Valerie Stevens

Valerie Karen Stevens

Age: 19

COD: Not determined

DOB:

Date last seen: September 9, 1989

Location last seen: Toronto, ON

Date found: October 22, 1992

Location found: Burford, ON

Pregnant 19-year-old Valerie Karen Stevens vanished in the early morning of Saturday, September 9th, 1989 after leaving her 15-month-old daughter in the care of a teenage couple. She left her apartment on Vendome Place to go dancing downtown at the Diamond Club and was never seen alive again. Days later, the police were alerted of her disappearance by the teenage babysitters, who had been taking care of her daughter for four days straight. After her disappearance, Stevens’s welfare cheques went uncashed and her bank account remained untouched.

Stevens’s skeletal remains were found on October 22nd, 1992 in a wooded area near Burford, Ontario, 100 km southwest of Toronto. An autopsy failed to find the cause of death, but all signs led police to suspect murder. They suspect Stevens may have been hitchhiking on Eglinton Ave. E. near her home when she was picked up by her killer.

Valerie Karen Stevens, 19, had asked a teenaged couple to care for her daughter Robyn at her apartment while she went with a girlfriend to a downtown Toronto club, the Diamond Club on Sherbourne St.

Though she didn’t return to the apartment, near Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Ave., it was four days before the couple took the baby to one of Stevens’ relatives and reported the disappearance.

Her father said his daughter was a month behind in the rent and had a couple of other bills, but nothing major.

Her father did believe his daughter had possibly fallen in with people involved in drugs.

Unable to find Valerie after spending a couple of days contacting various friends and relatives, her father finally went to Toronto Police.

Her father spent hours talking to her friends, checking numbers on her long distance bills, showing photographs to people in downtown clubs, hostels and drop-in centres and visiting stores where she might shop.

On October 22, 1992, bones were discovered by two hunters walking through some bush on Burford Ontario’s, Fifth Concession. In addition to the bones, investigators found women’s clothing near the site. A pair of black jeans and white lace-up boots (some reports say only one boots was found) were found near the body. Police at the time believed the woman died about three years prior.  The skeleton was found buried under leaves 15 meters off the rural road, accessible through a small clearing in the bush.

Investigators then used a technique called anthropometrics, in which a specialist with the Metro Toronto Police created a picture of the woman’s face from the skull.

A day after police released a reconstructed sketch of her she was identified by her relatives as Valerie Stevens. At the time of her death she was four months pregnant.

In January1994 the Toronto Star did an investigation into six other murders of women they believed may be connected. The Star originally focused on about 130 unsolved female murders in the province, and then further examined six of those slayings, women aged 15 to 25, all apparently randomly stalked between early spring and late summer, starting with Jenny Isford in 1982.

Five of the victims – Christine Prince, Delia Adriano, Valerie Stevens, Lynda Shaw (solved) and Cindy Halliday – were stalked, kidnapped and driven to remote areas where they were murdered between early spring and late summer, between 1982 and 1992.

While a sixth victim, Jenny Isford (solved, murdered by William Brett Henson), wasn’t abducted, there are similarities between her murder and the other five, apparent links including the women could have been the victim of a serial killer.

William Brett Henson was convicted in 1997. Henson was an appliance store clerk who lived with his mother. Court heard he had a lengthy criminal record for sexual assault and burglary. He sexually assaulted three women after murdering Isford.

The FBI had found distinct patterns in the slayings. Over the years, detectives working on the Ontario slayings have cautiously, and privately, admitted the possibility that several of the killings could be linked.

Investigators speculated on a possible connection between the Shaw and Halliday slayings (possibly over the car seen at the scene of each) and have even focused on one suspect in his 20’s who liked to travel.

In August 2005, police determined that Lynda Shaw had been murdered by Alan Craig MacDonald, who had been in jail for 12 years after his conviction in a pair of slayings in Nova Scotia in 1977. In 1989 MacDonald was given full parole to a Brantford halfway house in 1989. Burford is about 15 minutes from Brantford.

All the other murders remain unsolved.

But as many as four other murders could be connected according to the Star article.

• The bodies of five of the women were discovered in lovers’ lanes – wooded, remote areas down back roads often frequented by teenagers. No effort was made to conceal the bodies. All but Isford.

• At least three of the slayings indicate a fetish for neatness: jackets folded neatly and shoes placed side-by-side at the murder scenes. Isford, Shaw, Halliday.

• Most of the victims were transported many kilometres from where they were abducted, a pattern, FBI crime experts suggest, that could indicate the killer wanted control and dominance over his victims.

• Five of the victims either vanished or were killed on a weekend or on a holiday weekend. The sixth was murdered on a Friday. Five of the crimes took place at night, the sixth early evening.

• Two of the women (Prince and Isford) were stalked after getting off a bus. A third was apparently waiting for a bus. A fourth was hitchhiking at the end of a bus line. (All but Adriano who was abducted outside her home)

• Expressways figure in five of the slayings, either for stalking and transporting the victims, or as a place to later dump the victims belongings. (All but Isford)

• The killer kept personal effects from some of the victims – items of clothing, a shoe (Valerie Stevens), jewelry – a trait often seen in serial murders. American crime experts call such a person a “trophy hunter,” taking away a souvenir to help him relive the killing later.

An FBI manual on sex slayings says that, although a serial murder is planned, the victim is “frequently a stranger and targeted because she is in a particular location staked out by the offender,” such as near bus stops, at a bar or out driving alone.

Serial killers often look for common characteristics in their victims, such as age, appearance, hairstyle, of lifestyle, according to the handbook prepared by the FBI. The offender may spend considerable time looking for the “right” victim, the manual says.

In all six murders examined by The Star, the women were out at night alone.

According to the FBI manual, seldom will a lust murderer use a firearm to kill, “for he experiences too little psychosexual gratification with such an impersonal weapon. More frequently death is from strangulation, blunt force or use of a pointed, sharp weapon.”

Of the six victims, one was strangled, a second was believed to be strangled, two were stabbed, and one was bludgeoned. The cause of death was not established for the sixth.

Research by The Star found that one suspect, a one-time worm picker, could have been in the vicinity of as many as four of the five lovers’ lanes.

He had rented a farm about a 10-minute drive from where Stevens’ body was found, according to the woman who was managing the property for the city of Brantford.

The same man also frequented a downtown Toronto street corner, Carlton and Sherbourne Sts., where Stevens was often seen with friends, according to several acquaintances. They said the man had numerous dealings with a pornography dealer who lived near the corner.

The suspect was also known to frequent the area where Halliday’s body was found, according to several sources. He had loose ties with the Para Dice Riders club in the Barrie area, whose clubhouse was not far from where her body was left, said one acquaintance.

The suspect also had driven on the road where Halliday was last seen and skied at a resort near where her remains were found.

Lisa Anstey

At 9:04 a.m. on the morning of Monday May 12, 1997 a 911 call was received about a body being found in the first laneway south of Front St. East, west of Cherry St. at the south west corner at the rear of the building of 393 Front St. East.

393 Front St. East was an abandoned building taken over as a homeless camp, referred to as Street City. It was a busy area where drugs and the sex trade flourished.

Upon arrival police found the body of a woman, obviously deceased lying face down, fully clothed, beside a wall. She was wearing black, tight-fitting pants, a white hooded sweatshirt, a dark blue, hip length jacket, and a white and purple trimmed running shoe. Missing was her right running shoe. Upon examination it was confirmed the body was that of 21-year-old Lisa Anstey and she had been strangled.

Lisa was sex trade worker and known crack-cocaine addict, known to police and had been working in the Wellesley and Bleeker St. area of Toronto. She had last been seen on Mother’s Day, May 11, 1997 in Wellesley and Bleeker St. areas. She had been working the streets since she was 11-years-old, the youngest many sex trade workers had seen. Lisa was a first nations person with the given name of Lisa Rojas who also had two kids. She was known to be a “scrapper and tough as nails”, though small in stature at about 5 foot 4 inches and 105 lbs. She was not known to have had a pimp and was a nice enough girl but drugs and addiction led her to have somewhat of a nasty mouth and bad attitude.

She was known to use the street name “Jemma”  and “Terri” and lived on Hook Ave. with a man named Jonathan Scott Dunn who was convicted of running girl under the age of 14 and given 14 years in prison. Also living there were a girl named Tammy and a man named Danny H. who went by the street name “Ghost” and a girl by the name of Anissa (spelling?) G. For a while she did hang out with a pimp by the name of Wendell or Kendall.

There were hundreds of people in the homeless shelter, according to police, that were coming and going at all hours of the day and night. Police theorized she had been killed in another location and moved to the area which was a dark area without lights. The person moving her had to have known it was a high traffic area possibly hoping someone would find her thinking she may be still alive or just wanting someone to find her. Perhaps someone was sending a message.

Police believe she was likely killed in a vehicle or at least transported in one and her shoe likely came off when she was being removed from a vehicle and dumped at the location though it is very possible the shoe was kept as a trophy.

She was found wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Take Back the Night” which was part of a campaign by a local sex trade workers organization.

Some questions regarding this is why move her from where she was likely picked up, which was north of the area she was found in a quieter, though still badly lit area, to an area of high traffic? Obviously, the killer knew the area well. Was he perhaps on a “bad date” list for the area she was found and had to look for a girl elsewhere?

Lisa clearly did fight back and that led to DNA of the killer being found. The DNA profile was run through the violent criminal database run in Ontario by the OPP with no result. Police do have a DNA profile and also a profile of the killer: white male, with blue- or light-coloured eyes with blonde or red hair.

Police conducted nearly 400 interviews at the time. Family, friends and her boyfriend and his friends were all looked at and eliminated as suspects.

The murder of Lisa Anstey remains unsolved.

Unsolved Murders of Sex Trade Workers in Ontario

A more thorough investigation on each case will be added in the coming weeks.

Note: Locations are approximate

Name: Anstey, Lisa Lynn

Lisa Anstey

Location: 393 Front St. E., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 21

Date: Monday, May 12, 1997

Murder or Crime: Beating

Found beaten to death in a desolate downtown parking lot behind the Street City hostel.  Anstey, a prostitute and known crack-cocaine addict worked the corner of Wellesley and Bleeker Sts.

Any connection to the beating death of Leonard Oliver Ferguson in 1992.  Philip Henry Buchegger found not responsible due to mental health issues.  Was he released and re-offended?

Name: Brose, Lorelei

Location: 295 Jarvis St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 19

Date: Sunday, November 17, 1985

Murder or Crime: Shooting

At 2:15 am the body of Lorelei Brose, 19, was found with a bullet to the head in a room in the Inglewood Arms hotel on Jarvis St.  She was found fully clothed and had not been robbed.  Police were alerted after hotel employees received complaints of a woman’s screams.

Brose was a prostitute who frequented the Jarvis St. and Gerrard St. areas.  Many of Brose’s fellow prostitutes raised the theory that Brose had been slain by a contract killer hired to settle a personal dispute.  Brose was known to rip off her clients.

Name: Siegel, Susan

Location: 435 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Last seen alive)

Location: 17 Ethel Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Body found)

Sex: Female

Age: 20

Date: Sunday, December 16, 1984

Murder or Crime: Strangled

Note: Neatness or clothes missing

The unclothed body of 20-year-old prostitute Susan Siegel was discovered at 7:30 in the morning alongside railroad tracks near the Ontario Public Stockyards in an industrial area of west Toronto.  She had been strangled.  Since the victim’s clothes were absent from the scene, police concluded she had been killed elsewhere and dumped at the desolate Ethel Ave. site.  Is there a connection with Daniel Harvey Atkinson a landscaper from Parry Sound who was convicted of strangling a prostitute he picked up near Allen Gardens and attempting to kill her in 1998?  He drove a pickup truck.

Siegel was last seen alive the evening of December 16, 1984 leaving a hotel in the Queen and Dufferin Sts. area but was known to frequent the Jarvis and Gerrard Sts. area, a favourite hangout for prostitutes.  Police learned that a small truck and a young man in his late 20’s or early 30’s might be involved in the murder, but even with the help of a $50,000 reward they have been unable to come up with a name of the suspect.  Investigators believe she last seen entering a vehicle in the area of Isabella Street and Sherbourne Street, on December 16, 1984, at about 8:00 pm.

Name: Tarantino, Bonnie (Benita Rosa)

Location: 81 Ulster St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada (approximate home location)

Location: 4330 Teston Rd., Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada (body found)

Location: 179 Gerrard St. E., Toronto, Ontario, Canada (last seen alive)

Sex: Female

Age: 17

Date: Saturday, September 28, 1985

Murder or Crime: Unknown

Note: Neatness or clothes missing

A prostitute since the age of 13, she left her home to visit friends – one day after getting engaged to her boyfriend – and never returned.  Mushroom pickers found her body on Monday, October 26th in a wooded area on the north side of Teston Rd. between Pine Valley Rd. and Weston Rd. in Vaughan.  Her clothes were missing.  An autopsy failed to unearth a cause of death.

She had been working as a prostitute in the Pembrooke Avenue and Gerrard Street area.  She was reportedly last seen alive during the late evening and early morning hours of September 27 and 28, 1985, and is believed to have gotten into a a vehicle and driven away from the area.

Is there a connection with Daniel Harvey Atkinson a landscaper from Parry Sound who was convicted of strangling a prostitute he picked up near Allen Gardens and attempting to kill her in 1998?  He drove a pickup truck.

Name: Nelson, Cheryl Roseann

Location: 3 Shoreham Court, North York, Ontario, Canada (approximate location of home)

Location: 129 Eddystone Ave., North York, Ontario, Canada (body found)

Sex: Female

Age: 20

Date: Saturday, March 9, 1991

Murder or Crime: Stabbed, Beating

Officers patrolling parking lots in a deserted northwest Toronto industrial zone at 2 am found the body of Cheryl Roseann Nelson, 20, behind a factory.  Nelson, a prostitute well liked by everyone who knew her, had been stabbed multiple times.  Police believed her killer was most likely a violent john.

She had also been badly beaten. 

Name: Pinkus, Lori Marilyn

Location: 90 Croatia St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 21

Date: Sunday, September 8, 1991

Murder or Crime: Strangled

The body of Lori Pinkus was found outside Brockton High School.  The young woman, a high school dropout who worked as a prostitute and was addicted to drugs, had been strangled and left partially clad behind the school.

Sister of convicted murderer Martin Pinkus.

Name: Samson, Claire

Location: 300 Jarvis St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada (last seen alive)

Location: 2693 Sideroad 20 & 21 W, Barrie, Ontario, Canada (body found)

Location: 145 Marlee Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 23

Date: Thursday, September 1, 1983

Murder or Crime: Shooting

23-year-old Toronto prostitute Claire Samson was seen in front of the Essex Hotel on Jarvis St. (now the Ramada Hotel and Suites Downtown) getting into a large, beige car driven by a balding older man.  Samson was never seen alive again, and her body was found the following day in a wooded area off Oro Sideroad 20/21 near Highway 93, just north of Barrie.  She had been shot in the head with a small caliber gun.  Discovered on Friday, September 2 by a beekeeper at 3:30 pm about 75 yards from the road.  She hadn’t been dead long prior to being found.

Is there a connection with the murder of Cindy Halliday?  Both were last seen getting into a light coloured car.  The car Cindy Halliday was seen getting into was identified as a light-cololured 1979-81 model Chrysler Lebaron or Dodge Diplomat. 

Is there a connection with Daniel Harvey Atkinson a landscaper from Parry Sound who was convicted of strangling a prostitute he picked up near Allen Gardens and attempting to kill her in 1998?  He drove a pickup truck. Picked up downtown Toronto and driven long distance and dumped off Hwy. 400.

Name: Ford, Lyle

Location: 172 The Esplanade, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 42

Date: September 9, 1990

Murder or Crime: Strangled, Bitten

On Sept. 9, 1990, a couple walking their dog found her body around 7:30 a.m. in Crombie Park at the Esplanade and Sherbourne St. Her clothes were dishevelled and the pants she was wearing were pulled down.

An autopsy revealed that Ford — originally from the U.S. — had been strangled to death. She had suffered bite marks in the attack and had been sexually assaulted.

Name: Oglive, Donna

Location: 130 Carlton Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 24

Date: Sunday, March 8, 1998

Murder or Crime: Strangled

Donna Oglive was a resident of British Colombia.  She had been in Toronto for the past 5 weeks.  Donna had been known to travel between Vancouver and Toronto.  She had been working as a prostitute in the Gerrard Street East and Church Street area of Toronto.  On Sunday, March 8 at approximately 7:12 am, a resident of Carlton Street called police to advise of unknown trouble at the rear parking lot of 130 Carlton Street.  Upon the arrival, police discovered the body of Oglive

Name: Do, Cassandra

Location: 60 Gloucester St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Trans

Age: 32

Date: Monday, August 25, 2003

Murder or Crime: Strangled

Police responded to an emergency call at 11:34 PM (some reports say 10:30 PM.  The victim was discovered inside an apartment residence, suffering from medical trauma, and obviously deceased.  She went by the name “Tula”.  Believed to have booked a client for the late afternoon of the time of her death.  Cassandra was transgendered and worked via the ads in Toronto’s NOW and EYE Weekly newspapers, as well as the internet.  Note: There may be a connection to the murder of Lien Pham.  There have also been at least two strangulation murders of sex pros in the Hamilton area.  http://murdervillage.com/2003/08/25/sex-worker-strangled/

DNA discovered at the scene of this murder has been linked to DNA found in a sexual assault case that occurred in Toronto in 1997.  That sexual assault case involved a female sex trade worker.  The victim of that occurrence described her attacker at the time of the offence, as follows:  Male, black, 20 to 35 years of age, approximately 6’3″ in height, muscular build, over 230 pounds, close shaved haircut, no facial hair, and wearing glasses.  He may have used the name “Victor” and had ties to Jamaica.  After a description of Cassandra Do’s killer had been reported on CFTO TV on October 6, 2003, four sex pros contacted the station to report that they too, had been beaten and sexually attacked by a guy meeting that description.  On October 20, 2003 a sex pro had an incall with a man matching the description of the suspect.  The man got worried and fled when the sex pro pretended to talk to someone else in the apartment.  The cell phone of the man was 416-xxx-1634.  November 29, 2003 – Parkdale area.  A trans woman was sexually assaulted by a client matching the description of the suspect.  He said he got her number from her ad in EYE magazine from an edition from August 2002.  He removed the condom he was wearing and took it with him and he was completely shaven, without a hair on his body.  His phone number was passed on to the police.

Name:  Lien, Pham

Location: 24 Mabelle Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 39

Date: Monday, October 13, 2003

Murder or Crime: Strangled

The body of Lien Pham, who’s working names were May-ling and/or Kim, was found at her apartment at 24 Mabelle Ave., Apt. #1817.  Mayling was strangled.  There are similarities to the death of Cassandra Do.  Both were Asian, both were strangled, both were incalls and both were found dead in their bathtubs.  Also neither women’s apartment building had video surveillance in the lobbies. Note: There may be a connection to the murder of Cassandra Do.  There have also been at least two strangulation murders of sex pros in the Hamilton area.

Note: Police believe the murder may be connected to Cassandra Do.  If so, the following applies:  from the Cassandra Do file – DNA discovered at the scene of this murder has been linked to DNA found in a sexual assault case that occurred in Toronto in 1997.  That sexual assault case involved a female sex trade worker.  The victim of that occurrence described her attacker at the time of the offence, as follows:  Male, black, 20 to 35 years of age, approximately 6’3″ in height, muscular build, over 230 pounds, close shaved haircut, no facial hair, and wearing glasses.  He may have used the name “Victor” and had ties to Jamaica.  After a description of Cassandra Do’s killer had been reported on CFTO TV on October 6, 2003, four sex pros contacted the station to report that they too, had been beaten and sexually attacked by a guy meeting that description

Name: Picoulas, Tina

Location: 445 Rexdale Boulevard, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 19

Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Murder or Crime: Smothered

Note: Is there a connection to a sexual assault that took place on December 9, 2014 at a hotel close to the airport?

Room #1013.  Found dead in a room at the Comfort Inn, the teenaged stripper’s death is initially ruled accidental.  Months later on August 27, 2008 the Coroner’s Office finds the Niagara Falls girl was murdered.  Some reports list the murder as suffocation.

Name: McLaughlin, Kathleen

Location: 38 Cedarland Dr., Markham, Ontario, Canada (body found)

Location: 166 Carlton St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada (last seen alive)

Sex: Female

Age: 33

Date: Tuesday, July 31, 1979 (date body found)

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 1979 (date last seen alive)

Murder or Crime: Bludgeoned

While working the streets in downtown Toronto, Kathleen McLaughlin went by a handful of aliases: Katherine Lyle, Katherine Moore, and Katherine Descoteaux.  To her family, she was simply Kathleen McLaughlin, a 33-year-old mother of three. Kathleen’s body was found by surveyors in a cornfield near Warden Avenue, south of Highway 7, in Markham on July 31, 1979. An autopsy later determined that she had died as a result of blunt-force trauma.  Note: Is there a connection to Benita Tarantino?  Both were prostitutes who worked in Cabbagetown where they were last seen, but it was also a big prostitute area.

She was last seen alive more than one month earlier, on June 27 in Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighbourhood, where she worked as a prostitute. Police believe she may have got into a vehicle in a hotel parking lot near Sherbourne and Carlton Streets in the dark of night.  That vehicle, possibly brown or cream coloured, was never identified.  There was no evidence she had been sexually assualted.  There is no DNA or tire tracks.  The type of injuries were NOT consistent with a beating.  Possibly hit by a john’s car over a trick.

Name: Gillings, Helen

Location: 483 King Street East, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 19

Date: Friday, February 17, 1995

Murder or Crime: Strangled

Helen Gillings was 19-years-old at the time of her murder and frequented the area of King Street East and Emerald Street North in Hamilton. She was a sex trade worker working in the area and often attended a former bar called the Straw Hat at the corner of King and Emerald Streets.

At approximately 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 17, 1995, Helen’s body was discovered in an alley behind 483 King Street East. Her body was found a short distance away from Emerald Street North and the former Straw Hat Tavern. Helen had been last seen alive on Thursday, February 16, 1995, at approximately 1:00 a.m. when she left the Straw Hat Tavern and entered the alley with a male. Through extensive police investigation this male has now been identified by police.

It seems the male she entered the alley with was identified but it seems no charges have been laid.

Name: Tolgyes, Kimlyn

Location: 2198 Kerns Road, Burlington, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 19

Date: Thursday, August 29, 2002

Murder or Crime: Bludgeoned

On August 29, 2002 the naked body of 19 year old Kimlyn Tolgyes was found in Kerncliffe Park on Kerns Road in Burlington. A postmortem examination revealed the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head.

Kimlyn Tolgyes was transient and resided in downtown Hamilton. Kimlyn was last seen alive late on the 23rd or early on the 24th, August 2002 in the area of Main Street and Grant Street in Hamilton.

Name: Jugaru, Jeanette

Location: 6624 Culp Street, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 26

Date: Friday, July 9, 2004

Murder or Crime: Unknown

The early Friday morning of July 9, 2004 at 6624 Culp St. in Niagara Falls was busy for an entirely different reason. It was 6 a.m. that fateful day when the body of Jeannette Jugaru was found in the parking lot of Princess Margaret school.

Name: Floriani, Felicia

Location: 98 Hadeland Avenue, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (last seen alive

Location: 883 Church Road, Wellandport, Ontario, Canada (body found)

Sex: Female

Age: 15

Date: Monday, June 10, 2002

Murder or Crime: Unknown

Felicia promised to meet her friend at the corner of Upper Paradise and Hadeland at 2 p.m. on June 10, 2002. But she never showed up. It has always been suspected Felicia was murdered. She was among the eight Hamilton victims focused on by Project Advocate, a massive joint task force formed by Hamilton and Halton police in March 2003 to investigate attacks on five sex workers, the disappearance of two others — Felicia and 39-year-old Susan Gourley — and the murder of another, 19-year-old Kimlyn Tolgyes, whose body was found at Kerncliff Park in Burlington on Aug. 29, 2002.

At first there was one suspect. He was thought to drive a white car and cruise the streets of Hamilton looking for vulnerable women. Over time though, investigators began to suspect there were two men preying on the city’s sex workers. In the 15 months it operated, Project Advocate resulted in the arrests of two men for sex crimes. Peter Conka was found mentally unfit to stand trial at first then later convicted of sexual assault on one woman. He has since been deported to the Czech Republic. John Crouse pleaded guilty to sexual assault. He is incarcerated on unrelated charges. Neither man has been charged with murder. After they were jailed, the attacks stopped.

Name: Lambert, Samantha

Location: 592 Schisler Road, Welland, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 19

Date: Sunday, February 17, 2019

Murder or Crime: Unknown

Samantha Lambert was last seen in Welland/Niagara Falls on September 4th by her father.

On February 17, 2019 Niagara Regional Police were contacted by a member of the public who discovered human remains along the edge of Schisler Road, in Welland. The remains were identified on February 26 as those of Samantha Leigh Lambert, a 19 year old food bank volunteer from St. Catherines who had been reported missing last September.

Name: Sheppit, Melinda

Location: 179 Murray Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (body found)

Location: 298 Dalhousie Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (last seen alive)

Sex: Female

Age: 16

Date: Sunday, September 30, 1990

Murder or Crime: Strangled, Missing Article of clothing

Note: Some say Mark McCaskill was involved. He later committed suicide but there was no evidence to convict him. Almost certainly not him at all.

Melinda Sheppit’s nearly naked body was found next to a dumpster in a downtown parking lot. She had been strangled and one of her snakeskin stilettos was missing. She was last seen near Clarence and Dalhousie Streets. Some reports say she was seen getting into a car. A psychological profile said the killer was likely an introverted night owl, a 25-to-35-year-old who still lived with his parents and had little self-confidence. Melinda, a student at St. Patrick’s High School, was pregnant at the time of her death. Friends and family said she was confused and unhappy, and a woman who knew her said she was living with her pimp who wouldn’t let her come home each night unless she has earned $600. Police interviewed one man for 10 hours but released him.

In 1993, another woman was picked up on the streets and beaten. Her assailant, who was scared away from the scene by a passer-by, reportedly told the woman he was Ms. Sheppit’s killer. Nothing came out of that. A few months later, yet another prostitute was attacked. She was choked, but not killed, then dumped in Hull. Despite the similarity to the Sheppit case, police could not make a link between the cases.

Name: Morriseau, Kelly

Location: 388 Rue Gamelin, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

Location: 242 Montfort Street, Vanier, Ontario, Canada

Location: 335 Cyr Avenue, Vanier, Ontario, Canada

Location: 115 Boulevard du Plateau, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

Location: 30 Rue des Frenes, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 27

Date: Sunday, December 10, 2006

Murder or Crime: Stabbed

Kelly Morrisseau was found dying by a pedestrian on December 10, 2006 around 5:40 a.m. in the P3 parking lot of Gatineau Park (near Gamelin Street). She died shortly thereafter from a massive hemorrhage due to multiple wounds inflicted by a cutting weapon. 27-year-old Kelly Morriseau, a pregnant prostitute was found naked and bleeding from at least 12 stab wounds in the P3 parking lot near Gatineau Park in 2006. Morrisseau died in hospital. Kelly Morrisseau, a mother of three, was several months pregnant at the time of the murder. According to evidence gathered during the investigation, the victim and the suspect probably met up to exchange sexual favours. The suspect may have solicited other women for such favours before or after the murder. Between 4 and 5:40 a.m. on December 10, 2006, the suspect vehicle used the lane reserved for emergency vehicles between Promenade de la Gatineau and boulevard Saint-Raymond. That reserved lane no longer exists and is now a bike lane or path.

Kelly Morrisseau was last seen alive on December 10, 2006, around 4 a.m. on Montfort Street in the Vanier sector of Ottawa. She was with a man, and was seen getting into his car, possibly a 1985 to 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera or Calais.  That man remains the main suspect in Ms. Morrisseau’s murder. A composite sketch was released a few months after the crime, based on information received from the public and through investigations. The suspect’s appearance may have changed over the years. The suspect vehicle and the individual in the composite sketch may have been spotted in the Vanier sector in the days leading up to the murder. Items belonging to Kelly Morrisseau and evidence were found in ruisseau des Frênes (near boulevard du Plateau) and behind the business at 115 boulevard du Plateau in Gatineau. Thus, the suspect drove around in that sector, and likely stepped out of his vehicle more than once in the early hours of December 10.

Name: Mancuso, Carrie

Location: 358 Lafontaine Avenue, Vanier, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: Unknown

Date: Thursday, September 7, 1995

Murder or Crime: Strangled

Carrie Mancuso, 32, was found in her apartment on Lafontaine Street in Vanier in September 1995. She had been strangled in her bed with her own cross necklace in a killing that’s still unsolved. Friends said that while it was reported that she was an addict and worked in the sex trade, they remembered her as a devoted daughter who wrote poetry. Years later, Mancuso’s mother, Carol-Ann Johnson, still hoped for answers but wasn’t holding out hope for an arrest. “The best I can hope for is to keep people talking about it,” she said.

Last seen in her building in early morning with man in late 20s/early 30s — he had short brown hair, tattoos on both arms, wore a light-coloured kilt.

Name: Fillion, Sophie

Location: 408 Churchill Avenue North, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (body found)

Location: 407 Laurier Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (last seen alive)

Sex: Female

Age: 23

Date: Tuesday, November 16, 1993

Murder or Crime: Strangled

Sophie Filion, 23, was an occasional sex worker whose body was only wearing a slip and was stuffed into two garbage bags and left in a Westboro parking lot in early December of 1993. The mother of two young children was strangled. had turned to prostitution to support her children and unemployed boyfriend. Filion was seen leaving her Vanier home on Maisonneuve Street on Nov. 15 at 10 p.m. Police believe she was going to the ByWard Market to look for johns. She had been missing for more than two weeks and was last seen getting into a white delivery van downtown near Kent and Laurier. Police later said they narrowed the investigation to a single suspect, but no arrest has been made.

Note: Could the murder of Sophie Fillion be connected to this?

Lucy (street worker) – This one time, a client picked me up, dragged me into an alley way. He knocked my head on the brick wall and strangled me till I went under. I had black and blue marks on my neck for about three weeks, I wasn’t able to swallow. He left me there, thinking he had killed me. A couple of weeks later, I saw him trying to pick another girl up. I was shaking. I called the police from a restaurant, anonymously. He got arrested. The police were already looking for him; he was the guy who had put a girl, her body, in a bag, in an alley. The whole time he was bashing my head against the wall and strangling me, he was yelling ‘I hate hookers’, ‘I hate sluts’, ‘I hate women’.

Name: Paul, Amy

Location: Vanier, Ontario, Canada (last seen alive)

Location: 2953 Nixon Drive, Manotick, Ontario, Canada (body found)

Sex: Female

Age: 27

Date: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 (last seen alive)

Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 (body found)

Murder or Crime: Unknown

Her body was found partially clothed and decomposing in a rural south Ottawa hay field on Sept. 17, 2013. Relatives told CBC News that she worked in the sex trade and had disappeared from her home in Vanier. 

Two sex trade workers have accused Jacques “Porkchop” Rouschop  Rouschop, 44, of vicious sexual assaults and choking. One woman testified that he was so violent, she thought he was going to kill her. Apparently he was never charged in the Amy Paul murder. Rouschop has an hours-long alibi he didn’t initially know he had. The longtime wheelman for a Vanier booster was in another town on the night in question, stealing commercial lawn tractors. That’s if she was killed on September 3, as police seem to believe.

Name: Painter, Holly

Location: 218 Warden Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 18

Date: Monday, June 26, 1995

Murder or Crime: Missing

Cops initially put the June 26, 1995 disappearance of Holly Ann Painter down as a missing person. Her body has never been recovered. Police said in a statement yesterday that Holly Anne Painter was seen leaving her home at 359 Dawes Rd. Painter, 18-years-old at the time, was last seen at the intersection of Warden Ave. and Kingston Rd. in Toronto. It’s believed the last people to see the young woman were two friends, Steven Warner, 33, and Susan Livingstone, 25. Warner would later tell detectives that Painter had become upset and fled the Ford Bronco.

Two nights later, a note was pinned to her parents’ door reading: “I’ve had enough. Don’t try to find me.” As a result, she wasn’t reported missing until two weeks later. The note is now considered bogus. Warner later admitted using Holly’s bank card in Cheektowaga, NY. He had voluntarily left Canada because of an “immigration matter.” Toronto detectives consider him a “person of interest” in Painter’s disappearance.

Name: McLean, Faye

Location: 321 Jarvis Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sex: Female

Age: 25

Date: Wednesday, September 25, 1968

Murder or Crime: Strangled

The former Vancouver woman’s nude body was found in a Walsingham Hotel room. She was Faye McLean, also known as Joanne Wilson, Faye Stack and Faye Allen. She last lived on Silverbirch Ave. in Toronto’s Kew Beach area. It is believed she kept an appointment with a man who registered in the room Tuesday afternoon. She was strangled and suffocated with a pillow.

There seems to be some discrepancy of whether this is solved or not. An article from 1997 in the Toronto Star lists it as unsolved, but the Toronto Police cold case site doesn’t include it. Police said Miss McLean frequented hotels in the Jarvis St. area. She was identified by a prescription for birth control pills found i her purse. This was all that was found in the second-floor room.

Name: Melanson, Therese and Harrison, Florence

Location: 274 Sackville St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada (last seen alive)

Location: 318 Parliament St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada (bodies found)

Sex: Female

Age: Both 32

Date: Sunday, January 5, 1997

Murder or Crime: Shooting, Drugs

At 3 p.m. two prostitutes were found shot to death in the blood splattered sixth-floor stairwell of an apartment building.  The women didn’t live in the building, but the area was known to be frequented by drug dealers and hookers.

Residents had heard gunshots shortly after 3 a.m., but no one had called police.  A cook at a drop-in centre said she saw Melanson at 2 a.m. in the doorway of the Golden Ring restaurant on Parliament St., just north of Dundas St. E., just a five-minute walk from the murder scene.  Later, rumour had it the two women had taken a drug dealer’s merchandise without paying and borrowed his car without permission.

Claudia Geburt

Claudia Geburt

Metro’s unsolved murders – Claudia Geburt, who was also spotted by her killer while she was sunbathing, was not as lucky.

Police think someone who watched her sunbathing on the deck of her Leslie St. home in July 1982, attacked her and stabbed her to death. A former boyfriend found her blood-spattered nude body in an upstairs sitting room.

Her fiancé, Charles Boyd, 35, was devastated by the murder. So was Terri Lukow, a close friend of Geburt’s. Two months later, Boyd and Lukow were found dead in a basement apartment on Darlingside Dr. in Scarborough.

Police say Lukow had shot Boyd and then taken her own life. Both had been morose since Geburt’s slaying, friends said. TO Star February 24, 1983 A17 (10)

Bride-to-be just turned 21 fatally stabbed at her home – But yesterday, on her 21^st birthday, a former boyfriend, Martin Beasant, 23, of Brooklyn Ave., called police to say he had found her blood-splattered nude body in her east-end home.

She had been stabbed several times.

Sgt. Don Bell, one of the first detectives on the scene of the slaying, said Beasant told them he had talked to her on the telephone earlier yesterday, then went to see her shortly after 3 p.m.

He said the young man found “all the doors open” in the Leslie St. house, six doors south of Dundas St. and when he went upstairs he found her face down on the floor of a sitting room.

Additional police were called to the area in the later afternoon and searched the yards, bushes and a rear alley for the murder weapon. They questioned neighbours and took (TO Star July 13, 1982 A1) Beasant and Boyd to 55 Division station at Coxwell Ave. and Dundas St. for questioning.

The old Leslie St. house where Boyd and Geburt had lived for past five months had been broken into twice in the past two or three weeks, her father said. A stereo system, television and Claudia’s jewelry, some of it irreplaceable gifts from her parents, had been stolen.

She had recently quit her job as a computer technician at Marathon Realty in the Toronto-Dominion Centre on King St. W. Boyd, a computer analyst, works there.

The old house where Boyd and Geburt lived had been renovated just before they moved into it and Jim McIndoe, another neighbour, said the improvements might have made it an attractive target for break-ins. TO Star July 13, 1982 A4 (11)

Fourth slaying in six weeks. Woman stabbed in east-end home – Claudia Geburt, who was naked, face-down, with many stab wounds, was found in her apartment by her former (former?) boyfriend, said Sergeant Donald Bell of Metro Toronto Police.

The former boyfriend, who police said had received a telephone call from Miss Geburt earlier in the day, had gone to the apartment on Leslie Street near Dundas Street at mid-afternoon.

Sgt. Bell said there was no apparent forced entry to the house and the dwelling had not been ransacked. He did not say how long Miss Geburt had been dead. The body was found shortly after 3 p.m., Sgt. Bell said.

Shortly after 6:30 p.m., after police had removed the body from the apartment, two policeman took 9-year-old Danny Wilson of Curzon Street away in a cruiser. One source said Danny told some of the children in the crowd that he had seen a man in blue jeans running from the house yesterday.

Alex Carlos, 24, who lives beside the home, said police went to the Leslie Street apartment two weeks ago. A woman in the home told Mr. Carlos that a television and a radio set had been stolen.

Levy Mayuku, a next-door neighbour confirmed that police had been in the neighbourhood two weeks ago when a number of residents had reported break-ins.

John Kelleway, 15, who lives next door to the home where the woman was killed, said he has seen young people in their 20’s coming and going at all hours to and from the dwelling. “There is a bunch of different people there all the time.” Globe & Mail July 13, 1982 pg. 5 (5)

Likely will seek bail. Man, 28, is remanded in pantyhose murder – A homicide investigator said both Miss Geburt’s fiancé, Charles Boyd, 35, of Toronto, and her former boyfriend, Martin Beasant, 23, of Toronto, have been questioned by police.

After receiving a telephone call from Miss Geburt earlier in the day, Mr. Beasant went to the Leslie Street apartment where he found the body, police said. Mr. Beasant found several doors to the dwelling open when he arrived. Globe & Mail July 14, 1982 pg. 4 (7)

Girl, 17, slain in lovers’ lane murder weapon undetermined – Claudia Geburt died on her 21^st birthday of multiple stab wounds as a result of what police describe as a vicious attack in an upstairs sitting room of her Leslie St. home. TO Star October 10, 1982 A7 (8)

Police don’t link break-in, murder – A Toronto man has been charged with breaking into the home of Claudia Geburt, 21, who was stabbed to death in her Leslie Street apartment last week. The apartment, which Miss Geburt shared with her fiancé, was broken into twice last month and jewelry, a stereo and camera equipment stolen. A police spokesman said the man, who also faces four counts of possessing property obtained by crime, is not a suspect in the murder. Globe & Mail July 20, 1982 pg. 4 (1)

Man charged with theft from slain women – Police have arrested a neighbour of slaying victim Claudia Geburt and charged him with stealing property from her house.

The 23-year-old man was arrested Saturday after police used a warrant to search his home.

A week ago, on her 21^st birthday, Geburt was found stabbed to death in the Leslie St. home she shared with her fiancé, Charles Boyd, 35.

Their home had been broken into twice last month and a stereo, camera equipment, Geburt’s jewelry and other items worth $7,770 stolen.

Charged with break, enter, theft and with possession of property obtained by crime is Peter Arthur Clarke, of Leslie St. TO Star July 19, 1982 A7 (13)

Reasons behind shake-up won’t be revealed – The homicide squad has been under intense pressure to find the killers of Argo cheerleader Jenny Isford, 19 (William Brett Hanson convicted in 1997; Welsh nanny Christine Prince, 25 (unsolved) and Claudia Geburt, 21, who was raped and stabbed to death in her home on July 12. TO Star August 8, 1982 A3 (2)

$100,000 reward in Isford slaying – Metro police have almost ruled out the possibility that the same person sexually assaulted and killed Isford and two other Metro women, nanny Christine Prince and 21-year-old Claudia Geburt.

Although police will not discuss specific evidence, The Star has learned that laboratory tests of semen indicate the young women were attacked by different people. TO Star July 16, 1982 A1 (12)

Knew murder victim, couple die in shooting – Miss Geburt died from multiple stab wounds and it was believed she had been raped. Her nude body was found by a former boyfriend, whose name has not been released. She was murdered on her 21^st birthday and was to have been married to Mr. Boyd this month.

The formerboyfriend had gone to visit Miss Geburt after receiving a call from her earlier in the day. Police said then that there was no forced entry to the east-end house and Miss Geburt’s second-floor apartment had not been ransacked. Globe & Mail September 3, 1982 pg. 5 (6)

Killing ‘such a waste, such a tragedy – But Geburt said he had been concerned about Boyd since his daughter’s death. First there was Boyd’s attempt to kill himself with a Valium overdose two weeks ago and then puzzling statements he had given in an interview with The Toronto Sun.

“He said he went four times a week with a bouquet of white roses to visit Claudia’s grave. To the best of our knowledge he never went there. We went daily. We never saw him there. The only flowers on the grave were ours.”

A month ago Boyd left Marathon Realty Co. Ltd. where he had been director of management and information systems. He joined Greymae Mortgage Corp. where he was also working as director of management and information systems.

A friend at Marathon said,, “He told us he was leaving for a better job.”

Lukow had rented a room in the Leslie St. house but moved out about the time Boyd and Geburt became engaged. TO Star September 3, 1982 A4 (15)

The night Terri failed to to call home. 6 months after suicide pact, grieving dad ponders mystery – When the police told Stan Lukow she was dead – and that she had rigged a rifle to kill herself after shooting her friend Charles Boyd – it began a nightmare of grief that still puzzles and unnerves her father.

“Everything is so bizarre,” he says. “We never had a gun. She wouldn’t know one end of a gun from the other. How would she figure to put a gun on a chair and use a stick to pull the trigger?”

Terri (Luckow), a computer clerk for a Toronto firm, had rented a room for three months in the Leslie St. house Geburt shared with Boyd. The Oshawa woman, a former figure skater and skating teacher, moved back to her parents’ home six weeks before Claudia’s murder, and commuted to work to save money for her own wedding planned for August.

Terri and Boyd were both distraught after the murder. Boyd, 35, had attempted suicide with an overdose of Valium and Terri spent many hours looking after him.

The bodies were found in the basement, both shot in the heart. Suicide notes and empty liquor bottles were nearby.

Police believe Terri used a piece of wood to activate the trigger of the .303 rifle set up on a chair and pointed at her.

Other odd factors haunt Lukow. “I named her Terry with a ‘y’ at the end. But she later changed it to Terri with an ‘i’. Her note was scribbled with different ink, like she wrote it at different times. And she signed it “Terry.” I keep wondering why?”

Terri was to be formally married to Steve Joness last August 14. She’d dated him for four years, and they had secretly married last June in Toronto City Hall, but the large wedding was planned to please her family.

Terri spent her vacation running back and forth to Toronto, taking Chuck to his psychiatrist appointments.

“We could see she was running herself ragged. She was worried about Chuck and worried about how Steve felt about it all.”

Terri postponed the big wedding a week before its date, but went ahead with choosing an apartment in Kitchener to live with her husband when he went back to University of Waterloo in the fall, Lukow said.

Four days before her death she went to a Oshawa doctor for “nerve pills.” Lukow says the doctor told his wife Terri planned to get away for a week by herself. She told the doctor that Boyd was dragging her down. TO Star March 7, 1983 A3 (14)

Daughter would not kill self unless told to, father says – Stanley Lukow can only believe that his daughter, Terri, shot her friend to death and then committed suicide because the friend told her to.

Her friend, Charles Boyd, was also found dead in the same Scarborough house. Metro Toronto Police say Miss Lukow shot Mr. Boyd through the heart with a high-powered rifle, then turned the gun on herself, shooting herself in the chest.

Police say both of the deceased had been extremely depressed since the death of Claudia Geburt.

Mr. Boyd, 35, was to have married Miss Geburt later this month and had been sharing an apartment with her on Leslie Street at the time of her death. Miss Lukow, 21, was one of her closest friends and at one time also lived in the Leslie Street house.

Mr. Lukow said his daughter moved back to the family’s home in Oshawa about six weeks before Miss Geburt was murdered. Miss Lukow, who was secretly married to a Whitby man in May, has planned to have a church ceremony on Aug. 14. The wedding was called off because of Miss Geburt’s death.

“Terri was very close to Claudia,” Mr. Lukow explained.

According to Staff Inspector Wally Tyrell of the Metro Police homicide squad, Mr. Boyd was at work the day that Miss Geburt’s body was found.

Mr. Lukow said Mr. Boyd was depressed and would talk of suicide.

Staff Inspector Tyrrell said the notes found at the scene “will give us nothing new” to help solve the Geburt murder. One note was written by Miss Lukow, and the other by Mr. Boyd. Globe & Mail September 4, 1982 pg. 5 (4)

‘Quite often very boring’ Solving Metro murders unlike TV police work – A well-known 1982 case most probably falls into the love-triangle category, Staff-Sergeant Jack Press of the Metro Toronto Police Homicide squad says.

“There’s a lot of tragedy associated with that one, that’s for sure – about a month later her fiancé and best girl friend were found shot to death. It probably goes without saying, there’s not a lot of leads left on that case.” Globe & Mail, September 2, 1986 pg. A15 (9)

Convicted sex offender charged in 1982 killing – Ms. Geburt’s homicide, though not officially solved, was linked to a love triangle after her fiancé and a close girlfriend were found shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide a month later. Globe & Mail May 19, 1995 pg. A9 (3)

Notes and questions:

• How was entry made? “No apparent forced entry to the house and the dwelling had not been ransacked” Apartment was on second floor. According to the ex-boyfriend who found her, he “found several doors to the dwelling open when he arrived.” Globe & Mail July 14, 1982 pg. 4
• If it really was rape as reported in the TO Star August 8, 1982 that means a male was involved. So if her friend Terri Lukow was the killer, who was the male? Can’t be her fiancé, Charles Boyd as he was at work. Globe & Mail September 4, 1982 pg. 5
• Where was Terri Lukow at the time of the murder?
• Who was Terri Lukow’s husband? Answer: Steve Joness
• Where was Steve Joness at the time of the murder and did he know Claudia? If he was dating Terri for that long (4 ½ years) he probably did.
• Why was there no further report of the “man in blue jeans running from the house yesterday.”? It was the day before so was that another robbery attempt? Globe & Mail July 13, 1982 pg. 5
• “Young people in their 20’s coming and going at all hours to and from the dwelling.” Was someone dealing drugs? Globe & Mail July 13, 1982 pg. 5 Big question is, who were these young people coming and going and why? Seems only her ex-boyfriend who found her may be able to answer that.
• Another article Globe & Mail September 3, 1982 pg. 5 states “Miss Lukow was a friend of Miss Geburt and living with her at that time of her death.” Meanwhile other articles state “Mr. Lukow said his daughter moved back to the family’s home in Oshawa about six weeks before Miss Geburt was murdered.” Globe & Mail September 4, 1982 pg. 5 So was Terri Lukow living with Geburt or with her parents? Seems she moved out about six weeks prior to the murder of Claudia.
• Seems there was a sample (semen) that was found. Is there enough to have been tested for DNA and if so is it in the ViCLAS database? TO Star July 16, 1982 A1
• If Claudia quit her job recently, did she have another job lined up?

Tatiana Anikejew

Friends and family said 22-year-old Seneca College graphic arts student Tatiana Anikejew was a bit of a loner.

According to cops, on Oct. 1, 1988, Anikejew was found stabbed to death in her apartment at 133 Broadway Ave., near Eglinton Ave. E. and Mount Pleasant Rd. She was nude and had been stabbed several times in the chest. She had lived in the apartment for the past two years.

Homicide detectives said she had been dead two or three days before her corpse was discovered by her mortified parents.

But in a chilling Kitty Genovese scenario, neighbours told cops they had heard screams in the early morning hours days before. No one investigated, nor did they call the police.

The stench of her rotting body and a blood trail on the building’s third floor did not move them to investigate or get help.

According to Smith, Anikejew kept to herself. She either knew or trusted the person who killed her.

“We believe Tatiana knew her killer and we have offender DNA in this case,” Smith said. “Tatiana was a young, vibrant member of our society murdered in the prime of her life.”

Police hunt killer in knifing of student – The apartment where Tatiana Anikejew, 22, was found showed signs of a struggle.

She was nude and had several stab wounds in the chest, but police were awaiting results to determine whether she had was sexually assaulted.

The graphic arts student at Seneca College lived alone in a three-storey brick walk-up near Eglinton Ave. and Mt. Pleasant Rd.

She was a loner who occasionally had a few girlfriends over on a Friday or Saturday night, neighbours said.

“No one really knew her too well in the building,” said Robert Wiggins, who lives across the hall.

The murder has renewed concerns in the neighbourhood about the presence of a halfway house for federal ex-convicts on Montgomery Ave., he said.

The victim’s Broadway Ave. apartment building is about two blocks from the halfway house, from which an ex-convict escaped and murdered another young woman earlier this year.

A coroner’s inquest into the slaying of Tema Conter was to begin today. (Copy of summary received, transcript requested.)

Conter was stabbed to death in her Balliol St. apartment a few blocks away. Her murderer, Melvin Glenn Stanton, was sentenced to life in prison.

Tenants in the Broadway Ave. apartment are scared said superintendent Yvonne Briden. TO Star October 3, 1988 A1

Stabbing victim probably knew her killer, police say – Detectives probing the slaying of Tatiana Anikejew could find no signs that the door to her apartment had been forced, leading them to conclude the attacker had somehow gained her confidence.

“There is a possibility that she knew her killer or the killer may have used a ruse to gain entry into her home,” said Staff Sergeant Neale Tweedy.

“It is known that she had a number of male friends,” Tweedy said. Police are investigating the possibility that she may have brought her attacker home from a bar, he said, but have so far drawn no conclusions.

The body of Anikejew, 22, was discovered Saturday by her parents. She was nude and had several stab wounds in the chest when found in her bachelorette suite, which police said showed signs of a struggle. The murder weapon has not yet been found.

Several neighbours reported hearing screams about 1 a.m. last Wednesday.

“We have talked to some people who knew of her whereabouts in the hours before her death, but it hasn’t added up to anything significant at this point,” Tweedy said.

Members of the police identification bureau scoured the third-floor suite for clues yesterday, dusting doorways and glass for fingerprints. The apartment appeared disheveled and a chesterfield bed was still unfolded.

Samples were taken from a trail of blood spots found on a stairwell, leading from the third floor to a side exit.

Tenants said the blood had been there since the murder is thought to have taken place. John Stump, who lives one floor below Anikejew, said he noticed it when he took his dog Snuffy out for a walk late Tuesday night.

“It was all down one side of the stairs, and at the time I thought somebody must have spilled strawberry jam,” Stump said. TO Star October 4, 1988 A6

Notes and questions

• Some reports state she was also bludgeoned. TO Star August 31, 1990 B5
• There is definitely a DNA sample on file.
• Why no further request from police for more information at the time?

Cheryl Hanson

Crystal Elizabeth Van Huuksloot Missing since October 9, 1977 from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Vital Statistics
• Date Of Birth: 1957
• Age at Time of Disappearance: 20 years old
• Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5’7″; 120 lbs.
• Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blue eyes;  dark brown hair. Medium build and a fair complexion. Her teeth were in good condition at the time of her disappearance.

Circumstances of Disappearance:  Van Huukslot was last seen in Toronto in 1977. She left a friends home to catch a plane at Toronto International Airport. She was to return to her home in Edmonton.

 
She had traveled from Edmonton to Toronto carrying $3,000 in a homemade money belt around her waist with the purpose of raising bail for her boyfriend, Stacey Harris, who had been arrested on a drug charge. She visited Harris in the Don Jail and told him about her only partially successful efforts in raising his bail of $15,000. She would raise the balance somehow. Crystal attempted to acquire the money by legitimate means, but was unsuccessful. Harris suggested loan sharks he knew, and gave her the name of Ian Rosenberg. Crystal contacted the man and was promised the money within a week. Something went wrong. Crystal told a friend that the Rosenberg loan had fallen through and that she would be flying back to Edmonton the following morning to attempt once more to raise the necessary funds. She visited Harris and told him that Rosenberg would be giving her a lift to the airport. Crystal never took the flight to Edmonton. When questioned by police, Rosenberg claimed he had dropped her off at the airport. Crystal disappeared and has not been seen since.

 
Rosenberg and his girlfriend were shot to death in bed seven months later. James Bass, a friend and business associate of Rosenberg, was arrested two hours after the double murder. Bass stood trial for the Rosenberg’s murder. At the trial, Crown counsel Robert McGee admitted that the case against Bass was purely circumstantial, but contended that the motive for murder was Bass’s fear that Rosenberg was about to inform the police of Bass’s involvement in Crystal Van Huuksloot’s disappearance.

 
James Bass was found not guilty. No one has ever been convicted of the murder of Ian Rosenberg and his girlfriend, nor has Crystal Van Huuksloot ever been found.

Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? Part 3

Part 1 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide?

Part 2 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? (Part 2)

Coroner’s Inquest Notes

• Inquest was led by Dr. James Young, Deputy Coroner for Ontario.
• Shirley Scime of Ancaster (Beckon’s aunt) re: Beckon being pressured to turn over his address book and identify someone in a photograph, Beckon said if he identified the person(s) in the photo “My life wouldn’t be worth shit.”
• Stan Won (neighbour) – found body and said initially that he saw a blue car on a nearby knoll, as though it were leaving the death scene.
• Wos later told the Toronto Star that the car was in toward the deserted farm.
• Was Beckon’s second private test drug free because the period during which cocaine had passed?
• Brian Swatuk (another jockey) was undergoing treatment for cocaine addiction.
• Beckon’s agent, Jimmy Santha, said he saw Beckon shortly before 11:30 am at Woodbine.
• The time was disputed by David Brown, the lawyer representing Beckon’s widow Diane, and he questioned whether Santha even saw Beckon at all.
• The inquest witnesses sure seem to all contradicting Santha’s testimony.
• Why did Kirkman so drastically change his timeline?
• Was he pressured to by Diane Beckon’s lawyer to point the finger at Santha?
• Outside the courtroom, after the testimony of Stan Wos and his daughter, Diane Beckon and private investigator Richard Russell visited Wos at his home on August 3, 1987.
• Diane Beckon quotes Wos as telling them he had seen the car leaving the death scene and not entering as he testified at the inquiry.
• Diane Beckon said Wos said the vehicle was not a hatchback.
• The inquest was told in 1979 and 1980 a special police unit was allowed to tap phones at Woodbine in a gambling investigation and taped 500 hours of conversations. Note: This is likely where the rumour of the phones being tapped came from.
• Dr. Richard Roelofson said there was an agreement in place on the drug testing that, “At no time would we be concerned with the legality of the drugs, and at no time to make an inquiry where they were coming from.” Note: So it’s quite possible it wasn’t dealers the Ontario Jockey Club were asking Beckon to name in the picture and in his address book. Could it be gambling and/or fixed races?
• Coroner Dr. Jim Young, who was in charge of the inquest told the jury before they were to deliberate “I cannot think of a single piece of evidence that is inconsistent with the suicide theory.”
• What is the coroner in charge doing drawing a conclusion? Shouldn’t it be left to the jury?

Coroner’s Inquest – OPP Constable James Wilde (Identification Unit)

• There were no fingerprints found on the rifle.
• There were no fingerprints on the two suicide notes.
• Only a smudge was found on one note.
• Tests were not done to determine the proximity between Beckon’s head and the gun that killed him.
• Wilde said he did not notice or photograph an exit wound on the left side of Beckon’s head at the autopsy, although one is mentioned in the pathologist’s report, measuring 2 1/2cm (1 inch).
• No test was made on Beckon’s hands to establish that he had fired the .22 calibre rifle because, due to “budget restraints” the Centre of Forensic Sciences “Won’t accept a suicide weapon for testing.”
• Trace elements of gunshot residue can stick to hands by simply holding a gun that has been fired, or by handling cartridges.
• An empty shell casing found three meters (about 10 feet) from the body was not checked for fingerprints because “There was no reason to.”
• Wilde said he found a red felt pen in the glovebox of Beckon’s truck, while a handwriting expert from the Forensic Centre testified that he had examined the suicide notes under a microscope and that they were written with a ballpoint pen. Note: Was the ballpoint pen ever found?
• Wilde says it is not unusual for no fingerprints to be found on firearms or documents. It depends on certain secretions from the body.
• Asked about a swelling on Beckon’s right cheek, Wilde testified “I would attribute nothing on his face to the traumatic effect of the gunshot wound.”
• Wilde did refer to a crack in the butt of the rifle found at the scene, saying: “The crack in the rifle butt was there, but I think you will find (out) later about it.” Note: Was the crack ever brought up again in the inquest?
• How did a bullet casing from that type of rifle travel 10 feet?
• The Forensic Centre for Examination would not have accepted the box of cartridges found in Beckon’s truck for testing because it was considered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• The red felt pen found in the glove box was not tested for fingerprints.
• The cartridges were found on the drivers seat.
• Other items found in the truck were a jockey’s helmet, a riding crop, a shirt and a racing form.

Coroner’s Inquest – Handwriting Expert A.A. Dreger

• When he examined the suicide notes “There is no indication of fear or duress.”

Coroner’s Inquest – Leo Bertrand (in charge of jockey’s room at Woodbine)

• Said he overheard Beckon talking to Dr. Richard Roelofson, Deputy Supervisor of Thoroughbred Racing for the Ontario Racing Commission and the man responsible for random drug tests at Ontario race tracks.
• “I heard Danny tell the Doc: ‘You got to be kidding me. I’ve been a goddam good boy. It’s got to be somebody fooling around with my (urine) tests.”

Coroner’s Inquest – Emilio Davison (Beckon’s valet)

• Testified he had worked for Beckon for between 7 and 8 years.
• Davison said “I never found him under the influence of drugs, and I cleaned out the boxes and never found any drugs.”

Coroner’s Inquest – Debi Lockhurst (Trainer)

• She said Beckon had told her he occasionally went to the farm where his body was found to think and sometimes smoked marijuana there.
• Lockhurst said Beckon had told her he was under pressure to “Point a finger” at other drug users at the track and said, “Where would I start? At the top and work my way down?”

Coroner’s Inquest – Jimmy Santha (Beckon’s agent)

• Said he talked to Beckon shortly after Beckon learned he’d tested positive.
• “I said, ‘What are you going to do now?’ He said, ‘I am going to what I should have done a long time ago. I am going to shoot myself.”
• At this point David Brown, a lawyer representing Beckon’s widow challenged Santha’s statement, saying: “I am going to suggest to you that you never saw Dan on July 2, and he never told you he was going to kill himself.”
• Important: Santha’s timeline of events differs from timeline Beckon’s mother-in-law, Myrna Bartle. She says Beckon was already home in Bolton by 11:35 am.
• Crown attorney Bill Wolski earlier had asked Santha the colour of his car, in reference to a blue vehicle that was seen at the abandoned farm at the time the body was found. Answer was?
• Outside court an infuriated Santha heatedly exclaimed: “Look what they are asking me, as if I did it or something. I wasn’t expecting this.”
• Santha said he had been playing cards in a recreation room at Woodbine race track when Beckon gestured to him through a window to go outside.
• He quoted Beckon as saying, “I got another bad test. I am tired of having them picking on me.”

Coroner’s Inquest – Pat County (Trainer)

• Says he had seen Beckon at the track between 11:00 and 11:30 am and that the rider was looking for Santha.
• County and Beckon looked in the recreation room and County suggested they check in the racing office, prompting Beckon to comment, “Any time I am looking for the son-of-a-bitch I can’t find him.”

Coroner’s Inquest – Ken Zweig (Racetrack worker at Woodbine)

• Said he saw Beckon making a phone call at a Shell gas station while he was driving by.
• He said he was “Pretty sure” the clock in the car registered 10:23 am.
• It was not unusual for track personnel to make call outside because, “A lot of people at the track think the phones (at Woodbine) are tapped.” Note: Why would employees and workers at the track feel the phones were tapped? Possibly confirmed at a later date in the inquest when the talk came to the murder of a mobster at nearby Toronto Pearson International Airport.
• The driver of the car was trainer Desmond Alderson.

Coroner’s Inquest – David Clark (Jockey)

• Said he along with Beckon and Brian Swatuk were snorting cocaine at the wedding of jockey Gary Stahlbaum in the early 1980’s.

Coroner’s Inquest – Janet Vickery (runs the Bolton Convenience store at King Rd. & Hwy. 50)

• Saw Beckon some time between 12:15 pm and 12:45 pm leaning against a lamp post across the street (North bound lanes, east side of Hwy. 50)
• Beckon then walked into her store, looking at a rack of video cassettes for a few minutes and left without speaking to her.

Coroner’s Inquest – Linda Lunys (Bank teller at Bolton branch of the Royal Bank)

• Beckon deposited $5,855.00 into his business account between 11:30 am and noon.

Coroner’s Inquest – Sid Kirkman (Beckon’s neighbour)

• Testified that Beckon spoke to him at bottom of driveway at 11:45 am saying he looked at his watch and noted the time.
• Earlier Kirkman had said the time was 12:15 pm.

Coroner’s Inquest – Stan Wos (farmer who found Beckon’s body)

• Riding a small motorcycle to the abandoned farm where Beckon’s body was found when he saw a light-blue, mid-sized car in the laneway leading to the property.
• Minutes later, he found the body.
• After returning home to phone police he went back to the scene with a farm hand and saw a signed, hand written note and personal articles through the window of the truck and these led him to conclude the body was that of Beckon.
• His 14-year-old daughter, Lisa, was a passenger on the motorcycle just before 1:00 pm.
• “We just saw a bluish car. It was too far to see the make or year. I could not make out any details.”
• “I could see the front left hood, the windshield and the left (driver’s) side,” noting he observed the vehicle “Maybe a second, two seconds, then we went over the hill and could not see it.”
• “It was a shiny colour, metallic or shiny. I could not see anyone inside or around the vehicle.”
• The car could not have turned because the laneway is too narrow, “And the only way it could have exited was to reverse.”

Coroner’s Inquest – Lisa Wos (daughter of farmer Stan Wos)

• Confirmed her father’s story, saying she also saw the blue car and thought it “Wasn’t a small car, it was a fair sized car, about the size of a Monte Carlo.”
• She said she had seen cars there before and they had backed out.

Coroner’s Inquest – Roy Watts (General Manger of the Horseman’s Benevolant and Protective Association

• Testified he had seen Beckon talking to agent Jimmy Santha around 11:00 am the day he died.
• Watts said he left his office on the backstretch around 11:00 an on July2, went to the Racing Secretary’s office for a moment and when he returned he saw Beckon and Santha talking outside his office windows.

Coroner’s Inquest – Don Goldrup (Ambulance Attendant)

• Testified the body was found lying in a left side semi-fetal position with his hands and feet close together while lawyers and spectators crowded around for a better view of the demonstration.
• He showed how the muzzle of the barrel had been covered by Beckon’s body with the fingers of the left hand beneath the barrel and the right hand resting on top of it.

Coroner’s Inquest – Joe Boyes (Ambulance Attendant)

• Sent to the abandoned farm about 1:30 pm
• Beckon’s body was still warm although there were no vital signs and his eyes did not react too light.
• The ambulance arrived at the farm at 1:51 pm

Coroner’s Inquest – OPP Constable Eric Lucas

• The grass was two feet high and intact on the passenger side of the Beckon truck near the body, but was trampled on the driver’s side, possibly due to the movements of the ambulance attendant’s.
• Lucas said among the contents of the truck was a red ballpoint pen. Note: OPP investigator Wilde testified a red felt pen was found in the truck but didn’t mention a red ballpoint.

Coroner’s Inquest – David Bartle (Beckon’s brother-in-law)

• About two months before Beckon died, Bartle overheard Beckon yelling at someone on the phone: “I’ve had enough of this shit.” and that he “Wanted to get out.”
• Bartle told the court that Beckon had said he could get drugs in return for “favours” at the racetrack, although Beckon didn’t spell out what those favours were.
• Bartle said he thought the favours referred to “Side bets or something like that.”
• Regarding Beckon’s address, Bartle said Beckon told him: “(He) said if anyone got hold of it he would have his legs busted.”

Coroner’s Inquest – John Hines (Head of OPP Fingerprint Laboratory)

• Someone would have to wipe a weapon “pretty extensively” to remove all fingerprints.
• Note: Yet there were no prints on the .22 calibre rifle or the suicide note.
• Hines agreed with Beckon family lawyer, John Murray, that a person’s hands are likely to sweat more in a stressful situation.
• And if a person were about to put a gun to their head, there is an “extreme likelihood” of that sweat increasing.
• Hines said that if a gun were wiped clean, marks “may or may not” be evident because such a cleaning “sometimes leaves prints.”
• The rifle in the Beckon case was subjected to standard fingerprint tests, but not to a sophisticated laser technique used when prints are less obvious.
• One test was done by police on the suicide notes on July 2, 1987 and another on January 27, 1988.
• “At that point, the laser on the paper would not help,” adding that “extensive handling” can impede the lifting of a print from a surface.
• Hines said he had never looked at the gun.
• He testified that fingerprints may disappear in 30 minutes under certain conditions, but couldn’t think of a case in which it happened.
• He also recalled a case involving a Nazi war criminal where a set of fingerprints had remained intact for 30 years.
• Hines explained fingerprints are made up of 98.5% water and 1.5% “solid matter” which he described as salts and fat secreted from the body.
• In preparation for the inquest, Hines said he did a “quick survey” of 212 firearms that have been examined by his unit over the past 2 1/2 years, of which only 19 guns yielded fingerprints.

Coroner’s Inquest – Brian Kessel (Horse trainer and Beckon’s neighbour)

• Beckon was given drugs in the parking lot at racetracks by people to whom he gave tips.
• Beckon also told Kessel he timed his drug use to avoid testing positive in random drug tests and claimed to have “$50,000 in US bills hidden in the walls of the basement.”
• Kessel knew Beckon since 1980.
• Saying he knew that Beckon was “Good at getting things” and that “I knew he had done drugs.” Kessel quoted Beckon as once telling him, “I have three or four coloured people I tout, and I meet them after the races in the parking lot and instead of money I get drugs.”
• Beckon’s home was Whitehead Crescent in Bolton, apparently not the farm.
• Kessel quoted Beckon as saying “A blond older woman who used to be married to a jock has been betting for me. She gives it to me in cash. She gives it to me because she likes me.”
• “Occasionally, I have to kiss her and hold her hand. I don’t like it. She used to be married to a jock from the Buffalo area. He told me the lady bets a lot of money.” Is this referring to Barbara Russo who hired the PI.
• Beckon, Kessel said, would her the names of horses he liked, and he quoted the jockey as saying that “Sometimes I don’t say anything to her and she gives me money where she bet my horses.”
• Kessel added, “I asked Dan if Diane knew and he said yes, she has seen it , and there was something about throwing it (around).”
• John Murray, counsel for the Beckon family, said Diane Beckon will deny that story.
• Kessel owned an adult book shop downtown and previously had plead guilty to charges of possessing and distributing obscene material.
• Kessel told Dr. Richard Roelofson, “that Dan had been getting pressure from home, and he said he’d heard that, too.”

Coroner’s Inquest – Robert Monument (Firearms Examiner at Ontario’s Centre for Forensic Sciences

• Testifying from large colour photographs because he said he had not been given any of Beckon’s tissue to study.
• Monument said a “crusty” area seen around the bullet hole “Is fully consistent” with the wound being from a close range shot.
• He examined the muzzle of the rifle for traces of blood and tissue but could not find any.
• “That does not indicate too much because on a contact shot you do not necessarily have it (fly) back on the weapon.”
• Monument confirmed the bullet found in Beckon’s head, although badly damaged, showed markings consistent with the barrel.
• He tested the rifle by firing it from various distances to show powder patterns.
• When the rifle was fired with the muzzle touching the paper, most of the propellant powder was driven into the bullet hole.
• Dr. Zahir Moloo, the pathologist who did the autopsy on Beckon’s body said he found no soot in the skull.
• Addressing previous testimony at the inquest that a shell casing had been found 3 meters (about 9.8 feet) from the body, Monument said that in his test firings the spent shell were ejected 5 to 6 feet into the air before hitting the floor.
• In at test with the butt on the ground and the barrel angled upward, the casings fell to within 18 inches of where he was standing.

Coroner’s Inquest – Glenn Wellspring (Friend of Beckon’s)

• Loaned Beckon the gun.
• Testified that he had used the same ammunition, a low-velocity bullet made in Yugoslavia, in another rifle and the empty casings dropped at his feet on ejection.

Coroner’s Inquest – Dr. Zahir Moloo (Pathologist)

• Dr. Zahir Moloo, the pathologist who did the autopsy on Beckon’s body said he found no soot in the skull.
• Asked about a swelling noted on Beckon’s right cheek after his death, he said he had made no note of it on his autopsy report because “It appeared normal to me,” since he had not seen the jockey before and there had been no bruising on the skin.
• The trajectory of the fatal bullet travelled from front right to rear left and at a slightly upward angle.
• Sections of Beckon’s brain were preserved for further examination if required.
• Said he did not peel back the scalp to check the wound because a policeman (Constable Ken Ruttan) told him the death was a suicide.
• “The thing I was certain about was it (the gun) was not tightly held to the surface.”
• He also told the inquest he has no experience with high and low-velocity rifles.
• Moloo examined the wound from inside the skull not from the outside in.

Coroner’s Inquest – Dr. Frederick Jaffe (Pathologist Ontario Centre of Forensic Sciences)

• “This wound suggests a rifle that was either on or near right angles to the head and would be very unusual in an accidental wound.”
• Jaffe cited gaps in the evidence collected that he would have liked to examine such as:
• Tissue from the area of the bullet wound.
• Beckon’s clothing: “It would have been very interesting to have had an examination of the clothing…I am not aware that one was done.”
• His body.
• Photographs of both sides of the jockey’s face instead of the one side that was taken.
• Said he had found a black granular material in the sample of Beckon’s brain tissue but could not identify it, although he thought it was firearm residue.
• “I believe death occurred where the body was found, ‘Because the flow of blood from nose and mouth was from right to left to indicate the side on which the body was found.
• “I believe that the appearance and the bullet entrance suggest a light-contact wound.”
• He said he believed the swelling on the right side of Beckon’s face was caused by blood seepage and probably by severe damage to the facial bones.

Coroner’s Inquest – Riverside Cafe (Bolton) Owner (Harry Bidzios)

• The restaurant was a location where Beckon was well known.
• The owner had been at the cash register, a few feet from a pay phone in the restaurant, when she heard Beckon say, “In an emotional tone: ‘Rick, leave me alone. Leave me alone!’”
• Then Beckon said “Alright, I’ll meet you at the place in 30 minutes” and slammed down the phone and left without paying his bill.
• Event was corroborated by a waitress.
• The event in question was apparently from a prior day.
• “I told Ken (OPP Constable Ken Ruttan) about Beckon’s phone conversation because he’s a friend of mine and I thought it was something he might look into … it looked strange to me.”
• The OPP never took a statement from either the waitress or the owner.

Coroner’s Inquest – Neighbour of Beckon’s

• In May 1987 between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm a late-model, expensive looking dark or metallic blue Oldsmobile or Buick slowly cruised past the Beckon home four times, as if the driver was trying to communicate with someone in the house. (Appears to refer to the house in Bolton and not the farm)
• Beckon then left the house in his pickup truck and drove down the road to meet the driver of the car.
• They parked their vehicles with the driver’s sides facing each other and talked for five to ten minutes.
• The description of the driver in the car as “a white male, in his 30’s, nice looking” with reddish-brown curly hair and about medium height.

Coroner’s Inquest – Firearms Expert

• Conducted a series of tests at the death scene with a .22 calibre rim-fire Winchester rifle, almost identical to the one found beneath Beckon’s body to determine how far it would eject a spent shell.
• He said that with the butt of the gun on the ground and using bullets identical to those found in Beckon’s pickup, the farthest the gun would eject an empty shell was 27 inches.
• With the gun held in the air, the farthest it would eject a shell was about five feet.
• A spent shell was found at the death scene near the right front wheel of Beckon’s pickup, about 10 to 12 feet from his body.

Coroner’s Inquest – Shirley Scime (Beckon’s aunt)

• Scime said Beckon said “he was under pressure at the track and … was in it up to his eyeballs and was scared,”
• Re: Beckon’s address book – “He said, ‘You know, I have this red book … and I burned it in the field for Diane’s protection’.”
• She testified Beckon said he was also under pressure over a photograph taken of him and another man in a restaurant.
• “He said it (the man in the photo) could probably be a relation of Uncle Charlie’s. My husband is Sicillian.”
• The day after Beckon died, she was at Beckon’s home with friends and family and Beckon’s agent Jimmy Santha, and she told Santha of Beckon’s concern over the photo. “Jimmy piped up and said, ’That must have been so-and-so’.”
• She was unable to recall the name mentioned.

Coroner’s Inquest – Lloyd Werden (Drug Counsellor)

• Beckon described himself as an “off and on” cocaine user, but also contradicted himself when he said he used “$1000 worth a week”.

Coroner’s Inquest – Undercover Policeman

• Overheard people say “It wasn’t just cocaine that killed Dan Beckon.”
• Infiltrated the backstretch in a drug operation.
• He said he witnessed many transactions including cocaine, hashish and marijuana.
• “Most of the large transactions I saw I believe would have been related to owners, trainers or jockeys.”

Coroner’s Inquest – Michael Hargreaves (Firearms Expert – SAS Canada)

• Fired seven test shots.
• The extractor and ejector systems of the rifle he used and the one found at the death scene were identical.
• Fired four shot with the rifle in a vertical position, butt on the ground, and found that the ejected cartridges stayed where they landed and did not roll.
• They were measured at distances of between a third of a meter (13 inches) and two-thirds of a meter (27 inches) from the butt.
• For the other three shots, the rifle was held parallel to, and 1.67 meters (5 feet, 6 inches) above the ground, and found the ejected cartridges landed at distances between 2 meters (6 feet, 6 inches) and about a meter (3 feet, 3 inches).
• Given the height of the grass at the time of Beckon’s death, he estimated that the cartridges at that time would have been about a third to thirds of a meter (12 to 24 inches) closer to the ejection point.
• His tests were consistent with tests with the actual gun.

Coroner’s Inquest – Diane Beckon

• Re: Suicide notes – said she never heard her husband use the term “You’s,” the word used in the letter to Chad.
• “I don’t believe it’s a word he would use,” adding that it would have been “out of character” for Beckon to use such long sentences.
• She said her husband was not well educated in sentence and paragraph structure (he had a Grade 6 education), yet the suicide notes were in paragraph form “Instead of one long sentence.”
• “These notes are unusual and there would normally be scratches to correct errors. He would avoid writing. In the 15 years I was with Dan, he never wrote me anything.

Coroner’s Inquest – Dr. Vincent DiMaio (Pathologist)

• Referring to a bullet wound in Beckon’s head, said from the evidence he has seen, “We must conclude it’s a distant wound (where the gun was fired from more than 18 inches away), and that has got to be homicide.”
• His testimony contradicts the Crown pathologist.
• DiMaio said the type of ammunition used was “fairly dirty” and for a distance of up to 12 inches would leave soot or powder in the wound that could be seen with the naked eye.
• However, the residue would be trapped between the skin and the outside of the skull and that such markings would not be found on the inside of the skull. Note: Dr. Zahir Moloo had testified he found soot in the skull.

Final Summation – Dr. Jim Young (Coroner in charge of Inquest)

• Coroner Dr. Jim Young, who was in charge of the inquest told the jury before they were to deliberate “I cannot think of a single piece of evidence that is inconsistent with the suicide theory.”
• What is the coroner in charge doing drawing a conclusion? Shouldn’t it be left to the jury?
• On the absence of fingerprints on the rifle he cited testimony in which the jury was told prints weren’t found in the majority of gunshot cases.
• On the gunshot wound: Two pathologists examined Beckon’s body, but did not look closely at the wound in the critical area between the skin and skull.
• Another expert from Texas that examined the evidence said he was convinced the shot was fired from at least 18 inches away “And that means its homicide.”
• Told the jury “You must resolve the issue somehow,” inviting them to “Comment if you think a wound should be checked from the skin to the skull.”
• Citing the distance between the empty shell casing found at the scene from where Beckon’s body was found, Young concluded it was consistent with test firings done with the rifle.
• Other tests by independent experts show the casing would not fly and roll further than 6 feet.
• Young then said it’s possible that the cartridge had been kicked by one of the officials at the scene or that the jockey had taken a few steps after the fatal shot.
• Also said he is “convinced” that the rifle was parallel with the ground when fired.
• The coroner concurred with the testimony of witnesses who thought the swelling on Beckon’s face was of no significance.
• On the blue car spotted at the death scene, Young said the farmer who found Beckon’s body and the farmer’s daughter, had given essentially the same testimony.
• They testified the car was facing in toward the farm and was stopped on a knoll.
• The coroner cited a demonstration staged at the scene for the jury. From the distance the farmer said he’d seen the vehicle, Young said he’d had difficulty in establishing if the witness was looking at the front of the vehicle or a Nissan pickup truck (which Beckon owned).
• “I have no trouble saying it could have been Dan’s truck, where he stopped to have a look at the farm. If someone had just murdered Dan, would they not leave the scene fast and not stop on the knoll?”
• Could the car have been looking for a place to turn around?
• Of the testimony of two witnesses who said they’d seen the jockey on the phone at a Bolton cafe telling someone named Rick or Nick to “Leave me alone,” the coroner said, “It’s difficult to know how much importance to attach to it.” He added, “Is that proof he was murdered?”

Eric Murray – Beckon Family Lawyer

• “I’m there to hear the jury’s opinion, not the coroner’s opinion. You expect a middle-of-the road direction. The coroner is wrong, in my opinion.”

Final Verdict of Inquest

• The jury returned a verdict of suicide.

• The Jockey Club and the Racing Commission may have been concerned a murder verdict would provide support for the theory that the racing authorities were responsible for Beckon’s death because they had forced him to come up with “Names” if he wished to continue racing.
• The investigation was badly flawed based on the presumption there was no foul play, an autopsy conducted on the presumption the death was a suicide and an inquest dominated by a coroner who left little doubt about the verdict he expected from the jurors.
• The initial investigation conducted by the OPP was conducted on the assumption Beckon had killed himself.
• Because of this assumption the police failed to perform the most basic tests that could have shed real light on the manner that Beckon had met his death.
• Coroner Young’s lengthy summation to the jury steadfastly rejected evidence that didn’t prove suicide. Morever, he stepped over a very important line by telling the jurors, “I cannot think of a single piece of evidence that is consistent with the murder theory.”
• And he grossly usurped the function of the jurors when he told them that he believed he manner of death was suicide .
• Young left the hearing room before the family’s lawyers could make objections about the summation. This meant he did not have the benefit of any objections from the family’s lawyers, or any recommendations to improve the charge and insure an accurate verdict, and that any errors went uncorrected.

April 1990

Ontario Divisional Court threw out the inquest jury’s verdict, sharply criticizing the coroner for his charge to the jury.

November 1990

Police laid multiple charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.

July 11, 1992

An Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the Divisional Court ruling against the suicide ruling. The death was ruled “Undetermined”.

Notes

• Beckon made out a $5,855 deposit slip for another bank in Bolton
• Wrote a $1500 cheque for his agent, Jimmy Santha
• Clearly money wasn’t an issue, so why, if he even had a little doubt he would fail the drug test, wouldn’t he just decline the test and pay the $2000 fine?
• Why would he kill himself in a location where his body might not be found for days or weeks?
• Why shoot yourself in such a way you may only seriously wound yourself?
• Were the tests used as a lever by someone to get at Beckon and back him into a corner? The Ontario Jockey Club (OJC) or Ontario Racing Commission (ORC) wanted his address book and to know who someone was in a photograph that Beckon had.
• Do police know who Beckon contacted while making a call from a pay telephone shortly after he’d been suspended?
• Did police determine if arrangements were made during the phone call to meet someone on the main street of Bolton and take them to the deserted farm for a private discussion?
• Beckon left a Bolton convenience store, as though seeing someone outside he was supposed to meet.
• Do police have any concerns that notes left by Beckon were written under some sort of duress?
• Did police take tire mark impressions and identify a blue car which was seen in the driveway of the abandoned farm shortly before Beckon’s body was discovered?
• Was there concern that Beckon had been selected three times for drug testing and that he might think it was a form of harassment and lead to suicide?
• Were police aware that Beckon’s barn was ransacked sometime in the afternoon or evening of the day he died?
• Does the OPP have the results of the independent drug tests conducted for Beckon at the Mann Testing Laboratories in Mississauga?
• Were paraffin tests conducted to determine if Beckon had fired the weapon and if ballistic results confirmed the .22 calibre rifle was actually used in the suicide? According to the testimony of OPP Constable James Wilde (Identification Unit) not tests were conducted due to budget restraints at the Centre of Forensic Sciences and they “Won’t accept a suicide weapon for testing.”
• An empty shell casing found three meters (about 10 feet) from the body was not checked for fingerprints because “There was no reason to.” Note: How did a shell casing ejected from that type of rifle travel 10 feet?
• Wilde said he found a red felt pen in the glovebox of Beckon’s truck, while a handwriting expert from the Forensic Centre testified that he had examined the suicide notes under a microscope and that they were written with a ballpoint pen. Note: Was the ballpoint pen ever found?
• Asked about a swelling on Beckon’s right cheek, Wilde testified “I would attribute nothing on his face to the traumatic effect of the gunshot wound.”
• Wilde did refer to a crack in the butt of the rifle found at the scene, saying: “The crack in the rifle butt was there, but I think you will find (out) later about it.” Note: Was the crack ever brought up again in the inquest?
• It was not unusual for track personnel to make call outside because, “A lot of people at the track think the phones (at Woodbine) are tapped.” Note: Why would employees and workers at the track feel the phones were tapped? Possibly confirmed at a later date in the inquest when the talk came to the murder of a mobster at nearby Toronto Pearson International Airport.
• Barbara Russo as of March 15, 2015 still owned racehorses (Standardbreds) running out of Buffalo Raceway trained by Neal Russo (Son?)
• Wednesday August 4, 1993 trainer Neal Russo lost his trainers licence for a month when one of his horses tested positive for illegal drugs.
• Neal Russo was also suspended from July 12, 1990 to July 16, 1990 by the New York Gaming Commission: “Let other horse pass inside”.
• There was a special law enforcement unit in 1985 or 1986 that was looking into bookmaking, loan-sharking or drug dealing at Woodbine.
• Beckon family lawyer John Murray also showed how a sealed urine bottle can be tampered with and the security of the sealed bottles can be circumvented in about 14 minutes.
• Rick Cowan was track security at Woodbine.
• Coroner Dr. Jim Young said Constable Ken Ruttan, who was in hospital at the time of the inquest with chest pains, may never be able to give evidence and ruled he doesn’t have to testify.
• There was a mysterious man who was never identified who said he information on the blue car seen at the death scene.
• The Ontario Jockey Club agreed to pay $200,000 to an anonymous man on information on the individual seen in the blue car.
• However, part of the OJC’s offer were 15 separate conditions.
• One condition said he would only get paid if his information proved useful “In a material way.”
• That meant that the man would have to be able to say whether Beckon had committed suicide or been murdered.
• He said he didn’t know that but only knew the identities of the two men seen at the scene in the blue car.
• Why would the OJC insist on that clause when it’s clear he never said he knew if they did or didn’t murder Beckon or if it was a suicide?
• Why did the Ontario Jockey Club and Ontario Racing Commission fight so hard for the inquest to declare the death a suicide?
• Beckon had two insurance policies totaling $85,000, but neither pay off in the event of a suicide verdict.

Part 1 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide?

Part 2 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? (Part 2)

 

Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? (Part 2)

Dan Beckon – Part 2 (Pre-Inquest information)

Part 1 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide?

Part 3 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? Part 3

Diane Beckon

• Claims her husband’s face was swollen, “From the cheekbone down to the jaw.”
• “The funeral director told me it was unexplainable relative to the gunshot which killed Dan. I asked the police about it. “Are you saying he got beat up?” They said, “You tell me.”
• She also said their barn was ransacked between her husbands death and nightfall.
• “I can’t deny there may have been occasional (drug) use. I say that because of what happened in May. Dan was a person who lived with pain because of injuries he had. He had to lose weight pretty well every day of his life. He had plenty of strain..”
• “He had smoked marijuana, I know. He’d once had problems with drinking. He was not a saint, okay? But as for any addiction I’d have seen a drain on our financial situation. There was none. I’d have seen a change in the man, some tell-tale signs. I didn’t.” Note: There would have been no change to the financial situation if he was being given the drugs for free in exchange for tips or other things related to races.
• “They (racetrack officials) had tried different approaches to get him out of riding altogether.”
• “Early in March (1987), he was offered a steward’s position. Nothing would be guaranteed. He’d be slotted into other jobs while learning, and waiting for an opening.”
• “After the June 21st test, he called the testing lab and had a test done privately.”
• “I asked for the autopsy report. I was told there was a backlog. Then there were people on vacation. Then there was a mixup. I finally got it, it was dated September 18.”
• The suicide note left to his son was signed “Dan Beckon”.
• The note to her specified that his assets would be left to her.
• “Yes, it’s Dan’s writing, but I don’t see the reason for the note to me. We had wills. There was no need for him to write something like that. And the way Dan felt about Chad, that’s not how he’d have signed it. It seems so cold and impersonal.”

Barbara Russo

• Known at Woodbine as a punter of varying quality, but known to place some large bets.
• “A woman of independent means”.
• She was a friend of the Beckon’s since 1983 when she boarded her dog at their farm.
• She was involved in a legal wrangle with the Ontario Jockey Club.
• A member since 1978 of the exclusive Turf Club.
• She was barred from Woodbine, Fort Erie and Greenwood.
• Harold Adamson, was the former Metro Police Chief and at that point in 1987 the OJC Vice-President in charge of security.
• OJC employees had allegedly complained about having difficulty in collecting money they had given Russo for investment purposes.
• Russo had a receipt suggesting otherwise, and in fact there had been a profit.
• Russo is fighting the ban and has launched a multi-million dollar slander suit against the OJC.
• She rejected a settlement the OJC offered.
• She declined to be photographed just after Beckon’s death, saying “I don’t wish to be melodramatic, but I really fear my safety could be at stake.”

Note: Russo’s son was/is a trainer who was caught cheating in 1993
Note: Barbara Russo may have been placing bets for Beckon

Jimmy Santha – Beckon’s agent

• Santha says he told Beckon, “Don’t worry about it (failed drug test). I’ll stick by you and we’ll fight it.”
• Santha says he then asked, “What are you going to do?”
• Santha says Beckon replies, “I’m going to do what I should have done a long time ago. I’m going to shoot myself.”
• Beckon gets into his truck as Santha asks, “Do you want me to draw for you for Saturday (get him horses to ride)?” Beckon answered, “Yes.”

Gary George Alexander

• A close friend of Beckon’s, Gary George Alexander, 31, of Drayton Ave. was found dead by his father on Saturday, July 4, 1987.
• Possible drug overdose.
• Walter Kent Ross, a friend of Alexander’s told police Alexander had been upset by Beckon’s death.
• He said Alexander had been drinking heavily after learning of Beckon’s death and broke down and wept on several occasions.
• Alexander was a familiar figure at Greenwood, Woodbine and Fort Erie.
• Lisa Roberts (Alexander’s girlfriend), believes Alexander killed himself.
• Alexander was an ex-jockey.
• Alexander first worked at Greenwood Racetrack as an exercise boy when he was 17.
• He knew Beckon for 15 years.
• He drifted away from horse racing.
• Worked for Metro Parks for a short time.
• Took summer of 1987 off from Parks.
• He was planning on going to Fort Erie to work as an exercise rider.

Debi Lockhurst – Trainer

• “Dan would leave the track and go home. He was devoted to that son of his. Chad was the biggest thing in his life.”
• “The backstretch is not a drug haven, but you can get them there. People don’t come to the backstretch to get drugs. But it’s there. Let’s face it. You can get drugs anywhere if you want them.”
• “He thought the officials were out to get him. He said that to me. He had to burn his address book because they were after it.”
• “He told me, ’They want me to put the finger on people. I could put the finger on a lot of people back here (on the backstretch) but I’m not going to do it.”

Ron Woods – Assistant Trainer to Debi Lockhurst

• After testing to see if Beckon could have shot himself: “Yes, it could have been done…but with difficulty.” Note: Woods assisted Dear in a test since he was virtually the identical size in height and arm length as Beckon.
• Measurements were made by measuring from the shoulder of one of Beckon’s jackets to the tip of the middle finger. Woods arm was a quarter of an inch longer than Beckon’s.
• Measurements for Beckon’s hand and finger size came from a set of Beckon’s gloves.

Sid Kirkman – Beckon’s Neighbour

• Spoke to Beckon about an hour before his body was found. “He sounded very calm and collected, not excited at all.”
• 12:15 PM “He may have been in a little bit more of a hurry than he was usually.”

Dr. Murray Miron

Professor at the University of Syracuse, N.Y., who describes himself as being a psychological linguistic analyst.

• Re: Suicide notes – “It is my judgement that they are precisely what they manifestly appear to be: namely, messages prepared in certain contemplation of suicide.
• “The content is archetypically consistent with a state of mind, at the time of their composition, of feelings of worthlessness, self-blame, shame, enduring hopelessness of circumstance and mournfulness over loss of love.”

Palmer Tunstall – (Retired F.B.I.) Document Analyst for 23 years

• Compared known samples of Beckon’s handwriting with copies of the notes.
• He said he was “Convinced beyond any doubt”, they were in Beckon’s writing.

Desmond Anderson (Former Woodbine track worker)

• One of the last people to see jockey Dan Beckon alive.
• 31 year-old was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car on Sunday June 12, 1988 near Wiarton.
• Less than four weeks earlier, he had testified at the inquest.
• Police said they are satisfied Alderson, who called himself “a small time trainer”, committed suicide.
• Alderson was scheduled to appear in Fort Erie provincial court on June 14, 1988 on charges of breaking and entering and sexual assault.
• Relatives said they’re mystified why his body was found almost 250 km from his Rexdale home.
• Alderson and another track worker testified at the Beckon inquest that they spotted Beckon making a phone call from a booth at a service station near Woodbine a few hours before he was found dead.
• Debi Lockhurst (Trainer) downplayed any possible connection between Alderson’s apparent suicide and Beckon’s death.
• Lockhurst said “He (Alderson) had personal problems that had nothing to do with Danny’s case.”
• Lockhurst employed Alderson off and on as a groom for the past four years.
• The criminal charges against Alderson stemmed from a May 10, 1988 incident in Fort Erie.

Part 1 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide?

Part 3 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? Part 3

 

 

 

Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide?

 

Part 1

Part 2 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? (Part 2)

Part 3 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? Part 3

Dan Beckon

On July 2, 1987, well known Canadian horse jockey Dan Beckon’s dead body was found at a farm in Bolton, Ontario. The police ruled the matter as a suicide. The family and their lawyers called in William C. Deer of Dallas, Texas, known (arguably) to be the best Investigator in North America. The family maintained Beckon had been murdered.

On March 22, 1988, William Deer (right) and Corpa’s President, Kevin Bousquet (left) and a team of other investigators reenacted Beckon’s death.

The police investigation maintained that Beckon shot himself in the head with a Winchester .22 rifle. The spent .22 casing was measured metres away from the body. The investigative team reenacted the scene several times, both as a murder and a suicide. When reenacted as a suicide, the casings fell no further than one metre. However, when reenacted as a murder the casings landed approximately the same distance as measured by police. The conclusion of the video taped reenactment gave every indication that Beckon could not possibly have shot himself, as the casings were found too far from the body at the crime scene.

Further notes:

• Found dead beside a deserted Bolton barn from a .22 rifle shot to his right temple hours after being told he tested positive for a third time for cocaine use.
• The man (Stan Wos) who spotted the body at the same time spotted a blue car on the only road connecting the scene of Beckon’s death to the main road (Note: this appears to refer to refer to the blue car that was seen on driveway leading into the abandoned farm).
• Wos may have told Dear the car was leaving the scene while his testimony at the inquest says it was parked facing into the farm.
• Where was the exact location of the farm? Check the Caledon newspaper archives.
• There was a swelling on Beckon’s face, from the cheekbone to his jaw on the right side of his face.
• Was the swelling consistent with the gunshot wound? (Note: no, the swelling was never properly explained).
• Wos found the body accidentally when he was going to the abandoned farm with his daughter to check on some hay he had stored there.
• Some reports say the farm was six kilometers from Beckon’s farm, other’s say it was the next farm over. Possibly a big farm.
• There was a mysterious man who was never identified who said he information on the blue car seen at the death scene.
• The Ontario Jockey Club agreed to pay $200,000 to an anonymous man on information on the individual seen in the blue car.
• However, part of the OJC’s offer were 15 separate conditions.
• One condition said he would only get paid if his information proved useful “In a material way.”
• That meant that the man would have to be able to say whether Beckon had committed suicide or been murdered.
• He said he didn’t know that but only knew the identities of the two men seen at the scene in the blue car.

Woodbine and Drug Test

• Beckon had told several people he was under pressure from racing officials to furnish them with specific information
• They wanted him to identify someone in a specific photograph and to turn over his address book
• Beckon refused and told an aunt, Shirley Scime of Ancaster, that if he if identified the photography as requested, “My life wouldn’t be worth shit.”
• Upon being told of the third positive test over the phone in the Woodbine Jockey’s Room, Beckon angrily informed his valet, Leo Davison, he was off his mounts for the afternoon.
• Jimmy Santha, his agent, says he received the same news shortly afterwards on the backstretch.
• Santha has said Beckon indicated he expected to be back at work Saturday, two days later.
• Beckon apparently had been certain that the June 21st test would be negative.
• Brian Swatuk was fined $2000 by the Ontario Racing Commission for refusing to submit a urine sample. (If this was an alternative to taking the test why didn’t Beckon choose to pay the fine if he even had a hint he wouldn’t pass the test?)
• Swatuk avoided providing the urine sample on the same day Beckon was caught
• Fellow jockey Pat Souter said “You can always get cocaine around Rexdale.”
• Souter: “Cocaine is everywhere around here. The big gamblers always have it and they’re always trying to give it to the guys.”
• Jockey Lloyd Duffy said “I’ve never seen drugs in the jocks room. I’ve never seen any of the guys really high.”
• The random drugs tests are given not only to jockey’s but to exercise riders, members of the starting crew and racing officials as well.
• Dr. Richard Roelofson supervises thoroughbred racing for the Ontario Racing Commission and the drug testing
• Roelofson admits, “There have been some others who tested positive, but I’m not prepared to reveal the number.”
• Beckon’s third test was on June 21, 1987
• Beckon was one of the jockey’s who sat on a committee in 1986 that revised the rules of racing for Ontario
• Beckon’s first drug test was in October 1986
• The second test was in May 1987
• Jockey Gary Stahlbaum, “When his (Beckon’s) name was drawn for that third test on June 21, I offered to piss for him, because I knew I was clean.”
• Stahlbaum, “Danny said it wasn’t necessary because he knew he was okay.”
• Diane Beckon said her husband had said “These aren’t the names they’re looking for. I’ll start at the top … and I can go on and on.”
• Before Beckon went before the Ontario Racing Commission in May 1987, he said, “This better not be a witch hunt.”

Sampling Process:

The bottles are sealed, and the seal is signed by both the supervising guard and the jockey tested. Each bottle is put into a strongbox with two padlocks and shipped to Mann Testing Laboratories in Mississauga.

The laboratory is given only a number for each sample, never a name.

Negative results in testing can be confirmed in three hours.

To confirm a positive test takes between seven and eleven days because such samples undergo a second, confirmation test and the lab people don’t work weekends.

Beckon family lawyer John Murray also showed how a sealed urine bottle can be tampered with and the security of the sealed bottles can be circumvented in about 14 minutes

Death Scene

• Beckon’s body was found near his pickup truck.
• Note: Are there any crime scene photos?
• Note: The body was removed prior to photos being taken!
• Two suicide notes were found inside Beckon’s truck written on pages from a notebook.
• Diane Beckon confirmed it’s Dan’s writing.
• Diane Beckon said, “I don’t see the reason for the note to me. We had wills. There was no need for him to write something like that.”
• The wording of the letter was strange. Written under duress?
• Beckon borrowed a .22 calibre rifle from an acquaintance in Bolton, planning to shoot a groundhog which had been digging holes around his property.
• He kept the gun in his barn, and got it during his brief visit home that morning.
• Beckon was found with a bullet wound to his right temple and a .22 calibre rifle beneath his body.
• His locked truck was between 12 and 15 feet away from his body, according to a witness.
• An empty shell casing found three meters (about 10 feet) from the body was not checked for fingerprints because “There was no reason to.”
• Wilde said he found a red felt pen in the glovebox of Beckon’s truck, while a handwriting expert from the Forensic Centre testified that he had examined the suicide notes under a microscope and that they were written with a ballpoint pen. Note: Was the ballpoint pen ever found?
• Testified the body was found lying in a left side semi-fetal position with his hands and feet close together while lawyers and spectators crowded around for a better view of the demonstration.
• He showed how the muzzle of the barrel had been covered by Beckon’s body with the fingers of the left hand beneath the barrel and the right hand resting on top of it.
• Sent to the abandoned farm about 1:30 pm
• Beckon’s body was still warm although there were no vital signs and his eyes did not react too light.
• The ambulance arrived at the farm at 1:51 pm.
• The corporal in charge of the initial OPP investigation unit failed to check whether the vehicle found at the death scene had been investigated.

Forensics

• Body wasn’t measured
• No explanation for the swelling on Beckon’s face
• A toxicology test was completed. There was no confirmation that Beckon was a heavy drug user of coke.
• Urinalysis showed trace amounts of cocaine.
• There was no indication from the autopsy report of any damage to the inside of his nose and membranes which would be evidence of a subject addicted to the use of cocaine since cocaine is usually absorbed through the nose.
• There was no indication of any puncture or needle marks on the body, including toes, indicating the use of drugs intravenously.
• Phone bill shows a private lab, Mann Testing Laboratories in Mississauga had been hired by Beckon to do an independent test after he failed the June 21st test at Woodbine. Did police receive and review the results?
• Toxicology reports shows traces of cocaine. From Mann or Addiction Research Foundation? Answer: Mann
• On June 22, 1987 Beckon took an independent urine test. Appears to be a test taken at the Addiction Research Foundation.
• There was no trace of cocaine in the independent test.
• Cocaine is detectable in a person for 48 to 72 hours after it has been taken.
• Note: Why did Beckon feel he needed to take his own independent sample for testing? Clearly he felt he was clean.
• A certificate verifying the secret test that Beckon paid for at the Ontario Government’s own Addiction Research Foundation on Russell St. in Toronto was found.
• Beckon had a prescription from the track doctor for a weight control drug that is on the banned list for Olympic athletes and college football and basketball players.
• Track doctor is Alysius Teglas
• The weight control drug was Phentermine.
• Mann Testing Laboratories Chief Chemist was Pierre Baumler.
• The Addiction Research Foundation had told Beckon he would be tested starting at 9:30 AM on June 22, 1987 as part of a rehabilitation program he had agreed to undergo.
• The Addiction Research Foundation on June 23rd, confirmed that cocaine was “not detected”. Note: Try and find the actual test results.
• On May 26, Beckon took an earlier private test at Mann Testing Laboratories and later that day was told he tested positive for cocaine. Note: Was this test actually the first Woodbine test he failed?
• Beckon said it was impossible and asked if there were any other tests that could be taken to re-check this?
• “Fingerprinting” breaks down drugs into unmistakable patterns on a chart.
• Using the “fingerprinting” technique at 4:55 PM May 26th, Beckon was told the test was now “negative”. Note: If Beckon knew the “fingerprinting” test once proved a positive sample was wrong, wouldn’t he want to use this method to fight this result?
• June 10, 1987 at 11:00 AM Beckon had a medical assessment done at the Addiction Research and was declared free of cocaine.
• Ontario Solicitor-General, Joan Smith, says the police are at a disadvantage in that “they cannot be running around the way the Star is doing (investigating).”

Rifle

• The rifle found at the scene was a Winchester Model 77 .22 calibre.
• No measurements done to see if Beckon could reach the trigger.
• No records of parafin tests conducted to determine if Beckon had fired the weapon.
• Did ballistic tests tests confirm the .22 calibre rifle was actually used in the suicide?
• Were police aware of swelling from Beckon’s cheekbone to his jaw, although it was not listed on the autopsy report, and was the injury consistent with a gunshot wound?
• Beckon was shot in the right temple.
• Pathologist did not examine the wound between the skin and the skull, critical in determining the distance from which a shot was fired.
• Police were looking for a third bullet? Why?
• Diane Beckon says the police told her the rifle wouldn’t shoot unless loaded with three bullets.
• Police report of Beckon’s possessions found at the death scene lists a box of 50 bullets with 3 missing.
• Diane Beckon says as OPP officer looked in the Beckon’s barn, shifting earth around on the floor with his foot “and said he was looking for the empty cartridge.”
• Glen Wellspring, who owned the 30-year-old Winchester, says “The police said the only way they could get it to shoot was to put three bullets in the gun.”
• Winchester at the time was known as U.S. Repeating Arms of New Haven, Connecticut.
• Winchester didn’t understand the three shot description.
• The Model 77 would have held eight bullets and would have fired if loaded with just one, according to Winchester.
• Was there a record of the police doing a test firing? Does the gun still exist?
• The rifle had been retooled by a gunsmith to a left-handed weapon from a right-handed weapon.
• An empty shell casing found three meters (about 10 feet) from the body was not checked for fingerprints because “There was no reason to.”
• Tests were not done to determine the proximity between Beckon’s head and the gun that killed him.
• OPP Constable James Wilde (Identification Unit) said he did not notice or photograph an exit wound on the left side of Beckon’s head at the autopsy, although one is mentioned in the pathologist’s report, measuring 2 1/2cm (1 inch).
• Asked about a swelling on Beckon’s right cheek, Wilde testified “I would attribute nothing on his face to the traumatic effect of the gunshot wound.”
• Wilde did refer to a crack in the butt of the rifle found at the scene, saying: “The crack in the rifle butt was there, but I think you will find (out) later about it.” Note: Was the crack ever brought up again in the inquest?
• Testified the body was found lying in a left side semi-fetal position with his hands and feet close together while lawyers and spectators crowded around for a better view of the demonstration.
• He showed how the muzzle of the barrel had been covered by Beckon’s body with the fingers of the left hand beneath the barrel and the right hand resting on top of it.

Timeline – July 2, 1987

6:30 AM                Beckon prepared to leave home to go to Woodbine racetrack. Says goodbye to wife.

7:00 – 9:40 AM     Beckon gallops horses on Woodbine backstretch. Visits trainer Debi Lockhurst and assistant trainer Ron Woods at the Lockhurst barn.

10:40 AM              Called to the phone. In angry tones , tells his valet Leo Davison he is off the afternoon mounts.

10:30 – 10:45 AM  Looking for agent Jimmy Santha on backstretch, Beckon informs trainer Pat County he is not riding that day. Gets in truck and leaves the backstretch.

10:50 – 11:10 AM  After leaving Woodbine the morning of July 2nd, Beckon was seen calling from a phone booth at a service station northwest of the track. Apparently this was because of the rumour the tracks phones had been tapped. Possibly true! Witnesses describe the conversation as animated, with frequent hand gestures.

10:50 – 11:10 AM  Dr. Richard Roeloeson, Deputy Supervisor of Thoroughbred Racing, says Beckon called him “about midday” but it is not known if this was that call from the service station.

11:15 – 11:30 AM  Agent Jimmy Santha says he and Beckon spoke in the backstretch recreation room. Santha says Beckon tells him of third positive cocaine test and automatic suspension.

Note: There is a major discrepancy in times at this juncture. Santha says he and the jockey parted company at about 11:30 AM, but Beckon’s mother-in-law says he arrived home at his farm, more than 35 kms north of the track in Bolton at 11:35 AM.

11:35 AM              Beckon arrives home according to his mother-in-law, Myrna Battle, who is babysitting the Beckon’s son, Chad, 7.

11:44 AM               Beckon calls Scotiabank, makes July 16 appointment. Note: Why kill yourself if you made this appointment?

11:45 AM               Wife phones. They again discuss attending son’s soccer game that evening. Makes out deposit slip and cheque for Santha. At inquest neighbour Sid
Kirkman said he spoke to Beckon at the bottom of the driveway as he noted the
time on his watch. (Note: Seems to be another discrepancy as prior to the
inquest Kirkman had said the time had been 12:15 PM)

11:50 AM               Drives truck up lane to his barn. Son comes out of house and follows him. Beckon picks boy up, hugs him, kisses him, says he loves him.

12:03 PM                Beckon conducts business at Royal Bank in Bolton.

12:10 – 12:15 PM   Beckon is observed standing at curb, near King Rd. and Hwy. 50 waiting, by Janet Vickery, a clerk in Bolton Milk and Variety store across the street where Beckon was a regular customer.

12:20 PM                Enters Bolton Milk and Variety store, makes no purchase and leaves suddenly.

1:10 – 1:15 PM       Beckon’s body found near an unused barn, 6.6 km from Beckon’s home, by Stan Wos. He was dead of a gunshot wound to the right temple. Wos, riding a moped, sees rifle under body and returns home to call for help. He leads an ambulance and police to scene. Body removed.

Crime Reenactment

• Beckon was 5 foot 5 3/4 inches
• Physically could he have shot himself in the head with a .22 rifle? (Yes, it was proven he could just reach the trigger with the barrel of the gun pressed directly against his head. Note: This is an important detail and is important in relation to the forensics.)
• Conducted a series of tests at the death scene with a .22 calibre rim-fire Winchester rifle, almost identical to the one found beneath Beckon’s body to determine how far it would eject a spent shell.
• He said that with the butt of the gun on the ground and using bullets identical to those found in Beckon’s pickup, the farthest the gun would eject an empty shell was 27 inches.
• With the gun held in the air, the farthest it would eject a shell was about five feet.
• A spent shell was found at the death scene near the right front wheel of Beckon’s pickup, about 10 to 12 feet from his body.

Part 2 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? (Part 2)

Part 3 – Dan Beckon – Murder or Suicide? Part 3