Killer Robert Seymour
Happя
Happy
Killer Robert Seymour is still an unsolved mystery
Ron Corbett
The Ottawa Citizen
Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen / Claude and Shelly Lauzon, Carrie
Lauzon's parents, want the Ontario government to investigate the police
handling of forensic evidence in their daughter's case.
The psychiatric evaluations of Robert Seymour, who is now 23, can never be
published under provisions of the Young Offenders Act.
CORNWALL - Before a standing-room only crowd that included a dozen OPP
officers positioned throughout the courtroom, Robert Seymour was sentenced
yesterday to life in prison for killing 16-year-old Carrie Lauzon nearly
seven years ago.
Mr. Seymour, who was 16 at the time of the murder, showed no emotion as the
life sentence was handed down. Although tried as an adult, Mr. Seymour was
sentenced under provisions of the Young Offenders' Act, and is eligible for
parole after seven years.
Mr. Seymour has been in custody since the body of Ms. Lauzon was found by
Cornwall and Mohawk police -- who were investigating the murder of another
teenage girl, 18-year-old Dawn Lazore, two months earlier -- in his home on
the Akwesasne Reserve on March 16, 1994. His time in custody will count
towards his parole eligibility.
The sentence yesterday brings to an end a story that has been shrouded, and
remains shrouded, in secrecy virtually since the day Mr. Seymour was
arrested.
Originally charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of both Ms. Lazore
and Ms. Lauzon, Mr. Seymour pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the
fact in the murder of Dawn Lazore two weeks ago, and received a three-year
sentence. No one else has been charged with her murder.
Yesterday, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of
Carrie Lauzon, Mr. Seymour was sentenced, although the agreed statement of
facts upon which he pleaded guilty did not include an account of how Ms.
Lauzon was murdered. It says simply that Mr. Seymour was seen with Ms.
Lauzon on the night she went missing, and that her naked body was found in
his bathtub the next day.
In other words, after seven years, and dozens of court hearings, no one yet
knows who killed Dawn Lazore. Or how Mr. Seymour killed Carrie Lauzon.
Yesterday, the Lauzon family released copies of letters they have written to
Ontario Attorney General James Flaherty and Solicitor General David
Tsubouchi, asking for an investigation into how police and the Crown
attorney's office in Cornwall handled the slayings.
"We endured psych remands, bail hearings, transfer hearings, preliminary
hearings, severance hearing and endless and repeated appearances for no
other purpose than to watch the defence, Crown and court demonstrate their
repeated inability to co-ordinate schedules," wrote Claude and Shelley
Lauzon, parents of the murdered teenager. "Adjournments were granted to let
the (Seymour) family raise more money to pay the defence lawyer, or because
the defence lawyer's mother was ill or because no judge showed up."
Both police and the Crown attorney's office declined to comment on the
Lauzon's family's request for an investigation.
"This was an incredible failure on the part of the Canadian justice system,"
says Shelley Lauzon. "What we went through, these past seven years, no
family should ever have to endure."
The family has asked the Ontario government to investigate the police
handling of forensic evidence (it took five months to match blood taken from
Mr. Seymour's car to that of Dawn Lazore. In that time, Mr. Seymour's car
was returned to him and he killed Ms. Lauzon). The family is also asking for
an explanation for the Crown's apparent inability to conduct a speedy murder
trial.
Even if more answers come out as a result of a government investigation, the
overriding question in this entire case, however, will forever remain
unanswered:
Who is Robbie Seymour?
He never testified -- there was never a trial -- and he remains as much of a
mystery today as when he was arrested. When asked if he had any comment to
make before sentencing -- at both the Lazore trial and the Lauzon trial --
he said simply: "No thank you, your honour."
He went for two extensive psychiatric evaluations while in custody, but the
results of those tests, under provisions of the Young Offenders Act, can
never be published, nor included in any public court document.
When he was arrested for killing Ms. Lauzon, in the trunk of Mr. Seymour's
car, police found a gym bag that contained four pairs of women's panties,
one white bra, a jar of petroleum jelly, a paring knife, a mirror and
several pornographic magazines.
A skinny, 16-year-old kid when he was arrested, Mr. Seymour is now a
handsome, muscular, 23-year-old man.
He never showed remorse in the courtroom, and what exactly happened seven
years ago, now that the court proceedings are finished, we'll never know.
"We don't know anything about Robbie Seymour, or why he killed our
daughter," says Mrs. Lauzon.
"We were hoping for some answers, after all this time, but we got nothing. I
don't know why anyone should feel good, or safe, about what happened here."
Ron Corbett can be reached at 596-8813 or by e-mail at
rcor...@thecitizen.southam.ca