|
Wilf Hathway
| Dominic McCullock
|
Jaime Wheeler
Police weigh new evidence
claim in Wheeler murder
Darren Bernhardt, The
StarPhoenix, Wednesday, January 25, 2006
City police have assigned an
investigator to look into claims of new evidence in the six-year-old
killing of Jaime Wheeler, but that does not mean the case is
reopened, Staff Sgt. Kelly Cook said Tuesday.
"We have received some
information pertaining to the Wheeler murder and we are in the
process of determining its relevance. We are not convinced it
is credible," said Cook, who heads up the major crime unit
for the Saskatoon Police Service.
Wheeler, 20, was found by a
roommate in a basement suite on March 12, 2000. She had been
stabbed 56 times.
Dominic McCullock, 23, was
convicted in 2004 of second-degree murder and sentenced to life
in prison with no eligibility for parole for 15 years. He has
maintained his innocence and is appealing his conviction. The
trial heard that DNA found in blood on Wheeler's jacket and apartment
door handles matched McCullock's, and a pubic hair stuck in dried
blood on Wheeler's arm matched McCullock's.
Earlier this month a letter
surfaced suggesting new evidence exists. The letter was given
to The StarPhoenix and other media outlets, as well as the police,
by an anonymous source.
In it, McCullock's lawyer Mark
Brayford writes he has obtained a new, unidentified, object that
may have the victim's and the killer's DNA on it. He implores
Crown prosecutor Dan Dahl to send the item for DNA testing or
forward it to a private lab for DNA tests.
"Neither of us ever wished
to be in a David Milgaard-type situation," Brayford writes
to Dahl.
Brayford further writes that
he submitted the item to the police service on June 23, 2004,
and was disappointed no action had been taken on the potential
evidence. When contacted by The StarPhoenix earlier this month,
Brayford refused comment.
Dahl has referred calls to
Justice Department spokesperson Andrew Dinsmore, who said the
department could not comment on McCullock's case while it was
still before the courts.
Angela Geworsky and Richard
Klassen are hoping the evidence will help exonerate a man they
have been helping defend who faces a first-degree murder charge
in another case. Wilfred Hathway is set to go to trial for the
1998 stabbing death of his landlord, Denver Bruce Crawford, 84.
Although separate, perhaps
the two killings may be related, Geworsky and Klassen have suggested.
The two helped launch a website to bring attention to alleged
miscarriages of justice.
The deaths happened in the
same Broadway neighbourhood -- Wheeler's at 521 10th St. East
and Crawford's at 323 Ninth St. East. In fact, between 1998 and
2000, there were a number of similar attacks in the city, including
two others within blocks of Wheeler's home.
Cook says the latest information
being scrutinized is "specific to the Wheeler case.
"They (Geworsky and Klassen)
are entitled to their opinions but we're not about to comment
on that (any apparent link to Hathway)," he said, adding
"nothing right here is going to change the Hathway trial
from proceeding."
dbernhardt@sp.canwest.com
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2006
Letter alleges new evidence
in Wheeler murder
Janet French, The StarPhoenix,
Thursday, January 12, 2006
A letter suggesting new evidence
has surfaced in the five-year-old murder of a 20-year-old woman
is opening old wounds for the victim's mother.
"It's a like a nightmare
all over again," said Roberta Wheeler, whose daughter Jaime
died in a brutal stabbing in 2000. "It never ends."
In 2004, Dominic McCullock,
23, was convicted of second-degree murder in Wheeler's death.
In a Dec. 13, 2005, letter
given to The StarPhoenix by an anonymous source, McCullock's
lawyer Mark Brayford writes he has obtained a new, unidentified,
object that may have the victim's and the killer's DNA on it.
In the letter, Brayford implores
Crown prosecutor Dan Dahl to send the item for DNA testing or
forward it to a private lab for DNA tests at the family's expense.
Brayford said the Crown can have access to the results, even
if they incriminate McCullock.
Brayford says in the letter
he submitted the item to the Saskatoon Police Service on June
23, and was disappointed no action had been taken on the potential
evidence by the end of August.
McCullock, who was sentenced
to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 15 years,
says he is innocent and has appealed his second-degree murder
conviction.
"While it was apparent
that you are sincere in your belief as to the correctness of
the conviction, we know that the Crown counsel in (the case of
wrongfully convicted David) Milgaard had the same genuinely held
belief and we discussed that neither of us ever wished to be
in a David Milgaard-type situation," Brayford wrote in the
letter.
Brayford wouldn't comment on
the letter when contacted Wednesday.
When contacted Wednesday, McCullock's
mother said she wasn't ready to talk about the letter.
Wheeler said the first she
heard of the letter was on Tuesday night.
Prosecutor Dahl referred calls
to Justice Department spokesperson Andrew Dinsmore, who said
the department could not comment on McCullock's case while it
was still before the courts.
Gary Verrett, case manager
at the RCMP's Regina forensic lab, said police investigators
and forensic experts work together at crime scenes to identify
the most "probative" exhibits that could yield DNA
samples based on the circumstances of the crime.
Lab staff would conduct a DNA
test on any evidence found outside the crime scene or found at
a later time if they feel it is critical to the investigation,
Verrett said.
"In terms of the actual
articles, there isn't one that's better over the other (to obtain
a DNA sample)," Verrett said. "It is really the type
of bodily substance that is present on the article. Substances
such as blood and semen have a much higher concentration of DNA
and so, therefore, they give higher yields and better results
than objects that have been handled."
It takes anywhere from two
weeks to a couple of months to link a DNA sample to a person
in an investigation, Verrett said.
A consultant at Genetrack Biolabs,
a Vancouver company that conducts DNA tests, said analysis of
one forensic sample for a legal case costs $350.
Jaime Wheeler, originally from
Nipawin, was a psychology student who worked part-time in a restaurant
kitchen. Her suitemate found her body in their basement apartment
at 521 10th St. East the morning of March 12, 2000, when he returned
home from an all-night party. She had been stabbed 56 times.
DNA found in blood on Wheeler's
jacket and apartment door handles matched McCullock's, a forensic
biologist testified at his trial. The jury also heard a pubic
hair stuck in dried blood on Wheeler's arm matched McCullock's.
McCullock testified any of the blood found in the apartment could
be from his chronic nose bleeding problem.
jfrench@sp.canwest.com
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2006
Police eye criminal profile for new leads in
murder
Kim McNairn Saskatoon StarPhoenix,
Narch 2002
Saskatoon police will release
new information on the unsolved killing of Jaime Wheeler today,
the second-anniversary of the University of Saskatchewan student's
death.
What led to the shy, 20-year-old
woman being brutally stabbed to death in her Broadway-area home
has baffled major crimes investigators for two years.
Plenty of leads have been exhausted.
No charges have been laid.
"What I can say is all
the significant persons of interest have been conclusively eliminated
(as suspects)," said Sgt. Keith Atkinson.
Now with the help of behavioural
analysis techniques, police have created a criminal profile of
who could have been responsible for Wheeler's death.
Atkinson says the profile details
possible characteristics of the culprit, and what actions that
person may have taken before, during and afterward.
He would not release details
of the profiling, noting instead they will be made public at
a news conference today.
"We will be releasing
new information, such as the profiling, in hopes it may jog somebody's
memory as to something they may have seen that may be of interest
to our investigators," he said.
Police also plan to make public
new information about Wheeler's activities around the time of
her death and her last day alive.
In addition to her studies
at the university, she worked in a busy restaurant and enjoyed
dancing with friends, including at rave parties. Friends say
she had just ended a long-term relationship with another woman,
and lived in a house where drugs were regularly used.
She is remembered by many friends
for her love of psychology and literature, her dry sense of humour
and her fondness of playing video games and watching movies.
Her roommate has said that
on the night of the death, Wheeler wanted to stay home to watch
television and study.
He left the basement suite
and Wheeler at 11 p.m., and returned at noon the next day to
find her lifeless body on the floor.
© Copyright 2002 Saskatoon
StarPhoenix See Missing
Native Women site
Gone too soon: Two months
after Jaime Wheeler's brutal murder, police are still searching
for her killer
Dan Zakreski. Star - Phoenix.
Saskatoon, Sask.: May 13, 2000. pg. A.1.FRO
Two months later, there is
still no comforting, simple explanation for the brutal murder
of Jaime Lynn Wheeler.
She had no obvious enemies.
She did not pick a fight in
a bar.
She did not stray into a party
on the wrong side of town.
All that is known for certain
is that the third-year University of Saskatchewan psychology
student did not die accidentally.
Late Saturday night or in the
early hours of Sunday morning on the weekend of March 12, someone
broke into the basement suite that Jaime Wheeler shared with
a roommate in a bungalow off Broadway Avenue and stabbed her
to death.
The motive for the horrific
killing of the shy 20-year-old remains elusive to this day.
The ongoing police investigation
into her death is entangled in the complexities of her life.
Wheeler, recently coming out of a long- term relationship with
another woman, lived in a house where drugs were regularly used.
A small quantity of marijuana was discovered after her death.
She attended university, worked in a busy restaurant and went
to dance parties.
These overlapping circles of
friends and acquaintances each played a role in her life and
offer different perspectives on her murder.
The investigative problems
are compounded by where she lived. The Broadway area is changing
from a quiet neighbourhood with trendy shops into a five-block
area with bars that attract people from across the city who noisily
clutter the streets until after midnight. There is also a growing
transient population living on the street or renting suites in
the area.
The neighbourhood is also becoming
more violent. The 1998 murder of a senior who owned a rooming
house blocks from where Wheeler died is unsolved, and there were
three attacks on people in their homes last summer, only one
of which led to charges.
Wheeler moved to Saskatoon
after graduating from high school in Nipawin in 1997. She attended
university full-time and supported her academic studies by working
at Kelsey's Restaurant. For entertainment, she became active
in the Saskatoon rave scene.
Members of the rave community
are sensitive about how Wheeler's murder may be connected with
the all-night dance parties at warehouses and clubs.
Raves surfaced in Saskatoon
in the mid-1990s. Initially, small groups met for the parties
two or three times a year and organized road trips to Regina,
Calgary and Edmonton.
The scene is undergoing a shift
from the underground to mainstream and coming under scrutiny
for the drug use associated with the parties. Longtime participants
say the parties are changing with the publicity.
The frequency of the dances
is now twice a month, not twice a year, and they are more heavily
promoted than in the past, advertised with flyers and posters
rather by than word of mouth. The crowds are also larger and
more anonymous.
"Ecstasy, acid, coke and
mushrooms are the drugs. They're there if you want it,"
says 23-year-old Peter Tully. He met Wheeler at a rave last year
through mutual friends.
Wheeler smoked marijuana casually
but did not use harder drugs, her friends say. She went to raves
because she liked people and she liked to dance.
"She was a shy dancer
and liked the vibe at the parties," said Tully. "She
liked being around people."
Wheeler began going to raves
with friends in early 1998, shortly after coming to Saskatoon.
While some friends dropped out over time, the dances remained
her primary source of entertainment.
"We went to a lot at first
and then I slowed on raves, I was going away from the scene.
It just wasn't my thing," said one close friend who asked
not to be named.
"But she continued. If
she went out, she went out to raves."
Doug Ramage, 21, met Wheeler
at a party a year ago. They became friends when she helped him
get a job at Kelsey's. Ramage is troubled by the possibility
that someone from a rave may be responsible for her death.
"Within any scene there's
always a bunch of sketchy people. They go for the wrong reasons,
for the drugs, not to listen to the music," he said.
Ramage is also concerned that
Jaime may have been acquainted with her killer.
"Lots of people knew who
she was, but she kept a low profile -- school, work, parties
and home. And she was very smart. She never gave out her phone
number or address," he said.
"I think she knew them."
News of the murder spread quickly
through the rave community. Messages of mourning began appearing
on a local Internet bulletin board 24 hours after the discovery
of her body in the suite at 521 10th St. East.
"On Sunday a friend informed
me that a girl was murdered in a basement suite just off Broadway.
At the time I thought to myself, that's unfortunate, and briefly
wondered if it was my friend Jaime," wrote SIYmY, the user
name for a member on the Plastic Puppet Motive (PPM) Web site.
In the week following her murder,
people posted some 30 reminiscences, poems and open messages
on the PPM bulletin board. The Web site offers a forum for members
and posts information on upcoming parties.
The communiques revealed a
close-knit group struggling to deal with the loss of "a
fellow sister of ours" and "a fellow member of our
community."
A community also openly wondering
about the perils of a rapidly changing scene.
"We have to remember the
good so I'd like to remember the beautiful sun painted on her
bedroom door. Whenever I look up at the sun I'll think of her,"
wrote Sparky.
"I would also like to
mention that we all have to be careful. I thought that because
Saskatoon is a small town and we have our little raver community
that we are safe. But evil is everywhere and we have to be careful."
There was a rave at the Crystal
Ballroom at 212 Third Ave. South on the night Wheeler died. She
chose to stay at home and study after work rather than go dancing.
Doing homework on a Saturday night was not uncommon, said friends
at Kelsey's, who recalled her doing school work on breaks at
the restaurant.
According to witnesses and
sources, Wheeler finished working at Kelsey's around 5:30 that
Saturday afternoon and went directly home to the 10th Street
East bungalow. She shared a basement suite with a roommate, David
Parent. The main floor suites in the house were also occupied.
Although living in the same
house, the tenants upstairs and downstairs knew each other only
in passing. They shared a common back entrance to the house,
which branched to stairways leading to the upper and lower levels.
Wheeler studied into the evening
while Parent relaxed; the upstairs tenants were out for the night.
She telephoned a close friend in Kelowna, B.C., who had just
started a new job. At around 10:30 p.m., friends called and invited
Parent to attend the rave at the Crystal Ballroom. Parent left
the house at about 11 p.m., with Wheeler deciding to stay home,
study and watch TV.
Friends say Wheeler frequently
left the door to the downstairs suite unlocked.
Parent did not return home
from the rave until the next day, shortly after noon.
Walking down the basement stairs,
he noted the door to the suite was open. Entering the living
room area, the light dim because of the curtained windows, he
observed Wheeler lying on the floor on her side in the fetal
position.
Initially, he thought she was
sleeping or sick. When he moved closer, he noticed how she was
wedged tightly between a table and couch, and the dark pool surrounding
her body and marking the walls, TV and shelf of compact discs.
She was wearing a T-shirt and loose pants and her left arm was
across her face.
He ran upstairs for help. The
main floor tenant called 911 and then the pair went downstairs
to try and revive Wheeler using CPR.
They were unsuccessful.
A small amount of marijuana
was found in the house and there was no sign of forced entry.
Friends still struggle to reconcile
Wheeler's violent death with their memories of their friend,
who they say loved being around people.
"She had a broad interest
in psychology, why people act a certain way, why people have
the minds they have. Their behaviour fascinated her," said
one.
They remember her dry, sarcastic
sense of humour and her love of video games and movies. She wrote
extensively, filling journals with prose and poetry and drawings.
Although three years into a psychology program, she had not yet
decided what to do with her life.
"She knew what she liked,
but not what she wanted to do," said another friend.
They cannot fathom how someone
who knew their friend could have killed her, and the manner of
her death has left them frightened and confused.
Police are struggling with
the possible connections between Wheeler's lifestyle and her
death.
Although she was not directly
involved in the drug element of the rave scene, people in her
immediate circle did deal extensively. Her friends are aware
of the relationships and wrestle with the possibility that her
peripheral connections to drug dealers somehow led to her murder.
"I suspect drugs, not
directly within the rave scene, but I think they're connected
somehow," said Ramage.
Another area of concern is
that she worked in a popular bar and met a wide group of people
through the Eighth Street East venue. She started working at
the restaurant in May 1998 and socialized with co- workers.
And there is the issue of her
private life. Given the strong emotions in the murder -- the
savagery of the attack speaks against a chance encounter with
an intruder -- police are considering whether she was acquainted
with her attacker.
A uniform concern expressed
by those close to Wheeler is that her death is somehow connected
to two earlier, unsolved murders in the city. They fear that
the killer may not have known her at all and, for whatever reason,
chose her as their next victim.
On May 13, 1998, 84-year-old
rooming house landlord Denver Bruce Crawford was found murdered,
with wounds to his neck and head, at his house at 323 Ninth St.
East -- just blocks from where Wheeler died.
On July 25, 1999, someone gained
entry to the west-side home of 92-year-old Anna Hein and murdered
the senior. The killer attempted to flood the house after the
murder.
Police still say the only connection
in the cases is that they were individuals at home alone.
Staff Sgt. Glenn Thomson said
Wheeler's murder "doesn't appear to be connected to the
other assaults in the area from last year.
"The big thing with this
one is that she was involved in a lot of different things in
her life. Certainly that makes an investigation tough because
you're going in one direction and then all of a sudden a whole
new thing shows up, and then you've got to go check out that
area."
University student `a
diamond': employer: Police seek assistance in investigation of
death
Betty Ann Adam. Star - Phoenix.
Saskatoon, Sask.: Mar 15, 2000. pg. A.1.FRO
Jaime Wheeler was a dedicated
university student, a conscientious employee described as `a
diamond' and a happy-go-lucky young woman.
Wheeler, 20, was found dead
Sunday in her Broadway-area basement suite. The major crimes
unit of the Saskatoon Police Service is investigating her death.
Wheeler's roommate, David Parent,
discovered her body shortly after noon, said Clint Smith, who
lives in the house's main floor suite at 521 10th St. East.
Parent sought help from Smith's
roommate, who called 911, Smith said.
Smith was not home at the time
of the discovery, but returned around 12:30 p.m. to find police
at the house. Smith said his roommate had blood on her knees
from kneeling beside the body.
Blood was found on the back
door, which had been left open, Smith said.
Police have not released the
cause of death. They have asked the public to report any information
they may have about Wheeler's activities Saturday night or Sunday.
Wheeler was born and raised
in Nipawin and was the middle child in a family of three children,
her father, Derwin Wheeler, said Tuesday.
She was in the third year of
university, where she was working toward a degree in psychology.
One of Wheeler's closest friends,
Curtis Boyd, who worked with her at Kelsey's Restaurant, said
she was dedicated to her studies. When she worked split shifts
at the restaurant, she would read a textbook in the back room
instead of taking a break at one of the restaurant tables, as
others did.
"She'd even miss parties
to write essays," Boyd said.
Wheeler told her boss, manager
Jim Armstrong, that she wanted to work with troubled people when
she graduated from university.
When Armstrong hired Wheeler
in May 1998, he asked her if she was sure she would be able to
handle the heavy lifting that dishwashers are required to do.
Though she was 5-foot-4 and
slim, the 18-year-old didn't bat an eye.
"If the guys can do it,
I can do it," she said.
Wheeler turned out to be "a
quiet leader" whose cheerful yet competent manner soon earned
her promotions within the kitchen staff. At the time of her death,
Wheeler was the "line pivot," whose job was to control
the flow of work being done in the kitchen.
"Jamie was quiet, yet
assertive. Pressure didn't bother her. That's why she ran the
show back there," Armstrong said.
Staff turnover is low at Kelsey's
and Jamie was among a tight- knit group of staff who had worked
together for more than two years, Armstrong said.
He often used Jamie as an example
to other staff to show how hard work could lead to better jobs.
"Our job (as managers)
is to try to find the diamonds in the rough. I'd describe her
as a diamond.
"She was pretty special,"
Armstrong said.
Wheeler usually worked Friday,
Saturday and Sunday evenings, but about once a month, Armstrong
schedules a Saturday night off for his staff. Last weekend was
Jamie's Saturday night off. She told Armstrong she intended to
work on an essay.
She worked 11:30 a.m. to 5:30
p.m. and was scheduled to work the Sunday evening shift.
Boyd spoke to Wheeler for the
last time just before she left work Saturday.
He first met her the day he
replaced her as dishwasher, when she was promoted to line cook.
The two hit it off immediately.
"She was carefree. Not
an enemy in the world. She always had a smile on her face and
everybody was her friend. She was wonderful," Boyd said.
"She took me out and introduced
me to lots of people. She taught me how to dance," Boyd
said.
He remembers Wheeler at dances,
where she would watch the action from the sidelines and then,
"when the timing was right, she'd join in and have an even
better time," he said.
Boyd, who will be a pallbearer
at Wheeler's funeral Friday in Nipawin, is making a memorial
poster about her.
He has a notebook of writings
and drawings that bears an inscription from Wheeler.
"Don't buy Nike crap.
Sweatshops are bad."
It was signed JME.
Unsolved Mysteries: Murder
investigations stymie city police
Leslie Perreaux. Star -
Phoenix. Saskatoon, Sask.: Mar 18, 2000. pg. A.1.FRO
The scenario has become familiar
in at least a half-dozen crime dispatches from Saskatoon in the
past 22 months: A person, home alone, is viciously attacked.
The latest: Jaime Wheeler,
a 20-year-old university student, died mysteriously last weekend
in her basement suite at 521 10th St. East. Wheeler was found
lying on her own floor in a pool of blood.
Since 1998, in attacks that
appear similar to Wheeler's case, two elderly people have been
found dead in their homes, while another was discovered seriously
injured.
Three other violent assaults
took place in homes in the Broadway area, within blocks of Wheeler's
home. In those cases, each victim survived. In only one case
was an arrest made.
Though the crimes sound like
variations on one or two themes, police insist there is no connection
among any of the half-dozen attacks. They won't say how they
know.
"The similarity between
them all is they are individuals who are at home by themselves.
From there, each of them go in different directions," said
Staff Sgt. Glenn Thomson of the Saskatoon city police.
"There's nothing there
that would cause concern that anyone is going around trying to
kill people."
The streak began May 13, 1998,
when Denver Bruce Crawford, an 84- year-old rooming house landlord,
was found murdered, with wounds to his neck and head.
Crawford, who rented out the
second and third floor of his home at 323 Ninth St. East, had
one rule in his house: no drinking or drugs allowed. No arrests
have been made.
On July 25, 1999, a west-side
neighbourhood was shocked by the discovery of the body of 92-year-old
Anna Hein. Blood and water mingled on the floor of her home from
an apparent attempt by her attacker to flood the house at 320
Ave. G South. No one has been arrested for her death.
New clues have slowed to a
trickle in the case.
"I wouldn't say we're
out of fresh leads," Thomson said. "We get new information
every once in a while on it and we follow it through."
Thomson said police are still
in the crucial early part of the week-old investigation into
the death of Jaime Wheeler.
Wheeler, the 20-year-old university
student who was found dead in her Broadway-area suite Sunday,
still doesn't fall into the whodunit category. Tips are pouring
in from friends and acquaintances, assisting police to recreate
her final hours.
Still, it's among the type
of crime that is most difficult to solve -- murders where people
with no history of criminal involvement and no obvious enemies
are at home alone and are attacked for unknown reasons by an
unknown assailant.
"The first few days after
a murder are the key days. That's when it's fresh in the public's
mind, that's when they're calling CrimeStoppers. As time goes
on, it gets harder and harder in these investigations,"
he said.
"That's why we want everyone
with even the smallest piece of information to call us."
Among the string of bloody,
fatal mysteries is a bright spot: Antonia Kinar, an 88-year-old
woman, survived an attack at her home at 414 22nd St. West.
On Oct. 14 Kinar's nephew found
her unconscious and beaten in her bedroom. She recovered, but
she is unable remember much about her attack. Like the other
cases, no arrests have been made.
"She hasn't been able
to give us an awful lot. When an elderly person is beaten, it
can have an effect. There are a combination of factors that can
make it difficult for them to remember," Thomson said.
Although the elderly victims
-- Kinar, Hein and Crawford -- were similar in age and Kinar
and Hein were attacked six blocks apart, Thomson said there is
no evident connection between the cases.
Neither are police using location
to link the Broadway-area attacks: the deaths of Crawford and
Wheeler and three non-fatal attacks in the trendy area last summer,
even though they were all committed upon victims at home within
a few blocks of each other by unknown assailants.
Again, Thomson couldn't say
how police know they are not linked. He wouldn't say if any of
the victims were sexually assaulted; he wouldn't say what weapon,
if any, was used in the attacks.
"We don't release an awful
lot of information on some of these crimes. If we put out details
of a crime, everyone will talk about it. If we don't put out
a lot of detail and someone is talking about it, there is a reason
for it," Thomson said.
However, Hein's July death
came in the middle of the series of violent attacks in the Broadway
area, where homes were broken into and assaults on the lone woman
there took place.
Randall Patrick Linklater was
charged with one break-in and aggravated assault at a suite in
the 1700 block of the Broadway Avenue. That assault occurred
the same day police believe Hein died.
In the Linklater case, the
female victim suffered serious injuries when she was stabbed
in the head with a screwdriver. Linklater will be sentenced next
month in provincial court. Last fall police said they were investigating
a possible link between him and other attacks.
Thomson said in some crimes
police have a good idea who is responsible, but they just may
not have enough evidence to go to court. He wouldn't say which
of the current cases, if any, fall into that category.
"Sometimes in very serious,
violent crimes we may have suspects, but not enough to charge
them. Sometime down the road the little piece may come in that
gives us enough to finish off the case. Then boom, in it goes,"
he said.
He maintained that these kinds
of crimes are rare in Saskatoon, where most murders are related
to drugs or alcohol and are the result of disputes between people
who know each other.
Today, Antonia Kinar lives
in a seniors' residence. The nephew who found her after the attack
says she doesn't remember much about the attack.
"She's OK, but she can't
remember much. She talks for a little while, then she changes
the story," he said.
"I think the police are
doing a good job. They're doing their best: You don't get cases
like this very often."
Meanwhile, the investigations
into the murders of Hein, Crawford and Wheeler continue, along
with the attacks on at least two other Broadway-area residents.
"Unsolved murders are
never closed. We're still pursuing the murder of Alexandra Wiwcharuk,"
said Thomson, referring to a nurse whose body was found near
the CP Rail bridge in 1962.
Jaime Wheeler: Found murdered
in her basement suite March 12, 2000
Denver Crawford: Found murdered
in his home May 13, 1998
Anna Hein: Found murdered in
her home July 25, 1999
|
Truth can never be told so as to be understood,
and not be believ'd. 
