Respected colonel charged with murder of two women

Share

It was on Sunday afternoon that Colonel Russell Williams, a decorated pilot who has delivered prime ministers and soldiers to remote locales around the world, agreed to sit down with a behavioural science expert from the Ontario Provincial Police.

What has happened since that interview has shaken the Canadian Forces, and the citizens of three small towns in Eastern Ontario: Police charged Col. Williams, the commander of Canada's largest Air Force base, with the murder of two women, and assaults on two others.

And as quickly as the charges were laid against Col. Williams - he became the prime suspect in a string of unexplained attacks on women only five days ago - the detectives' net is widening even faster. Investigators are examining crime-scene evidence from several Eastern Ontario cities and additional charges are anticipated, sources familiar with the investigation said late last night. One officer close to the case said: "This may be all, but we suspect - a guy just doesn't start doing murders out of the blue."

Since September, detectives in three different communities near CFB Trenton have been searching for clues in what, on its face, appeared to be three separate incidents. In September, over a span of two weeks on a quiet lakeside road in the village of Tweed, two women living just a short walk from each other were tied up in the middle of the night and photographed by an unknown assailant.

Two months later, 78 kilometres west, in the town of Brighton, the boyfriend of CFB Trenton's Corporal Marie-France Comeau discovered his girlfriend dead in her home, the victim of what was quickly deemed a homicide.

Little more than a week ago, a Belleville woman, 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd, was reported missing when she failed to show up for her shift with Tri-Board Student Transportation in the town of Napanee.

Police found her body Monday morning.

In each community, the attacks had their distinct unnerving effects. "Girls my age are terrified," said Erin Fisher, 28, of Belleville. At the Fare and Fowl Pub on Tweed's main drag, the patrons dubbed the mysterious attacker "The Creeper."

Larry Jones, a resident of Tweed's Cosy Cove Lane, where the two assaults took place, said his friends stopped speaking to him after he was hauled in for repeated police interviews.

Five days ago, police got their break during roadside stops on a rural highway.

Something - police won't say what - pointed at Col. Williams, the seasoned pilot who took command of CFB Trenton about six months ago.

One police source called it "luck of the draw. Just old-fashioned police work. He lived in the area, and there were some things seen, vehicles seen that matched his, and they started looking at cases, linked the three of them, and just went from there."

The roadside discovery prompted police to sweep out across the province.

By Sunday, OPP officers with search warrants were combing through Col. Williams's cottage-like home on Cosy Cove Lane, and the residence he shares with his wife in the upscale Ottawa neighbourhood of Westboro.

It has been less than two months since the couple moved into the newly developed, $700,000 home on Edison Avenue. Col. Williams's wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman, is the associate director of Canada's Heart and Stroke Foundation.

"She is taking extended leave to focus on family matters," a spokeswoman for the charity said on Monday. "And we continue to support her."

The day the searches commenced, Col. Williams had his police interrogation.

Investigators are saying nothing about what was discussed during those few hours.

But while police are pushing their probe forward, the residents of Trenton are trying to come to grips with the allegations against Col. Williams, a man that many of them have met.

"We all look up to the soldiers. This really is scary. It would be like finding out the mayor was killing girls," said Chantal Jouan, 17.

In an interview with The Kingston Whig-Standard, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk said: "This is a tough day for anyone in uniform."

During his brief appearance in a Belleville courtroom yesterday, Col. Williams loudly announced his name when asked, but quieted down when he answered that he understood the charges. For most of the proceeding, which is covered by a court-imposed publication ban, he stared down toward his feet. He wore a dark blue jumpsuit. Col. Williams has been relieved of his duties.

In Tweed, residents vividly recalled their interactions with Col. Williams.

In this small town of 6,500, the only things that stuck out more than his sleek, blue BMW were his protruding jaw line and impeccable posture.

Neighbours on Cosy Cove Lane recalled that he would clear his lawn of frogs before starting up his mower. He seemed especially affectionate towards his kitten, a black and white cat named Rose, one neighbour said.

Col. Williams was part of a rarefied group. Canada has fewer than 100 Air Force colonels. While the charges against him are sure to spur a lot of introspection among the military, the forces were standing behind his rapid ascent Monday.

"The thing about a guy in his position is we observe him over decades in a wide variety of jobs and positions to make sure he's the right individual for such a high-stress and high-responsibility job, and we select these people very, very carefully," said retired chief of the air staff Angus Watt.

"If there is the slightest hint of any wrongdoing or character weakness in somebody, we do not appoint him to a position of this magnitude. It's just not done. … It's an objective process, and obviously, we missed something here."

Col. Williams has also been prominent in repatriation ceremonies of soldiers who died in Afghanistan since he joined the base.

Even to a senior security source, the CFB Trenton commander was an intimidating presence: "You reflect on yourself and say, God, am I as sharp as him?"

Ontario Provincial Police Detective Inspector Chris Nicholas confirmed at yesterday's press conference that police will be exploring whether Col. Williams played any role in the 2001 unsolved murder and sexual assault near CFB Trenton of Kathleen MacVicar, 19.

For Det. Insp. Nicholas, the officer co-ordinating the expansive probe on behalf of the multiple police forces involved, the case is not his first involving a soldier alleged to have become unhinged.

In 1991, he arrested Stephane Menard, a former member of the disgraced Canadian Airborne Regiment, who was later convicted of murdering a Montreal cab driver.

With reports from Colin Freeze, John Ibbitson and Steven Chase

VICTIMS OF MURDER AND SEXUAL ASSAULT

Jessica Lloyd

On Jan. 29, the 27-year-old suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. A groundswell of concern from the community led to mass searches and fears of a predator in the community.

Ms. Lloyd's body was found Monday on a rural roadway in Tweed, Ont., nearly two weeks after her disappearance.

She had sent a text message to a friend at 10:30 p.m. the day she vanished. She failed to show up for work the next day and hadn't been heard from since. Her co-workers at a Napanee school-bus company said the disappearance was completely out of character.

Marie-France Comeau

On Nov. 25, Marie-France Comeau, 37, was discovered slain in her home in Brighton, Ont. She had moved there a year earlier.

A francophone, she was a corporal at nearby CFB Trenton with "Husky Squadron" - the military division that airlifts VIPs.

News reports said her boyfriend discovered her body, and was led away from the house in tears. Police did a door-to-door canvass of the neighbourhood, but said the murder appeared to be an isolated incident and there were "no present issues with regards to public safety."

Two sexual assaults

In September, two women were assaulted in Tweed, Ont., a small community about 45 minutes north of Belleville and CFB Trenton. The crimes took place two weeks apart, but on the same road, named Cosy Cove. Police said the women were sexually assaulted in their homes, tied to chairs and photographed. The victims' identifies are shielded by court order.

Colin Freeze