The week’s two most-talked-about stories had us pondering hidden lives
Judith Timson
Published on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010 2:28PM EST
Last updated on Friday, Feb. 12, 2010 9:12AM EST
Everywhere I turned this week, people were pondering two headline-grabbing stories, each spelling an immediate fall from grace for its male protagonist.
One, the story of hapless Toronto mayoral hopeful and transit commission chairman Adam Giambrone, was a sexual farce that may have brought great pain to him and those around him, but, as sexual scandals tend to do, became a cynical amusement for most of us – just another fool of a politician caught with his pants down and his texts hanging out.
Mr. Giambrone is only 32, so presumably he will, uh, rise again.
But after admitting he’s committed multiple indiscretions despite having a live-in partner, the city councillor was forced to end his mayoralty campaign with a tearful exit, obviously hoping to hold on to his chairmanship of the TTC. Time will tell.
The second story is terrifying.
There is, of course, no moral equivalency between Mr. Giambrone’s downfall and that of Colonel Russell Williams, 46. The respected air force commander at CFB Trenton was shockingly charged with the murders of two women, Corporal Marie-France Comeau, 38, and civilian Jessica Lloyd, 27, as well as two dead-of-night break-ins and sexual assaults in which his victims survived. Police are now checking back through his various postings, looking at other unsolved crimes.
His story left us all horrified and unnerved. Horrified for his alleged victims, dead and alive. Horrified for his wife, an executive at the Heart and Stroke Foundation. We can't stop wondering how a respected military leader, now an alleged sexual predator, could have fooled so many people up and down the line.
Yet don't all serial predators live secret lives until the day they are caught? It's the position of authority and public trust he held – literally in charge of saving our lives – that makes this case so deeply unsettling.
I had strong reactions to both stories as they unfolded.
In Mr. Giambrone’s case, my reaction was impatience – “what an idiot!” – and a slight glaze of boredom as the analyses of why powerful men cheat went into overdrive.
Tell me, is there an alpha male politician out there who doesn't cheat on his partner? Is any powerful male politician willing to step forward and admit what seems to be wholly unfashionable these days – that he doesn't need extra-curricular sex as a release or a spur or a diversion from his daily life and is actually doing the business we elected him to do, not shtupping some wily aspirant on his office couch? Step up and claim our admiration! (Or is it our pity that he’s not getting in on the action?) Dalton? Stephen? Michael? Anyone? I’d put good money on Barack Obama as a faithful husband but, hey, it’s early days.
It’s fair to ask what sex scandals really say about an elected official’s ability to do his job. We know what it says about character. If he’s willing to cheat on his wife or partner, scummily lie about it and stupidly send text messages, is he really the best we can vote for?
On the other hand, we may be approaching a tipping point in the hypercoverage of such imbroglios. There are too many of these stories, and they take up too much of our attention. Perhaps it’s time to accept that who a politician has sex with is not the public's business unless it crosses a line and influences how he or she is doing the job.
My reaction to the Col. Williams story had little to do, in an all-encompassing sense, with the military’s reputation. He could have been the police chief or the mayor: just someone very high up on the food chain.
So, while I understood it was good for morale, I took exception to General Walter Natynczyk’s pep talk at the base that somehow made this case – even for a few seconds – about all our men and women in uniform. (Be proud! Stand tall!)
A retired senior officer claimed on the CBC that soldiers everywhere felt “victimized” by this story.
Excuse me. The only soldier victim here so far has been Cpl. Comeau, whose laughing eyes stare out of photographs and whose father, a retired military man, has questioned how Col. Williams’s behaviour could have gone undetected for so long.
We won't be able to draw any lasting lessons from the Williams case until we determine whether there were missed signals – or even willful denial of what was obvious: whether, in fact, a vicious sexual predator was hiding in plain sight.
But this story may have a lasting legacy: a more rigorous and continued psychological testing of armed forces personnel, even those at a senior level.
In the meantime, we are left to ponder two public men living hidden lives – and the farce and tragedy that results.
Showing posts with label February 11th 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label February 11th 2010. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
Cold cases have to wait for DNA
Conviction needed to get sample for database
By DON PEAT AND JOE WARMINGTON, Toronto Sun
Last Updated: 11th February 2010, 8:04pm
Col. Russell Williams has to be found guilty of the crimes he’s accused of committing before investigators can run his DNA through Canada’s national database.
While many families and friends of cold cases in the four provinces where Williams was stationed were buoyed by his arrest and the possibility that he may be allegedly tied to other crimes, police stress they can’t upload his DNA to Ottawa to be compared to available DNA samples.
Only if Williams is found guilty of murder and sexual assault charges would he then have to be ordered to provide a DNA sample that could be placed in the national database.
Toronto defence lawyer and legal analyst Steven Skurka said police can get a search warrant to get the DNA for individual cases as long as they have some justification.
“I’ve certainly experienced a case where they get the DNA before as well,” Skurka said. “It’s not the case that you’d have to wait.”
But former prosecutor and victim’s advocate Scott Newark said “bottom line” there is no good reason not to treat DNA like fingerprints that are taken when someone is arrested and charged with an indictable offence.
He adds that because courts can, not must, order a sample upon conviction, the system doesn’t always work.
“Recent media suggests we’re not getting post conviction samples as we should,” he said, adding there are absurd restrictions on getting it from prisoners already in custody.
“DNA evidence helps solve unsolved crime and thereby prevents future crime,” Newark said. “As I put it once, if we had proper DNA laws there are a bunch of guys currently in jail who wouldn’t be coming out.”
By DON PEAT AND JOE WARMINGTON, Toronto Sun
Last Updated: 11th February 2010, 8:04pm
Col. Russell Williams has to be found guilty of the crimes he’s accused of committing before investigators can run his DNA through Canada’s national database.
While many families and friends of cold cases in the four provinces where Williams was stationed were buoyed by his arrest and the possibility that he may be allegedly tied to other crimes, police stress they can’t upload his DNA to Ottawa to be compared to available DNA samples.
Only if Williams is found guilty of murder and sexual assault charges would he then have to be ordered to provide a DNA sample that could be placed in the national database.
Toronto defence lawyer and legal analyst Steven Skurka said police can get a search warrant to get the DNA for individual cases as long as they have some justification.
“I’ve certainly experienced a case where they get the DNA before as well,” Skurka said. “It’s not the case that you’d have to wait.”
But former prosecutor and victim’s advocate Scott Newark said “bottom line” there is no good reason not to treat DNA like fingerprints that are taken when someone is arrested and charged with an indictable offence.
He adds that because courts can, not must, order a sample upon conviction, the system doesn’t always work.
“Recent media suggests we’re not getting post conviction samples as we should,” he said, adding there are absurd restrictions on getting it from prisoners already in custody.
“DNA evidence helps solve unsolved crime and thereby prevents future crime,” Newark said. “As I put it once, if we had proper DNA laws there are a bunch of guys currently in jail who wouldn’t be coming out.”
Williams faces harsh life in Ontario detention centre: Ex-cons
By Laura Stone
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
NAPANEE, Ont. — Five days ago, he was the highest-ranking officer at eastern Ontario's CFB Trenton, in charge of some 3,500 personnel and a pillar in that military community. Now, Col. Russell Williams calls home the compact barbed-wire complex at the Quinte Detention Centre, some 40 kilometres away in Napanee, Ont.
Williams is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and sexual assault. His next court appearance is set for Feb. 18 in Belleville, Ont.
On Thursday, past Quinte's expansive fencing and dried yellow grass, Williams was with the chaplain and declined an interview request.
"He's not interested in an interview," said Larry Shorts, the deputy superintendent of the institution.
The Quinte remand centre houses a wide range of offenders, in minimum-security dorms and maximum-security cells shared by two or three inmates. Offenders can stay there for years as they await trial.
This is Williams' new reality since he was charged Monday with the murders of Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville, Ont., and Marie-France Comeau, 37, a corporal on the base found murdered at her home in Brighton, Ont.
Williams was also charged with two counts of sexual assault related to home invasions in Tweed, Ont., where he has a cottage.
He and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman, also have a new house in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood. Police conducted a search there on Thursday.
Little is known of Williams' personal life before his arrest. He has been alternately described as pleasant, professional, standoffish, quiet, and in one case, brilliant, by people who have met or worked with him.
Lawrence Ramsey, the owner of the Tweedsmuir Bar and Grill, where Lloyd would frequently watch live country music bands, said: "I've lived here all my life and I've never seen the guy."
Former inmates from Quinte say a rough time lies ahead for the soldier.
"Somebody's going to pound him," said one man, who was in custody a short while ago for driving offences, and was back at the institution to pick up his compact plastic bag of possessions.
"You don't want to say anything to the guards, or they'll pound you even harder."
Another former inmate, who also declined to give his name, said Williams would most likely be placed in protective custody.
Even in prison, he explained, there is a moral code.
Charges of murder and sexual assaults against women are not tolerated there any more than they are in the real world.
"It's going to be horrible," said the second man as he smoked a cigarette out of his car window.
"He's accused of killing two women. He won't be accepted . . . the inmates already know who he is (from the media) and they won't want him on the range (cellblock)," he said.
"There's breaking the law, and then there's doing the wrong thing."
He said men like Williams without criminal records are referred to in prison as "Straight Johns."
If Williams indeed is placed in protective custody away from the general population, he will be locked in his cell for up to 23 hours a day, the men said, with one hour a day to shower and use the phone.
He is afforded the same rights as other inmates, including the use of chaplaincy services, said the second man.
"Other than that, he's going to be one bored old man," he said.
Prison authorities were not talking about Williams.
"We don't discuss any information about the conditions of his custody," said Stuart McGetrick, spokesman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
While Williams' alleged fall from grace has been deemed an individual — and not a military — matter, there is fear it could provoke a backlash against the military.
On Wednesday, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk addressed some 500 officers at CFB Trenton, telling them to stand tall and proud in the face of allegations around their commander.
In Trenton, stories about anti-military incidents are beginning to unfold.
At the aptly-titled Rumours bar, a military hangout, owner and former military pilot Pierre Bouchard said he's heard of soldiers being yelled at or spit on in public.
One woman in the grocery store allegedly told a female soldier, "You should be ashamed of yourself."
"Today, some young officer got spit on in uniform," Bouchard said.
While he, like most others in and around Trenton, said he was shocked and dismayed by the allegations against Williams, he hoped it wouldn't affect military morale.
"This town survives because of the base," said Bouchard.
"I hate to see people become ashamed of their uniform."
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
NAPANEE, Ont. — Five days ago, he was the highest-ranking officer at eastern Ontario's CFB Trenton, in charge of some 3,500 personnel and a pillar in that military community. Now, Col. Russell Williams calls home the compact barbed-wire complex at the Quinte Detention Centre, some 40 kilometres away in Napanee, Ont.
Williams is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and sexual assault. His next court appearance is set for Feb. 18 in Belleville, Ont.
On Thursday, past Quinte's expansive fencing and dried yellow grass, Williams was with the chaplain and declined an interview request.
"He's not interested in an interview," said Larry Shorts, the deputy superintendent of the institution.
The Quinte remand centre houses a wide range of offenders, in minimum-security dorms and maximum-security cells shared by two or three inmates. Offenders can stay there for years as they await trial.
This is Williams' new reality since he was charged Monday with the murders of Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville, Ont., and Marie-France Comeau, 37, a corporal on the base found murdered at her home in Brighton, Ont.
Williams was also charged with two counts of sexual assault related to home invasions in Tweed, Ont., where he has a cottage.
He and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman, also have a new house in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood. Police conducted a search there on Thursday.
Little is known of Williams' personal life before his arrest. He has been alternately described as pleasant, professional, standoffish, quiet, and in one case, brilliant, by people who have met or worked with him.
Lawrence Ramsey, the owner of the Tweedsmuir Bar and Grill, where Lloyd would frequently watch live country music bands, said: "I've lived here all my life and I've never seen the guy."
Former inmates from Quinte say a rough time lies ahead for the soldier.
"Somebody's going to pound him," said one man, who was in custody a short while ago for driving offences, and was back at the institution to pick up his compact plastic bag of possessions.
"You don't want to say anything to the guards, or they'll pound you even harder."
Another former inmate, who also declined to give his name, said Williams would most likely be placed in protective custody.
Even in prison, he explained, there is a moral code.
Charges of murder and sexual assaults against women are not tolerated there any more than they are in the real world.
"It's going to be horrible," said the second man as he smoked a cigarette out of his car window.
"He's accused of killing two women. He won't be accepted . . . the inmates already know who he is (from the media) and they won't want him on the range (cellblock)," he said.
"There's breaking the law, and then there's doing the wrong thing."
He said men like Williams without criminal records are referred to in prison as "Straight Johns."
If Williams indeed is placed in protective custody away from the general population, he will be locked in his cell for up to 23 hours a day, the men said, with one hour a day to shower and use the phone.
He is afforded the same rights as other inmates, including the use of chaplaincy services, said the second man.
"Other than that, he's going to be one bored old man," he said.
Prison authorities were not talking about Williams.
"We don't discuss any information about the conditions of his custody," said Stuart McGetrick, spokesman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
While Williams' alleged fall from grace has been deemed an individual — and not a military — matter, there is fear it could provoke a backlash against the military.
On Wednesday, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk addressed some 500 officers at CFB Trenton, telling them to stand tall and proud in the face of allegations around their commander.
In Trenton, stories about anti-military incidents are beginning to unfold.
At the aptly-titled Rumours bar, a military hangout, owner and former military pilot Pierre Bouchard said he's heard of soldiers being yelled at or spit on in public.
One woman in the grocery store allegedly told a female soldier, "You should be ashamed of yourself."
"Today, some young officer got spit on in uniform," Bouchard said.
While he, like most others in and around Trenton, said he was shocked and dismayed by the allegations against Williams, he hoped it wouldn't affect military morale.
"This town survives because of the base," said Bouchard.
"I hate to see people become ashamed of their uniform."
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Charges move military to review selection process
By Laura Stone and David Wylie
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
CFB TRENTON, Ont. — Canada's chief of defence staff said there will be an administrative review to determine if the military had missed any signs that Col. Russell Williams — the base commander charged with murdering two women — may have been unfit for leadership.
Gen. Walter Natynczyk, visiting Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario to boost troop morale, said he was shocked by the charges.
"We are all in shock. I felt as if I had a body blow, and I was winded, because . . . I represent the leadership," he told a news conference at the base Wednesday.
Williams, 46, is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Belleville, Ont., resident Jessica Lloyd, 27, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37. He has also been charged with the forcible confinement and sexual assault of two other women in cases where the victims were bound naked to chairs and photographed by their attacker.
"We've put additional rigour over the past five year into the selection of our leadership," he said. "We'll do an administrative review to see, what did we miss? Did we miss anything here? And it's a difficult situation, one that certainly I've not faced, nor talking to the leadership of the Canadian Forces, that we have faced, and so again, what can we learn from this to ensure it doesn't occur," said Natynczyk.
He said he was not aware of anything on Williams record that was cause for concern. In fact, Williams was a rising star in the military.
One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Williams was known as "Mr. By the Book" during his years as one of Canada's top VIP pilots.
Among his official passengers on the Challenger and, later, the bigger Airbus planes, were the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as former Liberal prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin. Williams may even have flown to England to transport Queen Elizabeth and her husband to Western Canada in 2005 for an official royal visit.
Natynczyk called military leadership a "sacred trust. And I see that I must hold, and I must maintain that trust, not only of all Canadians, but right down to the young privates, the young sailors, and the young airmen, who are deployed, enable their success, and they need to have confidence in their leadership.
"So any time, any time, you have that kind of violation, a perceived violation of leadership, that's where you know you've had a body blow."
As commander of 8 Wing, Williams oversaw the lives of more than 3,500 military and civilian staff at CFB Trenton, the base known to Canadians as the location where the bodies of soldiers killed in Afghanistan first arrive back in Canada.
Natynczyk said Williams will not hold the title of base commander much longer.
"He will be removed from command, and there is a process for that," he said. "We have a process to ensure that from a legal standpoint, that from a human rights standpoint, we follow the paces."
Natynczyk also encouraged the personnel at CFB Trenton to support each other through the ordeal, saying "a lot of people (are) feeling like they are indeed victims, directly and indirectly, and we have to support them. We have to support them, and support their families."
Natynczyk also played up the role of the base. He said CFB Trenton is essential to Canadian Forces operation in Afghanistan, Haiti, and in Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Games.
"I told them (personnel of 8 Wing) to stand tall, I told them to stand proud. We have to move forward, but at the same time we have to support the victims," he said.
He encouraged them "to move forward, to allow the judicial process to unfold, and to carry on with our mission."
Meanwhile, Ontario Provincial Police clarified on Wednesday that Williams has not been ruled out as a suspect in the unsolved 2001 death at CFB Trenton of Kathleen MacVicar, 19, despite an assertion from MacVicar's mother that she was told Williams has been ruled out.
On Wednesday, Ontario police told Canwest News Service they have not explored whether there is a connection because they have not examined the cold case files.
The OPP said they have been receiving calls from across Canada since Williams' arrest, and are continuing to investigate other cases for links.
"After this, then we'll also be looking at and reviewing other unsolved crimes trying to see if there's any similarities to what we have now," Sgt. Kristine Rae told Canwest News Service on Wednesday.
Ottawa police said Wednesday that they hadn't yet searched Williams' Ottawa home, as was earlier reported, but expected to search it on Thursday, when they'll be looking for digital storage devices, video and camera gear, computer equipment, pornographic images, and DNA linked to the two murders and the sexual assaults of two other women.
Toronto cold case investigators are investigating whether Williams may be connected to two unsolved murders, according to one of the murder victims' brothers.
In 1983, Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice, were sexually assaulted and murdered within four months of each another in downtown Toronto. DNA evidence revealed that both women had been killed by the same man.
Gilmour's brother, Sean McCowan, told Global News he called Det.-Sgt. Steve Ryan of the Toronto Police Cold Case Squad on Tuesday."(Ryan) just mentioned that the colonel is a person of interest and they're going to take a look at it," McCowan said.
Williams graduated with a degree in economics and political science from the University of Toronto in 1987.
An Ottawa police inspector will lead the search for links between the murders Williams has been charged with and unsolved cases in Ottawa, including the violent 2007 sexual assault of a Carleton university student.
"We're pulling cases right now, but don't have enough info from OPP," said Ottawa police Chief Vern White. "We're examining our cases from the modus operandi." Williams owns a house in Ottawa.
Police in Halifax are also reviewing three cold cases, according to media reports.
And the OPP has been fielding calls from families of victims whose crimes have gone unsolved — for example, Windsor resident Ron Grozelle, the father of a cadet who died mysteriously at the Royal Military College in 2003, who wants the case into his son's death reviewed because Williams was there at the same time.
Canadian Forces National Investigation Service spokeswoman Maj. Paule Poulin said that military police are "assisting the lead investigative agency, in this case the Ontario Provincial Police, as required" but noted that the service does not discuss matters to do with ongoing investigations.
"As part of the investigative team, the CFNIS will examine any new evidence that comes to light as a result of this investigation and will assess any connection to any relevant unsolved CF Military Police historical files," Poulin noted.
The case of a base commander charged with two murders and two sexual assaults has drawn the world's attention, with many high-profile news agencies such as the BBC, The Guardian and Australia's Courier Mail all providing coverage of the unfolding drama.
Germany's largest daily newspaper, Bild, ran a large article about the murders that had "shaken Canada completely."
Meanwhile, response to the case on popular social-media websites has been overwhelming, with Facebook groups quickly attracting thousands of members in the days since charges were laid against Williams. A memorial page dedicated to Lloyd had garnered more than 11,000 supporters, while another group with the name "Russell Williams should get the death penalty!" claimed more than 3,100 members as of Wednesday afternoon. Williams has been a recurring trending topic on Twitter.
Comeau had been working as a flight attendant based at CFB Trenton for six months when she was killed. Her body was found in her home in Brighton, Ont., a small town about 15 kilometres west of Trenton, on Nov. 25.
Lloyd went missing Jan. 28, after texting a friend that she'd arrived safe at her Belleville home. Police found her body after arresting Williams. An autopsy on Lloyd's body was completed Wednesday, but police would not release the cause of death.
Police said it was a roadside canvass on a nearby highway that made Williams a person of interest in the case. Reports suggest the special type of tire treads on Williams' vehicle tipped off police to his possible involvement in the murders.
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kristine Rae would not comment on the treads nor suggestions that Williams confessed to police. "I can't speak about anything evidentiary," said Rae.
Police have searched Williams's home in Tweed, Ont., near where the sexual assaults took place, before turning their focus to his Ottawa home, where he lived with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
CFB TRENTON, Ont. — Canada's chief of defence staff said there will be an administrative review to determine if the military had missed any signs that Col. Russell Williams — the base commander charged with murdering two women — may have been unfit for leadership.
Gen. Walter Natynczyk, visiting Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario to boost troop morale, said he was shocked by the charges.
"We are all in shock. I felt as if I had a body blow, and I was winded, because . . . I represent the leadership," he told a news conference at the base Wednesday.
Williams, 46, is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Belleville, Ont., resident Jessica Lloyd, 27, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37. He has also been charged with the forcible confinement and sexual assault of two other women in cases where the victims were bound naked to chairs and photographed by their attacker.
"We've put additional rigour over the past five year into the selection of our leadership," he said. "We'll do an administrative review to see, what did we miss? Did we miss anything here? And it's a difficult situation, one that certainly I've not faced, nor talking to the leadership of the Canadian Forces, that we have faced, and so again, what can we learn from this to ensure it doesn't occur," said Natynczyk.
He said he was not aware of anything on Williams record that was cause for concern. In fact, Williams was a rising star in the military.
One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Williams was known as "Mr. By the Book" during his years as one of Canada's top VIP pilots.
Among his official passengers on the Challenger and, later, the bigger Airbus planes, were the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as former Liberal prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin. Williams may even have flown to England to transport Queen Elizabeth and her husband to Western Canada in 2005 for an official royal visit.
Natynczyk called military leadership a "sacred trust. And I see that I must hold, and I must maintain that trust, not only of all Canadians, but right down to the young privates, the young sailors, and the young airmen, who are deployed, enable their success, and they need to have confidence in their leadership.
"So any time, any time, you have that kind of violation, a perceived violation of leadership, that's where you know you've had a body blow."
As commander of 8 Wing, Williams oversaw the lives of more than 3,500 military and civilian staff at CFB Trenton, the base known to Canadians as the location where the bodies of soldiers killed in Afghanistan first arrive back in Canada.
Natynczyk said Williams will not hold the title of base commander much longer.
"He will be removed from command, and there is a process for that," he said. "We have a process to ensure that from a legal standpoint, that from a human rights standpoint, we follow the paces."
Natynczyk also encouraged the personnel at CFB Trenton to support each other through the ordeal, saying "a lot of people (are) feeling like they are indeed victims, directly and indirectly, and we have to support them. We have to support them, and support their families."
Natynczyk also played up the role of the base. He said CFB Trenton is essential to Canadian Forces operation in Afghanistan, Haiti, and in Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Games.
"I told them (personnel of 8 Wing) to stand tall, I told them to stand proud. We have to move forward, but at the same time we have to support the victims," he said.
He encouraged them "to move forward, to allow the judicial process to unfold, and to carry on with our mission."
Meanwhile, Ontario Provincial Police clarified on Wednesday that Williams has not been ruled out as a suspect in the unsolved 2001 death at CFB Trenton of Kathleen MacVicar, 19, despite an assertion from MacVicar's mother that she was told Williams has been ruled out.
On Wednesday, Ontario police told Canwest News Service they have not explored whether there is a connection because they have not examined the cold case files.
The OPP said they have been receiving calls from across Canada since Williams' arrest, and are continuing to investigate other cases for links.
"After this, then we'll also be looking at and reviewing other unsolved crimes trying to see if there's any similarities to what we have now," Sgt. Kristine Rae told Canwest News Service on Wednesday.
Ottawa police said Wednesday that they hadn't yet searched Williams' Ottawa home, as was earlier reported, but expected to search it on Thursday, when they'll be looking for digital storage devices, video and camera gear, computer equipment, pornographic images, and DNA linked to the two murders and the sexual assaults of two other women.
Toronto cold case investigators are investigating whether Williams may be connected to two unsolved murders, according to one of the murder victims' brothers.
In 1983, Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice, were sexually assaulted and murdered within four months of each another in downtown Toronto. DNA evidence revealed that both women had been killed by the same man.
Gilmour's brother, Sean McCowan, told Global News he called Det.-Sgt. Steve Ryan of the Toronto Police Cold Case Squad on Tuesday."(Ryan) just mentioned that the colonel is a person of interest and they're going to take a look at it," McCowan said.
Williams graduated with a degree in economics and political science from the University of Toronto in 1987.
An Ottawa police inspector will lead the search for links between the murders Williams has been charged with and unsolved cases in Ottawa, including the violent 2007 sexual assault of a Carleton university student.
"We're pulling cases right now, but don't have enough info from OPP," said Ottawa police Chief Vern White. "We're examining our cases from the modus operandi." Williams owns a house in Ottawa.
Police in Halifax are also reviewing three cold cases, according to media reports.
And the OPP has been fielding calls from families of victims whose crimes have gone unsolved — for example, Windsor resident Ron Grozelle, the father of a cadet who died mysteriously at the Royal Military College in 2003, who wants the case into his son's death reviewed because Williams was there at the same time.
Canadian Forces National Investigation Service spokeswoman Maj. Paule Poulin said that military police are "assisting the lead investigative agency, in this case the Ontario Provincial Police, as required" but noted that the service does not discuss matters to do with ongoing investigations.
"As part of the investigative team, the CFNIS will examine any new evidence that comes to light as a result of this investigation and will assess any connection to any relevant unsolved CF Military Police historical files," Poulin noted.
The case of a base commander charged with two murders and two sexual assaults has drawn the world's attention, with many high-profile news agencies such as the BBC, The Guardian and Australia's Courier Mail all providing coverage of the unfolding drama.
Germany's largest daily newspaper, Bild, ran a large article about the murders that had "shaken Canada completely."
Meanwhile, response to the case on popular social-media websites has been overwhelming, with Facebook groups quickly attracting thousands of members in the days since charges were laid against Williams. A memorial page dedicated to Lloyd had garnered more than 11,000 supporters, while another group with the name "Russell Williams should get the death penalty!" claimed more than 3,100 members as of Wednesday afternoon. Williams has been a recurring trending topic on Twitter.
Comeau had been working as a flight attendant based at CFB Trenton for six months when she was killed. Her body was found in her home in Brighton, Ont., a small town about 15 kilometres west of Trenton, on Nov. 25.
Lloyd went missing Jan. 28, after texting a friend that she'd arrived safe at her Belleville home. Police found her body after arresting Williams. An autopsy on Lloyd's body was completed Wednesday, but police would not release the cause of death.
Police said it was a roadside canvass on a nearby highway that made Williams a person of interest in the case. Reports suggest the special type of tire treads on Williams' vehicle tipped off police to his possible involvement in the murders.
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kristine Rae would not comment on the treads nor suggestions that Williams confessed to police. "I can't speak about anything evidentiary," said Rae.
Police have searched Williams's home in Tweed, Ont., near where the sexual assaults took place, before turning their focus to his Ottawa home, where he lived with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Accused Canadian colonel comes from accomplished but fractured family
By Adrian Humphreys
National Post
February 11, 2010
TORONTO — Col. Russell Williams, the Canadian Forces base commander who is charged with two murders and two separate sexual assaults, showed little interest in repairing the fractured family life that followed him since he was young.
Williams, 46, grew up amid great accomplishment but also instability, say several members of his family on both sides.
Two years ago his mother, Nonie, and brother, Harvey, reached out to Williams in a bid at reconciliation following his parent's divorce, the second time the fast-rising military man's home life was torn asunder.
"Our relationship with him was broken off in early 2001 when our mother's divorce from my stepfather caused a deep rift between him and my mother and myself," said his brother, Harvey Williams.
"We rarely had any contact until two years ago when my mother and I tried to find a way to repair the family rift. We have had only minimal contact with him in the past two years."
"We were shocked and appalled to learn of the crimes with which Col. Williams is being charged," he said in a written statement, calling it "alarming and distressing news."
Similarly, relatives of Williams' stepfather, Jerry Sovka, an eminent nuclear scientist, described a family that maintained little contact.
Relatives of Sovka say the scientist's globe-spanning travel with high-profile jobs — including his current position as a senior official with ITER, an international megaproject to create an experimental thermonuclear reactor in southern France — have meant little connection.
Sovka's father's funeral more than a decade ago was a rare opportunity for the wider Sovka family to come together.
Family matriarchs and patriarchs have been telephoning kin with the shocking news that the man at the heart of the allegations is a relative. But most have only vague memories of Williams as a child.
Even with the distant connection, it remains a shock.
"Our prayers go out to our extended family during this difficult time," said Jason Sovka, Sovka's nephew.
Born in England, Williams was still young when his father, David, split with his mother and the youngster continued to live with his mother and his new stepfather, Dr. Jerry Sovka.
Sovka grew up on farms in Cranford and Coaldale, Alta., as one of three sons of Czech immigrants, but eschewed agriculture and the lure of oil for the emerging science of nuclear technology and he accepted a scholarship to study at the University of Birmingham in England, where it is believed he met Nonie Williams.
He returned to Canada for a job at Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., in Toronto, where he helped design Canada's early Candu nuclear plants, and later as a senior engineer with Ontario Hydro while the young Williams attended Toronto's Birchmount Collegiate in Scarborough, near Toronto.
Sovka's work in the nuclear industry led him to move several times, including four years in South Korea, a stint with the Montreal-based engineering firm SNC and Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in New Brunswick, and even to Hawaii as a chief engineer for the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope, according to an article in the University of Alberta alumni magazine.
For some of this travel, Williams remained in Toronto.
From 1980 to 1982, he completed his high school education at Upper Canada College while boarding at the sprawling private boys school.
While at UCC, Williams was a prefect, whose job was to mentor younger boys, and went by the last name Sovka with the abbreviated first name Russ.
Williams played trumpet, and his interest in jazz is obvious from his entry in the 1982 College Times: he offered a quotation from the legendary American jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong: "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know." To this he added: "Thank you all to those who made these two years possible, enjoyable."
School officials only realized the connection on Wednesday.
The current vice-principal, Innes van Nostrand, who was in Williams' graduating class, said "most people from our time at the school would remember him as a diligent, responsible, serious hard-working guy who was really good at the trumpet as well."
"The stories and the allegations in general have been pretty shocking for everyone in the broader community, and I think any time anyone would find a situation where someone they went to school with was being implicated, and with those kinds of allegations, the shock is compounded, and certainly that would be the case for the people who were at school here at that time," he said.
Williams then sought higher education and graduated with a degree in economics and political science from the University of Toronto in 1987 before embarking that same year on a military career while returning to his birth name Williams.
While his family life and schooling meant a low profile and quiet existence, in the military he shone.
"He was what we call 'a streamer,' " said a ranking Canadian military officer who did not wish his name to be published. "He was getting groomed, fast-tracked. You have to punch your ticket through certain types of jobs (to enter the senior ranks).
"When you're the commander of the largest airbase in Canada at that age, it says you're going somewhere."
As a pilot during the 1990s he flew VIP flights on the federal government's Challenger aircraft that are used by federal politicians including the prime minister. A series of postings led him to higher rank and greater responsibility.
On July 15, 2009, he was named as the commander of CFB Trenton where he maintained good relationships with the community until his arrest on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Random House Canada has already announced the fall release of a book on Williams.
With files from Kathryn Blaze Carlson
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
National Post
February 11, 2010
TORONTO — Col. Russell Williams, the Canadian Forces base commander who is charged with two murders and two separate sexual assaults, showed little interest in repairing the fractured family life that followed him since he was young.
Williams, 46, grew up amid great accomplishment but also instability, say several members of his family on both sides.
Two years ago his mother, Nonie, and brother, Harvey, reached out to Williams in a bid at reconciliation following his parent's divorce, the second time the fast-rising military man's home life was torn asunder.
"Our relationship with him was broken off in early 2001 when our mother's divorce from my stepfather caused a deep rift between him and my mother and myself," said his brother, Harvey Williams.
"We rarely had any contact until two years ago when my mother and I tried to find a way to repair the family rift. We have had only minimal contact with him in the past two years."
"We were shocked and appalled to learn of the crimes with which Col. Williams is being charged," he said in a written statement, calling it "alarming and distressing news."
Similarly, relatives of Williams' stepfather, Jerry Sovka, an eminent nuclear scientist, described a family that maintained little contact.
Relatives of Sovka say the scientist's globe-spanning travel with high-profile jobs — including his current position as a senior official with ITER, an international megaproject to create an experimental thermonuclear reactor in southern France — have meant little connection.
Sovka's father's funeral more than a decade ago was a rare opportunity for the wider Sovka family to come together.
Family matriarchs and patriarchs have been telephoning kin with the shocking news that the man at the heart of the allegations is a relative. But most have only vague memories of Williams as a child.
Even with the distant connection, it remains a shock.
"Our prayers go out to our extended family during this difficult time," said Jason Sovka, Sovka's nephew.
Born in England, Williams was still young when his father, David, split with his mother and the youngster continued to live with his mother and his new stepfather, Dr. Jerry Sovka.
Sovka grew up on farms in Cranford and Coaldale, Alta., as one of three sons of Czech immigrants, but eschewed agriculture and the lure of oil for the emerging science of nuclear technology and he accepted a scholarship to study at the University of Birmingham in England, where it is believed he met Nonie Williams.
He returned to Canada for a job at Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., in Toronto, where he helped design Canada's early Candu nuclear plants, and later as a senior engineer with Ontario Hydro while the young Williams attended Toronto's Birchmount Collegiate in Scarborough, near Toronto.
Sovka's work in the nuclear industry led him to move several times, including four years in South Korea, a stint with the Montreal-based engineering firm SNC and Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in New Brunswick, and even to Hawaii as a chief engineer for the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope, according to an article in the University of Alberta alumni magazine.
For some of this travel, Williams remained in Toronto.
From 1980 to 1982, he completed his high school education at Upper Canada College while boarding at the sprawling private boys school.
While at UCC, Williams was a prefect, whose job was to mentor younger boys, and went by the last name Sovka with the abbreviated first name Russ.
Williams played trumpet, and his interest in jazz is obvious from his entry in the 1982 College Times: he offered a quotation from the legendary American jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong: "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know." To this he added: "Thank you all to those who made these two years possible, enjoyable."
School officials only realized the connection on Wednesday.
The current vice-principal, Innes van Nostrand, who was in Williams' graduating class, said "most people from our time at the school would remember him as a diligent, responsible, serious hard-working guy who was really good at the trumpet as well."
"The stories and the allegations in general have been pretty shocking for everyone in the broader community, and I think any time anyone would find a situation where someone they went to school with was being implicated, and with those kinds of allegations, the shock is compounded, and certainly that would be the case for the people who were at school here at that time," he said.
Williams then sought higher education and graduated with a degree in economics and political science from the University of Toronto in 1987 before embarking that same year on a military career while returning to his birth name Williams.
While his family life and schooling meant a low profile and quiet existence, in the military he shone.
"He was what we call 'a streamer,' " said a ranking Canadian military officer who did not wish his name to be published. "He was getting groomed, fast-tracked. You have to punch your ticket through certain types of jobs (to enter the senior ranks).
"When you're the commander of the largest airbase in Canada at that age, it says you're going somewhere."
As a pilot during the 1990s he flew VIP flights on the federal government's Challenger aircraft that are used by federal politicians including the prime minister. A series of postings led him to higher rank and greater responsibility.
On July 15, 2009, he was named as the commander of CFB Trenton where he maintained good relationships with the community until his arrest on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Random House Canada has already announced the fall release of a book on Williams.
With files from Kathryn Blaze Carlson
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Residents near CFB Trenton downplay reports of military backlash
By Laura Stone
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
TRENTON, Ont. — If there is any truth to tales of fractured relations between residents and military personnel in this Forces-first eastern Ontario town of approximately 20,000, one would be hard-pressed to find it.
In the town where Col. Russell Williams commanded Canada's busiest air force base, there was talk Thursday of soldiers being harassed or spit at by angry townsfolk.
But when approached, most people here said they support the military more than ever, and save for one "bad apple," as one local man put it, there is no strife among the masses.
Nevertheless, it is a small town, and people talk.
At the aptly titled Rumours bar, a military hangout, owner and former military pilot Pierre Bouchard said he's heard of soldiers being yelled at, or in one case, spit upon while pumping gas.
A survey of some local gas stations, however, failed to confirm that story.
While Bouchard, like most others in and around Trenton, said he was shocked and dismayed by the allegations against Williams, adding he hoped it wouldn't affect military morale.
"This town survives because of the base," said Bouchard. "I'd hate to see people become ashamed of their uniform."
Williams, 46, is charged with in the deaths of Belleville, Ont., resident Jessica Lloyd, 27, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37, who was posted to Canadian Forces Base Trenton. He is also charged with the forcible confinement and sexual assault of two other women in nearby Tweed, Ont., where he has a cottage.
Many residents said the fact that Williams was in the military shouldn't have any bearing on the way other soldiers are treated in Trenton.
"It could have been anywhere, it could have been a Bay Street, high-profile person," said Tia Waddling, who splits her time between Brighton, Ont., and Toronto.
And if it were, for example, that doesn't mean people should go around spitting on people in suits walking along Bay Street, she said.
At the Independent Grocer on Dundas St. E., Master Cpl. Bryan Hupe cast a large figure alongside civilians in the produce aisle.
He's also heard the stories about spitting, but in his experience, everyone's been treating the military well. At the grocery store, for example, staff can now wear their red "support the troops" shirts every day of the week, and not just Fridays.
Still, Hupe didn't dismiss the rumours outright.
"People are angry, they're confused. People are maybe taking anger out in the wrong spot," he said. "But by and large, everybody's very supportive."
In the parking lot of the grocery store, Johanna Jenkins, 72, called the reported incidents "just ridiculousness."
"As far as I'm concerned, it's stupid, ignorant people who are doing that," she said.
On Wednesday, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the chief of Canada's defence staff, addressed some 500 officers at CFB Trenton, telling them to stand tall and proud in the face of allegations around their commander.
Still, Canada's top soldier admitted some within the ranks had asked him if they should still wear their uniforms around town. 'Yes,' was his answer.
"This has been a difficult 48 or so hours as we learned what has occurred, but now we've got to move forward and allow the judicial process to unfold, and we have to carry on with our mission," said Natynczyk.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
TRENTON, Ont. — If there is any truth to tales of fractured relations between residents and military personnel in this Forces-first eastern Ontario town of approximately 20,000, one would be hard-pressed to find it.
In the town where Col. Russell Williams commanded Canada's busiest air force base, there was talk Thursday of soldiers being harassed or spit at by angry townsfolk.
But when approached, most people here said they support the military more than ever, and save for one "bad apple," as one local man put it, there is no strife among the masses.
Nevertheless, it is a small town, and people talk.
At the aptly titled Rumours bar, a military hangout, owner and former military pilot Pierre Bouchard said he's heard of soldiers being yelled at, or in one case, spit upon while pumping gas.
A survey of some local gas stations, however, failed to confirm that story.
While Bouchard, like most others in and around Trenton, said he was shocked and dismayed by the allegations against Williams, adding he hoped it wouldn't affect military morale.
"This town survives because of the base," said Bouchard. "I'd hate to see people become ashamed of their uniform."
Williams, 46, is charged with in the deaths of Belleville, Ont., resident Jessica Lloyd, 27, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37, who was posted to Canadian Forces Base Trenton. He is also charged with the forcible confinement and sexual assault of two other women in nearby Tweed, Ont., where he has a cottage.
Many residents said the fact that Williams was in the military shouldn't have any bearing on the way other soldiers are treated in Trenton.
"It could have been anywhere, it could have been a Bay Street, high-profile person," said Tia Waddling, who splits her time between Brighton, Ont., and Toronto.
And if it were, for example, that doesn't mean people should go around spitting on people in suits walking along Bay Street, she said.
At the Independent Grocer on Dundas St. E., Master Cpl. Bryan Hupe cast a large figure alongside civilians in the produce aisle.
He's also heard the stories about spitting, but in his experience, everyone's been treating the military well. At the grocery store, for example, staff can now wear their red "support the troops" shirts every day of the week, and not just Fridays.
Still, Hupe didn't dismiss the rumours outright.
"People are angry, they're confused. People are maybe taking anger out in the wrong spot," he said. "But by and large, everybody's very supportive."
In the parking lot of the grocery store, Johanna Jenkins, 72, called the reported incidents "just ridiculousness."
"As far as I'm concerned, it's stupid, ignorant people who are doing that," she said.
On Wednesday, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the chief of Canada's defence staff, addressed some 500 officers at CFB Trenton, telling them to stand tall and proud in the face of allegations around their commander.
Still, Canada's top soldier admitted some within the ranks had asked him if they should still wear their uniforms around town. 'Yes,' was his answer.
"This has been a difficult 48 or so hours as we learned what has occurred, but now we've got to move forward and allow the judicial process to unfold, and we have to carry on with our mission," said Natynczyk.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Canadian base commander accused of murder directed police to evidence
By Gary Dimmock, Laura Stone and Adrian Humphreys
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
The OPP investigators are executing a search warrant at Col. Russell Williams' residence at 473 Edison in Westboro in Ottawa on Feb. 11, 2010.
Photograph by: Pat McGrath, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Accused killer Col. Russell Williams told police where they could find evidence, including hidden keepsakes, inside the Ottawa home where he lived with his wife, police say.
The statements were given to Ontario Provincial Police detectives on Sunday at Ottawa Police headquarters. On Monday, he led police to the body of Jessica Lloyd, one of two women the disgraced colonel is accused of killing.
Forensic investigators began searching Williams’ Ottawa home Thursday. They were looking for specific items, including women’s bras and panties, and digital storage devices, computer equipment, camera and video gear, and photographs.
Williams is charged in the deaths of Belleville, Ont., resident Lloyd, 27, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37, who was posted to Canadian Forces Base Trenton, the busy air force base that Williams commanded.
He is also charged with the forcible confinement and sexual assault of two other women in nearby Tweed, Ont., where he has a cottage. The victims in the latter two cases were bound naked to chairs and photographed by their attacker.
After his first interview with police, which ran into the night, OPP searched his cottage in Tweed for women’s undergarments — including a bra and thong — baby blankets, digital storage devices and a white shoe as part of their investigation into the two home-invasion sexual assaults.
On Thursday, a dozen OPP forensic officers arrived just after noon at the three-storey Ottawa home where Williams lives with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman.
Detectives covered all the windows at the front of the house and filed inside through the garage, carrying hard-yellow cases, black brief cases, file folders and flattened boxes.
Police wouldn’t say what, if anything, was found in Williams’ Ottawa home as they streamed out empty-handed Thursday evening.
OPP investigators said they were to continue their search Friday.
An OPP cruiser remained on guard at the front of the residence after the forensics team left.
Meanwhile, details of the man’s fractured family life emerged Thursday, as Williams’ relatives spoke out for the first time since the charges.
They said the colonel was still young when his father and mother split. The young Williams continued to live with his mother and his new stepfather, Dr. Jerry Sovka, an eminent nuclear scientist. However, that marriage also turned sour.
“Our relationship with him was broken off in early 2001 when our mother’s divorce from my stepfather caused a deep rift between him and my mother and myself,” said his brother, Harvey Williams, in a written statement.
Two years ago his mother and brother reached out to Williams, 46, in a bid at reconciliation following the divorce. “We rarely had any contact until two years ago when my mother and I tried to find a way to repair the family rift. We have had only minimal contact with him in the past two years.”
“We were shocked and appalled to learn of the crimes with which Col. Williams is being charged,” he said, calling it “alarming and distressing news.”
Williams and Harriman have been a couple since at least 1991, the year a search of old city directories shows they were sharing the same apartment in Portage la Prairie, Man., where Williams was then working as a flying instructor at the Canadian Forces Flying Training School. The two have no children.
Williams graduated with a degree in economics and political science from the University of Toronto in 1987, and in the early ’80s attended Upper Canada College, the sprawling private Toronto boys school whose graduates include Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, Loblaw executive chairman Galen Weston, billionaire David Thomson and author Robertson Davies.
The news that Williams, or Russ Sovka, as he was then known, was charged came as a surprise, said Cristina Coraggio, a spokeswoman for the college.
She said the school only realized that Sovka was Williams late Wednesday.
“We’re shocked by the allegations, but keep in mind, it was 28 years ago,” she said.
Williams went to the school from 1980-82. He boarded there and was a prefect, whose job was to mentor younger boys.
“From what I understand, he was a fine, upstanding student. He kept a lower profile. He was a very good musician,” Coraggio said.
Williams played trumpet, and his interest in music was obvious from his entry in the 1982 College Times: a quote by Louis Armstrong — “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” He also wrote: “Thank you all to those who made these two years possible, enjoyable.”
The current vice-principal of the school, Innes van Nostrand, said “most people from our time at the school would remember him as a diligent, responsible, serious hard-working guy who was really good at the trumpet, as well.”
Van Nostrand, who also graduated in 1982, but did not board at the school, said “the stories and the allegations in general, have been pretty shocking for everyone in the broader community, and I think any time anyone would find a situation where someone they went to school with was being implicated, and with those kinds of allegations, the shock is compounded, and certainly that would be the case for the people who were at school here at that time.”
Andrew Saxton, a Conservative member of Parliament for the riding of North Vancouver, was one of those students, having attended Upper Canada College at the same time as Williams. He said Thursday he was shocked his former classmate had been implicated in the investigation.
“I went to high school with Col. Williams many years ago when he went by the name ‘Russ Sovka.’ However, I have not seen him for nearly three decades and did not realize he was the same person with whom I went to school until (Thursday) morning,” he said through an e-mail from his constituency office.
“I extend my sympathies to the families affected by these tragic events. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further.”
Kevin Barnett, who now lives in Ottawa but who once bought a house from Williams in Portage la Prairie, Man., described the fallen air force leader as a “hard-working, diligent individual.”
“I always knew him to be the person you see as the military has been saying. I’m as stunned as anyone else.”
Williams has been alternately described as pleasant, professional, standoffish, quiet and, in one case, brilliant, by acquaintances.
Williams, who is being held at the Quinte Detention Centre, near Napanee in eastern Ontario, spoke with the prison chaplain Thursday, an official said, but Williams declined to speak to a reporter.
“He’s not interested in an interview,” said Larry Shorts, the deputy superintendent of the barbed-wire complex.
The remand centre houses a wide range of offenders, in minimum-security dorms and maximum-security cells shared by two or three inmates.
Meanwhile, in the town of Trenton, there was talk Thursday of soldiers being harassed and spat upon by angry townsfolk.
If there is any truth to the tales of fractured relations between town residents and military personnel in the town, one would be hard pressed to find it. Most people say they support the military more than ever.
Yet at the aptly titled Rumours bar, a military hangout, owner and former military pilot Pierre Bouchard said he’s heard of soldiers being yelled at or spit on in public since news of Williams’ arrest last Sunday.
While he, like most others in and around Trenton, said he was shocked and dismayed by the allegations against Williams, Bouchard said he hoped it wouldn’t affect military morale.
“This town survives because of the base,” said Bouchard. “I (would) hate to see people become ashamed of their uniform.”
Authorities were mum on Williams’ incarceration.
“We don’t discuss any information about the conditions of his custody,” said Stuart McGetrick, a Correctional Services spokesman.
Across the country, police forces are looking to their cold cases for similarities to the murders of the two Ontario women.
Media inquiries about unsolved homicides have been made in other cities where Williams was also stationed with the Canadian Forces, including Ontario and Manitoba.
Williams has not been ruled outas a suspect in the unsolved 2001 death at CFB Trenton of Kathleen MacVicar, 19.
In Halifax, police said there is no evidence to suggest any connection with their cold cases.
“That is exactly correct,” said Halifax Regional Police Const. Brian Palmeter.
Palmeter told Canwest News Service his force received a number of calls asking whether there was any connection with any cold cases in the area because Williams had served at CFB Shearwater, near Halifax. But Palmeter said the Halifax and Ontario officers have not discussed any evidence in the specific cases.
“We reached out and contacted the investigators from the OPP. That was specifically as a result of various calls we were receiving from various media outlets across Canada after the story broke out of Trenton. That’s why we called them. Our investigators reached out and contacted those investigators and had a very brief conversation.”
Palmeter said three cold cases in Halifax involved the deaths of young women, including one in January 1992 and another in late November 1994. But Palmeter said there is no evidence Williams was even in the area during those times
“We were getting a lot of calls trying to connect him to these files and I said we had no information. We don’t even know that this guy was here when these happened.”
Ontario Provincial Police said the focus of its investigation is on the current cases before the courts involving Williams as a suspect. The force has yet to begin any detailed investigations on cold cases, Sgt. Kristine Rae said.
The Toronto Police Service does not consider Williams a suspect in any unsolved homicide or assault cases in that city, spokeswoman Const. Wendy Drummond said.
However, the family of a Toronto woman murdered nearly 30 years ago insisted cold-case investigators are probing possible connections to that slaying and another as well. In 1983, Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice were sexually assaulted and murdered within four months of each another in downtown Toronto. DNA evidence revealed that both women had been killed by the same man.
Gilmour’s brother, Sean McCowan, told Global News he called Det.-Sgt. Steve Ryan of the Toronto Police Cold Case Squad on Tuesday. “(Ryan) just mentioned that the colonel is a person of interest and they’re going to take a look at it,” McCowan said.
Ottawa police are also probing unsolved cases, including the violent 2007 sexual assault of a Carleton University student.
“We’re pulling cases right now, but don’t have enough info from OPP,” said Ottawa police Chief Vern White. “We’re examining our cases from the modus operandi.”
Comeau had been working as a flight attendant based at CFB Trenton for six months when she was killed.
Her body was found in her home in Brighton, Ont., a small town about 15 kilometres west of Trenton, on Nov. 25.
Lloyd went missing Jan. 28, after texting a friend that she’d arrived safe at her Belleville home.
Police found her body after arresting Williams.
An autopsy on Lloyd’s body was completed Wednesday, but police would not release the cause of death.
Police said it was a roadside canvass on a nearby highway that made Williams a person of interest in the case. Police were led to Williams after stopping cars at a roadside checkpoint to match truck snow tires with a unique design.
Rae would not comment on the treads nor whether Williams confessed to police.
“I can’t speak about anything evidentiary,” said Rae.
Williams’ next court appearance is set for Feb. 18 in Belleville.
Ottawa Citizen and National Post
With files from Linda Nguyen, Mike Barber, Tony Spears and Alyssa Dalton
CNS 2/11/10 22:36:50
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
The OPP investigators are executing a search warrant at Col. Russell Williams' residence at 473 Edison in Westboro in Ottawa on Feb. 11, 2010.
Photograph by: Pat McGrath, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Accused killer Col. Russell Williams told police where they could find evidence, including hidden keepsakes, inside the Ottawa home where he lived with his wife, police say.
The statements were given to Ontario Provincial Police detectives on Sunday at Ottawa Police headquarters. On Monday, he led police to the body of Jessica Lloyd, one of two women the disgraced colonel is accused of killing.
Forensic investigators began searching Williams’ Ottawa home Thursday. They were looking for specific items, including women’s bras and panties, and digital storage devices, computer equipment, camera and video gear, and photographs.
Williams is charged in the deaths of Belleville, Ont., resident Lloyd, 27, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37, who was posted to Canadian Forces Base Trenton, the busy air force base that Williams commanded.
He is also charged with the forcible confinement and sexual assault of two other women in nearby Tweed, Ont., where he has a cottage. The victims in the latter two cases were bound naked to chairs and photographed by their attacker.
After his first interview with police, which ran into the night, OPP searched his cottage in Tweed for women’s undergarments — including a bra and thong — baby blankets, digital storage devices and a white shoe as part of their investigation into the two home-invasion sexual assaults.
On Thursday, a dozen OPP forensic officers arrived just after noon at the three-storey Ottawa home where Williams lives with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman.
Detectives covered all the windows at the front of the house and filed inside through the garage, carrying hard-yellow cases, black brief cases, file folders and flattened boxes.
Police wouldn’t say what, if anything, was found in Williams’ Ottawa home as they streamed out empty-handed Thursday evening.
OPP investigators said they were to continue their search Friday.
An OPP cruiser remained on guard at the front of the residence after the forensics team left.
Meanwhile, details of the man’s fractured family life emerged Thursday, as Williams’ relatives spoke out for the first time since the charges.
They said the colonel was still young when his father and mother split. The young Williams continued to live with his mother and his new stepfather, Dr. Jerry Sovka, an eminent nuclear scientist. However, that marriage also turned sour.
“Our relationship with him was broken off in early 2001 when our mother’s divorce from my stepfather caused a deep rift between him and my mother and myself,” said his brother, Harvey Williams, in a written statement.
Two years ago his mother and brother reached out to Williams, 46, in a bid at reconciliation following the divorce. “We rarely had any contact until two years ago when my mother and I tried to find a way to repair the family rift. We have had only minimal contact with him in the past two years.”
“We were shocked and appalled to learn of the crimes with which Col. Williams is being charged,” he said, calling it “alarming and distressing news.”
Williams and Harriman have been a couple since at least 1991, the year a search of old city directories shows they were sharing the same apartment in Portage la Prairie, Man., where Williams was then working as a flying instructor at the Canadian Forces Flying Training School. The two have no children.
Williams graduated with a degree in economics and political science from the University of Toronto in 1987, and in the early ’80s attended Upper Canada College, the sprawling private Toronto boys school whose graduates include Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, Loblaw executive chairman Galen Weston, billionaire David Thomson and author Robertson Davies.
The news that Williams, or Russ Sovka, as he was then known, was charged came as a surprise, said Cristina Coraggio, a spokeswoman for the college.
She said the school only realized that Sovka was Williams late Wednesday.
“We’re shocked by the allegations, but keep in mind, it was 28 years ago,” she said.
Williams went to the school from 1980-82. He boarded there and was a prefect, whose job was to mentor younger boys.
“From what I understand, he was a fine, upstanding student. He kept a lower profile. He was a very good musician,” Coraggio said.
Williams played trumpet, and his interest in music was obvious from his entry in the 1982 College Times: a quote by Louis Armstrong — “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” He also wrote: “Thank you all to those who made these two years possible, enjoyable.”
The current vice-principal of the school, Innes van Nostrand, said “most people from our time at the school would remember him as a diligent, responsible, serious hard-working guy who was really good at the trumpet, as well.”
Van Nostrand, who also graduated in 1982, but did not board at the school, said “the stories and the allegations in general, have been pretty shocking for everyone in the broader community, and I think any time anyone would find a situation where someone they went to school with was being implicated, and with those kinds of allegations, the shock is compounded, and certainly that would be the case for the people who were at school here at that time.”
Andrew Saxton, a Conservative member of Parliament for the riding of North Vancouver, was one of those students, having attended Upper Canada College at the same time as Williams. He said Thursday he was shocked his former classmate had been implicated in the investigation.
“I went to high school with Col. Williams many years ago when he went by the name ‘Russ Sovka.’ However, I have not seen him for nearly three decades and did not realize he was the same person with whom I went to school until (Thursday) morning,” he said through an e-mail from his constituency office.
“I extend my sympathies to the families affected by these tragic events. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further.”
Kevin Barnett, who now lives in Ottawa but who once bought a house from Williams in Portage la Prairie, Man., described the fallen air force leader as a “hard-working, diligent individual.”
“I always knew him to be the person you see as the military has been saying. I’m as stunned as anyone else.”
Williams has been alternately described as pleasant, professional, standoffish, quiet and, in one case, brilliant, by acquaintances.
Williams, who is being held at the Quinte Detention Centre, near Napanee in eastern Ontario, spoke with the prison chaplain Thursday, an official said, but Williams declined to speak to a reporter.
“He’s not interested in an interview,” said Larry Shorts, the deputy superintendent of the barbed-wire complex.
The remand centre houses a wide range of offenders, in minimum-security dorms and maximum-security cells shared by two or three inmates.
Meanwhile, in the town of Trenton, there was talk Thursday of soldiers being harassed and spat upon by angry townsfolk.
If there is any truth to the tales of fractured relations between town residents and military personnel in the town, one would be hard pressed to find it. Most people say they support the military more than ever.
Yet at the aptly titled Rumours bar, a military hangout, owner and former military pilot Pierre Bouchard said he’s heard of soldiers being yelled at or spit on in public since news of Williams’ arrest last Sunday.
While he, like most others in and around Trenton, said he was shocked and dismayed by the allegations against Williams, Bouchard said he hoped it wouldn’t affect military morale.
“This town survives because of the base,” said Bouchard. “I (would) hate to see people become ashamed of their uniform.”
Authorities were mum on Williams’ incarceration.
“We don’t discuss any information about the conditions of his custody,” said Stuart McGetrick, a Correctional Services spokesman.
Across the country, police forces are looking to their cold cases for similarities to the murders of the two Ontario women.
Media inquiries about unsolved homicides have been made in other cities where Williams was also stationed with the Canadian Forces, including Ontario and Manitoba.
Williams has not been ruled outas a suspect in the unsolved 2001 death at CFB Trenton of Kathleen MacVicar, 19.
In Halifax, police said there is no evidence to suggest any connection with their cold cases.
“That is exactly correct,” said Halifax Regional Police Const. Brian Palmeter.
Palmeter told Canwest News Service his force received a number of calls asking whether there was any connection with any cold cases in the area because Williams had served at CFB Shearwater, near Halifax. But Palmeter said the Halifax and Ontario officers have not discussed any evidence in the specific cases.
“We reached out and contacted the investigators from the OPP. That was specifically as a result of various calls we were receiving from various media outlets across Canada after the story broke out of Trenton. That’s why we called them. Our investigators reached out and contacted those investigators and had a very brief conversation.”
Palmeter said three cold cases in Halifax involved the deaths of young women, including one in January 1992 and another in late November 1994. But Palmeter said there is no evidence Williams was even in the area during those times
“We were getting a lot of calls trying to connect him to these files and I said we had no information. We don’t even know that this guy was here when these happened.”
Ontario Provincial Police said the focus of its investigation is on the current cases before the courts involving Williams as a suspect. The force has yet to begin any detailed investigations on cold cases, Sgt. Kristine Rae said.
The Toronto Police Service does not consider Williams a suspect in any unsolved homicide or assault cases in that city, spokeswoman Const. Wendy Drummond said.
However, the family of a Toronto woman murdered nearly 30 years ago insisted cold-case investigators are probing possible connections to that slaying and another as well. In 1983, Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice were sexually assaulted and murdered within four months of each another in downtown Toronto. DNA evidence revealed that both women had been killed by the same man.
Gilmour’s brother, Sean McCowan, told Global News he called Det.-Sgt. Steve Ryan of the Toronto Police Cold Case Squad on Tuesday. “(Ryan) just mentioned that the colonel is a person of interest and they’re going to take a look at it,” McCowan said.
Ottawa police are also probing unsolved cases, including the violent 2007 sexual assault of a Carleton University student.
“We’re pulling cases right now, but don’t have enough info from OPP,” said Ottawa police Chief Vern White. “We’re examining our cases from the modus operandi.”
Comeau had been working as a flight attendant based at CFB Trenton for six months when she was killed.
Her body was found in her home in Brighton, Ont., a small town about 15 kilometres west of Trenton, on Nov. 25.
Lloyd went missing Jan. 28, after texting a friend that she’d arrived safe at her Belleville home.
Police found her body after arresting Williams.
An autopsy on Lloyd’s body was completed Wednesday, but police would not release the cause of death.
Police said it was a roadside canvass on a nearby highway that made Williams a person of interest in the case. Police were led to Williams after stopping cars at a roadside checkpoint to match truck snow tires with a unique design.
Rae would not comment on the treads nor whether Williams confessed to police.
“I can’t speak about anything evidentiary,” said Rae.
Williams’ next court appearance is set for Feb. 18 in Belleville.
Ottawa Citizen and National Post
With files from Linda Nguyen, Mike Barber, Tony Spears and Alyssa Dalton
CNS 2/11/10 22:36:50
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Williams on suicide watch
Posted By Rob Tripp QMI Agency
Posted February 11th, 2010
KINGSTON — A senior air force commander charged with murdering two women was placed on a suicide watch when he arrived at a provincial jail in Napanee because of his bizarre behaviour, QMI Agency has learned.
Col. Russell Williams was acting as though he was a prisoner of war when he was first processed at the Quinte Detention Centre. He would only give authorities his name, rank and serial number, sources at the jail said.
Williams was assessed by a psychiatrist and he was deemed a possible suicide risk, sources said. His demeanor has been described as "cocky" but "vacant."
He was given a tear and burn-proof outfit, known among jail workers as an "oven mitt" or "baby doll" to wear. It is a thick gown, made from an impervious material, with holes for arms and head. The wearer is stripped of personal clothing, including underwear and other personal effects.
Williams was placed in a segregation cell where he could be monitored continually by security staff and where he had no privacy. The suicide watch segregation cell does not have a screen or covering over the barred front so that staff can see inside at all times.
Williams' mattress was removed in the daytime and returned only at night.
On Wednesday, Williams was allowed to exchange his suicide gown for a regular orange jumpsuit that is issued to most prisoners at Quinte, a crowded provincial holding and remand centre, sources said. Most of the inmates at the facility are awaiting trial.
Built to hold nearly 100 inmates, Quinte is often jammed with 300 or more prisoners. In some cases, inmates sleep on mattresses in hallways or placed on the floor of cells.
Williams remains in a segregation cell by himself with no contact with other inmates.
Sources said he has spoken very little and often refuses to make eye contact with jail staff.
His next court appearance will be by video link from the detention centre. Inmates are taken to a room in the centre where they stand in front of a camera, monitor and telephone that is part of a network connected to provincial courthouses.
The system allows routine remands to be conducted without the expense and time of shuttling prisoners from jails to court buildings.
Defence lawyers are still able to talk to the accused on a secure phone line.
Posted February 11th, 2010
KINGSTON — A senior air force commander charged with murdering two women was placed on a suicide watch when he arrived at a provincial jail in Napanee because of his bizarre behaviour, QMI Agency has learned.
Col. Russell Williams was acting as though he was a prisoner of war when he was first processed at the Quinte Detention Centre. He would only give authorities his name, rank and serial number, sources at the jail said.
Williams was assessed by a psychiatrist and he was deemed a possible suicide risk, sources said. His demeanor has been described as "cocky" but "vacant."
He was given a tear and burn-proof outfit, known among jail workers as an "oven mitt" or "baby doll" to wear. It is a thick gown, made from an impervious material, with holes for arms and head. The wearer is stripped of personal clothing, including underwear and other personal effects.
Williams was placed in a segregation cell where he could be monitored continually by security staff and where he had no privacy. The suicide watch segregation cell does not have a screen or covering over the barred front so that staff can see inside at all times.
Williams' mattress was removed in the daytime and returned only at night.
On Wednesday, Williams was allowed to exchange his suicide gown for a regular orange jumpsuit that is issued to most prisoners at Quinte, a crowded provincial holding and remand centre, sources said. Most of the inmates at the facility are awaiting trial.
Built to hold nearly 100 inmates, Quinte is often jammed with 300 or more prisoners. In some cases, inmates sleep on mattresses in hallways or placed on the floor of cells.
Williams remains in a segregation cell by himself with no contact with other inmates.
Sources said he has spoken very little and often refuses to make eye contact with jail staff.
His next court appearance will be by video link from the detention centre. Inmates are taken to a room in the centre where they stand in front of a camera, monitor and telephone that is part of a network connected to provincial courthouses.
The system allows routine remands to be conducted without the expense and time of shuttling prisoners from jails to court buildings.
Defence lawyers are still able to talk to the accused on a secure phone line.
'It makes you sleep better'
Arrest of Russ Williams
Posted By Jason Miller
Posted February 11th, 2010
JASON MILLER The Intelligencer
Investigators from the OPP's Forensic Identification Unit, are seen at Col. Russ Williams home Wednesday.
Andrea Bateman hasn't been too eager to go for walks with her dog, Chance, along Cosy Cove Lane in Tweed since the body of murder victim Jessica Lloyd was found earlier this week.
Calvin Sinclair is fighting to come to grips with how he came to live on the same street as an accused murderer.
Sinclair was, in some ways, coerced into moving to Cosy Cove lane, after his landlord gave him notice to leave his previous residence on Crookston Road in Tweed. Sinclair immediately picked up his belongings and moved to another rental property in the picturesque lakefront neighbourhood in September.
Sinclair's plan for a tranquil escape turned ugly after two female neighbours became victims of home invasions.
"We didn't have that long to enjoy the peace and quite," he said Wednesday, while walking by the the house owned by Col. Russ Williams.
Williams has been charged in the deaths of both Jessica Lloyd and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau. He also faces charges connected with the two home invasions.
Sinclair said that since the story exploded onto the national spotlight Monday, his neighbours have become less visible. He said although shocked, people are also relieved an arrest has been made.
"It makes you sleep better," he said.
Bill Page said that shock will hang over the community forever. He said the house would have to be demolished to give residents peace of mind.
"As you go by you (think of) Jessica," he said about Williams' cottage. "It sends a chill up your spine."
Page said the reputation of the area has been tarnished. It will also take a long time before neighbours start opening up to each other again, he said.
"It's going to take us a while to get over it," he said. "This use to be a care-free area. You got to think about things now."
Page said newcomers to the area may now find it difficult to fit in.
"It opens your eyes," he said. "You never know who lives down the street from you."
Andrea Bateman said she can't wait for the media and the police to leave, so the community can begin recovering.
She said community spirit has been knocked out of the area since the two home invasions in September, but Williams arrest on murder charges is a "heavier blow."
"Doors are closed and blinds have been drawn since September," she said. "I just want it all cleaned up."
Larry Jones has been alternating between horror and relief since Monday.
Jones was once considered a suspect in the two home invasions, but was officially cleared of suspicion since Williams' arrest.
"The mood has changed dramatically," he said. "People aren't afraid to speak to me because they know I'm not involved with it. It's kind of like old times again."
Jones said the story has had such far-reaching tentacles that he wouldn't be surprised to see curious onlookers flocking the area to catch a glimpse of the house.
"I think it will generate more interest because people will want to come here to see the house," he said. "People will be sightseeing as soon as the police pull out of here."
Posted By Jason Miller
Posted February 11th, 2010
JASON MILLER The Intelligencer
Investigators from the OPP's Forensic Identification Unit, are seen at Col. Russ Williams home Wednesday.
Andrea Bateman hasn't been too eager to go for walks with her dog, Chance, along Cosy Cove Lane in Tweed since the body of murder victim Jessica Lloyd was found earlier this week.
Calvin Sinclair is fighting to come to grips with how he came to live on the same street as an accused murderer.
Sinclair was, in some ways, coerced into moving to Cosy Cove lane, after his landlord gave him notice to leave his previous residence on Crookston Road in Tweed. Sinclair immediately picked up his belongings and moved to another rental property in the picturesque lakefront neighbourhood in September.
Sinclair's plan for a tranquil escape turned ugly after two female neighbours became victims of home invasions.
"We didn't have that long to enjoy the peace and quite," he said Wednesday, while walking by the the house owned by Col. Russ Williams.
Williams has been charged in the deaths of both Jessica Lloyd and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau. He also faces charges connected with the two home invasions.
Sinclair said that since the story exploded onto the national spotlight Monday, his neighbours have become less visible. He said although shocked, people are also relieved an arrest has been made.
"It makes you sleep better," he said.
Bill Page said that shock will hang over the community forever. He said the house would have to be demolished to give residents peace of mind.
"As you go by you (think of) Jessica," he said about Williams' cottage. "It sends a chill up your spine."
Page said the reputation of the area has been tarnished. It will also take a long time before neighbours start opening up to each other again, he said.
"It's going to take us a while to get over it," he said. "This use to be a care-free area. You got to think about things now."
Page said newcomers to the area may now find it difficult to fit in.
"It opens your eyes," he said. "You never know who lives down the street from you."
Andrea Bateman said she can't wait for the media and the police to leave, so the community can begin recovering.
She said community spirit has been knocked out of the area since the two home invasions in September, but Williams arrest on murder charges is a "heavier blow."
"Doors are closed and blinds have been drawn since September," she said. "I just want it all cleaned up."
Larry Jones has been alternating between horror and relief since Monday.
Jones was once considered a suspect in the two home invasions, but was officially cleared of suspicion since Williams' arrest.
"The mood has changed dramatically," he said. "People aren't afraid to speak to me because they know I'm not involved with it. It's kind of like old times again."
Jones said the story has had such far-reaching tentacles that he wouldn't be surprised to see curious onlookers flocking the area to catch a glimpse of the house.
"I think it will generate more interest because people will want to come here to see the house," he said. "People will be sightseeing as soon as the police pull out of here."
Tweed neighbourhood uneasy
Russ Williams
Posted By W. Brice McVicar
Posted February 11th, 2010
Margaret Dafoe has called her house on Highway 37 home for nine years, but it is only recently she began locking her doors.
Dafoe, who lives just two doors away from Jessica Lloyd's tidy brick bungalow, said the 27-year-old's murder has shaken her sense of security in the quiet, rural neighbourhood just north of Belleville. Like other residents in the Quinte region, this past week's news has left Dafoe wondering how such horrible crimes could happen here.
"It hits really close to home, that's for sure. It's just a shame to see such a young girl — and a very pretty girl — killed like that," she said. "We've never had anything like this before."
Dafoe said she always locked her doors when she left the house for work or shopping, but would never have considered making sure those locks were in place while she was in her home. That's changed since Lloyd's disappearance and the eventual discovery of her body and arrest of Col. Russ Williams.
"It makes you think and wonder, that's for sure."
A caller to The Intelligencer suggested police need to place a greater emphasis on urging residents, particularly women, to take precautions. She doesn't buy the fear of spreading panic in doing just that, either.
"Panic in the general population," said the woman, who described herself as a mother and former teacher, "is immaterial when it's weighed against public safety."
Last week, police conducted a roadside canvass in front of Lloyd's home, asking all motorists if they had seen anything suspicious or if they had information that would assist them in their investigation. Though that canvass took place just north of Dafoe's home, she was still approached by police, she said.
A police officer approached her as she returned home that night and asked her some questions. The officer's questions were simple, she said, with inquiries focusing on whether Dafoe had heard anything suspicious or witnessed any suspicious activity in the neighbourhood.
And those questions weren't the only ones Dafoe had to answer.
"Pretty near every weekend we had police at our door, or detectives .... I didn't see anything though," she said.
Lloyd's neighbour, Dawn Chambers, said that increased police presence in the neighbourhood has made her feel safer, despite their reason for being in the community. She said police cruisers — especially those that had remained parked at Lloyd's house for the past two weeks — were a common sight.
"They were there, it seems, 24-hours-a-day some days and certainly dropping in frequently when they weren't parked there," she said. "Safety, though ... I don't feel any differently."
Chambers said the crime hasn't shaken her sense of security, living as she does in the country, and she has not changed her lifestyle due to the circumstances. There have been break-ins in the community in the past, she added, and people need to be cautious all the time.
"We've always used common sense in what we do by keeping our vehicles locked and making sure our home is locked. I can't say we've changed anything, really," she said.
However, Chambers said she does get "an eerie feeling" when she looks at Lloyd's house at night. She said she knew Lloyd only "casually" and would often wave to her when she saw her, but the relationship never extended beyond friendly, neighbourly waves and smiles.
Lloyd's father, Warren, was a hunting buddy of retired city police inspector Garnet Goodwin.
Goodwin, who spoke highly of the entire Lloyd family, lives not far from Lloyd's home on Highway 37.
The events this week, he said, have not changed his feeling of security in the rural area north of Belleville, though he admitted he has always been leery of leaving family members home alone.
"I've never had concerns for my sense of security, though I certainly do with leaving a family member," he said. "I don't think we can live in a barricaded mentality, but I think you have to take precautions to safeguard yourself, no matter what."
Goodwin, who now works for Alarm Systems, said residents can take steps to increase their security by ensuring they have outside lighting, strong locks on doors, bushes cut away from windows so points of entry are not concealed and even a home security system.
The idea, he said, is to make sure your property is as secure as possible. Such steps — regardless of where you live — can decrease the chances of being a victim of crime.
Focusing on Lloyd's murder, Goodwin said he was impressed with the work conducted by police in arresting Williams.
"This is a very horrendous situation and thank God for the team effort of all the police services," he said. "They've done a great job."
bmcvicar@intelligencer.ca
Posted By W. Brice McVicar
Posted February 11th, 2010
Margaret Dafoe has called her house on Highway 37 home for nine years, but it is only recently she began locking her doors.
Dafoe, who lives just two doors away from Jessica Lloyd's tidy brick bungalow, said the 27-year-old's murder has shaken her sense of security in the quiet, rural neighbourhood just north of Belleville. Like other residents in the Quinte region, this past week's news has left Dafoe wondering how such horrible crimes could happen here.
"It hits really close to home, that's for sure. It's just a shame to see such a young girl — and a very pretty girl — killed like that," she said. "We've never had anything like this before."
Dafoe said she always locked her doors when she left the house for work or shopping, but would never have considered making sure those locks were in place while she was in her home. That's changed since Lloyd's disappearance and the eventual discovery of her body and arrest of Col. Russ Williams.
"It makes you think and wonder, that's for sure."
A caller to The Intelligencer suggested police need to place a greater emphasis on urging residents, particularly women, to take precautions. She doesn't buy the fear of spreading panic in doing just that, either.
"Panic in the general population," said the woman, who described herself as a mother and former teacher, "is immaterial when it's weighed against public safety."
Last week, police conducted a roadside canvass in front of Lloyd's home, asking all motorists if they had seen anything suspicious or if they had information that would assist them in their investigation. Though that canvass took place just north of Dafoe's home, she was still approached by police, she said.
A police officer approached her as she returned home that night and asked her some questions. The officer's questions were simple, she said, with inquiries focusing on whether Dafoe had heard anything suspicious or witnessed any suspicious activity in the neighbourhood.
And those questions weren't the only ones Dafoe had to answer.
"Pretty near every weekend we had police at our door, or detectives .... I didn't see anything though," she said.
Lloyd's neighbour, Dawn Chambers, said that increased police presence in the neighbourhood has made her feel safer, despite their reason for being in the community. She said police cruisers — especially those that had remained parked at Lloyd's house for the past two weeks — were a common sight.
"They were there, it seems, 24-hours-a-day some days and certainly dropping in frequently when they weren't parked there," she said. "Safety, though ... I don't feel any differently."
Chambers said the crime hasn't shaken her sense of security, living as she does in the country, and she has not changed her lifestyle due to the circumstances. There have been break-ins in the community in the past, she added, and people need to be cautious all the time.
"We've always used common sense in what we do by keeping our vehicles locked and making sure our home is locked. I can't say we've changed anything, really," she said.
However, Chambers said she does get "an eerie feeling" when she looks at Lloyd's house at night. She said she knew Lloyd only "casually" and would often wave to her when she saw her, but the relationship never extended beyond friendly, neighbourly waves and smiles.
Lloyd's father, Warren, was a hunting buddy of retired city police inspector Garnet Goodwin.
Goodwin, who spoke highly of the entire Lloyd family, lives not far from Lloyd's home on Highway 37.
The events this week, he said, have not changed his feeling of security in the rural area north of Belleville, though he admitted he has always been leery of leaving family members home alone.
"I've never had concerns for my sense of security, though I certainly do with leaving a family member," he said. "I don't think we can live in a barricaded mentality, but I think you have to take precautions to safeguard yourself, no matter what."
Goodwin, who now works for Alarm Systems, said residents can take steps to increase their security by ensuring they have outside lighting, strong locks on doors, bushes cut away from windows so points of entry are not concealed and even a home security system.
The idea, he said, is to make sure your property is as secure as possible. Such steps — regardless of where you live — can decrease the chances of being a victim of crime.
Focusing on Lloyd's murder, Goodwin said he was impressed with the work conducted by police in arresting Williams.
"This is a very horrendous situation and thank God for the team effort of all the police services," he said. "They've done a great job."
bmcvicar@intelligencer.ca
General tells troops to stand tall
Trenton
Posted By QMI Agency
Posted February 11th, 2010
CFB TRENTON — Canada's top soldier is telling military officials and personnel here "to stand tall and to stand proud," despite the arrest of former commanding officer Col. Russ Williams on two counts of first-degree murder.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk visited the largest Canadian air force base Wednesday, the first time since Williams was charged with the murders of Belleville's Jessica Lloyd and 437 squadron's Cpl. Marie-France Comeau Monday.
"I came here to Trenton today to tell our troops and military staff that we have a responsibility to do what is right in these troubled times for the Canadian Forces," said Natynczyk. "It's been a difficult 48 hours, but we have to move forward. I am here to support my colleagues and to honour the families that have lost loved ones."
The Chief of Defence Staff said he was shocked when he was informed of the charges laid against Williams.
"We all felt the shock and most importantly it was really hard to believe," said Natynczyk. "Today (Wednesday) I told the men and women of CFB Trenton to support the national investigation services and that we will follow the judicial process as it unfolds."
The military official also met with Quinte West Mayor John Williams and Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis to thank them for their support and to discuss the repercussions such "serious accusations" against the local base's leader might have on the two communities.
Mayor Williams said the Chief of Defence Staff was concerned with the support toward the troops within the Trenton community.
"We told him how important 8 Wing is in our communities and that the Forces can count on our support," he said. "In these difficult times, he (Natynczyk) wanted to show us his support. We told him to let us know if there is anything we could do to help."
Natynczyk said he felt "a great deal of support and respect for the men an women of CFB Trenton within the community."
"We went to Tim Hortons today and a resident of Trenton told me how he appreciates the work done by our troops and wanted to show us his support in these difficult times," Natynczyk said.
He said the Canadian Forces have a duty toward all Canadians and must move forward and keep up the "great work" throughout the current missions in Afghanistan and Haiti.
"We all have to step up," said Natynczyk. "We also have to see what we can learned from all this and do what's necessary to make sure it doesn't occur again."
Posted By QMI Agency
Posted February 11th, 2010
CFB TRENTON — Canada's top soldier is telling military officials and personnel here "to stand tall and to stand proud," despite the arrest of former commanding officer Col. Russ Williams on two counts of first-degree murder.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk visited the largest Canadian air force base Wednesday, the first time since Williams was charged with the murders of Belleville's Jessica Lloyd and 437 squadron's Cpl. Marie-France Comeau Monday.
"I came here to Trenton today to tell our troops and military staff that we have a responsibility to do what is right in these troubled times for the Canadian Forces," said Natynczyk. "It's been a difficult 48 hours, but we have to move forward. I am here to support my colleagues and to honour the families that have lost loved ones."
The Chief of Defence Staff said he was shocked when he was informed of the charges laid against Williams.
"We all felt the shock and most importantly it was really hard to believe," said Natynczyk. "Today (Wednesday) I told the men and women of CFB Trenton to support the national investigation services and that we will follow the judicial process as it unfolds."
The military official also met with Quinte West Mayor John Williams and Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis to thank them for their support and to discuss the repercussions such "serious accusations" against the local base's leader might have on the two communities.
Mayor Williams said the Chief of Defence Staff was concerned with the support toward the troops within the Trenton community.
"We told him how important 8 Wing is in our communities and that the Forces can count on our support," he said. "In these difficult times, he (Natynczyk) wanted to show us his support. We told him to let us know if there is anything we could do to help."
Natynczyk said he felt "a great deal of support and respect for the men an women of CFB Trenton within the community."
"We went to Tim Hortons today and a resident of Trenton told me how he appreciates the work done by our troops and wanted to show us his support in these difficult times," Natynczyk said.
He said the Canadian Forces have a duty toward all Canadians and must move forward and keep up the "great work" throughout the current missions in Afghanistan and Haiti.
"We all have to step up," said Natynczyk. "We also have to see what we can learned from all this and do what's necessary to make sure it doesn't occur again."
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