Who Killed Theresa?: 05/01/2009

Monday, May 25, 2009

Tori Stafford

The further I get from these things, the more a hate playing amateur sleuth. It disturbs me. And some things I've seen have changed me.

Still, from this it appears they removed the entire back seat of the car and dumped it along with the body in a farmer's field. Just horrifying:

Police continue grim searches for Tori Stafford, 8, and 1970 Kirkland Lake victim Kathy Wilson, 12
May 25, 2009 04:30 AM
NICOLAAS VAN RIJN
STAFF REPORTER

Two little girls, both missing, both dead.

And today, as Ontario Provincial Police continue to search a vast swath of southwestern Ontario for the body of 8-year-old Tori Stafford, who has not seen since she was abducted outside her Woodstock school on April 8, OPP officers in Kirkland Lake are ramping up the search for 12-year-old Kathy Wilson, last seen riding in a cousin's truck on the outskirts of town in October 1970.

Investigators have no doubt what they'll find when they finally reach the end of their quests, whether it takes them 39 years, as in the Wilson case, or however long it will take to search for Tori.

Two little bodies.

Kathy Wilson's killer has already confessed; two suspects in Tori's disappearance are in custody and police hold out no hope she'll be found alive.

"I think it's the nature (of people to hope for) one possible little miracle," OPP Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said yesterday, referring to the search for Tori.

"But in this tragic case," she added, "it's not (possible)."

Police investigating Tori's death have charged Woodstock resident Michael Rafferty, 28, with first-degree murder and abduction and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, also of Woodstock, is charged with abduction and being an accessory.

McClintic accompanied investigators in an OPP helicopter on several occasions last week as they flew over fields and streams near Guelph, but so far there's been no sign of Tori's body.

Yesterday, OPP appealed to area residents to check their properties for the grey, cloth-coloured back seat that is missing from Rafferty's 2003 Honda four-door car, blue with black spray paint over portions of the vehicle. Police have the car, but are looking for the back seat in an effort to recover evidence.

If the seat is located, police investigators stress "that it not be touched," and are requesting that it be reported immediately. They're also asking anyone who finds it to try, without making physical contact with the seat, "to protect it from the elements until investigators can attend the scene."

Late last week police asked anyone living within a 50-minute drive of Guelph to check their property for anything suspicious.

Investigators have so far remained mum about any tips they may so far have received.

The area being searched for Kathy Wilson's body is far smaller than the 2,660 square kilometres of southwestern Ontario farmland – all of it less than an hour's drive from Guelph – that may hold Tori's current resting place.

Barry Vincent Manion, convicted earlier this year in the Kirkland Lake girl's death so long ago, told investigators where to find her body. That search resumes in earnest today, kicked off with a police news conference that will include a look at the area being searched.

Helping in the search near Kirkland Lake – OPP expect it to take about two weeks – will be a number of forensic anthropology students from the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.

Kathy Wilson was on her way home from a trip to the grocery store and post office when she disappeared. Her sisters remembered seeing her in a cousin's truck that day 39 years ago, and have long recalled the terrified look on her face.

Earlier this year, police arrested Manion, the cousin, then living in London.

He was 61 when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March and was sentenced to life in prison; he was found hanged in his cell a few days later.

But before he died, Manion led police to the area where he said he had strangled the girl and admitted he'd been abusing her for the year preceding the killing.

He told detectives he had picked the girl up in his truck, then drove to a quiet area where he fondled her and asked her to perform a sex act. When she refused and ran away, he chased her into a wooded area and choked the life from her. Then he buried her and her groceries.

Police said they had to wait for spring thaw to begin the hunt for Wilson's remains. Over the weekend, OPP investigators began searching a wooded area in Morrisette Township, just north of Kirkland Lake.

Investigators in the Kirkland Lake search plan a news conference today.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Stranger homicide? Never. Crime of Passion? Most Definite.

NYPD forensic investigator stabbed to death in bed
By COLLEEN LONG

NEW YORK (AP) — Michelle Lee's career was solving crimes. Working as a forensic investigator for the New York Police Department, she was training to do the type of "CSI" work made famous on television.

But the 24-year-old became a victim of a crime herself, stabbed to death in her bed, her naked body found in a pool of blood. Using the same investigative techniques Lee was learning, authorities on Friday arrested her ex-lover Gary McGurk in the case, charging him with second-degree murder.

McGurk pleaded not guilty and was being held without bail. His attorney, Joseph Corozzo said his client was innocent.

"This is a gruesome crime, but my client is not responsible for it," he said. "We look forward to seeing the purported evidence in this case."

Lee had recently moved out of her parent's home and was living in Sunnyside, Queens, a quaint neighborhood of working-class families. She started working for the NYPD last September and was training in forensic investigations at a police lab analyzing evidence like hair samples, drugs, gunshot residues and bodily fluids. She was going to specialize in narcotics.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly described her as a "very talented young woman."

The weekend of her death, her roommate was out of town. She returned Sunday, April 26, and thinking Lee must've been sleeping, she didn't bother to say hello. When she wasn't up the next morning, the roommate peeked into Lee's room and discovered the grisly scene. Lee was naked and had been tied to her bed, a knife jutted out of her neck. Her chest had been burned with an iron. Investigators would later say she was hit with a blunt instrument before she was stabbed.
There was no sign of forced entry. She was last seen leaving the gym in her neighborhood around 5 p.m. the Saturday before her roommate discovered her body.

Police offered a $12,000 reward for any information leading to her death. Meanwhile, investigators probed the case, talking to her friends and acquaintances. Lab workers — though none of Lee's co-workers — analyzed forensic evidence from the scene.

Weeks went by, and one person's story didn't quite add up, according to police and prosecutors. McGurk, a 23-year-old Irish-born student at John Jay Criminal College, was apparently the last person to have contact with her, and his statements kept changing, investigators said.

The two had met at the John Jay athletic center in 2004, where she also attended, and he asked her out. But dating didn't work, and so they were "friends with benefits," according to his statement to police. He claimed they had rough sex — tied each other up, choked each other, that sort of thing, according to court documents.

"Sweet girl. Friends first, herself last," McGurk said in a statement to police. "She told me that she made bad decisions. I told her that I was a bad decision, joking."

After he started dating another girl, their relationship cooled but they still spoke regularly. They chatted online the Saturday before she was found dead. And he was apparently upset investigators didn't contact him immediately, according to court documents.

She also owed him at least $2,000, he said. McGurk had lied to Lee, telling her he was sick with cancer and needed the money immediately. She didn't have it, he said.

His statements to police on how much he owed her and how much she had paid kept changing, along with when and where he last saw her, according to court documents. Forensic evidence also tied him to the scene, but police wouldn't get into details.

McGurk was charged Friday by District Attorney Richard Brown with second-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
He maintains his innocence.

"If I were to have done this to Michelle I would not only embarrass myself but I would also embarrass my family," McGurk said, according to court documents. "I did not go into her apartment. She had company. You don't like it but you accept it."

He is due in court June 4. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

In his court statements, McGurk said he is scheduled to graduate May 28, but he wasn't sure he could handle the life of a forensic psychologist.

"I find crime scene photos and cadavers disturbing," he said.

Hey Canada? Wake up!

The exact battle that was waged in Quebec after the disappearance of Cedrika Provencher, and such a shame another child had to die.

You'd think Canada would put two-and-two together and make this a national policy?:

Online petition seeks changes to Amber Alert in light of Tori case

Victoria Stafford is shown in this 2006 family handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO)

Thousands of people have signed an online petition aimed at forcing changes to Ontario's Amber Alert system in light of the Tori Stafford case.

The person who created the petition has dubbed the changes "Tori's Law."

The petition asks that the law be changed to require an Amber Alert be issued without question if the guardian of the child finds it "out of character for the child to be missing for any length of time."

An Amber Alert is currently issued when police confirm a child under 18 years old has been abducted and could be in serious harm. There must also be enough descriptive information about the child, abductor or the suspect vehicle in order to be issued.

Local media then interrupt scheduled programs in order to broadcast the information.

An Amber Alert was never issued when Tori Stafford went missing April 8, 2009.

The online petition goes on to claim that if an alert had been issued, Tori "could still be alive today."

He'll Be Dead In Five Years

Tori murder accused 'intelligent' and 'weird'

Online date says Rafferty 'friendly' as another pal says there was something 'a little off about him'

May 22, 2009 04:30 AM

KENYON WALLACE
STAFF REPORTER

WOODSTOCK, Ont.–It wasn't the first time Melanie Munger had been put ill at ease by Michael Rafferty. But the Facebook message she received in October 2007 from the self-proclaimed "hopeless romantic" set off alarm bells.

"He said he worked in a meat packing plant in Guelph and worked under a knife all day," Munger, 30, said yesterday. "I thought there was something strange about that message. There was just something a little off about him."

Nearly a year and a half would pass before his name would resurface in Munger's mind. Rafferty, 28, was charged Tuesday with the murder and abduction of 8-year-old Tori Stafford. Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, was also charged with abduction and being an accessory to murder.

The picture former friends and acquaintances of Rafferty paint is of a man of contradictions. While most describe him as intelligent and even funny, "weird" and "odd" are also common adjectives. But the thought Rafferty could be capable of kidnapping and killing a little girl never existed. Until now.

Munger, a St. Thomas resident, says she first met Rafferty in Toronto in 2001 when he was living at a friend's house on Queen St. W.

She said Rafferty, then unemployed, was nonetheless well dressed in the latest fashions. "It's kind of hard for someone without money but you could tell he wanted to look good to impress the ladies."

But there were hints of strangeness, enough that Munger felt no urge to keep up regular communication. "He would end his Facebook messages with comments like `I miss you' and `You are one of the best ones.' He was just a weird guy."

Tina, a Woodstock resident who asked that her last name not be used, met Rafferty on the dating site plentyoffish.com a year and a half ago. She says Rafferty quickly wanted to escalate their friendship to a romantic level. When she balked, he became distant – except when he needed money or drugs.

"I mentioned ... one day that my Dad has some medical problems and uses OxyContin," recalled Tina, 26. Then "he started phoning me up asking for Oxy. At one point he said he needed it for his mom and then for himself. For a while that's all he would call me about."

Tina says the two hung out "all the time," going for coffee or for drives.

"He was friendly, nice, and seemed intelligent. He talked a lot about fashion, girls and claimed he was a dance instructor," she said.

Rafferty claimed on his MySpace page to have graduated from Alexander Mackenzie High School, but the Richmond Hill school says it didn't happen. Rafferty only attended from Sept. '95 to March '96, acquiring just one credit, a York Region school board spokesman said.

Rafferty also claimed he studied to be a chef at George Brown, but on a cursory search the college found no record, a spokesperson said.

Jim Bender, owner of Lady Godiva's Adult Emporium, which is also Woodstock's pipes and bongs supplier, says Rafferty used to come in often to buy water pipes. "He looked worse for wear the last time I saw him" early this year, he said.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I Have A New Job

Well, not so new, but I've been keeping it on the down-low. I'm the Assistant Budget Director for the City of Durham.

As I expressed to Kim Rossmo some weeks ago, this of course means I've laid aside plans to pursue a PhD, but I figure choosing a career path was worth it, and it has allowed me to be in the "smoke filled room" when matters of public policy are addressed. I mean, isn't that what all this is ultimately about? A seat at the table?

For instance, a key piece of the Durham budget has been the consideration of funding for the warrant control operation; the program that was borne from the Eve Carson affair and its aftermath where it was discovered that a backlog of stale warrants may have indirectly contributed to her murder. It has been quite satisfying to sit at the table where the decision to continue that program (to clean up the warrant backlog) was made. Though this being my first budget season I was largely silent in that discussion, rest assured I took good notes.

Anyway, here's an article summarizing the City Manager's presentation of the preliminary budget at last night's Council session:

Bonfield's budget request cuts 3.1%

By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
May 19, 2009

DURHAM -- City Manager Tom Bonfield's fiscal 2009-10 budget request cuts overall spending by 3.1 percent, with most of the cuts targeting the parts of city government funded by property taxes.

As directed by the City Council, the request holds the line on Durham's property tax rate, keeping it at 54 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Bonfield's proposal would slash overall spending to $344.4 million, about $11.1 million below what the council authorized last year in the closing months of former City Manager Patrick Baker's tenure.

All but about $1.8 million of that comes from the city's tax-fortified "general fund," which pays for most of its day-to-day operations aside from those of the Water Management Department and the Durham Area Transit Authority.

Much of the savings comes from a proposed staffing cut that would do away with 113 of the 2,425 city jobs the 2008-09 budget authorized. A majority of the targeted jobs are vacant, but 35 workers will have to find new positions on the city payroll or face being laid off.

The job cuts by themselves will save nearly $6.6 million and roll back nearly two years' worth of growth in city staffing. The reduction in general-fund spending is the city's first since 1996.

The proposed cuts come because revenues are lagging because of the recession at a time when the city has to raise spending for long-promised initiatives like the Holton Career and Resource Center and the Walltown Recreation Center. Those two projects by themselves are adding $816,258 to the budget.

Bonfield also acknowledged that the city was unable this year to draw money from its savings to help balance its spending plan.

The City Council last year told Baker and his staff to allow savings levels to drop below a key benchmark, 12 percent of annual appropriations, so it could cap the 2008-09 tax rate at 54 cents per $100 of assessed value.

The 12 percent mark is supposed to assure banks and credit watchdogs agencies that Durham can repay its debts and merits a AAA bond rating. Waiving it was the single most controversial decision the council made in the 2008-09 budget debate and led to a split, 4-3 vote on passage of that spending plan.

The resulting $4.5 million dip into savings "basically used up any surplus that was available" to help in the upcoming fiscal year, Bonfield said.

Spending cuts and somewhat better-than-expected revenue collections have the city's fiscal 2008-09 general fund running $1.4 million in the black. Bonfield is not, however, proposing that the city spend that money on continuing expenses like salaries.

Instead, he said officials should use it only on one-time moves like pushing savings back up to the 12-percent level, dealing with a $2 million deficit in DATA's operating fund, and catching up with deferred maintenance.

Applying it to day-to-day expenses is a bad idea because the city faces continued "economic uncertainties," Bonfield said.

He added that it's not clear the state and local economy has hit bottom.

Even if it has, "I don't think any of us know how long we're going to stay where we are," he said. "And staying even is not a great option. Things need to get better, or we will probably have more unpleasant discussions going forward."

The budget cuts won't require the elimination of programs, but the city will have to scale some back. It won't accept new applications for streetlight and traffic-calming installations, and will cut operating hours at some recreation centers.

Bonfield's spending request also assumes that the Solid Waste Management Department goes with the planned cancellation of a privatized weekly curbside-recycling contract and moves to handle those pickups with its own laborers every other week.

That change is also tied to plans to end city-provided pickups of business and apartment-complex Dumpsters. The changes at Solid Waste Management all told will save $434,000 a year, officials said.

They remain on track even though the current recycling contractor, Tidewater Fibre Corp. is trying to head off the cancellation of its deal. It's made a counteroffer, but its terms don't seem likely to save as much money as Solid Waste Management Director Donald Long's plan, Bonfield said.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Spring Lake hires former Chapel Hill Chief Gregg Jarvies to clean up the mess

A no brainer: From the Town that doesn't need more law enforcement oversight to Spring Lake: Desperate for accountability. Jarvies is a terrific choice here.

Former Chapel Hill chief to head Spring Lake police
Posted: Today at 2:12 p.m.
Updated: 51 minutes ago
Spring Lake, N.C. — Town officials on Monday picked former Chapel Hill police chief Gregg Jarvies to stabilize the beleaguered Spring Lake Police Department while they search for a full-time chief.

Jarvies, who retired from the Chapel Hill Police Department in April 2007, was on the job in Spring Lake Monday afternoon, almost two weeks after Chief A.C. Brown resigned amid a state investigation of the department. His contract with the town runs through Sept. 1, but officials said it could be extended.

"We wanted to get a high-caliber individual in place as quickly as we could to help stabilize the department and begin the rebuilding," Town Manager Larry Faison said.

Cumberland County deputies assumed control of law enforcement in Spring Lake on May 6, following the arrests of two officers on a variety of charges. Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler ordered Spring Lake officers to stay away from all investigations.

"We certainly have challenges ahead," said Jarvies, who plans to commute from his Hillsborough home three or four days a week.

Indictments allege that Sgt. Darryl Eugene Coulter Sr. participated in an April 2008 home invasion in which three men were held at gunpoint and that he asked subordinate officers to falsify a report about a September raid on a motel room in which $2,900 was seized. Sgt. Alphonzo Devonne Whittington Jr. allegedly stole that money from the police department's evidence room and tried to cover it up, according to an indictment.

Brown resigned the following day, and reports that he and another officer were shredding files in the department prompted a judge to order the State Bureau of Investigation to take control of all Spring Lake Police Department files.

Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis has dismissed all pending misdemeanor cases in Spring Lake, saying that he suspects senior officers of lying and directing other officers to fabricate facts in police reports.

Spring Lake officials had named Sgt. Mack Utley III as acting police chief before turning to Jarvies.

Although Spring Lake's police officers have been taken off the streets, they remain on the job. Many of them have been using up their compensatory time off in the past two weeks, Jarvies said.

"It's been unfortunate that the department has been told to stand down, but in a way, it gives, I think, everyone a chance to sit back and say what the training needs are," he said.

Jarvies spent 32 years with the Chapel Hill Police Department, including seven as chief. He also has been a consultant for the Illinois State Police and a guest lecturer at North Carolina State University.

"I know they're going through a tough time, and I thought I could take some baby steps getting the department back – bring some structure and hopefully some respect and pride back in the department," he said, noting that he also will help Spring Lake officials search for a permanent police chief.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Possible Connection - Quebec / U.S. Murders?

Dear Kathy:

Thanks for contacting me. I am not convinced that the assaults, rapes and murders committed by Avedis Ralph Seaward in the Concord, New Hampshire area circa 1978 - 1982 are in any way connected to the three murders of my sister, Theresa Allore, and Manon Dube and Louise Camirand during the same time period in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.

As is the case with the Quebec deaths, Seaward's activity is heavily clustered in the Concord area. You would need to find some rational explanation for him crossing the border into Canada at that time to capture my interest. Yes, he was a long-haul trucker, and, yes the the main route out of Concord is Interstate 93 which directly connects to Highway 55. And Hwy 55 was, and is, the main artery for trucking from the United States into Quebec (And passes very close to the Quebec crime scenes). However, you would have to know a little about the Quebec dump-sites; they are not easily accessible by transport. I would consider it high-risk behavior, if not entirely impossible for a truck could access those roads.

Briana's abandoned car

On the overriding subject of a possible cross-border offender; I have spend a considerable amount of thought and effort in investigating this possibility. As I am sure you are aware there are a number of unsolveds from Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire from that era where the possible crimes took place in proximity to the Canadian border. For a time myself and the families of Maura Murray and Briana Maitland were working for approx. 6 months with Dateline NBC on a possible story.

Brianna Maitland

We had also contacted police and professional investigators about the likelihood of such a suspect. The bottom line was there was no evidence to suggest such a suspect ever existed. The prospect is certainly titillating to the imagination, but such behavior defies logical explanation (there would need to be some concrete proof to justify such a suspect operating in the two different regions). However, I always remain open to someone coming forward with that proof.

Maura Murray

Thank you for contacting me. I am always interested in cold cases, and I hope you are able to find some answers.

Sincerely,

John Allore

--------------------------------

I ran across your site and I am wondering if the cases on your page could belong to Avedis Ralph Seaward of Concord New Hampshire. I noticed there are quite a few in that area. Seaward raped several girls in New Hamphire. Please let me know if you think he could be resposible for any of these crimes:

In 1981 I was a victim of Avedis Ralph Seaward. I was working in a King Kwik store when he came in and robbed, kidnapped and raped me. In the car was a deceased girl. She had dirty blond hair, green eyes. At the time he raped me he was a suspect in 278 rapes and murders. He was a long haul truck driver. He wrote a confession to the F.B.I. in the confession he said his crimes are from New Hampshire to Florida and from Massachusetts to California. The states he mentions specifically are New Jersey, Florida, Alabama, Ohio, Kentucky, New York, Texas, Tennesee, Michigan, Missouri, and California. Seawards crimes include murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery and arson among others. His crimanal records go back to 1961. He states these crimes occured between 1968 to 1979. Also in 1981 he committed several crimes of rape and one murder that I know of. He was in the Georgia state prison from 2-8-1979 to 2-1-1981.

Seaward says he killed an elderly lady in Concord New Hampshire

Seaward says he raped a girl in Concord walking up North State St. near the Blossom Hill Cemetary may have been August 1981.

Seaward says he raped a victim he believed lived in Pennacook near Concord. He raped her at the end of Perkin Court in her own car. may have been Feb 1978?

Seaward says he murdered a Frank Gurton In Boston Massachusetts. He caught up with him 1968 at the Hillbilly Ranch Bar, Park square area. Shot Gurton in the head with a 357 magnum and buried him some where around where the John Hancock building stands.

Seaward states he murdered a Frank Buxton in the area of Park Square area, Boston. He caught up with him at a Avis Car Rental and took him to an open field near what he believes is the Cambridge River, near the Boston Museum of Science and a large bridge. Seaward shot him with a 38 calibur in the head and chest. Seaward then dismembered him and buried him in different holes.

Seaward said he murdered a Freddie Conner in 1971. He shot him in the head 5 times and buried him in an open field behind the Turtle Inn on First St. Atlantic Beach Florida.

Seawrd stated in he worked for a contractor Jack Anderson in 1971 installing counter tops. At a apt. complex when Anderson didn't pay him he burnt the complex down.

There was a complaint filed in march 1981of a rape

Seaward raped two girls in Concord May 1981. Plead insanity spent six weeks in a mental institution. One girl was 15 one was 16.

Seaward raped a girl in Agust of 1981 in Concord.

In September of 1981 he stole a car, checks and other items in Concord.

Seaward murdered a girl Oct 6, 1981

Seaward robbed, kidnapped me and raped me Oct 7,1981

Seaward robbed, kidnapped and raped a victim in Sandusky ohio Oct 13,1981. At this time he was caught.

At the present time Seaward is in the Ohio Prisons system. He is charged with 2 counts of agg. robbery. I do not know what happened to the charges of murder. The 2 counts of rape and kidnapping were plead down to agg. robbery, in which he recieved 7 to 25 on my case and 7 to 25 on the Sandusky victim. I have been fighting since mid eighties to keep him in prison or at least label him a sexual preditor. He is up for parole in 2011. He will not be labeled a sexual preditor.

I am hoping that someone has ran across some of these crime. I don't know how truthful he was on the names. I am hoping to find cases that may fit these crimes. Since I am not from these areas I need to find someone that knows of these locations.

I am also interested in unsolved cases that fit this time period. I know he committed alot of rapes in or around cemetaries, some were at gravel pits and wooded areas. He also robbed convenient stores and some victims were at bars.Hopefully someone knows something about these cases.

If you have any cases in your town that fit Seawards confessions please let me know. I am not sure if he gave the right names but I bet he gave the right details of the crimes. All his victims and thier families deserve justice. Will you help please. I also have more paper work on him.

Thank you,
Kathy XXXXXXXX

Monday, May 04, 2009

The Dangling Carrot - Run Rabbit Run

A new twist on abolishing the death penalty - not on moral grounds, but as a cost saving measure. And in Colorado, a novel approach: any savings will be used to offset the expense of cold-case murder investigations:

Colorado may end death penalty to focus on cold cases

By P. SOLOMON BANDA – 23 hours ago
DENVER (AP) — Colorado is one of 10 states that have considered abolishing the death penalty this year to save money, but Colorado's proposal has a twist: It would use the savings to investigate about 1,400 unsolved slayings.

The measure has sparked fierce debate between prosecutors and some victims' families. Prosecutors want to keep capital punishment as an option for heinous crimes, and they say the bill has raised unrealistic hopes about solving cold cases.

Supporters of the bill say it's more important to find and prosecute killers still on the loose than to execute the ones already convicted.

"The death penalty is not relevant without a murderer brought to trial," said Laurie Wiedeman, the older sister of 17-year-old Gay Lynn Dixon, whose 1982 slaying remains unsolved. "I would like to see the person who killed my sister put to death. But to have that person free to run around and committing other crimes?"

Abolishing Colorado's death penalty would save an estimated $1 million a year that now is spent on prosecutors' time, public defenders' fees and appeals, according to a legislative analysis.

Supporters of the death penalty repeal measure want that money diverted to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations cold case unit, which has just one staffer. The extra money could add eight people to the unit, the legislative analysis said.

Proponents, led by Evergreen-based Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, also say Colorado's death penalty is so rarely used that it's not a deterrent.

Colorado has executed only one person in the past 42 years, Gary Lee Davis, put to death in 1997 for his conviction in a 1986 slaying. Two men are currently on the state's death row.
The Colorado House narrowly passed the measure in late April, and the Senate is expected to vote before the session ends Wednesday.

Gov. Bill Ritter hasn't publicly said whether he would sign the bill if it passes. Before becoming governor, Ritter was Denver's district attorney and unsuccessfully sought capital punishment seven times. Before becoming district attorney in 1993, Ritter had expressed personal doubts about capital punishment.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and all but one of the state's district attorneys oppose the bill. Even if the savings were applied to a cold case unit, which Suthers and other said isn't guaranteed by the bill, many cases may remain unsolved.

"I think it's a sad situation," Suthers said. "You have hundreds of ... parents of murdered children, sitting there being led to believe that if they abolish the death penalty in Colorado their child's death will be solved.

"A million dollars doesn't buy you a lot of cold case investigation," he said.

He and other prosecutors say additional DNA testing, including a proposal pending in the Legislature to take samples at the time of a felony arrest, could do more than expanding the state's cold case unit to solve old cases.

New Mexico this year became the second state to abolish the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to reinstate capital punishment in 1976. New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007.

Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Texas considered abolishing the death penalty, but bills in those states have stalled, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.

"It (budgetary concerns) was a prominent issue and an impetus for these bills getting hearings this year," Dieter said.

Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons documented 1,434 unsolved slayings in Colorado since 1970, and a CBI database for law enforcement closely matches those numbers
"We have 1,400 murderers walking around. We don't feel threatened by it, but we should," said Frank Birgfeld, whose 34-year-old daughter Paige Birgfeld disappeared from Grand Junction in July 2007 and is presumed dead.

But cold cases become harder to solve as time passes. In February, 65-year-old Tina Louise Lester was arrested in Ohio on a 1968 warrant in a Denver shooting death, but District Attorney Mitch Morrissey decided against filing charges because of the lack of witnesses who could counter Lester's self-defense claim.

"Two men in that bar, who are pivotal witnesses, would have been in their late 80s," Morrissey said.

That doesn't sway Howard Morton, executive director of Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, whose 19-year-old son Guy Oliver was the victim of a still-unsolved 1975 slaying in Arizona.

"We know they won't all be solved," Morton said. "We think that some of them will be, and more importantly it sends a signal that for those who have gotten away with murder, we're coming after you."

Saturday, May 02, 2009

New Photo of Theresa

So this was taken around August 1978, at our house in New Brunswick, just before Theresa and Andre (pictured) returned to school. It gives you a good dynamic of their ages just before she died - remember that Andre was also at Champlain College, Lennoxville when she disappeared in November 1978: this is the kid who had to deal with all that shit.

Theresa is wearing a David Bowie shirt which I still have. The NY Islanders jersey? The last I remember it was in a yellow duffle bag stored under a house at Kensington and Bathurst in Toronto around 1987 along with a lot of my possessions... after that I lost track of it.

Who Killed Theresa?