Who Killed Theresa website
I've received a few inquiries as to why I "killed" the Who Killed Theresa? Website.
The main reason was because the website was "static" and the blog is much more interactive. Overtime I was spending all my time blogging information, and the website became more-and-more an artifact of 2002-2003. Also, the blog's html platform is much easier to work with (I am no computer guru; the website requires dream quest (?) or some such software. It's expensive and I can't afford it. Also, the blog is free. The website cost about $35 / year; not a lot, but at least the kids allowance for a month.
If you scroll down this page and click on "who killed theresa website" under "dinky links" you will be taken to something that looks a little like the old website. I don't know how or who or why this information is being maintained (you can see its much more "commercial"; perhaps the owner is hoping someone will want to buy it (it sure isn't me)).
Anyway... If anyone can give me compelling reasons why the website should be restored, I'm all ears.
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Missy's Missives ( smiley face )
1. I too would love to comb the archives of the SQ's Don Bosco offices: How does anyone propose I get permission to do so? I am persona-non-grata with the SQ. They won't return my phone calls. The Ministre of Securite Publique has cut me off. Theresa's file is in limbo.
All offers and flashes of ingenuity are welcome.
I will add here that I was in Montreal over Christmas, but decided (wisely) to keep a low profile. No police contact. No media. No lobbying the government. I played hockey, watched hockey, spent time with my family. There will be time to take up the banner later in the new year.
2. I have a further question for the Gagnons: Who was employed on the farm between the winter 1978 and the spring of 1979?
More and more I have difficulty accepting anyone would pull off the side of the road of chemin de la station and drag a body to a dump site. That is one, big wide open valley. Have you seen the dump sites of Camirand and Dube? Completely secluded. Pulling off the road is risky behavior beyond my comprehension. But if you worked on the farm? Aggressed the girl in the barn at the back without the family knowing? Then dumped the body in the adjacent water? This is plausible.
This is on my mind as I am completing a second edit of my chapter for Kim Rossmo's book on investigative failures. It has to be to the editors by the end of January. The chapter is called, What Happened to Theresa Allore? It includes some stuff you've already read (Pearson). Also, extensive pages on the disappearances and discoveries of Dube and Camirand (other than the French, historical press, I don't think there has been this much written about them in English). There was a paragraph written about Sue, but I cut it (so it goes). The best part of it all is the absolute ream-job it delivers to the SQ. It is written without vitriol, but you definitely get the message that after 30-years, these guys still don't know what they're doing. And it's backed by the editing abilities of Kim Rossmo; one of the most respected and influential voices in criminal investigative practices. Frankly, I was surprised he let me keep some of the writing, but pleased that he did.
posted by John Allore @ 1/05/2008 10:21:00 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Hey John! Great post.
Your comments about the Gagnon farm just made me think of something else. An unknown car would have set the dogs off or possibly raised a few eyebrows from the farm's residents. But a car (or people) that the dogs and residents know... would not have raised any alarm bells. (My dog knows the difference between our cars, our neighbours cars and vehicles they've never heard before. Regardless of the time of day, if my dog doesn't recognize the vehicle, he will sound the alarm. If it's one he knows, not a peep comes out of him.)
That being said...I do know some farm dogs that bark regardless of what vehicle pulls on to the property. It's their job to alert the property owners and they don't stop until someone comes out to investigate.
Still...I do agree that there is a strong possibility that whoever placed Theresa at the edge of the bog was known to the Gagnons.
RE: SQ Headquarters
If you're persona non grata, what about Andre? Could he approach them for permission? What about a lawyer?
RE: Rossmo's book
I can't wait to read that chapter!!
Can't wait to read the book!!
Anon
About the farm...John, I think another question could also be: Who worked on the farm prior to November 1978? It may be that a farm worker spotted this little hidden place while employed there and then later on found himself looking for a place to dump a body and remembered this area...whatever the scenario, it was not chosen at random. The area is out in the open, like you say, and not that easy to access while carrying or dragging a body. It might also have been a place where Theresa's killer made out with his girlfriend but, then again, it's not a place that you just happen upon, he had to have known that it was there and hidden from the road, the bridge and the farmhouse. It makes sense that it was someone who had worked there or was familiar with the land because he was a friend of, or acquainted with, one of the Gagnons.
Anon
John, I've got a problem with your 'aggressing the girl in the barn theory'...that still leaves his car parked out on the road, in the drive way, or somewhere on the property, highly risky situation there too, and we all know that Theresa did not walk there all the way from King's Hall. And once the crime in the barn is over with, why not leave her there? It's still quite a distance from the barn to the bog to drag or carry her body...and does not work with the path of the torn scarf in the field. I don't think this person would have stuck around to work there in the winter of 1978, too close to the scene of his crime.
Anon
Well it sure sounds to me like someone is on to something.
I've been to quite a few farms in my life, and have never seen one yet that didn't have dogs. Keep looking this direction. You're bound to find something interesting.
Re: Website. If the blog is free and the website has a cost to maintain, then it makes sense to just keep the blog running. However, I think that it's important to have access to all the newpaper articles on this main blog page, as well as the information about the clothing that Theresa was wearing the night of November 3rd, 1978, and the wallet. This information is important and should be easily accessible, especially to any newcomers to the blog.
MM and Bill, about the dogs...not every farm has one. I don't know if this land is still owned by the Gagnon family but it is still a farm, and the on the few occasions that I have been to the site where Theresa was found, and in the company of several people, not one single dog, or person for that matter, came to investigate, and no dog(s) barked from the farmhouse either.
Anon
Just thought of this...most probably the killer(s) knew that there was no dog on this farm, therefore it was safe for him/them to be on that land late at night and not alert the Gagnon family...
Anon
I have just read the article from
Pearson , Macleans Magazine
November 17, 2007
Interesting paragraph
On the final day of the conference, some of the victims' family members fell into conversation. There was talk of burnout, of the stress of doing things on their own, from scratch, with personal savings, of losing their jobs or their partners. There was talk of the hopelessly ad hoc approach to victims' issues across Canada. And, finally, there was hopeful talk of founding a national organization. They don't have the money, so it won't be next year. But one year soon, perhaps, they can hold a national victims conference, and invite one another to speak, while officials from the Department of Justice sit in the audience and take notes.
(((while officials from the Department of Justice sit in the audience and take notes. ))
Doreen Prior
I've been thinking about the barn theory again, John, and it just doesn't really make sense that someone would have brought Theresa there at any point because with the barn being relatively close to the farmhouse, there would have been a chance that someone would have heard her scream. Too risky. She was most probably assaulted/killed in his car, away from any homes (and that is certainly possible in that area) and then because of the path of the torn scarf in the field, brought to the edge of the bog from the road. Of the women you reported that were assaulted in the late 70s and early 80s, many of them were in cars.
Anon
Doreen, the Pat Pearson article that you are referring to is actually from November 2003, but good to read nonetheless. Whoever has re-opened the 'Who KIlled Theresa Website' link (it's not John or MM), has not posted the dates correctly. These articles and letters were from 2002 and 2003. The most recent article, Allison Hanes's 3-parter with the National Post, from June 2006, is not listed. I can't find it linked here but this should work: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=05e480bc-7071-4931-9661-91877394b889&k=46163
Perhaps MM, when you get a second, you can link it on the page.
Anon
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