent AIDS; that rail against women being treated as the property of
men, controlled by men, until death do them part - so often in a sadistic and violent manner.
Think of the woman in Zimbabwe whose feet and hands were chopped off and then flung into her house and burned alive. Think of her and weep while remembering the 19 women and three children in Ontario murdered by their spouses, or former spouses, in the first 10 months of 2007.
Oh, yes, Marc Lepine very much represents men and let us not ever forget it.
The letter also suggested that one of the reasons men are dehumanized and demonized in the media is because " ... woman have begun to dominate the national media all the way down to Cobourg's local news media, which is largely controlled by women."
The writer also bandies the archaic word "misandry" around as misogyny creeps into his letter.
Better to have looked at the mastheads of both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star first to discover a sea of men in suits, with four out of 17 names listed being women. Canada had, and has, some of the finest women journalists in the world. The late Christina McCall leaps to mind; Marci McDonald, Chantel Herbert, Stephanie Nolan, Christie Blatchford.
It is insulting to suggest their journalism is compromised by male bias, as it is to suggest women journalists and editors locally slant their work to further a hidden, male-denigrating agenda.
We are fortunate to have a vigourous local media that reports what happens in our own backyard and, guess what, many of the stories involve males who kill, males who assault women, males who rape women ...
There is no need for journalists to "slant" their stories, to demonize men. They do it for themselves, day in, day out.
In the first five months of this year the Northumberland Services for Women shelter has had to turn away 30 women and 17 children fleeing abusive relationships -- this in comfortable, relatively affluent Northumberland County.
The shame is that most men, from the beginning of time, have remained and continue to remain silent, turning a blind eye, accepting, rarely speaking out against other males' abhorrent behaviour.
Grahame Woods, a retired mental-health counsellor and Gemini-winning television playwright lives in Cobourg. He can be reached at ggwoods@sympatico.ca
© 2008 , Osprey Media
http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1190636
Saturday, September 6
The Vanishing
FOUR YEARS AFTER AMNESTY CALLED FOR INQUIRY INTO DISAPPEARING NATIVE WOMEN, FEDS STILL MIA
DEB O'ROURKE
How many Indians does it take to get a public inquiry into the cases of hundreds of missing and murdered indigenous women?
Fourteen indigenous women and men on a cross-Canada Walk 4 Justice are hoping their efforts – and heart-wrenching personal stories of lost loved ones and abuse – will be enough to convince the feds when they arrive in Ottawa next week.
Bernie Williams and Gladys Radek led the Walk 4 Justice out of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside on June 21. They arrived in Toronto Friday night (August 29) at First Nations House on Spadina, where a reception was held.
Resting on couches after a welcoming native ceremony and meal, the close group easily cracks jokes or breaks into tears. They’ve had their bad days on the road, when they feel afraid, when they’re haunted by tragedies in their lives.
Several bear severe scars from losing family members to violence, others from their experiences in residential schools. All are making sacrifices to call attention to this ongoing human rights issue.
“Three-quarters of this group is not going home to a job,” Williams points out. “A few of us will not have a home.”
Williams’s mother was found murdered on Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside, as were two of her sisters.
“They were written off as just another Indian,” says Williams.
Radek’s niece Tamara Chipman went missing in 2005 on a stretch of northern BC’s “Highway of Tears,” where so many other women have disappeared.
According to Radek, “The only reason the Highway of Tears got any notoriety is that one white tree-planter went missing. Then it was known across Canada. But Nicole Hoar [from Red Deer, who vanished along the highway in 2002] enabled us to speak out about it.”
But little else has changed since Amnesty International intervened on behalf of indigenous women in 2004 and called out the federal government for its neglect of crimes against them. Indian Affairs stats show that indigenous women are five times more likely to die violently than other Canadian women.
According to that report, “Police in Canada have often failed to provide indigenous women with an adequate standard of protection. The resulting vulnerability of indigenous women has been exploited by indigenous and non-indigenous men to carry out acts of extreme brutality against them.”
Mabel Todd, the Walk 4 Justice’s oldest participant at 74, sheds a few tears. “In every province,” she says, “we hear about murdered young girls.”
It’s not only indigenous women in high-risk activities like prostitution or hitchhiking who have met with violence.
Some, like Tashina General, who disappeared last January from Six Nations outside Brantford, were close to their families and learning about their native traditions. She was last seen at the Village Pizza in Ohsweken.
The investigation of General’s disappearance and murder suggests that authories don’t respond promptly to missing persons reports made by frantic native families.
Norma General, Tashina’s grandmother, painfully recalls, “When my daughter called the police to report Tashina missing, they told her to wait and see if she shows up.”
In the absence of official attention, grassroots organizations estimate more than 500 missing or murdered native women across the country.
“The hardest thing,” says Elvis Wilson, who survived one of this country’s worst residential schools, “is knowing all the people who died on some of these roads.”
Communities and friends know whom they’ve lost.
Walk 4 Justice arrives on Parliament Hill September 15. walk4justice.piczo.com
news@nowtoronto.com
Thursday, September 4
Walk puts spotlight on missing women
Activists begin in Vancouver, to end in Ottawa
Posted By STEPHEN PETRICK, THE INTELLIGENCER
September 4, 2008
A group of activists walked through Trenton and Belleville Wednesday with a message for all three levels of government; do more to protect women.
The Walk for Justice started June 21 in Vancouver, B. C. and is to end with a rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa Sept. 15. Participants are calling for a public inquiry into the disappearance of more than 3,000 women across Canada.
"This is a raising awareness campaign," said Gladys Radek, co-ordinator for the march, during a break in the walk in between Belleville and Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, where participants will stay until Sept. 8.
Fourteen men and women were participating in the Belleville to Tyendinaga stretch late Wednesday afternoon. Some were family members of women who went missing years ago, but have never been found.
Participants walked in front of vans decked with pictures of the missing women and flags representing several Canadian aboriginal groups.
The issue is pressing in native communities, Radek said, because about 80 per cent of missing women in Canada are aboriginal.
When asked why, she answered promptly, "systemic racism and genocide."
"We're lobbying for justice, closer equality and accountability," she said. "And we're asking that through all levels of government -- through police and the judicial system."
The group says people who want to learn more about their message can join their Facebook group, Walk 4 Justice. The public is also invited to a 7-9 a. m. breakfast at the Orange Lodge in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory Friday, where participants will talk about the walk.
Officials from the Mohawk community are hosting the group through the weekend because they see the walk as a positive way to bring native communities together to solve a common problem, said Mary Ann Spencer, co-ordinator of the Tyendinaga Justice Circle.
"It's important for us to come together, put our differences aside, and make sure these men and women are comfortable," Spencer said.
© 2008 , Osprey Media
http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1184204
Tuesday, September 2
Mystery of 8 missing women drew wide notoriety
Journal looks back at Francois murders
By Greg Marano • Poughkeepsie Journal • September 2, 2008
Then came Gina Barone.
Then Kathleen Hurley.
The mystery deepened for almost two years, until police in the City of Poughkeepsie found themselves looking for eight women who had simply vanished.
On Sept. 2, 1998, 10 years ago today, they would find seven of them - and one who had never been reported missing - murdered and hidden in the home of 27-year-old Kendall Francois.
Francois, now 37, is serving a life sentence at Attica Correctional Facility for eight counts of first-degree murder, eight counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted assault.
A decade after the bodies were discovered in the small house on Fulton Avenue, police from the various departments that investigated the case said it remains one of the most horrific and high-profile cases of their careers. It is the biggest case in Dutchess County history given the length of the active investigation and number of murder victims. Solving the case required luck and a lot of work by city and town of Poughkeepsie police, state police, Town of Lloyd police and the Dutchess County District Attorney's office before and after Francois was arrested. The case involved tracking the lives of eight women who went missing. Some of the disappearances were reported months after the women were last seen. The disappearances stretched over 22 months before the bodies of the victims and the forensic evidence of their deaths were found in a grisly scene that shocked the community and drew international attention to Poughkeepsie.
City of Poughkeepsie Detective Lt. William Siegrist said the case was particularly difficult to investigate because of lack of evidence.
Most victims of serial killers are found one by one, yielding forensic clues for investigators to seize on like puzzle pieces. For Francois' victims, this wasn't the case.
"That was the stumbling block through the entire investigation, that we could never find any of the bodies," Siegrist said. "No bodies, no crime scene. There was no crime scene to analyze."
What they had were patterns. Most of the victims had a history of prostitution in the City of Poughkeepsie. Most had drug addictions, and all but one were white.
Task force formed.
The Dutchess County District Attorney's Office formed a task force to find the missing women.
Art Boyko, a captain with the New York State Police, was an investigator at the time and a member of that task force. He recalls the day when handing out fliers regarding the missing Catina Newmaster paid off.
Christine Sala told police she had been assaulted that day at the house at 99 Fulton Ave., Town of Poughkeepsie. This tip led them to the door of Kendall Francois - and eventually to the bodies of Newmaster, Meyers, Barone, Hurley, Catherine Marsh, Sandra French, Mary Healey Giaccone and Audrey Pugliese.
Police brought Francois to an interviewing room in Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department headquarters.
"We wound up talking to him, and shortly thereafter, he began confessing," Boyko recalled.
Francois asked to see pictures of the missing women.
"He wound up looking at them, putting them in a pile, slammed his hand down on the table and said, 'I killed them, I did it.' " Boyko recalled. "And that's how it got started."
That was around 4 p.m. Sept. 1; the interview would continue until 4 a.m. Sept. 2. Francois got hungry. While he ate pizza and drank soda, Francois told them about how he had killed his victims - some of whom he remembered, some of whom he didn't. He told them how he lured them to his house to pay them for sex, and got mad when he thought they were ripping him off. He said he strangled them, and had hidden the bodies in the attic and in a crawl space of the house he shared with his parents and sister.
"I would say he was cold, non-emotional, very matter of fact," Boyko said. "Almost seemed bored confessing to the murders. ... He was never ever upset, never showed any remorse."
Tom Martin is senior investigator in charge of the forensics unit for the state police. He'd handled some long investigations before, but said the Francois case was the longest he's had to hold a single crime scene.
"It took 29 days to go through the whole house," Martin said. "You have to restrict access to most of that city block. There was a lot of personnel to keep it secure."
It took investigators so long to collect evidence because of the condition of the house, which was described as garbage-ridden. Investigators had to methodically work their way into the home, collecting all evidence as they came upon it, according to reports at the time.
The house was extensively renovated and sold in 2000 for $105,000.
Not TV fare
Though there have been some technological advances in crime scene investigations since 1998, Martin said the investigation would not be handled much differently today.
"You don't just jump into high technology," he said, dismissing TV crime dramas that glamorize advanced forensics tools. "You put on a white protective suit, and you roll up your sleeves, and you get dirty."
Michael Woods, now retired, was a detective captain for the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department in 1998. He remembers the magnitude of the case, and the massive police response.
"It took a lot of manpower," he said. "You had to rely on other police departments."
While investigators combed the interior of the house for nearly a month, police secured the scene outside, directing the hordes of media and gawkers, as well as the neighbors of Fulton Avenue trying to live their lives on the suddenly bustling street.
Siegrist said the collaboration was something that stands out in his memory.
"In Dutchess County, we're very fortunate to be able to have the law enforcement agencies that work so well together," Siegrist said.
Woods also praised the teamwork that held the investigation together.
"The paramount thing was the cooperation between the agencies. There were no egos." Woods said. "Egos have no place in an investigation like this. It's got to be a team effort."
Reach Greg Marano at gmarano@poughkeepsiejournal.com or 845-437-4809.
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