1997 Homicide Stats - western Quebec/eastern Ontario
Suzanne Vezina
Male violence. Still going strong. Yup. 1997 saw 17 violent deaths in
western Quebec/eastern Ontario, with males being responsible for 16 of
them. That's a whopping 94%. But, hey, don't take *my* word for it
(details below):
1997 stats for western Quebec/eastern Ontario:
Adult Child Teen
Male Female Male Female Male Female
Murdered 6 8 1 1 1 0
(6 yrs) (4 mos)
Convicted/ 15* 0 3 1
charged
One case unsolved
* three males committed suicide after murdering their victim
TOTALS:
MALE FEMALE
MURDERED: 8 9
CHARGED/CONVICTED: 18 1
----------
2 January 1998
Police solved all but one violent death
Only one person believed responsible for a killing remains free
Don Campbell, Jeremy Mercer and Jake Rupert
The Ottawa Citizen
Police investigators in Western Quebec and Eastern Ontario believe they
have solved all but one of the area's 17 violent deaths in 1997. Only 1
person believed responsible for a 1997 killing is still free.
Here are the stories of the 1997 murders:
Tuesday, March 11, 5 p.m., a semi-detached home in Buckingham
When a Gatineau woman swung open the front door of her mother's small home
in Buckingham, she was confronted by a terrible scene.
There on the floor lay her 70-year-old mother, the hall carpet soaked with
blood from the knife wounds to the elderly woman's throat and head.
Twenty-five minutes after the body of the grandmother was discovered,
Gatineau police arrested the elderly woman's 14-year-old granddaughter and
charged her with murder. Because the Young Offenders Act forbids the
naming of suspects under the age of 16, police could not release the name
of the elderly victim or any other information that could identify the
girl.
The teenager lived with her mother in Gatineau but stayed with her
grandmother frequently. The girl had been having problems with both her
mother and her grandmother, fighting over how much she should be seeing
her boyfriend. Police say they still don't have a clear motive for the
murder.
The teen was declared fit to stand trial and the case is scheduled to go
to court this year.
Saturday, March 15, Carling Avenue, 1 p.m.
Acting on a tip, regional police found the partially clothed body of
22-year- old Carleton University student Angela Tong stuffed in a hockey
bag and dumped in a snowbank behind the Embassy West Hotel. She had been
stabbed several times with a knife.
Steven Bugden, 24, was charged with first-degree murder.
The same day Ms. Tong's body was found, a hotel room covered in blood was
searched by police. They believed Ms. Tong was killed there, stuffed in
the hockey bag, dragged down the southeast stairwell and dumped in the
snowbank.
Over the next couple of days, police discovered a pattern in the lives of
Ms. Tong and Mr. Bugden.
They grew up in the Bridlewood area of Kanata, only blocks apart, and
attended grade school and high school together. Starting when they were in
high school and continuing until the day her body was found, Mr. Bugden
joined, or attempted to join, several groups -- everything from sports
teams to religious groups to university classes -- Ms. Tong belonged to,
police said.
Criminal proceedings against Mr. Bugden are expected to resume this month.
Wednesday, March 19, 10:30 a.m., Fairmont Ave.
The 911 call initially stated a baby had fallen off a counter-top at 94
Fairmont Ave. while bathing and had been injured.
What ambulance attendants found was a four-month-old girl, whose injuries
were serious yet inconsistent with a fall. She was rather the victim of
what police called a classic case of shaken baby syndrome, which would
turn out to rank among the most severe cases ever witnessed in the region.
When physicians first examined the body of Tammikah Wesley Michel, they
found she had been shaken so severely that her right eye had hemorrhaged
and her brain had swollen. The whiplash she had sustained was similar to
spinal-cord injuries suffered in a high-speed car crash. The child would
spend the next 54 hours in a coma, hooked to a life-support system,
fighting a losing battle for her life.
Five months later, the infant's father, Guy Richard Michel, 19, was
sentenced to 5-1/2 years for criminal negligence causing death after the
charge was reduced from manslaughter.
At the time of the death, Mr. Michel was under a restraining order
preventing him from having contact with the child's 17-year-old mother
Jennifer Wesley, and was out on bail on a robbery charge.
Friday, April 11, 1 p.m., a dead-end road in Masham, Que.
It was early on this chilly spring afternoon that Anne Laurin and her
friend Chantal Pilon drove to an isolated country road outside of Masham
to meet an acquaintance.
The whole meeting was something of a mystery.
Ms. Pilon had received a phone call at her Hull home from a man earlier
that day asking her to meet him at this spot. Ms. Pilon agreed, so she and
Ms. Laurin climbed into a Pontiac Sunbird just past noon and began their
drive to this municipality southwest of Wakefield.
When they reached the dead end, a man was waiting for them, parked in a
grey four-wheel-drive pick-up truck. As the Sunbird approached the truck,
the man took out a hunting rifle and fired several bullets through the
driver's window. Ms. Laurin, 32, of Buckingham, was killed immediately.
The man in the truck then kidnapped Ms. Pilon and left police with the
mystery of a dead body in an abandoned car. One week later, after
releasing a composite sketch of the shooter, the Surete du Quebec made an
arrest.
But even after charging Francois Bouthotte, 35, with murder and
kidnapping, the exact events of that afternoon are still not clear. While
Mr. Bouthotte is awaiting trial, police still won't say why the killing
took place and why the two women agreed to meet a man at such an obscure
location.
Mr. Bouthotte underwent a psychiatric evaluation and was determined fit to
stand trial. He will go to trial early this year.
Wednesday, April 16, 1 a.m., Woodfield Crescent
Jeffery Veitch, though still in his teens, was known as a
jack-of-all-trades who could fix just about anything for his Tanglewood
area neighbours. He also dabbled in second-hand televisions and stereo
equipment.
Six days short of his 20th birthday, a group of young men came to his
mother's house to collect a $200 debt for a used giant-screen television.
On their first visit, threats were exchanged, although Mr. Veitch told
them he didn't have the money. Hours later, the gang returned, busted
through the front-door and chased Mr. Veitch from his home until they
caught up with him and started kicking him and eventually stabbing him.
Mr. Veitch died while clinging to a neighbour's door, trying to get help.
On Aug. 29, with the emotionally whipped family of Mr. Veitch looking on,
Frank Glogowski 27, was sentenced to seven years for manslaughter.
Wednesday, May 21, 9:30 p.m., Uplands Drive
Douglas Earl Joe, a Gloucester Hydro lineman, was just three days away
from testifying at a trial relating to his own stabbing three years
earlier when a gunman burst into his Hunt Club townhouse and fired several
shots in what had all the makings of a gangland execution.
While his girlfriend and her daughter cowered upstairs in a clothes
closet, the bullet-ridden Mr. Joe struggled from the townhouse to the yard
before he collapsed and died.
The case offered obvious suspects though police would need several months
before finally charging three men with the killing.
Pre-dawn raids on Oct. 31 netted George Farley and Andre Bosclair. But
Peter Chenier, the man accused of the original stabbing of Mr. Joe,
remains on the lam.
Friday, June 13, 11 a.m. Parking lot of 210 Gloucester St.
The sad life of Bernita Herron came to an end shortly before the driver of
a recycling truck found her naked body stuffed in a hockey bag, in a
shopping cart, and left behind a garbage dumpster. An autopsy showed she
had received several blows to the head with a blunt instrument, or
possibly hit her head during a fall, and had choked on her vomit.
It also revealed Ms. Herron, 36, had been drinking quite heavily before
her death, and that she had not been sexually assaulted.
In the days after the discovery of her body, police learned Ms. Herron was
unemployed and schizophrenic, and had been living an isolated existence in
Ottawa.
She had distant contact with her family in Barry's Bay, 170 kilometres
west of Ottawa.
They determined her whereabouts to about 7:45 p.m., two days before her
body was found.
Police were called to her apartment at that time to remove her boyfriend
of two years, Jeffrey Sloan.
Police asked Mr. Sloan to leave and he did, although Mr. Sloan later told
the Citizen he did not know why police were called and why he was asked to
leave.
At that point, police are certain Ms. Herron went on an excessive drinking
binge and loaded up on at least one prescription drug. Police interviewed
several of her acquaintances and chased several leads without breaking the
case.
No one has been arrested and police investigators aren't optimistic of
solving the case without solid new information.
Friday, July 18, between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., a Thurso farmhouse
When Lise Villeneuve got home from running errands this July morning, she
didn't notice anything unusual at the white woodframe farmhouse her family
called home.
She gave her 2-1/2 year-old daughter a hug and started doing some work in
the kitchen. It wasn't until about a half hour later, at 10:30 a.m., that
she realized the house was a little too quiet. Where were her husband,
Garry Maloney, and their six-year-old son Nicholas?
Ms. Villeneuve gave the house a routine search and then went down the
basement.
That's where she found the grisly answer to her question. The bodies of
her husband and son were on the floor in the dark, unfinished one-room
basement of their home.
For reasons known only to him, Mr. Maloney shot his son point-blank with a
12-gauge shotgun, then turned the gun on himself.
The couple's daughter was in the house with Mr. Maloney and Nicholas, but
was unhurt.
Police spent two days investigating the murder-suicide, but could not come
up with any explanation for the crime.
Saturday, July 19, 10:40 p.m., St. Laurent Boulevard
A minor barroom dispute between two acquaintances at Jillian's Billiard
and Sport Bar turned ugly when the two patrons decided to take their
argument outside to the strip-mall parking lot.
A fight ensued, a small steak knife was pulled and soon 33-year-old Randy
Arcand lay dying on the pavement as the result of a stab wound to the
heart, leaving the lives of two families in the Queen Mary Road area in
total upheaval.
Police searched the nearby area and within two hours arrested suspect Marc
Major and charged him in connection with the killing.
Friday, Aug. 8, 2 p.m., Macdonald-Cartier Bridge
Almost 80 hours passed between what police first believed was an abandoned
car, then a suicide and finally a murder-suicide. Sound confusing? It had
police stumped for several days as the chain of mysterious events
unfolded.
It began with the discovery of a car belonging to William Rogowsky parked
on the bridge in broad daylight on a Friday afternoon.
Three days later, the body of Mr. Rogowsky was pulled from the Ottawa
River near the Rideau Falls.
That led to a search of Mr. Rogowsky's 17th-floor apartment at 545 St.
Laurent Blvd. There, police uncovered clues that led them to a gruesome
discovery in a ninth-floor apartment belonging to 80-year-old Esther
Carlisle and turned the case into a homicide investigation.
Police said Mrs. Carlisle's head had been partially severed as the result
of numerous stab wounds to her neck.
The discovery shocked tenants in the 29-storey condominium, many of whom
had romantically linked the couple despite the 23-year age difference.
One neighbour told police he had bumped into Mr. Rogowsky on the elevator
a few days before the discoveries and had inquired about her health.
The tenant said Mr. Rogowsky replied: "She's resting peacefully now."
Saturday, Aug. 16. 8:10 a.m. Basement apartment, 1815 Baseline Rd.
The body of Emile Beauvais, 39, was found by a friend in his basement
apartment at the troubled Baseline Court Apartment complex. He had been
stabbed several times in the throat the night before.
Right away, police had a prime suspect, and a countrywide, first-degree
murder warrant was issued for the arrest of Nick Grenci, 27. But finding
him would prove to be difficult.
No motive for the attack was established in the next few days, but word
around the complex, which had seen two murders and a murder-suicide in 16
months, was that the unemployed Mr. Beauvais owed a lot of money and
several people had been in his apartment drinking and doing drugs on the
night of his killing.
Over the next few days, acting on sighting tips, police would scour the
area around the apartments but Mr. Grenci would elude them.
Four days later, a $1,000 reward was issued for information leading to his
arrest. Almost immediately, someone called and gave the address of a
downtown building. After only two hours of surveillance, Mr. Grenci was
arrested outside the house on Clarence Street. The next day he was charged
with first- degree murder. His trial is due to start in the summer of this
year.
Friday, Nov. 28, early morning, a Perth-area farmhouse
Ben Watson was depressed, delusional, and was having problems with his
friend and housemate, Antonio Tavares, who he believed was slowly trying
to poison him.
In late November, those problems became so acute that Mr. Watson, 29,
actually threatened to kill Mr. Tavares. Worried, Mr. Tavares, 33, called
the Ontario Provincial Police.
Mr. Watson was charged with uttering death threats and taken into custody.
On Nov. 25, Mr. Watson had his bail hearing.
Dr. Neil McFeely, the forensic psychiatrist who examined him, said that
although Mr. Watson had no history of mental illness, it would be best if
he underwent a long-term psychiatric assessment.
But there were no beds available at the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital,
so Mr. Watson was released.
Just three days later, the bodies of Mr. Watson and Mr. Tavares were
discovered at the farmhouse they shared outside of Perth, about 85
kilometres southwest of Ottawa.
Mr. Watson had shot Mr. Tavares several times. After his friend was dead,
Mr. Watson turned the gun on himself. The men had lived together for more
than a year.
The murder-suicide left both Mr. Tavares' family and mental health
officials frustrated. It was a murder that could have been prevented if
only a hospital bed had been available.
Friday, November 28, night, basement apartment, 249 Bradley St.
Neil Nadeau, 38, had set himself up as a small-time cocaine dealer,
working out of his Vanier home. Neighbours had grown used the late-night
comings-and- goings of various junkies looking to score. Mr. Nadeau was
intimate with the risks of the trade; earlier in the year he had been
severely beaten as a result of a drug deal gone sour.
Sometime on the night of Nov. 28, two men came to Mr. Nadeau's apartment
looking to score some cocaine. Mr. Nadeau had a friend over at the time,
Rose Bannerman, also 38.
Something went horribly wrong.
The men beat Mr. Nadeau to death with a hammer. When they realized they
had a witness to their crime, the two men turned on Ms. Bannerman. They
hit her in the face 14 times with the claw end of the hammer, leaving
flesh clinging to the ceiling of the Vanier apartment.
Investigators, led by detectives Pat Lowell and Terry McIlvenna, worked 20
hours a day for seven straight days, tracking down hundreds of leads.
On Dec. 5, a police SWAT team moved in and raided two homes in Vanier. Lee
Baptiste, 41, and Marc Landriault, 32, both career criminals, were
arrested and charged with two counts of murder. Both men have pleaded not
guilty and are expected to go to trial in 1998.
Saturday, Nov. 29, Franktown
Her family last saw Tammy Proulx early on a Friday evening at her sister's
house, just outside Smiths Falls.
She told her sister she was going out for a bit, would return to shower,
then was headed for a party.
Hours later, Ms. Proulx's bullet-ridden body was found near Franktown,
along rural Carroll Road, which serves as a shortcut between Carleton
Place and Smiths Falls.
For the next three weeks, OPP detectives launched an intensive manhunt in
and around Smiths Falls, trying to piece together the last living hours of
the troubled mother of two small children.
Police quickly learned Ms. Proulx, a mother of 14-year-old Amanda and six-
year-old Sabrina, had been running with a rough crowd. But it wasn't until
Dec. 17 that detectives called in a former boyfriend of Ms. Proulx's and
seemingly cracked the case.
The interrogation led to a charge of first-degree murder against Dennis
Mitchell Whalen, 25, of R.R. 5 Smiths Falls. Mr. Whalen and Ms. Proulx had
a stormy relationship while the pair lived in Carleton Place earlier this
year.
Mr. Whalen remains in custody at the Brockville Jail.
Saturday, Dec. 6, 1 a.m., 66 Mill St., Almonte, Ont.
A fire started in an old couch sitting on the wooden back porch of a
historic building in downtown Almonte. Several people in the upstairs
apartments fled as the flames quickly spread. But two people could not.
They were trapped.
After putting out the blaze that caused at least $500,000 in damage,
firefighters searched the building and found the bodies of Andrea Ceolin,
26, and Billy Coughlan, 28, in the front room of their apartment. They
died of smoke inhalation.
The couple had met in college and were planning to get married.
Their deaths devastated Ms. Ceolin's family in Hamilton and Mr. Coughlan's
in Ottawa.
After four days of investigation, a fire marshal determined the fire was
deliberately set, and a murder investigation kicked into high-gear.
Almost two weeks later, two youths, both male, were charged in connection
with the deaths.
A 14-year-old and a 15-year-old faced second-degree murder charges and are
living at home under strict bail conditions.
On Dec. 23, 18-year-old Marcel Chenier turned himself in at the Kanata
detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police after a warrant was issued for
his arrest.
He, too, was charged with second-degree murder. Mr. Chenier is in a
Brockville jail awaiting his next court appearance on Jan. 19.
The investigation continues and further charges are possible.
Copyright 1997 The Ottawa Citizen
--
Suzanne Vezina df...@freenet.carleton.ca
sve...@sprint.ca
Brad Mills
In article <69qttv$n...@freenet-news.carleton.ca>,
Suzanne Vezina <df...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote:
>
>
>Male violence. Still going strong. Yup. 1997 saw 17 violent deaths in
>western Quebec/eastern Ontario, with males being responsible for 16 of
>them. That's a whopping 94%. But, hey, don't take *my* word for it
>(details below):
What was your motive for posting this? What are you trying to say?