Court documents link Nina murderer to disappearance of prostitute two days earlier
Steve Lillebuen
The Edmonton Journal
Thursday, June 26, 2008
A woman's frozen, severed finger was a souvenir of a past slaying committed by one of Nina Courtepatte's killers, a 19-year-old woman told police during their investigation into a murdered prostitute.
When "Buffy," the nickname of a teen now on trial for Nina's murder, was told by police that they were investigating the killing of Ellie May Meyer, she asked if her body was found missing a finger, court documents say.
The Edmonton sex-trader worker disappeared two days before Nina, 13, was killed.
Convicted killer Joseph Laboucan had shown Buffy a pinky finger that he kept wrapped in a paper towel in a freezer, she told police during the 2007 interview, entered as evidence in her own murder trial.
"He said prior to killing Nina that he always takes a souvenir, and he didn't take one from Nina, though," she said. "He showed me that in the morning and it just, it just made my stomach turn really bad."
Police had told Buffy that she was a suspect in Meyer's death, as was Laboucan, whose DNA was found on her body.
Laboucan, now 22, had bragged about being a serial killer, witnesses testified in other court cases related to the slaying of Nina Courtepatte. He told some people that had killed as many as 189 people.
But he had warned Buffy not to say anything about him to police, she told officers investigating his possible involvement in Meyer's death, the court documents say.
Police wouldn't say Wednesday if they ever found a severed finger.
Project Kare, a police task force trying to solve the murders and disappearances of many sex-trade workers and high-risk individuals, is leading the investigation into Meyer's killing.
The 33-year-old was found in a field on May 6, 2005, near the intersection of Highway 21 and Township Road 540, near Sherwood Park. She was last seen on April 1, 2005. The woman, who had dreams of becoming a nurse to help the elderly, ended up working the streets for seven years.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Don Campbell said Wednesday that detectives are looking at individuals who they feel may be part of Meyer's death, but he couldn't comment further because of ongoing court proceedings.
"We believe there are some similarities between the files (of Nina Courtepatte and Meyer) and we are exploring those to see what they are," he said.
During voir dire testimony at Thomas Svekla's murder trial, RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Simmil testified police are investigating other possible serial offenders.
Buffy told police that Laboucan had admitted to killing someone other than Nina, with Stephanie Bird and Michael Briscoe present. He told her it was like an "addiction," Buffy said in an interview with RCMP Const. Rob Kropp.
She had been standing outside a car the day before Nina was killed when he made the comment, she said, the court documents say. Bird was there, too, and told Buffy that they dumped the body in the North Saskatchewan River.
Bird was convicted of manslaughter in connection to Nina's death earlier this year. Briscoe was acquitted of all charges during his 2007 trial, when court heard he had driven the group to the golf course on April 3, 2005, where Nina was raped and murdered. The Crown is appealing.
In one interview, police also asked Buffy if she had any dealings with men who went by the names Ace, Toothless Jay, Tran and Lorenzo. She said she may have met Ace and used to be friends with a man known as Toothless Jay.
Laboucan had once mentioned people with those same names in a 2005 police interview as men who attacked a prostitute.
Buffy said she was co-operating with police when they asked her questions about Meyer because she wanted to help.
"I really, like, feel bad that two died," she said. "'Cause Iike I want to be able to help. I had nothing to do with that, but I don't see why I shouldn't help."
slillebuen@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/courtepatte-verdict-one-teen-guilty-one-not/
Saturday, June 28
Wednesday, June 25
Haunting art exhibit makes impression
CREDIT: John Lucas/Edmonton Journal
Kathy King stands in Roomful of Missing
Women art exhibit
Alexandra Zabjek
edmontonjournal.com
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
EDMONTON - Fifty pairs of eyes focus on the centre of a room where dozens of black shrouded figures are clustered.
It's a haunting image. It focuses attention on a haunting topic.
The portraits and figures are part of a Works art exhibit called "A Roomful of Missing Women," featuring paintings of 50 women from Vancouver's downtown eastside who are missing or have been murdered. The multimedia show by Betty Kovacic is on display at the Stanley Milner Library until July 2.
"I thought it was important that people in Edmonton have opportunities to understand the impact of having missing and murdered women," said Kathy King, from the Prostitution Awareness Action Foundation of Edmonton, which helped bring the exhibit to this city.
"There are so many missing and murdered women in Edmonton, it seems that what's happening in Edmonton was a repeat of what was happening in Vancouver."
King's own daughter, Caralyn, was found dead in a canola field in Sherwood Park more than 10 years ago. The exhibit's black shrouded figures, which are draped in sashes that describe childhood dreams, struck a particular chord with King.
"(My daughter's) dreams were so simple and so profound at the same time," King said. "She didn't want much from life but even what little she wanted, she wasn't able to achieve because of what her addictions did to her."
Kovacic will be at the exhibit on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday afternoons. An artist's reception will take place on Friday night at the library and is open to the public.
For more details on this story, see tomorrow's Journal.
azabjek@thejournal.canwest.com
© Edmonton Journal 2008
Saturday, June 21
Maze of Injustice
WHERE HAVE MY SISTERS GONE?
http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/fight-the-fading-of-the-light/
more about "Maze of Injustice", posted with vodpod
Exhibit like a beauty pageant for missing women
By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA
June 21, 2008
Charlene Etzerza remembered the dreams her own sister had as she perused an Edmonton exhibit on 50 missing women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside today.
While her sister, Connie, died of a suspicious drug overdose more than a decade ago, Etzerza says Connie never sought out the high-risk lifestyle that ultimately killed her.
“My sister, she didn’t want to get hooked on drugs. She wanted to get married, to go to church,” said Etzerza.
So, too, did many of the women whose portraits are on display at the Stanley Milner Library as part of the Works Art and Design Festival downtown. The exhibit’s called A Roomful of Missing Women.
Many of them were involved in the sex trade, but as the exhibit points out, that wasn’t necessarily the life they wanted.
“As a child, I dreamed of being a zookeeper,” reads a sash placed on one of the 50 blow-up dolls shrouded in black at the centre of the exhibition room. The dolls represent each of the missing women, some of whom were victims of convicted serial killer Robert Pickton.
For Danielle Boudreau, the display, while haunting, is like the beauty pageant the women never had. The painter, B.C. artist Betty Kovacic, specifically wanted to create portraits of the women, something Boudreau noted usually only wealthy people get to experience.
“She wanted to bridge the gap between the women of the street and portray them as someone of stature,” said Boudreau, who helped organize the exhibit in Edmononton. “That’s why each of these women has their own picture with their own frames.”
The display includes Alberta victims Georgina Papin and Mona Wilson, and Boudreau said that while the women appear dignified in their portraits, the exhibit is also a reminder of the suffering prostitutes everywhere live through. The tragedies, she noted, include not only the murdered sex-trade workers discovered in rural areas but also many more cases of women who commit suicide, die of drug overdoses or suffer diseases such as AIDS.
“Nobody is counting,” said Boudreau. “Since 2002, 84 soldiers have passed away (in Afghanistan). Since 2002, hundreds of women have passed away on the streets.”
For Etzerza, while her sister Connie wasn’t involved in the sex trade, the exhibit was nevertheless very meaningful for her. “Going through this, it is a healing process,” she said. “It’s been so long since I’ve been with anyone who’s lost someone.”
For Sherwood Park resident Sandy Champagne, meanwhile, the display brought her to tears. “I’ve never been impacted by anything quite so much — the reality of it, the realization that that’s not what they planned,” she said.
The exhibit, called A Roomful of Missing Women, also includes a display on Edmonton’s sex trade. It runs until July 2 at the library’s Edmonton Room.
glenn.kauth@sunmedia.ca
EDMONTON SUN
www.edmontonsun.com
June 21, 2008
Charlene Etzerza remembered the dreams her own sister had as she perused an Edmonton exhibit on 50 missing women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside today.
While her sister, Connie, died of a suspicious drug overdose more than a decade ago, Etzerza says Connie never sought out the high-risk lifestyle that ultimately killed her.
“My sister, she didn’t want to get hooked on drugs. She wanted to get married, to go to church,” said Etzerza.
So, too, did many of the women whose portraits are on display at the Stanley Milner Library as part of the Works Art and Design Festival downtown. The exhibit’s called A Roomful of Missing Women.
Many of them were involved in the sex trade, but as the exhibit points out, that wasn’t necessarily the life they wanted.
“As a child, I dreamed of being a zookeeper,” reads a sash placed on one of the 50 blow-up dolls shrouded in black at the centre of the exhibition room. The dolls represent each of the missing women, some of whom were victims of convicted serial killer Robert Pickton.
For Danielle Boudreau, the display, while haunting, is like the beauty pageant the women never had. The painter, B.C. artist Betty Kovacic, specifically wanted to create portraits of the women, something Boudreau noted usually only wealthy people get to experience.
“She wanted to bridge the gap between the women of the street and portray them as someone of stature,” said Boudreau, who helped organize the exhibit in Edmononton. “That’s why each of these women has their own picture with their own frames.”
The display includes Alberta victims Georgina Papin and Mona Wilson, and Boudreau said that while the women appear dignified in their portraits, the exhibit is also a reminder of the suffering prostitutes everywhere live through. The tragedies, she noted, include not only the murdered sex-trade workers discovered in rural areas but also many more cases of women who commit suicide, die of drug overdoses or suffer diseases such as AIDS.
“Nobody is counting,” said Boudreau. “Since 2002, 84 soldiers have passed away (in Afghanistan). Since 2002, hundreds of women have passed away on the streets.”
For Etzerza, while her sister Connie wasn’t involved in the sex trade, the exhibit was nevertheless very meaningful for her. “Going through this, it is a healing process,” she said. “It’s been so long since I’ve been with anyone who’s lost someone.”
For Sherwood Park resident Sandy Champagne, meanwhile, the display brought her to tears. “I’ve never been impacted by anything quite so much — the reality of it, the realization that that’s not what they planned,” she said.
The exhibit, called A Roomful of Missing Women, also includes a display on Edmonton’s sex trade. It runs until July 2 at the library’s Edmonton Room.
glenn.kauth@sunmedia.ca
EDMONTON SUN
www.edmontonsun.com
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