Tweed man relieved after Lloyd arrest

Updated February 8th, 2010


TWEED — News that a man had been arrested in connection with Jessica Lloyd's death was a relief in more than one way for Larry Jones.

Until recently, said Jones, he was considered a suspect in two home invasions in the area.

Police announced Monday those two crimes have been linked to the murders of Jessica Lloyd of Belleville and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau of Brighton.

Col. Russ Williams, 46, of Tweed now faces several charges, including two counts of first-degree murder, in the four cases. Williams is commander of CFB Trenton.

So on Monday, 65-year-old Jones was eager to clear his name.

"My wife and I have been through hell," Jones said.

"Everybody thinks it's me," he said of the home invasions.

Jones said he's lived in the area for 42 years, the last 13 of them in the Cosy Cove Lane home he now shares with his wife, Bonnie. Their home is just northeast of Tweed off Sulphide Road on Stoco Lake.

Sometime Sunday, Jones said, police arrived at 62 Cosy Cove Lane, one lakefront house south of his own.

That white-sided bungalow, said Jones, belongs to Col. Russ Williams, commander of 8 Wing-CFB Trenton, Canada's largest air force base.

Jones said Williams, 46, moved in about five years ago. Bonnie Jones said Williams and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman, had earlier this year moved into a new home in Ottawa.

The Jones' said there'd been no sign of trouble next door and that they knew their neighbour only casually.

"I never, ever expected something like this to be going on," said Larry.

"I never, ever really thought about him, to be honest with you," Bonnie said. "Seemed to be a busy man, coming and going at odd times, if he was here at all, because he also had a house on the base and a house in Ottawa and a wife."

"He's kind of a loner. Does his own thing," Larry said. "I bet you I haven't had 20 conversations more than two minutes long with him."

He said he offered his neighbour tools and help with tasks around the house, but "he wouldn't take my help or anything."

Larry Jones said while he would occasionally see lights on in Williams' house in the very early morning, the other man seemed to be keeping the busy schedule that would be expected of someone in his job.

"This guy comes in in the dark and leaves in the dark," said Jones. "Never see him. He has a controller for his garage — just slides right in.

"I figured, 'Well, that guy's a busy man — base commander and all.'"

Jones' personal ordeal began last fall, when he returned home from bird hunting one day last fall to find more than a dozen police cars parked on his property.

"I thought I'd been broken into," he said.

Instead, police told him it was something "much more serious." Jones said he was taken to the Central Hastings OPP detachment in Madoc, interrogated for three and a half hours, fingerprinted and later given a polygraph test, which he said he passed.

Jones said he was asked about two home invasions near Tweed last September, one of which happened on his road. In those cases, women whose names have been sealed by the court in Williams' arrest had their homes broken into, they were sexually assaulted, bound and photographed by their assailant.

It was a revolting crime that stung Jones to be suspected of such a heinous act.

He said police seized computers, compact discs, DVDs, camera, his hunting knife and workboots and other items from his house. Jones said he's still waiting for the return of some possessions.

Jones said he was never charged — though he was given a list of charges that could be laid against him. His wife said Larry was never suspected in Jessica Lloyd's disappearance and his being suspected in the home invasions was a "ridiculous suspicion."

Jones said he has since been "100 per cent cleared" of any crimes.

Det. Insp. Chris Nicholas of the Ontario Provincial Police confirmed Jones isn't a suspect.

"We don't believe Larry Jones had anything to do with these investigations," Nicholas told The Intelligencer.

He added there are no other suspects.

"All the evidence has led to the arrest of Russell Williams and there is no evidence at this time to suggest there's anyone else involved with these offences."

Houses on Cosy Cove Lane sit along the wooded northeastern shore of Stoco Lake. Bonnie Jones said they'd noticed Saturday that there were curious eyes on the opposite shore.

"There were undercover cars across the lake with binoculars so we knew someone was under surveillance," she said. "We hoped it wasn't Larry."

She and her husband said there was never any indication of trouble at the Williams house.

They arrived home sometime after 3:30 p.m. Sunday to find the bungalow ringed with yellow police tape and white-suited forensic investigators working inside and outside the house.

"I figured at the time they were investigating someone else (other than Williams)," Bonnie said.

The couple was interviewed but Larry Jones said police wouldn't comment on the activity next door.

Though saddened by the death of Lloyd, Jones said, he was hoping his name would soon be clear in the community.

He said he'd been fielding calls all morning from people who'd heard about the investigation and thought his house was the crime scene.

lhendry@intelligencer.ca