Posted By JOE WARMINGTON AND DON PEAT, QMI AGENCY
Posted February 12th, 2010
They were pals.
Accused killer Col. Russell Williams and notorious serial killer Paul Bernardo both attended the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.
They both studied economics at the Military Trail campus during the mid-1980s.
They graduated together in 1987, Williams, 46, with a politics and economics degree, Bernardo, 45, with a commerce and economics degree.
Their families both lived along the Scarborough bluffs.
Now police sources tell the Toronto Sun the two were college "pals" who "partied" together and that their relationship is the subject of intense scrutiny by the joint forces team probing the murders of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd.
While speculative, police are even looking into the possibility Bernardo and Williams may have "competed against each other." The source would not elaborate on what that meant.
"If they were friends it's certainly interesting," the source said. "We don't know what this relationship means.
"But we do know that they had spent time together at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus."
When contacted about the revelation of Bernardo and Williams attending U of T Scarborough at the same time, Commissioner Julian Fantino vowed that when "new aspects come to light, the OPP will investigate."
"We are committed to ensure that every aspect of this is investigated and looked in to," Fantino said Thursday night. "I am very confident thanks to the great cooperation of the OPP, Belleville Police, and military investigators."
The commissioner said cops want as much information as possible about Williams' early years.
"We welcome any information members of the public may have on this and encourage them to contact us," he said.
In an exclusive interview, Bernardo's father, Ken Bernardo, said his son doesn't recall Williams.
However, the father wasn't able to reach his son to ask whether he knew Williams by the last name he used in high school and university, or his stepfather's last name, Sovko.
"Paul said he might have run into him there but he didn't know him," Bernardo said, adding he will ask specifically if his son knew a Russ Sovka when he speaks to him again.
Bernardo said they didn't discuss the unsolved crimes in the Scarborough area around his son's crimes or whether Williams may now be suspect in them.
"We don't talk about the past," Bernardo said.
Williams, 46, was charged Monday with two counts of firstdegree murder, two counts of forcible confinement and two counts of break and enter and sexual assault. He'll be back in court Feb. 18.
When Williams attended U of T Scarborough, about 5,000 students attended the commuter campus. There would have been about 250 students attending classes in each year of the economics and commerce program, a school official estimated.
Women were terrified throughout the Scarborough area surrounding the campus in the 1980s following a series of violent sex attacks that culminated with Toronto Police launching a task force to find the Scarborough rapist.
Bernardo, after he was jailed for the murder of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, admitted to several of the attacks.
Following Williams' arrest on Monday, police have vowed to investigate cold cases that intersect with the former CFB Trenton base commander's life.
At this point there is no suggestion of any criminal connection between Bernardo and Williams or any link between Williams and any other attack.
On Thursday, police searched Williams' home in Ottawa, the same day several media outlets reported that he led investigators to the body of Jessica Lloyd following his arrest.
According to a search warrant of another suspect's home before Williams was named the primary suspect and charged, detectives were looking for lingerie, baby blankets and computer data storage devices.
-- With files from Mike Strobel and Chris Doucette
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