Published On Tue Feb 09 2010
Jennifer Yang and Raveena Aulakh Staff Reporters
Women’s underwear, computers and digital photography are all bread crumbs in the investigation that sources say culminated in murder charges against one of the country’s top military superstars.
Many unanswered questions remain in the arrest of Col. Russell Williams, a high-ranking career officer who has been charged with the deaths of two women and the sexual assaults of two others. His charges have also cracked open a Pandora’s box of unsolved murders, with police forces across the country revisiting cold cases involving young women in the areas where Williams has been previously stationed.
Ontario Provincial Police say several connecting factors ultimately led them to Williams but are refusing to divulge any specifics, only citing geography as one of the common elements. But according to Larry Jones, the man who was initially suspected in Williams’ alleged home invasions and sexual assaults, police were looking for very specific items in the early days of their investigation.
Jones, who lives next door to Williams on Cosy Cove Lane in Tweed, said that back when police were investigating him, they searched his home and produced a search warrant for La Senza bras, Jessica brand panties, computers, laptops, and digital photography. Other reports say police were also looking for baby blankets and zip ties.
“They took the (computer) with my pictures on it,” Jones said, adding that police were looking for photographs that the sexual assault victims said were taken of them. Newspaper reports of the incidents have said that the women were struck, tied to chairs and photographed by their assailant.
Little progress was made on the home invasions but they landed back on investigators’ radar screens shortly after Jessica Lloyd disappeared. The 27-year-old was last heard from on Jan. 28, when she sent a text message to a friend.
Belleville police immediately asked for help from the Ontario Provincial Police, who began connecting Lloyd’s disappearance to the sexual assaults, as well as the murder of 37-year-old Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, found dead in her Brighton home in November.
Lloyd’s body was discovered Monday, found off Cary Rd., a winding, dark and secluded stretch located about 13 minutes away from Cosy Cove Lane.
When asked whether Williams is alleged to have stolen underwear, OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae declined to comment.
“Anything evidentiary, I can’t comment on,” she said.
Rae also wouldn’t comment on reports that police traced Lloyd’s disappearance to Williams by using distinctive tire tracks left in snow near the woman’s home off Highway 37. Reports have said that investigators linked the tire tracks to a specific vehicle and that Williams was stopped by police on Feb. 4 during an extensive canvassing of motorists driving along that highway.
Williams was arrested on Sunday in Ottawa, where he also shares a home with his wife Mary Elizabeth Harriman, an associate executive director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. On Tuesday, police were seen carrying bags from the couple’s home.
The colonel appeared shackled at the ankles in a Belleville court on Monday, and is scheduled to appear in court again on Feb. 18 via video link.
The OPP say their investigation is still “very much ongoing” and they have also been fielding numerous calls from other police departments. Hours after the announcement of Williams’ arrest, police services across the country were reopening cases of unsolved homicides involving young women; the colonel, who took over command of 8 Wing/CFB Trenton in July, has enjoyed an illustrious military career that has taken him across the country and even overseas.
At last count, at least four cold cases in Nova Scotia and Ontario were under scrutiny for connection to Williams.
Halifax Regional Police contacted Ontario Provincial Police investigators regarding murders of three young women after they were inundated with calls from people wondering if there was a correlation.
Williams, a career military man, had been posted to the Shearwater base near Halifax, N.S., from 1992 to 1994, according to his biography posted on the Department of National Defence website until Tuesday afternoon. During that same time frame, Andrea King, 18, Shelley Connors, 17, and Kimber Leanne Lucas, 24, were murdered.
“We’ve had some preliminary discussions with them (OPP investigators) but so far they haven’t been able to provide any information that would impact any of our files here,” said Const. Brian Palmeter in Halifax. “But it’s very early on in that investigation.”
There are cases of missing women in that same time period as well but Palmeter said they are not considering those right now. “Homicide files always remain open,” he said, suggesting there is more information in those cases to go on.
He didn’t say if cases of sexual assault will also be investigated again.
Investigators will also look into the unsolved 2001 murder of 19-year-old Kathleen MacVicar in Trenton as they explore links with Williams.
The teen from Nova Scotia was found in Middleton Park, a housing development inside CFB Trenton. MacVicar had been staying with family at the military base when she disappeared June 13, 2001. Her body was found two days later in a corner of the base; she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death.
MacVicar’s mother said she first heard about Williams’ arrest Monday afternoon, and her first thought was “it could be related to Kathleen.” Within hours, OPP had called her.
“I’m glad they are looking at it again,” Colleen MacVicar, Kathleen’s mother, told the Star on Tuesday afternoon from her home in Glace Bay, N.S. She said OPP told her they would be looking “everywhere this person had been and other crimes that have gone unsolved to see if there are any similarities.”
They told her they would also be looking at Kathleen’s case but MacVicar said she isn’t getting her hopes up. She has been disappointed before.
“It would be nice if it was solved, but I’m just waiting here,” she said. “It would give us something to focus on, somebody to blame.”
Williams’ first posting was at Portage la Prairie in 1990, about 85 kilometres from Winnipeg; Glenda Morrisseau, 19, went missing on July 17, 1991. Her battered body was found about three weeks later.
Winnipeg police said Tuesday in an email that they were “aware of the arrest of the Air Force Officer. Investigators will continue to review information as it unfolds.”
Military officials are shocked by the allegations against Williams, and his superiors describe him as a “calm” and “hard-working” member of the Canadian Forces. His arrest has shaken the military community to the core and in light of the charges, Williams has been removed from his commanding post in Trenton. Lieutenant Colonel David Murphy has been currently appointed acting commander, according to the Northumberland News.
Williams’ has performed several high-profile duties throughout his career, piloting planes that have squired the prime minister and governor general around the world and once working out of the secretive Camp Mirage, a logistics based in the Arabian Gulf. Williams also recently oversaw Canadian aid efforts to Haiti.
The small community of Tweed, where both Williams and three of his alleged victims lived, is also reeling from the trauma that has visited their town. On Tuesday, police were visibly present around the area, guarding each exit along Cary Rd. as well as Williams’ residence, which has been cordoned off with yellow tape.
Many residents feel a mixture of sorrow and relief that the investigation has led to an arrest. This past fall, the home invasions caused people to point angry fingers, said Lawrence Ramsay, owner of Tweedsmuir Bar and Grill.
Ramsay said he knew Lloyd as a customer at the Tweedsmuir — pretty and pleasant, she was part of a group who came in on weekends. He last saw her around Christmas but has never seen Williams in the bar.
“How he got tangled up with her, I don't know,” Ramsay said.
Ramsay also said that the boyfriend of one of the sexual assault victims is also an occasional customer at the bar. He said the young couple in their 20s had just moved into the area shortly before the assault. He added they had recently had a baby and have since moved out of the home.
Another woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted lives just doors down from Williams, in a one-story home decorated by lamps and lights in the window. A “Do not trespass” sign has also been placed in the snow bank.
The single mother declined to be interviewed on Tuesday, but previously relayed her terrifying ordeal to the Toronto Sun, stating that her attacker snuck into her room as she was sleeping. He reportedly blindfolded her and tied her hands behind her back before cutting her clothes off with a knife and assaulting her.
She said he took photographs of her before leaving her home just before dawn.
With files from Katie Daubs, Jesse McLean and the Canadian Press
Cold cases revisited?
Here are five cold cases involving women murdered in Winnipeg, Trenton and Halifax that could be reopened after the Williams arrest:
Glenda Morrisseau, 19, a high school student in Winnipeg, disappeared on July 17, 1991. Her battered body was found three weeks later on Aug. 7.
Andrea King, 18, of British Columbia was last heard from on Jan. 1, 1992, when she called home from the Halifax airport. She had just landed in the city and planned to look for work and check out universities. Her remains were found on Dec. 22, 1992.
Shelley Connors, 17, was found dead behind a rink in Halifax on June 1, 1993. She left her family home on May 29 after receiving a phone call from a man.
Kimber Leanne Lucas, 24, was seven months pregnant when she was strangled in Halifax on Nov. 23, 1994. Halifax police say she was known to be a heavy-drug user.
Kathleen MacVicar, 19, disappeared on June 13, 2001 from CFB Trenton. Her body was found two days later in a wooded corner on the base.
Raveena Aulakh
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