Police expected to charge Williams in break-ins

Police expected to charge Williams in break-ins
Posted By KENNETH JACKSON AND JON WILLING, QMI AGENCY
April 29th, 2010


Police are poised to lay charges in connection with Ottawa break-ins allegedly linked to accused rapist and killer Col. Russell Williams.

The charges are expected to come as early as today by the Ontario Provincial Police, according to police sources.

As soon as Williams was booked on two first-degree murder charges in February, police in the Ottawa area opened their files to find connections to local sex crimes.

Police were specifically looking at incidents where women's underwear were stolen during several 2008 break-ins in the Orleans area of Simoneau Way and Wilkie Drive, where Williams lived at the time.

Williams is already charged in the deaths of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37, of Brighton and Jessica Lloyd, 27 of Belleville.

He was also charged with two home-invasion sex assaults.

While OPP have been investigating the violent attacks in eastern Ontario, police immediately swooped into the trendy Westboro home Williams shared with his wife after his arrest. Police put the home under a forensic lockdown for a week as they searched for evidence.

Some of the items hauled away included hundreds of pairs of women's underwear.

The investigation would soon stretch across the city.

Ottawa police have been assisting the OPP in the break-ins but they are not leading the local investigation.

A middle-aged couple told the Sun Wednesday evening someone tried to break into their home twice in a two-month period in 2008 on Simoneau Way.

Police visited their home and took the incidents seriously.

"We're concerned because the break-ins are sexual in nature," Karen remembers a detective telling her. She didn't want her last name used.

The couple was warned that there were a number of break and enters along Simoneau Way and Wilkie Drive.

"We didn't know who this was. We just thought it was a petty idiot," said Karen.

When they heard Williams was being investigated for the break and enters it all sort of sunk in.

"We went 'oh jeez,'" she said. Karen was also shocked when

she saw Williams' picture in the paper.

"I remembered him. I said 'why does he look familiar?' Then I remembered I used to see him walking. I think he even smiled at me a couple times."

Police told her whoever was behind the break-ins was studying the victims.

"He seemed to know the habits of the people here on the street," she said.
Article ID# 2555385
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