After things settled down a bit we still had a lot of foot work to do with the murder and the other investigations that were going on. Once Jasper was safely tucked away in cells after his lawyer left my first priority was to locate the murder weapon. The dog man was already on his way up, but he would need to know where to start looking. So I tracked down one of the young women who Jasper met on the trail, and took a statement from her, near the trail. After the statement she took me and showed me where they were all standing and where he threw the knife. After I marked the spot I took her home and went back to meet the dog man.
After a half hour of searching the dog was unable to locate the knife, and although he made general indications of there being something there we began to doubt the veracity of our witness. So once again I collected her and brought her back to the scene. After calming her fears about the police dog I again asked her what Jasper did to the knife. As we stood on the spot where the girls and Jasper had met, and talked, she turned and said he threw it. Then she said “It’s there” and pointed into the bush. So I asked again “He threw it right in there?” as it was where we had been searching for a half hour. “It’s there.” she replied, pointing. “Somewhere in this bush here?” “There! It’s right there!” pointing frantically.
Okay, sometime I’m not the quickest off the mark, but it suddenly dawned on me that she was pointing to the knife itself. As I peered into the bush, not seeing what she was seeing, I began to realize that she wasn’t pointing at the ground, and I moved behind her to look from her perspective. As I followed her arm, the knife began to resolve out of the tangle of poplar trees and scrub, stuck into a branch about ten feet off the ground. The tip was buried about an inch into the 1 1/2 inch diameter branch, crossing an opening between two larger trees. You wouldn’t be able to do it on purpose in a thousand throws.
I directed Gary over to where the knife was, commenting on how it would be better on the next search if he could throw his dog up into the understory ever once in awhile, you know… for thoroughness. I left Gary to guard the scene while I quickly drove the witness home, and brought back the camera from the truck. No one was going to believe this one without a picture.
Contrary to what you’d see on CSI: (fill in your favourite location) murder investigations are mostly footwork, doing interviews. A relatively straight forward investigation like Darren’s murder involves getting statements from as many of the witnesses as you can find, following strings and gathering together the story. Ident (our name for CSI) does come up and help gather the physical evidence, photograph the scene, examine for fingerprints etc. Clothing and other evidence is sent off to our lab for fibre, serology, toxicology and DNA examinations. And of course the autopsy is also critical, to gather specimens and to show that the deceased died at someone’s hand, not from natural causes. And contrary to the impression given on TV, the police role is to gather evidence, not for the prosecution but all evidence, evidence that points to the accused’s guilt, and evidence that points away from it. Police are not a tool for the prosecution, but a tool for the courts. It is one of the reasons why the defense lawyers that I most admired were those that would work with the police. “This is why we’re pleading not guilty Clare, you need to check this out” Which would often either lead to their defense falling apart or the prosecution dropping or modifying the charges. It saved the courts time and money, and worked more to see that Justice was served. Unfortunately our criminal justice system has evolved into something much more adversarial, so that rarely happens.
So the rest of the weekend was spent finding people that were at the scene and who saw something, and responding to all of our calls. Like I said earlier there were five other stabbings that weekend, plus other assaults with weapons, and assaults and thefts and the usual litany of egresses that happened day to day. I’ll just touch on a couple of the stabbings. Our dog man was on his way back for his third trip of the weekend when the fourth stabbing happened. We quickly arrested the two culprits near the hotel where it had occurred but neither had the knife with them, and they weren’t about to tell us where it was. So, as it was Sunday morning I just guarded the scene as best I could and waited for the dog man.
The stabbing had happened inside the hotel, but the victim had thought they still had the knife with them when they ran out, and when I had arrested them they were at the back of the hotel where access to the roof is easiest. When Gary arrived they began to methodically search the area around the hotel, and while he found a lot of… er, interesting, items we didn’t find the knife. We went inside to have a quick look in the room again, but I knew we wouldn’t find it there, I’d been pretty thorough. As we were walking back down the hall we saw Housecleaning’s cart and I said “Maybe Housecleaning picked it up” in jest as no one was allowed in the room, but as I walked by I glanced in a bucket on the cart, and there was the knife. As the suspects walked by after the stabbing they had dropped the knife in the bucket. Sometimes you get lucky.
It was just getting to shift change when we finished at the hotel and we were just talking about going for coffee somewhere when Mel called on the radio. He had just been flagged down out at Far Reserve by our fifth stabbing victim of the weekend, which had taken place moments before. He had a name of a suspect, who had apparently taken off on foot. Now, if you happen to be contemplating a crime, shift change is probably not the best time to commit it. Suddenly seven members, including the dog man, in five trucks converged on Far Reserve. As I entered the area where the stabbing took place Mel called out on the radio that the suspect had just ran into a residence that was seconds away from where I was. In a flash I was at the door and another member, following close behind went around back. I hammered on the door, calling out “police open up” and when I received no response I radioed the member at the back that I was going in and I kicked the front door in. As I entered the house, with wood chips still settling around me, Mel again called out “No, apparently its not that residence, he went into another”. Oops. I yelled out to determine if anyone was at home and,s as moments later the other members caught the suspect, I set out to repair the door as best I could to secure it, and left my card and a note. Unfortunately it wasn’t the first door I kicked in that the RCMP had to pay for, but that is a story for another time.
Sunday, Kevin was doing follow-up investigation on the Greasy incident, and headed over to the residence to interview Greasy’s family. When he got back to the office, he was grinning from ear to ear and holding two jars of something. “Look,” he said, “they wanted to thank me for putting Greasy in gaol and gave me some canned fish. Anyone want some?” Everyone burst out laughing. Now I’m sure that the fish was quite tasty, but we’d all seen the kitchen it was prepared in. No, Kevin could have both jars all to himself. The jars stayed on top of a stationary cabinet at the detachment for years, they were still there when I left La Ronge. Who knows perhaps they’re still there. And for the longest time, Kevin faced this song on a regular basis from the rest of us
Fishheads! Fishheads!
Rolly polly fishheads.
Fishheads! Fishheads!
Eat’m up. Yum!
Comments
3 responses
Whew! What a weekend! Great story, Clare. Thanks. And for the tip: don’t commit a crime at shift change. Good to know.
Really good story, it made a great read. I’ve been following it all along and have been checking back for the conclusion. You picked great cliffhanger spots to break between posts.
Great story, Clare. I love reading your perspective on the evolving relationship between the courts and the police. As citizens we often don’t get the full picture, or worse we get a caricature of all parties involved.
That’s a very light and thoughtful ending. Love the jars of fish left on the stationary cabinet. It’s a detail like that that makes for really good story-telling.